Teaching
The Institute of Philosophy regularly offers courses which address questions of climate change from the perspective of philosophy of science and ethics.
This Spring semester 2025:
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Proseminar Klimakrise: Philosophische Perspektiven auf ein zentrales Nachhaltigkeitsproblem
Lecturer: Claus Beisbart
See KSL
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Seminar Philosophical Issues in Modelling Climate Change
Lecturers: Vincent Lam, Stefan Brönnimann, Julie Jebeile
See KSL
- Lecture Science and Politics of the Anthropocene: Epistemological and Critical Perspectives
Lecturer: Vincent Lam
See KSL
Research meetings of the Epistemology of Climate Change group (open to students, block course at 4 ECTS)
Vincent Lam
See programm of research meetings.
Research: projects and interests
The institute collaborates with the Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research.
Vincent Lam is leading the research project The Epistemology of Climate Change funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation and hosted at the Institute of Philosophy and at the Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research. His group investigates the methodological and epistemic foundations of climate science and climate modelling using the tools of philosophy of science in view of addressing the climate challenge. The research group has also strong interests in broader philosophical issues related to the climate and environmental challenges. For research activities, seminars and more information on the project see philoclimate.ch.
Julie Jebeile is leading the research project Climate Change Adaptation through the Feminist Kaleidoscope -- Toward a Feminist Philosophy of Climate Science funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation. Her project aims to employ the recommendations from feminist epistemologies in order to investigate how climate change adaptation information can meet the needs of stakeholders in a reliable but also a fair way. Her research interests include mathematical modelling, scientific expertise, Indigenous and local knowledge, as well as socioeconomic and ethical values in science with a special focus on climate science. Her contributions to the philosophy of scientific models and computer simulations and to the philosophy of climate science can be found here.
Mason Majszak is a Phd student working under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Vincent Lam within The Epistemology of Climate Change research project. He is currently writing his dissertation on the role of expert judgment in climate science, with further research interests including philosophy of science, probability theory, expert judgment, as well as scientific methodology.
Claus Beisbart is interested in the epistemology of climate models, the relationship between climate scientists and the public sphere and in foundational issues in climate ethics.
Recently completed projects:
