Longer description of your proposed project

In academic circles today in the natural and social sciences, in the humanities as well as in AI research the field of cognitive science, the notion of consciousness, 'the mind', is used in a variety of approaches, for a variety of purposes. All of these approaches are operating with philosophical notions such as 'consciousness', 'thinking', 'subjectivity', 'perception', 'creativity', etc. As these notions are key for a functioning of the various practical approaches mentioned above, it would be expected that the definitions used for the mentioned terms would be thoroughly reflected on, as well as the consequences of the chosen definitions. Unfortunately for the philosophically not inclined, these consequences include elaborating on a more or less comprehensive metaphysical system. Notions such as 'subject', 'self', 'perspective' and 'mind' presuppose a context in which they appear and in which they function, which means that a comprehensive explanation of how it is that a 'subject', 'self', 'mind', etc. is constituted in the world requires a metaphysical explanation. The goal of my project would be to closely research these notions in a couple of disparate yet closely related metaphysical contexts, and see where precisely is current research in psychopathology, AI and relevant branches of cognitive science grounded in relation to these metaphysics. A longer term goal would be to establish a working relationship between these philosophical schools and the related scientific disciplines. The philosophical contexts in which I am researching these notions are the transcendental empiricism of Gilles Deleuze, the phenomenological approaches (of mostly Husserl and Merleau-Ponty) and non-duality (most closely associated with Zen Buddhism).

For instance, Deleuzian philosophy allows for an account of cognition that does not reduce thinking to judgement. Not stopping there, a commonality between Deleuzian philosophy and an approach found in Zen Buddhism, the repercussions of which I wish to research further, is the understanding of cognition without reducing it to a subject-object relationship schema. Such a schema seems to be prevalent in much of contemporary psychological and psychopathological research, and it usually vaguely supposes a version of a Cartesian subject (as an independent substance) or an embodied consciousness as being the locus of cognition. Opposed to this subject is then the world. Based on such presuppositions, which are here descibed in a simplified manner, research around cognition is conducted. Of course, there are cases where these presuppositions are reflected on and problematized further. In the current cognitive science research, however, this isn't the norm. Because it is built upon a subject-object duality, research in cognition inevitably cannot answer the fundamental question of how experience is constituted in/for cognition, nor does it offer a comprehensively articulated theoretical model of the foundations of cognition which would act as a (always provisionary) common ground for psychological research which isn't dealing with behavior but with the experience of things, with psychological phenomena understood literally (or intentional acts, said in the phenomenological jargon).

Of course that Zen Buddhism and philosophy do influence and are in some ways applied in various sciences. It seems, however, that contemporary continental philosophy, an incredibly rich field of insights for the sciences related to the mind, isn't prominent, understood or applied in the sciences today, and safe for a few exceptions, there doesn't seem to be a lot of philosophers or scientists doing this. My project is, really, a continuation of the master's thesis I am currently writing at the Institute of Philosophy at KU Leuven in Belgium. The topic of my thesis is 'Deleuze's notion of 'thinking' and its relation to metaphysical grounding'. In short, I will try and show what thinking (and on the way also the self) is in the context of a philosophical system which I believe went furthest in articulating the the ontological basis of the world namely difference (going further in elaboration would take too long in the context of this application). I see this as being the first important step for setting up further research of consciousness in contemporary philosophy, and seeing how and where to apply this research in the sciences. After finishing my thesis this year I plan on advancing to the Research Master's programme at my university (something like an advanced master's programme) and then on to a PhD programme. Where exactly, and on what topic my PhD programme would be is still too hard to say. What I am sure is that I am considering programmes as career options with the goal in mind of articulating what are the metaphysical implications of applied practical approaches to studying consciousness and guiding these approaches to be more productive and save energy, time and money.

Describe why you think you're qualified to work on this

My education so far saw me study medicine for 3 years, go on to receive a bachelor in psychology and then go on to the current situation, where I am studying philosophy. While my emphasis is definitely on articulating the theoretical side of the problem of consciousness and the self, the 3 years I studied medicine gave me a somewhat comprehensive foundation of knowledge needed to adequately contextualize the essentially neurological and/or physiological research done in various branches of cognitive science. Similarly, studying psychology gave me an overview of where the field of scientific psychology stands today and, more importantly, taught me the methodology of the social sciences. This academic background is important as it offers me the context needed to understand what aspects of my philosophical research are important and how their findings should be presented to effectively elucidate and guide the scientific research being done. The lack of understanding of the current state of research in the sciences and the approaches and methodologies that natural and social scientists use can in part explain the relatively low involvement professional 'continental' philosophers have in fields such as cognitive science.

