Job Description and Further Particulars Postdoctoral Research Associate: Understanding Temporal Asymmetry (Information at the Quantum Physics/Statistical Mechanics Nexus) Faculty of Philosophy University of Cambridge Vacancy Reference: GV01692 Full time, fixed term post: 1 January 2014 - 31 December 2016 Salary range: £27,854–£29,541 Introduction Appplications are invited for a full-time Postdoctoral Research Associate to work on the Project Information at the Quantum Physics/Statistical Mechanics Nexus: Entropy, Time Asymmetry, Probability and Perspective. The Project, which is funded by the Templeton World Charity Foundation, is hosted jointly by the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Oxford and the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Cambridge. The Directors of the Project are Dr Christopher Timpson (Oxford) and Professor Huw Price FBA (Cambridge) The Project includes two Postdoctoral Research Associate positions, one in Oxford and one in Cambridge. Applicants for either position will automatically be considered for the other unless they specify otherwise in their application. This set of further particulars applies to the position at Cambridge, the holder of which will work under the direction of Professor Price. The further particulars for the position based in Oxford are available from www.philosophy.ox.ac.uk/vacancies. The Cambridge Faculty of Philosophy The Faculty is one of the most distinguished university philosophy departments in the world and has an outstanding reputation for teaching and research. In the 2001 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) the Faculty was awarded the highest mark of 5*, and in the 2008 RAE 62% of the submission was rated as world-leading or internationally excellent. The Faculty also received the highest possible rating (24/24) in the most recent Teaching Quality evaluation by the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education in 2001. It has a team of first-rate academic staff and also attracts excellent undergraduate and postgraduate students. PhD students from the Faculty have a strong track record of progressing to academic positions. There are twelve permanent (‘established’) University Teaching Officer (UTO) posts, and a variable number of temporary teaching staff, Affiliated Lecturers and Research Fellows: Professors Prof Huw Price (Bertrand Russell Professor of Philosophy), Prof Tim Crane (Knightbridge Professor), Prof Raymond Geuss, Prof Richard Holton, Prof Rae Langton, Prof Alex Oliver, Prof Michael Potter 1 University Senior Lecturers Dr Arif Ahmed, Dr Clare Chambers, University Lecturers Dr Angela Breitenbach, Dr Tim Button, Dr Paulina Sliwa Senior Research Fellows Dr Jeremy Butterfield, Professor John Marenbon (at Trinity College) Junior Research Fellows Dr Adam Caulton, Dr Will Davies, Dr Lorna Finlayson, Dr Thomas Land, Dr John Maier, Dr Brian Pitts Emeritus Professors/Honorary Professors Prof Simon Blackburn, Prof Jane Heal, Prof Hugh Mellor, Prof Onora O’Neill, Prof Timothy Smiley Temporary Lecturers Dr Raphael Ehrsam, Dr Luca Incurvati, Dr Chris Thompson The Faculty has a regular stream of overseas visiting philosophers. It also benefits from close links with cognate Faculties/Departments including Classics; Divinity; History; Law; Experimental Psychology; History and Philosophy of Science; and Politics and International Studies. The Faculty is friendly and informal place in which to work. It has an excellent administrative team and dedicated library and IT support. RESEARCH Recent and proposed research by members of the Faculty of Philosophy falls into the following areas: Aesthetics Breitenbach, Geuss Kant Breitenbach, Land Metaphysics and Epistemology Ahmed, Button, Crane, Maier, Mellor, Oliver, Price, Sliwa Philosophy of Mind Blackburn, Crane, Heal, Maier, Mellor Logic and Philosophy of Mathematics Ahmed, Button, Incurvati, Oliver, Potter, Smiley Philosophy of Language and Logic Blackburn, Crane, Heal, Oliver, Price Philosophy of Psychology Crane, Davies Philosophy of Science Breitenbach, Butterfield, Caulton, Pitts, Price Ethics Blackburn, Connell, Lillehammer, O'Neill, Oliver, Sliwa Political Philosophy Chambers, Finlayson, Geuss, O'Neill, Thompson, History of Modern Philosophy Blackburn, Breitenbach, Geuss, Potter, O'Neill 2 History of Medieval Philosophy Marenbon History of Ancient Philosophy Geuss The Faculty actively supports and encourages staff and students in their research. Research seminars are held throughout the academic year, and there are many opportunities for stimulating philosophical debate. A wide range of invited speakers give papers at the Moral Sciences Club each week during term-time. In addition, there are regular specialist seminars, reading groups and workshops on a variety of subjects. Recent