Postdoctoral Researcher in Philosophical Logic (Provability)

The New Foundations for Intensionality (GOOD INTENSIONS) project, based at the Department of Philosophy and the Institute for Logic, Language and Computation (ILLC) at the University of Amsterdam, is looking to fill one four-year postdoc position on the philosophy, semantics and logic of provability talk.

GOOD INTENSIONS is a research project funded by a European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Grant and led by Dr. Luca Incurvati (Principal Investigator). Intensional notions such as those of property, content, proof, possibility and necessity are central to philosophy, logic, mathematics and linguistics. However, these notions are threatened by paradoxes reminiscent of those that plagued the foundations of mathematics at the beginning of the XX century. The GOOD INTENSIONS project aims to provide new philosophical, semantical and logical foundations for intensional notions, which will deliver a comprehensive and uniform solution to the intensional paradoxes. The project is highly interdisciplinary and brings together methods and techniques from philosophy, logic and linguistics.

You will be conducting research within the Provability work package. The overall goal of this work package is to provide a novel account of the function, meaning and logic of provability talk and to apply it to the question of mechanism in the philosophy of mind. You will work under the supervision of the PI, Luca Incurvati, and will collaborate with him and the other team members. In addition to the PI and yourself, the research team will include a postdoc working on propositions, a PhD student working on properties, and a PhD student working on modality. The team also includes a research assistant, providing organizational and administrative support.

You have a PhD in philosophy, logic, or a related field. You have expertise in the philosophy of mathematics and advanced formal skills. Demonstrable expertise in proof theory and provability logic will be an advantage. Your publication record is that of a talented early-career researcher ready to contribute to the project in terms of both expertise and teamwork. We are looking for an exceptionally motivated candidate with a marked collaborative attitude within an interdisciplinary setting, capable of working independently and efficiently against deadlines.

This is what you will be doing

You will be expected to:

• Carry out research on the semantics, philosophy and logic of provability talk, in particular with reference to the objectives described in the relevant Work Package of the project proposal;
• Have regular meetings with the supervisor and take part in all of the project’s activities, including research visits abroad;
• Complete at least six research articles (as single author or together with the PI and other team members), to be published in excellent peer-reviewed journals of philosophy, logic or linguistics;
• Collaborate with the other project team members;
• Present intermediate research results at relevant international workshops and conferences;
• Help out with administrative and service tasks connected to the project, such as the organization of conferences and workshops and the editing of a collected volume (the list is non-exhaustive);
• Help out with the dissemination of the project results to non-specialists through, e.g., public lectures and social media.

All postdoctoral researchers embedded within the ILLC are expected, as part of their professional development, to gain teaching experience.

This is what we ask of you

You should:

• Have a PhD degree in philosophy, logic or related fields;
• Have an excellent track-record of publication in top journals in philosophy, logic or related fields;
• Have demonstrable experience in presenting scientific results at international conferences;
• Have a strong motivation to undertake excellent academic research;
• Be able and willing to work in a team and in an interdisciplinary setting;
• Have a good command of English.

You must have completed or nearly completed your PhD degree by the closing date of this call. If the latter is the case, you must provide evidence in the cover letter that you will have obtained your PhD degree before the start of the position.

This is what else we offer you

You will be appointed full-time (38 hours per week). The appointment is initially for a period of one year. Contingent on a positive performance evaluation, the contract will be extended for a further three years, for a total of four years. The preferred starting date is 1 September 2026. 

The gross monthly salary (on a full-time basis) will range from €3.546 to €5.538  in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities. The salary will be supplemented with an 8% holiday allowance and an 8.3% end-of-year bonus. A favourable tax agreement, the 30% ruling, may apply to non-Dutch applicants. The position comes with a generous budget for research expenses, including travel to international conferences and research visits (to be coordinated with other members of the research team).

The position provides a unique opportunity to be part of a vibrant community of researchers working at the forefront of logic and philosophy and to further strengthen your research profile in view of the next steps of your academic career.

This is where you'll be working

You will be employed by the Department of Philosophy at the University of Amsterdam, in the capacity group Logic and Language (LLA). The project is based at the ILLC, within which your research will be carried out. The ILLC is a renowned research institute in which researchers from the Faculty of Humanities and the Faculty of Science of the University of Amsterdam collaborate. The research carried out at Humanities forms one of the six research schools within this faculty. The ILLC’s central research area is the study of fundamental principles of encoding, transmission and comprehension of information. Research at the institute is interdisciplinary and brings together insights from various disciplines concerned with information and information processing, such as logic, philosophy, linguistics, musicology, mathematics, computer science, artificial intelligence and cognitive science.

You will be part of the GOOD INTENSIONS research team. Work within the GOOD INTENSIONS project is highly collaborative and involves regular group meetings and regular seminars with invited speakers. In addition, several major international events and a number of research visits will be organized.