Aside from having an academic background in both the natural and social sciences, I am currently studying at a university whose Institute of Philosophy is known as being on the forefront of research in the philosophical fields relevant for the problems I am dealing with. The Institute of Philosophy at KU Leuven is home to the Husserl Archives and is one of the main centres of research in phenomenology and psychopathology in Europe. As such, it is constantly hosting conferences and workshops on topics in phenomenology and contemporary continental philosophy. This gives me a great opportunity to (in)formally consult experts in these fields – people such as Thomas Fuchs, Rudolf Bernet, Julia Jansen, Till Grohmann and Roland Breeur. Some of these philosophers are Deleuzians themselves, such as Roland Breeur and Till Grohmann, which is important so that I can receive constructive criticism on my work. Through workshops at the Institute I became personally acquianted with Petar Bojanić, a close friend of Igor Krtolica, a renowned Deleuze scholar. Aside from being an expert on the phenomenology of autism and schizophrenia, as well as on Deleuze (and being a really good guy) Till Grohmann is my master's thesis supervisor. In my master's thesis, I am trying to articulate what 'thinking' is in the context of Deleuze's philosophy before his collaboration with Felix Guattari. To do this, amongst other things I will have to articulate the ontological foundations of Deleuze's metaphysics, and see how they give rise to experience understood reflectively as a perspectival consciousness. I see the writing of my thesis as setting up the groundwork for later research of the various philosophies of difference.

In summary, all of the above was written to hopefully demonstrate how my previous education, my academic environment as well as my current work make me a person qualified to do the described work – or rather, to continue the research I am already doing.

Other ways I can learn about you

www.linkedin.com/in/juraj-kreso-lovric-1b0567134

How much money do you need?

At most, I need 16000 dollars. This equates to roughly 15000 euros, which is the amount of money needed to live modestly in Leuven, in Belgium for a full year. This money would be used to cover my living and studying expenses as well as travels to important conferences. Most importantly, it would allow me to focus on my work without spending time working student jobs or worrying how I am going to finance my studies in the next academic year. I am currently self-financing my education in Leuven by relying on some small savings I had and by working student jobs – mostly bartending (I planned on gigging as a jazz pianist, as I have been playing jazz in Croatia for a long time, but it appears that Leuven is positively allergic to live music). Having to bartend at least 2-3 days a week greatly decreases the time and energy I have to do my research and to keep my grades up on non-relevant courses in orded to be able to continue on to do Research Masters programme and then to the PhD programme. The money would also allow me to spend my summers not working to earn money for the tuition fee of my studies for the next year (a relatively small amount of 1160 euros), but to potentially go to summer schools or use the mythical free time to read, evaluate my progress and aims, apply for grants and maybe even take a break. Because I am asking for the grant in order to make efficient studying possible, lesser amounts than the one specified are definitely acceptable. Of course, the more money I receive the more time I can allocate to academic work. It would be hard to gauge the impact the money would have talking in the metric of days, but I can say that modest living in Leuven costs approximately 1100 dollars a month. A grant of 1100 dollars therefore grants me a month of focusing solely on my academic life.

Links to any supporting documents or information

I can't link my CV anywhere here, so I'll send it to directly to your email.

Estimate your probability of succeeding if you get the amount of money you asked for

In a broader sense, understanding success as being able to continue on to a Research Masters programme at the same university I am currently at, and as having enough time to do my work properly, the probability of success were I to receive the amount of money I am asking for is high. If success is defined as contemporary continental philosophy offering valuable insight in the aim of conceptualizing consciousness and the self in a clearer way, which then saves money and effort which would have been used on doing inadequate natural and social science research and instead guides that effort and money to more worthwhile pursuits, then I find it very difficult to say what the chances of success are. One of the reasons is that I am still don't have a full picture of what Deleuzian (and other contemporary continental philosophy) can summarily say about the state of research on these topics in the sciences – I am working on this now. Another reason is that in academic circles, important content of publications (very unfortunately) does not necessarily translate to this content impacting what its meant to impact. A connection with you, however, and potentially with a part of your network relevant to my work may help with this issue and increase the probability of success.