The Bednarowski Trust 2014/2015
The W. Bednarowski Trust proposes to offer again in 2014-15 three or more Visiting Fellowships, to enable philosophers in the Institute of Philosophy of the Jagiellonian University, Krakow, or other Polish universities, to visit the Department of Philosophy in the University of Aberdeen, or another Scottish university, during the academic year or possibly a combination of a visit to two places (mid-September 2014 – mid-June 2015). The visit will normally be for six weeks, but this may be varied by arrangement (see further below). The purpose of the scheme is to enable Polish philosophers to learn more about Philosophy in the English-speaking world, and to make contact with colleagues in the Department(s) which they visit. It would be desirable if there were a possibility of collaborative work being pursued subsequently.
Further details of the Trust and the scheme of Visiting Fellowships are given in the accompanying leaflet (and also in the Trust’s website: www.bednarowskitrust.org). Please note the possibility of a visit to a Scottish university other than Aberdeen; arrangements regarding such a visit are covered in section 2 below. Please also note that whilst priority is given to applicants who are philosophers, applications from academics in related subjects may also be considered. Applications are now invited from suitable persons.
1. Visits to Aberdeen
The successful applicants will receive support (£300) towards their travel to and from Aberdeen, free self-catering accommodation (either a separate flat or a room in a shared flat, whichever is available)* during their stay in Aberdeen, and a stipend of £120 per week to cover the costs of meals and other necessities. Study space and access to a computer (and to email and the internet) will be provided, whenever possible, in the Philosophy Department, and visitors will be able to use the University Library. A sum of up to £150 may be made available for a visit during their stay to another institution in Britain or for attending a conference while at Aberdeen or en route to or from Aberdeen. (*We cannot guarantee a flat that would enable a partner to attend: accommodation is provided for the fellow himself/herself, and if a partner wishes to come for part or all of the time, then they must make their own arrangements. Furthermore, given that recently because of increased demand the University cannot always provide a flat, the Trust may make other arrangements for the Fellow to stay in a Bed & Breakfast with the cost covered by the Trust.) Applicants should be full-time members of a Department or Institute of Philosophy in a Polish University. They should ensure that if awarded a Fellowship, they will be free to take it up during the Session 2014-15, within one of the following three periods (which correspond to the university’s teaching terms, when the local university staff are most likely to be available): mid-September to mid-December; mid-January to late March; mid-April to early June. If applicants have a preferred time to visit, it would be helpful if they could indicate this. Potential applicants unable to apply for 2014-15 because of other commitments are welcome to indicate an interest now in applying for 2015-16, though they would need to apply formally a year later.
An application should include:
- a curriculum vitae and details of research interests;
- the name of an academic who can send to the secretary a confidential reference (who should be asked by the candidate to send this); and
- an indication of: the planned use to be made of the visit (details of some project the applicant has which will be assisted by the visit would be helpful), and possibilities the applicant sees of productive contact with one or more of the staff of the Aberdeen Philosophy Department (for details of staff and their research interests, including some retired staff still in Aberdeen, see a separate sheet, or the Department’s web-page: www.abdn.ac.uk/philosophy).
- An application to visit for a period longer than six weeks may be considered, if there is good reason why a longer period would be desirable. An application for a shorter time may be considered if a six-week period poses a difficulty for an applicant or the particular project makes a shorter visit appropriate, though the Trust believes that in general a visit of at least six weeks is more likely to be fruitful.
- In making awards, the Selection Committee will want to be assured that visitors will be scholars of good standing, with interests in areas which will ensure that their visits will be beneficial to Aberdeen University as well as to themselves; preference will be given to visitors who share interests with some Aberdeen member or members.
