Articles

on Articles

Forthcoming

Beckers, S.(2021). The Counterfactual NESS Definition of Causation. Accepted for publication at AAAI2021
Beckers, S.(2021). Equivalent Causal Models. Accepted for publication at AAAI2021

Main Publications

Beckers, S., Eberhardt, F., and Halpern, J.Y. (2019). Approximate Causal Abstraction. In Proceedings of the 35th Conference on Uncertainty in Artificial Intelligence (UAI2019). Click here for official version
Beckers, S., and Halpern, J.Y. (2019). Abstracting Causal Models. In Proceedings of the 33rd AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence, vol 33, 2678-2685. Click here for official version
Beckers, S. (2018). AAAI: an Argument Against Artificial Intelligence, In Vincent C. Müller (ed.), Philosophy and Theory of Artificial Intelligence 2017, (SAPERE; Berlin: Springer), 235-247. Click here for official version
Beckers, S., and Vennekens, J. (2018). A Principled Approach to Defining Actual Causation, Synthese, 195(2), 835-862. Click here for official version
Beckers, S., and Vennekens, J. (2017). The Transitivity and Asymmetry of Actual Causation, Ergo, 4(1), 1-27.
Beckers, S., and Vennekens, J. (2016). A General Framework for Defining and Extending Actual Causation using CP-logic, International Journal for Approximate Reasoning, 77: 105-126. Click here for official version

Other Publications

Beckers, S. (2017). AAAI: an Argument Against Artificial Intelligence, In Proceedings of the 3rd International Workshop on AI, Ethics and Society. (This short text is a precursor to the article above with the same title.)
Beckers, S., and Vennekens, J. (2015). Towards a General Definition of Actual Causation Using CP-logic. In Proceedings of the 2nd International Workshop on Probabilistic Logic Programming co-located with ICLP, volume 1413 of CEUR Workshop Proceedings, 19–38. (Together with the following paper this is a precursor to the IJAR article above.)
Beckers, S., and Vennekens, J. (2015). Combining Probabilistic, Normative, and Causal Reasoning in CP-logic, In Proceedings of the 12th International Symposium on Logical Formalizations of Commonsense Reasoning, 32-38.
Beckers, S., and Vennekens, J. (2012). Counterfactual Dependency and Actual Causation in CP-logic and Structural Models: a Comparison. In Proceedings of the Sixth STAIRS, volume 241 of Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence and Applications, 35–46.
Beckers, S., De Samblanx, G., De Smedt, F., Goedemé, T., Struyf, L., and Vennekens, J. (2012). Parallel hybrid SAT solving using OpenCL. In Proceedings of Benelux Conference on Artificial Intelligence, 11-18.
Beckers, S., De Samblanx, G., De Smedt, F., Goedemé, T., Struyf, L., and Vennekens, J. (2011). Parallel SAT-solving with OpenCL. In Proceedings of the IADIS International Conference on Applied Computing, 435-441.

PhD

This is my PhD dissertation. Most of its content has been published in the articles above.

Beckers, S. (2016). Actual Causation: Definitions and Principles, PhD Dissertation.

Old Stuff

These are some of the papers and dissertations which I wrote as a student, hence they might not be worth spending much (if any) time on.

Talks

on Talks

Conferences

2019 ‘Formalizing Mental Causation’, EPSA conference, Geneva, Switzerland

2019 ‘Approximate Causal Abstraction’, UAI conference, Tel Aviv, Israel

2019 ‘Abstracting Causal Models’, DIEP Conference, Amsterdam, the Netherlands

2019 ‘Formalizing the Causal Conditions for Moral Responsibility’, REINS closing conference, Utrecht University, the Netherlands

2019 ‘Abstracting Causal Models’, AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Honolulu, United States

2018 ‘Formalizing Mental Causation’, OZSW conference, Enschede, the Netherlands

2018 ‘Causation and the Principle of Alternative Possibilities’, Causes, Norms, and Decisions Workshop, Hannover, Germany

2017 ‘A Formal Approach to Frankfurt-style Cases’, OZSW conference, Doorn, the Netherlands

2017 ‘AAAI: an Argument Against Artificial Intelligence’, Philosophy and Theory of Artificial Intelligence, Leeds, UK

