As some readers are no doubt already aware, the Academy of Finland has selected me as an Academy Research Fellow, starting this September in Helsinki. This is a lucrative five year, senior research position — something of a Holy Grail in Finland’s highly competitive academic research circles. I’m obviously rather pleased about this, especially since it was the first time I applied for the position. You can expect to see a series of posts related to this in the near future, as I set out my plans for the next five years. This includes several conferences, international visitors in Helsinki, two longer visits abroad by myself (first of these most likely to Reading, UK), an online presence for the project, recruiting grad students and post-docs (I will post a call for expressions of interest in due course) etc.

The list of new Academy Research Fellows is available here (pdf). There were 20 awards this year, and only two in philosophy. The applications are assessed by an international panel of experts, and I have to say that I was impressed by its standard (the panel included multiple ‘household names’ from Anglo American analytic philosophy) — even if I am a little biased given the results!

My current Post-Doctoral Fellowship is also funded by the Academy of Finland, but it would have ended at the end of 2013, so I’ve been on the market this year. I haven’t had much luck with permanent positions, but earlier I managed to secure a so called EURIAS Fellowship at the Central European University Institute for Advanced Study, in Budapest. I was looking forward to going to Budapest, but unfortunately there isn’t much flexibility with these types of Fellowships (the EURIAS one or the Academy one), so I had no choice but to turn down the EURIAS Fellowship. My EURIAS profile is still up, but I imagine that they’ll take it down at some point. The project, entitled ‘Truth-grounding and Fundamentality’, was pitched for an interdisciplinary audience, but I do have ‘serious’ research interests in this area (and a couple of papers in the works).

The Academy Research Fellow project, however, is on a different topic, more directly related to my on-going research on the foundations of metaphysics. The title is ‘Essential Knowledge: The Metaphysical Basis of Scientific Realism’. This is a very broad project, involving research on metaontological themes, modal epistemology, epistemology of essence, apriority, formal ontology (logic of essence, grounding, fundamentality), natural kinds, philosophy of science (chemistry, biology), Aristotle, ‘Neo-Aristotelianism’, realism, and so on. Of course, these are all themes that I’ve worked on before, at least to a certain extent, but this project ties a lot of threads together. The goals are quite ambitious, but I do have five years at my disposal, with minimal teaching commitments.

The actual research proposal for the project is too long to post here (12 pages), but let me post an outline of the project’s primary Research Focuses as well as the abstract, which will give you an idea about the primary themes and extent of the project, even if not the technical aspects:

Outline of Research Focuses

Natural science studies the natural world, but what makes the world natural? According to scientific realism, nature comes with a designated structure, and it is this structure that natural science investigates. Biological species, chemical substances, and subatomic particles are all part of this structure. The assumption underlying scientific inquiry is that we have some means to identify where one kind of structure ends and another kind begins: the notion of natural kind captures this assumption. But what fixes the identity of a natural kind? What guarantees that a given organism belongs to one biological species rather than another? Why should we consider two isotopes of a chemical element to constitute distinct chemical substances? Moreover, what reasons do we have to think that natural kinds are mind-independent rather than merely conventional, a product of our psychological makeup?

This project aims to determine the metaphysical foundations for any attempt to answer these questions. The hypothesis is that there are indeed genuine natural kind essences. The notion of essence has a long philosophical history — it has made its way back into analytic metaphysics via the ‘neo-Aristotelian’ movement — but it is often misunderstood in contemporary contexts. The consensus among those working in the neo-Aristotelian tradition is that the notion of essence has been misrepresented in much of contemporary work. This is largely due to a misconception of what essences are, or rather, the misconception is that essences are ‘things’ in the first place. Essence, I suggest, is shorthand for whatever it is that makes a given natural kind the very natural kind that it
is. Since the majority of philosophers and scientists subscribe to some form of scientific realism, the theme of this project is of enormous importance.

The notion of essence has been a central theme in my work for nearly a decade – and it is one of three topics pursued in my previous, Academy of Finland funded project. What are essences, how do we come to know them, and why do they matter? These are some of the questions explored in this project, giving raise to the following core objectives:

1. To establish a rigorous definition of the notion of ‘essence’.
2. To examine and revise the ontological status and logic of the established notion.
3. To develop an epistemology of essence.
4. To develop applications of the established notion, specifically with regard to philosophy of science and neo-Aristotelianism.

If you’re intrigued by any of this and want to know more, do drop me a message! Make sure to stay tuned for announcements from Dynamis: The Finnish Network for Metaphysics as well, as we’ve got a couple of things planned…

Postdoc in Anna Marmodoro’s ERC funded project on Power Structuralism in Ancient Ontologies. This postdoc is in contemporary metaphysics however. Highly recommended, even though it is just for a year.

Power Structuralism in Ancient Ontologies Project

Faculty of Philosophy
University of Oxford

http://www.power-structuralism.ox.ac.uk/

Applications are invited for a Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Contemporary Metaphysics, to work on the project Power Structuralism in Ancient Ontologies, which is hosted by the Faculty of Philosophy, and supported by the European Research Council. The post-holder will work under the guidance of the Director of the Project, Dr Anna Marmodoro. The Fellowship is for the period 1 October 2012 to 30 September 2013, and is not renewable. For further information, please see:

http://www.philosophy.ox.ac.uk/vacancies/postdoctoral_research_fellowship_in_contemporary_metaphysics

The deadline for receipt of applications is 12.00 noon on 25 November 2011.

