ALL FOR PAPERS
“Philosophy and Theory of Artificial Intelligence” PT-AI 2011
October 3 & 4, 2011
Thessaloniki, Anatolia College/ACT
http://www.pt-ai.org/

The theory and philosophy of artificial intelligence has come to a crucial point where the agenda for the forthcoming years is in the air - this conference will try to set that agenda and to gather many of the key players.

Invited Keynote Speakers:
Hubert Dreyfus (Berkeley)
James H. Moor (Dartmouth)
Rolf Pfeifer (Zurich)
Michael Wheeler (Stirling) TBC

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ABSTRACTS
We call for abstracts of papers on any aspect of the philosophy and theory of artificial intelligence. Publication of accepted papers in book form is currently under negotiation with several leading publishers. Abstracts and a list of speakers will be published online.

Deadline: 08.08.2011 (author notification: 31.08.2011)

Format: 500-1000 words (including references, anonymous). Pure text or pdf.

Submission: Online at http://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=ptai2011

Registration: Online at http://www.pt-ai.org/. Costs: 80€ full, 40€ for students (including conference dinner). Further information about travel etc. on our site.

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AIMS AND SCOPE
Artificial Intelligence is perhaps unique among engineering subjects in that it has raised very basic questions about the nature of computing, perception, reasoning, learning, language, action, interaction, consciousness, humankind, life etc. etc. - and at the same time it has contributed substantially to answering these questions (in fact, it is sometimes seen as a form of empirical research). There is thus a substantial tradition of work, both on AI by philosophers and of theory within AI itself.

The classical theoretical debates have centered around the issues whether AI is possible at all (often put as “Can machines think?”) and whether it can solve certain problems (“Can a machine do x?”). In the meantime, technical AI systems have progressed massively and are now present in many aspects of our environment. Despite this development, there is a sense that classical AI is inherently limited, and must be replaced by (or supplanted with) other methods from cognitive science or other disciplines, especially neural networks, embodied cognitive science, statistical methods, universal algorithms, emergence, behavioral robotics, interactive systems, dynamical systems, living and evolution, insights from biology & neuroscience, hybrid neuro-computational systems, social science, ethics, etc. etc. We are now at a stage where we can take a fresh look at the many theoretical and philosophical problems of AI - and at the same time tackle philosophical problems from AI. This must be a joint effort with people from various backgrounds, but it must centrally involve AI researchers.

Proposals for special theme workshops under the umbrella of the conference are welcome.

The conference intends to set the foundations for an international association "PT-AI" that will further work in the field, organize events, etc.

We welcome experts in the field from philosophy and from AI as well as new and upcoming scholars who will shape the field in the decades to come.

We gratefully acknowledge support from the EUCognition network EUCogII: http://www.eucognition.org
PT-AI 2011 is academically sponsored by the International Association of Philosophy and Computing, http://www.ia-cap.org

Thank you for your time,

Vincent C. Müller
Chair, PT-AI 2011