Postdoctoral Researcher (EXPIRED)

Application Deadline: February 20, 2022

This position offers a lot of flexibility with few requirements other than the production of high-quality research that fits within our mission, studying the expansion of humanity's moral circle (e.g., animal ethics, philosophy of mind, artificial intelligence, particularly using experimental and other empirical methods). We are also hiring a generalist, and the application form allows you to apply for one or both positions.

When SI was founded in 2017, we were primarily focused on farmed animals as the frontier of humanity's moral circle. We expect our future research on this to be similar to our previous research, most of which is listed on our Reports page. We also have some ideas for future research listed in our current research agenda that may be of interest to applicants.

In late 2020, we incorporated a second research focus area on artificial intelligence (AI) and artificial sentience (AS): robots, machines, and other entities made by humans that can have positive or negative experiences such as happiness or suffering. Because this is such a new field, a lot of our research so far has been big-picture in nature. For example, we have completed a literature review on the moral consideration of artificial entities, and we have in-progress research on the predictors and features of moral consideration for artificial entities, and a US nationally representative survey on people’s moral attitudes towards AS. Over the next few years, we expect to continue to produce research aimed at building a robust body of theoretical and empirical literature in this field. For further information on our perspective on this topic, please see this blog post.

In addition to farmed animals and AI/AS, possible research topics include the moral inclusion of wild animals and generalizing historical examples (i.e. focusing on a general understanding of moral inclusion processes instead of analyzing specific current or future targets of expansion).

For more information, see the full job posting or go straight to the application form.