PHILOSOPHY POST-DOC POSITIONS AT THE CO3 LAB @ ULB

The Consciousness, Cognition & Computation Group of the Center for Research in Cognition & Neurosciences at the Université Libre de Bruxelles seeks applicants for two four-year Ph.D. positions and two post-doc positions funded under the EXPERIENCE Advanced Grant from the European Research Council (ERC) awarded to Axel Cleeremans .

These positions open on January 1st, 2023. This specific announcement is about a postdoc position in PHILOSOPHY. For the postdoc and PhD positions in psychology, please see the respective announcements. 

EXPERIENCE is an ambitious, five-year project dedicated to addressing a fundamental question in the broad domain of consciousness science: Why would we do anything at all if the doing was not doing something to us? In other words: What is consciousness good for? Reversing classical views according to which subjective experience is a mere epiphenomenon that affords no functional advantage, EXPERIENCE proposes that the core function of phenomenal experience is to enable subject-level valuation: “What it feels like” is endowed with intrinsic value. Thus, it is only in virtue of the fact that conscious agents experience things and care about those experiences that they are motivated to act in certain ways and that they prefer some states of affairs vs. others. Conscious experience functions as a mental currency of sorts that makes it possible for agents to compare vastly different states of affairs in a common subject-centred mental quality space — a feature that explains that consciousness is unified. EXPERIENCE will address the “why” question of consciousness by pursuing a rich interdisciplinary program rooted in integrative philosophy of mind and in innovative cognitive neuroscience methods applied to the interactions between affect and consciousness in perception and action. The project is articulated over four work packages, each addressing a specific claim: (1) Subjective experience has intrinsic value, (2) The phenomenal field is valenced, (3) All intentional action is motivated by subjective experience & (4) Subjective experience has functional effects. EXPERIENCE promises to question entrenched distinctions and to move the scientific approach of consciousness a step closer to what we all know: That subjective experience matters. In fact, in many respects, it is the only thing that matters, as without it, life would simply not be worth living.

For further background on the ideas behind this project, applicants are invited to consult this open-access article

While the specific contents associated with each of the two positions is open to discussion, the following is envisioned:

Position 1 (Post-Doctoral Associate) is aimed at developing the core philosophical argument that phenomenal experience has intrinsic value. This will entail laying the groundwork necessary to support this core claim, and will involve integrative philosophical analysis and argument. What difference does it make to feel things? Could it be that the very function of consciousness — what it does — is precisely to make us experience things — what it feels like?

Successful applicants for this position are expected to hold a Ph.D. in Philosophy of mind (strongly preferred) or in Cognitive Science, to have a deep interest in consciousness research, and to show acquaintance with the relevant empirical literature. Excellent knowledge of English is expected. The successful applicant will be expected to oversee and drive the project with the PI and the other post-doc, and to be involved in supervising the work of a philosophy Ph.D. student (Position 3) who will also be involved in developing this aspect of EXPERIENCE.