2. Visits to other Scottish universities
The purpose of such a visit will be broadly similar to a visit to Aberdeen, as described above. An application for a visit will need to be supported by one or more appropriate member(s) of staff at the university in question; and the Trust will expect the department in question to be ready to arrange accommodation (for which the Trust will provide funds at a reasonable rate), and suitable study arrangements for the visitor. An applicant for such a visit should ensure that a letter of support for the proposed visit is sent to the Trust (address as below) from the proposed host institution, setting out the value that the visit is expected to have, and agreeing to arrange for the visitor’s accommodation and academic needs. Otherwise what is required for the submission of the application is the same as above, including the need for an academic reference other than from the host institution.
Applications from staff at the Jagiellonian University should be submitted through Professor Justyna Miklaszewska, Institute of Philosophy in the Jagiellonian University, by Friday 11 April 2014, or directly by post or by email to the Trust Secretary at the address below, by Friday 18 April 2014. All other applications should be submitted by post or by email to the Trust Secretary at the address below by Friday 18 April 2014.
Further information about the Trust or the Fellowships may be obtained from Professor Miklaszewska, or the Trust’s Secretary, or on the Trust’s website, at: www.bednarowskitrust.org.
Dr Nigel Dower, Secretary to the Trust, Department of Philosophy, University of Aberdeen,
February 2014 King’s College, Old Aberdeen AB24 3UB Scotland, UK (email: n.dower@abdn.ac.uk)
Websites of the other Scottish universities Philosophy Departments:
Dundee: www.dundee.ac.uk/philosophy
St Andrews: www.st-andrews/philosophy
Edinburgh: www.philosophy.ed.ac.uk
Stirling: www.philosophy.stir.ac.uk
Glasgow: www.gla.ac.uk/departments/philosophy
Visiting Fellowships in Philosophy at Aberdeen or another Scottish University
The Bednarowski Trust is again offering three Visiting Fellowships to enable philosophers in Polish universities to visit the Department of Philosophy in the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, or another Scottish University, during the academic year 2014-15. Visits will normally be for a minimum of six weeks, though it may be possible to vary this by arrangement.
The scheme aims to enable Polish philosophers to learn more about Philosophy in the English-speaking world, and to make contact with philosophers in Aberdeen or other Scottish universities.
Successful applicants will receive support towards their travel, and accommodation and a small stipend during their stay in Scotland. Study space and access to computer and library facilities will be provided.
Further details about the scheme should be obtained before applying, either from Professor Justyna Miklaszewska, Institute of Philosophy in the Jagiellonian University, Krakow, from the Trust’s website (see below), or from the Trust’s Secretary (see below).
Closing date for applications. If submitted through Professor Miklaszewska: 11 April 2014; if submitted directly to the Trust’s Secretary (by post or email): 18 April 2014.
Dr Nigel Dower, Secretary to the Trust
Department of Philosophy, University of Aberdeen,
King’s College, Old Aberdeen AB24 3UB, Scotland, UK
email: n.dower@abdn.ac.uk)
The Trust’s website may be found at: www.bednarowskitrust.org
Research in Philosophy at the University of Aberdeen [February 2014]
(See also the department’s webpages: http://www.abdn.ac.uk/philosophy.)
I. General information
In addition to the Department of Philosophy itself there is now, associated with it, a Centre for the History and Philosophy of Science, Technology and Medicine, and the Northern Institute of Philosophy, under the leadership of Professor Crispin Wright. There is a wide range of research interests pursued by the present staff of the Department and the Institute:
- Epistemology;
- Ethics and Moral Philosophy;
- History of Philosophy, including the 17th & 18th Century;
- Metaphysics, Epistemology and Philosophy of Science;
- Philosophical Logic and Philosophy of Language;
- Philosophy of Mind, especially Free Will & Responsibility and the Emotions.
Specific interests of individual members are indicated briefly in II below; for further information, including details of publications, see under ‘staff’ on the Philosophy website (address as above).
A programme of Visiting Speakers and Departmental research seminars takes place on some Tuesday afternoons in term time. The Department has organised conferences regularly; themes have included Philosophy of Quantum Mechanics, The Concept of Information in Contemporary Biology, Utopias, Evolution Before Darwin, History of Modern Philosophy, Global Citizenship, Aesthetics and Technology, Natural Theology and Moral Contextualism. In common with the other ancient Scottish Universities, Aberdeen hosts the Gifford Lectures in Natural Theology every few years and runs the Scottish Seminar in Early Modern Philosophy.
