The course is taught in the first semester of the student’s MA programme and marks the start of the work which will culminate with the writing of an MA thesis in the 4^th semester. In project 1 the student works under supervision, reviewing literature in the subject of their research project writing a report on the state of the art in that field.

The aim of the course is to provide students with a more comprehensive and deeper insight into the different theoretical approaches within the humanities. In the course, the main theories that have influenced theoretical discussion in the humanities over the last decades will be presented and discussed, and the students are taught how to apply them in their own research.

This course provides an introduction to contemporary issues in the social epistemology of science. On the one hand, we will address questions about the relationship between science and values: do ethical, political, and social values play a legitimate role in scientific research? Or do they endanger the objectivity of science, so their influence should be eliminated or curtailed? On the other hand, we will discuss questions about the nature of group knowledge: can groups or communities know more than what the individuals within them do? Or does the knowledge of a group reduce to individual knowledge? In a society where science produces both technological goods and wields political power, this course aims to equip students with tools for thinking critically about science in society, values in science, and the social nature of scientific research by drawing on the growing field of social epistemology of science.

Direct study in seminar: The social side of science. Students must finish related seminar to finish the direct study.

What is artificial intelligence (AI), and how – if at all – does it differ from ordinary (human) intelligence? Are there any inherent limitations to AI, or could AI systems one day become superior to human agents in every way that matters? What ethical problems arise from the ever-growing use of AI, and from the possibility of creating entirely autonomous AI systems? And what role does and will AI play in the progress of science, in philosophical research, and other types of systematic inquiry? This seminar explores philosophical questions of this sort, raised by the emergence of increasingly powerful AI technologies.

Direct study in seminar: The Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence. Students must finish related seminar to finish the direct study.

History of Ideas after 1750.

The focus of this course is the application of ethics to pressing problems and debates in contemporary society. Possible methods for solving ethical dilemmas, both on an individual and social basis, are discussed. The selection of topics may change from year to year, but possible topics include free speech, the status of refugees, animal rights, poverty and economic inequality, gender discrimination, racial discrimination, environmental issues, and various issues in health care. The relation between theoretical and applied ethics is discussed. While instruction includes lectures, student participation in discussion is greatly emphasized.

This course is a comprehensive examination into the major components of ethical and social responsibility including economic, legal, political, ethical and societal issues involving the interaction of business, government and society.

The course deals with the connection between Man and Nature from the viewpoint of Moral Philosophy. It discusses the main proponents of and theories within Environmental Ethics and describes the roots of differing views of Nature, as well as different ethical orientations, i.e. anthropocentric, ecocentric, and biocentric positions. The course also deals with the integration of environmental and developmental issues, and with the connection between environmentalism and democracy. Amongst central issues discussed are the following: Can Ethics provide guidance in the solution of environmental problems?, What type of beings are worthy of moral considerability?, Can natural phenomena possess intrinsic value?, Do animals have rights?, Is there any fundanmental difference in men's and women's relations to Nature?, and, What is the ethical basis of sustainable development?

An individual project on the ethics of nature.

This course elucidates the early Chinese philosophy of education with a focus on Confucianism and its response from Daoism. We will begin with discussing conceptions of education and personal cultivation in the Confucian Analects (Lunyu 论语), then move to selected parts of other important Confucian writings, such as the Zhongyong (Doctrine of the Mean), Daxue (The Great Learning), the Xueji (Records of Learning), the Mengzi, the Xunzi, writings by Zhu Xi and special educational manuals for women. Primary notions of the Chinese philosophy of education will be introduced and explained, including jiao 教 (teaching), xue 学 (study/emulation), xiuji 修己 and xiushen 修身 (cultivating onself), li 礼 (rituals), xing 性 (natural dispositions), and junzi 君子 (exemplary people), among others. We will also investigate the importance of role models in Confucian education. Daoist thinkers, notably the authors of the Daodejing 道德经 and the Zhuangzi 庄子, reacted critically to some aspects of the Confucian philosophy of education, often arguing that it is likely to lead to dogmatism and hypocrisy. Instead, they suggest a less socially bound and more independent kind of learning or cultivation that takes seriously the “way of the world,” or the general cosmological tendency and how to align with it. They speak, for instance, of unlearning and reducing the self. As an alternative to concentrating on learning from classics and others, Daoist texts advocate being more natural, acting in ziran 自然 (self-so) and wuwei 无为 (non-action) manners.
Some of the main questions that will be raised (and possibly answered) are: How is education understood in early Chinese culture? What are its primary aims? What happens when education fails? Can education be bad or dangerous? What social and what “individualist” aspects do education and personal cultivation entail? How does one’s education influence others? What role do others play in education? Are role models necessary? What sort of roles do tradition and emulation play as methods of learning in Confucianism? And, finally, can tradition and emulation be overemphasized? What status does education generally play in Confucian philosophy? Can Daoism be a useful critic of Confucianism? An effort will be made to contextualize the discussion in contemporary philosophies of education.

