3-year Post-Doc in Philosophy of Science and Machine Learning

An opening is available for a 3-year Postdoctoral Research Associate (PDRA) in the ERC Starting Grant project Machine Learning in Science and Society: A Dangerous Toy? (TOY).

TOY hypothesizes that many machine learning models are toy models. Conceptualizing ML models as toy models exposes the epistemic benefits of ML, but also the enormous risk of overreliance. This is crucial because ML models are encroaching on nearly all our knowledge institutions. ML models are being used across science to solve long-standing problems or make new discoveries—ranging from medical science to fundamental physics. At the same time, the same modelling methods are used across society for epistemic purposes, from determining social media newsfeeds to fraud detection and criminal risk assessment. There are dangers in relying on toy models for real world societal decisions and in wide areas of science. Since toy models are so divorced from the real world because of their idealizations, they could be leading us down the wrong path. 

TOY seeks to address these fundamental challenges by 1) identifying interlocking model puzzles that face ML models and toy models alike 2) developing a theory of (ML) toy models in science and society based on the function of their idealizations and 3) developing a philosophical theory for evaluating the epistemic value of (ML) toy models across science and society.

This 3-year PDRA project is in general philosophy of science and philosophy of machine learning. The focus will be on issues in modelling surrounding idealization, representation, explanation, and scientific understanding.  

This PDRA project has the following objectives:

• Identify the epistemic function of canonical toy models in science.
• Determine how important representational, explanatory, and predictive aims are for machine learning models in science. 
• Investigates the role of idealizations in machine learning models in science.

The TOY project team consists of the PI (Emily Sullivan), this post-position, a second post-doc, and a PhD project all to start around September 2026. The PDRA will, in collaboration with the TOY team, be responsible for conducting independent philosophical research and work collaboratively to achieve project objectives. The PDRA will also help with organizing project events and workshops.

The project comes with a generous travel budget for the PDRA, including the opportunity for a short a research stay at a collaborating institution. 

The PDRA will be based in the Philosophy Department and affiliated with The Centre for Technomoral Futures in the Edinburgh Futures Institute.

Grade UE07: £41,064 - £ 48,822 per annum
College of Arts, Humanities and Social Science / School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences
Full-time: 35 hours per week
Fixed-term: for 36 months