[UAI] Workshop on Machine Leaning and Philosophy of Science

From: hilan bensusan (hilanb@unb.br)
Date: Thu May 24 2001 - 08:56:56 PDT

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    Dear all,

    This is a reminder of the call for papers for the
    following European Conference on Machine Learning
    Workshop:

    Machine Learning as Experimental Philosophy of Science

    Machine learning studies inductive strategies in
    algorithms. The philosophy of science investigates
    inductive strategies as they appear in scientific
    practice. Although the two disciplines have developed
    largely independently, they share many of the same
    issues. This is slowly coming to be recognized, as
    evidenced in the annual Uncertainty in AI and AI and
    Statistics conferences. This workshop will explore the
    extent to which the methods and resources of philosophy
    of science and machine learning can inform one another.

    In Computational Philosophy of Science (1988) Paul
    Thagard presented a challenge to the philosophical
    community: philosophical theories of scientific method,
    if they are worth their salt, should be implementable
    as computer programs. In this workshop we will address
    this challenge and also the inverse challenge to
    machine learning researchers: both machine learning
    algorithms and methods for evaluating machine learning
    algorithms should be implementations of sensible
    approaches to philosophy of science. Machine learning
    researchers have only recently discovered the relevance
    of statistics and philosophical views on the
    foundations of statistics to evaluating the performance
    of their systems; we hope this workshop will carry that
    discussion further.

    The workshop will therefore focus on such questions as:

    How machine learning experiments and results can inform
    our knowledge of scientific inductive discovery?
    What theoretical results in computational learning can
    be useful to understand scientific methods?
    How accounts of confirmation, explanation, discovery
    and theoretical unification developed in the philosophy
    of science area can be used to develop automatic
    learning systems?
    How induction is to be assessed: is empirical adequacy
    (predictive accuracy) enough both to account for
    scientific dynamics and to evaluate automated induction
    performance?
    Is there a substantial difference between scientific
    reasoning as conceived in the philosophy of science and
    in artificial intelligence?
    Is scientific method mechanisable? Are scientific
    practices algorithmic?
    Venue
    This workshop is one of a number of workshops jointly
    sponsored by the 12th European Conference on Machine
    Learning (ECML'01) 5th European Conference on
    Principles and Practice of Knowledge Discovery in
    Databases (PKDD'01). Have a look at their workshop
    program.
    Invited Speakers
    Professor Kevin Kelly (CMU, Philosophy), author of "The
    Logic of Reliable Inquiry (Oxford, 1996). His recent
    work concerns reliable belief revision, the solution of
    methodological regresses, and efficient convergence.
    Dr Peter Flach (Bristol, Computer Science), co-editor
    of Abduction and Induction: essays on their relation
    and integration (Kluwer, 2000) and co-organiser of
    workshops on Abductive and Inductive Reasoning in AI at
    ECAI'96, IJCAI'97 and ECAI'98.
    Publication
    Accepted papers will be published in the first instance
    as workshop notes and on the web. Authors are invited
    to revise their articles in the light of the
    discussions at the workshop and submit them to a
    special issue we have arranged with the Journal for
    Experimental and Theoretical Artificial Intelligence.
    Important Dates
     
    Papers due: 8 June 2001
    Notification: 25 June 2001
    Camera-ready due: 13 July 2001
    Workshop: 3 Sept 2001

    Submission Instructions
    We prefer papers to be submitted electronically in a
    postscript email attachment to both organizers
    simultaneously (i.e., to hilanb@unb.br and
    korb@csse.monash.edu.au). Only if strictly necessary,
    submissions may be sent alternatively as an MS Word
    attachment. A last resort would be to mail or fax
    submissions to the address below.
    MLEPS Workshop
    c/o Kevin B. Korb
    School of Computer Science
    Monash University
    Clayton, VIC 3800
    AUSTRALIA

    Fax: +61 (03) 9905-5146
    Workshop Organisers
    Kevin Korb (Monash University, Australia)
    Hilan Bensusan (Bristol University, UK)

    Program Committee
    Atocha Aliseda (Mexico)
    Hilan Bensusan (Bristol)
    Peter Flach (Bristol)
    Ronald Giere (Minn)
    Holger Hoos (UBC)
    Colin Howson (LSE)
    John Josephson (Ohio State)
    Kevin Kelly (CMU)
    Kevin Korb (Monash)
    Henry Kyburg (Rochester)
    David Pearce (DFKI)
    Peter Slezak (UNSW)
    Thomas Stuetzle (Darmstadt)
    Paul Thagard (Univ of Waterloo)
    Charles Twardy (Monash)
    Henry Tirri (Helsinki)
    Chris Wallace (Monash)
    Jon Williamson (KCL)
    Jan Zytkow (deceased; in memoriam)



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