Articles

Published

These articles have either been published, or have been accepted for publication in their current form.

• Beckers, S. (2017). AAAI: an Argument Against Artificial Intelligence, In Proceedings of the 3rd International Workshop on AI, Ethics and Society, forthcoming.
• Beckers, S., and Vennekens, J. (2017). The Transitivity and Asymmetry of Actual Causation, Ergo, forthcoming.
• Beckers, S., and Vennekens, J. (2016). A Principled Approach to Defining Actual Causation, Synthese, forthcoming. Click here for official version
• 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
• 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.

Unpublished

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.

Work in Progress

These papers contain ideas that I am still playing with, or have played with in the past. None of these are finished articles in any shape or form, but hopefully I will finish some of them in the future.

• Beckers, S. (2016). A Formal Approach to the Frankfurt Cases.

• Beckers, S. (2013). All Solutions to the Hardest Logic Puzzle Ever.

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.

• Beckers, S. (2011). Deductive Reasoning in Guarded FO(ID), Master Thesis Mathematics.

• Beckers, S. (2006). How to Choose a Natural Number at Random.

• Beckers, S. (2006). Wittgenstein en het Ethische, Master Thesis Philosophy.

• Beckers, S. (2005). Why We Don’t End Poverty.

• Beckers, S. (2005). Narrowing the Gap between the Natural and the Social Sciences.

Talks

Conferences

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

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

• Click here to download a PDF version

Sander Beckers

Curriculum Vitae

Contact

E-mail: Sander.Beckers@cornell.edu

Department of Computer Science
Cornell University
343 Campus Road Ithaca, NY 14853

Employment

• 2016-2017
  • Visiting B.A.E.F. Fellow
    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 Researcher at 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
    Fortis Insurance Belgium, Employee Benefits
• 2008
  • (part-time) internship as actuary
    Aon Benfield Belgium

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
• 2001: European Baccalaurate, European School Mol (Belgium)

Grants and Fellowships

• 2016-2017
  • Research Fellowship, Belgian American Educational Foundation
• 2012-2015
  • Ph.D. Grant for Fundamental Research, Flanders Innovation & Entrepreneurship

Research

Publications

Beckers, S., and Vennekens, J. (2017). The Transitivity and Asymmetry of Actual Causation, Ergo, forthcoming.

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

Beckers, S., and Vennekens, J. (2016). A Principled Approach to Defining Actual Causation, Synthese, forthcoming.

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.

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.

Talks

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

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 ‘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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Teaching

• Undergraduate program Civil Engineering, exercise classes:
  • 2014-2015 Introduction to Programming: Python
  • 2012-2013 Introduction to Programming: Java
• Undergraduate program Industrial Engineering, exercise classes:
  • 2015: Introduction to the IDP knowledge base system
  • 2014-2015 Introduction to Programming: Python
  • 2010-2013 Introduction to Programming: C