Essential Contemporary Challenges

Inleiding

The course Essential Contemporary Challenges enables participants to assess the practical dimension inherent in philosophical theories on society and culture.

Content

We will discuss four key contemporary examples in practical philosophy of pressing social, political and cultural issues, or ‘challenges’. We will explore their implications on both the individual and on the collective level. The four challenges are: 1) Enlightenment as emancipation: a blessing or a burden? The pressures of modern living. 2) democracy: do we need more, or less? Can democracy deliver on its promises – and can the citizens keep up? 3) biopolitics: is government turning biotechnological? Will government again become ‘racist’? And finally 4) transparency: how do we deal with Big Data, algorithmic decisionmaking, and more generally the ‘black box society’? How to think about nudging? Is more transparency the answer? We will try to derive answers from the work of contemporary philosophers such as Zizek, Rancière, Foucault.

Prior knowledge

No prior knowledge is necessary. 

Language

English

Period

Bachelor 1, block 1A: 29 August until  1 October 2022

Courseguide & literature

For more information please consult the course guide. The timetables will be published by the end of July.