Search result: Catalogue data in Spring Semester 2019

History and Philosophy of Knowledge Master Information
Basic Courses
Seminars
NumberTitleTypeECTSHoursLecturers
862-0096-00LTheoretical Philosophy Work in Progress Seminar Restricted registration - show details
Does not take place this semester.
Only for History and Philosophy of Knowledge MSc and DGESS PhD students.
W3 credits1Sto be announced
AbstractIn this course themes from theoretical philosophy are discussed which are of particular interest for current MAPGW students. Primary texts will be read together and the work in progress of the participants (essays, theses) will be presented and discussed.
ObjectiveThis course is aimed at MAPGW students who are particularly interested in theoretical philosophy. The seminar provides an opportunity to discuss and present one's own research. The participants learn to critically evaluate primary texts and improve their skills in presenting and discussing work in progress.
851-0147-01LTheories, Experiments, Causality
Particularly suitable for students of D-PHYS
W3 credits2GR. Wallny, M. Hampe
AbstractThis course critically evaluates topics and approaches from physics against a broader historical and philosophical/systematic background. Attention will be paid, amongst other things, to the role of experiments, to the concepts of matter and field, and to theory formation.
ObjectiveStudents should be able to critically evaluate different topics and approaches in physics. They should also be enabled to communicate their insights to people from other disciplines and fields.
Prerequisites / NoticeThis course is part of the ETH "Critical Thinking" initiative.
851-0101-63LFrom Colonisation to Globalisation. New Perspectives on The Global History of SwitzerlandW3 credits2SB. Schär, P. Krauer
AbstractRecent research on Swiss history shows that even without colonies, the country was intensively interwoven with the imperial world of the 19th and 20th centuries overseas. Why was this so, what were the consequences at home and overseas and how does this change our knowledge of the globalised present? The seminar serves to discuss such questions using sources and recent studies.
ObjectiveIn this seminar you learn about different approaches to Switzerland's global history and how they differ.
You will learn to independently formulate a question, to seek answers based on the analysis of historical sources and to formulate them in combination with current research literature.
You shall also learn to reflect on how historical learning shapes and changes your understanding of the globalised present.
851-0125-80LEditing a Historical Scientific Manuscript (Personal Project Pilot Course) Restricted registration - show details
Number of participants limited to 10.

This course is based on personal project supervision
W3 credits2SR. Wagner
Abstractthis pilot course will be based on supervised individual work by students. Each student will select a manuscript source (modern nachlass or historical manuscript) by a scientist in a language of their choosing and prepare an edition and translation of the source. The work will be personally supervised by the teacher.
ObjectiveStudents will have basic skills in historical editing work, and acquire knowledge about one science-history case study.
Work load:
- Class participation: 2-3 class meetings during the semester (this is flexible, so you may register even if the scheduled time is problematic for you).
- Selection of source: each student will select one scientific source - modern nachlass or early modern or medieval manuscript, which has never been edited. There are no restrictions on language of origin (students are encouraged to work on manuscripts in their native languages)
- Bibliography: each student will prepare her/his own bibliography to provide historical background for the selected source (150-200 pages).
- Each student will prepare a "diplomatic edition" and a translation of a selection from the manuscript (ca. 15 pages).
- Each student will prepare a 2,000 words commentary on the background and content of the manuscript.
- The work will be personally supervised by the teacher, and will be performed during the semester according to a fixed schedule.
Prerequisites / Noticeonly 2-3 class meetings during the semester
851-0127-28LDeath - The Secret Problem of Life Restricted registration - show details W3 credits2GH. Wiedebach
AbstractNo detective novel without a corpse, no religion without knowledge about death and life, no large transplantation of an organ without certificate for the donor's death. Is a dead person always a corpse? - Death is part of life and yet stands simultaneously in opposition to it. We cling to life and nonetheless wish to have the option to commit suicide. Do we know what we really want in that case?
ObjectiveDiscussion of 1) several conceptions of death in history, 2) determination of death in a medical sense (brain-death, etc.). 3) The search for a personal view about life and death. 4) The practice of a precise manner of speaking based on reflection.
LiteratureTexte als Diskussionsgrundlage werden zu Beginn des Semesters genannt bzw. als PDF unter "Lernmaterialien" veröffentlicht.
Prerequisites / NoticeDas mündliche Diskutieren während der Sitzungen ist zentral wichtig. Daher besteht Anwesenheitspflicht. Einmaliges Fehlen ist möglich mit Entschuldigung. Als Ersatz wird die erweiterte Darstellung eines jeweils zu vereinbarenden Textes geliefert.

