The eminent Indologist and Sanskrit scholar Frits Staal passed away on February 19 at his retirement home in Thailand. 'The Hindu' newspaper writes:

''Staal argued that ancient Indian grammarians, especially Panini, had completely mastered methods of linguistic theory not discovered again until the 1950s. The Indians had thought about it long before modern mathematical logic was applied to linguistics by Noam Chomsky.

The early methods allowed the construction of discrete, potentially infinite generative systems, experts maintain. The formal basis for Panini's methods involves the use of auxiliary markers, rediscovered in the 1930s by logician Emil Post, whose rewrite systems are currently a standard approach for description of computer languages, experts say.

Staal wrote, 'Panini is the Indian Euclid.' The Indologist describes how Panini had expanded the spoken Sanskrit to a formal metalanguage."

The complete piece is at http://www.thehindu.com/news/states/kerala/article2913333.ece

Among Frits' many publications, examples of possible interest to FOM readers include 'The concept of metalanguage and its Indian background', J. Indian Phil., 1975 3(3), pp. 315-354; and 'The Sanskrit of science,' J. Indian Phil., 1995, 23 (1), pp. 73-127. Among his several distinguished academic positions, Frits was a long-time faculty member of UC Berkeley's Group in Logic and the Methodology of Science, created by Alfred Tarski.

John Kadvany

Call for papers: Topoi conference and special issue

INTENTIONS: PHILOSOPHICAL AND EMPIRICAL ISSUES

Rome, Italy, 29-30 November 2012

We are proud to announce that the first TOPOI CONFERENCE will be held in Rome in November
2012. This will be the first in a series of conferences, to be held every 2 years, sponsored by Topoi:
An International Journal of Philosophy (http://www.springer.com/philosophy/journal/11245).
In analogy with the journal format, each conference will focus on a specific theme (topos), and
contributions presented to the conference will later appear in an issue of the journal dedicated to the
same topic.

INVITED SPEAKERS
Marcel Brass (Ghent)
Cristiano Castelfranchi (Rome)
Elisabeth Pacherie (Paris)
Corrado Sinigaglia (Milan)

SUBMITTED PAPERS
Submissions of unpublished papers are welcome on any topic relevant to the conference theme (see
below). Submitted articles should be in English, not exceed 5.000 words in length (including
references), and be prepared for blind reviewing. Only original papers (i.e., not published or
submitted for publication elsewhere) will be considered, since the authors of accepted contributions
will be invited to submit a revised longer version of their papers for a special issue of Topoi, edited
by Markus Schlosser (Leiden) and Fabio Paglieri (Rome).
Submission of papers by e-mail to: Fabio Paglieri (fabio.paglieri@istc.cnr.it)
Accepted file formats: .doc, .rtf., .odp, .pdf
Deadline for submission (full papers): 31 August 2012

RATIONALE AND THEME
Theorizing about human action has a long history in philosophy, and the nature of intention and
intentional action has received a lot of attention in recent analytic philosophy. At the same time,
intentional action has become an empirically studied phenomenon in psychology, cognitive
neuroscience, artificial intelligence, and robotics. Many results obtained in these areas have been
incorporated within the current philosophical debate, while at the same time scientists have often
adopted in their experiments and models philosophical assumptions on the nature of intention and
intentional action. As a result, the study of intentions is nowadays a thriving enterprise, where both
conceptual and empirical issues are discussed in a dialogue across disciplines.
This conference aims to bring together empirically informed philosophers and philosophically
savvy scientists to address a variety of central problems in the study of intention. Possible topics for
contributions include (but are not limited to):
• What is the relevance of recent findings in neuroscience and experimental psychology for
our philosophical understanding of intentions and intentional action?
• What role can philosophical analysis play in the design of experiments and in the
interpretation of empirical results?
• What is the relation between intentions, choices, and other mental states and events (such as
desires, goals, plans, beliefs, expectations, emotions, etc.)?
• Are intentions necessarily conscious? Are they causally efficacious in virtue of being conscious?
• What, exactly, are motor intentions, proximal intentions, and distal intentions?
• What are the neural correlates of the different kinds of intentions?
• What are the mechanisms responsible for intention recognition and action understanding?
• What is the role of intentions in gaining self-knowledge and self-understanding?
• What is the nature of group or shared intentions?
• What role do intentions play in self-control and weakness of the will?
• Do (or can) other animals or robots have intentions?

PRACTICAL ARRANGEMENTS
The conference will be held at the Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies of the National
Research Council of Italy (ISTC-CNR, http://www.istc.cnr.it/), Via San Martino della Battaglia 44,
Rome, Italy. The language of the conference is English. Attendance is free and no registration is
required. All meals will be provided for the authors of accepted papers, but at the moment no
reimbursement for accommodation and travel costs is expected to be available.

