Our Current Courses for Students:

Is There a Right Life in Crises? - How Suitable Lifestyles Can Be Identified for a Sustainable Society

In his bestseller “Supercapitalism”, Robert Reich vividly describes how a growth paradigm binds all economic players on local, national and global markets in a prisoner's dilemma for various reasons, with each and every one of them trying to outdo all other market participants in the competitive struggle. This dynamic threatens the existence of natural resources and biodiversity, it provides incentives for climate-damaging behavior patterns and it promotes social conflicts. Alternative economic policies and alternative economic systems outline a social transformation from the dynamics described above by quantifying “unsustainable” economic products in the form of consumer goods, by-products, waste and behavioral patterns (e. g. follow-up costs, CO2 equivalents). Based on these values, old incentive structures that promote the identified products are either replaced by new ones in terms of regulatory policy (e. g. CO2 tax, environmental regulations, supply chain law), or they are reinterpreted by normative principles or social trends (e. g. flight shame, minimalism trend, second hand trend), or they are supplemented by new economic attributes (e. g. product label, CO2 certificate trading). How validly sustainable characteristics of products, product cycles and behaviours can be measured and how the validity of concrete political measures, economic claims and social transformation efforts can be legitimized on the basis of this data is the subject of controversial debate in research. The seminar is dedicated to texts on precisely this epistemic and normative conflict.

Lecturer: Dr. Sebastian Müller

Time: Tuesdays, 10:15 a.m.–11:45 a.m., 15.10.2024–28.01.2025

Location: Center for Life Ethics, Schaumburg-Lippe-Str. 7, 53113 Bonn

Multispecies Communities. Philosophical Foundations and Ethical Challenges

Humans live among humans, elephants among elephants and zebras among zebras. Less obvious but still commonplace are cross-species, often symbiotic relationships such as that of oxpeckers, which rid ungulates of annoying vermin, or dogs, which support humans in many ways. But this is only a tiny fraction of the highly complex relationships between different living beings and life forms. They provide and share common habitats, live in peaceful coexistence or hunt each other, work together cooperatively or exploit each other, are dependent on each other and the surrounding ecosystems - or they destroy the common basis of life for all. This primarily refers to the human species, which, with its technological advantage, plays a major role in the catastrophic state of the entire biosphere. At the same time, technological developments are emerging to improve the human-animal relationship or human-environment relationship with a view to overcoming anthropocentric speciesism in favor of so-called multispecies communities. In the seminar, students work on the philosophical foundations of multispecies communities. The focus is on the ontological prerequisites, ethical challenges and technological possibilities of living together in multispecies communities.

Lecturer: Peter Bröckerhoff, M. A.

Time: Wednesdays, 12:15 p.m.–13:45 p.m., 09.10.2024-29.01.2025

Location: Center for Life Ethics, Creative Room

Pluriversal Dialogues about Alternative Futures - but How? What Can We Really Learn from Each Other?

Existential threats of the so-called Anthropocene and tectonic shifts in the geopolitical balance of power are increasingly calling into question the claim to universality of modern science. There are increasing calls for a world in which many worlds coexist on an equal footing. In such a 'pluriverse', claims to universality of any kind no longer have a place. Instead, an equal, pluriversal dialogue is sought between divergent knowledge and cosmopractices about which possible worlds and futures become visible from different onto-epistemo-ethical perspectives, which appear more or less desirable and through which cosmopractices they are produced.
In this contribution, we will approach the question of what such a pluriversal dialogue might look like and what opportunities and challenges arise from it.

This lecture is part of the ILZ's interdisciplinary lecture series: Thinking the future pluriversally: visions, temporalities and new spaces // Entre futuros: visiones pluriversales, temporalidades y nuevos espacios

Lecturer: Dr. Jan Linhart

Time: 05.11.2024, 18:15 p.m.–19:45 p.m.

Location: University of Bonn, Main Building, Lecture hall XII, 53113 Bonn

Discourse Ethics in Apel and Habermas

It is repeatedly said that we, as citizens of a liberal democracy, must remain in conversation, listen to each other and show understanding for one another. But the conditions under which this can be the case are rarely discussed. Under what conditions is it even possible to have a sensible discussion? And when is it no longer possible?

Discourse ethics, developed since the 1960s by Karl-Otto Apel and Jürgen Habermas, attempts to provide a rigorous philosophical answer to this difficult question. With recourse to American pragmatism and Kantian transcendental philosophy, both thinkers develop an ethics in exchange with each other that attempts to prove that we, as linguistic beings, must always assume an intersubjective validity of ethical norms. If we are aware of this, a fair discourse can be constructed against an ideal background and shaped in reality.

In the seminar, we will look at exactly how this works. We will first look at the precursors of discourse ethics, then deal with Karl-Otto Apel's transcendental pragmatism and Jürgen Habermas' discourse-ethical moral theory, and towards the end we will get to know some examples of discourse ethics represented in current discourse, such as Benhabib's feminist discourse ethics.

Lecturer: Nicolas Knecht, M. A.

Time: Fridays, 12:15 p.m.–13:45 p.m., 11.10.2024–30.01.2025

Location: Heinrich-von-Kleist-Str. 22–28, Room 0.008, 53113 Bonn

Ethics in Food Consumption and Production

Lecturer: Dr. Jan Mehlich (contributing)

Time: Tuesdays and Wednesdays, 10:15 p.m.–12:45 p.m., 15.10.2024–29.01.2025

Location: Nussallee 19, ILR, seminar room, 53113 Bonn

Working Group Schuldrecht AT and BT I

Lecturer: Julia Braun

Time: Wednesdays, 12:15 p.m.–13:45 p.m., 16.10.2024–29.01.2025

Location: Juridicum, Lecture hall M, 53113 Bonn

Our Current Courses for Students and the Interested Public:

Freedoms - Why and for What?

Right and freedoms allow us to live our lives according to our aspirations and beliefs, and to develop in a wide variety of ways. They also enable important social processes and functions.

On the other hand, freedoms are not infinite, but find their limits in the rights of others who are affected. Moreover, their guarantee is not always permanent: their scope and form can be subject to change, and they are often also subject to targeted political repression or various other threats.

But what do the many types of freedom actually mean, where do they come from and what purpose do they serve? How far do they extend and how are they to be weighed against each other? How can they be protected against various changes and in the face of threats?

In this seminar, we first examine the ethical and legal foundations of various freedoms and highlight their significance, origins, current guarantees and possible challenges. Together with experts from the field and in an excursion, we then explore the significance of freedoms for our daily lives, and discuss what freedoms mean for us in practice, how we live them and want to live them in the future, and how we can ensure their lasting preservation.

Lecturers: Prof. Dr. Christiane Woopen/Dr. Björn Schmitz-Luhn

Time: Tuesdays, 14:15 p.m.–15:45 p.m., 15.10.2024–28.01.2025

Location: Center for Life Ethics, Schaumburg-Lippe-Straße 7, 53113 Bonn

Registration: please click here

ThinkJourney: Towards What Future do We Want to Live?

Together with recognized experts from science and society, we go on a weekly ThinkJourney to explore desirable futures in different areas of life, spanning the semester. Our guests present their research and discuss with students, young researchers and interested members of the public. At the end of the semester, the journeys of thought are followed by a joint journey in real life to a thematically relevant place or institution.