research seminars organised by members of the Faculty have been on Logic and the Philosophy of Mathematics, the Philosophy of Mind, Metaphysics, Ethics and Political Philosophy. Faculty members are also actively involved with the national Mind Network, which they helped to found in 2010 (http://mindcogsci.net). The new Cambridge Philosophy of Science (CamPoS) network was launched in 2012. GRADUATE TEACHING and SUPERVISION All teaching officers contribute to graduate teaching by participating in admissions, supervising students, and examining. The graduate intake is widely international and of a high calibre: the ratio of applications to acceptances is around 6 to 1. The MPhil provides initial training for those wishing to proceed to the PhD. It also offers an opportunity to work intensively on some philosophical subjects for those proposing careers other than in Philosophy. It involves the preparation of three long essays and a dissertation (which are individually supervised) and attendance at a weekly seminar. In a typical year 15 - 20 students take the MPhil, and in addition there are approximately 25 PhD students at any one time. Each PhD student has, in addition to their main supervisor, a "shadow" supervisor on whom they can call for advice, and who independently monitors their progress. There is also a fortnightly seminar for PhD students to present their work and discuss that of their peers. A Director of Graduate Studies oversees all these arrangements. UNDERGRADUATE TEACHING Philosophy is a full time undergraduate subject, not part of a joint course, even in the first year. Typically there are between fifty and sixty undergraduates in each of the three years. Teaching is by lectures, classes, discussion groups and seminars (which are organised by the Faculty) and by weekly supervision (normally individual or at most in pairs, organised by Colleges). Assessment is mainly by end-of-year examination on a published syllabus, although some elements of submitted work can also contribute to the examination. The areas taught in the first year of study are all compulsory. They are Metaphysics, Ethics and Political Philosophy, Logic, and Set Texts. At the end of the second year two papers are compulsory (Logic, Metaphysics & Epistemology) and students also choose any two papers from the following list: Ethics, Greek and Roman Philosophy, Early Modern Philosophy, Philosophy of Science, Political Philosophy and Experimental Psychology. In the third and final year there are no compulsory papers, but students choose any four from: Metaphysics, Philosophy of Mind, Ethics, European Philosophy from Kant, Philosophy in the Long Middle Ages, Philosophy of Science, Mathematical Logic, Philosophical Logic, Political Philosophy, Aesthetics, and the Special Subject Paper. The last paper offers students a particularly specialised course on a major topic. In 2013-14 it will be Wittgenstein. 3 Cambridge allows students to transfer from one subject to another between academic years. Each year, typically about one fifth of Philosophy students change to another subject, and a similar number transfer into Philosophy. ACCOMMODATION AND RESOURCES A significant expansion of the Faculty's accommodation was completed in October 2006. The Faculty occupies the top floor and part of the middle floor of one wing of the Raised Faculty Building on Sidgwick Avenue, with administrative offices, library and Teaching Officers' rooms all conveniently together. In the same area there are also graduate work- spaces, a graduate/staff common room and an undergraduate common room. The library has some 14,500 books and takes 38 periodicals. Most of the Faculty’s lectures, seminars and classes take place on the Sidgwick Site in the Lecture Block, or in the Raised Faculty Building itself. The Faculty is close to other Humanities Faculties (Classics, Economics, History, English, Law, Modern and Medieval Languages and Divinity). It is a five-minute walk from University Library, a copyright deposit library with more than 8 million books and some 250 Philosophical periodicals. COGNATE FACULTIES The Faculty has close contacts with colleagues in cognate Faculties, including: Department of History and Philosophy of Science Anna Alexandrova, Hasok Chang, Marina Frasca-Spada, Richard Jennings, Tim Lewens Faculty of Divinity Sarah Coakley, Douglas Hedley Faculty of Classics Nick Denyer, David Sedley, James Warren, Robert Wardy Faculty of History Annabel Brett, Joel Isaac Faculty of Law Matthew Kramer Faculty of Politics, Psychology, Sociology and International Studies Duncan Bell, David Runciman Experimental Psychology Michele Miozzo, James Russell Centre for Quantum Information and Foundations (DAMTP) Adrian Kent, Nazim Bouatta The Colleges The University, the Faculties and Departments,