Spring semester 2023

No one will seriously question the great significance that science and technology was beginning to have in the 20th century, pertaining to almost every aspect of life. Focussing among others on the examples of genetics, space travel, pharmacology, cybernetics and psychoanalysis, these lectures demonstrate how scientific departures such as these were embedded within broader historical contexts. These lectures aim to develop an understanding of the historical circumstances within which these various disciplines developed and accrued significance.

Everybody is talking about energy. But how do we know from which resources it can be obtained, how it can be measured and how much is available at all? Since the 19th century, physical and technical research on energy has been intertwined with political, cultural and economic discourses. In the seminar, we explore the knowledge regimes of energy from the 19th century until today.

In the seminar, we explore the knowledge regimes of energy from the 19th century until today. Starting from early thermodynamic research on energy conservation and entropy, the seminar looks at knowledge regimes of energy and resources, their extraction and use, as well as economic and cultural debates about energy scarcity and efficient use. In the seminar, we trace crucial periods of energy debates, from steam engines and industrialised labor, to the economic, geopolitical, and scientific conditions underlying the extraction and distribution of resources (coal, oil, nuclear power, natural gas, solar energy), up to current debates.

Climate change is also forcing the humanities to rethink: What does history mean when geophysical processes are also taken into account? How should we imagine the future when part of the planet is in danger of becoming uninhabitable? Dipesh Chakrabarty develops new concepts to answer Immanuel Kant's old questions: What can I know? What shall I do? What may I hope?

Based on the book "The Climate of History in the Planetary Age" by Dipesh Chakrabarty, we will discuss the new importance of history for a more precise understanding of the human situation in the Anthropocene.

The goal of this seminar is to become familiar with Chakrabarty's arguments and to work out their relevance for new ways of thinking in the face of climate catastrophe.