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200022 PS Proseminar Biological Psychology und Cognitive-Affective Neurosciences (2023W)
Social Neuroscience of Morality and Politics
Continuous assessment of course work
Labels
Registration/Deregistration
Note: The time of your registration within the registration period has no effect on the allocation of places (no first come, first served).
- Registration is open from Mo 28.08.2023 09:00 to Mo 25.09.2023 09:00
- Deregistration possible until Tu 03.10.2023 09:00
Details
max. 40 participants
Language: English
Lecturers
Classes (iCal) - next class is marked with N
- Tuesday 03.10. 15:00 - 16:30 Hörsaal G Psychologie, Liebiggasse 5, 2. Stock
- Tuesday 10.10. 15:00 - 16:30 Hörsaal G Psychologie, Liebiggasse 5, 2. Stock
- Tuesday 17.10. 15:00 - 16:30 Hörsaal G Psychologie, Liebiggasse 5, 2. Stock
- Tuesday 24.10. 15:00 - 16:30 Hörsaal G Psychologie, Liebiggasse 5, 2. Stock
- Tuesday 31.10. 15:00 - 16:30 Hörsaal G Psychologie, Liebiggasse 5, 2. Stock
- Tuesday 07.11. 15:00 - 16:30 Hörsaal G Psychologie, Liebiggasse 5, 2. Stock
- Tuesday 14.11. 15:00 - 16:30 Hörsaal G Psychologie, Liebiggasse 5, 2. Stock
- Tuesday 21.11. 15:00 - 16:30 Hörsaal G Psychologie, Liebiggasse 5, 2. Stock
- Tuesday 28.11. 15:00 - 16:30 Hörsaal G Psychologie, Liebiggasse 5, 2. Stock
- Tuesday 05.12. 15:00 - 16:30 Hörsaal G Psychologie, Liebiggasse 5, 2. Stock
- Tuesday 12.12. 15:00 - 16:30 Hörsaal G Psychologie, Liebiggasse 5, 2. Stock
- Tuesday 09.01. 15:00 - 16:30 Hörsaal G Psychologie, Liebiggasse 5, 2. Stock
- Tuesday 16.01. 15:00 - 16:30 Hörsaal G Psychologie, Liebiggasse 5, 2. Stock
- Tuesday 23.01. 15:00 - 16:30 Hörsaal G Psychologie, Liebiggasse 5, 2. Stock
- Tuesday 30.01. 15:00 - 16:30 Hörsaal G Psychologie, Liebiggasse 5, 2. Stock
Information
Aims, contents and method of the course
This course will give an overview into the history and dynamics of political systems. We will begin by examining how political systems form and evolve, how they transmit information, and how they build knowledge. With insights from cognitive- and neuro- sciences, we will also see how they create ‘moral communities’, broad social agreements on what is right and wrong, as well as a ‘common sense’, i.e. broad social agreements on what is true. The course will consist on lectures and student presentations.
Assessment and permitted materials
- 50% student group presentation
- 50% multiple choice test
- 50% multiple choice test
Minimum requirements and assessment criteria
Students must have a grade higher than 50% on both student group presentation and multiple choice test. Attendance must be superior to 2/3s of the classes.
Examination topics
Module 1: Where do political systems come from? Introduction to political philosophy, and the debate on the political nature of humans.Module 2: What is power and how is it generated? The path from equalitarian to hierarchical societies.Module 3 : What is morality and how does it interface with politics? How group psychology and dynamics creates moral tribes and political polarization.Module 4: How political systems transmit information. The cognitive neuroscience of information processing and how it affects political psychology.Module 5: What makes a political system stable? Determinants of political instability in pre-modern and modern states: the role of demographics, intra-elite competition, immiseration of the masses, and trust in institutions.Module 6: What makes a political system democratic? The environmental and cognitive determinants of support for democracy.Module 7: How political systems create ‘common sense’? The psychology of propaganda and fake news.
Reading list
- Fukuyama (2011) The Origins of Political Order: From prehuman times to the French Revolution
- Jonathan Haidt (2013) Moral psychology for the twenty-first century, Journal of Moral Education, 42:3, 281-297
- ‘Power of us’. Jay van Bavel
- Ferguson, Niall (2018). “The Square and the Tower: Networks and Power, from the Freemasons to Facebook
- Golstone (2016). Revolution and Rebellion in the Early Modern World: Population Change and State Breakdown in England, France, Turkey, and China,1600-1850; 25th Anniversary Edition
- Turchin (2016) Ages of Discord
- B. Geddes, “What causes democratization” in Oxford Handbook Political Science, R. E. Goodin, Ed. (Oxford University Press, Oxford, England, 2011). DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199604456.013.0029
- D. J. Ruck, L. J. Matthews, T. Kyritsis, Q. D. Atkinson, R. A. Bentley, The cultural foundations of modern democracies. Nat. Hum. Behav. 4, 265–269 (2020)
- D. Acemoglu, J. Robinson, Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty (Crown Business, ed. 1, 2012).
- Chomsky & Waterstone (2021). Chapter 1 “COMMON SENSE, THE TAKEN-FOR-GRANTED, AND POWER” in “Consequences of Capitalism”.
- Harambam (2020) “Contemporary Conspiracy Culture: Truth and Knowledge in an Era of Epistemic Instability
- Jonathan Haidt (2013) Moral psychology for the twenty-first century, Journal of Moral Education, 42:3, 281-297
- ‘Power of us’. Jay van Bavel
- Ferguson, Niall (2018). “The Square and the Tower: Networks and Power, from the Freemasons to Facebook
- Golstone (2016). Revolution and Rebellion in the Early Modern World: Population Change and State Breakdown in England, France, Turkey, and China,1600-1850; 25th Anniversary Edition
- Turchin (2016) Ages of Discord
- B. Geddes, “What causes democratization” in Oxford Handbook Political Science, R. E. Goodin, Ed. (Oxford University Press, Oxford, England, 2011). DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199604456.013.0029
- D. J. Ruck, L. J. Matthews, T. Kyritsis, Q. D. Atkinson, R. A. Bentley, The cultural foundations of modern democracies. Nat. Hum. Behav. 4, 265–269 (2020)
- D. Acemoglu, J. Robinson, Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty (Crown Business, ed. 1, 2012).
- Chomsky & Waterstone (2021). Chapter 1 “COMMON SENSE, THE TAKEN-FOR-GRANTED, AND POWER” in “Consequences of Capitalism”.
- Harambam (2020) “Contemporary Conspiracy Culture: Truth and Knowledge in an Era of Epistemic Instability
Association in the course directory
70231
Last modified: We 04.10.2023 12:27