Approach and readings
Our main reading is Confucian Philosophy for Contemporary Education by Charlene Tan (Routledge 2020). Apart from that,we will mainly focus on the primary texts, namely, Analects, Zhongyong (Doctrine of the Mean), Daxue (The Great Learning), the Xueji (Records of Learning), the Mengzi and the Xunzi. Students may follow along with any translation (in English or their native language) of these classics. During the class we will likely read directly from the original, students may refer to ctext.org for all the abovementioned texts but instructor will provide other versions. No prior knowledge of Chinese philosophy is expected.

The course is taught in the second semester and involves on the one hand the development of a research question and on the other hand the writing of a reserch plan that meets general criteria for research grant applications.

The course is intended for postgraduate students only. It is adapted to the needs of students from different fields of study. The course is taught over a six-week period.

The course is taught over the first six weeks of spring semester on Fridays from 1:20 pm - 3:40 pm.

Description: 
The topics of the course include: Professionalism and the scientist’s responsibilities. Demands for scientific objectivity and the ethics of research. Issues of equality and standards of good practice. Power and science. Conflicts of interest and misconduct in research. Science, academia and industry. Research ethics and ethical decision making.

Objectives: 
In this course, the student gains knowledge about ethical issues in science and research and is trained in reasoning about ethical controversies relating to science and research in contemporary society.

The instruction takes the form of lectures and discussion. The course is viewed as an academic community where students are actively engaged in a focused dialogue about  the topics. Each student (working as a member of a two-person team) gives a presentation according to a plan designed at the beginning of the course, and other students acquaint themselves with the topic as well for the purpose of participating in a teacher-led discussion.

This is a project that can be chosen as an addition to HSP806F Ethics of Science and Research and can only be taken along with that course.

The course will introduce three main traditions of medieval philosophy (Arabic, Jewish and Latin), their origin and background, their contributions and their interconnections. Readings will consist in representative texts by philosophers of the three traditions. The first part of the course will provide context and overview, while in the second part, students will give an in-class presentation of a selected text that they contextualise, analyse and evaluate.

Direct study in seminar: Western, Islamic and Jewish philosophy in the Middle Ages. Students must finish related seminar to finish the direct study.

In the seminar we will consider contemporary philosophers who maintain that human beings are not beings whose ethical siginficance is a function of the ethical significance of some given set of attributes or capacities or interests they happen to possess. One way of phrasing this insight is to say that human beings are all inside ethics simply in virtue of being human. We will consider whether the same arguments apply to some non-human animals. We will read Alice Crary’s book Inside Ethics (Harvard Univeristy Press, 2016) and selected essays by Cora Diamond and Simone Weil, among others.

Direct study in seminar: Inside and outside ethics. Students must finish related seminar to finish the direct study.

This course is taught in Icelandic and is intended for graduate students and BA students in their final year. It presents the main theories of psychoanalysis in light of philosophy and literary and cultural studies. It also concentrates on the contribution of psychoanalysis to further our understanding of culture and cultural achievements such as literature and cinema. It is taught twice a week, students give presentations and write a final essay.

A discussion of some controversial issues in the field of bioethics, in particular those relating to developments in genetics and their possible effects upon medical services and health care policy.

