Logic List Mailing Archive

PhD student position on "The Evolution of Unpopular Norms and Bullying", Munich (Germany), Deadline: 20 Nov 2014

The Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy (MCMP, http://lmu.de/mcmp) 
and the Chair of Philosophy of Science at the Faculty of Philosophy, 
Philosophy of Science and Study of Religion at LMU Munich seek 
applications for a Doctoral Fellowship. The successful candidate will work 
on the project "The Evolution of Unpopular Norms and Bullying? (project 
summary below), which is funded by the German Research Council (DFG) and 
part of the DFG Priority Programme ?New Frameworks of Rationality?. The 
fellowship is open for candidates with a masters degree in philosophy or a 
related social science. The funding is for three years, and the fellowship 
should be taken up by January 1, 2015. However, a later starting date is 
also possible. (Please let us know if you wish to start at a later date.)

Applications (including a cover letter that addresses, amongst others, 
one's academic background and research interests, a CV, a list of 
publications (if applicable), a sample of written work of no more than 
5000 words (ideally in English, but German is also acceptable), and a 
description of a planned research project of 1000-1500 words) related to 
the above mentioned project should be sent by email (ideally everything 
requested in one PDF document) to office.hartmann@lrz.uni-muenchen.de by 
November 20, 2014. Hard copy applications are not accepted. Additionally, 
two confidential letters of reference addressing the applicant's 
qualifications for academic research should be sent to the same address 
from the referees directly.

The MCMP hosts a vibrant research community of faculty, postdoctoral 
fellows, doctoral fellows, master students, and visiting fellows. It 
organizes at least two weekly colloquia and a weekly internal work 
in-progress seminar, as well as various other activities such as 
workshops, conferences, summer schools, and reading groups. Several of our 
research projects are conducted in collaboration with scientists. The 
successful candidate will partake in all of MCMP's academic activities and 
enjoy its administrative facilities and financial support. The official 
language at the MCMP is English and fluency in German is not mandatory.

We especially encourage female scholars to apply. The LMU in general, and 
the MCMP in particular, endeavor to raise the percentage of women among 
its academic personnel. Furthermore, given equal qualification, preference 
will be given to candidates with disabilities. Contact for informal 
inquiries: Professor Stephan Hartmann (S.Hartmann@lmu.de)

Abstract: The Evolution of Unpopular Norms and Bullying

Although there is growing research about the relationship between 
individual and collective rationality, there has been relatively little 
work investigating the irrational behavior.  The purpose of this project 
is to employ agent-based models to explain the evolution of norms that are 
collectively irrational.  Unpopular social norms (e.g. feet-binding in 
China) are the most well-known examples, and this project will contribute 
to the small (but growing) literature on the emergence of unpopular norms. 
In addition to unpopular norms, the investigators plan to focus on an 
unexplored application: bullying. The project is jointly led by Stephan 
Hartmann (MCMP) and Conor Mayo-Wilson (University of Washington and MCMP).

A more detailed description of the project can be found here:
http://stephanhartmann.org/Bullying_web.pdf