Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Location: Stirling Campus

The Post

The Faculty of Arts and Humanities, in cooperation with the Faculty of Natural Sciences is offering a 37-month full-time Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Philosophy and Psychology. The Fellow will work in collaboration with Dr. Giacomo Melis (Philosophy, Principal Investigator), Dr. Eva Rafetseder (Developmental Psychology, Co-Investigator) and Dr. Zsófia Virányi (Animal Cognition, Co-Investigator) of the Messerli Research Institute (University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna) on a interdisciplinary research project entitled ‘Agency, Rationality and Epistemic Defeat’ funded by the UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship scheme.

The Research Fellow will be an early-career cognitive psychologist/ethologist at postdoctoral level with a keen interest in foundational questions about the mind and rationality, and of demonstrated high research achievement and outstanding research potential. They will be experienced in independent empirical behavioural research, will have developed research interests in animal cognition or developmental psychology, and will be motivated to engage in an interdisciplinary project with philosophical guidance. The post is offered as full-time appointments for 37 months to start on 03 February 2025 or as soon as possible thereafter.

Summary and Aims of the Project

The project is articulated in a broadly philosophical and broadly empirical part, which progress in parallel and are driven by the interactive work of the core team. The more philosophical part will develop a theory of rational belief-revision that will apply to the various agents discussed in philosophy and cognitive science, and which will focus on the notion of epistemic defeat. The more empirical part will use such theory to design and run novel comparative cognitive tests on pre-verbal children, pigs, and dogs aimed at assessing whether they may be capable of some form of reflective thinking. Please visit www.ared.stir.ac.uk for more details.

Description of Duties

The following activities will be expected of the post-holder:

• Contributing to experimental design
• Taking responsibility for running experiments, data analysis and management of datasets
• Spending at least a day a week reading and discussing relevant philosophical literature
• Taking responsibility for participant recruitment and access to study populations, including establishing and maintaining good relationships required to facilitate this
• Have regular meetings with the PI and other team members to track progress, resolve any theoretical, technical or analytical issues and discuss dissemination strategies

Essential Criteria

• A relevant doctoral qualification in psychology, behavioural biology or cognitive science, or equivalent training (e.g. relevant Masters degree with considerable additional research experience)
• Good knowledge in behavioural analysis approaches
• Evidence of being able to conduct empirical research/enquiry independently
• Evidence of some training or engagement with philosophy of mind, epistemology or philosophy of cognitive science

For further information, including a full description of duties, essential criteria and details on how to apply, please see Vacancy details | University of Stirling

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