For five days from September 12 to 16, “Philosophy (Lecture): Topics in Applied Modal Logic 2022” was held as a Hokkaido Summer Institute (HSI) 2022 course offered by Graduate School of Humanities and Human Sciences. The course was held face to face for the first time in three years since HSI 2019 and hosted by Associate Professor Katsuhiko SANO at Laboratory of Philosophy and Ethics, Faculty of Humanities and Human Sciences, Hokkaido University, and Professor Thomas AGOTNES from University of Bergen.
On the premise of acquiring basic knowledge and proficiency in logic, the course provided participants with lectures and exercises through which they learn about modal logic, temporal logic, epistemic logic, and dynamic epistemic logic that respectively address necessity and possibility, time and temporal information, multi-agent knowledge, belief, and their dynamic remodeling.
The class started with the introduction of lecturers and participants, followed by an overview of the course. For some of the participants who took the introductory course, Logic: Introduction to Logic 2022, held previously from August 29 to September 2, the series of lectures was a great opportunity to study the basics and application of logic within a short period of time.
Participants were encouraged to learn voluntarily how logic can elucidate various phenomena observed in our daily lives, including what complex mutual knowledge does and how it is dynamically affected by our behavior and speech, and how social networks create a flow of information and relevant problems.
The first four days of the course were designed to enable participants to steadily understand and apply the lecture content. On the final day, participants were divided into groups to tackle the assignment and made presentations about what they had learnt over the course of these intensive lectures.
Following this session, Prof. Agotnes gave closing comments and conveyed his appreciation to the efforts that participants made.
Participants expressed that it was novel for them to have this fulfilling five-day opportunity to engage in logic. This course is offered in English by researchers who are active on the front lines of logic, and we are hoping to have Prof. Agotnes to the lecture here at Hokkaido University again next year, in the summer of 2023.