Prof. Dr. Caranti Lehre

Wintersemester 2022/23

030117: Ethics and Politics in the Digital Era (research seminar with international workshop)

DI 8.30-10

Beginn: 18.10.2022

Veranstaltungsart: Seminar (auf Englisch)

“It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind, who harness old social forces and contrive new ways to bind and guide the world” (Edward Bernays, Propaganda). The course analyzes how internet is redefining contemporary democracy focusing in particular on the recent phenomena of public opinion conditioning, on the decline of intermediate bodies with the related marginalization of experts, on the info-wars waged by organized groups and at times autocratic foreign governments, on freedom of expression in the social media and on who should set its limits (if any). International Workshop (27/01 – 29/01/2023) The workshop gathers experts from different fields (philosophers, experts of complex systems, lawyers) and focuses on the way in which the internet, and the social media in particular, have dramatically altered the traditional manner in which the right to freedom of expression is understood. The workshop also investigates how this fundamental right should be redefined to avoid patent distortions of public opinion while preserving – to some extent at least – individuals’ liberty of sharing ideas something demonstrably false and perhaps even damaging for the general good of the society. Given the crucial role of free speech in any open society, the workshop also discusses the potential repercussions of this redefinition on the pillars of liberal democracy. 

Alle Literaturangaben werden auf Moodle bereitgestellt.

030118: Kantian Peace. Democratic Peace and the Russian-Ukraine War

DI 10-12

Beginn: 18.10.2022

Veranstaltungsart: Seminar (auf Englisch)

The course introduces students to Kant’s political philosophy via my recent work on the subject (Kant’s Political Legacy. Human Rights, Peace, Progress, UWP 2017 and The Kantian Federation, CUP 2022). Students will learn about a) Kant’ view of human dignity and innate rights, and how this provides a foundation of human rights more compelling than the ones currently available in the literature, b) Kant’s theory of peace, with a careful analysis of the three ‘pillars’ of the model (domestic republican government, international federation/world republic and right to visit) and c) Kant’s progressive view of history, in particular his controversial thesis that nature provides a guarantee that humanity will reach a stable, irreversible condition of peace and justice.

Alle Literaturangaben werden auf Moodle bereitgestellt.

030119: Philosophical Foundations of Human Rights

09-11.12.2022

Veranstaltungsart: Blockseminar (auf Englisch)

“You believe, then, that the fundamentals of justice should be deduced not from a praetor’s proclamation, as many now assert, nor from the Twelve Tables of the Law, as our forefathers maintained, but from the
innermost depths of philosophy?” (Cicero, On the Nature of the Gods). Although discussions about international issues often make reference to the notion of Human Rights – the war in Syria and the ensuing migration of refugees, the killing of demonstrators in Myanmar, the shortage of anti-covid vaccines for poor countries are obvious examples – the philosophical foundations of these rights, their claim to cross-cultural universality, their ability to be a sort of secularized religion of mankind are controversial. This class aims to introduce students to the philosophical debate on the foundational issue and to stimulate independent yet informed thinking.

Alle Literaturangaben werden auf Moodle bereitgestellt.