Logic and Philosophy of Science Group Talk (Sara Aronowitz, Toronto)

The Logic and Philosophy of Science Group is pleased to welcome guest speaker Sara Aronowitz, an assistant professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Toronto. Dr. Aronowitz studies learning and memory in humans, machines, and idealized thinkers.

This talk will be a work-in-progress session to discuss Sara Aronowitz’s current manuscript, “What makes for a Good Division of Possibilities?” If you would like to attend, please email Mike Miller for a copy.

Talk Title

What Makes for a Good Division of Possibilities?

Talk Abstract

Most work on rational action has focused on how we should decide, given a set of options. But setting up the options is often decisive in whether we act well or poorly, even assuming a perfectly rational decision-making procedure. In this paper, I consider three answers to the question of what makes a division of the world into coarse-grained states and options good. Each of these measures is insufficient as a full account on its own. I end by considering a way in which the measures might be combined. Asking this question about ideal rationality may also give us insight into how and why animals, including humans, divide up the world in the ways we do.

About the Logic and Philosophy of Science Group

One of six departmental Research Interest Groups, the Logic and Philosophy of Science Group hosts talks on logic, general philosophy of science, and philosophy of the particular sciences, as well as talks in allied areas such as formal epistemology, decision theory, and the metaphysics of science.