GENERIC REASONING Kick-off Event

We are pleased to announce the Kick-off Event of the research project GENERIC, funded by the FIS program with a grant of over 1.2 million euros and hosted by CERNAI at the University of Pavia, Italy.

GENERIC explores a new type of reasoning—generic reasoning—which allows drawing general conclusions from significant individual cases while tolerating exceptions. This type of reasoning is relevant to the fields of law, science, and mathematics.

The event, which will take place in Pavia on May 27–28, 2026, marks the official launch of the project activities led by Prof. Federico Faroldi. It will bring together world-renowned experts and emerging researchers to discuss the theoretical foundations, practical implications, and new perspectives on this fundamental cognitive and legal tool.

The event will be held at two historic venues in Pavia: the Aula Foscolo at the University of Pavia and the Almo Collegio Borromeo.

Everyone is welcome to attend.
Program
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DAY 1 – Aula Foscolo

10.30–11 Opening remarks

11–11.30 Intro to the project (PI) + Team introductions

11.30–12.30 Stefano Colloca (Unipv): The uncertainty of analogy in scientific and normative reasoning

14.45–16 Bernhard Nickel (Harvard): How Generics can Guide Action

16–16.45 Tom Ralston (UCL): Sources of Generic Knowledge

17–17.45 Janek Guerrini (Unipd): (In)definites, domain restriction, and covert quantification.

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DAY 2 – Collegio Borromeo

10–11.15 Giovanni Sartor (Unibo): Defeasible causal reasoning

11.30–12.15  Miguel Garcia (Unipv): Generics and Defeasible Reasoning

12.15–13  Giorgio Lenta (Unipv) & Vita Saitta (Unicatt/MCMP), Generics via Conditional Truthmakers

14.30–15.15 James Kirkpatrick (Oxford), TBD

15.15–16 Federico Cella (Unipv): Generics and Hermeneutical Injustice

16.15–17 Ludovica Conti (Wien), Arbitrariness and abstraction

17 Spotlight talks: F. Faroldi, V. Presi, M. Vargas, N. Rossi

Concluding remarks by Federico Faroldi

For info:
generic.unipv.it/en
generic@unipv.it
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