Buddhism is one of the world´s major religions and yet, as a non-theistic spiritual tradition, the source of ultimate value lies not with an external deity but within each person, necessitating an Awakening experience that transforms one from an unawakened person into a Buddha.Three basic principles embodied by the Buddha can be identified as pedagogic in nature: to speak the truth (appeal to reason and to the individual´s autonomy), to embody the truth (to demonstrate the ability to be reasonable, thoughtful, critical, kind, etc.), and, to compassionately look after others (to take the initiative and help others in need).Beginning with the example of the Buddha from whom these three principles are derived, we examine the teaching methods he used during his 40+ years of spreading his ideas in the Indo-Gangetic region and then move on to examples of pedagogies adapted from the three vehicles of Buddhism: the Hinayana (or, individual), Mahayana (or, universal) and the Vajrayana (or, Diamond). Two broad contexts will be discussed: 1) how Buddhist pedagogies were originally developed from the manners and conduct of the Buddha, who is the exemplar of the tradition, and 2) how methods and techniques developed over the course of Buddhist development are used to teach Buddhist ideas and doctrines and can be used for transformation within educational contexts. In this course, we see Buddhism as filled with a set of rich and diverse pedagogical approaches that focus not only on an appeal to reason, but also a deep introspective analysis, and an embodied philosophy of praxis whose aim is the eradication of suffering and the cultivation of wisdom and compassion. As such, Buddhism holds a decidedly positive view of the human capacity for transformation, a notion particularly relevant to education. Topics to be examined include:

• How (not only what) did the Buddha teach?
• Did the Buddha say anything about learning/education? Which suttas/sutras?
• Is there a universal set of Buddhist principles around learning or education? What are those principles, if so?

This course provides an introduction to contemporary issues in the social epistemology of science. On the one hand, we will address questions about the relationship between science and values: do ethical, political, and social values play a legitimate role in scientific research? Or do they endanger the objectivity of science, so their influence should be eliminated or curtailed? On the other hand, we will discuss questions about the nature of group knowledge: can groups or communities know more than what the individuals within them do? Or does the knowledge of a group reduce to individual knowledge? In a society where science produces both technological goods and wields political power, this course aims to equip students with tools for thinking critically about science in society, values in science, and the social nature of scientific research by drawing on the growing field of social epistemology of science.

Direct study in seminar: The social side of science. Students must finish related seminar to finish the direct study.

What is artificial intelligence (AI), and how – if at all – does it differ from ordinary (human) intelligence? Are there any inherent limitations to AI, or could AI systems one day become superior to human agents in every way that matters? What ethical problems arise from the ever-growing use of AI, and from the possibility of creating entirely autonomous AI systems? And what role does and will AI play in the progress of science, in philosophical research, and other types of systematic inquiry? This seminar explores philosophical questions of this sort, raised by the emergence of increasingly powerful AI technologies.

Direct study in seminar: The Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence. Students must finish related seminar to finish the direct study.

History of Ideas after 1750.

The focus of this course is the application of ethics to pressing problems and debates in contemporary society. Possible methods for solving ethical dilemmas, both on an individual and social basis, are discussed. The selection of topics may change from year to year, but possible topics include free speech, the status of refugees, animal rights, poverty and economic inequality, gender discrimination, racial discrimination, environmental issues, and various issues in health care. The relation between theoretical and applied ethics is discussed. While instruction includes lectures, student participation in discussion is greatly emphasized.

This course is a comprehensive examination into the major components of ethical and social responsibility including economic, legal, political, ethical and societal issues involving the interaction of business, government and society.

The course deals with the connection between Man and Nature from the viewpoint of Moral Philosophy. It discusses the main proponents of and theories within Environmental Ethics and describes the roots of differing views of Nature, as well as different ethical orientations, i.e. anthropocentric, ecocentric, and biocentric positions. The course also deals with the integration of environmental and developmental issues, and with the connection between environmentalism and democracy. Amongst central issues discussed are the following: Can Ethics provide guidance in the solution of environmental problems?, What type of beings are worthy of moral considerability?, Can natural phenomena possess intrinsic value?, Do animals have rights?, Is there any fundanmental difference in men's and women's relations to Nature?, and, What is the ethical basis of sustainable development?

An individual project on the ethics of nature.

