180171 SE Interdisciplinary Philosophy and Economics Perspectives on Contemporary Social Issues (2022S)

The seminar is assessed through weekly assignments, a video presentation, and a final written assignment.

1) *Weekly research tasks* which contribute to collaboratively exploring a new research topic and developing research plans. These are marked for completeness, not for "correctness": what matters here is that you have seriously attempted the tasks and prepared for the seminar. *Deadline:* Each teaching week at 11:59am on Monday, so that students can read each other's contributions in preparation of the seminar. Tasks that are late without authorisation can at most score a grade of 4 (mere pass). If upload is delayed for reasons outside of your control, e.g. illness, and lecturers have been informed, then this penalty does not apply. *Weight of all tasks combined: 30%*.

2) One pre-recorded *video presentation*, of 6-7 minutes, in which you explain a paper in economics or philosophy that is of key importance to the seminar themes. There will be a sign-up roster for selecting a seminar week to contribute your video presentation to: For each of the seminar themes, there will be one week discussing philosophy, and one week economics ideas relevant to the theme. Your presentation will present one key paper of your own choosing, the paper selection must be agreed upon with the lecturers, and lecturers can offer guidance for selecting a paper. *Deadline:* The video presentations must be uploaded by 11:59am on the Monday that precedes the respective seminar. *Weight: 20%.* Since the success of the seminar depends on everyone watching the presentations before the seminar sessions, delayed uploads can at most score a grade of 4 (mere pass). If upload is delayed for reasons outside of your control, e.g. illness, and lecturers have been informed, then this penalty does not apply.

3) A final written assignment, of 2500-2700 words. *Deadline:* September 15, 2022, 23:59. *Weight: 50%*. You have a choice of three assignment formats:
- An interdisciplinary academic essay/paper, which argues for a particular claim or answer to a question pertaining to one of the seminar themes, and which uses ideas from both disciplines to make its point.
- A research proposal, suitable either as an extended master thesis proposal or for a PhD application. It explains a problem or question pertaining to the seminar themes, the state of the art of the relevant literature in philosophy and economics on that theme, and outlines a thesis and research programme.
- One or two long read journalistic-style articles (as may be found in a longform sections of newspapers, magazines, blogs, or on a think tank’ communication webpage) on a problem or question pertaining to one of the seminar themes, which uses ideas from both disciplines. The intended target is an interested general audience. The piece must be explicitely based on existing academic debates.

All assigments in line with either of the first or the second format must be submitted in English. If you choose the journalistic long-read article format, then you may submit in English or in German (e.g. if you intend to work towards publishing your piece in a German-language publication venue). You may choose to work in a team on the final assignment (up to three participants). In this case, the required number of words changes proportionally (5000-5400 for a group of two, 7500-8100 for a group of three). Co-authored assignments are given a single mark that applies equally to all authors.

The paper outline and paper are to be submitted on Moodle, as pdf file, with all identifying information (name, student ID) in the text, file name, and file metadata removed to facilitate anonymous marking. Delayed submissions get a marking penalty of +0.2 for each day (24h) of lateness, although this penalty does not lead to a failing grade. If your submission is delayed for reasons outside of your control, please contact the lecturers via email as soon as possible.