Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy

Can AI systems have free will? - Synthese While there has been much discussion of whether AI systems could function as moral agents or acquire sentience, there has been very little discussion of whether AI systems could have free will. I sket...

Can AI systems have free will? - das fragt unser Mitglied
@clist.bsky.social im folgenden #OpenAccess - Artikel:

link.springer.com/article/10.1...

#KI #AI #KuenstlicheIntelligenz #ArtificialIntelligence #FreierWille #FreeWill #Philosophy #Philosophie

Logicism is the thesis that mathematics is reducible to logic and analytic truths. It has a long history, going back to Frege, Russell, and Whitehead, but it was subsequently rejected by others. In this recent paper, Hannes Leitgeb, Uri Nodelman, and Edward Zalta offer a new defence of logicism.

Fragmented justification - Synthese This article presents a fragmented account of justification. The account is motivated via an example from climate science where, within the IPCC assessment report for climate change, an overall incons...

Newly published: "Fragmented justification", by Hannah Pillin, Synthese, 2025, link.springer.com/article/10.1...

An excellent paper by Christian List in the Synthese special issue on Daniel Dennett's philosophy. rdcu.be/eEUYO

Fragmented justification - Synthese This article presents a fragmented account of justification. The account is motivated via an example from climate science where, within the IPCC assessment report for climate change, an overall incons...

Newly published: "Fragmented justification", by Hannah Pillin, Synthese, 2025, link.springer.com/article/10.1...

YouTube video by MCML_Munich Center for Machine Learning What is intelligence—and what kind of intelligence do we want in our future? With Prof. Sven Nyholm

🎥 Who gets the credit, or the blame, when AI makes decisions? Sven Nyholm ( #LMU/ #MCML) reflects on how AI challenges our ideas of agency, credit, and blame — and why we need new ways of thinking about authorship, justice, and decision-making.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUqi...

#AI #Ethics

The preferences concerning three alternatives (apple, banana, cherries) of three stylized individuals are fed into a stylized neural network. The network outputs a ranking of the three alternatives as the aggregated preference of the group. It selects the top ranked alternative, in this case the apple. In the bottom right, there are two stylized scientists wondering if this network is 'anonymous', 'biased', and 'cycle-free' in its preference aggregation.

New paper in JAIR, with Zoi Terzopoulou: 'Learning How to Vote with Principles: Axiomatic Insights Into the Collective Decisions of Neural Networks'

❓Can neural nets find new voting rules to aggregate preferences?
💡Yes, by optimizing for axioms!

jair.org/index.php/ja...
philpapers.org/rec/HORLHT

Can AI systems have free will? - Synthese While there has been much discussion of whether AI systems could function as moral agents or acquire sentience, there has been very little discussion of whether AI systems could have free will. I sket...

To determine whether an AI system has free will, we shouldn't look for any mysterious property, ask if the system is unpredictable, or expect its algorithms to be indeterministic. We should ask: are there explanatory reasons to view the system as a choice-making agent with alternative possibilities?

Factual Difference-Making In this paper, we analyse causation in terms of factual difference-making. Factual difference-making is an alternative to counterfactual difference-making which does not face the problem of redunda...

Newly published: Lead article “Factual Difference-Making”, by Holger Andreas and Mario Günther, Australasian Philosophical Review, 2025, doi.org/10.1080/2474...

Newly published: "Learning How to Vote with Principles: Axiomatic Insights Into the Collective Decisions of Neural Networks", by Levin Hornischer and Zoi Terzopoulou, Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research, 2025, doi.org/10.1613/jair...

Proofs and Research Programmes: Lakatos at 100 This open access book offers new insights into issues raised in philosophy of mathematics and in philosophy of science by Imre Lakatos.

Excited to share that the volume Lakatos @ 100 has just been published (open access)! It’s a great collection on Lakatos’s legacy.

📘 Book link: link.springer.com/book/10.1007...
Grateful to the editors for including me!

#Lakatos #PhilosophyOfScience #Bayes #OpenAccess

Can AI systems have free will? - Synthese While there has been much discussion of whether AI systems could function as moral agents or acquire sentience, there has been very little discussion of whether AI systems could have free will. I sket...

Newly published: "Can AI systems have free will?", by Christian List, Synthese, 2025, link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Sebastian Bender I am an Assistant Professor (a tenure track "Juniorprofessor") at the Philosophy Department of University of Göttingen. Before coming to Göttingen, I held positions at Humboldt University in Berlin (w...

