Search result: Catalogue data in Autumn Semester 2023
Science in Perspective  In “Science in Perspective”-courses students learn to reflect on ETH’s STEM subjects from the perspective of humanities, political and social sciences. Only the courses listed below will be recognized as "Science in Perspective" courses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Type B: Reflection About Subject-Specific Methods and ContentsSubject-specific courses. Particularly relevant for students interested in those subjects. All these courses are also listed under the category “Typ A”, and every student can enroll in these courses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 851-0252-10L | Project in Behavioural Finance  Particularly suitable for students of D-MTEC. | W | 3 credits | 2S | S. Andraszewicz, C. Hölscher, A. C. Roberts | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Abstract | In this seminar, students will study cognitive processes, behaviour and the underlying biological response to financial decisions. Research methods such as asset market experiments, lottery games, risk preference assessment, psychometrics, neuroimaging and psychophysiology of decision processes will be discussed. Financial bubbles and crashes will be the core interest. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Learning objective | This course has four main goals: 1) To learn about the most important topics within Behavioural Finance 2) To learn to effectively select, review and present information using modern telecommunication tools 3) To practice working on group projects in hybrid working conditions (online + in-person) 4) To solve an applied behavioral finance business case stemming from an industry partner | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Content | The course does not contain mandatory reading. Instead, it offers suggested literature that provides guidance to the students who, prepare a presentation on core topics in behavioral finance. The point of this exercise is to critically select the most relevant information on a given topic and present to non-expert educated colleagues. At the same time, the audience learns about the key topics in behavioral finance. Every session involves a discussion moderated and supported by the lecturers. Throughout the semester, students work on solutions to real business cases stemming from a company partner. They can receive feedback and guidance from project leaders of the industry partner and from the academic supervisors. In the final meeting of the semester, students pitch solutions to their business cases. The course takes place entirely online. The objective is to prepare the students for the future work in online and hybrid arrangements. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Prerequisites / Notice | Students from all domains of ETH and all levels of education are welcome in the course. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 851-0738-00L | Intellectual Property: Introduction Particularly suitable for students of D-CHAB, D-INFK, D-ITET, D-MAVT, D- MATL, D-MTEC. | W | 2 credits | 2V | M. Schweizer | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Abstract | The course provides an introduction to Swiss and European intellectual property law (trademarks, copyright, patent and design rights). The legal principles are developed based on current cases. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Learning objective | The aim of this course is to enable students at ETH Zurich to recognize which rights may protect their creations, and which rights may be infringed as a result of their activities. Students should learn to assess the risks and opportunities of intellectual property rights in the development and marketing of new products. To put them in this position, they need to know the prerequisites and scope of protection afforded by the various intellectual property rights as well as the practical difficulties involved in the enforcement of intellectual property rights. This knowledge is imparted based on current rulings and cases. Another goal is to enable the students to participate in the current debate over the goals and desirability of protecting intellectual creations, particularly in the areas of copyright (keywords: fair use, Creative Commons, Copyleft) and patent law (software patents, patent trolls, patent thickets). | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 363-0565-00L | Principles of Macroeconomics | W | 3 credits | 2V | J.‑E. Sturm | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Abstract | This course examines the behaviour of macroeconomic variables, such as gross domestic product, unemployment and inflation rates. It tries to answer questions like: How can we explain fluctuations of national economic activity? What can economic policy do against unemployment and inflation? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Learning objective | This lecture will introduce the fundamentals of macroeconomic theory and explain their relevance to every-day economic problems. