Course info

In recent years digital aspects have entered philosophy, both in terms of providing a plethora of new topics and by providing new perspectives on old questions. Moreover, the digital age also equips philosophy with new computational methods for tackling philosophical questions, such as computer simulations. This course is dedicated to this topic.
Computer simulations in the form of agent-based models (ABMs) have in recent years become a popular method in philosophy, particularly in social epistemology, philosophy of science and political philosophy. In this course we discuss some of the central philosophical questions studied by means of ABMs. For instance, can groups of rational agent polarize, if yes, under which conditions? Can groups composed of agents that reason individually fully rationally (e.g., according to Bayesian standards) still be inefficient as a group? If yes, how so? Other topics concern questions from social epistemology and philosophy of science, such as the division of cognitive labor, cognitive diversity and expertise, opinion dynamics, etc.
This course will consist of three parts:
1. From October until December we will cover some of the most prominent modeling frameworks used in the philosophical literature and beyond. The readings will be aimed at preparing students for talks by experts on the topic, which constitute part 3.
2. At the end of January (part 3) we will have a workshop in which experts working in this field will come to RUB and present their work. During December students will choose a topic related to one of the talks in the workshop and start reading the relevant literature on it.
3. There will be no classes in January except for the workshop, which will take place from January 29-31, 2025 (we will start on January 29 in the afternoon). Students will have a task to follow the talks, and to subsequently submit a 2-pages protocol of one of the talks.
To get the ungraded 3 credit points for the course, students will have to:

• submit the protocol of one of the workshop talks
• prepare a question for the talk and ask the question either during the workshop, or submit it afterwards, together with the protocol.

To get 6 credit points and a grade for the course, students will have to submit the above mentioned assignments, and in addition, to submit a term paper.
We highly encourage the students to attend also the Practical part of this course: 030076, Agent-based simulations in philosophy: practical part, which takes place in the same room, right after the current course.