Hist & Phil of Psychology Postdoc
The Bertrand Russell Research Centre and the Philosophy Department at McMaster University invite applications for a 1-year postdoctoral fellowship in the history and philosophy of psychology.
Philosophy of mind that engages research in cognitive psychology is flourishing. But approaching philosophical questions in an empirically-informed way is not a new thing on the intellectual stage. Empirical psychology gained a foothold as an independent scientific discipline around the turn of the 20th century. For reflection on mind conducted before that time, it can be intriguingly difficult to draw a clean line between the philosophical and the (natural) scientific.
We are building a new project at McMaster aimed at excavating philosophically-rich empirical work on mind from prior centuries. The project aims to address two key questions.
1. What can today’s philosophers of mind and cognitive scientists learn from forgotten, empirically-informed work from the past?
2. How did the rise of an independent science of mind influence the subsequent development of analytic philosophy?
Over the next several years, the Bertrand Russell Research Centre will host a series of workshops and conferences aimed at encouraging new research on these issues. The successful applicant to this position will support this project by conducting original research that addresses one or both of these questions, and by helping with conference organization (along with supporting publications that might flow from these events).