2017 ‘AAAI: an Argument Against Artificial Intelligence’, European Conference for Analytic Philosophy, Munich, Germany

2017 ‘AAAI: an Argument Against Artificial Intelligence’, AAAI Workshop on AI, Ethics and Society, San Francisco

2016 ‘The Transitivity and Asymmetry of Actual Causation’, Philosophy of Science in a Forest, Doorn, the Netherlands

2015 ‘A Principled Approach to Defining Actual Causation’, Conference of Logic, Methodology and Philosophy of Science, Helsinki, Finland

2015 ‘Combining Probabilistic, Causal, and Normative Reasoning using CP-logic’, AAAI Spring Symposium: Commonsense Reasoning, Stanford University

2013 ‘Dual Inheritance Theory as an Integration of Biology and the Humanities’, Reduction and Emergence in the Sciences conference, Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy

2013 ‘A Pragmatic Approach to Causality’, OZSW conference, University of Rotterdam

2013 ‘Actual Causation in Cases of Preemption: the CP-logic Approach’, Graduate Conference in Theoretical Philosophy, University of Groningen, the Netherlands

2012 ‘Actual Causation in Cases of Preemption: the CP-logic Approach’, Great Plains Graduate Conference in Philosophy, Kansas University

2012 ‘Counterfactual Dependency and Actual Causation in CP-logic and Structural Models: a Comparison’, STAIRS conference, Montpellier, France

2012 ‘Parallel hybrid SAT solving using OpenCL’, BNAIC, Maastricht University, the Netherlands

2011 ‘Parallel SAT-solving with OpenCL’, IADIS, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Invited Talks and Colloquia

2020 ‘Formalizing Non-Reductive Supervenience using Causal Models with Constraints’, Invited speaker, Symposium on Interventionism and Causal Exclusion, Nijmegen, the Netherlands

2019 ‘Causation and the Principle of Alternative Possibilities’, Invited speaker, Free Will and Causality conference, Dusseldorf, Germany

2018 ‘Applying Causal Modeling to Philosophical Issues’, Invited talk, Logic and Metaphysics Workshop, CUNY

2017 ‘Formal Ethics’, Invited talk, Center for Human-Compatible AI, UC Berkeley

2015 ‘A Principled Approach to Defining Actual Causation’, Invited talk, Tilburg Center for Logic, Ethics, and Philosophy of Science, the Netherlands

2015 ‘The Problem of Actual Causation’, Epistemology Reading Group, Department of Linguistics and Philosophy, MIT

2014 ‘Actual Causation using CP-logic’, Declarative Languages and AI seminar, University of Leuven, Belgium

2013 ‘Actual Causation using CP-logic’, colloquium, Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy

2013 ‘Actual Causation: the CP-logic Approach’, Invited talk, INRIA, Grenoble, France

2013 ‘Actual Causation in Cases of Preemption: the CP-logic Approach’, Center for Logic and Analytic Philosophy colloquium, University of Leuven, Belgium

2012 ‘Parallel hybrid SAT solving using OpenCL’, Declarative Languages and AI seminar, University of Leuven, Belgium

CV

on CV

Click here to download a PDF version

Sander Beckers

Curriculum Vitae

Contact

E-mail: srekcebrednas@gmail.com

Employment

2019-current
- Humboldt Postdoctoral Fellow (supervisor: Stephan Hartmann)
  Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy, LMU Munich
2020 Fall
- NIAS-Lorentz Theme-group Fellow
  Netherlands Institute for Advanced Studies, Amsterdam
2019 January
- Visiting scholar (host: Frederick Eberhardt)
  Division of the Humanities and Social Sciences, Caltech
2018-2019
- Postdoctoral scholar (supervisor: Jan Broersen)
  Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Utrecht University
2017 Fall
- Visiting postdoctoral scholar (supervisor: James Conant)
  Institute of Philosophy, Leipzig University
2016-2017
- Visiting B.A.E.F. Fellow (supervisor: Joe Halpern)
  Department of Computer Science, Cornell University
2012-2016
- Ph.D. in Computer Science, October 2016
  KULeuven - University of Leuven, Belgium
  Dissertation: Actual Causation: Definitions and Principles
  Supervisors: Hendrik Blockeel and Joost Vennekens
2013 Fall
- Visiting doctoral researcher (supervisor: Stephan Hartmann)
  Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy
2010-2011
- Researcher at University of Leuven, EAVISE research group
  Project: S.O.S. OpenCL: Multicore Cooking
2008-2009
- (part-time) internship as actuary
  Aon Benfield Belgium and BNP Paribas Belgium, Employee Benefits

