Political philosophy forms that branch of philosophy that reflects on the specificity of the political. Why are humans, as Aristotle argued, political animals? How are they political? What are the means and ends of the political, and how best does one organize the political with such questions in mind? The course offers a topic-oriented approach to the fundamental problems underlying political theory and practice.
| Room | Day | Start Time | End Time |
|---|---|---|---|
C-102 | Tuesday | 09:00 | 10:20 |
C-102 | Friday | 09:00 | 10:20 |
In this course we shall examine the birth of empiricism in polemics over the origins of knowledge and political authority, the limits of human reason, and the possibility of philosophy itself finding a way out of the seventeenth century's religious wars and tyranny towards the creation of free and tolerant societies of rational individuals. Readings from Descartes, Locke, Berkeley and Hume.
| Room | Day | Start Time | End Time |
|---|---|---|---|
SD-2 | Monday | 10:35 | 11:55 |
SD-2 | Thursday | 10:35 | 11:55 |
The course provides a perspective on major currents of recent political thought in the context of the economy. It considers the spectrum of thinking from libertarianism through classical and progressive liberalism, focusing on distinctions between economic and political liberty, social justice, and democratic citizenship. The course considers lastly contemporary concerns with international distributive justice.
| Room | Day | Start Time | End Time |
|---|---|---|---|
A-3 | Tuesday | 13:45 | 15:05 |
A-3 | Friday | 13:45 | 15:05 |
The nature of reality changed in fundamental ways in the early part of the 20th century. Concepts of duration, length, sequential order, simultaneity, weight, energy, location, mass, substance and void became a matter of perspective or ‘reference frame’. Scientists had been trying to explain apparently ‘absurd’ results, such as Maxwell’s EM wave equations or the photovoltaic effect, within the framework of classical physics. Much like what Ptolemy did with Aristotle’s model of the dynamics of the heavens before Copernicus and Kepler got it right, or, at least, not so wrong. In this course, I will present the basic principles, and derive the implications, of the theory of Special Relativity, I will describe the concepts and equivalences underlying the theory of General Relativity and show you why we know them to be correct (or at least not very wrong), I will introduce quantum theory and the quantum model of the atom and explain why it is better than plum pudding (see J. J. Thomson’s 1904 “plum pudding” model for the atom). In this course, you will learn about time travel, e=mc², black holes and wormholes. Is it true that if you run straight towards a cement wall it is just possible that you will make it through to the other side unharmed? Yes.
| Room | Day | Start Time | End Time |
|---|---|---|---|
SD-6 | Wednesday | 09:00 | 11:55 |
Philosophical and political modernity concerns the development of rationality, freedom, and social responsibility from out of the tensions between ethics, religion, politics and the economy. With postmodernist epistemology, the so-called 'return' of religion, and economic globalization, this 'modernity' has been questioned. In this historical context the course re-elaborates the problematic of modernity through selective reading of Kant, Hegel, and Nietzsche.
| Room | Day | Start Time | End Time |
|---|---|---|---|
C-104 | Monday | 15:20 | 16:40 |
C-104 | Thursday | 15:20 | 16:40 |
What is politics - the quest for the common good or who gets what, when, and how? We study what defines politics in the modern age: states and nations in the international system, collective action and representation in mass societies, trajectories of democracy and dictatorship, politics and development in the context of capitalism. The course will introduce the student to the concerns, the language and the methods of Political Science.
| Room | Day | Start Time | End Time |
|---|---|---|---|
G-L21 | Monday | 09:00 | 10:20 |
G-L21 | Thursday | 09:00 | 10:20 |
What is politics - the quest for the common good or who gets what, when, and how? We study what defines politics in the modern age: states and nations in the international system, collective action and representation in mass societies, trajectories of democracy and dictatorship, politics and development in the context of capitalism. The course will introduce the student to the concerns, the language and the methods of Political Science.
| Room | Day | Start Time | End Time |
|---|---|---|---|
G-L21 | Monday | 10:35 | 11:55 |
G-L21 | Thursday | 10:35 | 11:55 |
Political philosophy forms that branch of philosophy that reflects on the specificity of the political. Why are humans, as Aristotle argued, political animals? How are they political? What are the means and ends of the political, and how best does one organize the political with such questions in mind? The course offers a topic-oriented approach to the fundamental problems underlying political theory and practice.
| Room | Day | Start Time | End Time |
|---|---|---|---|
C-104 | Monday | 10:35 | 11:55 |
C-104 | Thursday | 10:35 | 11:55 |
Political philosophy forms that branch of philosophy that reflects on the specificity of the political. Why are humans, as Aristotle argued, political animals? How are they political? What are the means and ends of the political, and how best does one organize the political with such questions in mind? The course offers a topic-oriented approach to the fundamental problems underlying political theory and practice.
| Room | Day | Start Time | End Time |
|---|---|---|---|
C-102 | Tuesday | 09:00 | 10:20 |
C-102 | Friday | 09:00 | 10:20 |