Search result: Catalogue data in Autumn Semester 2016

GESS Science in Perspective Information
Only the topics listed in this paragraph can be chosen as GESS Science in Perspective.
Further below you will find the "type B courses Reflections about subject specific methods and content" as well as the language courses.

6 ECTS need to be acquired during the BA and 2 ECTS during the MA

Students who already took a course within their main study program are NOT allowed to take the course again.
Type B: Reflection About Subject-Specific Methods and Contents
Subject-specific courses: Recommended for doctoral, master and bachelor students (after first-year examination only).

Students who already took a course within their main study program are NOT allowed to take the course again.

These course units are also listed under "Type A", which basically means all students can enroll
D-MATH
NumberTitleTypeECTSHoursLecturers
851-0144-19LPhilosophy of Time
Does not take place this semester.
Particularly suitable for students of D-BIOL, D-INFK, D-MATH, D-PHYS
W3 credits2VN. Sieroka
AbstractThis course provides an introduction to philosophical issues surrounding the concept of time. We will treat topics such as: the existence of past, present, and future; the possibility of time travel; the constitution of time consciousness and its possible neurophysiological counterparts; temporal biases in the conduct of our lives; responsibility to future and past generations.
ObjectiveBy the end of the course students are able to describe and compare different theories and concepts of time (physical time, perceptual time, historical time ...). They are able to identify and examine issues concerning time as they occur in various philosophical subdisciplines - especially in philosophy of science, philosophy of mind, metaphysics, and ethics. Students are in a position to critically discuss and evaluate the repercussions of these issues in broader scientific and social contexts.
Part of the course reflects on methods and contents from physics, neuroscience/cognitive science, and logic.
851-0157-69LHistory of Astronomy Restricted registration - show details
Particularly suitable for students of D-ERDW, D-MATH, D-PHYS
Die Veranstaltung ist ausgebucht
W3 credits2SS. Mastorakou
AbstractThe course is designed to provide an overview of the astronomical developments from the ancient Greek world to the 16th century. We are going to use primary sources tackling historical, technical and philosophical questions. Special attention will be paid to the dramatic change in the way people understood the structure of the heavens and the nature of the physical world.
ObjectiveThe course aims at providing a working knowledge of astronomy and cosmology from the ancient world to the 16th century. Upon its completion the students will be able to describe how our knowledge of the heavens changed from Aristotle's system to the Copernican Revolution. In addition, they will also have acquired an appreciation of the debates about man's place in the cosmos and the philosophical principles underpinning cosmology.
851-0125-63LImages of Mathematics
Particularly suitable for students of D-MATH
W3 credits2GM. Hampe, A. Schubbach
AbstractThe lecture series "Images of Mathematics" deals with the formalization of the objects and the logical language of mathematics from Hilbert to Gödel and considers its consequences in view of our conception of mathematical practice and knowledge, the limits of calculability and computability in mathematics, and the relation between the logical proof procedures and the involved intuitive aspects.
ObjectiveThe lecture series will present philosophical problems of theoretical mathematics in the 20th century and will discuss the consequences of formalization and axiomatization. It aims at a critical reflection on the modern images of mathematics.
ContentHow we understand Mathematics is probably strongly influenced by the Mathematics lessons we participated in during our school days. The common image of mathematics is therefore often characterized by the impression of a very stable form of knowledge with clear-cut problems and suitable recipes for finding the solution. It is a very static image which is very much in conflict with the rapid series of innovations that the discipline has experienced especially since the 19th century: Mathematics as a field of research has been highly innovative and even revolutionary as few other scientific disciplines in the last 200 hundred years.

These mathematical innovations did not only contribute to a progress amassing more and more knowledge. They very often changed how mathematicians conceived of their discipline. Even a contribution to a specific research question that appears at first sight to be minor can sometimes establish new connections to other fields, found a whole research field of its own or introduce new methods thereby changing the whole image of mathematics in the same way that a small addition to a picture can alter radically what we take it to represent.

The lecture series "Images of Mathematics" deals with a few moments in the history of the scientific discipline since the middle of the 19th century when the image of mathematics changed. In particular, it focuses on the consequences of the fact that in the 19th century mathematics started to not only reflect on their own conceptual and methodological foundations in a general manner (which had been done since the dawn of mathematics and was especially a philosophical task), but to formalize them in a strict, mathematical way: the objects of mathematics, its logical language and its proof procedures. Through Cantor's set theory, the mathematical treatment of logic since Boole and especially through Frege and the formalization of its axioms in a wide ranging discussion involving Zermelo, Fraenkel and others, this self-reflexive stance came to the fore.

Yet, the deeper mathematics dug into its foundations, the more radical the problems became. Finally, the optimistic Hilbert program of laying the foundation of mathematics within mathematics and of proving its own consistency as well as its completeness contributed to clarifying of the foundation of mathematics primarily insofar as it was doomed to failure. Gödel proved his famous incompleteness theorems and thereby dismissed at the same time the formalist attempt to reduce mathematical truth to logical provability. His work resulted in detailed insights in the precariousness of the foundation of mathematics and further numerous of productive consequences within mathematics.

Moreover, Gödel's theorems open many far-reaching and intriguing questions in view of our image of mathematics, questions concerning the conception of mathematical practice and knowledge, the limits of calculability of mathematics and the possible role of computability and machines in mathematics, the relation between the logical proof procedures and the involved intuitive aspects. In short, the image of mathematics is not as static as we sometimes expect it to be, it was radically redrawn by the mathematicians of the 20th century and has since then again been open to diverging interpretations.
LiteratureFor further reading (optional): Mark van Atten and Juliette Kennedy, Gödel's Logic, in: Handbook of the History of Logic, Vol 5: Logic from Russell to Church, ed. by Dov M. Gabbay and John Woods, Amsterdam 2009, 449-509; Jack Copeland et al. (eds.), Computability. Turing, Gödel, Church, and beyond, Cambridge 2013; Ian Hacking, Why is there philosophy of mathematics at all? Cambridge 2014; Pirmin Stekeler-Weithofer, Formen der Anschauung. Eine Philosophie der Mathematik, Berlin 2008; Christian Tapp, An den Grenzen des Endlichen. Das Hilbertprogramm im Kontext von Formalismus und Finitismus, Heidelberg 2013.
853-0060-00LCurrent Issues in Security PolicyW3 credits2VA. Wenger, O. Thränert
AbstractThis course provides an overview of the security implications of so-called "dual-use" technologies, i.e. technologies that can be used for both peaceful and military aims. The course will also cover various policies - in particular arms control - that are discussed and applied by the international community in dealing with such dual-use technologies.
ObjectiveParticipants should gain a solid understanding of security challenges stemming from the use and control of dual-use technologies. In addition, the students should become aware of how researchers can deal with sensitive knowledge regarding research transparency and control.
ContentThe aim of the course is to provide participants with an overview of international security politics with a special focus on dual-use technologies. Students will analyze the character of dual-use security risks and of risk-based security strategies and instruments. Thematic areas include the nuclear non-proliferation regime, biological and chemical weapons conventions, missile proliferation, the nuclear programs of Iran and North Korea, cyber and space technologies, as well as robotics and nanotechnology.
Lecture notesParticipants are expected to study the compulsory texts provided at the beginning of the semester via the online platform Moodle.
LiteratureA reading list will be distributed at the beginning of the semester.
Prerequisites / NoticeAn online learning platform serves as a supplement to the course.
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