This course elucidates the early Chinese philosophy of education with a focus on Confucianism and its response from Daoism. We will begin with discussing conceptions of education and personal cultivation in the Confucian Analects (Lunyu 论语), then move to selected parts of other important Confucian writings, such as the Zhongyong (Doctrine of the Mean), Daxue (The Great Learning), the Xueji (Records of Learning), the Mengzi, the Xunzi, writings by Zhu Xi and special educational manuals for women. Primary notions of the Chinese philosophy of education will be introduced and explained, including jiao 教 (teaching), xue 学 (study/emulation), xiuji 修己 and xiushen 修身 (cultivating onself), li 礼 (rituals), xing 性 (natural dispositions), and junzi 君子 (exemplary people), among others. We will also investigate the importance of role models in Confucian education. Daoist thinkers, notably the authors of the Daodejing 道德经 and the Zhuangzi 庄子, reacted critically to some aspects of the Confucian philosophy of education, often arguing that it is likely to lead to dogmatism and hypocrisy. Instead, they suggest a less socially bound and more independent kind of learning or cultivation that takes seriously the “way of the world,” or the general cosmological tendency and how to align with it. They speak, for instance, of unlearning and reducing the self. As an alternative to concentrating on learning from classics and others, Daoist texts advocate being more natural, acting in ziran 自然 (self-so) and wuwei 无为 (non-action) manners.
Some of the main questions that will be raised (and possibly answered) are: How is education understood in early Chinese culture? What are its primary aims? What happens when education fails? Can education be bad or dangerous? What social and what “individualist” aspects do education and personal cultivation entail? How does one’s education influence others? What role do others play in education? Are role models necessary? What sort of roles do tradition and emulation play as methods of learning in Confucianism? And, finally, can tradition and emulation be overemphasized? What status does education generally play in Confucian philosophy? Can Daoism be a useful critic of Confucianism? An effort will be made to contextualize the discussion in contemporary philosophies of education.

Approach and readings
Our main reading is Confucian Philosophy for Contemporary Education by Charlene Tan (Routledge 2020). Apart from that,we will mainly focus on the primary texts, namely, Analects, Zhongyong (Doctrine of the Mean), Daxue (The Great Learning), the Xueji (Records of Learning), the Mengzi and the Xunzi. Students may follow along with any translation (in English or their native language) of these classics. During the class we will likely read directly from the original, students may refer to ctext.org for all the abovementioned texts but instructor will provide other versions. No prior knowledge of Chinese philosophy is expected.

The course is taught in the third semester. The student carries out defined part of the MA research project under supervision. Furthermore the student revises the original research plan in the light of this experience ans should then be ready to independently write an MA thesis.

.

The course is taught in the first semester of the student’s MA programme and marks the start of the work which will culminate with the writing of an MA thesis in the 4^th semester. In project 1 the student works under supervision, reviewing literature in the subject of their research project writing a report on the state of the art in that field.

The aim of the course is to provide students with a more comprehensive and deeper insight into the different theoretical approaches within the humanities. In the course, the main theories that have influenced theoretical discussion in the humanities over the last decades will be presented and discussed, and the students are taught how to apply them in their own research.

This course provides an introduction to contemporary issues in the social epistemology of science. On the one hand, we will address questions about the relationship between science and values: do ethical, political, and social values play a legitimate role in scientific research? Or do they endanger the objectivity of science, so their influence should be eliminated or curtailed? On the other hand, we will discuss questions about the nature of group knowledge: can groups or communities know more than what the individuals within them do? Or does the knowledge of a group reduce to individual knowledge? In a society where science produces both technological goods and wields political power, this course aims to equip students with tools for thinking critically about science in society, values in science, and the social nature of scientific research by drawing on the growing field of social epistemology of science.

Direct study in seminar: The social side of science. Students must finish related seminar to finish the direct study.

What is artificial intelligence (AI), and how – if at all – does it differ from ordinary (human) intelligence? Are there any inherent limitations to AI, or could AI systems one day become superior to human agents in every way that matters? What ethical problems arise from the ever-growing use of AI, and from the possibility of creating entirely autonomous AI systems? And what role does and will AI play in the progress of science, in philosophical research, and other types of systematic inquiry? This seminar explores philosophical questions of this sort, raised by the emergence of increasingly powerful AI technologies.

Direct study in seminar: The Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence. Students must finish related seminar to finish the direct study.

History of Ideas after 1750.

The focus of this course is the application of ethics to pressing problems and debates in contemporary society. Possible methods for solving ethical dilemmas, both on an individual and social basis, are discussed. The selection of topics may change from year to year, but possible topics include free speech, the status of refugees, animal rights, poverty and economic inequality, gender discrimination, racial discrimination, environmental issues, and various issues in health care. The relation between theoretical and applied ethics is discussed. While instruction includes lectures, student participation in discussion is greatly emphasized.