Schriftliche Semesterleistung:

- Ab dem 2. Seminartermin erfolgt im Voraus pro Sitzung (d.h. insgesamt 6mal) eine 1 bis 1 1/2-seitige Darstellung bzw. Stellungnahme zu einem vorgegebenen Text oder Thema.
- Die 1 bis 1 1/2-seitigen Darstellungen müssen bis Samstag Abend in der Woche vor der nächsten Sitzung vorliegen.
- Statt einer der 6 Kurzdarstellungen kann ein einführendes Referat (15 min, max. 2 Personen) gehalten werden.

Formalia btr. aller Texte (Minimalanforderungen):
- Schriftbild: Zeilenabstand 1.5, Schriftgrösse 12, Seitenabstand 2.5cm, Schriftart: Arial, Times New Roman.
- Vor- und Nachname, Matrikelnummer, Veranstaltungsname, Dozent, E-Mail-Adr., Studiengang.

- Ihre Texte schicken Sie bitte an die eigens eingerichtete Email-Adresse:
Link
851-0549-18LFactory, Laboratory, or Plattform? Organizing High Performance Computing Since The 1960s. Restricted registration - show details
Number of participants limited to 40
W3 credits2SD. Gugerli, R. Wichum
AbstractThe seminar is dedicated to reading texts that have supported and criticized, shaped and tested, or organized and reformed since the 1960s.
ObjectiveStudents will learn to identify argumentative constructs and discursive patterns as phenomena of technocultural change.
Lecture notesA syllabus will be provided at the beginning of the Seminar.
Prerequisites / NoticeDie Zahl der Teilnehmenden ist auf 40 beschränkt.
851-0158-12LScience And The New Right Restricted registration - show details
Number of participants limited to 50
W3 credits2SN. Guettler, M. Wulz, F. Grütter, M. Stadler
AbstractThe New Right is inescapable – both, politically and as a media phenomenon. It also tends to come across as broadly antiscientific (climate denial, “fake news”, conspiracy theories, etc). And yet, as we’ll explore in this seminar, historically speaking ‘real’ science did play a significant role in the rise of New Right.
ObjectiveIn the seminar, we shall discuss pertinent historical sources from ca. 1950-2000 that will shed light on the New Right’s entanglements with scientific and technological subject matters, including fields such as cybernetics, ecology, economics, and ethology. Insofar reactionary thinkers and doers routinely cultivated scientific forms of knowledge, we’re lead to ask: How might a “reactionary” history of science look like? Which institutions were important? And how “new” is this New Right thinking, actually?

The seminar comes as a four-part block-course plus introductory and wrap-up sessions. In between sessions, students will carry out small research-assignments and learn how to interpret and put into context sources and literature pertaining to the New Right as (also) a techno-scientific phenomenon. In addition, students will regularly write short texts that we’ll jointly discuss in the seminar (and that will form the basis of your final grade).
851-0158-11LThe Alps in The Early Modern Period, 1500-1800 (Research and Writing Lab) Restricted registration - show details
Number of participants limited to 20
W3 credits2ST. Asmussen
Abstract
Objective
851-0157-99LIgnorance in The SciencesW3 credits2SN. El Kassar
AbstractIn this seminar we examine the role of ignorance in the sciences. Ignorance can be a driving force for progress in the sciences, but it can also impede scientific work. How, when and why is ignorance conducive; how, when and why is it impeding? We will address these and related questions by means of philosophical texts and scientific reflections.
Objective- Discuss and reflect the relationship between knowlege and ignorance in the sciences.
- Distinguish different kinds of ignorance.
- Recognize and explain the positive effects of ignorance in different disciplines.
- Identify and explain the negative effects of ignorance in different discipines.
- Identify the conditions for positive effects of ignorance in scientific practices.
- Relating philosophical arguments and (one’s own) scientific practice.
- Juxtaposing and comparing views and claims from different sciences
- Reading philosophical and scientific texts (in German and English)
851-0158-13LEcology and Environmentalism Restricted registration - show details
Number of participants limited to 40

