Travel Awards “Extrospection” 2019
Research Training Group (RTG) 2386 “Extrospection. External access to higher cognitive processes”
Program for Travel Awardees
THURSDAY, 11 April 2019, 11.00–17.30
From 11.00 Posters on display: The 10 research topics of the RTG 2386 (entrance hall)
11.30–12.00 Meeting with the coordinator, Dr. Dirk Mende
12.00–13.00 Find a place nearby to have lunch!
13.00–14.00 Presentation of the research program
14.00–14.30 PIs will discuss their posters (meet them at their poster in the entrance hall)
14.30–15.00 Time for one-on-one meetings with potential supervisors
15.30–17.30 Monthly meeting of RTG members (PIs and doctoral candidates) exclusively. Travel awardees are invited to attend!
Cold drinks, coffee, tea & snacks will be provided.
Location: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Luisenstraße 56, 10117 Berlin, Room 144 (ground floor)
(see also: How to get here)
FRIDAY, 12 April 2019, 10.00-18.00
Day One of a four-day seminar on
Introspection: Privileged, Problematic, Predictable
Lecturer: Prof. Dr. Sascha Fink (PI of RTG 2386), University of Magdeburg
Day One: “Introspection: Why priviledged?”
Reading:
(1) Excerpt from: Augustinus (417–28), De Trinitate, 8.6.
(2) Excerpt from: Locke, J. (1689) Essay Concerning Human Understanding, Chap. Of True and False Ideas.
(3) Alston, W. (1971) Varieties of Privileged Access, American Philosophical Quarterly, 8(3), 223–241.
(4) Goldman, A. I. (1997) Science, Publicity, and Consciousness, Philosophy of Science, 64(4), 525–545.
Location: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Luisenstraße 56, 10117 Berlin, Room 144 (ground floor)
(see also: How to get here)
Contact
Dr. Dirk Mende, Coordinator
+49 30 2093-1792
mb-extrospection@hu-berlin.de
CALL & INVITATION
International Travel Awards 10 April to 13/14 April 2019:
APPLY NOW!
Open Day for all on 11 April 2019, 12.00-15.00:
JUST TURN UP!
http://www.mind-and-brain.de/rtg-2386/open-day-2019/
Travel Awards
Learn more about Research Training Group (RTG) 2386
“Extrospection. External access to higher cognitive processes”
Intended for students interested in applying for a research
position within RTG 2386 "Extrospection" in 2019
Berlin program dates:
11 and 12 April 2019
Travel dates:
10 April to 13/14 April 2019
Deadline for applications for travel awards:
20 March 2019, 23:59:59 CET
What's on offer?
We offer up to 10 travel awards (partial or full reimbursement for
travel and accommodation depending on individual
circumstances) for promising international candidates with
an interest in applying for one of the fully-funded
three-year research positions within RTG 2386.
The travel awards will be advantageous for candidates with a
serious interest in applying as they will receive more
information about the project and have the opportunity to
speak to potential supervisors before submitting their
applications for the three-year fully-funded research
positions within RTG 2386 “Extrospection. External access to
higher cognitive processes”.
Application period for positions 2019:
15 April to 12 May 2019
The 10 research topics:
http://www.mind-and-brain.de/rtg-2386/research-topics/
Students with Visa requirements:
If you send in a suitable application for the travel awards (see
below), but cannot meet the Visa regulations in time,
we will try to bring you to Berlin at a later date than the advertised 11-12 April,
but before the application deadline for positions 12 May 2019.
Applications for Travel Awards
Please send us the following documents:
(1) A meaningful letter of motivation (max 2 pages),
detailing your interests in one of the participating
research topics for 2019–2022;
(2a) Copies (scans) of your Master's certificate and
transcripts;
(2b) If Master's program not yet completed: transcripts and
a timeline until the start of the project in October 2019;
(3) Full academic CV.
Please send the above in *one PDF file* of no more than 7 MB.
Please name the file as follows: YourName_RTG_Travel Awards
Deadline for Travel Awards for RTG 2386:
20 March 2019, 23:59:59 CET
Complete applications and any queries should be sent to:
mb-extrospection@hu-berlin.de
Contact:
mb-extrospection@hu-berlin.de
Further information
www.mind-and-brain.de/rtg-2386/
www.mind-and-brain.de/rtg-2386/research-positions/
www.mind-and-brain.de/rtg-2386/funding/
www.mind-and-brain.de/rtg-2386/principal-investigators/
http://www.mind-and-brain.de/rtg-2386/research-topics/
www.mind-and-brain.de/rtg-2386/open-day-2019/
Some Questions and Answers
RTG 2386: What is on offer?
The DFG-funded Research Training Group (RTG) 2386 “Extrospection.External access to higher cognitive processes” offers a structured and interdisciplinary doctoral program including a fast-track option for Master’s students. During the first funding period 2018–2023, a sophisticated admission process will select three cohorts of doctoral researchers (with application calls in 2018, 2019, and 2020) and two cohorts of fast-track students (to start in 2018 and 2019). Students are asked to apply for one (or more) of the advertised research topics. They will have to hand in a detailed 5-page proposal for an interdisciplinary doctoral project devoted to the problem of extrospection. When applying, applicants should also explain why they wish to conduct their doctoral research in a structured and interdisciplinary doctoral program. Upon admission, students will be offered a salaried doctoral position for three years. Each doctoral candidate will be assigned two experts from different disciplines as their primary and secondary supervisors.
Students will participate in an obligatory education and training program. The core of the RTG’s curriculum will consist of specific research seminars devoted to extrospection, as well as a series of basic and advanced seminars, workshops and academic retreats. Moreover, the RTG will offer scientific soft-skill courses tailored to each individual student’s specific needs.
The RTG 2386 will be based at the graduate school Berlin School of Mind and Brain, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.
What is “Extrospection”?
While introspection means first-person access to one’s own conscious states, extrospection stands for third-person access to another person’s conscious experience, e.g. with scientific methods or by way of mind reading. Recognizing that another person feels pain, or investigating the conscious perceptual experience of an experimental subject with an fMRI scanner are typical cases of extrospection.
What are the research goals of the Research Training Group 2386 “Extrospection”?
Conscious processes like states of emotion, perception, belief formation, or mind-reading, are of essential importance in philosophy, psychology, neuroscience, and psychiatry. It is quite controversial, though, to what extent these processes can be captured adequately by means of extrospection. The reason for this controversy is that extrospective methods are restricted to indirect external evidence. Introspection, by contrast, has long been treated as privileged, given its direct first-person access to these processes.
The present project aims at a comprehensive epistemological, historical and empirical assessment of extrospection. As a working hypothesis, we assume that there is an epistemic symmetry between extrospection and introspection: What can be known by way of first-person methods can be known by way of third-person methods as well, at least in principle. While we do not deny the obvious insufficiencies of current extrospective methods, we hypothesize that they can be overcome by future scientific, methodological, and technological developments.
What is a Research Training Group?
Research Training Groups (RTG) are established by universities to promote young researchers. They are funded by the DFG for a period of up to nine years. Their key emphasis is on the qualification of doctoral researchers within the framework of a focused research programme and a structured training strategy. RTGs often have an interdisciplinary approach. The aim of RTGs is to prepare doctoral researchers for the complexities of the job market in science and academics and simultaneously encourage early scientific independence.
