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The Logic and Cognitive Science Initiative ("LACSI")

Brain"The innovative application of semantically- and ontologically-based methods to data mining and knowledge exploration in complex scientific domains requires a thorough understanding of formal logic and semantics, philosophy of language, and cognitive philosophy (including metaphysics, epistemology, and philosophy of science) – fields that are a core part of good philosophy programs at both the undergraduate and graduate levels." — Dr. Gary H. Merrill, Director, Semantic Technologies Group, GlaxoSmithKline.

Recent News

  • New Grant: GlaxoSmithKline's Semantic Technologies Group has donated a further $15,000 to support the Logic and Cognitive Science Initiative ("LACSI"). This increases the total value of grants received from the Group since December 2004 to $157,000. These grants fund undergraduate internships, two lecture series, publicity, and an annual award. The current grant also helped to fund an ontology conference in September 2009 (see below).
  • Ontology Conference: LACSI hosted a significant conference on ontology in September 2009. The speakers were Christopher Menzel (Texas A&M), Barry Smith (SUNY at Buffalo), Zoltán Gendler Szabó (Yale), Peter van Inwagen (Notre Dame), Achille C. Varzi (Columbia), Edward N. Zalta (Stanford). For further information, click here.

 

Overview
Courses and Programs
Public Lectures in Logic and Cognitive Science
Undergraduate Internships in Knowledge Exploration
Administration
Inquiries
The Cognitive Science Program

Overview

LACSI was established by the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies in Fall 2004 to foster growth and development in the following fields at NC State:


  • Formal Logic.

  • Fields of cognitive philosophy that are closely related to Logic, including Philosophy of Logic, Philosophy of Science, Philosophy of Language, Theory of Knowledge, Analytical Metaphysics, Formal Ontology, Decision Theory, and Theories of Rationality.

  • Cognitive Science, an exciting new field that is advancing our understanding of mind, cognition, and knowledge acquisition through multi-disciplinary studies in Psychology and Neuroscience, Linguistics and Psycholinguistics, Computer Science, Robotics, and Computational Linguistics, as well as Logic and the Philosophy of Psychology.

Although these fields are highly theoretical in their own right, they deal with ideas, structures, and methods of reasoning that have significant practical applications. A wide range of students, including those who are likely to pursue industry careers in research and development, can expand their horizons and enhance their arsenal of conceptual resources by supplementing their chosen majors with a sequence of courses in these fields. Thus LACSI will serve NC State in territory that complements its core strengths in science, engineering, and technology, and will thereby contribute to the educational needs of high-tech industry in North Carolina.

NC State faculty in Philosophy and several other disciplines have significant expertise in fields covered by LACSI. LACSI therefore has firm foundations. It has also led to a number of significant developments:

  • The Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, which has always managed NC State's multi-disciplinary Undergraduate Minor in Cognitive Science, introduced a Graduate Minor in Cognitive Science in Spring 2007. For further information, see Undergraduate and Graduate Minors in Cognitive Science.
  • Since December 2004, GlaxoSmithKline has supported LACSI with grants to the value of $157,000. Much of this money is used to fund Undergraduate Internships in Knowledge Exploration and to support public lectures. It will also be used to support LACSI's September 2009 conference on ontology.
  • Johannes Hafner, MA (Vienna) PhD (UC Berkeley), was appointed as an Assistant Professor of Philosophy effective January 1, 2008. Dr. Hafner specializes in Logic, Philosophy of Logic, and Philosophy of Mathematics.
  • We introduced the GlaxoSmithKline Semantic Technologies Award in 2008/9. This prize, which has a value of $500, is awarded annually to the senior with the best record in the BS in Philosophy with a Concentration in Logic, Representation and Reasoning.
  • LACSI hosted a significant conference on ontology in September 2009. The speakers were Christopher Menzel (Texas A&M), Barry Smith (SUNY at Buffalo), Zoltán Gendler Szabó (Yale), Peter van Inwagen (Notre Dame), Achille C. Varzi (Columbia), Edward N. Zalta (Stanford). For further information, click here.