ORGANIZERS AND SPONSORSHIP
The conference is organized by Fabio Paglieri (Rome) and Markus Schlosser (Leiden), and
sponsored by Topoi, Springer, and the Goal-Oriented Agents Lab (GOAL,
http://www.istc.cnr.it/group/goal) of the ISTC-CNR.
For further information, please contact Fabio Paglieri, fabio.paglieri@istc.cnr.it

Duality and Logic,March 19, by Alessandra Palmigiano, Universityof Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Title: Duality and LogicAbstract: The notion of duality is a central one in modern mathematics, and it occurs in many different shapes.In this talk, dualities will be informally introduced, a number of different examples of dualities will be reviewed which are related to logic, and ways in which dualities can help us get a better insight on logics will be discussed.

Time: 1:30-4:00 pm

Place: 清华大学三教3310

题目:Epistemic updates on algebras

报告人:  AlessandraPalmigiano 博士

(Institute for Logic, Language & Computation,University of Amsterdam)

时间：2012年3月18日(星期日） 10:00 -- 12:00
地点：清华大学新斋335
主办：北京市逻辑学会青年学者逻辑论坛；清华大学哲学系

 摘要: We introduce a methodology, based on duality theory,which makes it possible to study epistemic updates from an algebraicperspective. We focus on the case study of public announcements, and hence onPublic Announcement Logic (PAL) without the common knowledge operator. As iswell known, the epistemic action of publicly announcing a given proposition issemantically represented as a transformation of the model encoding the currentepistemic setup of the given agents; the given model shifts to its submodel relativizedto the announced proposition. We give the dual characterization of thecorresponding submodel-injection map, as a certain pseudo-quotient map betweenthe complex algebras respectively associated with the given model and with itsrelativized submodel. As is well known, these complex algebras are completeatomic BAOs (Boolean algebras with operators). The dual characterization weprovide naturally generalizes to much wider classes of algebras, which include,but are not limited to, arbitrary BAOs and arbitrary modal expansions ofHeyting algebras (HAOs). In this way, we access the benefits and the widerscope of applications given by a point-free, intuitionistic theory of epistemicupdates. As an application of this dual characterization, we axiomatize theintuitionistic analogue of PAL, which we refer to as IPAL; we providerelational semantics for IPAL, we prove soundness and completeness of IPALw.r.t. both algebraic and relational models, and we show that the well-knownMuddy Children Puzzle can be encoded in IPAL. (Based on joint work with M. Maand M. Sadrzadeh)

详情见网站：

http://www.jaist.ac.jp/rcis/awpl/

First Call for Papers
Workshop "Strategies for Learning, Belief Revision and Preference Change"
ESSLLI 2012, Opole, Poland
August 13-17, 2012
http://www.ninagierasimczuk.com/LBP2012

We invite submissions to the workshop "Strategies for Learning, Belief
Revision and Preference Change", at European Summer School for Logic,
Language and Information (ESSLLI) 2012 in Opole, Poland (website:
http://www.esslli2012.pl/).

Introduction:
The classical approach to belief-revision has been extensively studied
within the so-called AGM framework (Alchourron et al., 1985) and
provides us with an axiomatic setting that casts the rationality
constraints for single-agent belief revision. In the last decades, a
very promising direction of combining this belief-revision framework
with modal logics of knowledge and belief has given us a way to
investigate revisions in a more linguistically-detached way and in a
multiagent context. Among the several modal logic approaches that are
used for this investigation, the framework of dynamic epistemic logic
comprises a family of logics of explicit informational actions and
corresponding knowledge and belief changes in agents. One of the
sources of this approach is natural language and communication, but
others include epistemology, and theories of agency in computer
science (see, e.g., Gerbrandy, 1999; Baltag et al., 1998). Dynamic
epistemic logic can be viewed as a general theory of social
information and preference-driven agency, which has led to growing
links with temporal logics, game theory, and other formal theories of
interaction (see Van Benthem, 2010). Interestingly, knowledge update
and belief upgrades of dynamic epistemic logic have been recently
linked to the topic of preference change in social choice theory (see
Liu, 2008) and to formal learning theory (see Gierasimczuk, 2010). The
combined effort of all mentioned disciplines provides a quickly
growing body of research on iterated knowledge and belief change,
adding to our understanding of the epistemic, logical and
computational aspects of various strategies for learning.

