Philosophy

The course provides an overview of key milestones in the history of philosophy, from classical Greece to contemporary thought, and analyzes its connection with religious thought in its various historical manifestations.

This course examines central issues in metaphysics, ethics and aesthetics. It opens with general questions about reality, God, personal identity and free will. The middle section of the unit will consider questions about values, goodness and responsibility. The final part is concerned with the question "what is art", the nature of aesthetic judgment and the role of art in our lives.

Dao 道 (sometimes written Tao) means path or road and extends to mean methods and principles. It has a broad range of usage across different schools, most obviously philosophical and religious Daoism. In this research group, we will be reading and discussing selections from the foundational texts of Daoism, the Laozi (also known as Daodejing) and the Zhuangzi, and their direct historical and current reception. We will read texts of both religious and philosophical Daoism. Reading suggestions from participants are welcome. This research group is open to interested bachelor’s and master’s students of all disciplines. Prior engagement with Chinese philosophy is welcome but not required, as we will be starting with the foundational texts.

Students are constantly challenged by ethical dilemmas: about the future use of technology and artificial intelligence; about the possibilities of genetic and biomedical engineering; about the culture and behavior of global financial institutions; about who decides who should pay for what; about the environment, about migration, about political leadership. Citizens of a democratic society need to make ethically informed decisions about these issues.  The EthicsLab is an innovative way to explore ethical issues, where students learn from professors in different subjects across the university, and engage with leading thinkers about how the major global challenges can be addressed.  Students debate the importance of values and their prioritization, ethical biases and blind-spots, intentions and consequences, and they do this in a lab-environment where everyone is involved in designing solutions for the ethical issues of the day. 

This course introduces students to a range of problems, positions, and arguments in the philosophy of mind - the philosophical study of mental phenomena and their relation to the rest of reality. The first half of term focuses on the mind-body problem - in particular the Problem of Consciousness. The theme for the second half of term is Self and Other - Where am I? Where is my mind? Can I know the minds of others? 

This course provides an interdisciplinary approach to ethical and legal issues stemming from recent advances in biomedical practices. Topics discussed include: fundamental principles of bioethics; the environment, animal welfare; birth, reproduction, and end of life; informed consent, organ transplants, and clinical trials; bioethics and gender, children, the elderly, and disability; genetic advancements and intervention.

This course provides an overview of the foundations that the main trends of the Western ethical tradition have provided and that still constitute the theoretical basis for the interpretation and resolution to the challenges and issues that arise from the complexities of modern life.

This course examines the past three decades' explosive surge in neuroscientific explanations of human nature, promising clear-cut biological answers to commonplace philosophical questions concerning rationality, emotion, behavior, values, and ethics. It explores to what extent such a promise is warranted, in particular concerning existential questions such as anxiety, responsibility, and religious faith.

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale degree program and is intended for advanced level students. Enrolment is by permission of the instructor. This course explores the main theories, concepts, and approaches developed by social studies of science and technology (STS), and analytically compares them and discusses their pros and cons. The course examines basic issues about the materiality of and governance by data infrastructures, and their social and philosophical implications. Students develop experience in designing research on data infrastructures. Throughout the course, interactive moments are devoted to developing empirical research design skills, ranging from research question design to research methodologies. Such moments are finalized to support the STS research design to be submitted as part of the course assessment. The last week of the course focuses on data infrastructures and addresses some sociopolitical implications of data infrastructures. All topics are tackled by reading, presenting, and commenting on leading international literature and empirical case studies.

This course offers a systematic introduction to the central themes of the philosophy of mind. It is divided into three parts. The first part deals with fundamental problems. In addition to more traditional distinctions such as that between dualism and monism, newer empirical theories of consciousness and the conflicts that exist between them are also discussed. The second deals with methodological questions and central concepts such as emergence or supervenience. The third part deals with particularly important individual problems. This includes the problem of free will, theories of embodied and extended cognition, and questions of self-confidence. The lecture will fundamentally also take empirical findings from psychology and neuroscience into account.