Research Training Group 2386 

“Extrospection. External access to higher cognitive processes”

DFG Research Training Group / Graduiertenkolleg 2386 - DFG Förderkennzeichen 337619223



“Extrospection” is an independent research project attached to the Berlin School of Mind and Brain.

Funding will end in 2024, and there will be no further calls for applications for doctoral positions in the RTG 2386.


What is “Extrospection”?

While introspection means first-person access to one’s own conscious states, extrospection stands for second- and third-person access to a 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 on offer 2018–2023?

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.

There will be no tuition fees.
 

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.
 

Next application period

No more application periods.

 

This page last updated on: 12 January 2024

Research Training Group / Graduiertenkolleg 2386
DFG Förderkennzeichen 337619223
 

Postal address
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Berlin School of Mind and Brain
RTG 2386 “Extrospection”
10099 Berlin

Spokesperson / Sprecher
Prof. Dr. Michael Pauen
michael.pauen@hu-berlin.de

Management offices
Luisenstraße 56, 10117 Berlin
mb-extrospection@hu-berlin.de

Dr. Dirk Mende
Coordinator RTG Meetings, Curriculum Doctoral Program, Progress Reports
R. 318
Tel.: +49 30 2093-89768

Annette Winkelmann
Personnel/Employment Contracts, Everything to Do with Money (budgets, travel, teaching contracts, invoices for publications, etc.), DFG/HU Reporting, Payments to Charité/OVGU
R. 301
Tel.: +49 30 2093-89750