2 Funded PhD Positions

Applications are invited for two funded PhD positions at the Université de Fribourg (Switzerland) as part of the research project “Liberty, Equality, and Utility: Assessing the trade-offs between individual liberty, well-being, and material equality” funded by the Sir John Templeton Foundation and directed by Prof. Ralf Bader.

Project description: The research project will shed new light on the conflicts between liberty and material equality, as well as between individual well-being and material equality. It will do so by examining the price of equality, assessing whether and in what ways it can be traded off against liberty and well-being. By drawing on formal methods and results from economics, especially from social choice theory and decision theory, the project aims to identify the precise ways in which individual freedom is incompatible with a commitment to material equality and aims to develop dynamic models and calibration arguments that examine the conflicts between material equality and well-being.

Requirements:
- Master's degree or equivalent in philosophy.

Salary:
Roughly CHF 35,000 per annum.

Duration of employment:
1st September 2025 -- 31st May 2028.

Applications received by 15th January 2025 will be given the fullest consideration. Applications consisting of:
1. curriculum vitae,
2. a research proposal for a doctoral thesis of about 2 pages,
3. a writing sample of about 15-20 pages
should be sent by email to Stéphanie Jorge-Niklaus: stephanie.niklaus@unifr.ch
Two confidential letters of recommendation should also be sent by email to stephanie.niklaus@unifr.ch