The workshop's goal is to bring together researchers using formal
methods to model and reason about belief revision, knowledge update,
preference change and strategies for learning. With this workshop we
reach out to the logicians working in the domains of social choice
theory and formal learning theory.

Invited talks will be given by:
Thomas Ågotnes (University of Bergen)
Alexandru Baltag (University of Amsterdam)
Barbara Dunin-Kęplicz (University of Warsaw)
Davide Grossi (University of Liverpool) (tbc)
Vincent F. Hendricks (University of Copenhagen, Columbia University) (tbc)

Programme Committee:
Nina Gierasimczuk (co-chair)
Kevin Kelly
Jérôme Lang
Hannes Leitgeb
Fenrong Liu
Daniel Osherson
Sonja Smets (co-chair)
Frank Veltman
Rineke Verbrugge
Thomas Zeugmann

Submissions Details: 
Please send your submission in PDF format, from 5
to 8 pages (including bibliography). If needed, technical material
such as proofs may be added in an appendix. The PDF files should be
uploaded online by March 2nd, 2012 via easychair system:

http://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=lbp2012

The author notification date is May 1st, 2012. Please note that the
speakers automatically agree to their papers being published at
Workshop's website and in ESSLLI 2012 internal proceedings. Moreover,
all workshop participants have to register to ESSLLI 2012.

Contact: lbp2012(at)easychair.org

Important Dates: 
Submission Deadline: March 2nd, 2012
Notification of Acceptance: May 1st, 2012
Workshop dates: August 13-17, 2012

Workshop organizers: Nina Gierasimczuk and Sonja Smets

Sponsors: VIDI research grant no 639.072.904 financed by the
Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research.

我永远的恩师、朋友！

Stellenausschreibung der Universität Konstanz
Wissenschaftlich Beschäftigte  -  Kennziffer 2011/084
http://www.uni-konstanz.de/suche/index.php?cont=stellausw&seite=2011/084&id=1

University of Konstanz is one of the nine Universities of Excellence in the Federal Republic of Germany.

The Formal Epistemology Research Group invites applications for a

PhD Position (Salary Scale 13 TV-L/50 %)

in Theoretical Philosophy for an initial period of two years, starting October 1st, 2011 or some date agreed upon. The Emmy Noether research group Formal Epistemology is funded by the German Research Foundation and is part of the Zukunftskolleg and the Department of Philosophy at the University of Konstanz. Prerequisite for an appointment is a university degree (Master degree).

The University of Konstanz is an equal opportunity employer and tries to increase the number of women in research and teaching. The University of Konstanz encourages disabled persons to apply. They will be given preference if appropriately qualified (contact +49(0)7531/88-4895). The University of Konstanz has been certified by the Hertie Foundation to be a family-friendly institution. The University is committed to further the compatibility of work and family life.

The position is subject to the positive evaluation of an interim report. Applications with the reference number 2011/084 should include at least two letters of reference as well as a description of the dissertation project and/or a writing sample. Applications and inquiries should be sent to: formal.epistemology@uni-konstanz.de by July 31, 2011.

Bewerbungsende: 31.07.2011

FULLY FUNDED PH.D. STUDENTSHIP IN LOGIC AND GRAPH THEORY AT THE TECHNICAL
UNIVERSITY BERLIN
* The Logic and Semantics Research Group at the Institute for
  Software Engineering and Theoretical Computer Science at
  the Technical University, Berlin, Germany, is offering a fully
  funded Ph.D. studentship in the area of logic or graph theory.
  The closing date for applications is 28th August 2011. See
  http://logic.las.tu-berlin.de for further information.
* The research pursued in the group revolves around finite and
  computational model theory, algorithmic and structural graph
  theory, database theory, automata-theory and temporal and
  modal logics in the context of verification.
* Candidates must have a degree (master or diploma level) in
  Computer Science or Mathematics and must have a strong
  interest in theoretical computer science. Furthermore, candidates
  should have good knowledge in at least one of the following
  areas:
  - Structural or algorithmic graph theory, such as graph
    decompositions, graph minor theory or matroid theory,
    parametrized and general graph  algorithms.
  - Logic, broadly construed, in particular areas such as finite
    and computational model theory, automata theory, database
    theory and verification
* Good command of English is expected. Knowledge of German is not
  required.
* The position is fully funded. The successful candidate will be expected to
  participate in teaching for up to four hours a week during term time,
  usually in form of tutorials and assistance with reading courses.
* See http://logic.las.tu-berlin.de for further information on the application
  procedure.
* For further information please contact
  Stephan Kreutzer,
  email: stephan.kreutzer@tu-berlin.de,
  tel:       +49 30 314 29088.