printer friendly pageOSPOXFRD 13: Know Thyself ! The Philosophy and Psychology of Self-Examination
The word philosophy literally means a love of wisdom. This suggests that philosophy is not a collection of theories, but an emotional attitude toward a certain way of being. A philosopher is a person who is emotionally committed to becoming wise. The maxim Know Thyself! is regarded a main guiding principle in the philosopher's search for wisdom. It points us back towards ourselves, and presents our own personality as a subject to be studied and examined critically. Many have argued that this is not optional for those who wish to live well: as Socrates put it, the unexamined life is not worth living! Over the next ten weeks, we'll ask what it means to lead an examined life. We'll start by considering the opposite attitude, of the unthinking person who no longer cares to know truth from falsehood. We'll then ask how knowing oneself may differ from knowing others. Is there anything only you can know about yourself? Are there special, introspective means of coming to know yourself? If so,
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The word philosophy literally means a love of wisdom. This suggests that philosophy is not a collection of theories, but an emotional attitude toward a certain way of being. A philosopher is a person who is emotionally committed to becoming wise. The maxim Know Thyself! is regarded a main guiding principle in the philosopher's search for wisdom. It points us back towards ourselves, and presents our own personality as a subject to be studied and examined critically. Many have argued that this is not optional for those who wish to live well: as Socrates put it, the unexamined life is not worth living! Over the next ten weeks, we'll ask what it means to lead an examined life. We'll start by considering the opposite attitude, of the unthinking person who no longer cares to know truth from falsehood. We'll then ask how knowing oneself may differ from knowing others. Is there anything only you can know about yourself? Are there special, introspective means of coming to know yourself? If so, are they immune to error, or can you be mistaken about yourself? How can there be self-deception, where you're both the deceiver and the deceived? We cannot know ourselves fully without knowing our moral character, our virtues and vices, in addition to our thoughts and feelings and wishes. Knowing oneself is arguably a moral obligation, therefore, and thoughtlessness the hallmark of evil. Yet there is another pitfall to avoid, as self-reflection must not collapse into narcissistic self- preoccupation. This distinction will take us into the realm of the Unconscious, which by definition is not accessible to conscious reflection and thus limits how much we can know about ourselves. Despite our best efforts, it may be that we will ultimately remain a mystery to ourselves.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II
Instructors:
Petzolt, S. (PI)
OSPOXFRD 22: British Politics Past and Present
The political system of the United Kingdom; contemporary scholarly debates about UK politics and the UK constitution; and critical analysis of these debates and of current issues in UK politics (including constitutional reform), using contemporary political science and political theory.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-SI
OSPOXFRD 26: Contemporary Feminist Philosophy
This course engages with the work of most prominent English feminist thinkers (including founders of British feminist thought who were pioneers of feminism in the English speaking world), and will stage 'conversations' between them and influential feminist thinkers in the U.S.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-EDP
OSPOXFRD 28: Oxford and Abroad: Travel Narratives and Historiography of an Academic City
Rich history of Oxford, the place in which students are studying; skills to become aware of the profound influences the experience of living and studying abroad can have on self-conceptions. Appreciation of study in a town with such a marvelous tradition of scholarship through understanding of the history of learning in Oxford. How Oxford came to be the university town it is today.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-SI
OSPOXFRD 44: Molecular Genetics Ethics and Practice
The generation of transgenic animals - including worms, fruit flies, mice, sheep, or humans - is celebrated cornerstone of modern biological research, and has revolutionized medicine. This course focuses on teaching the scientific principles enabling animal transgenesis, including genetics, molecular and cell biology and animal husbandry, through directed reading - including primary scientific papers discussed in tutorials - and through lively in-class presentations and discussion. These activities will prepare students for hands-on activities in student-directed independent research projects in the latter half of the course, and enable students to produce and characterize transgenic fruit flies. The course will emphasize the ground-breaking contributions of scientists in the U.K., including those trained or currently at Oxford, to the principles and practice of animal genetics. These contributions will be highlighted through field trips to the Oxford Natural History Museum and British Natural History Museum. We will also discuss important ethical issues raised by transgenesis in animals, and recent controversial examples in humans. This course has no prerequisites.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-SMA
OSPOXFRD 51: The Visionary and Illuminated World of William Blake