Particularly suitable for students of D-ERDW, D-HEST, D-USYS, D-BIOL
W3 credits2SN. Guettler
AbstractThe notion of „ecology“ refers to both, scientific research on environments as well as their protection. But how have academic ecology and the environmental movements intersected throughout history?
ObjectiveIn the seminar, students will read and discuss key sources as well as secondary literature on the knowledge transfers between scientific ecology and the environmental movements of the 19th and 20th century. Topics range from 19th-century homeland movement and the rise of ecological awareness in colonial settings, to the rise of an environmental awareness during the Cold War, with a special focus on „green“ politics in Europe. Apart from scientists and „counter-scientists“ the seminar focuses on concepts and ideas that circulated between academic ecology and different nature movements.
The participants learn to engage historically with original texts as well as to handle independently the extensive historical literature on the history of environmentalism. At the same time, they develop a critical understanding of different political agendas that have shaped academic and popular ecology until the present day. Students also learn to communicate their findings by writing short (and fictive) blog posts on different aspects of this history.
851-0125-78LNon-Conceptual Thinking: Philosophy As LiteratureW3 credits2SM. Hampe, A. Kilcher
AbstractLiterature and Philosophy are usually distinguished from each other by the following difference: Philosophy supposedly uses a language of abstract concepts whereas literature tells stories and uses metaphors. Looking more closely reveals that philosophy is operating not at all purely conceptual and without metaphors. Metaphorical texts that tell stories in philosophy are subject of this course.
ObjectiveStudents should learn about the different types of argumentative and non-argumentative texts. They should learn to understand the descriptive and critical value of non-argumentative texts that operate at the boarder between philosophy and literature.
851-0158-14LLife -- A Critical Instruction ManualW3 credits2SM. Hagner
AbstractThis seminar is devoted to the new book of the French physician and anthropologist Didier Fassin. Taking up some topics, Fassin discusses in his book,we will examine various forms and politics of life in early 21st century.
ObjectiveSince Greek antiquity, the concept of life oscillates between the fact of general life, which accords to all living beings (zoe), and the fact of particular life, which accords to an invididual or a defined group (bios). In our times, the democratically granted appreciation for life as the highest good seems to be in conflict with an erosion of the commitment to protect individual lifes in existential danger. By all means, this is Didier Fassin's diagnosis in his new book. Starting from a discussion of this book, this seminar breaks new ground, because the participants decide which of the topics of Fassin's book we will further treat in this course. Thios experimental procedure will work, if all attendees are willing to read the book with passion and scrutiny. The aim of the seminar is to acquire an overview over one of the most pressing topics of our time.
851-0158-16LCold War Epistemology Reconsidered in a Global ContextW3 credits2SV. Wolff
AbstractWhat was the Cold War and how can we describe its epistemology and history of knowledge? Wikipedia teaches that the Cold War was a conflict between capitalism and communism which ended with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989, while others have argued that Cold War knowledge shapes even today's world.
ObjectiveThis seminar's aim is to develop a critical perspective on the most important positions of Cold War knowledge in a global context. Amongst others these encompass cybernetics as concept of a new universal science, terms like totalitarianism or creativity, the institution of the think tank, the figure of the consult, as well as a popular notion of modern abstract art as an expression of Western freedom .
851-0158-15LThe Human Between Deficiency And Cyborg. Trans- And Posthumanistic Visions
Particularly suitable for student of D-HEST, D-INFK, D-ITET
Number of participants limited to 50
W3 credits2SK. Liggieri
AbstractIn our everyday life we are surrounded by automated, self-regulated machines (smartphones, prostheses, etc.), these techniques are part of our lives and without them a human existence is no longer conceivable. So man needs technology for his life and survival. But how does this technology change people? How and with which techniques does it optimize itself?
ObjectiveApart from the important possibilities of biomedical healing, the question must be asked in the seminar how our view of "man" and "machine" changes. How did man and technology change each other in modern enhancement, in which man intervenes with the machine in himself? What happens when man and technology merge and create new bodies (cyborgs, etc.)? The seminar will be about an assessment of our modern idea of man and machine, which is changing through trans- and posthumanistic visions. To this end, historical and current debates on optimization are to be addressed.
851-0145-07L"Waldeinsamkeit" - Wilderness and Individualism Restricted registration - show details
Particularly suitable for students of D-MTEC, D-USYS, D-ERDW
Number of participants limited to 26
W3 credits2SS. Baier
