The course is free and lunch will be provided. Doctoral students will be prioritised, although other applicants may be considered only if space permits.
The objective of this interdisciplinary course is to explore challenges to sustainable modernity in cultural, economic, political and institutional realms.
It is now widely acknowledged that modernity has emancipated us from dogma, promoted individual freedoms, and unleashed unprecedented entrepreneurship and innovation in science and technology, and productivity and welfare in work and social life. But modernity also has a downside. In recent decades, the banner of ‘modernization’ has often implied the depletion of natural resources, increased social inequality and exclusion, and exacerbating the climate crisis.
Some thinkers suggest that the self-destructive success of modernity has been its competitive mindset and the growing lack of cooperation amongst societies. Implicit in this view is a call for a paradigm shift based on a mindset that would foster novel forms of social, economic and environmental sustainability.
Against this background, the course will address questions such as:
- How can individual self-interest and the neglect of the commons be reconciled with the work for the public good and less pressure on the environment?
- If competition is the engine of successful innovation - how to square it with fostering a sustainable modernity and the ideal of ‘good life’?