Call for Papers

 

- - - please circulate - - -

 

CALL FOR PAPERS

"Philosophy and Theory of Artificial Intelligence" PT-AI 2011

October 3 & 4, 2011

Thessaloniki, Anatolia College/ACT

http://www.pt-ai.org/

 

The theory and philosophy of artificial intelligence has come to a crucial point where the agenda for the forthcoming years is in the air - this conference will try to set that agenda and to gather many of the key players.

 

INVITED KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

Hubert Dreyfus (Berkeley)

James H. Moor (Dartmouth)

Rolf Pfeifer (Zurich)

 

INVITED SPEAKERS

Mark H. Bickard, Lehigh University

Nick Bostrom, University of Oxford

Brian Cantwell Smith, University of Toronto

Ron Chrisley, University of Sussex

Antoni Gomila, University of the Baleares

J. Kevin O’Regan, CNRS, Paris

Matthias Scheutz, Tufts University, Boston

Oron Shagrir, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Aaron Sloman, University of Birmingham

Tom Ziemke, University of Skovde

 

PUBLICATION

Proceedings of the conference will be published as a book with Springer, with selected papers to be published in a special issue in a leading journal of the field.

 

The conference intends to set the foundations for an international association "PT-AI" that will further work in the field, organize events, etc.

 

We welcome experts in the field from philosophy and from AI as well as new and upcoming scholars who will shape the field in the decades to come.

 

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ABSTRACTS

We call for abstracts of papers on any aspect of the philosophy and theory of artificial intelligence. Publication of accepted papers in book form is currently under negotiation with several leading publishers. Abstracts and a list of speakers will be published online.

 

Deadline: 08.08.2011 (author notification: 31.08.2011)

 

Format: 500-1000 words (including references, anonymous). Pure text or pdf.

 

Submission: Online at http://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=ptai2011

 

Registration: Online at http://www.pt-ai.org/. Costs: 80E full, 40E for students (including conference dinner). The event is open to all registered participants. Further information about travel etc. on our site.

 

Submission of full papers in December 2011.

 

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PROGRAM COMMITTEE

Darren Abramson, Dalhousie University

Varol Akman, Bilkent University

Colin Allen, Indiana University

Anthony Beavers, University of Evansville

Mark H. Bickard, Lehigh University

Mark Bishop, Goldsmiths, University of London

Nick Bostrom, Oxford University

Jack Copeland, University of Canterbury

Fabio Bonsignorio, University Carlos III of Madrid

Ron Chrisley, University of Sussex

Eric Dietrich, SUNY Binghamton

Gordana Dodig-Crnkovic, Mälardalen University

Hamid R. Ekbia, Indiana University

James Fetzer, University of Minnesota

Stefano Franchi, Texas A&M University

Stan Franklin, University of Memphis

Antoni Gomila, University of the Baleares

David Kirsh, University of California at San Diego

Klaus Mainzer, Technical University Munich

Jim Moor, Dartmouth College

J. Kevin O’Regan, CNRS, Paris

Costas Pagondiotis, University of Patras

Viola Schiaffonati, Politecnico di Milano

Colin Schmidt, Le Mans University-ParisTech

Brian Cantwell Smith, University of Toronto

Susan Schneider, University of Pennsylvania

Oron Shagrir, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Aaron Sloman, University of Birmingham

Steve Torrance, University of Sussex

Jordi Vallverdú, Autonomous University of Barcelona

 

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AIMS AND SCOPE

Artificial Intelligence is perhaps unique among engineering subjects in that it has raised very basic questions about the nature of computing, perception, reasoning, learning, language, action, interaction, consciousness, humankind, life etc. etc. - and at the same time it has contributed substantially to answering these questions (in fact, it is sometimes seen as a form of empirical research). There is thus a substantial tradition of work, both on AI by philosophers and of theory within AI itself.

 

The classical theoretical debates have centered around the issues whether AI is possible at all (often put as "Can machines think?") and whether it can solve certain problems ("Can a machine do x?"). In the meantime, technical AI systems have progressed massively and are now present in many aspects of our environment. Despite this development, there is a sense that classical AI is inherently limited, and must be replaced by (or supplanted with) other methods from cognitive science or other disciplines, especially neural networks, embodied cognitive science, statistical methods, universal algorithms, emergence, behavioral robotics, interactive systems, dynamical systems, living and evolution, insights from biology & neuroscience, hybrid neuro-computational systems, social science, ethics, etc. etc. We are now at a stage where we can take a fresh look at the many theoretical and philosophical problems of AI - and at the same time tackle philosophical problems from AI. This must be a joint effort with people from various backgrounds, but it must centrally involve AI researchers.

 

Proposals for special theme workshops under the umbrella of the conference are welcome.

 

The conference intends to set the foundations for an international association "PT-AI" that will further work in the field, organize events, etc.

 

We welcome experts in the field from philosophy and from AI as well as new and upcoming scholars who will shape the field in the decades to come.

 

We gratefully acknowledge support from the EUCognition network EUCogII: http://www.eucognition.org and from the Programme on the Impacts of Future Technology, University of Oxford http://www.oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk/institutes/Future_Tech/

 

PT-AI 2011 is academically sponsored by the International Association of Philosophy and Computing (IACAP), http://www.ia-cap.org and the European Coordinating Committee for Artificial Intelligence (ECCAI),  http://www.eccai.org. Sponsorship by AAAI and ACM is pending.

 

Thank you for your time,

 

Vincent C. Müller

Chair, PT-AI 2011