National Taiwan University

Commercial enterprise plays a fundamental role in the age of globalization both domestically and internationally interacting with state authorities as well as agencies of international organizations. Since the 1990s, the rise of multinational corporations in economic scale and political influence has massively empowered their agency in international relations and thus made them indispensable transnational actors and inevitably included in the strategic calculation when geopolitical competition intensified. This course introduces and establishes an understanding of the intricate relationship between commercial enterprise and government at both international and local levels. 

This course familiarizes students with some of the debates about the nature of sex and gender as they have evolved since the publishing of Simone De Beauvoir’s The Second Sex. In this book, Beauvoir famously argued that, while women may be born the members of a distinct sex, “one is not born, but becomes a woman.” In its wake, the book’s readers were left to grapple with the question of the meaning and significance of this bold assertion. This course seeks to answer the following questions: To what extent do anatomy and biology determine one’s disposition or sexual orientation? Can we talk about “normal” female or male behavior? Is it advantageous to define women in opposition to men? How does sex relate to sexuality? Is there such a thing as sexuality to begin with?   

This course studies the physical and mental characteristics of gifted students and their learning needs. It discusses the methods to identify gifted students and analyzes the timing of using assessment tools, as well as the development trends of gifted education. It also explores the ways to cultivate giftedness among people.  

To enhance global awareness and employ practical and innovative approaches to solve global problems, Taiwan added “global competence” through international mobility as a criterion in the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) for the first time in 2018. However, due to the unpredictable development of COVID-19, "local internationalization" has become an alternative to international mobility. This course features three NTU professors and administrators specializing in international affairs and higher education, as well as foreign national representatives and ambassadors, sharing insights on their countries’ unique issues and addressing global learning in times of uncertainty. The course covers topics such as education, diplomacy, economy, ecological and environmental protection, democracy, etc., and aims to advance professional and global competence in international and multicultural fields. 

This is a beginners' course in the Sanskrit language. It introduces the most important Sanskrit grammar in one year by using M. Deshpande's Samskrta-Subodhini's A Sanskrit Primer as the textbook. The course also begins by reading Sanskrit verses from the story of Nala and Damayant in Charles Lanman's A Sanskrit Reader. The course then reviews major Indian religions and philosophical texts in Chinese translations to know the basics about Indian culture. 

The course focuses on the major aspects of the basic physiological functions and the factors in relation to plant growth and development. The course provides a background in plant biology to gain a deeper understanding of processes that are important for agriculture, horticulture and industry, as well as further tools to further study plant biology. The course discusses plant hormones in detail, as well as how plants respond to changes in their environment, for instance to light, or to stress.  

This course requires a background in botany, plant biology or nutrition.  

Drawing is the most important part of the design process. The purpose of drawing is threefold:  

1. The process of drawing itself establishes the creative process of the design. The thoughts are constantly transformed along with the drawing and thinking. 
2. After the drawing is completed, it becomes a tool for communication with other people. Through the explanation of pictures, people can better understand one’s design concept. 
3. The goal of drawing is nothing more than to get all the details of the design that the designer wants. The drawing communicates to engineers how to perform production work. 

This course introduces the basic theories of developmental psychology and existing empirical research results, then focuses on the integration of various development themes in adolescence and the correlation between them. 

This course introduces the basic concepts, analysis methods and related economic issues of individual economics. The scope of individual economics is mainly the consumption and production behavior of consumers and manufacturers in the market. In other words, it discusses the operation of demand and supply in the market and the determination of market prices. This course also explores the role of government departments in the market. For example, in the face of rising international crude oil prices, does the government need to control the rising prices of domestic oil products? Does the government charge tuition fees for college students, or regulate or subsidize it?

Through the analysis tools of individual economics, the course explores many issues of concern to the public, including public health, public health, poverty, unemployment, crime, education, marriage, childbearing, population aging, regulation, environmental protection, and international trade. 

This course introduces some basic logical methods used in symbolic artificial intelligence and their philosophical foundations. It looks at some of the techniques that have been used to represent and reason about knowledge, belief, time, and agency.  The course also analyzes some of the ways logical tools can be used to study games, strategies, and planning, as well as the basics of formalizing concepts and commonsense reasoning.