[FOM] CFP: Uncertainty: Reasoning about probability and vagueness, Prague, Sept 5-8, 2006

[Richard Zach]

Prague International Colloquium 2006

Uncertainty: Reasoning about probability and vagueness

September 5 to 8, Prague


Uncertainty is a ubiquitous phenomenon in everyday life, but it is also a
topic of fundamental significance to many scientific disciplines.
Uncertainty taken here in a broad sense, has many facets - among them
probability and vagueness, including possibility, confidence, fuzziness
etc. These are captured by different theories which often seem to be
conceptually and technically incompatible. Therefore there is no
universally accepted theory covering all this area and there are many
reasons why we shall neither expect nor want to have one. On the other
hand there have been attempts to cross the borders - there are theories
trying to bridge gaps between rival approaches and looking for their
common background.

The aim of the conference is to provide a platform for an open discussion
between proponents of the main theories of uncertainty and vagueness on
the market. Special attention shall be paid to the comparison of theories,
analyzing differences and similarities of the respective concepts of
uncertainty. Of particular interest are logical aspects and formal models
of reasoning about vague information.

The scope of interest contains, but is not limited to the following topics:

  . reasoning under uncertainity
  . theories of vagueness
  . supervaluationism
  . foundations of fuzzy logic
  . concepts of probability
  . possibility and trust
  . epistemic and pragmatic aspects of uncertainty


The  invited speakers of the colloquium: Patrick Greenough (St. Andrews),
Rosanna Keefe (Sheffield), Peter Milne (Edinburgh), Richard Zach (Calgary).


The colloquium uses an abstract processing service kindly provided by
Atlas Conferences Inc.(http://atlas-conferences.com). If you are
interested in presenting a paper, please submit an abstract at
http://atlas-conferences.com/cgi-bin/abstract/submit/casu-01. Your
submission will be confirmed automatically on the e-mail address you
provide. The accepted abstracts will be available on-line after the final
decision of the program committee. If you have any problems to submit an
abstract, please contact us at colloquium (et) flu.cas.cz.


The deadline for contributions is 6 June 2006, the notification of
acceptance/rejection will be sent until 30 June 2006.


Programme committee: Didier Dubois, Christian Fermüller, Ondrej Majer,
Peter Milne, Richard Zach.


The conference fee is EUR 150, it covers conference materials, coffee
breaks and the banquet at Villa Lanna. Participants unable to pay the
conference fee are encouraged to apply for a reduction. Those who wish to
apply for the reduction should explicitly state this when submitting their
abstract, which should be extended to 2-4 pages. The official language of
the symposium is English.


The authors will be offered to submit the papers presented at the
colloquium to a special issue of Studia Logica on vagueness and
uncertainty (their publication will be subject to the journal's regular
refereeing process).  Details on the special issue will be distributed at
a later point by its editors.


The workshop starts one day after the Studia Logica International
Conference Towards Mathematical Philosophy in Torun
(http://www.logika.uni.torun.pl/TrendsIV.html); the participants can
consider taking part in both conferences (the journey to Prague from Torun
takes less than one day).

The Prague International Colloquium continues the series of annual
international meetings on topics in logic, epistemology and analytic
philosophy organized in Prague by the Department of Logic of the Institute
of Philosophy (see previous colloquia at
http://www.flu.cas.cz/Logica/konf/konf.html).

The official web page of the colloquium is
http://www.flu.cas.cz/Logica/konf/col2006.html. All correspondence should
be directed to colloquium (et) flu.cas.cz .


Ondrej Majer*, Libor Běhounek°, Petr Cintula°

Organising Committee

*Institute of Philosophy, °Institute of Computer Science,

Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic