Search result: Catalogue data in Spring Semester 2021

Doctoral Department of Humanities, Social and Political Sciences Information
More Information at: Link
Doctoral and Post-Doctoral Courses
NumberTitleTypeECTSHoursLecturers
851-0173-00LHistory of Formal Logic: The Emergence of Boolean Logic Restricted registration - show details W+3 credits2VJ. L. Gastaldi
AbstractThe invention of Boolean logic in the middle of the 19th century is considered a major event in the history of modern thought. However, Boole’s original system does not correspond to what we came to understand as Boolean logic.
We will study the early history of Boolean logic in relation to the mathematics of its epoch, in search of an alternative philosophy of formal knowledge for the present.
ObjectiveDuring the course, students will be able to:
-Acquire a general perspective on the history of formal logic
-Review relevant aspects of the history of modern mathematics
-Obtain philosophical and historical tools for critically assessing the status of formal sciences
-Develop a critical understanding of the notion of formal
-Discuss the methodological capabilities of historical epistemology
ContentThe invention of Boolean logic in the middle of the 19th century is considered a major event in the history of modern thought. Boolean algebras and Boolean rings lay at the basis of propositional logic and digital communication, contributing in a decisive way to the theoretical and technical conditions of our time. However, if attention is paid to Boole’s own work, it will quickly appear that his Calculus of Logic does not correspond to what we came to understand as Boolean logic. Instead of disregarding those differences as inevitable mistakes of any pioneering enterprise, waiting to be corrected by successive developments, we will try to understand them as the sign of an alternative philosophy of logic and formal knowledge, which later developments excluded and forgot, and from which recent advances in formal sciences could take advantage. Such an inquiry will give us the occasion of exploring the philosophical and scientific landscape in which formal logic emerged in the first half of the 19th century (focusing on the works of Babbage, De Morgan and Boole), and to build a critical perspective on the notion of “formal”, at the crossroad of the history and philosophy of mathematics and logic.
851-0174-00LRebooting AI: Human and Social Aspects of Artificial Intelligence Restricted registration - show details
Suitable only for MA and PhD students
W3 credits2GJ. L. Gastaldi, O. Del Fabbro, A. Nardo, D. Trninic
AbstractSeveral researchers from the humanities will propose a critical yet not partisan approach to AI, aiming at elaborating a common perspective on this phenomenon. Sessions will delve into aspects of the way in which AI challenges our understanding of the human, such as “Knowledge”, “Learning”, “Language”, “Freedom” or “Justice”.
ObjectiveDuring the course, students will be able to:
-Discuss relevant aspects of the impact of AI in human and social life
-Obtain theoretical and methodological tools for critically assessing the place of technology in society
-Develop a critical understanding of the conceptual grounds of AI
-Acquire a general perspective on the different fields and points of views in the humanities
-Engage in collaborative work with researchers in the humanities
ContentThe last decades have witnessed a remarkable development in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Although mainly technical feat, such advances have decisive consequences in a wide variety of aspects of human and social life. Even more, AI is challenging in multiple ways our very understanding of what is to be a human. However, despite the significance of the transformations at stake, the perspectives of the humanities -traditionally established as a valid source of critical inquiry into human matters- are generally relegated to a secondary role in the development of AI.

In this seminar, several researchers from the humanities will propose a critical yet not partisan approach to AI, aiming at elaborating a common perspective which could be taken as a legitimate interlocutor in the debates arising around the current stakes of technology in our society. The seminar will take the form of presentations based on critical readings of chosen texts, followed by group discussions. Each session will delve into one aspect of the way in which AI challenges our understanding of the human, such as “Knowledge”, “Learning”, “Language”, “Freedom” or “Justice”, confronting how they are dealt with in state-of-the-art texts in AI and relevant works in the humanities.

We expect students from science, technology, engineering, and mathematics and other fields outside the humanities to actively contribute to a collective construction, which could lead to further collaboration within but also outside this course.

As part of the Turing Centre, this seminar intends to sow the seed of a suitable and long-term environment for the exchange of ideas between multiple fields in the natural sciences and the humanities.

