PTS Seminars

The PTS Seminar Series proposes periodic online talks delivered by early career researchers in the PTS or akin fields, organised by the PTS-Network.

The recordings of some meetings are available on the PTS-Network Youtube Channel. 

The Zoom link will be sent to members of our mailing list and to the other registered participants one day before the session.

If you are interested in joining, please send us a mail to theptsnetwork@gmail.com for the Zoom link or directly subscribe to our mailing list using our subscription form. 

Upcoming meetings

Past Meetings

Timo Eckhardt (University College London) 26 November 2024

Inferentialist Public Announcement Logics

I present a base-extension semantics (B-eS) for public announcement logic (PAL) as a first step in developing B-eS for the larger group of dynamic epistemic logics. This is then used to discuss some examples of PAL (including the famous Muddy Children Puzzle) to highlight some insights an inferential perspective can give on the role of information in the reasoning employed.

Sophie Nagler (University of St Andrews) [ORCID] 15 October 2024
Inference behaviour semantics for all* connectives in two-dimensional sequent calculi [slides] [recording]

In this talk I present inference behavious semantics (IBS) for connectives in two dimensional sequent calculi. IBS is a novel approach to proof-theoretic semantics (PTS) that emphasises Wittgenstein's conception of 'meaning as use', alongside Gentzen's idea of operational rules as connective definitions. The core idea of IBS is to explore how proof rules determine the way we use connectives. 

To implement this idea, I analyse all rule parameters that affect connective usage by proving global harmony in minimal derivability relations. This method allows me to define IBS for any connective definable in two-dimensional sequent calculi. The findings offer a meaning-theoretic explanation for co-determination effects recently observed by Dicher and offer a fresh perspective on the relationships between connectives and their logics.

Ultimetaley, IBS opens a new avenue for PTS, providing a fine-grained local analysis of connective use and meaning, with potential to evolve our understandingof the connectives.