ONLINE EDUCATION
PHILOSOPHY OF TECHNOLOGY (3 credits)
30 hrs online
December 15 – February 14
Wolfgang Schirmacher
Discusses the contributions of philosophers such as Karl Marx, Martin Heidegger, Jacques Ellul, Max Horkheimer, Herbert Marcuse, Gilles Deleuze and Vilem Flusser to an authentic understanding of the technological age.
PHILOSOPHY OF MUSIC (3 credits)
30 hrs online
January 1 – February 29
Michael Schmidt
Philosophical approaches to music – from Arthur Schopenhauer and Friedrich Nietzsche to Theodor W. Adorno and Ernst Bloch — prepare for a deeper appreciation of the visual and acoustic dimensions as well as the psychological and political aspects of the contemporary “image acoustic” (DJ Spooky), “imaginary landscape” (John Cage) and “experimental music” (Michael Nyman).
THE SELF AND THE BRAIN (3 credits)
30 hrs online
February 15 – April 14
Wolfgang Schirmacher
Examines the mystery of the interrelation between the self and the brain and addresses questions crucial to the image of ourselves. Readings include classical and recent works in philosophy, studies in neuroscience, and the history of science.
CYBEROCRACY (3 credits)
30 hrs online
March 1 – April 30
Hendrik Speck
Analyzes the development of politics in cyberspace by researching changes in ethics, values and structures caused by electronic networks. Questions concerning nationalities, authority, intellectual property, dignity, and warfare lead this investigation.
LITERATURE AND CRITICAL PHILOSOPHY (3 credits)
30 hrs online
March 1 – April 30
Martin Hielscher
Discusses the critical function of literature in a fragmented society and for a media dominated by the “culture industry” (Theodor W.Adorno), with emphasis on the Critical Theory of the Frankfurt School. A communication of being non-communitative and the concept of the autonomy of art will be considered.
SEMIOTICS OF ART AND FILM (3 credits)
30 hrs online
March 15 - May 14
Klaus Ottmann
Explores a semiology of cinema with emphasis on color, minimal art and formalism. Works by Roland Barthes, Kasimir Malevich, Sergei Eisenstein, Jean-Luc Godard, Yve-Alain Bois and Slavoj Zizek will be discussed.
POSTHUMANIST THEORY (3 credits)
30 hrs online
April 15 – June 14
Diane Davis
An introduction to the influential thinking of Avital Ronell, with special consideration to her most recent book STUPIDITY. Ronell’s posthumanist oeuvre combines a ‘radical passivity’ with an ‘ethics of decision’ and allows for the experience of ‘depropriation’.
THE COMING COMMUNITY (3 credits)
30 hrs online
April 15 – June 14
Victor Vitanza
An introduction to the political philosophy, anthropology, and aesthetics of Giorgio Agamben. A questioning of how subjectivity (agency, identity) "thwarts" a discovery of community, with special focus on "whatever beings" or "singularities."
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