People often reason contrary to the prescriptions of classical logic. In this project we study cases of divergence between everyday and logical-mathematical reasoning and, challenging the canonical view, we hypothesise that they are a straightforward consequence of a tendency in human cognition to neglect empty representations (neglect-zero).
We develop logics which formally represent the neglect-zero tendency and rigorously study its impact on interpretation; explore possible conventionalizations of neglect-zero effects in specific linguistic domains; and experimentally investigate the impact of neglect-zero in ordinary reasoning and its conjectured suspension for example in the context of a mathematical proof.
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Title: Not Nothing: Nonemptiness in Team Semantics Date & Time: Tuesday 1 April 2025, 16:00 Location: Agnietenkapel, Oudezijds Voorburgwal 231, Amsterdam Promotors: Robert van Rooij and Maria Aloni Copromotor: Fan Yang
See moreDate & Time: Monday 31 March 2025, 09:00-17:00 Location: Bushuis Room F1.01B, Kloveniersburgwal 48, Amsterdam We are organizing a workshop on team semantics and related topics on the occasion of Aleksi Anttila’s PhD defence. The speakers include Aleksi Anttila, Ivano Ciardelli, Simone Conti, Matilda Häggblom, Juha Kontinen, Jouko Väänänen, and Haoyu Wang.
See moreRonald de Haan has put together a prototype for a reasoning algorithm for bilateral state-based modal logic (BSML) based on answer set programming. Here you can find a brief demonstration and some explanations, as well as a list with some possible research directions: https://github.com/rdehaan/bsml-sat/blob/main/demo.ipynb There are a lot of small and large directions for improving this reasoner, and many of them are very much suitable for a small research project or a thesis. Please feel free to get in touch with Ronald (me@ronalddehaan.eu) if you are interested in this.
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