The Logic of Self-Deception, Distinguished Lecture, Department of Informatics, King's College London

[Black, Elizabeth]

The Department of Informatics at King's College London is holding a 
Distinguished
Lecture on 22 November to which all are welcome.

This will be a celebration of Emeritus Professor Andrew J I Jones' 
career to date,
and the third in our Distinguished Lecture series.

Professor Andrew Jones will be speaking on "The Logic of 
Self-Deception". This talk
will not assume previous familiarity with the logic of belief.

22 November 2013
The Great Hall
Strand Campus
King's College London
16.00 Tea and coffee
16.30 Lecture
17.30 Refreshments

EVERYONE IS WELCOME, BUT PLEASE REGISTER FOR CATERING PURPOSES:
http://andrewjones.eventbrite.co.uk/

THE LOGIC OF SELF-DECEPTION
Emeritus Professor Andrew J I Jones, Department of Informatics, King's 
College London

Abstract
In his classic work on the logic of knowledge and belief, Jaakko 
Hintikka gave a
brief analysis of the type of self-deception that is expressed in the 
following remark
by Michel de Montaigne: “Some make the world believe that they believe 
what they do not
believe; others, in greater number, make themselves believe it.” 
Hintikka’s account not
only gives a logically consistent representation of this species of 
self-deception, but
also explains the apparent incoherence of the self-deceiver’s belief state.

It will be argued that Montaigne’s remark describes just one of a small 
group of ‘self-
deception positions’, the others of which cannot be consistently 
represented in the logic
of belief used by Hintikka, and none of which can be consistently 
represented in the logic
of belief commonly adopted in Artificial Intelligence. The presentation 
will show how to
characterise each member of the group of ‘self-deception positions’ 
consistently, using a
logic of belief weaker than Hintikka’s; and it will offer an alternative 
explanation of the
incoherence latent in self-deception.

The talk should be of relevance not only to psychologists and 
philosophers, but also to
those computer scientists whose work on self-adapting systems has 
recently led them to an
interest in self-awareness. It will not assume previous familiarity with 
the logic of belief.

Bio
Professor Andrew Jones is Emeritus Professor of the Department of 
Informatics, King's
College London. From 1986-2001, Andrew Jones was Professor of Philosophy 
at the University
of Oslo, Norway, and was elected to the Norwegian Academy of Science and 
Letters (Det Norske
Videnskaps-Akademi) in 1999. In 2001 he took up a professorial position 
in the Department of
Computer Science (later the Department of Informatics), King’s College 
London, where he was
also Head of Department from 2005-2010. His research has mostly been 
concerned with
applications of modal logic to conceptual analysis, particularly in 
regard to logics of norms,
action and belief and their role in the characterization of 
socio-cognitive systems. Jones
retired from King’s in July 2013. In 2013-14 he will be a visiting 
researcher at Imperial
College London.


-- 
Dr Elizabeth Black | Lecturer
Planning, Agents and Intelligent Systems Group
Department of Informatics | King's College London
Strand Building S6.21 | Strand | London | WC2R 2LS
Tel: 020 7848 2694 | Email: elizabeth.black at kcl.ac.uk
Website: http://www.inf.kcl.ac.uk/staff/lizblack/

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