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Content | This course helps you understand the world in which you live. There are many questions about the macroeconomy that might spark your curiosity. Why are living standards so meagre in many African countries? Why do some countries have high rates of inflation while others have stable prices? Why have some European countries adopted a common currency? These are just a few of the questions that this course will help you answer. Furthermore, this course will give you a better understanding of the potential and limits of economic policy. As a voter, you help choose the policies that guide the allocation of society's resources. When deciding which policies to support, you may find yourself asking various questions about economics. What are the burdens associated with alternative forms of taxation? What are the effects of free trade with other countries? How does the government budget deficit affect the economy? These and similar questions are always on the minds of policy makers. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lecture notes | The course Moodle page contains announcements, course information and lecture slides. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Literature | The set-up of the course will closely follow the book of N. Gregory Mankiw and Mark P. Taylor (2023), Economics, Cengage Learning, 6th Edition. This book can also be used for the course '363-0503-00L Principles of Microeconomics' (Filippini). Besides this textbook, the slides, lecture notes and problem sets will cover the content of the lecture and the exam questions. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 363-0503-00L | Principles of Microeconomics GESS (Science in Perspective): This lecture is for MSc students only. BSc students register for 351-1109-00L Einführung in die Mikroökonomie. | W | 3 credits | 2G | M. Filippini | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Abstract | The course introduces basic principles, problems and approaches of microeconomics. This provides the students with reflective and contextual knowledge on how societies use scarce resources to produce goods and services and ensure a (fair) distribution. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Learning objective | The learning objectives of the course are: (1) Students must be able to discuss basic principles, problems and approaches in microeconomics. (2) Students can analyse and explain simple economic principles in a market using supply and demand graphs. (3) Students can contrast different market structures and describe firm and consumer behaviour. (4) Students can identify market failures such as externalities related to market activities and illustrate how these affect the economy as a whole. (5) Students can also recognize behavioural failures within a market and discuss basic concepts related to behavioural economics. (6) Students can apply simple mathematical concepts on economic problems. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Content | The resources on our planet are finite. The discipline of microeconomics therefore deals with the question of how society can use scarce resources to produce goods and services and ensure a (fair) distribution. In particular, microeconomics deals with the behaviour of consumers and firms in different market forms. Economic considerations and discussions are not part of classical engineering and science study programme. Thus, the goal of the lecture "Principles of Microeconomics" is to teach students how economic thinking and argumentation works. The course should help the students to look at the contents of their own studies from a different perspective and to be able to critically reflect on economic problems discussed in the society. Topics covered by the course are: - Supply and demand - Consumer demand: neoclassical and behavioural perspective - Cost of production: neoclassical and behavioural perspective - Welfare economics, deadweight losses - Governmental policies - Market failures, common resources and public goods - Public sector, tax system - Market forms (competitive, monopolistic, monopolistic competitive, oligopolistic) - International trade | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lecture notes | Lecture notes, exercises and reference material can be downloaded from Moodle. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Literature | N. Gregory Mankiw and Mark P. Taylor (2023), "Economics", 6th edition, South-Western Cengage Learning. For students taking only the course 'Principles of Microeconomics' there is a shorter version of the same book: N. Gregory Mankiw and Mark P. Taylor (2023), "Microeconomics", 6th edition, South-Western Cengage Learning. Complementary: R. Pindyck and D. Rubinfeld (2018), "Microeconomics", 9th edition, Pearson Education. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Prerequisites / Notice | GESS (Science in Perspective): This lecture is for MSc students only. BSc students register for 363-1109-00L Einführung in die Mikroökonomie. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 351-1109-00L | Introduction to Microeconomics GESS (Science in Perspective): This course is only for students enrolled in a Bachelor’s degree programme. Students enrolled in a Master’s degree programme may attend “Principles of Microeconomics” (LE 363-0503-00L) instead. Note for D-MAVT students: If you have already successfully completed “Principles of Microeconomics” (LE 363-0503-00L), then you will not be permitted to attend it again. | W | 3 credits | 2G | M. Wörter, M. Beck | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Abstract | The course introduces basic principles, problems and approaches of microeconomics. It describes economic decisions of households and firms, and their coordination through perfectly competitive markets. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Learning objective | Students acquire a deeper understanding of basic microeconomic models. They acquire the ability to apply these models in the interpretation of real world economic contexts. Students acquire a reflective and contextual knowledge on how societies use scarce resources to produce goods and services and distribute them among themselves. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Content | Market, budget constraint, preferences, utility function, utility maximisation, demand, technology, profit function, cost minimisation, cost functions, perfect competition, information and communication technologies | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lecture notes | Course material in e-learning environment https://moodle-app2.let.ethz.ch/auth/shibboleth/login.php | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Literature | Varian, Hal R. (2014), Intermediate Microeconomics, W.W. Norton | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Prerequisites / Notice | This course "Einführung in die Mikroökonomie“ (363-1109-00L) is intended for Bachelor students and LE 363-0503-00 "Principles of Microeconomics" for Master students. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 851-0742-00L | Contract Design I You can find all course materials and the most recent announcements on Moodle. Please log in to Moodle using your ETH or UZH credentials. Then search for "Contract Design I (851-0742-00L; Fall 2023)" and enroll. The password is "ContractDesign01". It is NOT a legal drafting class focused on contractual language. Number of participants limited to 160. Max 80 ETHZ and 80 UZH Students | W | 3 credits | 2V | A. Stremitzer, A. Tacconelli | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Abstract | Contract Design I is taught by Professor Stremitzer and aims to bridge the gap between economic contract theory, contract law, and the writing of real-world contracts. In this course, we take a systematic approach to contract design. This means we first analyze the economic environment in which a transaction takes place and then engineer contracts that achieve the desired outcome. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Learning objective | Contracts are agreements between parties to engage in transactions. A good contract creates value by giving parties the right incentives to meet their objectives. A good contract designer scrutinizes the economic situation in which parties find themselves and tailors the contract to the challenges at hand. To help you become sophisticated contract designers, we draw from insights for which more than half a dozen Nobel Prizes were awarded in the past two decades and transfer them to the art of writing real-world contracts. In other words, Contract Design will provide you with analytical tools to design contracts that help you be better lawyers, business leaders, and startup founders. We will cover topics such as moral hazard, adverse selection, elicitation mechanisms, relationship-specific investments, and relational contracting and apply the theoretical insights to real-life case studies ranging from purchases & sales of assets, oil & gas exploration, movie financing, production & distribution, construction & development, M&A deals, venture capital financing, to executive compensation and many other types of transactions. The course follows a flipped-classroom model: You will watch learning videos specifically produced for this course ahead of class. We will use class time to discuss real-world case studies. The videos will be made available before the lecture each week and need to be watched ahead of coming to class. Computer-graded quizzes at the beginning of each class will test students’ understanding of the concepts introduced in the videos. As the emphasis of this class is on class discussion, attendance is mandatory. Absent important reasons, you cannot miss class more than twice. The lectures will be recorded but only made available to those who miss lectures with excused absence. For ETH students: Your grade will consist of two parts: 1) You will take weekly computer-based quizzes during class time. Thus, it is important that you attend the lectures to be able to finish the quizzes and pass this course. 2) You compose short responses to take-home questions on case studies we assign and upload them ahead of class (Pass/Fail). Note that UZH and UNISG students enrolling in this course need to earn more ECTS for completing this course than ETH students (due to curricula reasons). This is why UZH and UNISG students must complete a written assignment in addition to the weekly quizzes and take-home questions. UZH students also have to complete an additional group project. UZH and UNISG students should check out the description of the class at their respective home institutions. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lecture notes | Handouts, prerecorded videos, slides, case studies, and other materials available on a dedicated webpage: contractdesign.org. Access to this webpage is free of charge for ETH students as ETH purchased a license for ETH students. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Prerequisites / Notice | Attendance is mandatory. You are only allowed to miss two lectures unless there are special circumstances. Contract Design I is available to ETH students through the Science in Perspective (SiP) Program of D-GESS. This course is particularly suitable for students of D-ARCH, D-BAUG, D-CHAB, DMATH, D-MTEC, D-INFK, and D-MAVT. If you have any questions regarding the course, please write an email to the teaching assistants, Lucas Gericke (lucas.gericke@gess.ethz.ch) or Serge von Steiger (serge.vonsteiger@gess.ethz.ch). | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 851-0760-00L | Building a Robot Judge: Data Science for Decision-Making Particularly suitable for students of D-INFK, D-ITET, D-MTEC. | W | 3 credits | 2V | E. Ash | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Abstract | This course explores the automation of decisions in the legal system. We delve into the machine learning tools needed to predict judge decision-making and ask whether techniques in model explanation and algorithmic fairness are sufficient to address the potential risks. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Learning objective | This course introduces students to the data science tools that may provide the first building blocks for a robot judge. While building a working robot judge might be far off in the future, some of the building blocks are already here, and we will put them to work. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Content | Data science technologies have the potential to improve legal decisions by making them more efficient and consistent. On the other hand, there are serious risks that automated systems could replicate or amplify existing legal biases and rigidities. Given the stakes, these technologies force us to think carefully about notions of fairness and justice and how they should be applied. The focus is on legal prediction problems. Given the evidence and briefs in this case, how will a judge probably decide? How likely is a criminal defendant to commit another crime? How much additional revenue will this new tax law collect? Students will investigate and implement the relevant machine learning tools for making these types of predictions, including regression, classification, and deep neural networks models. We then use these predictions to better understand the operation of the legal system. Under what conditions do judges tend to make errors? Against which types of defendants do parole boards exhibit bias? Which jurisdictions have the most tax loopholes? Students will be introduced to emerging applied research in this vein. In a semester paper, students (individually or in groups) will conceive and implement an applied data-science research project. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 851-0742-01L | Contract Design II Does not take place this semester. To be considered for Contract Design II, you must have completed Contract Design I in the same semester. Students can only register for Contract Design II after having obtained approval by Prof. Stremitzer. | W | 1 credit | 1U | A. Stremitzer | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Abstract | Contract Design II is a masterclass in the form of an interactive clinic that allows you to deepen your understanding of contracting by applying insights from Contract Design I to a comprehensive case study. Together with your classmates, you are going to advise a (hypothetical) client organization planning to enter a complex transaction on how to structure the underlying contract. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Learning objective | There is a possibility that representatives from companies that were previously engaged in similar deals will visit us in class and tell you about their experience firsthand. In Contract Design I, you will receive more detailed information on the content and learning objectives of Contract Design II. If you have urgent questions, please do not hesitate to send an e-mail to Professor Stremitzer’s Teaching Assistant Diego Caldera (diegoalberto.calderaherrera@uzh.ch). | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Prerequisites / Notice | To enable you to work under the close supervision of your professor and his team, only a small group of students with backgrounds in law, business, or engineering is admitted to this course. This simulation is time-consuming and challenging. Hence, we can only admit the most successful and motivated students to this class. Further information on the application process will follow. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 851-0732-06L | Law & Tech | W | 3 credits | 2S | A. Stremitzer, J. Merane | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Abstract | This course introduces students to scientific and technological developments that require regulation or enable legal innovation. We focus particularly on the challenges to current law posed by prominent near-future technologies. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Learning objective | The course is intended for a wide range of ETH students as well as for law students interested in acquiring a better understanding of state-of-the-art technology. The course will combine both an overview of major areas of law that are relevant for the regulation of technology and guest lectures on new technological developments. In previous years, speakers from industry (Google, Youtube), NGOs (Digital Society Switzerland, The European Consumer Organizations), regulatory agencies (Swiss Competition Commission), and academia participated as guest speakers. The course is open to ETH students through the Science in Perspective program of the Department of Humanities, Social and Political Sciences. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Content | The planned course outline is below. - Overview of Law and Technology - Fundamental Rights - AI & Discrimination - Landmark Big Tech Cases - Regulation of Digital Platforms & Content Moderation - Online Consumer Protection - Law and Tech Scholarship Series A number of recent regulations will be discussed, including the EU's AI Act, the Digital Services Act (DSA), and the Digital Markets Act (DMA), as well as emerging internet phenomena, like ChatGPT and the Metaverse. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 851-0391-00L | Focus on the Human: Human-Centered Security and Privacy Lab The course is particularly suitable for all students who have already completed the course “Human-centered IT Security and Privacy” as some of the concepts introduced will practically be applied in this course. However, the relevant literature and necessary material will be provided to all students and basic concepts will be briefly summarized so that all interested students can participate. | W | 3 credits | 2S | V. Zimmermann, L. Schöni | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Abstract | After an introduction on usable security as the intersection of computer science and psychology, students will form teams and work on exemplary security- or privacy-related research questions. The teams will develop and evaluate a concept for a human-centered solution. Through input sessions and milestone presentations the human perspective will be incorporated and reflected upon. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Learning objective | The course makes students experience an exemplary human-centered design process. They will learn about and practically apply human-centered design and evaluation methods that will allow them to view their solution from the human perspective, e.g., the user, developer or website owner perspective. By taking part in the evaluation of other teams, they will also take the user perspective themselves. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Content | At the beginning of the course, the students will receive an introduction to usable IT security and privacy and relevant concepts. Afterwards, a selection of current research questions from that area will be presented. The students form teams and select one of the proposed research questions. This question will accompany the students throughout the semester. They will design and evaluate a concept for a human-centered solution to that question. To be able to do so, they will receive input on human-centered design and evaluation tools. Their progress and the inclusion of the human perspective will be subject to feedback in milestone presentations. The students’ human-centered solution can take the form of a concept (e.g., a concept for a product or app), interface (e.g., a visual or tangible interface), or prototype (e.g., sketches, a click-dummy or a built prototype). The solution will then be subject to evaluations. The solutions will be user-tested by members of other teams that thereby take the perspective of a user themselves. In addition, the solutions will be analyzed from different stakeholders’ perspectives, such as developers or website owners. Finally, the students will reflect on potential changes that results from the evaluations and their consequences. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Literature | Literature Recommendations: Adams, A., & Sasse, M. A. (1999). Users are not the enemy. Communications of the ACM, 42(12), 40-46. Cranor, L. F., & Garfinkel, S. (2005). Security and usability: designing secure systems that people can use. " O'Reilly Media, Inc.". Diefenbach, S., & Hassenzahl, M. (2017). Psychologie in der nutzerzentrierten Produktgestaltung: Mensch-Technik-Interaktion-Erlebnis. Springer-Verlag. Diefenbach, S., & Hassenzahl, M. (2010). Handbuch zur Fun-ni Toolbox–User Experience Evaluation auf drei Ebenen. Dix, A., & Finlay, J., Abowd, G., Beale, R. (2004). Human-computer interaction. Pearson - PRENTICE HALL. Garfinkel, S., & Lipford, H. R. (2014). Usable security: History, themes, and challenges. Synthesis Lectures on Information Security, Privacy, and Trust, 5(2), 1-124. Nielsen, J. (1999). Designing web usability: The practice of simplicity. New Riders Publishing. Norman, D. (2013). The design of everyday things: Revised and expanded edition. Basic Books (AZ). Reuter, C. (2018). Sicherheitskritische Mensch-Computer-Interaktion. Wiesbaden: Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden. Sarodnick, F., & Brau, H. (2006). Methoden der Usability Evaluation. Verlag Hans Huber. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Prerequisites / Notice | This course is especially recommended after having participated in the related lecture/exercise "851-0390-00 G Human-Centered IT Security and Privacy". However, previous participantion in the lecture is not a requirement. Additional material will be made available so that also students with no prior knowledge in that area can participate. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 851-0196-00L | Philosophy of Pure and Applied Mathematics: From Foundations to Practice | W | 3 credits | 2S | Y. P.‑H. Hamami | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Abstract | This course is a general introduction to the philosophy of mathematics for science, mathematics and engineering students. It will introduce the main views and debates on the nature of mathematics present in contemporary philosophy. A special focus will be put on questions pertaining to the foundations of mathematics as well as on philosophical issues emerging from actual mathematical practice. