PhD position in logic and theoretical philosophy

A 4-year PhD position is available at the Institute for Logic, Language and Computation, University of Amsterdam. This position is connected to the LogiCIC project which is funded by the European Research Council, under the ERC Starting Grant awarded to Dr. Sonja Smets.

The position is part of the larger LogiCIC project on "The Logical Structure of Correlated Information Change". The overall project aims to develop a uniform logical system that centres around correlated information change and can be used to explain and model various interactive scenarios. In particular, we will examine the correlations that arise in situations in which the very act of learning new information may directly change the reality that is being learnt. The project is interdisciplinary in nature and will combine insights and techniques from a range of research domains, including logic, quantum mechanics, philosophy of science, belief revision theory, truth approximation and learning theory. In total two PhD students, one post-doctoral researcher and the principal investigator will join the LogiCIC project team from January 2012 onwards.

The task of the PhD student for this open position is to concentrate on the study of 'correlated (higher-order) belief change in social contexts'. An example is the way in which an introspective agent changes her beliefs when learning new higher-order information, i.e. information that may refer to her own beliefs. More complex forms of correlated information change occur in groups of communicating agents whose higher-level reasoning about how others change their theories can affect the result of each individual's theory change.

Vacancy number W11-216. Applications will be reviewed starting 1 February 2012 and are accepted until the position is filled. For more information, please see: http://www.science.uva.nl/werkenbijdefnwi/vacatures.cfm/