Course Schedule
Lehrveranstaltungen
Wissen Verstehen (Group 1) (Seminar)
Dozent/in: Amelia Fiske, Davor Löffler
Termin:
wöchentlich | Donnerstag | 14:00 - 16:00 | 15.10.2018 - 01.02.2019 | C 9.102 Seminarraum
Einzeltermin | Sa, 12.01.2019, 09:00 - Sa, 12.01.2019, 18:00 | fällt aus !
Einzeltermin | So, 20.01.2019, 09:00 - So, 20.01.2019, 18:00 | C 12.009 Seminarraum
Inhalt: What kind of knowledge do exist? Why do we want to do? There are at least three central questions: "What is the case?"; "How are things connected?", "What should be done?" We will look at how different fields of knowledge (different disciplines) address these questions in different ways. In his Metaphysics, Aristoteles famously claimed that human beings have a natural desire to know. More than 2000 years later, the object of this desire has been turned into an alleged condition of modern – knowledge – society. But why should we have such an intrinsic interest in knowing? And why should knowledge play such an important role for the ways in which we live together? Students develop and formulate answers to one of the guiding questions of the academic core of the Studium Individuale: What is valuable knowledge? Through a series of questions – Why should we want to know things? Does ‘truth’ matter? How do we gain knowledge? How do we evaluate and justify knowledge? How do we find out why we should or should not believe something? What can we do with knowledge? What purposes does knowledge serve? How do we use knowledge appropriately? – we will explore the conditions under which knowledge can be used adequately for purposes that are meaningful to both ourselves and the world beyond the classroom. Each session is dedicated to a different type of knowledge or way of knowing. We will distinguish between propositional knowledge used for description (know that) and explanation (know why) on the one hand, and ability knowledge (know how) on the other. We will also expand the notion of knowledge beyond statements about how the world is and how to appropriate it in action, to statements about how the world should be, what has value in it, and why, and how we ‘know’ whether we do the right thing. Along the way paved by these questions posed to the different types of knowledge, we will encounter various arguments and debates in the academic literature and beyond, from which we can glean valuable suggestions and hints for answers. We cannot and will not try to be exhaustive and do full justice to these debates. Rather, students are encouraged to explore what seems most useful to them and to engage as deeply with a given debate as they see fit. Talk about the knowledge society, whatever importance one wants to attach to it, does point to the critical importance of nurturing, caring for and handling our own knowledge well. Intelligent knowledge development and management is one of the essential conditions for successful academic work, and increasingly for professional work more generally. As such, it does not just concern organisations, but is perhaps the defining academic skill of the individual. Knowing how to gain, collect, categorize, store, access and retrieve knowledge for a variety of purposes, in a way that is well adapted to the intricacies of one’s own mind, is an art, the mastery of which has characterized great thinkers at all times. Behind that art are skills that can be learned. To this end, students will develop their own personal approach to knowledge development and cultivation. Students can choose the format in, and the tools with which they want to do this, and will begin to fill this format with content throughout the course. Ideally, they will continue developing and using the resulting system for the remainder of their studies and beyond.
Wissen Verstehen (Group 2) (Seminar)
Dozent/in: Amelia Fiske, Davor Löffler
Termin:
wöchentlich | Donnerstag | 16:00 - 18:00 | 15.10.2018 - 01.02.2019 | C 9.102 Seminarraum
Einzeltermin | Sa, 19.01.2019, 09:00 - Sa, 19.01.2019, 18:00 | C 12.013 Seminarraum
Inhalt: What kind of knowledge do exist? Why do we want to do? There are at least three central questions: "What is the case?"; "How are things connected?", "What should be done?" We will look at how different fields of knowledge (different disciplines) address these questions in different ways. In his Metaphysics, Aristoteles famously claimed that human beings have a natural desire to know. More than 2000 years later, the object of this desire has been turned into an alleged condition of modern – knowledge – society. But why should we have such an intrinsic interest in knowing? And why should knowledge play such an important role for the ways in which we live together? Students develop and formulate answers to one of the guiding questions of the academic core of the Studium Individuale: What is valuable knowledge? Through a series of questions – Why should we want to know things? Does ‘truth’ matter? How do we gain knowledge? How do we evaluate and justify knowledge? How do we find out why we should or should not believe something? What can we do with knowledge? What purposes does knowledge serve? How do we use knowledge appropriately? – we will explore the conditions under which knowledge can be used adequately for purposes that are meaningful to both ourselves and the world beyond the classroom. Each session is dedicated to a different type of knowledge or way of knowing. We will distinguish between propositional knowledge used for description (know that) and explanation (know why) on the one hand, and ability knowledge (know how) on the other. We will also expand the notion of knowledge beyond statements about how the world is and how to appropriate it in action, to statements about how the world should be, what has value in it, and why, and how we ‘know’ whether we do the right thing. Along the way paved by these questions posed to the different types of knowledge, we will encounter various arguments and debates in the academic literature and beyond, from which we can glean valuable suggestions and hints for answers. We cannot and will not try to be exhaustive and do full justice to these debates. Rather, students are encouraged to explore what seems most useful to them and to engage as deeply with a given debate as they see fit. Talk about the knowledge society, whatever importance one wants to attach to it, does point to the critical importance of nurturing, caring for and handling our own knowledge well. Intelligent knowledge development and management is one of the essential conditions for successful academic work, and increasingly for professional work more generally. As such, it does not just concern organisations, but is perhaps the defining academic skill of the individual. Knowing how to gain, collect, categorize, store, access and retrieve knowledge for a variety of purposes, in a way that is well adapted to the intricacies of one’s own mind, is an art, the mastery of which has characterized great thinkers at all times. Behind that art are skills that can be learned. To this end, students will develop their own personal approach to knowledge development and cultivation. Students can choose the format in, and the tools with which they want to do this, and will begin to fill this format with content throughout the course. Ideally, they will continue developing and using the resulting system for the remainder of their studies and beyond.