Social Justice

Applied Ethics, Political Philosophy and Sustainable Social Development

Academic Responsibility

Prof. Dr. Wulf Kellerwessel

Philosophisches Institut
RWTH Aachen

Prof. Dr. Carmen Leicht-Scholten

Lehr- und Forschungsgebiet Gender und Diversity in den Ingenieurwissenschaften
RWTH Aachen

Sebastian Bernhard M. A.

Lehr- und Forschungsgebiet Gender und Diversity in den Ingenieurwissenschaften
RWTH Aachen

Contact Person

Schedulue

Language

German

Start

23.04.2024

Time

Tuesday, 18:30-20:00 p.m.

Place

In person

Hörsaal HI (1. OG) | Hauptgebäude
Templergraben 55, 52062 Aachen

Straße Hausnummer
PLZ Ort

Contents

With regard to a globally sustainable development of society and technology, we are today faced with a multitude of very different challenges and tasks that are accompanied by moral differences or conflicts. Argumentatively convincing solutions must be sought for these, which can or should be incorporated into political decisions or technical innovation processes.
A number of such challenges are addressed in different areas of “applied ethics”. These include, for example, the ethics of research, science and technology (which can be further subdivided into machine ethics, robot ethics, ethics of autonomous driving, AI ethics …), climate, environmental and sustainability ethics, business ethics, bioethics and medical ethics, but also the ethics of war and humanitarian interventions. In addition, feminist ethics is another perspective that analyses social injustices in the sense of social sustainability and presents corresponding solutions in the sense of gender justice.
In all these areas, specific questions arise for which answers are to be found with the help of different ethical theories such as virtue ethics, ethics of duty or utilitarianism. At the same time, the thematic plurality of applied ethics makes it clear that the nature of the research field requires an interdisciplinary exchange, which is guaranteed by the implementation in the “Leonardo” project.

Learning Outcomes

The intention is that the students have an understanding of the problems and a basic knowledge of the procedures and argumentation methods in several sub-areas of applied ethics through the lectures. They should be able to recognise basic problems and analyse them with the help of basic moral philosophical knowledge. In addition, they should be able to (comparatively) evaluate proposed solutions for problem situations with the help of ethical considerations. At the same time, this should strengthen their ability to critically and reflectively deal with current problems of society. Furthermore, the lecture will strengthen interdisciplinary communication skills and create an awareness for a responsible and sustainable design of society and technology.

Program

23.04.2024

Introduction

Apl. Prof. Dr. Wulf Kellerwessel, Institute of Philosophy, RWTH Aachen
Sebastian Bernhard, M. A., Research Group Gender and Diversity in Engineering, RWTH Aachen

14.05.2024

Wealth as a Moral Issue

Prof. Dr. Christian Neuhäuser
Practical Philosophy, TU Dortmund

28.05.2024

Climate Protection – Who is Responsible?

Prof. (retired) Dr. Dieter Birnbacher
Institute of Philosophy, HHU Düsseldorf

11.06.2024

Technology Ethics: Basics and Current Applications

Apl. Prof. Dr. Wulf Kellerwessel, Institute of Philosophy, RWTH Aachen
Sebastian Bernhard, M. A., Research Group Gender and Diversity in Engineering, RWTH Aachen

25.06.2024

Prejudicial Speech: What’s a Liberal to do?

Prof. Dr. Mari Mikkola
University of Amsterdam

09.07.2024

How does structural oppression undermine autonomy? – Online via Zoom

Prof. Dr. Natalie Stoljar
McGill University

Procedure/Working method​

Depending on the course of studies, module and examination, credit points can be achieved through participation. If you would like to take an exam, please make sure beforehand how you can get credit for it in your degree program. Of course, you can also take exams without receiving curricular credit for them. Visit our FAQs for more information.

Certificate/Examination

RWTHonline

Certificate of Participation (0 CP, not graded)

-

Protocol with critical analysis (2 CP, not graded)

Project "Leonardo": Protocol with Analysis

Term Paper 15-20 pages (4 CP, graded)

Project "Leonardo": Study Paper

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