Post-Doctoral Research Fellowships in Early Modern Philosophy (NOTICE N.01/2022)
Department of Philosophy
University of São Paulo (Brazil)
The Research Project on Power, conflict and freedom: Spinoza and the paths of modern and contemporary political philosophy on democracy* announces one (1) postdoctoral position in the Philosophy Department, University of São Paulo (USP), in:
- History of Early Modern Philosophy (17th century)
The fellowship lasts twenty-one months, beginning in May 2022. The Fellow will be a Post-Doctoral member of the Department of Philosophy, and will join the research activities of the Research Project (research seminars, conferences, meetings and elaboration of scientific reports). This fellowship corresponds to a research position, with no teaching responsibilities attached.
The fellowship is sponsored by FAPESP. The chosen candidate will earn R$ 7.373,10 (Brazilian currency) per month, tax free.
DOCUMENTS REQUIRED
Applicants should have completed the PhD in Philosophy, but, as required by FAPESP, not at the University of São Paulo. The PhD should have been completed preferably no earlier than 2017. For the position, the applicant must include:
- an updated Curriculum Vitae;
- copy of PhD certification (diploma or other official document).
- a statement of proposed research (no more than 10 pages, plus 1 separate page for bibliography), specifying the topic(s) to be studied, including a research schedule, a list of expected publications and their connection with the theme of the main project;
- a writing sample (dissertation chapter or other paper);
- one letter of recommendation.
All documents (in PDF) should be uploaded to the address below. Candidates will be notified by e-mail once their dossier has been processed (please provide an e-mail address in the application).
All dossier materials and the selection committee's evaluations remain confidential. The committee is not able to provide feedback on individual applications.
APPLICATION SCHEDULE
Receipt of all applications: February 8th to 28th, 2022.
The list of accepted applications will be published on the official website of the USP Philosophy Department by March 4th, 2022.
Candidates will be able to question the rejection of the initial application up to 48 hours after this publication.
The final list of accepted initial applications will be published on the official website of the USP Philosophy Department by March 7th 2022.
The final results will be published on the official website of USP Philosophy Department by March 28th, 2022.
Applications (in English, French, Italian, Spanish, or Portuguese) should be submitted to:
http://filosofia.fflch.usp.br/en/posdoc/selecao01-2022/inscricao
More information can be obtained at these websites:
Research Project : : https://bv.fapesp.br/pt/auxilios/104398/poder-conflito-e-liberdade-espi…
USP Department of Philosophy : filosofia.fflch.usp.br
FAPESP : www.fapesp.br
For information not available at these sites, please contact Prof. Luís César Oliva at lcoliva@usp.br
*Power, conflict and freedom: Spinoza and the paths of modern and contemporary political philosophy on democracy
Abstract: Three moments are decisive in the constitution of political philosophy: the one that Moses Finley called “the invention of politics” to refer to the birth of Greek democracy and the Roman republic; the one defined by Machiavelli through the original division of society between the desire of the Great to oppress and command and that of the People to be neither oppressed nor commanded; and the one which, with Spinoza, introduced the modern idea of democracy as an immanent power of the multitudo or collective power of creation and expression of rights. These three moments open the field of the history of the invention of the republic and democracy as an exercise of freedom and invention of rights, politics being effected as a passage from the logic of force to the logic of power, that is, from war to legitimacy of conflict under laws. Of these three founding moments, we will take as point of reference the modern conception of Spinozistic origin. By means of this we will examined, on the one hand, the political significance of the emergence of modern ideas of individual and natural / civil right, and, on the other hand, the continuities and ruptures in political thought brought about by contemporary philosophy – that is, the development of ideas of class struggle, of state, of power and of violence. We believe that it is possible to find there a tradition within which Spinoza’s political thought gains a new light, a tradition designed by contemporary authors who, like Spinoza, in so far as they were concerned to mark the legitimate instance of the conflict, searched for support in the ancients and Machiavelli in order to understand the political participation of the citizens under the aegis of the struggle for guarantee and conquest of new rights, having as reference the defense of freedom of dissent.