Welcome to the website of the DFG-GACR research project CELIA!

What we do:

The goal of the CELIA project is to study the consequences of lifting a significant, but until now, largely overlooked idealization in logical models of group knowledge, beliefs, and action: what we call the “extensional” view of groups. In most contributions to epistemic, doxastic, and coalition logic, a group is reduced to its extension, i.e., the set of its members. This has the immediate but counter-intuitive consequence that groups change identity when their membership changes, and rules out uncertainty regarding who is in a given group. This idealization does not reflect the structure of groups in the intended application of these logical models. Firms, informal teams, or even loose crowds typically remain even if they gain or lose members, and the identity of all members is rarely, if ever, common knowledge in any group of moderate size.

To lift this idealization, CELIA studies the “intensional” view of groups, which loosens the relationship between group membership and group identity, and applies it to questions in epistemic, doxastic, and coalition logic where collectives play a crucial role. CELIA is divided into three sub-projects. The first sub-project studies the logical properties of collective epistemic attitudes under the intensional view of groups by focusing, on the one hand, on specific algebraic or relational operations on groups and, on the other hand, on groups that are not logically omniscient. The second sub-project studies collective memory once intensional groups are taken into account. It studies, in particular, the relation between so-called individual and collective perfect recall, defined using distributed and common knowledge. The third sub-project re-visits coalition logic and studies groups’ agentive powers from an intensional perspective. In particular, it will consider how the canonical representation theorems for so-called playable effectivity functions change when intensional groups with specific algebraic structures are introduced.

Open positions:

We are looking for junior researchers ready to conduct unsupervised research in close collaboration with members of the project team and the Logic group, within the area of the project. The successful applicant will be embedded in a lively and international team of philosophical logicians and computer scientists working in the Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague, University of Bayreuth, and the MCMP in Munich.

Conditions

• Contract is of 18-30 months duration (with the possibility of a follow-up tenure-track application).
• Starting date: the position is available from 1. 4. 2023.
• Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis with a first cut-off point on 31.1. 2023.
• This is a full-time fixed term contract appointment. Part time contract is negotiable.
• Monthly gross salary: 44 000 CZK. Cost Of Living Comparison
• Bonuses depending on performance and travel funding for conferences and research stays.
• Contribution for reallocation costs for successful applicant coming from abroad: 10 000 CZK plus 10 000 CZK for family (spouse and/or children).
• Applicants should:
  1. Hold a PhD in Logic, Philosophy, or Computer Science, with a track-record of work relevant for the project.
  2. Be familiar with epistemic logic, game theory, or logic of agency.
  3. Be fluent in English.
• We seek curious, self-motivated, hard-working, team-spirited researchers.
• The applications are to be sent to ics@cs.cas.cz and should contain:
  1. Curriculum Vitae.
  2. Two letters of recommendation, sent directly to ics@cs.cas.cz.
  3. Motivation letter containing a short summary of their research plans in the area of the project.

The ICS is an equal-opportunity employer committed to creating an inclusive environment for everyone. Do not hesitate to contact the principal investigator for more details on the project and informal inquiries concerning the position: Mgr. Marta Bílková, Ph.D., bilkova@cs.cas.cz, https://sites.google.com/view/martabilkova/.