Maastricht University – University College Maastricht

This course provides insight into the essentials of genetic and evolutionary models and their applications in biology, medicine, and psychology. It starts with the mechanisms that cause evolutionary change: natural selection, inheritance, and gene expression. In order to make these mechanisms understandable for students, the essentials of molecular, Mendel, and population genetics are discussed, followed by the evolution of life cycles, sex, and sexual selection. After discussing kin selection, this course uses genomic imprinting to explain genetic conflicts. Game theory is also used to explain the models that treat conflicts. The course finishes with the evolution of the human brain and the impact of evolutionary concepts in medicine. Introduction to Biology is a required prerequisite.

Full course description

In this course, we explore the field of philosophical ethics. We study the grand narratives in ethics, such as the three leading normative ethical approaches (virtue ethics, utilitarianism, and deontological ethics). We read original texts written by thinkers from the great traditions of philosophy: ancient philosophy, Christian philosophy, modern philosophy, and postmodern philosophy. We discuss Aristotelian virtue ethics, Stoic wisdom, the Christianised life as taught by Augustine and Thomas Aquinas, utilitarianism (Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill), Immanuel Kant’s moral philosophy, the ‘grand style’ of Friedrich Nietzsche, Carol Gilligan her ethics of care, Hans Jonas his ethics for the technological age, and the ‘banality of evil’ by Hannah Arendt. The challenge is to interpret these texts, especially the non-contemporary ones, from the perspective of the authors and their audience. A pitfall that has to be prevented is to read and interpret these texts merely from our own perspective. You are also very much encouraged to read texts in their original language (e.g. Kant; Nietzsche). Also, we encourage you to look for similarities and differences between the texts, concepts, and authors.

Course objectives

• To explore the most important ethical approaches and to gain increased understanding of essential philosophical concepts, theories, and authors. 

• To study primary texts of ethics written by the most eminent philosophers of the past millennia.

• To evaluate and discuss cases through the lens of different ethical perspectives. 

• To compare and contrast different philosophical concepts, theories, and authors.

This course investigates the cognitive correlates (information processing) and neurobiological mechanisms of declarative, or explicit memory. It discusses several cognitive models, including Baddeley's Working Memory model, the Modal model, and the interference theory in forgetting. In addition, the role of long-term potentiation (LTP) in memory is discussed, as well as how different brain areas contribute to memory. Throughout the course, relevant methodological issues regarding memory research are covered. Importantly, brain anatomy and function are an important part of this course; an interest in and understanding of these fields at the level of Introduction to Psychology or higher is highly recommended. In addition to the tutorial meetings, students complete a practical and paper assignment in which the memory performance of real subjects is assessed. Prerequisites for this course are an Introduction to Psychology course; a course on Brain and Action is highly recommended.