Courses

“Philosophie der Stadt” [Philosophy of the City], ETH Zurich, for BA and MA students. Spring 2023.

The course provides an overview on the city in the history of philosophy. We reflect on the city’s role as a political achievement, as a technological artefact (e.g. as the product of cartographic representation, Big Data or biomimetic construction), and as an ecosystem. Subsequently, we will discuss challenges around the compatibility of these differing aspects of the city. The students get to know the most significant texts in the philosophy of the city from the antiquity and up to current debates. They will practice closely reading complex philosophical texts, reflecting the arguments presented, as well as discussing them in a nuanced manner.

The seminar includes an expedition to the main train station in Zurich, where we explore the three above mentioned aspects of the place: we consider it as an eco-system, as a highly complex technical artefact and as a stage of negotiations for everyday politics. It is an example of human niche construction, both in the top-down sense, constructed by institutions for a precise purpose, and bottom-up, as place where spaces can be appropriated for example by demonstrators, homeless, and refugees. As an eco-system it is also teeming with non-human life-forms, such as the fish from the river Sihl that flows under the station, pigeons in the dovecot in the attic, rare lizards and grasshoppers on the tracks and so forth. We discuss in how far do political questions of justice apply to artefacts and eco-systems.

“Ethics, Science and Scientific Integrity“, ETH Zurich, tutorial for doctoral students in the sciences, lecture taught by Prof. Nadia Mazouz and Prof. Michael Hampe. Spring 2023.

In this course, doctoral students are introduced to ethical issues in the sciences. First, a general introduction to ethics as well as to ethics in the sciences will be given in a lecture and discussion format. Second, selected topics of scientific integrity will be dealt with in an exemplary way in a mixed format, consisting of lectures and discussions as well as workshops. Thirdly, specific problems of ethics and scientific integrity in certain disciplines will be addresses in group work in a workshop format. Doctoral students are supported in identifying, analyzing and dealing with ethical problems in their own scientific research. Furthermore, they can reflect on their professional role as scientific researchers.

„Stadt als Lebensform” [“City as a Form of Life”], University of Lucerne, guest lecture in the philosophy seminar on Ludwig Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations, taught by Dr. Arvi Särkelä. Autumn 2022.

„Dostojewski und die Religion. Ein paradoxes Verhältnis“ [“Dostoevsky and Religion: A Paradoxal Relationship”], University of Fribourg, within the lecture course „Literatur und Religion” taught by Dr. habil. Christian Zehnder. Autumn 2018.

„Die Postmoderne und ihre Kritiker“ [“Postmodernity and its Critics”], University of Fribourg, for BA students, co-taught with Dr. Oliver Nievergelt. Spring 2015.

We can describe our culture as postmodern. But what does that mean? Does the label even fit anymore? The students will gain an overview over various philosophical cultural diagnoses of our times. Developments in philosophy and the sciences are foregrounded, but the arts, politics and the economy also play a role in the assigned texts. We read and discuss: Jean-François Lyotard, Michel Foucault, Jürgen Habermas, Robert Spaemann, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Richard Rorty, Bruno Latour und Bernard Williams.

“Tutoriat Theoretische Philosophie” [Tutorial Introduction to Theoretical Philosophy],University of Basel, for BA students, co-taught with Prof. Sebastian Rödl and other tutors. Spring 2012 and 2010.

The tutorials accompany the introductory lecture in theoretical philosophy. We discuss Aristotle’s Metaphysics, Immanuel Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason, and Ludwig Wittgenstein’s Tractatus and Philosophical Investigations.