This course is a comprehensive examination into the major components of ethical and social responsibility including economic, legal, political, ethical and societal issues involving the interaction of business, government and society.

The course deals with the connection between Man and Nature from the viewpoint of Moral Philosophy. It discusses the main proponents of and theories within Environmental Ethics and describes the roots of differing views of Nature, as well as different ethical orientations, i.e. anthropocentric, ecocentric, and biocentric positions. The course also deals with the integration of environmental and developmental issues, and with the connection between environmentalism and democracy. Amongst central issues discussed are the following: Can Ethics provide guidance in the solution of environmental problems?, What type of beings are worthy of moral considerability?, Can natural phenomena possess intrinsic value?, Do animals have rights?, Is there any fundanmental difference in men's and women's relations to Nature?, and, What is the ethical basis of sustainable development?

An individual project on the ethics of nature.

This course elucidates the early Chinese philosophy of education with a focus on Confucianism and its response from Daoism. We will begin with discussing conceptions of education and personal cultivation in the Confucian Analects (Lunyu 论语), then move to selected parts of other important Confucian writings, such as the Zhongyong (Doctrine of the Mean), Daxue (The Great Learning), the Xueji (Records of Learning), the Mengzi, the Xunzi, writings by Zhu Xi and special educational manuals for women. Primary notions of the Chinese philosophy of education will be introduced and explained, including jiao 教 (teaching), xue 学 (study/emulation), xiuji 修己 and xiushen 修身 (cultivating onself), li 礼 (rituals), xing 性 (natural dispositions), and junzi 君子 (exemplary people), among others. We will also investigate the importance of role models in Confucian education. Daoist thinkers, notably the authors of the Daodejing 道德经 and the Zhuangzi 庄子, reacted critically to some aspects of the Confucian philosophy of education, often arguing that it is likely to lead to dogmatism and hypocrisy. Instead, they suggest a less socially bound and more independent kind of learning or cultivation that takes seriously the “way of the world,” or the general cosmological tendency and how to align with it. They speak, for instance, of unlearning and reducing the self. As an alternative to concentrating on learning from classics and others, Daoist texts advocate being more natural, acting in ziran 自然 (self-so) and wuwei 无为 (non-action) manners.
Some of the main questions that will be raised (and possibly answered) are: How is education understood in early Chinese culture? What are its primary aims? What happens when education fails? Can education be bad or dangerous? What social and what “individualist” aspects do education and personal cultivation entail? How does one’s education influence others? What role do others play in education? Are role models necessary? What sort of roles do tradition and emulation play as methods of learning in Confucianism? And, finally, can tradition and emulation be overemphasized? What status does education generally play in Confucian philosophy? Can Daoism be a useful critic of Confucianism? An effort will be made to contextualize the discussion in contemporary philosophies of education.

Approach and readings
Our main reading is Confucian Philosophy for Contemporary Education by Charlene Tan (Routledge 2020). Apart from that,we will mainly focus on the primary texts, namely, Analects, Zhongyong (Doctrine of the Mean), Daxue (The Great Learning), the Xueji (Records of Learning), the Mengzi and the Xunzi. Students may follow along with any translation (in English or their native language) of these classics. During the class we will likely read directly from the original, students may refer to ctext.org for all the abovementioned texts but instructor will provide other versions. No prior knowledge of Chinese philosophy is expected.

The course is taught in the second semester and involves on the one hand the development of a research question and on the other hand the writing of a reserch plan that meets general criteria for research grant applications.

The course is intended for postgraduate students only. It is adapted to the needs of students from different fields of study. The course is taught over a six-week period.

The course is taught over the first six weeks of spring semester on Fridays from 1:20 pm - 3:40 pm.

Description: 
The topics of the course include: Professionalism and the scientist’s responsibilities. Demands for scientific objectivity and the ethics of research. Issues of equality and standards of good practice. Power and science. Conflicts of interest and misconduct in research. Science, academia and industry. Research ethics and ethical decision making.

Objectives: 
In this course, the student gains knowledge about ethical issues in science and research and is trained in reasoning about ethical controversies relating to science and research in contemporary society.

The instruction takes the form of lectures and discussion. The course is viewed as an academic community where students are actively engaged in a focused dialogue about  the topics. Each student (working as a member of a two-person team) gives a presentation according to a plan designed at the beginning of the course, and other students acquaint themselves with the topic as well for the purpose of participating in a teacher-led discussion.

