The Center for Logic, Language, and Cognition (LLC), University of Turin, seeks applications for two 1-month visiting fellowships in 2017. Preferably, the period of stay is meant to be May 2017. One visitor will be an established scholar and one an early career researcher (PhD or postdoc). Although the fellowships are non-stipendiary, we will provide convenient accommodation and cover travel expenses to reach and leave Turin from anywhere in Europe. Candidates will have to submit a short description of a research plan. We have a special interest in topics of concern of the European Non-Categorical Thinking Project, which is outlined below. Selected candidates will address a research topic that is related to the project and involves potentially fruitful interactions with one or more members of LLC.
Applications should be sent by email to andrea.iacona@unito.it by January 31, 2017.
The European Non-Categorical Thinking Project
For creatures like us, it is natural to think non-categorically – in terms of the possible, the probable, and the conditional. This fact prompts the following philosophical questions. Is non-categorical thinking indispensable, in any sense, to all practical and intellectual life? How should we think of reality and our cognitive relations to it in light of our answers to that question? Is our non-categorical thought an instrument that we need only because of our ignorance of how the world categorically is, or when we think non-categorically do we sometimes track a corresponding (probabilistic, modal or conditional) non-categorical reality? What are the best systematic (formal) representations of non-categorical thinking and how do these relate (normatively or otherwise) to our non- categorical thought? Has the practice of natural science settled some of these questions and if some of the questions are so settled how does that bear on the others? Can we look to the case of mathematics to find models of what practical and intellectual indispensability (of a way of thinking) might amount to and the epistemological and metaphysical implications of these models? The central purpose of the project is to develop questions about modalities, conditionals, and probabilities – in the context of a unified theoretical framework: one that will promote applications of research programmes that have been successful in one sphere of non-categorical thought to the neighbouring regions.
LLC hosts a research community that includes philosophers, psychologists, and computer scientists. It organizes a regular seminar series, as well as other activities such as workshops, conferences, and reading groups. The successful candidate is expected to take part in these activities. The official language of LLC is English, so Italian is not required. In an effort to improve balance in our research community, we encourage applications from under-represented academic groups.