Reading Groups
Philosophy of Physics
This term, the philosophy of physics group will read Jenann Ismael’s book How physics makes us free. The group will meet Thursdays 18:00-19:00 on Zoom.
For further information and a link to the Zoom meeting room, please contact Sébastien Rivat at sebastien.rivat@lrz.uni-muenchen.de.
Reading Group on Kevin Dorst's Work
We have a new Humboldt Fellow, Kevin Dorst (MIT), who will be visiting us three times for three months each over the next three years (starting in April 2024). We have decided to organize a reading group dedicated to his work in order to make the most of his visits. The group will meet on Mondays at 16:00-17:00 via Zoom in the last (or the penultimate) week of each month throughout the Winter Semester 2023/2024.
For further information and access to the Zoom meeting room, please contact Borut Trpin at borut.trpin@lrz.uni-muenchen.de.
Reading group on philosophy of machine learning
We meet every two-three weeks to discuss a (recent) paper in the philosophy of machine learning, with a focus, but not an exclusive focus, on epistemological themes. The timeslot for the winter semester 2023/24 is Friday 16-17 PM.
If you like to join us, please contact Tom Sterkenburg (tom.sterkenburg@lmu.de) or Timo Freiesleben (timo.freiesleben@campus.lmu.de). You can also find the schedule on http://tomster.userweb.mwn.de/mlregr/.
Homotopy type theory reading group
In this reading group we will be mostly following the book "Homotopy Type Theory: Univalent Foundations of Mathematics", by the Univalent Foundations Project (https://homotopytypetheory.org/book/), but we also use "Introduction to Homotopy Type Theory", by Egbert Rijke (https://arxiv.org/pdf/2212.11082.pdf), for the necessary background in type theory.
The reading group will take place on Mondays from 4pm to 5pm in room 314, Schellingstr. 9. For more information contact Ma.Esteves@lmu.de.
Reading group on Carnap's Logical Syntax of Language (the modified English translation in 1937)
Introduction: This semester we plan to read Carnap's book Logical Syntax of Language (LSS). We will meet weekly to discuss roughly 20 pages of the book. The reading process will focus on the main questions: What role do Carnap's terminology settings play in achieving his epistemological goal? And how does Carnap understand the relation between metalanguage and object-language? We may also bring sections from Carnap's other books such as Meaning and Necessity and the relevant secondary literature into the discussion, but the focus will be on the original text of LSS. (No prior knowledge of Carnap’s work is required.)
If you would like to join us, please contact Nata (yangzhwy@outlook.com) or Andreas (Andreas.Frenzel@campus.lmu.de).
The reading group will take place on Wednesdays, 2-4pm, in the Statistics Library, Ludwigstr. 33.
Incomplete Reading Group
We are meeting on a regular basis to read mainly P. Smith’s work on Gödel's incompleteness theorems.
Typically we meet on Thursdays at 10 am in Norbert’s office.
Contact: Norbert Gratzl, N.Gratzl@lmu.de
Van Fraassen Reading Group
We will discuss various aspects of Bas van Fraassen’s epistemology and philosophy of science — in particular, his views on rational belief, voluntarist epistemology, and scientific explanation.
For further information on the reading group, please contact John Dougherty (John.Dougherty@lrz.uni-muenchen.de) and/or Alexander Reutlinger (Alexander.Reutlinger@lmu.de).
Frege's Logic: From Begriffsschrift to Grundgesetze
In his lifetime, Frege published two volumes in which he laid out his logical system, Begriffsschrift in 1879, and Grundgesetze der Arithmetik in 1893. Notationally, the logic that Frege presents in these works appears the same, but this masks great changes that occurred in the interim: Between 1879 and 1893, Frege was occupied with a wholesale rethinking of the foundations of logic. The innovations he introduces reflect Frege’s articulation of the notion of logical form, and the development of a semantic framework that is sufficient for carrying out his logicist reduction of arithmetic to logic, a framework that would allow for logical terms to be interpreted as referring to numbers, and the arithmetic operations that operate on them.
In this reading group, we will explore these developments, focusing on two central theses: First, that Frege was following a broadly Kantian perspective on logic, Begriffsschrift being a manifestation of a pure, general logic, and Grundgesetze a transcendental logic, and second, that there is a transition from a non-compositional logical language in Begriffsschrift to a fully compositional language in Grundgesetze. In this context emerges many of the core semantical ideas that find their initial articulation in Frege, among them the analysis of concepts as functions, predication as functional application, and that the composition of function and argument is a semantic entity.
The reading group will commence with an overview of Frege’s logical system, including an introduction to his logical notation and his method of proof as logical derivation. We will then move to a comparison of the systems of Begriffsschrift and Grundgesetze, with particular attention paid to the role of the horizontal, generalization, identity and the formalization of definitions.
Primary readings are Begriffsschrift, Pt. 1 and Grundgesetze, Pt. 1 (“Exposition of the Concept Script”). Some advance acquaintance with these works will be beneficial. Secondary readings will be discussed as appropriate.
The Reading Group will have three sessions: Monday, May 6, Wednesday, May 8, and Friday May 10, 2024, 10-12 am. We will meet in the Statistics Library, Room 245, Ludwigstr. 33.
If you would like to join please contact Robert May (UC Davis) at rcmay@ucdavis.edu.