Philosophy

This is the second part of my lecture series ‘Kant and the Constitution of Objectivity’.  This course deals mainly with Transcendental Dialectic. I will argue that Kant establishes a new and distinct notion of objectivity here, which is built on the insight that the objects of empirical cognition are always conditioned with respect to certain metaphysical grounding relations and provoke the idea of something that is unconditioned in this respect. Understanding how this notion of objectivity arises and why it falls short of providing us with cognition, e.g., of the self, of the world as a whole, and of God, will allow for a better understanding of Kant’s arguments against rationalist psychology, cosmology and theology. We will also deal with the object of practical reason – the good – and see in how far the objects of theoretical and practical reason are distinct and in how far they are similar.

This course offers a study of the fundamental milestones in the development of Western philosophical thought, from its beginnings in ancient Greece to the early modern age, taking into account their scope and application to the field of aesthetics. 

Through a multifaceted approach, this methodological workshop imparts an effective methodology and knowledge to apprehend the reading of political philosophy texts as a genuine interpretative experience. By focusing on famous philosophical texts, it studies the way in which argumentation is constructed and logical, articulated reflection is conducted. This methodological and practical approach focuses on providing the tools needed to understand a text properly: identifying arguments, dialectical procedures, and the use of examples. The temporal and geographical variation of the texts also provides an understanding that any reading of political philosophy is necessarily situated, inscribed in a here and now, which instructs us on the meaning of the text and enriches our understanding of it. Finally, the course cross-references the interpretations that the texts may elicit. From this point of view, the study of secondary sources offers a fresh, offbeat look at philosophical works.

This historical introduction course concentrates on two branches of philosophy: ontology or metaphysics, and epistemology thus exploring the development of Western thought. A wide range of notions are dealt with, e.g. substance and accident; existence and being; subject and object; idea, knowledge, and certainty; causality, necessity, and freedom. 

This course provides an introduction to contemporary philosophical debates about core concepts of justice, liberty, equality, community, and democracy in modern liberal-democratic societies. Students become familiar with the work of some of the leading political philosophers of today, like Thomas Hobbes, Mary Wollstonecraft, John Rawls, Hannah Arendt, Isaiah Berlin, Frantz Fanon, Martha Nussbaum, and Achille Mbembe. Since conceptual analysis is the core business of philosophy, students learn to analyze concepts, clarify moral ideas, and how tensions between moral ideas can be made explicit. They also learn how to apply these concepts in current political debate and practice.

This course considers destruction and the life and destiny of works of art. It investigates how we understand and describe the gestures or modes of destruction of works of art, a question that seems to arise from the more general problem of iconoclasm, defined as the refusal and destruction of images. It also considers other means of destruction: the effect of time and ruin, of a natural disaster, or the consequence of a voluntary gesture on the part of an artist, whether they are the producer or not. The course discusses how we can distinguish iconoclasm from “vandalism,” “attack” from artistic gesture by offering a philosophical history of the arts and an investigation into the different modes of existence of works of art.

The goal of this course is to examine aesthetic topics and examine what kind of study aesthetics is. The course begins with an overview of the unique problems of aesthetics and how to approach them, followed by aesthetic judgment and aesthetic experience, the concept and essence of art, the ontology of works of art, imitation, expression, emotions, art and morality, and works of art. It deals with issues such as valuation. The latter half of the course focuses on the phenomenon of serious transformation in modern art and culture and examines the issues that arise when important themes of aesthetics meet modern art. 

In this course, Western ocularcentrism and the modernist segmentation of our sensory functions and sensorial experiences are questioned. Philosophical, artistic, and scientific ideas that question the supremacy of the eye, the modernist hierarchy of the senses, and the division of our sensory functions are reviewed. Through lectures, guest lectures, museum visits, experiments, discussions, and the intensive study of texts participants become more attentive to how our sensorium functions. Students learn to analyze contemporary art, film, fashion, design, consumer goods, and environments from a multisensorial perspective and identify interrelations that exist between the different senses into account in their scientific work.  If there are excursions to museums, cities, or other art institutions, these may incur additional costs.

This course explores the use of ChatGPT, a large language model, as a tool for engaging with philosophical questions and problems. The course instructs how to interact with ChatGPT to generate responses to philosophical questions and covers a range of topics on the philosophy of time. The course seeks to answer the questions: Do the past or future exist in the way the present exists? Are pastness, presentness, and futurity consistent notions? Do I have temporal parts as well as spatial parts if time is in many ways analogous to space? How can we mention the past if it’s already gone? How can we know this is the present moment? On the reunion of twins after a space journey, which one is older? Is time travel possible? Is it possible to kill one’s grandfather? Is presentness compatible with special relativity given that the latter allows no absolute simultaneity? Does space exist like a substance in its own right, or is it nothing but spatial relationships between objects? 

Overall, this course develops students' critical thinking and analytical skills by providing them with a unique opportunity to engage with philosophical questions using cutting-edge technology.