Education

2011: Master in Mathematics, University of Leuven
Dissertation: Deductive Reasoning in Guarded FO(ID)
Supervisor: Marc Denecker
2008: Bridge program Mathematics, University of Leuven
2006: Master in Philosophy, University of Leuven
Dissertation: Wittgenstein en het Ethische
Supervisor: Arnold Burms
2005: one semester abroad at Stellenbosch University, South Africa
2004: Bachelor in Philosophy, University of Antwerp

Grants and Fellowships

2019-2021
- NIAS-Lorentz Theme Group
2019-2021
- Humboldt Research Fellowship for Postdoctoral Researchers
2016-2017
- Research Fellowship, Belgian American Educational Foundation
2012-2015
- Ph.D. Grant for Fundamental Research, Flanders Innovation & Entrepreneurship

Refereeing

AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence (Program Committee 2017, 2020, 2021), Erkenntnis, Ethics and Information Technology, European Journal for Philosophy of Science, Information, International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (Program Committee 2020), Journal of Philosophical Logic, Journal of Social Philosophy, Philosophy and Theory of Artificial Intelligence, Synthese, The Philosophical Review

Research

Forthcoming

Beckers, S. (2021). The Counterfactual NESS Definition of Causation, Accepted for publication at AAAI2021.

Beckers, S. (2021). Equivalent Causal Models, Accepted for publication at AAAI2021.

Main Publications

Beckers, S., Eberhardt, F., and Halpern, J.Y. (2019). Approximate Causal Abstraction, In Proceedings of the 35th Conference on Uncertainty in Artificial Intelligence (UAI 2019).

Beckers, S. and Halpern, J.Y. (2019). Abstracting Causal Models, In Proceedings of the 33rd AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence, vol 33, 2678-2685.

Beckers, S. (2018). AAAI: an Argument Against Artificial Intelligence, In Vincent C. Müller (ed.), Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence 2017, (SAPERE; Berlin: Springer), 235-247.

Beckers, S., and Vennekens, J. (2018). A Principled Approach to Defining Actual Causation, Synthese, 195(2), 835-862.

Beckers, S., and Vennekens, J. (2017). The Transitivity and Asymmetry of Actual Causation, Ergo, 4(1), 1-27.

Beckers, S., and Vennekens, J. (2016). A General Framework for Defining and Extending Actual Causation using CP-logic, International Journal for Approximate Reasoning, 77: 105-126.

Other Publications

Beckers, S. (2017). AAAI: an Argument Against Artificial Intelligence, In Proceedings of the 3rd International Workshop on AI, Ethics and Society.

Beckers, S., and Vennekens, J. (2015). Towards a General Definition of Actual Causation Using CP-logic. In Proceedings of the 2nd International Workshop on Probabilistic Logic Programming co-located with ICLP, volume 1413 of CEUR Workshop Proceedings, 19–38.

Beckers, S., and Vennekens, J. (2015). Combining Probabilistic, Normative, and Causal Reasoning in CP-logic, In Proceedings of the 12th International Symposium on Logical Formalizations of Commonsense Reasoning, 32-38.

Beckers, S., and Vennekens, J. (2012). Counterfactual Dependency and Actual Causation in CP-logic and Structural Models: a Comparison. In Proceedings of the Sixth STAIRS, volume 241 of Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence and Applications, 35–46.

Beckers, S., De Samblanx, G., De Smedt, F., Goedemé, T., Struyf, L., and Vennekens, J. (2012). Parallel hybrid SAT solving using OpenCL. In Proceedings of Benelux Conference on Artificial Intelligence, 11-18.

Beckers, S., De Samblanx, G., De Smedt, F., Goedemé, T., Struyf, L., and Vennekens, J. (2011). Parallel SAT-solving with OpenCL. In Proceedings of the IADIS International Conference on Applied Computing, 435-441.