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This is very fun. Wordle clouds for two papers I’m working on right now. (Click through for full effect):

HT: Crooked Timber.

The department of philosophy at Leeds is currently advertising for the following 1-year research fellowship position.  This is a really nice opportunity to do pretty much full time research for a year and get paid at a good level for doing so, in a very friendly and supportive athmosphere. (Previous holders of this post include Ross Cameron (now continuing lecturer at Leeds) and Stephan Leuenberger (now continuing lecturer at Glasgow).)

School of Humanities – Department of Philosophy

Research Fellow

(Full-time, fixed term for 1 year)

This post is partially sponsored by the Centre for Metaphysics and Mind, which is based in the Department. Research interests in metaphysics, philosophy of mind, philosophy of language, philosophy of science, philosophy of logic, philosophy of mathematics or epistemology are desirable. Areas of general research interest should include metaphysics, although research specialisation in this area is not essential. You will be expected to make a substantial contribution to the research life of the Department.

You will have completed, or be close to completing, a doctorate in Philosophy, and will be able to provide evidence of excellent research potential. The post is open to candidates who already hold a postdoctoral award.

For general information see http://www.philosophy.leeds.ac.uk

University Grade 7 (£28,290 – £33,780 p.a.)

Informal enquiries to Professor Steven French, Head of Department, tel +44 (0)113 343 4112, email s.r.d.french@leeds.ac.uk.

To apply on line please visit http://www.leeds.ac.uk and click on ‘jobs’. Alternatively application packs are available via email recruitment@admin.leeds.ac.uk tel+44 (0)113 343 5771.

Job ref 316123 Closing date 6 August 2008

Interviews will be held on August 25^th

Applicants should ensure that references and two writing samples are submitted by the closing date.

The summer is here and conferences are arriving!

I’m off to the states for a week in early July for the Metaphysical Mayhem, at which I’m a conference commentator. Dean Zimmerman and Josh Armstrong have put together a great lineup of folk talking on metametaphysics. After that, I’ll be going to the conditionals/formal epistemology workshop in Konstanz, presenting my paper on indicative conditionals, vagueness and belief. Another fab collection of talks. Last but by no means least, I’m due to comment on John Hawthorne’s paper at Leeds’ very own Perspectives on Ontology conference (deadline for registration is approaching—so sign up and come along!). I’ll also be involved in the 3rd Annual CMM grad conference which is happening in the few days before the Perspectives conference–Ross Cameron and myself are going to be on a panel talking about publishing as a grad student.

One thing I’m going to have to miss, with great regret, is the Tartu logical pluralism conference. Again, deadlines are approaching for this, so people who want to go should be registering now!

So much philosophy, so little time.

More real content soon, I promise. For the time being I’m down in Oxford on a flying visit to do business. Yes, I’m all grown up now. But I’m also taking the chance to attend one of Hartry Field’s six John Locke lectures—the series is entitled “Logic, Normativity and Rational Revisability”, which are currently being held on Wednesday evenings in Oxford. What is particularly super-funky is that they’re available as mp3 files. (Scroll down this page to find them—the page looks horrible in firefox, but ok in explorer.)

The upshot of all this is that I was able to spend over two hours on the M1 listening to the first two lectures (I was a bit worried that a pile-up would be caused by in-car worrying over whether “potential overrulingness” is a partial ordering of norms—but not so). The sound quality is actually pretty good, and the content fascinating—I’d recommend people give it a go.

I think it’d be great if more of these kind of set piece lecture series were made available in this way. One thing—I can’t find any way of subscribing to these podcasts through rss or itunes and the like (I’m kinda hazy on the technology behind automated podcasting, but I know I like it!). I’m presently manually downloading them and getting them registered… anyone aware of a more elegant way of doing this?

… well, not quite. I’m sitting on my own front step, having mislaid my keys somewhere, waiting for my partner to come back and let me in. Luckily, wireless stretches to the front step, it’s not raining, and I had my laptop on me.

[I got in, by the way—and managed to rejoin my keys later in the evening. Thanks to all who expressed concern! In more navel-gazing news, I spent Monday (a national holiday here in the UK) at the beautiful Ingleton waterfalls — two courses of waterfalls falling through a pair of parallel gorges about an hour west of where I live.]

The Centre for Metaphysics and Mind at the University of Leeds is hosting the 3rd Annual CMM Graduate Conference on Thursday 4th September. This is will run immediately before the metaphysics conference, Perspectives on Ontology, that is being held at University of Leeds from Friday 5th to Sunday 7th September.

Submissions are welcome on any area of metaphysics. Metaphysics should be broadly construed to include not only traditional metaphysical topics, but also the metaphysical aspects of e.g. philosophy of mind, philosophy of physics, philosophy of religion, and aesthetics.

Submissions of any length up to  5,000 words will be considered.

Each paper presented at the conference will be followed by a response from a member of academic staff from the University of Leeds Department of Philosophy.

As with last year’s conference we hope to be able to pay some or all of the travel and accommodation costs for those people whose papers are accepted. (This is dependent on successful funding applications.)

Please submit complete papers, preferably by e-mail, to Sarah Grant, phl2skg@leeds.ac.uk. Please mark your submission clearly as such. Receipt will be acknowledged asap. Submissions will also be accepted by mail:

Sarah Grant
School of Philosophy
University of Leeds
Woodhouse Lane
LS2 9JT

All papers should be suitable for blind review (we cannot guarantee anonymised refereeing if your paper is not suitably anonymised). Please include a cover page with title, abstract and contact details. Mailed submissions should include two copies.

Deadline for receipt of submissions is Friday 18th July 2008.

Decisions will be made by Friday 8th August 2008.

For more general details on the conference please consult:

http://www.personal.leeds.ac.uk/~phsk/cmmgc08/index.htm

or e-mail Duncan Watson at phl5dw@leeds.ac.uk

Registration details are now available for Perspectives on Ontology. Please see the website here.
Attendance at the conference is limited, so early registration is urged.

Details are also available for the graduate bursaries.

Perspectives on Ontology

A major international conference on metaphysics to be held at the University of Leeds, Sep 5th-7th 2008.

Speakers:
Karen Bennett (Cornell)
John Hawthorne (Oxford
Jill North (Yale)
Helen Steward (Leeds)
Gabriel Uzquiano (Oxford)
Jessica Wilson (Toronto)

Commentators:
Benj Hellie (Toronto)
Kris McDaniel (Syracuse)
Juha Saatsi (Leeds)
Ted Sider (NYU)
Jason Turner (Leeds)
Robbie Williams (Leeds)

There’s also going to be a graduate conference directly prior to this. Details, including a call for papers, are available here.

Hooray!

[Ht: Crooked Timber]

I’ve decided to move this blog to wordpress (I like the extra features it brings—and particularly the ability to use latex commands to write in logical notation—I plan to use that a lot).

Please feel free to leave comments on the functioning and aesthetics of the new blog. (The picture in the title-bar, if you’re wondering, is Mary the colour scientist in her monochrome room—a section from a rather lovely picture that was drawn for me for my first year “Mind” lectures by a friend of one of the graduate students here at Leeds).