This course will provide an introduction to the illuminated world of William Blake - poet, prophet, mythmaker, and visionary artist. Blake was also a critic of capitalist modernity writing in an age of industrialization and urbanization, political revolution, religious doubt and doomsdayism, scientific breakthroughs in fields like chemistry and biology, the making of feminism, the birth of animal rights, agitation for the abolition of slavery, challenges to class hierarchy, and the commodification of life. Students will gain familiarity with Blake's illuminated poetry, including The Songs of Innocence and Experience; The Marriage of Heaven and Hell; The Book of Thel; Visions of the Daughters of Albion; The Book of Urizen; America a Prophecy; and Europe a Prophecy. We'll visit places important to the development of these artworks in London, including St. Paul's Cathedral and the Royal Academy of Arts. We'll also have a private tour of Blake's work in the Tate Britain. Students will gain familiarity with Blake's symbolic artwork, the basic principles of his belief system and ideology, and the unique method of illuminated printing peculiar to him as a poet, visual artist, engraver, and bookmaker.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4-5
OSPOXFRD 62: Digital Technology in the UK (Technical Version)
Includes all of the sessions and requirements of the seminar Digital Technology in the UK, with an additional hour per week of meeting time focused on more technical readings from British computing pioneers. Please note that students can take this seminar or
OSPOXFRD 63, but not both
Terms: Win
| Units: 4-5
OSPOXFRD 63: Digital Technology in the UK
A seminar focused on the British experience with computer and informational network technologies, and their social context and impacts. The course covers the development of computing from Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace, to Alan Turing, to the present. The emphasis will be on broader social lessons and applications beyond the UK, including the role of gender and cultural norms in shaping the experience of technology's contributors, and uses of digital technology in democratic institutions. Please note that students can take this seminar or
OSPOXFRD 62, but not both
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-4
OSPOXFRD 66: A Model Island in Practice
This course builds on the concepts explored in 'A Model Island' with cultural engagement activities in Oxford and UK and an individual enquiry into the culture as you experience it on the BOSP Oxford Programme.
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr
| Units: 1
Instructors:
Afanasyev, I. (PI)
OSPOXFRD 85: Practical Ethics for Artificial Intelligence
AI has attracted significant attention in the last year, initially due to the release of ChatGPT, followed by backlash and efforts at creating effective regulation. Questions of ethics underlie every aspect of AI, beginning with the question of whether it is even coherent to speak of an intelligence other than humans. This course presents current ethical issues in the development and application of artificial intelligence through a series of recent case studies. We will spend the first part of the course studying major ethical frameworks (consequentialism, deontology, virtue ethics) and closely-linked research areas within AI and machine learning. In the second part of the course, we will apply these principles to case studies from major areas of debate in AI, with a focus on the translation of ethical principles into practical decisions.The first examples from AI we will cover are existential risks in the context of utilitarianism, the "hidden" labour force of AI in the context of deo
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AI has attracted significant attention in the last year, initially due to the release of ChatGPT, followed by backlash and efforts at creating effective regulation. Questions of ethics underlie every aspect of AI, beginning with the question of whether it is even coherent to speak of an intelligence other than humans. This course presents current ethical issues in the development and application of artificial intelligence through a series of recent case studies. We will spend the first part of the course studying major ethical frameworks (consequentialism, deontology, virtue ethics) and closely-linked research areas within AI and machine learning. In the second part of the course, we will apply these principles to case studies from major areas of debate in AI, with a focus on the translation of ethical principles into practical decisions.The first examples from AI we will cover are existential risks in the context of utilitarianism, the "hidden" labour force of AI in the context of deontology, and the problem of replacing humans in the context of virtue ethics. For the case studies, we will first study fairness and bias in the training and deployment of machine learning models. We will ask what it means for an AI system to be "fair", and how to regulate models which are not interpretable. This is followed by the problems of copyright and large scale training datasets for generative AI models, where we will ask what constitutes unfair use of existing material when it is only being used to train. We continue in a more hypothetical lens with a discussion of whether or not an AI system could be a moral agent or patient, and what rights a non-human intelligence might have. Finally, we conclude with the alignment problem, where we focus on the practical challenges of value alignment and the plausibility of finding a set of values which could be universally accepted. In the last week of the course, students apply their learnings with group presentations on published academic research, unpacking the ethical questions underlying technical developments
Terms: Win
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-ER
Instructors:
Bean, A. (PI)
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