16073
Advanced seminar
SoSe 22: Human Abilities
Barbara Vetter
Comments
Human beings have many abilities: to walk, to reason, to ride a bicycle, to do the right thing for the right reasons (or not). Those abilities play a role in many areas of philosophy: in metaphysics, many take free will to require an ability to act otherwise; in epistemology, it is argued that knowledge is a matter of exercising our cognitive abilities; in ethics, the principle that „ought implies can“ links our obligations to our abilities; and so on. In this seminar, we will look at the foundational question what it is to have an ability, how abilities relate to opportunities or mere dispositions, and to skill and agency. We will read and discuss a paper from the contemporary literature each week. Participants will be welcome to attend workshops at the Centre for Advanced Studies „Human Abilities“ in May and July (https://www.human-abilities.de/events/index.html).
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Suggested reading
Students who wish to get a taste of the topic may take a look at:
- Maier, J. „Abilities“, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (2020, https://seop.illc.uva.nl/entries/abilities/)
- Jaster, R. Agents’ Abilities, de Gruyter (2020, https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110650464/html?lang=de) close
14 Class schedule
Regular appointments
Fri, 2022-04-22 12:00 - 14:00
Fri, 2022-04-29 12:00 - 14:00
Fri, 2022-05-06 12:00 - 14:00
Fri, 2022-05-13 12:00 - 14:00
Fri, 2022-05-20 12:00 - 14:00
Fri, 2022-05-27 12:00 - 14:00
Fri, 2022-06-03 12:00 - 14:00
Fri, 2022-06-10 12:00 - 14:00
Fri, 2022-06-17 12:00 - 14:00
Fri, 2022-06-24 12:00 - 14:00
Fri, 2022-07-01 12:00 - 14:00
Fri, 2022-07-08 12:00 - 14:00
Fri, 2022-07-15 12:00 - 14:00
Fri, 2022-07-22 12:00 - 14:00