1st Semester 2024/25: Reasoning in Social Context

Instructors

Sonja Smets

ECTS

6

Description

This project is designed for Master of Logic students interested in the logical analysis of social-informational phenomena, including the wisdom of crowds, informational cascades, group polarization, echo chambers, pluralistic ignorance etc. This topic lies at the intersection of Logic, Social Epistemology and Social Network Theory.

We analyze forms of group knowledge, as well as the role of individual beliefs and of belief-aggregation procedures in facilitating or distorting the spread of information through a network of interacting agents. We consider various forms of communication, social influence, disinformation, trolling, and other informational actions that can affect a group's behavior and its ability to track the truth. We focus on examples from the literature and their analysis based on theoretical tools and formal models.

Organisation

This project takes place in the month of February 2025, we will plan two meetings with the group every week. We will be reading a collection of research papers on the use of logic to analyze specific social phenomena. Students will work in teams on the material of some of the selected topics, present its content to the group and write a final report on it. To register for the project, write an email in advance to S.J.L.Smets at uva.nl

Prerequisites

We will assume some familiarity with modal logic (its syntax and semantics).

Assessment

The evaluation is based on the successful completion of the report and presentation.

References

We will use a series of research papers, which will be made available during the first meeting in February 2025.