We are happy to announce that the next talk of our LUCI Lab seminar series 2026 will be given by
Roberto Ciuni
(Roma Tre University) via Teams (please, see details below) on Wednesday
April 1st
, starting from
2:30
pm CEST.
- Title
Topic Sensitivity in Reasoning. Why, How, and Where To
Abstract:
In the last decade, the role topics can play in the theory of meaning and logic has attracted increasingly more attention. When it comes to logic, this has led to formal frameworks that aims at capturing topic-sensitive conditionals. By contrast, little attention has been paid to the problem of how topics would contribute in determining sets of valid inferences. This talk aims at making first steps toward filling this lacuna. In particular, I provide a formal framework that can generate a number of different systems of topic-sensitive reasoning (topic-sensitive logics). The framework includes a formal representation of topics (via a relation of topic-equivalence between (sets of) formulas) and a consequence relation defined on the ground of closure under assertibility conditions (the latter are, in turn, relative to a given topic). I explain what topic sensitivity is, give some motivations for pursuing topic-sensitive logics, and discuss the framework. Then, I show how we can define both a variety of semantics and a variety of intel systems by working on some conditions for closure under assertibility. I close the presentation by outline possible directions.
Microsoft Teams
Meeting
Join at:
https://teams.microsoft.com/meet/32127919038456?p=FjzFK6afyuDFtLt36a
Meeting ID: 321 279 190 384 56
Passcode: YT9y2Cp9
Anyone who is interested is welcome to join.