Bilkent University Department of Electical Engineering,
IEEE Bilkent Student branch and
Bilkent ACM SIGART (Special Interest Group on Artificial Intelligence)

present a series of seminars Philosophical Puzzles for Everyone...

The third talk is

IS FATALISM TRUE?

Propositions and Their Eternal Truth Values

by Dr. Erdinc Sayan, Dept. of Philosophy, METU

Abstract: Fatalism is the view that says "Whatever will be will be." (Like the lyrics of a 1970s song.) A proposition is a sentence that makes an assertion which may be true or false, such as the sentence "There will be an earthquake in Ankara on Jan 12, 1996." It is commonly thought that the truth values (i.e. truth or falsehood) of propositions are ETERNAL, or time-independent. If so, the sentence given above has a fixed truth value from the "beginning of time to the end of time." Does this simple fact entail that Fatalism wins the day?

Thursday, 28th Dec. at 12:30 Room: EA331 (Eng. Building)

Everyone Welcome

Since the seminar will take place during the lunch hour we hope to make refreshments, such as sandwiches and drinks available, so nobody can use hunger as an excuse for not joining in!