Netherlands

This hybrid course combines the fields of Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Global Public Health to look into infectious diseases that have caused pandemics in the past decades. The topics discussed in Infectious Disease Epidemiology include history, basic epidemiological concepts and terminology, descriptive epidemiology, the epidemiologic triad model, and vaccine efficacy and effectiveness. Global Public Health topics include social and political determinants of health, public health policies, laws and ethics, international cooperation in health emergencies, and also the One Health concept. The hybrid nature of the course is realized through three viruses that have caused major zoonotic/infectious disease outbreaks, which are retroviruses (i.e., HIV/AIDS), influenza viruses (i.e., H5N1, H1N1, H7N9), and coronaviruses (i.e., SARS, MERS, COVID-19). The global impact of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is explored in the third part of the course. Factors affecting antibiotic use, both on macro and micro levels, are discussed and analyzed. The course ends by highlighting the “One Health” concept (i.e., human-animal-environment interfaces) in responding to zoonotic diseases and AMR threats, both now and in the future.

Politics is about power and action, which are generally deemed necessary to the edification of individual and collective good life. Political theory is broadly understood as an inquiry into the nature and major features of individual and collective good life. The nature and purpose of political theory are said to be best understood by an introductory examination of how political thinkers conceive of power relations and address the issue of the practical implications of the organization of power relations. This type of examination constitutes the core of the course. In particular, the course is primarily about several visions of politics, past and present, considered on their own merits. Some of these visions have had a significant impact on national and international politics, while others did not, or not directly. They are studied to critically understand how the Master of Political Theory formulated their arguments, what is really at stake in their statements, and possibly whether, and to what extent, what they thought is relevant to us.

This course studies the causes and consequences of these international linkages, which is called globalization. Understanding the real part of the process of globalization requires knowledge of the economic forces underlying international trade flows, factor mobility, and the role of international and multinational firms in the organization of these forces. The course covers classical trade theories, new trade theories, and the practice of globalization. It covers key aspects of globalization such as international trade, multinational enterprise, foreign direct investment (fragmentation, outsourcing), and geography. The main theories concerning international trade are analyzed at length. Special attention is given to the implications of trade for the distribution of income. The role of trade policies, which are used to stimulate as well as frustrate the international exchange of goods and services, both at the national and the supranational level (WTO; regional trade blocs) are analyzed.

Full course description

The mind-body problem is a legacy from the scientific revolution which started in the 16th century and reached its culmination point with Newtonian physics. Starting with Galileo’s and Descartes’ formulation of this problem we will discuss different philosophical positions in a more in-depth fashion. In the behavioral- and neurosciences these problems transform into questions about consciousness, conscious experience, and conscious perception. Those topics disappeared from science with the rise of behaviorism in the early twentieth century. But now they are back in the behavioral- and neurosciences again. Only over the past few decades consciousness has reappeared in cognitive science and neuropsychology. We will start this course with some philosophy, then we will scrutinize modern day sciences, especially cognitive science and neuroscience for ideas on mind and consciousness. At the end of the course we will go back to philosophy and we will ask ourselves whether all this empirical knowledge from psychology and neuroscience has brought us further in unraveling the brain-consciousness- (or mind-body) problem.

Course objectives

• To acquaint students with current ideas, philosophical arguments and empirical evidence on the nature of mind and the relationship between mind and body. We focus on modern cognitive and neuropsychological theories in the area of consciousness. Philosophical reflection on the caveats and problems associated with the notion of consciousness will be stimulated.  

Prerequisites

COR1002 Philosophy of Science and at least one 2000-level course from either Humanities, Social Sciences or Sciences.