Philosophy

This course introduces the study of meaning. With the rapid rise in practical applications of artificial intelligence systems, it is now more crucial than ever for us to define what it means to be human, and there is nothing more humanistic than studying the concept of meaning itself. 

Students engage with some of the most influential scientific, literary, and philosophical texts that have shaped the world today with the objective to move beyond a passive understanding. Students are challenged to think critically and actively about how the ideas put forth in these texts have come to be rejected, revised, and/or replaced, and how this very process of the shifting dominant narrative of meaning (i.e., not just the works by themselves in isolation) continues to influence the society and culture that they currently live in. 

Topics include Writing systems, Rhetoric, Similes, metaphors, and meaning, Creating new knowledge via logic, What is knowledge, Are signs arbitrary, Meaning as behavior, Language and thought Sarcasm, Mathematical meaning (axiomatic system), Mathematical meaning (axiomatic system), Can computers and AI understand meaning, Society and language use, How might aliens define meaning. 

This course examines Plato’s political philosophy through the lens of John Rawls’s distinction between ideal and non-ideal theory. Rawls characterizes ideal theory as assuming full compliance with the demands of justice, while non-ideal theory addresses the conditions under which such compliance fails. By engaging closely with Plato’s Republic and Laws, the class explores how each text embodies or challenges these frameworks in order to achieve a greater understanding of the aims of Plato’s political thought and the merits versus limits of philosophical idealization.

This seminar introduces feminist theories that aim to decentralize the predominantly English-speaking discourse on feminism. It includes texts written in languages other than English or French, with a focus on German-speaking and Latin American feminist works. Decentralization is understood broadly: The course examines feminist perspectives from the peripheries, such as rural areas in contrast to urban centers, and the global south in contrast to the global north. Through these diverse viewpoints, the seminar seeks to expand the understanding of feminism beyond dominant frameworks and critically explore intersections of gender, race, and class.

Ordinarily, we blame people for doing wrong and praise them for doing the right thing. But what is it to blame someone or praise them? And under what conditions is someone worthy of blame or praise for their actions or attitudes? This course looks at the nature of blame and what it is to be blameworthy, as well as how one ought to act under conditions of ignorance or uncertainty. It seems that ignorance sometimes excuses wrong-doing. For instance, one might break a promise to pick up a friend from the airport and yet be blameless, due to ignorance (say because one's friend misinformed one which airport she's arriving at). Under what conditions does ignorance excuse and what type of ignorance excuses (factual vs. formative)? Further, how should one act when one is not sure what is the correct morality?

The course aims to philosophically analyze series and films in order to develop critical thinking in light of their content and the issues they address within the scope of philosophical reflection. Students analyze fragments of representative films or series of pop culture and explain the philosophical aspects of the topics covered in them. Students acquire tools that allow them to analyze, question, and understand the meaning and relevance of the issues addressed in these cultural products.

In recent years, academic misconduct has occurred frequently, partly due to a lack of understanding of relevant ethics and norms among researchers. To address this, Fudan University has launched a specialized course on bioethics, filling a gap in this field in mainland China. The course aims to help students plan their research paths, adhere to fundamental ethical principles, and become honest, responsible, and creative researchers who enjoy their work. It also teaches them how to contribute to human civilization while protecting their intellectual achievements. The course is divided into nine main sections and employs a teaching approach that combines case studies, discussions, and instructor summaries to guide students in deeply understanding and practically applying the course content.

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale degree program and is intended for advanced level students. Enrollment is by permission of the instructor. At the end of the course, students master some of the main notions of philosophical aesthetics in order to use them as tools to account for contemporary phenomena in which the aesthetic plays a crucial role on the cultural and experiential levels. Students acquire a good degree of autonomy in analyzing aesthetic-philosophical texts concerning discussions carried out over the last few decades. In particular, the course stresses topics and problems that have emerged more recently in the international discourse and that pertain to the nexus between the experiential dimension, the elaboration of expressive languages, and the formal and design-related articulations taking place within the field of the aesthetics. The aim of the course is to reflect on the (dis-)continuity and the (a-)symmetry between the conceptual-theoretical and the operative-experiential levels, and thus contribute to the development of a critical and non-dogmatic attitude toward the contemporary horizon that characterizes the aesthetic.

The course addresses a category which has traditionally been either problematic for, or foreign to, aesthetics: function. The course shows that, when understood as something operative and transformative and not merely contemplative and conservative, the aesthetic possesses an inherent functional character. Aesthetic function is dealt with through different philosophical perspectives, ranging from pragmatism to critical theory, to the more recent everyday aesthetics.

This course discusses political philosophy in general and the conception of justice in particular. The most prominent issues in political philosophy are ethical and political controversies as there are various theories proposed throughout history to solve them. In ethical and political theories, nothing is more important than the explication of justice. The conception of Justice is extremely complicated that it has become a subject of philosophy since its beginning in the world of ancient Greece.  

This course addresses justice as a virtue due to the following three characteristics:  

1. It is the only virtue that needs others to admit is validity; there is no concept of justice to be defined by any person alone. 
2. It is a perennial issue in political philosophy. The debates about justice have lasted more than 2500 years. 

3. It has been an issue in philosophy without a definite solution or even improvement. 

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale degree program and is intended for advanced level students. Enrollment is by permission of the instructor. At the end of the course, the student has a clear understanding of the main problems of contemporary epistemology and a detailed knowledge of some of the views that shape current debates on the structure of epistemic justification, the skeptical paradoxes and the interplay between evidential and pragmatic factors in ascriptions of knowledge. The student will have built up an ability to reconstruct and critically evaluate the arguments offered in support of competing epistemological views.

This course introduces three kinds of genealogical arguments – neutral, vindicatory, and debunking – acquiring a clear understanding of the logical structure and epistemic force of each of them. The first series of lectures addresses the 'state of nature' theory by which Edward Craig attempts to illuminate some key concepts and problems of epistemology. The second series of lectures covers Bernard Williams' vindicatory genealogy of the intrinsic value of the virtues associated with truth, namely, sincerity and accuracy. And the third series of lectures tackles the genealogical arguments by which Nietzsche and other philosophers attempt to debunk our moral concepts and beliefs.