Tuesday, August 25, 2015

Postdoc: Intuitions in Science and Philosophy (Aarhus)

The project Intuitions in Science and Philosophy hires
-        2 postdocs and
-        1 PhD student.
Application deadline: 01/11/2015.
The Sapere Aude project Intuitions in Science and Philosophy, funded by the Danish Council for Independent Research and led by Samuel Schindler, will investigate the role and nature of intuitive judgements in science and philosophy. Whereas intuitive judgements in philosophy have been much debated in recent years, little attention has been paid to intuitive judgments in science. This is where the project will step in. In particular, it will investigate intuitive judgements in thought experiments in physics and in the form of acceptability judgements in linguistics. The results of these investigations will be related to debates about the evidential function of intuitive judgements in philosophy.
The project will cooperate with several renowned scholars in the field and organize two major conferences and a workshop. Each of the project members will be able to visit the project’s cooperation partners abroad. The starting date is negotiable. The project duration is four years. The tasks of the team members will be roughly as follows:
Postdoc position 1 (2 years): “Justifying intuitive judgments”. Together with the PI of the project, the postdoc will, amongst other things, conduct qualitative and quantitative surveys. Knowledge of statistics, experimental design and/or experimental philosophy would be an advantage, but is not required. 
Postdoc position 2 (2 years): “Histories of thought experiments”. In a set of extended historical case studies the postdoc will investigate the role intuitive judgments in thought experiments have played in theory choice. The applicant can be a philosopher, but should have strong interests and competences in the history of science (and ideally, physics). 
PhD student (3 years): “Justifying intuitive judgements in linguistics”. The PhD student will inquire into the justification of the use of acceptability judgements in linguistics. For that purpose, the student (trained in philosophy or linguistics) will, amongst other things, conduct qualitative and quantitative surveys. Knowledge of statistics, experimental design and/or linguistics would be an advantage, but is not required.
The project will be located at the Centre for Science Studies at the Department of Mathematics and associated with the Department of Philosophy at Aarhus University. The project members are expected to move to Aarhus. The project language is English. Also teaching in English is possible.
For further information and questions contact Samuel Schindler (sks@css.au.dk) or visit http://projects.au.dk/intuitions/.

Job: Associate or Full Professor AOS: Science Studies (Aarhus)

Professor/Associate Professor in Science Studies

The Centre for Science Studies at Aarhus University in Denmark invites applications for the position of full professor or associate professor (depending on the qualifications of the successful candidate) in science studies with an expected starting date of February 2016. Deadline for applications is 12/10/2015.

We seek applicants with academic expertise in either one or several of the following areas: history of science, technology, or mathematics, philosophy of science, science communication, or related areas.

The Centre seeks to strengthen its research by attracting excellent researchers. The successful candidate is expected to take an active interest in developing the research profile of the Centre in collaboration with the other staff members.

The Centre teaches philosophy of science courses to almost all bachelor students at the Faculty of Science and Technology. The appointee is expected to take responsibility for one or more of these courses.

The Centre also has its own Master’s Programme in science studies. The appointee is expected to teach courses within this programme and engage in the development of new courses.

Moreover, the appointee will be expected to participate in all aspects of the Department’s activities and to be present on a daily basis.

The Centre for Science Studies is placed within the Department of Mathematics, Faculty of Science and Technology. The centre ranks as one of the major centres for the history and philosophy of science, technology, and mathematics in Europe. For more information about the Centre, please see:www.css.au.dk/en.

For further details regarding the application procedure visit:

Further information may be obtained from Head of Department Niels O. Nygaard, phone +45 8715 5785, emailniels.nygaard@math.au.dk