Thrilled to announce that Sebastian Bender is joining LMU Munich as Professor of Early Modern Philosophy. His expertise in 17th-18th c. metaphysics & epistemology (Leibniz, Spinoza, Kant) will boost our History of Philosophy section. Welcome, Sebastian! sebastianbender.net

APS Awards 2025 Patrick Suppes Prize in Philosophy of Science, largest book prize in Philosophy, to Dr. Alyssa Ney | American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society has awarded the 2025 Patrick Suppes Prize in Philosophy to Dr. Alyssa Ney for her book The World in the Wave Function: A Metaphysics for Quantum Physics (Oxford Univ...

Big congratulations to Alyssa Ney for winning the 2025 Patrick Suppes Prize in Philosophy of Science! 🎉 Her book The World in the Wave Function: A Metaphysics for Quantum Physics just earned the APA’s top award. #PhilosophyOfScience #QuantumPhysics #CongratsAlyssa www.amphilsoc.org/news/aps-awa...

Here is a summer read from the MCMP.

Factual Difference-Making In this paper, we analyse causation in terms of factual difference-making. Factual difference-making is an alternative to counterfactual difference-making which does not face the problem of redunda...

Newly published: Lead article “Factual Difference-Making”, by Holger Andreas and Mario Günther, Australasian Philosophical Review, 2025, doi.org/10.1080/2474...

Another summer read from the MCMP.

Newly published: "Learning How to Vote with Principles: Axiomatic Insights Into the Collective Decisions of Neural Networks", by Levin Hornischer and Zoi Terzopoulou, Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research, 2025, doi.org/10.1613/jair...

Newly published: "Gauge Theories in Physics", by John Dougherty, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2024,
plato.stanford.edu/entries/gaug...

Newly published: "Gauge Theories in Physics", by John Dougherty, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2024,
plato.stanford.edu/entries/gaug...

Here is another summer read from the MCMP.

From why-why-why to global justice Political philosopher Laura Valentini asks fundamental questions about human coexistence. Now she is receiving the Princess Therese of Bavaria Prize.

From why-why-why to global justice: LMU philosopher Laura Valentini asks fundamental questions about human coexistence. www.lmu.de/en/newsroom/...

Feeling what others feel In a world battered by crises, what does empathy really mean? An interview with philosopher Monika Betzler on empathy and morality.

Feeling what others feel: In a world battered by crises, what does empathy really mean? An interview with philosopher Monika Betzler on empathy and morality.
www.lmu.de/en/newsroom/...

Winners of Princess Therese of Bavaria Prize 2025 This year, the Princess Therese of Bavaria Foundation has recognized outstanding female researchers from the spheres of culture and the humanities at LMU.

LMU philosophers Prof. Monika Betzler and Prof. Laura Valentini have each been awarded a Princess Therese of Bavaria Prize 2025. www.lmu.de/en/newsroom/...

From why-why-why to global justice Political philosopher Laura Valentini asks fundamental questions about human coexistence. Now she is receiving the Princess Therese of Bavaria Prize.

From why-why-why to global justice: LMU philosopher Laura Valentini asks fundamental questions about human coexistence. www.lmu.de/en/newsroom/...

Feeling what others feel In a world battered by crises, what does empathy really mean? An interview with philosopher Monika Betzler on empathy and morality.

Feeling what others feel: In a world battered by crises, what does empathy really mean? An interview with philosopher Monika Betzler on empathy and morality.
www.lmu.de/en/newsroom/...

Winners of Princess Therese of Bavaria Prize 2025 This year, the Princess Therese of Bavaria Foundation has recognized outstanding female researchers from the spheres of culture and the humanities at LMU.

LMU philosophers Prof. Monika Betzler and Prof. Laura Valentini have each been awarded a Princess Therese of Bavaria Prize 2025. www.lmu.de/en/newsroom/...

Here is another summer read from the MCMP.

Very happy to have co-organized our summer school with an amazing team 🥳 Thank you to the speakers and participants alike for making this such a nice event!

At this year's MCMP Summer School, we had wonderful lectures by Professors Francesca Boccuni (San Raffaele), Hilary Greaves (Oxford), and Alyssa Ney (LMU). Many thanks to our speakers and especially to the fabulous participants from all over the world! www.mathsummer.philosophie.uni-muenchen.de