Post-doctoral researcher ("adiunkt") (EXPIRED)

The Jagiellonian University in Kraków welcomes applications for a postdoctoral position ("adiunkt") in the project „Epistemic inaccuracy and foundational issues in formal epistemology”, headed by Leszek Wroński (Philosophy, Jagiellonian University). The project is funded by the Polish National Science Center as part of the SONATA BIS 9 program. The Jagiellonian University is one of the oldest universities in Europe (established in 1364) and now one of the best universities in Poland. 

Job Description: The person appointed will be expected to engage in high-level research in formal epistemology, which is to involve publishing in high quality journals and giving talks at appropriate scholarly conferences and meetings. This is a full-time research position with no teaching obligations. Knowledge of Polish is not required. The appointee is expected to contribute to all research tasks of the project (see below).

Salary: The salary will equal 10000 (ten thousand) PLN (gross salary plus social security contributions). For comparison, the minimum salary of a full professor is 6410 PLN (gross). Travel expenses, conference trips and research stays will be covered. No teaching will be required. The employment will last for 36 months and is planned to start in X 2020 (which is negotiable). The position is based at the Institute of Philosophy of the Jagiellonian University, in central Kraków (52 Grodzka Street).

Application deadline: 17 VII 2020

Project description: The goal of the project is to make a significant contribution to modern epistemology. The project belongs to the area of belief rationality: (1) what norms regarding beliefs (or degrees of belief, i.e. credences) are there which would bind rational agents? And (2): how can we argue for these norms?

As for (2), a recent trend in epistemology is to appeal to the notion of epistemic accuracy. The accuracy-centered approach claims that epistemic accuracy is the fundamental source of validity of epistemic norms of rationality. Namely, if a norm constraining rational credences is valid, it is so because such constraints promote accuracy. Philosophers who attempt arguments of this sort typically use formal methods, e.g., rigorously defined mathematical measures of inaccuracy.

There are a few pressing issues regarding the formal treatment of the notion of inaccuracy which will be pursued in this project, for example the question of the best inaccuracy measure. One research goal is to investigate recent arguments against one of the most popular measures, the Brier Score, according to which in some situations in which the agent clearly improves his or hers credence by excluding a false hypothesis, his or hers inaccuracy as measured by the Brier Score increases. Another goal is to investigate a promising measure of inaccuracy which, by employing the notion of entropy, has a connection to computer science.

Irrationality has numerous sources. Some of them involve features of one's credences. For example, an agent is incoherent if that agent's credences are not classical probabilities. An agent is exploitable by means of a Dutch Book if there is a set of bets all of which the agent considers to be fair, but which taken altogether guarantee the agent's loss. And while connections between incoherence and inaccuracy have been a subject of recent discussion, one of the research goals of the current project is to add a third source of irrationality, Dutch Book exploitability, to the mix, to better understand the connections between various forms of irrationality.

As for (1), in recent decades quite a few candidates for epistemic norms of rationality have been discussed, for example Probabilism, the Principal Principle, the Principle of Reflection, and the Principle of Indifference.  Since it is reasonable to assume that credences and chances are probabilities, some of these norms require us to consider probabilities of probabilities, that is, higher-order probabilities. Throughout the years the field of formal epistemology has abounded with arguments concerning these norms. Unfortunately, they have usually been have been informal in crucial aspects. One of the goals of the current project is to provide a rigorous and philosophically well motivated framework for modelling higher-order probabilities. This will allow philosophers who aspire to rigorous reasoning about these issues to achieve their goal.

A number of questions regarding the logical structure and competing formulations of the norms have appeared recently which will be investigated during the project. For example, foremost authors in the field display widely differing views as to whether the Principal Principle implies the Principle of Indifference, and if so, why that is the case. Once the framework mentioned in the previous paragraph is established, this sort of questions will also be pursued.

In summary, the aim of the project is to help us understand the connections between various norms of epistemic rationality and forms of epistemic irrationality. This is to be achieved by philosophical analysis backed by rigorous mathematical arguments.

A detailed description of the project can be found here: https://ujchmura-my.sharepoint.com/:b:/g/personal/leszek_wronski_uj_edu_pl/Ed-qn8Y9FbdGszHx1_5GJyQB-ASg4rn5RBhJ31dPumnnXA?e=oV46tV

About the workplace: The Institute of Philosophy at the Jagiellonian University is located in the very heart of Kraków, on 52 Grodzka Street, and now is one of the best philosophy centres in Poland. In the past few years, our faculty members have published papers in the main international journals in philosophy and related areas: Synthese; Erkenntnis; The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science; European Journal for Philosophy of Science; Studies in the History and Philosophy of Modern Physics; Biology & Philosophy; Intelligence; Memory and Cognition; Journal of Philosophical Logic, American Journal of Bioethics; Journal of Medical Ethics; Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics; Ethics and Information Technology... Here is a list of selected publications: https://filozofia.uj.edu.pl/en_GB/publications .          

 Requirements:

 The competition is open to those who meet the following requirements:

1)     they hold at least the academic degree of doctor or PhD (or are to be officially awarded with one before the date of competition’s settlement),

2)     they have obtained the doctor or PhD degree not earlier than in 2013 (this is a requirement of the National Science Centre),

3)     they have academic achievements relevant to the theme of the project,

4)     they actively participate in academic life.

The candidate should display interest in the project topics and describe it in the cover letter (see below). It will be beneficial to the candidate if she or he has published in the field in international peer-reviewed journals. We are looking for a candidate who is at the same time intellectually independent and reliable (e.g., able to keep deadlines). The candidate needs to display proficiency in English (the knowledge of Polish is not required).        

Applying: Candidates who wish to apply for the position should send the following documents by email to [email protected] or by standard post to: Dziekanat Wydziału Filozoficznego UJ, ul. Gołębia 24 pok. 24, 31-007 Kraków, Poland:

1. Their application.
2. Their curriculum vitae.
3. The „personal questionnaire” (see link below).
4. A copy of the candidate’s doctoral diploma or habilitation diploma.
5. A cover letter, including the information about the candidate’s involvement with formal epistemology.
6. The list of the candidate’s publications (including, in the case of books, the publishing house and number of pages).
7. The information regarding the classes taught by the candidate, if applicable.
8. The reviews of the doctoral thesis or the habilitation thesis.
9. A form of the latest interim evaluation, if the candidate was evaluated.
10. The opinion of the head of department or academic tutor on the candidate’s suitability and qualifications for research– including results of students’ questionnaires, if a candidate was assessed in this manner.
11. A statement declaring that Jagiellonian University will be the main place of employment if employed following the completion of the competition procedure (see link below).
12. A statement in accordance with Article 113 of the Law on higher education and science (see link below).
13. A statement regarding the acquaintance with and the acceptance of intellectual property rules as well as the legal protection of intellectual property (see link below).
14. The personal data processing form (see link below).

The relevant forms can be downloaded from the following website:

http://www.dso.uj.edu.pl/druki-do-pobrania/dokumenty-dla-kandydatow-pracownikow

They are also gathered in this archive which includes additional information:

https://ujchmura-my.sharepoint.com/:u:/g/personal/leszek_wronski_uj_edu_pl/EQZ4nhLq8nxOp6-YCSQGvcABiocmRGbo3rU6M9OxozHD0Q?e=bWjdMO 

Please direct any questions to the head of the project, Leszek Wroński: [email protected]