Netherlands

This course provides a systematic overview of the key topics of environmental ethics. It focuses on three protracted and heated debates at the interface of environmental ethics and ecological restoration. The first debate is about the value of ecological restoration (including ‘nature development’). The second debate is about the moral status of animals within ecological restoration projects. Here the course distinguishes between (complementary) two cases: the first one is about the (re)introduction of indigenous species that were once pushed out of their native environment; the other one is about the elimination or eradication of exotic and alien species that have invaded and degraded ecosystems. Both cases show that there is considerable tension between environmental ethics and animal welfare ethics. The third debate is about the role of human intervention in the Anthropocene. Old-school conservationists want to restore and protect pristine nature and call for an attitude of humility. Ecomodernists, on the other hand, see the Anthropocene not as an ecological disaster, but as an opportunity to increase human welfare and protect nature with the use of technology.

People communicate, for the most part, through language. Language (speaking, listening, reading, and writing) is so ordinary and commonplace that one often forgets that it is actually a highly complex and miraculous capacity, with its own specific laws and peculiarities. Understanding the properties of the language system is very important for understanding and clarifying the process of communication. This course covers the following topics: how psychologists and linguists view the structure and functioning of the human mind and the place of language competence in it; how a language is acquired and the difference between language acquisition by children and acquisition by adults; the processes that take place in our heads when we perceive and interpret the written or spoken language; impairments in the ability to use language and how are they related to defects (congenital or acquired) in the brains; how and where language knowledge and language processing is represented in the brain, and how we can make its investigation measurable and visible; the genetic basis of language; and how participants in a conversation understand each other's intentions.

In this hands-on course, students work in interdisciplinary teams to uncover the rich history of Utrecht and share findings with the public. Combining historical, architectural, and societal data, students develop and design an innovative application for the city of Utrecht. In the process, students cooperate across disciplinary borders, take charge of their own learning process, and experimentally assess the added value of new media and ICT. The course accumulates in presentations and interactive demos of the teams’ final prototypes.