Vrijdag 31 oktober 2003. Jaarbeurs Utrecht. Programma begint om 12.30 met een broodjeslunch, u aangeboden door de VvL. Eerste lezing om 13.30. Afsluiting om 17.00 met een borrel. Speciale gast: professor Rohit Parikh uit New York. Co-sponsor: Onderzoekschool SIKS.
An important issue is knowledge. We have formal theories of knowledge, and everyone subscribes to common knowledge as an important idea, but how relevant is it? How firm are its intuitive foundations? Chwe in his Rational Ritual subscribes to common knowledge, but the notion he actually needs is quite a bit weaker. Fukuyama speaks about trust as an important ingredient in economic development, and trust is a good substitute for common knowledge in operational situations. Perhaps these constitute some sort of answer to the skepticism of Clark and Marshall (and others).
At a more local level, the formal theories of knowledge seem more useful. There is insufficient entry of knowledge in Deontic logic, but clearly one can only be responsible when one knows the circumstances to the relevant extent. A doctor cannot be expected to treat someone unless he knows that the person is sick. But a hospital is obligated to find out that a patient has fever. Sometimes one has an obligation to acquire knowledge, and sometimes not. Can we have formal theories to get better insight?
Social software exists in two (or more) forms. One is where society or some larger organization provides us with sub-routines which we can use in our personal software. Libraries or transportation systems are a good example. One does not need other people to use a library. In other situations the software is itself co-ordinated, as for instance in an orchestra.
There is a rich field to develop and we will give some examples and some technical material.