The seminar will be conducted by Olivier Del Frabbro, Juan Luis Gastaldi, Aline Nardo, Vanessa Rampton and Dragan Trninic.
Prerequisites / NoticeSuitable only for MA and PhD students
851-0009-00LThe 'Dutch East Indies' and Science in German Speaking Europe, c. 1800-1950 Restricted registration - show details W3 credits2SB. Schär, M. Ligtenberg
AbstractBetween about 1800 and 1945 the Netherlands was a small country with a huge empire in what is now Indonesia and the Caribbean. In order to conquer and explore this empire, the Dutch depended also on the help of German-speaking scientists. How did German-speaking science and Dutch imperialism mutually benefit from each other? What consequences did it have for whom?
ObjectiveStudents learn about new approaches to the global history of knowledge. They gain insights into Dutch colonial history in present-day Indonesia, as well as into the history of various disciplines such as geography, biology or anthropology. They will learn to create their own analyses of the relationship between science and imperialism using sources.
ContentAs a small country with the second largest colonial empire after Great Britain, the Netherlands was permanently dependent on more imperial know-how, capital and expertise in the 19th and 20th centuries than it had available on its own territory. This opened up opportunities for development above all for those European regions that late or never formed their own colonial empires overseas. This is particularly true for German-speaking Europe. In the 19th century, German-speaking researchers and universities rose to become the world leaders of their kind. A substantial part of the German-speaking history of science unfolded in the "Dutch East Indies", today's Indonesia. However, the close and long-lasting historical relations between German-speaking science and Dutch imperialism in this region have hardly been examined by historians so far. In this seminar we will first of all use the secondary literature to gain an overview of the development of this relationship. Using case studies and historical source materials, we will then develop a deeper understanding of the ways in which the German-speaking sciences and their research institutions and the project of Dutch imperialism influenced each other. Particular attention will be paid to the question of what role Southeast Asian knowledge Producers played in the colonial construction of German-language scientific knowledge.
851-0252-19LApplied Generalized Linear ModelsW3 credits2VV. Amati
AbstractGeneralized linear models are a class of models for the analysis of multivariate datasets. This class subsumes linear models for quantitative response, binomial models for binary response, loglinear models for categorical data, Poisson models for count data. Models are presented and practised from a problem-oriented perspective.
ObjectiveThe course has a strong focus on the application of GLMs in the social, economic and behavioural sciences. Through the presentation and discussion of case studies and the analysis of a variety of data sets (e.g., demographic, social and economic data) using the software R, students will reflect on

1. the social phenomena and the research questions that can be investigated with GLMs

2. the theoretical and practical considerations that must be taken into account to apply GLMs in a rigorous way.

By doing this, students will take away a broader perspective on the standard and unique challenges that the application of GLMs entails.
ContentThe following topics will be covered:

