Fall semester 2021
In the last 2500 years, the mind-brain relationship has been articulated in various ways. In these lectures, I will explore the scientific and philosophical aspects of this relationship in the context of relevant cultural, historical and technological processes, with a focus on the modern neurosciences, but I will also discuss works of art and literature.
By the end of this lecture, students should be familiar with essential positions in the scientific and philosophical treatment of questions relating the mind to the brain. It should also become clear that some of the most relevant problems in current neurosciences have a long history.
According to a myth, the ancient Greek philosopher Democrit dissected animals, because he was in search of the seat of the soul. Current neuoscientists use neuroimaging techniques like functional magnetic-resonance-tomography in order to localize cognitive and emotional qualities in the brain. Between these two dates lies a history of 2500 years, in which the relationship between the mind and the brain has been defined in various ways. Starting with ancient and medieval theories, the lecture will have its focus on modern theories from the nineteenth century onward. I will discuss essential issues in the history of the neurosciences such as localization theories, the neuron doctrine, reflex theory, theories of emotions, neurocybernetics and the importance of visualizing the brain and its parts, but I will also include works of art and literature.
This course explores how science and technoscience produced utopian or dystopian visions of the future in historical context, assessing how new developments in the physical, natural, and economic sciences since c.1880 have shaped possible "futures" in Western thought.
This course equips students with the skills to assess how scientific ideas diffused broader ideas of present and future societies in the West since industrialization. Students will be able to compare and contrast distinct developments in the relationship between science and society, identify key trends in thinking about the future, and explain how science informed ethical and social questions.
This course offers an overview of the history of science and technoscience since 1880 by exploring the intersection of thinking about science and society in the modern utopian tradition, starting with Darwinian evolution, capitalism, and new transport and communication technologies. Different historical cases across the 20th century where scientific and technological change played a central role in defining visions of the future will be studied in detail. We will explore case studies like the impact of new technologies on visions of future war, the atom bomb, overpopulation and ecological catastrophe, transhumanism, AI, and the significance of new digital technologies for the posthuman future. Course materials will include histories of science and technology in addition to popular science texts and science fiction.
The philosopher Günther Anders characterized his monograph Die Antiquiertheit des Menschen as a "philosophical anthropology in the age of technocracy". Anders had written his book under the impression of the atom bomb, the computer and visual mass media. Today, the book is more relevant than ever: What is the role of human beings in the Anthropocene?
The goal of this seminar is a close reading of Günther Anders's Die Antiquiertheit des Menschen, reflect its main topics and hypotheses and discuss their relevance for our time.
The basic material for this seminar will be the monograph external pageDie Antiquiertheit des Menschen.call_made Reading this book and other texts will lead to a comparison between the period after WW II (1950s to 1970s) and the situation in the early 21st century. What can philosophical anthropology tell us about the role of human beings in the age of anthropocene?
Yuval Noah Harari's Sapiens is the most successful historical book of recent years. The seminar examines the text from a history of science perspective: What kind of sources does it rely on? What type of history is being written here? And in what tradition does Sapiens represent a popular non-fiction book?
In the course of the seminar, the students develop the competence to deal with the original text and the research literature on the history of anthropology, science and technology in a critical and historically thoughtful way. In doing so, they practise navigating independently through historical literature by means of smaller research tasks.
The aim of the seminar is to introduce students to the history of science in anthropology, prehistory and popular science literature on the history of mankind by reading Sapiens. In addition to studying and critically discussing the original text, the students explore significant scientific and historical contexts of the book in small groups and present them in the seminar. In this way, they develop an understanding of the underlying narratives and popular science genres that inform Sapiens.
Scientific knowledge is often provisional; it is subject to correction. That is why it cannot always satisfy the need for certainty and clarity that arises in the public as soon as political controversies are linked to questions of (scientific) knowledge. This is shown by the Corona pandemic, but not only by it.
The feuilleton of the 'Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung' of 27 June 2000 has gone down in the annals of recent media history. The last sequences of the fully mapped human genetic code were printed on six large-format pages: the letters A, G, C and T in various combinations and sequences - a 'readable' but incomprehensible jumble of letters. What at the time was astounding journalistic coup and met with enthusiasm as well as head shaking can (also) be read as an allegory of the tense relationship between science and the public. What can, what should, what do 'laymen' want to know and understand from scientific findings? Scientific knowledge is often provisional; it is subject to correction. That is why it cannot always satisfy the need for certainty and clarity that arises in the public as soon as political controversies are linked to questions of (scientific) knowledge. This is shown by the Corona pandemic, but not only by it.
How can science journalism, how can scientists deal with this problem? Do the natural sciences, medicine and technology differ from the humanities and social sciences in terms of 'comprehensibility' and public awareness? These questions will be explored on some excursions into recent and also older media, scientific and cultural history.