On Wednesday 7 November 2018 at 13:30 a group of students from the UvA's Bachelor's programmes in AI and Computer Science will visit the ILLC. Besides a short introduction to the ILLC, the event will consist of three presentations on AI-related research at the institute. These presentations will be given by Katia Shutova (metaphors in natural language processing), Lisa Beinborn (bridging neurobiology and psycholinguistics by computational modelling), and Zoi Terzopoulou (fair decision making in multiagent systems). All interested colleagues and students at the ILLC are welcome to attend this one-hour event as well.

A few of us are getting together over the next six weeks to read and discuss the PhD thesis of Thomas Icard, who did the MoL and whose PhD thesis, ‘The Algorithmic Mind’, was supervised by Johan van Benthem at Stanford. We would like to invite anyone who is interested to join the reading group. All are welcome!

Thomas Icard’s PhD thesis examines probabilistic approaches to the nature of human inference, with a special focus on resource-bounded agents. As the abstract explains, “I explore a view of inference based on the idea of probabilistic sampling, which is supported by behavioral psychological data and appears to be neurally plausible, and which also engenders a philosophically novel and appealing view of what grounds subjective probability. I then discuss this view in the context of the Bayesian program in cognitive science, proposing a methodology of boundedly rational analysis”.

To join the reading group, just come along to the first session on Thursday 8 November 3-5pm in F1.15! If you have any questions, just send an email to D.M.McHugh at uva.nl.

NWO organises information meetings for researchers who want to apply for a Veni, Vidi of Vici grant. Practical information is given and selection committee members, NWO secretaries and researchers who have already acquired a Veni, Vidi or Vici share their experiences during a question and answer session. The next meeting will be held on 9 November 2018. The meetings are in English.

Never worried about the validity of using mathematics in philosophical arguments about mathematics? Well, here's your chance! I will talk about the use of mathematical results in arriving at conclusions with some non-mathematical content, with the view that in general such usage requires a little justification.

Join us in the common room for drinks and snacks after the talk!
PS: Note that this week the Cool Logic seminar begins at 19:00.

The Making of the Humanities conference returns to Amsterdam! This is where the conference series started in 2008, ten years ago. Following successful meetings in Amsterdam in 2010, in Rome in 2012 and 2014, in Baltimore in 2016, and in Oxford in 2017, the seventh conference on the history of the humanities returns to the University of Amsterdam, November 15–17, 2018. The seventh conference is the largest in the series: over 140 papers have been accepted for presentation by speakers from over thirty different countries.

The Making of the Humanities conference returns to Amsterdam! This is where the conference series started in 2008, ten years ago. Following successful meetings in Amsterdam in 2010, in Rome in 2012 and 2014, in Baltimore in 2016, and in Oxford in 2017, the seventh conference on the history of the humanities returns to the University of Amsterdam, November 15–17, 2018. The seventh conference is the largest in the series: over 140 papers have been accepted for presentation by speakers from over thirty different countries.

The Making of the Humanities conference returns to Amsterdam! This is where the conference series started in 2008, ten years ago. Following successful meetings in Amsterdam in 2010, in Rome in 2012 and 2014, in Baltimore in 2016, and in Oxford in 2017, the seventh conference on the history of the humanities returns to the University of Amsterdam, November 15–17, 2018. The seventh conference is the largest in the series: over 140 papers have been accepted for presentation by speakers from over thirty different countries.

Worldwide women are still under-represented in science. What are the causes, and what can be done about it? The Indian government recently conducted two larges studies addressing these questions. On 21 November professor Rohini Godbole, one of India’s most prominent particle physicists, will give a lecture about these two studies and the plans to improve the position of women in science in India.

Federica Russo (University of Amsterdam) is going to be the inaugural speaker of the ILLC LUNch seminar! Light lunch will be provided to the audience. If you prefer, you are also encouraged to bring your own lunch!

This is the second of three meetings where a few of us are getting together to read and discuss the PhD thesis of Thomas Icard, who did the MoL and whose PhD thesis, ‘The Algorithmic Mind’, was supervised by Johan van Benthem at Stanford.

UvA ICT services will undergo necessary maintenance in the weekend of 24-25 November. Please be aware that certain ICT services will be temporarily unavailable on Saturday.

UvA ICT services will undergo necessary maintenance in the weekend of 24-25 November. Please be aware that certain ICT services will be temporarily unavailable on Saturday.

We give sufficient conditions on a topos for the existence of a Unity and Identity for the subcategories of decidable objects and of double negation sheaves, making them adjointly opposite. Typical examples of such a topos include many ‘gros’ toposes in Algebraic Geometry, simplicial sets and other toposes of ‘combinatorial’ spaces in Algebraic Topology, and certain models of Synthetic Differential Geometry.