I thought I’d note this tenure-track job for Aristotle scholars, since I figure there may be a few of those reading the blog every now and then. AOS on Aristotle’s psychology or metaphysics. This is not for me of course, as my focus is on contemporary metaphysics, but I’m glad to see that research on Aristotle’s metaphysics is something that might get you a job! Spread the word.

THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA, Washington, D.C.

Asst. Prof., tenure-track, beginning fall 2012. 5 courses/year (3-2/semester), undergraduate and graduate. Dissertation and thesis supervision. Usual committee work. AOS: Aristotle with an emphasis on his psychology or metaphysics; competence in other areas of ancient philosophy a plus. Ph.D. in area of specialization prior to appointment. Competence in appropriate ancient and modern languages. CUA was founded in the name of the Catholic Church as a national university and center of research and scholarship; its School of Philosophy, which is canonically established as an Ecclesiastical Faculty, seeks candidates who, regardless of their religious affiliation, understand and will make a significant contribution to the university’s mission and goals. AAE/EO. Salary competitive.

Send dossier to: John C. McCarthy, Dean, School of Philosophy, The Catholic University of America, Washington D.C. 20064. Applications will be reviewed until the position is filled.

If you’re a philosopher who reads blogs, you’ve no doubt already read about it elsewhere, but it can’t hurt to spread the word (and link to the site to bring it up in Google!), so here it is. There is an on-going effort to provide a supplement site to the Jobs For Philosophers supposedly hosted by the American Philosophical Association (since they can’t get their act together). I’ll copy-paste the actual announcement from The Philosophy Smoker:

Chris Sula and I [David Morrow] have revamped the Phylo site to create an actual jobs board to (ahem) supplement the JFP. The URL is the same as the old wiki: http://phylo.info/jobs. As of today, we’ll start accepting job postings in that space from departmental representatives only. Following Harry Brighouse’s advice, we’ll also require a link to an external site (e.g., an announcement on the department’s web site) to verify each post’s authenticity. We’re moving the job wiki to http://phylo.info/jobs/wiki. People will still be able to post unofficial updates there. We’re still in the process of updating the wiki software to play nicely with the jobs board, but it will be up well before anyone needs to post status updates. In the meantime, watch the main jobs board to find out about job openings..

This is indeed good news, even though personally I have never been on the US job market. However, I did recently attempt to join the APA (the website appears to be down again). I’m not sure if anyone received my application, the application form was difficult enough to find. We’ll see if I ever hear back from them. I’m following the developments in the US job market with some interest, since you never know if I’ll actually have to enter it one day… I’m also planning to attend the Eastern APA meeting this December, in Washington D.C., primarily because I will be in the area anyway (more info about that soon), but also because of general interest in the whole ordeal, and because there should be some interesting talks, e.g. the keynote by none other than Kit Fine.

I’ll advertise this position for a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow or a Doctoral Research Fellow at the ‘Understanding and the A Priori’ group in Cologne, which I got to know during their A Priori workshop and Scott Soames conference last Spring. A good bunch of people and Cologne is quite a nice city. Indeed, I’d apply for this myself if I weren’t sorted for the next three years. They’ve got a big conference coming up next summer as well, I’ll post the CFP when I get around to it.

The Emmy Noether Research Group
“Understanding and the A Priori”
Philosophy Department
University of Cologne, Germany

is seeking to fill a Research Fellow position at one of the following two levels:

Post-Doctoral Research Fellow (full-time, 12 months, salary level 100% TV-L E13)

or

Doctoral Research Fellow (half-time, 24 months, salary level 50% TV-L E13)

The position starts on 1 March, 2011 or as soon as possible thereafter. The duties of the position include participation in the research activities of the project of the Emmy Noether Group “Understanding and the A Priori,” presentation and publication of research results, participation in the organization of workshops and conferences, and assistance with the day-to-day administration of the project. The working language of the research group is English.

Further information about the research group can be found here: http://fromthearmchair.net

Applicants should meet the following criteria at the time of employment: A completed university education with outstanding qualifications in philosophy (Doctoral Research Fellow), or a completed doctoral degree in philosophy with outstanding qualifications (Post-Doctoral Research Fellow); fluency in spoken and written English; a solid grasp of the foundations and methods of analytic philosophy; a promising research project; and good organizational skills. We are seeking candidates with research strengths in the following areas: epistemology, philosophy of language, philosophy of mind and/or metaphysics. Competence in linguistics, psychology and/or cognitive science is also welcome.

Applications from women and people with disabilities are especially encouraged. Applications from women and people with disabilities will be favored over other applications with equivalent qualifications, abilities and professional achievements, unless outweighed by further individual considerations.

To apply, submit the following materials: a cover letter stating your research interests and plans (Post-Doctoral Fellow) or your dissertation plan (Doctoral Research Fellow); a curriculum vitae; degree certificates; a sample of written work in philosophy (e.g. a dissertation chapter, published or unpublished article, etc.); and at least 2 letters of reference. All materials should be submitted in English, except for letters of reference, which can be submitted in English or German. Letters of reference can be sent independently. The deadline for applications is Friday, 28 January 2011.

All application materials should be sent to:

Dr. Magdalena Balcerak Jackson
Emmy Noether Research Group
Philosophy Department
University of Cologne
Richard-Strauss-Strasse 2
50931 Köln
Germany

Or by email to: mbalcerakjackson@me.com.