Postdoctoral fellowship on causation & probability, Paris (France)

The IHPST, Paris is offering a postdoctoral fellowship through the CAUSAPROBA project dealing with the connection between causation and probability. Causation, in particular in its connection to probability, has emerged as one of the most active fields of investigation in philosophy of science and its neighboring fields. Still, current state of research is incomplete; central issues have started being tackled only in recent years or are rarely studied as such. The project aims to explore four such issues: When precisely does a specific event or fact actually cause another one? (As opposed to: what are causal laws?) Precisely how are "this-worldly" mechanistic conceptions of causation related to "other-worldly" counterfactual conceptions? How can we have causation on different (micro and macro) levels and how do these levels relate to each other? And in what sense are causal relations features of an objective reality?

The post-doctoral fellow will work on one of these questions. S/He will have completed a PhD in metaphysics or philosophy of science by October 2009 and will be willing to cooperate with IHPST researchers. A complementary education in an empirical discipline is not required but would be an asset. The postdoctoral fellow will work at the IHPST in Paris in cooperation with the Konstanz team. S/He will be in charge of the website for the CAUSAPROBA project and the organization of the closing international conference. The fellowship is 12-months, beginning October 1, 2009, with the possibility of a 12-month extension. The net salary will be approximately 1900 euros per month.

Applicants should send a detailed CV and a 4-page description of a proposed scientific project by May 14th to: anouk.barberousse at gmail.com (subject: "CAUSAPROBA post-doc").