From the armchair

Surrogate Reasoning Workshop Program

brendan — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 02:21:22 +0000

The final program for our workshop on “Surrogate Reasoning in Philosophy and Science” at the Australian National University is now set:

Monday, 16 August

9:30-9:45 Coffee, Introduction and Welcome

9:45-11:15
Daniel Nolan: “Epistemological Advantages and Disadvantages for Fictionalism”

11:15-11:30 Coffee

11:30-12:45
John Matthewson: “Why the Dispute Over Model Ontology is Largely Verbal, and how We Ought to Resolve It”

12:45-14:00 Lunch

14:00-15:30
Magdalena Balcerak Jackson: “Thought Experiments and Models”

15:30-16:00 Afternoon Tea

16:00-17:30
Mark Colyvan: “Idealisations in Normative Models”

17:30-18:30 General Discussion; Daniel Stoljar and Brendan Balcerak Jackson discussants

Tuesday, 17 August

9:45-10:00 Coffee

10:00-11:30
Chris Pincock: “Representation via Concrete and Abstract Models”

11:30-11:45 Coffee

11:45-13:15
Michael Weisberg: “Getting Serious About Similarity”

13:15-14:30 Lunch

14:30-16:00
Kit Fine: “Models for Collective Intention”

16:00-16:30 Afternoon Tea

16:30-18:00 General Discussion; Peter Godfrey-Smith and David J. Chalmers, discussants

No advance registration is required. All talks will take place at the Centre for European Studies, 1 Liversidge Street in Canberra.

Dr. Miguel Hoeltje joining the group

brendan — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 05:09:56 +0000

Dr. Miguel Hoeltje has just accepted an offer to become a postdoctoral research fellow with our group. Miguel’s primary research interests are in the philosophy of language and the philosophy of logic, and he also has interests in the philosophy of mind and action, philosophy of science, metaphysics, logic and Frege. His doctoral dissertation was Truth, Meaning and Form: An Examination of the Davidsonian Program. Some of his work with our research group will focus on the relationship between language understanding and logical reasoning capacities. He will also work on questions concerning the relative priority between language and thought, with a special focus on recent relevant empirical psychological results.

Miguel received his PhD from the Humboldt University of Berlin, and he currently works with the Phlox Research Group in Berlin. He will be joining us in November 2010.

Dr. Jacek Brzozowski joining the group

brendan — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 04:59:25 +0000

Dr. Jacek Brzozowski has just accepted a position as postdoctoral research fellow with our group. Jacek works primarily in metaphysics, and has interests in the philosophy of mind and epistemology. His doctoral dissertation, Location, Parts and Properties concerns metaphysical accounts of the spatiotemporal locations of composite material objects. As part of his work with our research group he will be looking at arguments for contingentism, the view that central claims of metaphysics are merely contingently true or false.

Jacek received his PhD from the Australian National University, and is currently a Mellon Fellow at the University of Kwazulu-Natal in Durban, South Africa. He will join our group in early 2011.

Postdoctoral Research Fellow Position Available

brendan — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 11:40:41 +0000

Postdoctoral Research Fellow (2 years)

Starting date: 1. September 2010 or soon thereafter

Salary Level: TV-L E13, appr. 37000 – 44000 Euro per year

We are currently seeking applications for a 2-year postdoctoral research fellow position. The successful candidate will be employed and based at the University of Cologne, and will be expected to carry out original work on topics closely related to the focus of the research group, participate in the organization of international conferences, regular workshops and other events, contribute to the supervision of doctoral students, fulfill some administrative duties and be an active member in the academic life of the research group. There are no teaching duties connected to this position. However, the successful candidate might teach seminars for the Philosophy Department if they wish. The working language of the research group is English. The exact length of the appointment will be 23 months.

Candidates must hold a PhD in philosophy, have strong academic qualifications in at least some of the areas covered by the research group, be fluent in English and have good communication and organization skills. We are especially interested in candidates whose areas of specialization and/or competence include epistemology, the philosophy of mind, metaphysics or the philosophy of language.

Applications must include: (1) a cover letter describing the applicant’s research interests and plans, (2) a CV, (3) a sample of written work, (4) two or three letters of reference, which should be sent independently. All application materials should be in English, and formatted as PDF-files if sent electronically. The deadline for applications is 15. May 2010.

Applications should be sent by e-mail to: mbalcerakjackson@me.com, or via regular mail to: Emmy Noether Research Group, Philosophy Department, University of Cologne, Richard-Strauss-Str. 2, 50931 Koeln, Germany.

