Humanism and Philosophy - place for six external PhD candidates

Field of Research:  a) Humanist Philosophy in the 20th Century

Humanistic ideas and organisations have particularly flourished in the 20th century – when they were needed more than ever. At the same time, ideas of a common “human nature” have been under attack: Racism undermined the idea of human equality and substituted national supremacy for universal compassion, religions blamed humanism for inspiring greed and selfishness, postmodern thinkers understood humanity as a construct that had to be overcome, and today, post-humanists no longer see any value in being human. Therefore it is time to reconsider the philosophical history of humanist thought in various traditions, to inquire whether and how it can be defended philosophically against these challenges.    

1. How can we compare main currents in the philosophy of humanism in different European cultures? (Dutch, British, German humanism etc.)

2. Which traditions in philosophical humanism (e.g., Marxist Humanism, Existentialism, Hermeneutics) could be reconstructed today (and how), in times of ecological crisis?

3. Why did the critique of humanism become such an important topic for thinkers like Heidegger, Althusser, Foucault and others? What were they arguing against, and why did this line of argument become so popular?

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Field of Research:  b) Humanism and Nature in the 21st Century

While recently ideas of human nature are often questioned – not least because they are held responsible for the ecological crisis or colonialism, ideas about nature are also subject to erosion: some scholars believe we already live “beyond” or “after” both nature and humanity. However, without distinctive ideas of nature, we lose the object that we actually wish to protect and preserve, just as we lose the responsible subjects that could initiate the much needed changes if we stop thinking in terms of human beings capable of conscious choices. A central question in contemporary philosophy is therefore how humanity and nature can be reconceived and be related to one another in a way that neither collapses them into one another, nor makes them hostile and alien to one another. 

1. How can we understand the specificity of human beings as natural entities who depend on nature and must learn to take much better care of their environments in precise philosophical terms? 

2. What are central values that evolve from this perspective, and how can we normatively substantiate them?

3. Which traditions in the philosophy of nature (e.g, in Renaissance thought, Enlightenment or Romanticism) could be interpreted and reevaluated in this light?

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Field of Research:  d) Ecohumanism and Romanticism

1. How can we re-evaluate the romantic concept of “Naturphilosophie” in view of the ecological crisis?

2. What is the ontology (or implicit worldview) of philosophies of nature developed in response to enlightened and positivistic materialism?

3. How can we combine philosophical ecohumanism with scientific views on nature? 

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Field of Research:  e) What is humanistic art? 

1. How can we make sense of the judgement that certain works of art are considered ‘humanist’? Which concepts of humanism are implied, do they relate to artistic practices? 

2. How is humanism, or being human, visualized in certain periods of art history, or appropriated in works of art, and what is considered the “other” (nonhuman) in these cases? 

3. Which artistic practices are particularly important for humanism today (e.g., art in prisons or humanistic chaplaincy)? How do they affect our understanding of humanism?

4. Projects about specific works of art or artists in relation to (contemporary or historical) forms of humanism are also welcome, for instance early modern humanism and art or ecohumanism and art.

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Field of Research:  e) Critical Theory, Eco-Marxism, and/or Posthumanism

1. Does human waged labor represent a special institution in the logic of capitalist value-creation, or should this logic be theoretically expanded in order to make room for more-than-human actants (such as animals and natural processes) and non-waged labor (such as gendered and racialized free reproductive work)? 

2. Does capitalist production undermine its conditions of reproduction? If so, what does this mean for the future of capitalism, its crisis-tendencies, and its socio-political fault lines? 

3. What may be learnt from social movements and real environmental politics in studying these questions in political philosophy and related disciplines? What resources does critical theory and eco-Marxism offer in thinking about the questions posed above? 

4. What can be learnt from staging encounters between critical theory and other approaches, such as ecological economics, environmental economics, environmental sociology, and so on? 

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Field of Research:  f) Digital technology, social AI and humanity

1. What does it mean to be ‘human’ in the light of social artifical intelligence? 

2. Do developments in the field of digital technology and artificial intelligence require a revision of our understanding of human rights? If so, what should this revision look like?

3. Which contribution can humanism make to revisioning humanity, human rights and human dignity in the 21st century in light of developments in digital technology and AI?

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Field of Research:  g) Humanism and Philosophy 

1. How do deradicalized Muslim youths experience their deradicalization trajectories? 

2. What are the effects of deradicalization programs on the mental and emotional resilience of radical youths?  

3. How can these narrative experiences contribute to the enhancement of deradicalization programs in the West?

 1 external PhD candidate

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