Notes for the next MIRIxUW workshop

[Sam Eisenstat]

Hi,

For the next workshop, we are going to continue discussing the same three papers. It particular, I'm interested in looking at various desiderata that logical priors may satisfy, and to discuss which priors satisfy which desiderata. Nate and Benja have released an overview of the problem of logical uncertainty, Questions of Reasoning Under Logical Uncertainty, which lists eight desiderata that a prior may satisfy. I'm also interested in desiderata relating to logical counterfactuals, since these are important for decision theory. The paper that a linked above gives a high-level overview of the problem of logical uncertainty, so it may also be useful to people who want a clearer big picture.

For people who are interested in learning some logic, I'm going to recommend Computability and Logic, by Boolos et al. We can start with chapters 1-2 and 9-10, for people who aren't already familiar with that material. The first two chapters discuss cardinality, which is generally useful to know about, and chapters 9-10 introduce logic. I'm not sure if this is moving too quickly or too slowly for people, so I'm interested in feedback on that. Four chapters may sound like a lot, but they are only about 10 pages each, and some of the material may be familiar. Alternatively, some people may not have the necessary background for those four chapters, in which case we should start with a different text, perhaps Mendelson's Introduction to Mathematical Logic, which I believe is more introductory. I'll set aside some time at the beginning of the next workshop for us to discuss anything that that people are having trouble with.

Best,

Sam