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Mark Jago
Lecturer, Faculty of Arts
Contact
Biography
I began doing research in a computer science department, working on logics in AI for reasoning about knowledge and belief. But I felt the draw of bigger questions, and I've ended up working in a philosophy department, writing about truth, knowledge and paradox. For me, the big questions are about how the world ultimately is, and how we can think and know about it. But when this all gets a little too deep, I still dabble in the formal stuff, particularly modal and relevance logics.
Expertise Summary
I've published and given research talks in the following areas:
- Metaphysics: Truth and truthmaking, constitution, facts/states of affairs, modality and counterpart theory, existence and absence
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Epistemology: Knowability, epistemic logic, belief revision
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Formal and philosophical logic: Modal logic, relevant logic, Fitch's paradox
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Philosophy of Language: Propositions, vagueness, content, what is said, indexicals, semantic paradoxes
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Philosophy of Mind: Mental causation, mental content
Teaching Summary
The primary aim of my teaching is to enable students to think clearly and think for themselves; and to learn how to discern arguments and evaluate them logically. I also aim to improve students'… read more
Research Summary
My current research centers around three themes:
1. Thinking about the impossible
(a) An account of propositions as sets of possible and (non-trivial) impossible worlds. This allows an account of same-saying. It also explains how logically equivalent propositions can be distinct and hence how they can be made true by distinct entities.
(b) An account of epistemic possibility, which is non-trivial in the sense that not every set of sentences represents some epistemic/doxastic possibility, and non-ideal in the sense that some epistemic possibilities are logically impossible. The account can be used to give a semantics for 'knows' and 'believes' (and possibly other psychological attitudes).
2. The Nature of Truth
This project has three components, giving an account of (a) the truthmakers, (b) the truthbearers and (c) the relationship between them. As part of this research, I'm developing an account of (non-linguistic) facts, including negative, conjunctive and existential facts. This is based partially on David Armstrong's account of states of affairs. Formal features are taken from the typed lambda-calculus. Finally, I'm investigating a logic of 'truthmaking entailment', the relation which holds between propositions p and q when all of p's truthmakers also make q true.
3. Making up the world
Selected Publications
MARK JAGO and RACHAEL BRIGGS, eds., 2012. Special issue of Synthese on ‘Propositions and Same-Saying’ Springer. (In Press.)
2012. Constructing Worlds Synthese. (In Press.)
MARK JAGO, 2012. The Truthmaker Non-Maximalist's Dilemma Mind. (In Press.)
MARK JAGO, 2012. The Content of Deduction Journal of Philosophical Logic. (In Press.)
May 10-11: Philosophy of Information workshop, university of Hertfordshire May 29-June 2: Formal Epistemology Workshop, Munich June 3-5: Trends in Logic conference, Bochum June 8-10: Foundations of Logical Consequence conference, St Andrews June 18-22: Logica 2012, Czech Republic July 10-12: Reality-Making metaphysics conference, Nottingham October 4: Stirling departmental seminar
The primary aim of my teaching is to enable students to think clearly and think for themselves; and to learn how to discern arguments and evaluate them logically. I also aim to improve students' discussion and presentation skills; and improve their ability to judge whether the conclusions people draw are justified by reasons or are mere opinion. These are highly valuable and transferrable skills, and enable students to function as good citizens beyond university. In my approach, historical and factual information is secondary. It is a means to introduce a wide range of theories and viewpoints to students, but knowledge of it is not a main aim of my teaching.
At present, I teach:
- Advanced Logic (3rd year)
- Philosophy of mind (2nd year)
- Locke, Appearance and Reality (1st year)
- Mind and Knowledge (MA level)
Previously, I've taught:
- Formal Logic 1 and 2
- Philosophy & Cognitive Science
- Reason & Knowledge
- Wittgenstein & After
- Self, Mind & Body
- Chance in the World
- Philosophy of Language
- Self & Mind
- Truth & Meaning
A key theme in my approach is that students should take responsibility for their own learning. (This is particularly important in the transition from A-level to university-level study.) By this, I mean not only that students must motivate themselves to do enough reading and other independent study; but also that they should form their own opinions about a philosophical argument, and then engage in a process of self-critique and discussion with others.
