CFP: Undergraduate Rationality Research Group Launch

Submission deadline: July 31, 2015

Conference date(s):
September 17, 2015 - September 18, 2015

Go to the conference's page

Conference Venue:

Department of Philosophy, University of Bristol
Bristol, United Kingdom

Topic areas

Details

The Undergraduate Rationality Research Group at Bristol University would like to invite undergraduate and masters students to submit papers for their launch conference in September of this year.

The launch conference will take place over two days at the University of Bristol on Thursday 17th and Friday 18th of September, and will provide an opportunity for undergraduate students from a range of disciplines to come together to discuss the issues surrounding the topic of Rationality.

Keynote Speaker:

Professor Nick Chater (Warwick Business School)

Submission details:

Abstracts should be between 250-500 words and should concern some aspect of Rationality, including (but not limited to) the cognitive science of decision making, rationality in meta-ethics, formalisations of rationality in logic and probability theory, and meta-philosophical considerations concerning the role of rationality in philosophical argumentation (see below for more detailed suggestions).

Note that all submissions will be blind reviewed by the URRG committee and the departmental liaison. We are committed to equality of opportunity, and submissions will be evaluated purely on the basis of the quality of the work submitted.

To submit for the conference, please send your abstract to Lilit at:

[email protected]

The email should contain your name, your institutional affiliation, course name, year group and broad areas of interest (e.g. metaphysics, mind, psychology). Your abstract should be attached and in .pdf or .docx format, and should be prepared for blind review (i.e. lacking any identifying information).

Deadline: Friday July 31st 2015 (expect a response within two weeks).

Funding: While we cannot pay for the speakers travel expenses entirely, we are hoping to have a bursary available to help subsidise costs. We will attempt to offer accommodation to students through a pairing programme with current University of Bristol students. The conference fee covering lunch and coffee will be waived for speakers at the conference.

Please mention whether you would like to be considered for the bursary or for accommodation pairing in your email. Note that this will not in any way effect your submission, and we will try our best to support those in financial need, though we cannot guarantee funds.

About the conference:

The conference will mark the start of the Undergraduate Rationality Research Group (hf. URRG) at Bristol University. URRG is a programme which attempts to students a taste of life at the level of research, both in philosophy and in other disciplines. Our focus is on rationality: what it is, what status it has, and how it is applied in philosophy. In this conference we hope to bring together a diverse range of students who are interested in this question, to discuss the various issues, and hopefully to form links outside the University of Bristol to other interested parties. For more information about URRG and its goals, see our website http://www.rationalundergrads.com

The conference will be a two day event in which speakers will have approximately thirty minutes to present their arguments, followed by a further twenty to thirty minutes for questions and discussion. The talks will be interspersed with time for discussion over coffee and lunch (both provided) along with a post-conference dinner and drinks. Our hope is to put together a self-published mini-journal after the conference, containing the work of the speakers and of University of Bristol students.

Topic Guidelines

Topics can be in any area of Rationality and Rational Choice. This might be in some area of meta-ethics, or a mathematical account of probability theory. It might even be an application of an account of rationality to some particular problem elsewhere in philosophy. We welcome all submissions.

Suggested Areas:

-          Rationality as a Norm

-          Rationality in Ethics

-          Kantian Ethics

-          Epistemic Rationality

-          Deductive Rationality and Logic

-          Decision Theory

-          Probability Theory

-          Mental Disorder and Irrationality

-          Rationality in Art and Literature

-          The Science and Psychology of Rationality

-          Rational Agents in Economics

-          Social Applications of Rational Concepts

-          The Evolution of Rationality

Example Questions:

-          To what extent can economists posit rationality of agents in their models?

-          Is true altruism possible if all agents are evolutionarily rational?

-          If we use heuristics, are we rational?

-          What role does irrationality play in Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment?

-          Given that many empirical studies show that agents act irrationally most of the time, does this tell us that we are irrational?

-          What does it mean to say that agents are rationally competent, and does the competence/performance distinction make sense in this context?

-          Can you be rational within a delusion?

-          What can neuroscience tell us about irrationality?

-          Is rationality a principle of success or are there degrees of rationality in accordance with how well non-ideal agents meet the constraints or norms?      

-          Can decision theory be a good model of rational decision making? Is it possible for us, as humans, to reason in this way?

-          Can these abstract concepts of rationality be reconciled with the cognitive process of reasoning? If not, then are we rational? Do we need a different model?

-          Is the notion of an ideally rational agent a useful one?

These are just a few ideas which might help you get started. If you have any further questions regarding topics, please don’t hesitate to drop us an email at [email protected] .

Supporting material

Add supporting material (slides, programs, etc.)