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Learning objective | The objective of this course is to help students develop a reflective stance on what mathematics is and on its special place in the landscape of human knowledge. We expect students to be able to report the main philosophical conceptions of what mathematics is. We also expect them to be familiar with key debates in the philosophy of mathematics. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Content | This course is a general introduction to the philosophy of mathematics for science, mathematics and engineering students. It will introduce the main views and debates on the nature of mathematics present in contemporary philosophy. A special focus will be put on questions pertaining to the foundations of mathematics as well as on philosophical issues emerging from the actual practice of mathematics. The course is composed of four parts. Part I: Foundations of Mathematics. In this first part of the course, we will present the debates concerning the foundations of mathematics at the turn of the twentieth century. We will review the three main philosophical conceptions of mathematics developed during this period: logicism, formalism and intuitionism. Part II: Ontology and Epistemology of Mathematical Objects What is the nature of mathematical objects? And how can we acquire knowledge about them? Here we will present several ways of approaching these questions. We will discuss philosophical views that conceive mathematical objects as similar to physical objects, as creations of the human mind, as fictional characters, and as places in larger structures. We will see the strengths and weaknesses of these different views. Part III: Philosophy of Mathematical Practice In this part of the course, we will be concerned with a recent movement in the philosophy of mathematics dealing with the actual practice of mathematics. We will see two trends of research developed within this tradition. The first one aims to explain how we can think and reason mathematically with non-linguistic representations such as diagrams and symbolic notations. The second one asks whether there could be such things as explanations in mathematics and if yes what they are. The paradigmatic examples we will discuss here are mathematical proofs that not only establish that a theorem is true but also explain why it is true. Part IV: The Applicability of Mathematics to the Natural World It is a truism that mathematics is used everywhere in the natural and social sciences. But how come that mathematics applies so well to the natural world? If mathematics is just a pure game with symbols, or a pure invention of the human mind, it seems difficult to explain why it is so useful when formulating scientific theories about the world. In this part of the course, we will discuss this problem known as the applicability of mathematics, and we will see different philosophical solutions that have been developed to address it. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 851-0125-71L | Whose Responsibility for What? On Individual and Collective Responsibility Particularly suitable for students of D-ARCH, D-BAUG, D-HEST, D-MTEC, D-USYS Doctoral students can receive credit for the achievements of this course in the section "Transferable Skills". | W | 3 credits | 2G | L. Wingert | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Abstract | Responsibility is a key concept in ethics: The individual's responsibility is emphasized. Contrary to that, one often points to the limits of a person's responsibility, e.g. for a stock market crash, for greenhouse gas emissions, for injust social conditions. What belongs to to our responsibility as individuals and what to our collective responsibility? And do robots have responsibilities? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Learning objective | 1. Certain concepts should be clarified: e.g., the very meaning of "being responsible for one's actions and its consequences". To what extent are we responsible for the social conditions we find ourselves in? 2. One theoretical position in the philosophy of sociality holds that only individual persons (and not firms, institutions, or states) can be responsible for action and social conditions. Students should be able to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of this thesis (methodological individualism). 3. What does responsibility mean in special social spheres like the economy and the sciences? What does a citizen's collective and personal responsibility consist in? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 851-0763-00L | Supervised Research (Law, Economics, and Data Science) | W | 3 credits | E. Ash, S. Galletta | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Abstract | This is a supervised student project for 3 ECTS, supervised by the professorship of Elliott Ash (D-GESS). Students will adapt tools from econometrics and machine learning to questions in law, data science, and social science. Students must have some data science and/or statistics experience. Some programming experience in Python, Stata, or R is required. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Learning objective | Apply tools from data science and social science to a new project, potentially in a group, to develop a paper or app. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Prerequisites / Notice | Some programming experience in Python, Stata, or R is required. Some experience with data science or statistics is required. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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