Past Research
In my PhD thesis (2006), I developed a logic and modal semantics for modelling rule-based agents (of the type that are being developed in AI for commercial applications) with limited cognitive resources (memory & time in which to reason). I axiomatized the logic and gave a number of proofs: soundness & completeness and a complexity analysis (one problem is in NP, another in PSPACE). For the modal semantics, two particular results are of interest:
- Bisimulation in these models is identical to modal equivalence between states.
- Models have the congruence (Church-Rosser) property.
Future Research
Over the next few years, I'll be working on the following themes:
Metaphysics: Truth and truthmaking, constitution, facts/states of affairs, modality and counterpart theory, existence and absence
Epistemology: Knowability, epistemic logic, belief revision
Formal and philosophical logic: Modal logic, relevant logic, Fitch's paradox
Philosophy of Language: Propositions, vagueness, content, what is said, indexicals, semantic paradoxes
Philosophy of Mind: Mental causation, mental content
MARK JAGO, 2012. The Content of Deduction Journal of Philosophical Logic. (In Press.)
MARK JAGO, 2012. The Truthmaker Non-Maximalist's Dilemma Mind. (In Press.)
2012. Constructing Worlds Synthese. (In Press.)
MARK JAGO and RACHAEL BRIGGS, eds., 2012. Special issue of Synthese on ‘Propositions and Same-Saying’ Springer. (In Press.)
JAGO, MARK and BARKER, STEPHEN, 2011. Being Positive About Negative Facts Philosophy & Phenomenological Research. JAGO, MARK, 2011. Setting the Facts Straight Journal of Philosophical Logic. 40(1), 33-54 JAGO, M., 2010. Joe Salerno (ed): New Essays on the Knowability Paradox JOURNAL OF LOGIC LANGUAGE AND INFORMATION. VOL 19(NUMBER 3), 383-387 JAGO, M., 2010. Closure on knowability ANALYSIS -OXFORD-. VOL 70(NUMBER 4), 648-659 JAGO, M., 2009. The Conjunction and Disjunction Theses MIND -OXFORD-. VOL 118(NUMB 470), 411-416 JAGO, M., 2009. Epistemic Logic for Rule-Based Agents JOURNAL OF LOGIC LANGUAGE AND INFORMATION. VOL 18(NUMBER 1), 131-158 ALECHINA, NATASHA, JAGO, MARK and LOGAN, BRIAN, 2008. Preference-Based Belief Revision for Rule-Based Agents Synthese. 165(2), 159-177 ALECHINA, A and JAGO, M. AND LOGAN, B., 2007. Belief Revision for Rule-Based Agents. In: VAN BENTHEM, J and JU, S. AND VELTMAN, F., eds., A Meeting of the Minds: Proceedings of the Workshop on Logic, Rationality and Interaction, Beijing, 2007 College Publications. 99-113
ALECHINA,N., BERTOLI, P., GHIDINI, C., JAGO,M., LOGAN,B. and SERAFINI,L., 2007. Model-checking space and time requirements for resource-bounded agents. In: EDELKAMP, S. and LOMUSCIO, A., eds., Model-Checking and Artificial Intelligence. 4th Workshop, MoChArt IV, Riva del Garda, Italy, August 2006. Revised Selected and Invited Papers. 4428. Springer. 19-35
ALECHINA,N., BORDINI,R., HUBNER,J., JAGO,M. and LOGAN,B., 2006. Automating Belief Revision for AgentSpeak. In: BALDONI,M. and ENDRISS, U., eds., Declarative Agent Languages and Technologies IV, 4th International Workshop, DALT 2006, Selected, Revised and Invited Papers 4327. Springer. 61-77
ALECHINA,N., JAGO,M. and LOGAN,B., 2005. Resource-Bounded Belief Revision and Contraction In: Declarative Agent Languages and Technologies III, Third International Workshop, DALT 2005, Utrecht, The Netherlands, July 25, 2005, Selected and Revised Papers. 141-154 CORAZZA, EROS and JAGO, MARK, 2003. Indexicals, Fictions, and Ficta Dialectica. 52(2), 121-136
JAGO, MARK, Logics for resource-bounded agents 2006..