* Introduction to generalized linear models
* The general linear model: ANOVA and ANCOVA
* Models for binary outcomes: logistic regression and probit models
* Models for nominal outcomes: multinomial logistic regression and related models
* Models for ordinal outcomes: ordered logistic regression and probit models
* Models for count outcomes: Poisson and negative binomial models
Lecture notesLecture notes are distributed via the associated course moodle.
Literature* Fox, John. (2016). Applied regression analysis and generalized linear models (Third ed.). Los Angeles: SAGE.
* Fox, John, & Weisberg, Sanford. (2019). An R companion to applied regression (Third ed.). Los Angeles: SAGE.
* Hosmer, David W, Lemeshow, Stanley, & Sturdivant, Rodney X. (2013). Applied logistic regression. Hoboken: Wiley.
* Long, J. Scott. (1997). Regression models for categorical and limited dependent variables. Thousand Oaks, Calif: Sage Publications.
Prerequisites / NoticeA sound understanding of estimation methods, hypothesis testing and linear regression models (OLS) is required
851-0010-00LGlobal Histories of the Anthropocene Restricted registration - show details W3 credits2ST. Bartoletti
AbstractThe seminar will critically examine the discursive history of the Anthropocene. It gives an overview of debates on the Anthropocene narrative and its transdisciplinary framework. A global history approach to these debates arises as a substantial contribution to better analyze global processes of exploitation of natural resources, territorial dispossession and imperialism.
ObjectiveThe aim is to examine how natural scientists and historians analyze climate change and the human imprint on the environment, processing data in a transdisciplinary way. Students will select a research project related to climate change, environmental research or similar issues conducted at ETH Zurich and write an essay on how the Anthropocene narrative operates in the scientific agenda.
ContentAccording to the standard Anthropocene narrative, the Industrial Revolution marks the onset of large-scale human modification of the earth. Nevertheless, several scholars, especially from the global south, have noted that the Anthropocene concept constructs a single and unilineal narrative about humans as a species. Only considering measurements of carbon dioxide levels, it naturalizes the specific cultural behaviors (colonialism, inequality, etc.) arguably responsible for climate change. Contrary to ‘pure’ natural science and ‘human species’ explanations, this Eurocentric pattern has been strongly questioned due to its lack of socio-historical differentiation and intra-species distinction. For example, as of 2008, the advanced countries of the ‘North’ accounted for 18.8 percent of the world population and were responsible for 72.7 percent of the carbon dioxide emitted since 1850, while the poorest 45 percent of the human population accounted for 7 percent of emissions. Is it methodologically appropriate to refer to all humans as agents of a new geological era? This seminar will explore the slipping between natural/cultural explanations and critically tackle how the Anthropocene narrative is marking scientific and political agendas.
851-0197-00LMedieval and Early Modern Science and PhilosophyW3 credits2VE. Sammarchi
AbstractThe course analyses the evolution of the relation between science and philosophy during the Middle Age and the Early Modern Period.
ObjectiveThe course aims are:
- to introduce students to the philosophical dimension of science;
- to develop a critical understanding of scientific notions;
- to acquire skills in order to read and comment scientific texts written in the past ages.
ContentThe course is focused on the investigation of scientific thought between 1000 and 1700, that is to say the period that saw the flourishing of natural philosophy and the birth of the modern scientific method. Several case-studies, taken from different scientific fields (especially algebra, astronomy, and physics) are presented in class in order to examine the relation between science and philosophy and the shift from medieval times to the early modern world.
851-0282-00LOn ClosureW3 credits2SC. Jany
AbstractAll beginnings are difficult, the saying goes. But it is perhaps still more difficult to find an ending under the endless conditions of modernity. Not long ago, the stories of literature defined the closure of actions, while philosophical systems provided the certain rules for sensible conclusions and ends, not to mention religious myths and revelations. What remains of such knowledge today?
ObjectiveReading theoretical and above all literary texts, we will first gather typical concepts, strategies, and representations of how things come to an end. We will then scrutinize this arsenal of "meaningful" ends and endings considering the conditions of modern life. To what extend does this older knowledge of endings live on as concerns both one's own biography and the aims and ends of science.
ContentDie Untersuchung von philosophischen und insbes. literarischen Schlüssen verspricht Einsichten in die allgemeinen Bauformen von Geschichten, Gedankengängen oder ganz allgemein Handlungen. Sie berührt also drei Grundvollzüge der menschlichen Kultur: das Erzählen, das Denken, das praktische Handeln. Auch die Naturwissenschaft und Technik sind auf diese kulturellen Grundvollzüge bezogen und bringen sie zur Anwendung. Insofern lädt das Seminar nicht zuletzt dazu ein, über den Wert und die Funktion von Zwecken, Schlüssen und Enden für das technisch-naturwissenschaftliche Wissen nachzudenken.
851-0551-17LColloquium for Master and Ph.D. Students History of Technology (FS 2021)W2 credits1KD. Gugerli
AbstractColloquium for master and doctoral students preparing a thesis in the history of technology.
ObjectiveGoals: to identify, discuss, and resolve methodological problems that emerge while elaborating a master or doctoral thesis.
Prerequisites / NoticeBeginn 2. Semesterwoche, 02.03.2021 (alle 14 Tage). Anmeldung bei Rachele Delucchi (Link). Siehe fürs Programm auch: Link
851-0649-00LInternational Development EngineeringW1 credit2VI. Günther, A. Rom, K. Shea, E. Tilley
AbstractIn this seminar, students will learn from researchers around the globe about technological interventions designed to improve human and economic development within complex, low-resource setting. Students will also get familiar with frameworks from social sciences and engineering, helping them to understand, and evaluate the discussed technologies and to put them into a broader context.
