# Kurt Gödel Centenary Young Scholars’ Competition Deadline Approaching

Call for Participation

Young Scholars’ Competition

The Kurt Gödel Centenary: Horizons of Truth organizers and sponsors invite young scholars in logic, mathematics, physics, philosophy, computer science and theology to submit project proposals for the young scholars’ competition honoring Kurt Gödels hundredth birthday.

Project Proposal Description

Submitted project proposals should be strongly connected to the scientific achievements including recent applications and/or life of Kurt Gödel. The proposals can cover any of the following disciplines:
logic, mathematics, physics, computer science, theology or philosophy.

Participation Criteria

In order to participate in this competition, you must be born on or after January 1, 1970.

Required documents

1. Project proposal
2. Curriculum vitae
3. List of bibliographic references

Important note: Submissions should contain a description of the future research project, its relation to the fields of research as mentioned above, and to Kurt Gödel’s life or work, and possible applications. Including the list of references, and the CV it should not exceed six (6) pages in PDF format.

Prizes

Ten chosen projects will compete for three top prizes.

1st prize: 20 000 EUR
2nd and 3rd prize: 5000 EUR each

Submission deadline: Monday, 24. February 2006. 6 p.m. CET

Submissions

For submission software and instructions, see:
http://www.logic.at/goedel2006/index.php?submissions

# Sir Peter Strawson, 1919-2006

Sad. Peter Strawson has passed away.

Obits from the Times, the Telegraph, the Guardian, .

# Studia Logica Issue on Cut-elimination

The Studia Logica special issue on cut-elimination, edited by Alex Leitsch, is out. A bunch of very interesting papers. I’m especially glad to see Alessandra Carbone publish in proof theory again! I’m a big fan.

(Self-promotion: the issue also contains the final version of Georg Moser and my epsilon calculus paper. And while I’m linking, and since I’m too lazy busy to update my webpage, also a link to my review of Potter’s book Reason’s Nearest Kin in the Notre Dame Journal.)

# Hilbert’s program then and now

Dale Jacquette, ed., Philosophy of Logic. Handbook of the Philosophy of Science, vol. 5. (Elsevier, Amsterdam, 2006), 411-447.

Hilbert’s program was an ambitious and wide-ranging project in the philosophy and foundations of mathematics. In order to “dispose of the foundational questions in mathematics once and for all,” Hilbert proposed a two-pronged approach in 1921: first, classical mathematics should be formalized in axiomatic systems; second, using only restricted, “finitary” means, one should give proofs of the consistency of these axiomatic systems. Although Gödel’s incompleteness theorems show that the program as originally conceived cannot be carried out, it had many partial successes, and generated important advances in logical theory and metatheory, both at the time and since. The article discusses the historical background and development of Hilbert’s program, its philosophical underpinnings and consequences, and its subsequent development and influences since the 1930s.

Preprint

# Coquand on Type Theory

Via OPP: Thierry Coquand‘s entry on Type Theory in the Stanford Encyclopedia went online a few days ago.

# OPP Moves, Urbaniak on Lesniewski

Brian Weatherson‘s Online Papers in Philosophy blog of new philosophy papers has been taken over by Jonathan Ichikawa and is now located here. So update your bookmarks/RSS feeds.

Via OPP I see that Calgary’s very own Rafał Urbaniak‘s paper on Lesniewski in the AJL is now online.

# The epsilon calculus and Herbrand complexity

Studia Logica 82 (2006) 133-155
(with Georg Moser)

Hilbert’s $$\varepsilon$$-calculus is based on an extension of the language of predicate logic by a term-forming operator $$\varepsilon x$$. Two fundamental results about the $$\varepsilon$$-calculus, the first and second epsilon theorem, play a role similar to that which the cut-elimination theorem plays in sequent calculus. In particular, Herbrand’s Theorem is a consequence of the epsilon theorems. The paper investigates the epsilon theorems and the complexity of the elimination procedure underlying their proof, as well as the length of Herbrand disjunctions of existential theorems obtained by this elimination procedure.

Review: Mathematical Reviews 2205042 (2006k:03127) (Mitsuru Yasuhara)

Preprint

# Carnegie Mellon Summer School in Logic and Formal Epistemology

This looks like a superb opportunity for undergrads and beginning graduate students:

In 2006, the Department of Philosophy at Carnegie Mellon University will launch a three-week summer school in logic and formal epistemology for promising undergraduates in philosophy, mathematics, computer science, linguistics, and other sciences. The goals are to

• introduce promising students to cross-disciplinary fields of research at an early stage in their career; and
• forge lasting interdisciplinary links between the various disciplines.

The summer school will be held from Monday, June 12 to Friday, June 30, 2006. There will be morning and afternoon lectures and daily problem sessions, as well as planned outings and social events.

The summer school is free. That is, we will provide:

• full tuition
• dormitory accommodations on the Carnegie Mellon campus

So students need only pay for travel to Pittsburgh and living expenses while there. There are no grades, and the courses do not provide formal course credit.

This year’s topics are:

Causal Statistical Inference
Monday, June 12 to Friday, June 16
Instructor: David Danks

Foundations of Computability
Monday, June 19 to Friday, June 23
Instructor: Wilfried Sieg

Philosophical Logic
Monday, June 26 to Friday, June 30
Instructor: Horacio Arlo-Costa

The summer school is open to undergraduates, as well as to students who will have just received their undergraduate degrees. Instructions for applying can be found on the summer school web page. Materials must be submitted to the Philosophy Department by March 15, 2006. Inquiries may be directed to Jeremy Avigad (avigad@cmu.edu).