All enquiries about the position should be directed to Dr. Magdalena Balcerak Jackson: mbalcerakjackson@me.com. A pdf version of this announcement can be downloaded here.

The University of Cologne is an equal opportunity employer, and we strongly encourage applications from women and under-represented minorities.

Wolfgang heading to Australia

brendan — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 11:14:29 +0000

Wolfgang Schwarz has accepted a post-doctoral position at the Philosophy Program of the Research School for Social Sciences, Australian National University. He’ll be leaving the Emmy Noether Group at the end of June. We wish him great success in his new position!

Surrogate Reasoning in Philosophy and Science

brendan — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 04:40:24 +0000

Workshop at the Australian National University

August 16-17, 2010

co-organized with Michael Weisberg (Pennsylvania)

and Daniel Stoljar (ANU)

Preparations are underway for a workshop to take place at the Philosophy Program RSSS, Australian National University, co-organized with Daniel Stoljar and Michael Weisberg. The workshop will bring together philosophers of science and researchers in metaphysics and epistemology to discuss “surrogate reasoning devices” such as mathematical models, imaginary scenarios, hypothetical cases and fictions. Some of the questions to be considered:

What is the relationship between surrogate reasoning devices and the subject matters they are used to represent and investigate?
E.g. by virtue of what do abstract mathematical models represent real-world systems?
How can reflection on imaginary scenarios help us evaluate claims about e.g. perpetual motion, or the relationship between the mind and body?
Is there a role for models in articulating and testing philosophical theories, as there is in the empirical sciences?
If possible worlds (numbers, universals, etc.) are merely useful fictions, in what sense do they help explain the phenomena they are intended to account for?
Do surrogate reasoning devices play an indispensable role in scientific and philosophical investigation and theorizing, or are they ultimately eliminable?
What are the relationships among different sorts of surrogate reasoning devices?
E.g. should we think of models, thought experiments, fictions etc. as epistemically on par?

The confirmed participants include:

Magdalena Balcerak Jackson (Cologne)
David J. Chalmers (ANU)
Mark Colyvan (Sydney)
Kit Fine (New York University)
Peter Godfrey-Smith (Harvard)
John Matthewson (ANU)
Daniel Nolan (Nottingham)
Christopher Pincock (Purdue)
Daniel Stoljar (ANU)
Michael Weisberg (Pennsylvania)

The workshop is open to the public (location and schedule TBA). If you’re in the Canberra area, please come!

Workshop on the A Priori (UPDATED)

brendan — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 10:15:23 +0000

New Research on the A Priori (14-15 May)

We’re very pleased to announce that we’ve just finalized the dates for an intensive research workshop focusing on new work on the a priori. The workshop will feature presentations by:

Magdalena Balcerak Jackson (Cologne)

Yuri Cath (Arché, St. Andrews)

Daniel Cohnitz (Tartu)

Jonathan Ichikawa (Arché, St. Andrews)

Carrie Jenkins (Nottingham)

Thomas Krödel (Konstanz)

This is the first of a series of events and activities planned as part of an informal network bringing together young researchers working on the a priori and philosophical methodology from across Europe and the United Kingdom. If you’re interested in finding out more, get in touch: contact@fromthearmchair.net.

Prize for Magdalena

brendan — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 10:10:20 +0000

Great news! Magdalena has just received word that she’s been awarded the Offermann-Hergarten-Stiftung Prize for her book, Intentional Horizons: The Mind from an Epistemic Point of View (Mentis 2009). Her book was selected from submissions by members of the University of Cologne from across all the disciplines of the humanities. In addition to recognition for her good work, the prize carries with it a substantial cash award. Congratulations, Magdalena!

New Webpage

brendan — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 10:18:28 +0000

Welcome to our new webpage! We’ve re-designed the pages, and have added some new information about the people involved in our project, as well as about upcoming events. We hope you find it useful.

Symposium with Scott Soames

brendan — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 10:13:39 +0000

Symposium with Scott Soames (17-20 May)

We are very pleased that Scott Soames (University of Southern California) has agreed to come to Cologne to participate in a symposium on “Meaning, Modality and Apriority” on 17-20 May, 2010. The symposium will comprise a graduate conference (17-18 May) with Soames as the keynote speaker, followed by a research workshop (19-20 May) involving discussion sessions with Soames about his current research as well as paper presentations by researchers engaging with topics from Soames’ work.

We invite submissions for both the graduate conference (deadline 1 February) and for the research workshop (deadline 15 March). For more information please see the symposium webpage.