Objective• Students will get familiar with frameworks from social sciences and engineering needed for innovation in a complex, low-resource setting.
• Students will learn about concrete examples of technological interventions designed to improve sustainable development and critically reflect on them.
• Students get a broad understanding of some of the most important issues and discussions related to global sustainable development.
ContentIn the introductory class, students will learn about challenges related to global sustainable developments and how they have developed over time. Students will then get exposed to frameworks from social sciences and engineering disciplines, which will help them analyze technologies designed for low-resource settings. In the remaining sessions thought leaders from the field of development engineering will present a wide range of innovations from sectors such as health, water and sanitation, education and governance that will then get discussed with students using the frameworks they learned.
851-0647-00LModel United Nations - International Policy-making Restricted registration - show details W2 credits1SL. Hensgen, F. M. Egli
AbstractThis course takes the UN as a starting point to acquaint students with key competences decisive for effective international policy-making to address the most pressing issues of humanity. These include intercultural negotiation, mediation and complex problem solving skills. Participants receive the opportunity to exchange with UN staff, diplomats and civil society members engaged with the UN.
ObjectiveIntercultural mediation, negotiation, complex problem solving, sustainable development goals and how those are addressed by the UN, team work
ContentTechnical progress led to unprecedented opportunities and challenges for human societies. While we were never as affluent, educated and healthy as today - climate change, biodiversity loss, epidemics and widening inequality, as well as new risks from emerging technologies - such as lethal autonomous weapons and designed pathogens – pose novel challenges. Responding to these challenges requires not only profound technical knowledge but also a profound understanding of societies and the capacity to put technological solutions into practice in a globalized, intercultural and political environment. Thus, increasingly there is a need for engineers with a strong understanding of complex problem solving to address the most pressing challenges of human kind. This course takes the UN as a starting point to address complexity at international policy-making processes and to make students aware of the need for more sustainable solutions in the future. The work on real UN case studies will challenge students to critically assess global problems from different perspectives, to discuss UN resolutions brought forward and to reflect upon their potential implications. Opportunities to exchange with experts, such as UN staff, diplomats and civil society advisors will complement theoretic inputs. In this course, ETH students can complement their technical skills with key competences decisive for effective international policy-making.
Prerequisites / NoticeThe course consists of five sessions (March 9th/ March 23rd/ April 6th/ April 27th/ May 4th 5.15 PM- 7.00 PM) that include teaching and discussions about the UN system with external experts as well as the preparation and participation in a MUN in Zurich (May 1st- May 3th 2020). Upon request and at students’ own expense they can also attend a MUN in another location.
The course is co-organized with the ETH MUN. Similar courses are offered at UZH, HSG, University of Bern, University of Geneva.
851-0157-49LWhat is Life? Introdution Into the History of the Life SciencesW3 credits2VM. Hagner
AbstractThe aim of this lecture is to introduce into the most important theories of life from ancient times until the early 21st century. I will put a focus on philosophical concepts and on the modern life sciences since Chalres Darwin.
ObjectiveIn the lecture course, attendants will learn to distinguish historically and systematically various theories of life.
851-0157-74LPhotography Between Science and Art Restricted registration - show details
Number of participants limited to 20
W3 credits2SM. Hagner
AbstractThis seminar is devoted to the role of photography in art and science since its beginnings in 1839. We will read selected texts on the theory of photography and analyse photographs for getting an overview over its fascinating history.
ObjectiveWhen photography started to conquer the world in 1839, it was unclear whether it belonged to the arts or to the sciences. Since those times and despite the digital revolution, this double function of photography has not changed significantly. The aim of this seminar is twofold: First, we want to reconstruct the transformations of photography in the trading zone of the sciences and the arts. Second, we want to analyse epistemological and aesthetical theories, which reflect the function of photography. The use of the photography archive of ETH Zurich will be part of the seminar.
851-0519-00LDeportation as a Mean of Migration and Population ControlW3 credits2VS. M. Scheuzger
AbstractIn the last decades, deportation has developed to a massively and routinely used instrument to control migration and population. The general perception notwithstanding, deportation is an eminently complex mechanism of statecraft. The course discusses the “normalization” of deportation in a global perspective focusing on the manifold involved techniques.
ObjectiveA) The students know central developments of deportation as a means of migration and population control in the last decades in their global dimension. B) They are familiar with the different techniques involved in the deportation of people and their role in these developments. C) They are able to assess the instrument of deportation as well as the deployed techniques in their social contexts.