This is a project that can be chosen as an addition to HSP806F Ethics of Science and Research and can only be taken along with that course.

The course will introduce three main traditions of medieval philosophy (Arabic, Jewish and Latin), their origin and background, their contributions and their interconnections. Readings will consist in representative texts by philosophers of the three traditions. The first part of the course will provide context and overview, while in the second part, students will give an in-class presentation of a selected text that they contextualise, analyse and evaluate.

Direct study in seminar: Western, Islamic and Jewish philosophy in the Middle Ages. Students must finish related seminar to finish the direct study.

In the seminar we will consider contemporary philosophers who maintain that human beings are not beings whose ethical siginficance is a function of the ethical significance of some given set of attributes or capacities or interests they happen to possess. One way of phrasing this insight is to say that human beings are all inside ethics simply in virtue of being human. We will consider whether the same arguments apply to some non-human animals. We will read Alice Crary’s book Inside Ethics (Harvard Univeristy Press, 2016) and selected essays by Cora Diamond and Simone Weil, among others.

Direct study in seminar: Inside and outside ethics. Students must finish related seminar to finish the direct study.

This course is taught in Icelandic and is intended for graduate students and BA students in their final year. It presents the main theories of psychoanalysis in light of philosophy and literary and cultural studies. It also concentrates on the contribution of psychoanalysis to further our understanding of culture and cultural achievements such as literature and cinema. It is taught twice a week, students give presentations and write a final essay.

A discussion of some controversial issues in the field of bioethics, in particular those relating to developments in genetics and their possible effects upon medical services and health care policy.

Buddhism is one of the world´s major religions and yet, as a non-theistic spiritual tradition, the source of ultimate value lies not with an external deity but within each person, necessitating an Awakening experience that transforms one from an unawakened person into a Buddha.Three basic principles embodied by the Buddha can be identified as pedagogic in nature: to speak the truth (appeal to reason and to the individual´s autonomy), to embody the truth (to demonstrate the ability to be reasonable, thoughtful, critical, kind, etc.), and, to compassionately look after others (to take the initiative and help others in need).Beginning with the example of the Buddha from whom these three principles are derived, we examine the teaching methods he used during his 40+ years of spreading his ideas in the Indo-Gangetic region and then move on to examples of pedagogies adapted from the three vehicles of Buddhism: the Hinayana (or, individual), Mahayana (or, universal) and the Vajrayana (or, Diamond). Two broad contexts will be discussed: 1) how Buddhist pedagogies were originally developed from the manners and conduct of the Buddha, who is the exemplar of the tradition, and 2) how methods and techniques developed over the course of Buddhist development are used to teach Buddhist ideas and doctrines and can be used for transformation within educational contexts. In this course, we see Buddhism as filled with a set of rich and diverse pedagogical approaches that focus not only on an appeal to reason, but also a deep introspective analysis, and an embodied philosophy of praxis whose aim is the eradication of suffering and the cultivation of wisdom and compassion. As such, Buddhism holds a decidedly positive view of the human capacity for transformation, a notion particularly relevant to education. Topics to be examined include:

• How (not only what) did the Buddha teach?
• Did the Buddha say anything about learning/education? Which suttas/sutras?
• Is there a universal set of Buddhist principles around learning or education? What are those principles, if so?

This course provides an introduction to contemporary issues in the social epistemology of science. On the one hand, we will address questions about the relationship between science and values: do ethical, political, and social values play a legitimate role in scientific research? Or do they endanger the objectivity of science, so their influence should be eliminated or curtailed? On the other hand, we will discuss questions about the nature of group knowledge: can groups or communities know more than what the individuals within them do? Or does the knowledge of a group reduce to individual knowledge? In a society where science produces both technological goods and wields political power, this course aims to equip students with tools for thinking critically about science in society, values in science, and the social nature of scientific research by drawing on the growing field of social epistemology of science.

Direct study in seminar: The social side of science. Students must finish related seminar to finish the direct study.

