Climate Change and the Long-Term Future – a PPE Winter School

After six successful installments, the Faculty of Philosophy will host its seventh yearly Winter School, aimed primarily at advanced undergraduate students and early-stage graduate students. The theme of the Winter School this year is Climate Change and the Long-Term Future. It will consist of 6 lecture tutorials where topics related to the theme will be discussed from different disciplinary viewpoints: Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (PPE).

Theme

Climate change is among the biggest challenges humanity faces today. How should individuals, societies, and humanity at large respond to climate change and other long-term challenges? Far from being a question for the natural sciences alone, a good answer also requires a ‘PPE perspective’, that is, a perspective that combines philosophy, politics, and economics. In this winter school, different researchers will take a PPE perspective in exploring climate change and our ethical and political obligations towards future people. The challenge is typically seen as a collective action problem. From this perspective, it calls for an institutional solution that facilitates widespread cooperation among individuals and countries. And it brings up empirical questions, such as what explains people’s attitudes and actions towards the environment and future generations and how can those be improved? But it also has an important epistemic dimension. For example, what is a rational response to scientific disagreement and to the risk and uncertainty involved in climate predictions? Finally, the winter school also tackles fundamental normative questions, such as: What are our moral obligations to future people? Do they extend to all future people and, if so, does this imply that our longtermist moral duties trump any short-term concerns?

Confirmed speakers

• Prof Leah Henderson, ‘The philosophy of climate science’
• Prof Lisa Herzog, ‘Climate Science and Democracy – Considerations from Political Epistemology’
• Dr Simon Friederich, ‘ Climate change as a collective action problem and the importance of very cheap energy’
• Prof Frank Hindriks, ‘Sustainable institutions and a duty to join forces’
• Dr Andreas T. Schmidt, ’Longtermism and our duty towards far-future people’

The winter school is aimed at advanced undergraduate students and early-stage graduate students. It also offers students interested in studying the PPE Master in Groningen an insight into the kinds of teaching and research done at the PPE Centre.

Scholarship

The Faculty offers up to three scholarships of up to EUR 200 for promising students enrolling in the winter school who express interest in later applying for a Master’s programme in Groningen. Moreover, participants who later enrol in a Master’s programme at the Faculty of Philosophy for the year 2020/2021 will have their registration fee for the winter school reimbursed.

To apply for the scholarships, send a short CV (max 2 pages) and a letter (max 1 page) stating your interest in the winter school to winterschoolphilosophy@rug.nl with 'Application for winter school scholarship' as subject. Deadline to apply for the scholarships: January 7, 2020. Preference will be given to members of underrepresented groups.

Registration

To register, send an email with your name, affiliation and status (undergraduate, graduate) to winterschoolphilosophy 'at' rug.nl with 'Registration for winter school' as subject, no later than January 15th 2020. As the number of spots is limited, you are encouraged to register early. Preference will be given to advanced undergraduate students.

As the number of spots is limited, you are encouraged to register early. Preference will be given to advanced undergraduate students.

General Information

Contact

Further inquiries can be directed to winterschoolphilosophy rug.nl