Annual VvL Seminar 2024

The VvL will hold an in-person joint seminar organized by Eindhoven University. The event is inspired by the departmental logic seminars that are organized at each university, and aims to unify the universities for a collaborative seminar. Besides hosting a main speaker, the seminar will also be the location of the award ceremony of the VvL MSc Thesis Prize winners, who will give a short presentation of their thesis.

The preliminary details of the event can be found below - more details and potential small changes will follow in the coming weeks.

Registration. If you are planning on attending, we would like to ask you to register via the following registration link. The optional dinner will take place at Restaurant Fling in Eindhoven. The menu can be found here (differently priced meals are available, with main courses starting from 24EUR). 

Main speaker: Alexandru Baltag (ILLC)

Title: From Counterfactual Dependence to Causal Interventions: The Dynamic Logic of Causality

Abstract:

Pearl's causal models have become the dominant approach to representing, and reasoning about, causality.  The setting is based on the `static' notion of causal graphs, but it also makes an essential use of the `dynamic' notion of causal interventions. In particular, Halpern and Pearl used this setting to define and investigate various notions of actual causality.

As noted by many, causal interventions have an obvious `counterfactual' flavour. But... their relationship with the counterfactual conditionals (a la Lewis-Stalnaker)  has remained murky.

The purpose of this talk is threefold:

1. understand interventions as dynamic modalities (rather than conditionals);

2. elucidate the relationship between intervention modalities and counterfactual conditionals;

3. formalize and completely axiomatize a Causal Intervention Calculus (CIC), that is general enough to allow us to capture both interventions and causal conditionals, but also expressive enough to capture the various notions of actual causality proposed in the literature.

MSc Thesis Prize winners: Aude Corbeel (UvA, supervisors: Sebastian de Haro Ollé and Erik Verlinde); Sterre Lutz (UU, supervisors: Nima Motamed and Dragan Doder); Ruben Mud (RUG, supervisor: Oliver Lorscheid); Valentin Müller (UvA, supervisors: Marianna Girlando and Benno van den Berg).

Date & Time: December 13, 2024, 13:30-18:00

Location: Technische Universiteit Eindhoven, room Atlas 4.225. It is on the fourth floor of the Atlas building (https://maps.app.goo.gl/z1MtMAPPTeUztprc8) 

Program:
13:30-14:00: Coffee
14:00-14:05: Opening and Welcome Remarks
14:05-14:15: Brief Presentation on the work of the VvL
14:15-14:45: VvL Meeting
14:45-15:00: Coffee break
15:00-16:00: VvL lecture by Alexandru Baltag
16:00-16:30: Coffee break
16:30-16:40: Remarks by the VvL Master thesis awards committee
16:40-17:40: MSc Thesis Prize presentations (4x15mins)
17:40-17:50: Award Ceremony and Closing Remarks
18:00: Dinner

Local organizer: Vlasta Sikimić


Registration - TBA
There is no cost for attending the seminar, but to help with organization, we will soon provide an online form to register your attendance. An optional dinner will follow the event.

Previous editions

Annual VvL Seminar 2023

Main speaker: Dragan Doder (Utrecht University)
MSc Thesis Prize winners: Rodrigo Almeida (supervisors: Nick Bezhanishvili and Tommaso Moraschini), Søren Brinck Knudstorp (supervisors: Johan van Benthem and Nick Bezhanishvili), Raoul Koudijs (supervisor: Balder ten Cate)
Date & Time: December 8, 2023, 14:30-17:30
Location: The Sweelinckzaal at Drift 21, room 0.05, Utrecht.

Annual VvL Seminar 2022 

Main speaker: Sonja Smets

MSc Thesis Prize winners: Anna Dmitrieva (supervisor: Nick Bezhanishvili & Tommaso Moraschini), Maximilian Siemers (supervisor: Aybüke Özgün), Dominik Wehr (supervisor: Bahareh Afshari)

Date & time: December 8, 2022, 15:00-17:30

Location: Jantina Tammes Zaal, 4th floor of the University Library in the centre, Broerstraat 4, 9712 CP Groningen.