Mind and Brain
Lecture (3 credits)
Prof. Dr. Michael Hagner
Tuesday, 5–7 pm
Location: ETH Zürich,
Rämistr. 101 HG, E 5
8092 Zürich
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.
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.
requirements (in german, pdf, 20KB)
guidelines for essays (in german, pdf, 82KB)
Science and Globalisation
Seminar (3 credits)
Prof. Dr. Michael Hagner
Wednesday, 10–12 am
Location: ETH Zürich,
Clausiusstrasse 59 RZ, F 21
8092 Zürich
Starts 28th september 2011
For a long time it was taken for granted that modern science was invented in Europe. More recent approaches challenge this claim and focus on the advancement of the sciences in other civilisations and try to understand their relationship to what is known as Western science. The decisive question in this connection - and one that has not received satisfactory answers - is how a global perspective on science in fact might look like. How might it affect our understanding, for instance, of scientific progress or scientific revolutions? In turn, there is the question of how the sciences themselves contributed to the process of globalization. This course will explore these complex, often problematic entanglements of science and globalization.
requirements (in german, pdf, 20KB)
guidelines for essays (in german, pdf, 82KB)
The Scientific Expert: From Enlightenment to the Present
Seminar (3 credits)
Dr. Caspar Hirschi
Wednesday, 3–5 pm
Location: ETH Zürich,
Rämistr. 101 HG, D 3.1
8092 Zürich
Scientific experts have a contradictory reputation in our society: on the one hand, they are celebrated as guarantors of social progress, because they generate and utilize new knowledge; on the other hand, they are criticised as agents of an antidemocratic technocracy, because they exert political influence behind the curtain of public institutions. In our seminar we will analyse this fascinating double image both historically and theoretically.
So You'll See Better: Aspects of a History of Visual Perception in the 20th Century
Seminar (3 credits)
Dr. Margarete Pratschke
Dr. Max Stadler
Tuesday, 10–12 am
Location: ETH Zürich,
Haldeneggsteig 4 IFW, B 42
8092 Zürich
This course aims towards a history of visual perception in the 20th century. To this end, we shall explore the manifold problematizations and deployments of the visual, as well as its historicity, through a range of practical contexts and intellectual developments: from the intense demands made upon vision in factories, laboratories and on battlefields to the entanglements of sensory psychologies and theories of art to late-20th century computational, "artificial" vision and object-recognition. In this we will be guided by, and critically engage with, approaches from art history, the history of science and media theory; but the primary material and historical sources will play an important role as well.
Traditions of Philosophy of Science: French and the Analytic Traditions
Seminar (3 credits)
Dr. Omar Nasim
Monday, 2–4 pm
Location: ETH Zürich,
Tannenstrasse 3 CLA, E 4
8092 Zürich
Starts 26th september 2011
The course will examine the contributions of some of the most prominent French philosophers of science, such as Pierre Duhem, Henri Bergson, Gaston Bachelard, Georges Canguilhem, and Michael Focault. Not only will each be examined on their own terms, and within a tradition of French thinking about science, we will attempt also to relate this tradition to that of the Logical Empiricist one, especially in relation to the thought of Hans Reichenbach, Rudolf Carnap, and Bertrand Russell. In relating these two apparently distinct traditions we hope to reveal what notion of "science" each operated with, and what each thought the role of philosophy to have been in relation to their notion of science. Due to the nature of our interest, the student ought to be prepared to do serious reading for each class.
The Politics and Science of Trauma in the Israel-Palestine-Conflict, 1948 till Present
Lecture (1 credit)
Prof. Dr. José Brunner, Tel Aviv
Thursday, 5-7 pm
Location: ETH Zurich
Rämistr. 101 HG, F 26.5
7 sessions
from 22th september to 27th october 2011
This seminar is organized within the visiting professorship «Science and Jewishness», which was founded with the generous donation from Nicolaus-Jürgen and Christiane Weickart.
In the professional discourses of psychiatrists and psychologists, the Israel-Palestine conflict appears as a site of permanent individual and collective traumatization. In this seminar we will examine the methods and structures, logic and rhetoric, as well as the political origins, contexts, contents and functions of these trauma discourses. Although they claim scientific objectivity, implicitly they always also carry political values and pursue political purposes, for psychological and psychiatric discourses that deal with the mental effects of a protracted political conflict are also conditioned by that conflict.
The seminar aims to give students an overview over the historical development and current forms of the psychological and psychiatric discourses on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Students should also receive an introduction into the connections and tensions between professional mental health discourses on one hand and political positions and contexts on the other.
Writing for Others - Science and Public
Lecture (2 credits)
Dr. Uwe Justus Wenzel
Friday, 5-7 pm
Location: ETH Zurich
Haldeneggsteig 4 IFW, C 31
Special permission required by lecturer.
Learning to write texts, that can present topics from the sciences to an interested public (in newspapers, non-specialist journals but also in papers for non-specialists in an academic context); to gain insights into the cultural, historical and philosophical contexts of science and the public.
Practical exercises in writing articles for the feature pages of newspapers will be combined with the theoretical work on topics relevant for the historical, sociological and philosophical aspects of writing for others.
Voraussetzungen: Die Bereitschaft, sich auf ein Projekt mit experimentellem Charakter einzulassen. GUTE BEHERRSCHUNG DER DEUTSCHEN SPRACHE. Das Seminar wird z.T. als Blockveranstaltung (gegen Semesterende) stattfinden. Die Teilnehmerzahl ist begrenzt. SCHRIFTLICHE ANMELDUNG erforderlich (bis 5. September): u.j.wenzel | at | nzz.ch