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The first session, including this lecture shows the basic information for the course. We will also cover the ways to do research properly at the university level. Finally, we will refresh some of the basic information that we know about natural world from biology to physics—this will help us to understand the ideas and arguments covered later in the course.

This week we continue the background information that is needed to understand this course. We examine the evolution of humans and their more modern history up to the modern world.

This week, we ask: what is an idea? Does thinking define humans as apart from animals? What is the difference between an idea and a thought? Then we go further and ask, does thinking and ideas make humans special? Is thinking the driving force of our evolution and history?

In this week’s discussion we ask the questions: what is real? How can we know what is real? And how can we know what we know? We look at the old philosophical issue of epistemology (how do we know what we know) and ontology (what really exists in the world “out there”). We will look at Plato’s Allegory of the Cave to understand this. In the seminar, we will look at the postmodern ideas regarding reality being socially “created”, and we will look at Jean Baudrillard’s concept of hyperreality and how it might apply to our world.

This week’s discussion examines how humans perceive the world due to experiences that differ between them individually and in groups. We ask whether there are certain universally acceptable perceived things; or if perceptions are always dependent on context and experience. We finish by considering how future technology could impact this idea of a life experience.

This week we ask what we mean by “knowledge”. What is the difference between knowing things, and simply acknowledging them. Are there different types of knowledge, and are some more valuable than others? Does knowledge come from the world outside, from inside each of use, or from us together as a society and community? How do we establish knowledge and how do we get to know things over time?

This week we ask how can we determine what is true and what is false, and if the idea of fake news going around today is such a new concept. How can we be sure of what we know, and do different opinions of what we know count equally? We also ask, are there universal truths, or do they depend on time and place? How has the idea of truth changed over time?

This week the focus will shift from individual cognitive aspects to group aspects. The concept of the group, its formation, effects and different phenomena derived from groupness such as cohesion and socialisation will be introduced.

This week, we examine the idea of society itself; how is it constituted and organised. What are its rules? How do communities build truths and values for themselves? When societies talk to themselves only, and organise themselves in ranks, then they start to build social classes and social groups. This builds a sense of superiority.

This week we follow the examination of social groups and societies by looking at the phenomenon of in-group and out-group social psychology. We look at how, since the beginnings of human history, humans have organised themselves in tribes. Over time, this became cultural groups, nations, empires and civilisations. We examine how these groups have clashed over time. Finally, we look at how, in the modern world, clashes have been more about ideologies than cultural values: ideologies like Communism vs. Capitalism and Nationalism vs. Globalism.

This week we look at the shift the discussion to look at instances of individuals who do not believe, or who reject, the “mainstream” group ideas and truths. Under the idea of being skeptical, we examine how people can question the ideas, values, culture, truths and even the very reality in which they are born. We then look at how the classical skepticism of the ancient times gave way to modern forms like existentialism and postmodernism. When societies talk to themselves only, and organise themselves in ranks, then they start to build social classes and social groups. This builds a sense of superiority.

This week we further the discussion about skeptics to look at those people who push their disagreements with groups, communities and societies into not simply questions, but into actions- into doing something to change the way things are. We therefore look at the way leaders set themselves apart; is there something special about leaders? And we also look at moments when entire groups or societies rebel against the way things are.

This week we will focus on how the fundamental changes brought in by modern science have been considered as an aspect of modernity and making the world smaller and more accessible, and therefore less mysterious and more detached. Can we say that this is progress for humans? Or do your lives and experiences fundamentally continue unchanged, even if science and technology changes and spreads? Finally, we will finish the discussion with a look at the disruptive technologies of this century.

This final session will be dedicated to examining the question: what is the future of ideas. As we look at how modern technology is changing the role of ideas, thinking, questioning and manipulating reality, we ask: are ideas history? Will the future have fewer human ideas?

Information and submission of the final assessments

Resits