AbstractThe class is about the concept of individuality and how it relates to wilderness both from a historical and a philosophical perspective. Our ideas of wilderness strongly inform the natural and technological sciences. Having a closer look at what defines wilderness therefore helps to get a better picture of what can and should not be done to nature.
ObjectiveThe class is about the concept of individuality and how it relates to wilderness both from a historical and a philosophical perspective. Our ideas of wilderness strongly inform the natural and technological sciences. Having a closer look at what defines wilderness therefore helps to get a better picture of what can and should not be done to nature.
851-0144-10LPaul Bernays' Philosophy of Mathematics Restricted registration - show details
Number of participants limited to 40
W3 credits2SG. Sommaruga
AbstractThe subject of philosophy of mathematics is going to be approached in a doubly specific way: 1. from Paul Bernays' point of view, an outstanding philosopher of mathematics of the 20th century; 2. from the point of view of a particular selection of his articles and philosophical questions concerning mathematics.
ObjectiveTo present an introduction to the philosophy of mathematics; to get to know a few central philosophical questions and problems concerning mathematics; to critically discuss Paul Bernays' answers and proposed solutions.
851-0516-05LMobility and the Border: Migration and Control between Mexico and the USA, 19th– 21st Century Restricted registration - show details
Number of participants limited to 30
W3 credits2SS. M. Scheuzger
AbstractThe course is dedicated to the history of migration between Mexico and the United States and to the history of control of these migratory movements. The role of technological change and scientific discourses in these developments will be a subject of special interest in the discussions.
ObjectiveA) The students know relevant approaches of the studies of migration, they are able to assess the analytical capacities of these approaches and they know how to apply them to concrete events and processes.
B) The students have acquired knowledge about important aspects of the history of migration between Mexico and the United States.
C) The students are able to identify relevant relations between scientific and technological change on the one hand and developments of migration and its control on the other.
ContentThe land border between Mexico and the United States, where the ‚global North‘ and the ‚global South‘ meet in the most prominent form worldwide, provides an exemplary case to study how borders generate spaces of agency, constitute human communities and create identities – not only by separating people but also by connecting them. The course is dedicated to the history of migration between Mexico and the United States and to the history of control of these migratory movements. The role of technological change and scientific discourses in these developments will be a subject of special interest in the discussions.
851-0549-20LCattle Commodities. Animal-Men-Machine Interaction between Oxcart and Butchery, Lab and Factory Information Restricted registration - show details
Number of participants limited to 40
W3 credits2SG. Hürlimann
AbstractThe rich histories that cattle have produced since the late 19th century tend to disappear behind the iconic character of the milk cow. The seminar sheds a light on a historical agent who generates businesses, organizations and research labs, for whom forage, slaughterhouses and cooling technologies are developed, who is a means and object of transportation and inspires social dispute.
ObjectiveThrough the example of the cattle, an iconic „object“ of Swiss touristic, eoconomic and everyday historic reality, students learn how research and cultivation patterns, as well as technologies and logistics of production, transportation and consumption have evolved and changed since the late 19th century. For such an approach, they become familiarized with an “entangled-histories”-perspective, as well as with the symmetrical anthropology approach from the philosophy and sociology of technology (Latour/Callon). But above all, students learn how to read and interpret historical texts and sources on cattle as commodity, by identifying actors, interests and historical context. The fact that this commodity is a living creature, adds to the topic’s ethical complexity, but also serves the learning purpose.
LiteratureSyllabus and texts will be listed and/or uploaded in the corresponding Moodle-course at the onset of the spring semester 2019.
Prerequisites / NoticeTexts and sources will be mainly in German, some in English. On a voluntary base, also French sources can be read.
851-0125-79LBruno Latour's Modes of Existence: A Philosophical Approach to Science and Society Restricted registration - show details
Number of participants limited to 30
W3 credits2SR. Wagner
AbstractBruno Latour's "an inquiry into modes of existence" is an ambitious book that offer a philosophical-scoiological approach to questions of science, technology, politics and economy. In this seminar, we will read some chapters of this book, and reflect on them critically.
ObjectiveStudents will be able to analyze various aspects of science, technology, politics and economy based on Latour's approach, and engage critically with his arguments and conceptions.
Work load: reading 25-30 pages per week; weekly mini-assignments (brief feedback about the weekly reading); one 15 min. presentation during the semester; and a 2,000 words final essay.
Requirements: there are no formal requirements, but the course will assume that students have some experience in reading philosophical or sociological texts.
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