What is artificial intelligence (AI), and how – if at all – does it differ from ordinary (human) intelligence? Are there any inherent limitations to AI, or could AI systems one day become superior to human agents in every way that matters? What ethical problems arise from the ever-growing use of AI, and from the possibility of creating entirely autonomous AI systems? And what role does and will AI play in the progress of science, in philosophical research, and other types of systematic inquiry? This seminar explores philosophical questions of this sort, raised by the emergence of increasingly powerful AI technologies.

Direct study in seminar: The Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence. Students must finish related seminar to finish the direct study.

History of Ideas after 1750.

The focus of this course is the application of ethics to pressing problems and debates in contemporary society. Possible methods for solving ethical dilemmas, both on an individual and social basis, are discussed. The selection of topics may change from year to year, but possible topics include free speech, the status of refugees, animal rights, poverty and economic inequality, gender discrimination, racial discrimination, environmental issues, and various issues in health care. The relation between theoretical and applied ethics is discussed. While instruction includes lectures, student participation in discussion is greatly emphasized.

This course is a comprehensive examination into the major components of ethical and social responsibility including economic, legal, political, ethical and societal issues involving the interaction of business, government and society.

The course deals with the connection between Man and Nature from the viewpoint of Moral Philosophy. It discusses the main proponents of and theories within Environmental Ethics and describes the roots of differing views of Nature, as well as different ethical orientations, i.e. anthropocentric, ecocentric, and biocentric positions. The course also deals with the integration of environmental and developmental issues, and with the connection between environmentalism and democracy. Amongst central issues discussed are the following: Can Ethics provide guidance in the solution of environmental problems?, What type of beings are worthy of moral considerability?, Can natural phenomena possess intrinsic value?, Do animals have rights?, Is there any fundanmental difference in men's and women's relations to Nature?, and, What is the ethical basis of sustainable development?

An individual project on the ethics of nature.

This course elucidates the early Chinese philosophy of education with a focus on Confucianism and its response from Daoism. We will begin with discussing conceptions of education and personal cultivation in the Confucian Analects (Lunyu 论语), then move to selected parts of other important Confucian writings, such as the Zhongyong (Doctrine of the Mean), Daxue (The Great Learning), the Xueji (Records of Learning), the Mengzi, the Xunzi, writings by Zhu Xi and special educational manuals for women. Primary notions of the Chinese philosophy of education will be introduced and explained, including jiao 教 (teaching), xue 学 (study/emulation), xiuji 修己 and xiushen 修身 (cultivating onself), li 礼 (rituals), xing 性 (natural dispositions), and junzi 君子 (exemplary people), among others. We will also investigate the importance of role models in Confucian education. Daoist thinkers, notably the authors of the Daodejing 道德经 and the Zhuangzi 庄子, reacted critically to some aspects of the Confucian philosophy of education, often arguing that it is likely to lead to dogmatism and hypocrisy. Instead, they suggest a less socially bound and more independent kind of learning or cultivation that takes seriously the “way of the world,” or the general cosmological tendency and how to align with it. They speak, for instance, of unlearning and reducing the self. As an alternative to concentrating on learning from classics and others, Daoist texts advocate being more natural, acting in ziran 自然 (self-so) and wuwei 无为 (non-action) manners.
Some of the main questions that will be raised (and possibly answered) are: How is education understood in early Chinese culture? What are its primary aims? What happens when education fails? Can education be bad or dangerous? What social and what “individualist” aspects do education and personal cultivation entail? How does one’s education influence others? What role do others play in education? Are role models necessary? What sort of roles do tradition and emulation play as methods of learning in Confucianism? And, finally, can tradition and emulation be overemphasized? What status does education generally play in Confucian philosophy? Can Daoism be a useful critic of Confucianism? An effort will be made to contextualize the discussion in contemporary philosophies of education.

Approach and readings
Our main reading is Confucian Philosophy for Contemporary Education by Charlene Tan (Routledge 2020). Apart from that,we will mainly focus on the primary texts, namely, Analects, Zhongyong (Doctrine of the Mean), Daxue (The Great Learning), the Xueji (Records of Learning), the Mengzi and the Xunzi. Students may follow along with any translation (in English or their native language) of these classics. During the class we will likely read directly from the original, students may refer to ctext.org for all the abovementioned texts but instructor will provide other versions. No prior knowledge of Chinese philosophy is expected.

The course is taught in the third semester. The student carries out defined part of the MA research project under supervision. Furthermore the student revises the original research plan in the light of this experience ans should then be ready to independently write an MA thesis.

.