ContentDeportations appear to be a legitimate and effective solution in dealing with people who cross national borders without authorization or who are no longer allowed to stay within these borders. However, the supposedly simple act of forcibly deporting foreign nationals from national territory is an extraordinarily complex mechanism of state action. The different techniques and technologies on which deportation practices are based contribute to this complexity. The event will focus on the latter. The lecture considers the technologies that have been used to establish deportability, to search and identify persons to be deported, to immobilize them and to deport them. A broad spectrum of technologies of surveillance, identification, communication, confinement, sanitary control or transport is discussed in their modes of operation, their interaction with each other and with other factors (especially with the concept of "assemblages"). A look is also taken at the techniques and technologies used in resistance to state control and deportation. The question will be explored how technologies and their transformation are linked to the legal, political, cultural, and social preconditions of deportation practices and what significance they have acquired in the process. In a contemporary historical dimension, it will be asked what role technologies have played in the development of deportation regimes, especially in the postulated "deportation turn" since the 1990s, i.e. the massive increase in deportations in many countries of the world. The lecture focuses on Europe, the Middle East and Africa on the one hand and North and Central America on the other.
851-0297-00LManipulation in Literature and Cultural HistoryW3 credits2VS. S. Leuenberger
AbstractThis lecture focuses on the manipulation and control of individuals and the masses. The power of manipulation is based on subtle use of persuasive linguistic elements and knowledge of the desires and fears of the intended audience. In addition to a theoretical overview, the lecture concentrates on the literary and discursive texts that dispute the control of protagonists.
ObjectiveStudents will learn about manipulation as a linguistic and narrative phenomenon steeped in myth and classical rhetoric. Against the backdrop of cultural-historical developments, particularly with regard to major changes in media technology, we will examine how the reach of manipulation was extended from the individual to the masses. Students will be able to refine their critical discourse analysis skills and interdisciplinary abilities by studying texts from literature, politics, sociology, philosophy and psychoanalysis which reflect this shift in emphasis.
ContentSince the dawn of time mankind has tried to exert influence over others through the utilisation of certain techniques: initially for self-preservation – for example the interpretation of Sigmund Freud in Totem und Tabu. Later, desire became the driving force – centre stage: the desire for pleasure, power and control. Manipulation manifests itself in the form of characters and words, it is an authentically linguistic occurrence: classical antiquity, with the rhetoric, develops a system of verbal power of persuasion and, already then, questions were being raised in literary and discursive texts about how people could, or even should, manipulate. The exertion of influence and its impact will be clearly described, propagated, commented upon, criticised and ironised.
In contrast to oppressive overpowering, the power of manipulation (in Latin, manus hand, plere fill) is on the one hand, based on the subtle use of persuasive linguistic elements – it is always a (literary) discourse, too – and on the other, on knowing precisely what the fantasies, desires and fears of the manipulated are. The discourse of manipulation has its beginnings in the age of sophists and their belief in an omnipotence of language and rhetoric. It underwent further transformation under political and psychological signs in the early modern period through Giordano Bruno and Niccolò Machiavelli and culminated in the 20th century in a critique of the deception strategies of the “culture industry” (T.W Adorno) and “psychotechnology” (B. Stiegler) in global capitalism. Nowadays social media is the “radicalisation machine” (J. Ebner) that present new challenges for society. Written in the 19th century, the Protocols of the Elders of Zion already gave indications of how present-day conspiracy theorists would manipulate their audience, and its impact can still be felt today. Since manipulation is a linguistic, narrative and also literary phenomenon, the central theme of the lecture is how in literature itself this often politically controversial and manipulative behaviour is picked up and reflected through poetry: such as in Tristan from Gottfried von Strassburg, Goethe’s Wilhelm Meister, Friedrich Schiller’s Die Verschwörung des Fiesco zu Genua or Heinrich von Kleist’s Der zerbrochne Krug, the works of Edgar Allan Poe and Thomas Mann (Mario und der Zauberer) and, most recently in Eckhart Nickel’s novel, Hysteria.
851-0181-00LA New History of Greek Mathematics Restricted registration - show details W3 credits2VR. Wagner
AbstractThis course will review parts of the history of ancient Greek mathematics, evaluate its characteristic features, attempt to explain them, and reflect on their relation to contemporary mathematics.
ObjectiveThe students will have an overview knowledge of Greek mathematics, and will be able to reflect on it in historical terms and in relation to modern mathematics.
ContentWe will follow extracts from Reviel Netz's upcoming monograph entitled "A new history of Greek mathematics".
851-0061-00LHistory of Knowledge in the Making (University of Zurich)
No enrolment to this course at ETH Zurich. Book the corresponding module directly at UZH.
UZH Module Code: 600G132a

Number of participants limited to 15.

Mind the enrolment deadlines at UZH:
Link
W2 credits1SUniversity lecturers
AbstractThis doctoral seminar provides a platform for PhD projects in the history of knowledge.
ObjectiveWe focus on the specific forms, circulations, and practices of knowledge, its discursive, cultural, and social, moreover its scientific, technological, media, and infrastructural, as well as its legal, economic, and political conditions and effects in global and transnational perspectives. Based on the participants' research projects, the seminar introduces the methods, relevant literature and current issues in the history of knowledge.
Prerequisites / NoticeLanguages: German and English
  • First page Previous page Page  3  of  3     All