II. Members of academic staff and their interests
Currently in the Department of Philosophy (main research interests)
Guido Bacciagaluppi: Philosophy of Physics (esp. Quantum Mechanics), Time, Probability, History of Quantum Mechanics.
Franz Berto: Ontology & Metaphysics (Meinongian ontology, coincident objects, ontological commitment, modal metaphysics), Philosophy of Logic (logical paradoxes, paraconsistent logics, Gödel’s incompleteness theorems, impossible worlds), Continental Philosophy (Hegel’s dialectics, continental rationalist philosophers), Philosophy of Language (inferential semantics, non-standard model-theoretic semantics).
Gerry Hough: Philosophy of Language and Mind and the History of Analytic Philosophy; also, the philosophy of action and Descartes and Hume.
Nathaniel Jezzi: Ethics; Metaethics
Carrie Ichikawa Jenkins: Metaphysics; Epistemology
Mogens Laerke: Early Modern Philosophy (17th and 18th Century), The Enlightenment, The Methodology of Intellectual history and the History of Philosophy, Philosophy of Religion, History of Political Philosophy, History of Science, Leibniz, Spinoza.
Beth Lord: Poststructuralism, History of Philosophy, 17th and 18th Century Philosophy, Spinoza, Continental Philosophy.
Toby Meadows: logic and philosophy of mathematics.
Tony Milligan: Iris Murdoch, philosophical issues relating to death, love and animals.
Luca Moretti: Epistemology; Formal Epistemology, Philosophical Logic, Metaphysics, Philosophy of science; also Scepticism, epistemic closure and transmission of warrant, basic justification, Bayesian analysis of scepticism.
Bob Plant: Wittgenstein (esp. regarding Philosophy of Religion, and On Certainty); Continental ethics (esp. Levinas and Derrida).
Ulrich Stegmann: Philosophy of Biology, Philosophy of Mind.
Stephan Torre: philosophy of time, self-locating content, persistence and modality.
Northern Institute of Philosophy (NIP):
The Northern Institute of Philosophy was founded in 2009. It is dedicated to the core areas of analytical philosophy. Its mission is to conduct and foster collaborative research on fundamental issues in metaphysics, epistemology and the philosophies of logic, language, mathematics and mind, and to provide a dedicated training environment for early career (postdoctoral and postgraduate) researchers. Areas of remit:
- Epistemology (formal epistemology, entitlement, epistemic externalism, perception)
- Formal Logic, including the history of logic
- Philosophy of Logic (logical consequence, the paradoxes, inferentialism and model-theory, the epistemology of logic and the a priori)
- Philosophy of Language (rule-following, propositions, vagueness, semantics and pragmatics, contextualism and relativism, content externalism)
- Philosophy of Mathematics (foundations, neo-logicism and structuralism)
- Metaphysics (value, taste, meaning, intentionality, time and truth)
- Philosophy of Mind (the metaphysics and epistemology of the self, rationality and rational explanation)
History of Analytical Philosophy, and its methods, scope and limits
See http://www.abdn.ac.uk/philosophy/nip/prospectus.shtml for further details.
Emeritus and Honorary Staff (main interests indicated only where not already listed above):
Robin Cameron (philosophy of mathematics; philosophy of logic – especially conditionality)
Patricia Clarke (Plato and mediaeval logic).
Nigel Dower (ethics/philosophy of development, environment and international relations; global ethics; global citizenship)
Eric Matthews (philosophy and ethics of medicine; 20th-century French philosophy – Bergson, Sartre and Merleau-Ponty)
Daniel Shaw (Hume, moral philosophy, aesthetics, utilitarianism)
M. A. Stewart (based in Edinburgh but attached to Aberdeen) (18th Century Scottish Philosophy)