CMU Workshop on Foundations for Ockham’s Razor

Carnegie Mellon University, Center for Formal Epistemology:

Workshop on Foundations for Ockham’s Razor

All are welcome to attend.

June 22-24, 2012

Adamson Wing, Baker Hall 136A, Carnegie Mellon University

Workshop web page and schedule

Contact:  Kevin T. Kelly (kk3n@andrew.cmu.edu)

Rationale:  Scientific theory choice is guided by judgments of simplicity, a bias frequently referred to as “Ockham’s Razor”. But what is simplicity and how, if at all, does it help science find the truth? Should we view simple theories as means for obtaining accurate predictions, as classical statisticians recommend? Or should we believe the theories themselves, as Bayesian methods seem to justify? The aim of this workshop is to re-examine the foundations of Ockham’s razor, with a firm focus on the connections, if any, between simplicity and truth.

Speakers:

• Vladimir Cherkassky (University of Minnesota, Computer and Electrical Engineering),
• Peter Gruenwald (Leiden and Amsterdam, Machine Learning),
• Malcolm Forster (University of Wisconsin, Philosophy),
• Kevin Kelly (Carnegie Mellon, Philosophy),
• Hannes Leeb (University of Vienna, Statistics),
• Deborah Mayo (Virginia Tech, Philosophy),
• Oliver Schulte (Simon Fraser, Computer Science),
• Cosma Shalizi (Carnegie Mellon, Statistics),
• Elliott Sober (University of Wisconsin, Philosophy),
• Vladimir Vapnik (Columbia University, Center for Computational Learning Systems),
• Larry Wasserman (Carnegie Mellon, Statistics and Machine Learning).