Admission requirements
Required course(s):
- History of Philosophy
Description
The purpose of Topics in Philosophy courses is to allow students to focus on specific philosophical sub-fields. From year to year, the subtitle can shift as the course addresses different topics. In this particular offering, we will be reading about and discussing some recent developments surrounding death and emerging technologies. Humankind seems to be on the verge of remarkable changes in its relationship with death, a relationship long seen as its most dependable and unalterable. Emerging technologies and speculation about what is likely to come in the relatively near future threaten to upend traditional views about death and its meaning for human beings, and the window to prepare ourselves for this disruption is closing fast. This course will specifically address increasingly pressing conceptual, ethical, and policy problems related to information technologies. For instance, social media companies have had to develop policies for dealing with dead users, and governments have begun grappling with the legal and social issues raised by managing “digital remains,” including tough questions about ownership and privacy. There is, however, a serious disconnect between commercial and legal responses to these new phenomena and the emerging academic understanding of digital remains. The possibility that certain data might constitute persons rather than simply being personal property has not been reflected in the ways businesses and governments have handled the increasing ubiquity and complexity of digital remains. If policy responses do not attend to the ontology of these remains, and the role they play in ethical life, they will be incapable of addressing the challenges these remains pose. Adding urgency to these problems is the growing capacity to reanimate digital remains. With the rise of “deepfake” technology and AI, techniques for doing so—such as interactive “chatbots” based on the dead, which already exist—are increasingly elaborate and effective. Furthermore, the possibility of a robust “digital afterlife” as an online avatar (largely indistinguishable from the ordinary online presence of a living person) raises metaphysical and moral conundrums about how we should understand and treat the digital dead.
Course Objectives
This course aims to investigate philosophical/ethical ideas and texts about emerging digital technologies related to death and the dead. Students will be expected to compare, contrast, and critically discuss the main issues and arguments in the classroom and in their written work. Students who successfully complete the course will have a good understanding of:
details relevant to the course theme and the historical context of the texts, ideas, issues, and events studied;
practical problems related to certain emerging technologies.
Students who successfully complete the course will be able to:formulate their own rational position on the topics covered in this course (“analyzing”);
critically reflect on (“reflecting”) and distinguish between key types of philosophical argumentation;
exhibit a set of reading, writing (“written communication”), research, and discussion skills (“oral communication”) that allow them to engage texts and other people in an informed and conscientious manner.
Timetable
Timetables for courses offered at Leiden University College in 2024-2025 will be published on this page of the e-Prospectus.
Mode of instruction
Each ordinary meeting of the course will consist of an interactive discussion on the scheduled topic, with reading to be completed prior to the meeting. This course depends heavily on group discussion of significant primary texts. Each class will begin with the instructor introducing the key issues and readings for that day and offering an interpretation of the works being discussed. Students should join in the discussion at any time, asking questions, making suggestions, or making comparisons with other texts we have read. For each meeting, each student should mark out a short passage (1-3 sentences) from the day’s reading that especially stood out.
Assessment Method
Participation and attentiveness in class discussions, 19%
Short written reflections on the readings (1200-1600 words total), 16%
One short answer and/or essay “mid-term” exercise, 25%
One final paper (during reading week), 40%
Reading list
- Stokes, P. (2021) Digital Souls: A Philosophy of Online Death, London: Bloomsbury Publishing.
Other required readings will be available for free online, primarily through the Leiden University Library website.
Registration
Courses offered at Leiden University College (LUC) are usually only open to LUC students and LUC exchange students. Leiden University students who participate in one of the university’s Honours tracks or programmes may register for one LUC course, if availability permits. Registration is coordinated by the Education Coordinator, course.administration@luc.leidenuniv.nl.
Contact
Dr. Adam Buben, a.j.buben@luc.leidenuniv.nl
Remarks
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