Emotion, value, and life-defining choices II

Summary

In this master's project seminar, students prepare a high-quality article embodying the philosophical ideals of clarity, conciseness, and aspiration to truth. Students also defend the claim made in their article by delivering a professional presentation.

Content

Keywords

Mind, self, transformation, transformative decision, personal choice, mental corruption, meaning, core preferences, preference aggregation, empathy for others, empathy for future selves.

Ethics, moral philosophy, value, values, core values, instrumental value, intrinsic value, final value, personal value, impersonal value, norms, incommensurability, incomparability, parity, normative powers.

Emotion, affect, mood, sentiments, valence, emotion appropriateness, being moved, being struck by value.

Learning Prerequisites

Required courses

Please see "Recommended courses" below.

Recommended courses

Ideally, students should have completed HUM-478 "Emotion, value, and life-defining choices I". Please contact the instructor if you did not attend HUM-478 and want to attend HUM-479 "Emotion, value, and life-defining choices II".

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the course, the student must be able to:

• Argue 1. Argue in a balanced way for a specific claim with arguments, including logical reasoning, counterexamples, and thought experiments in oral and written form.
• Compose 2. Write a professional article instantiating the philosophical values of clarity, conciseness, and truth.
• Construct 3. Construct sophisticated arguments and objections.
• Elaborate 4. Elaborate thought experiments to illustrate philosophical questions.
• Assess / Evaluate 5. Detect flaws in argumentation and discourse.
• Design 6. Design and deliver a professional, clear, and concise presentation involving elaborate positions and arguments.
• Manage 7. Guide and structure, on the spot, a live complex discussion.
• Negotiate 8. Collaborate to complete a year-long project.
• Integrate 9. Integrate a rich literature.
• Solve 10. Solve problems in original and elaborate ways.
• Defend 11. Defend, on the spot, a claim when faced with objections and opposing views.
• Systematize 12. Systematize an original framework and its technical terms.
• Advise 13. Advise peers regarding their work.
• Conduct 14. Conduct autonomous research.
• Model 15. Model problems and solutions.
• Take into consideration 16. Take into consideration peer feedback.
• Explore 17. Explore various argumentative strategies.
• Express 18. Express the significance of one's work to a general audience.

Transversal skills

• Assess progress against the plan, and adapt the plan as appropriate.
• Communicate effectively with professionals from other disciplines.
• Chair a meeting to achieve a particular agenda, maximising participation.
• Take account of the social and human dimensions of the engineering profession.
• Take feedback (critique) and respond in an appropriate manner.
• Give feedback (critique) in an appropriate fashion.
• Demonstrate a capacity for creativity.
• Demonstrate the capacity for critical thinking
• Plan and carry out activities in a way which makes optimal use of available time and other resources.
• Set objectives and design an action plan to reach those objectives.
• Use a work methodology appropriate to the task.
• Communicate effectively, being understood, including across different languages and cultures.
• Evaluate one's own performance in the team, receive and respond appropriately to feedback.
• Identify the different roles that are involved in well-functioning teams and assume different roles, including leadership roles.
• Keep appropriate documentation for group meetings.
• Negotiate effectively within the group.
• Respect the rules of the institution in which you are working.
• Respect relevant legal guidelines and ethical codes for the profession.
• Assess one's own level of skill acquisition, and plan their on-going learning goals.
• Continue to work through difficulties or initial failure to find optimal solutions.
• Manage priorities.
• Use both general and domain specific IT resources and tools
• Access and evaluate appropriate sources of information.
• Make an oral presentation.

Teaching methods

Structure of sessions

Hour 1: Team presentation composed of a team talk (15 minutes), a question-and-answer session (15 minutes), and a debriefing with the instructor (15 minutes).

Hour 2: Structured, supervised research in teams. The instructor will provide a research schedule, detailing activities and milestones. Class exercises prepared by the instructor will support work on assignments.

Hour 3: Free, supervised research in teams focused on each team's priorities.

Assignments:

Generally, students remain in the teams formed during the Fall (HUM-478). The instructor will offer advice on presenting and writing effectively, regularly check on the progress of each team, provide feedback, point to additional references when necessary, and remain available throughout the supervised research hours.

A. Master's projects prepared in teams and individually (maximum of 5 pages in total).

(i) Team essay. Work in teams on 4 pages (maximum): research, reflection, and development of a self-standing, high-quality article. Ideally, the article builds on the short essay prepared in teams during the Fall.

(ii) Personal addendum. Individual work on 1 page (maximum): research, reflection, and development of a personal addendum to the article prepared in teams. The addendum allows every student to complement the work submitted as a team with a personal contribution (e.g., by addressing something left out in the team's work or by presenting an argument of their own). Importantly, the personal addendum may argue against the views defended in the team essay. Ideally, the addendum will build on the addendum prepared individually during the Fall.

B. Team presentation and chairing of a question-and-answer session.

(i) Work in teams for the presentation (15-minute talk + 15-minute question-and-answer session): as students develop their articles and personal addenda, the instructor schedules team presentations. Each team presents its work-in-progress to the rest of the class for ca. 15 minutes. A different team chairs the presentation, see (ii) below.

(ii) Chairing for another team: every team chairs the presentation of another team once in the semester. The chairing team introduces the speaking team, keeps track of time during the talk, and manages the question-and-answer session that follows the talk.

Students should conceive of the article that they submit as the final version of a paper revised--if not rewritten entirely--numerous times to aim at clarity, conciseness, and truth. Similarly, they should prepare their presentation carefully, practice numerous times, and anticipate the questions and objections that might arise during the question-and-answer sessions. The article and the presentation should take into account the feedback received from the instructor and peers. Both should convey professionalism.

Note: The instructor may reasonably adapt the assignments and the structure of the sessions depending on the needs of enrolled students.

Expected student activities

ECTS 3 credits for Semester 2: ca. 75-90 hours workload (i.e., roughly 3 hours in the classroom and 3 hours outside the classroom)

Class participation, asking questions and raising objections during the question-and-answer sessions.

Supervised research in class: presentation preparation and article writing, including activities (e.g., essay peer reviews) and milestones detailed in the research schedule that the instructor will provide. Research outside the classroom: continuation of the same tasks more autonomously.

Note: Students expecting to be substantially absent from class and miss activities must immediately contact the instructor to discuss accommodations.

Assessment methods

(i) 60% of the Spring semester's grade: Master's Project (5 pages maximum): team article (4 pages maximum) with personal addendum (1 page maximum) due by the end of the Spring semester.

This grade is attributed individually based on an assessment of the work submitted as a team and individually. The personal addendum is partly meant to ensure and check that all team members contribute fairly to the team's work.

(ii) 40%: Team presentation, chairing, and class participation.

This grade is attributed individually based on (a) the team presentation, (b) the team's chairing of another team's presentation, and (c) class participation.

Note: Students expecting to miss graded activities must immediately contact the instructor to discuss accommodations.

Supervision

Resources

Bibliography

For general course references and video links, please consult the course description for the Fall (HUM-478).

Students will have access to research tools and to further references supporting their work through Moodle. The instructor will also help identify references tailored to each team's topic.

Ressources en bibliothèque

• Find the references at the Library

Moodle Link

• https://go.epfl.ch/HUM-479