Courses and Programs

The courses offered by the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies that fall under LACSI are as follows:

LOG 201 Logic

LOG 335 Symbolic Logic

LOG 435/535 Advanced Logic and Metamathematics

LOG 437/537 Model Theoretic Semantics

PHI 330 Metaphysics

PHI 331 Philosophy of Language

PHI 332 Philosophy of Psychology

PHI 333 Theory of Knowledge

PHI 340 Philosophy of Science

PHI 425/525 Introduction to Cognitive Science

PHI 440/540 The Scientific Method

PHI 445/545 Philosophy of Biology

PHI 447/547 Philosophy, Evolution and Human Nature (For more about this course, click here.)

The following programs fall under LACSI:

Public Lectures

The Logic and Cognitive Science Lecture Series was introduced in Fall 2005, superceding the Cognitive Science Lecture Series, which hosted public lectures by a number of distinguished experts, including Daniel Dennett (Tufts), Fred Dretske (Duke), Jerry Fodor (Rutgers), and George Lakoff (Berkeley) between 2002 and 2005. Speakers in the new series have included Gerd Gigerenzer (Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin), Jaegwon Kim (Brown), William Lycan (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill), Teddy Seidenfeld (Carnegie Mellon University), Elizabeth Spelke (Harvard), Stephen Stich (Rutgers), and Stephen Yablo (MIT).

Our occasional GlaxoSmithKline Lectures on Semantics and Ontology were introduced in Fall 2006. So far we have had two speakers in this series: J. Michael Dunn (Indiana University) and Cliff Joslyn (Los Alamos National Laboratory).

For further details concerning recent and forthcoming lectures see Activities and Events in Philosophy.

Undergraduate Internships in Knowledge Exploration

Since December 2004, GlaxoSmithKline has supported LACSI with grants to the value of $157,000. Some of this money has been used to fund undergraduate internships in knowledge exploration at the GSK Data Exploration Sciences Lab on NC State’s Centennial Campus. These internships are available on a competitive basis to undergraduates who have some background in formal logic and semantics, philosophy of language, and cognitive philosophy (including metaphysics, epistemology, and philosophy of science) as well as an interest in seeing how this knowledge can be used in the application of formal ontologies and inferencing to knowledge discovery in complex scientific domains. Vacant internships are usually advertised on this website in November or December for appointment during the following calendar year.

For a News and Observer article on LACSI's internship program, see "It's a matter of philosophy."

Work done under the direction of Dr. Gary H. Merrill by Undergraduate Interns Jeffery L. Painter and Kristopher M. Kleiner was presented as an extended abstract on "Inter-translation of Biomedical Coding Schemes Using UMLS" in the American Association for Artificial Intelligence's 2006 Fall Symposium Series.

Administration

LACSI is administered by the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies under the guidance of the Logic and Cognitive Science Initiative Steering Committee, which is composed as follows:

    Michael Pendlebury, PhD (Indiana), Professor of Philosophy and Head of the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Committee Chair.

    David D. Auerbach, PhD (MIT), Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Chair of the Philosophy Curriculum Committee, and Logic and Cognitive Science Internship Liaison.

    John W. Carroll, PhD (Arizona), Professor of Philosophy.

    Catherine M. Driscoll, PhD (Rutgers), Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Director of Undergraduate Advising, Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies.

    Ronald P. Endicott, PhD (Michigan), Associate Professor of Philosophy, Director of the Cognitive Science Program, and Coordinator of the Logic and Cognitive Science Lecture Series.

    Johannes Hafner, PhD (Berkeley), Assistant Professor of Philosophy.

The Steering Committee is advised by an Honorary Consultant:

    Gary H. Merrill, PhD (Rochester), Director, Semantic Technologies Group, Statistical and Quantitative Sciences, GlaxoSmithKline Research and Development Lab at NC State’s Centennial Campus.

Inquiries

    Cognitive Science Program; Logic and Cognitive Science Lecture Series: Ron Endicott: ron_endicott@ncsu.edu

    BS in Philosophy with a Concentration in Logic, Representation and Reasoning; General Curriculum Matters: David Auerbach: auerbach@unity.ncsu.edu

    All Other Matters (including Public Relations and Development):     Michael Pendlebury: mjpendle@ncsu.edu


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