With artificial minds becoming ever more sophisticated, many have sought to identify some special feature of human cognition that separates us from AI. This lecture series explores four candidates: conscience, comprehension, creativity and consciousness. For each special feature, we will consider what conditions a mind must meet to possess that feature, whether an artificial mind could plausibly meet those conditions, and whether we should be confident that we meet those conditions ourselves.

This summer course contains four lectures:

1. Lessons for the methodology of science from the replication crisis.

2. Group knowledge and belief.

3. Evidence, justification, and knowledge.

4. Science and knowledge.

Phenomenology is one of the mainstreams of contemporary philosophy. The course focuses on Husserl's phenomenology and will discuss his general ideas, as well as themes such as perception, embodiment, empathy, self-identity, and the lifeworld. The course will be based on Professor Zahavi's own writings, as well as on a selection of Husserl's relevant texts.

With Fichte’s philosophy one of the most creative periods of German philosophy begins: an era shaped by a rapid succession of philosophical systems whose purpose is to offer a closed system on the basis of Kant’s critical philosophy, but dependent on only one fundamental principle. For this foundation Fichte does not draw on Kant’s theoretical, but on his practical philosophy: “I thus assert the primacy of reason, insofar as it is practical. Everything springs from action, the action of the I.” It is the aim of these lectures to offer an introduction to Fichte’s thought. I will begin by covering his methodological writings in some detail, in order to then concentrate on Fichte’s System, as it was developed in his Jena period (1794-1799).

This course contains three sections: 

1. Introduction to the module; Introduction to Sanskrit

2. The Contemporary Significance of the Way of Practice as Transmitted by Buddhism: In the Context of Psychology and Brain Science

3. Some important topics in classical Indian philosophy

Since the second half of the 20th century computer technology has undergone continued, rapid development. As a result, we enjoy constant connectivity through smartphones or other computer devices. In many ways our daily lives have become more convenient due to constant connectivity. However, constant connectivity should also give us pause and trigger reflection on its potential significance. This course invites pursuit of this kind of reflection by exploring the potential significance of constant connectivity in relation to action and enquiry. 

This series of lectures offers both a conceptual and historical survey of the notion of computation while also exploring the effects of computation on scientific practice. The course requires no significant background in logic or computer science.