10603 Knowledge cultures – history and philosophy of knowledge in theory and practice

2024/2025

In particular, the course is recommended for students preparing their MSc or PhD project.
Course information
Videnskulturer - videnshistorie og -filosofi i teori og praksis
English
5
MSc
Offered as a single course
June
Campus Lyngby
The teaching is campus based.
Lectures, presentations, excursions, group and individual assignments, and project work.
3 weeks
The last day, 24th and 25th
Oral examination
Oral presentation and discussion of a poster or other product produced as a part of the course. To pass exam you must as part of the course have answered a pre-test, produced and presented a poster or other product and produced a portfolio.
All Aids - with access to the internet
pass / not pass , internal examiner
Master students
Minimum 8 Maximum: 32
Laila Zwisler , Lyngby Campus, Building 309, Ph. (+45) 4525 3279 , lazw@fysik.dtu.dk
10 Department of Physics
At the Studyplanner
General course objectives
The aim of this course is to provide students with perspectives and tools to discuss how knowledge has been created, circulated, valued, changed, forgotten, and used in different cultures, across knowledges cultures and over time as well as critically assess their own and other’s knowledge by addressing the questions: “What do we know, and how do we know it?” The overall objective is to develop skills in critical thinking, communication, and cross-disciplinary teamwork involving different forms of knowledge
Learning objectives
A student who has met the objectives of the course will be able to:
  • Identify, analyze, and evaluate different knowledge cultures, forms of knowledge and ways of knowing, including the use of different knowledge forms and traditions in different professions.
  • Identify and reflect on different forms of visualisation of knowledge, their history and impact (maps, diagrams, models etc.).
  • Reflect on the historical construction of classifications, standards and units and their impact (ex. the metre and other SI units).
  • Analyse the relationship between knowledge, language, practice and materiality (objects and places).
  • Identify, ‘defamiliarize’ and evaluate own beliefs and assumptions regarding what counts as true knowledge.
  • Reflect on the relationship between power and knowledge and the role of the expert historically and in present time
  • Argue for own knowledge and ways of knowing in cross-disciplinary milieus, where some people may represent other assumptions about what count as true knowledge (other knowledge cultures).
  • Assess strong and weak points in arguments brought forward by people from other professions representing different ways of knowing.
  • Communicate own knowledge, both orally and in writing, including following academic referencing standards and other knowledge conventions in academia.
  • Describe and reflect on own learning in a portfolio
Content
In the course, we use different examples from sociology, philosophy and history of knowledge. We mainly focus on science, technology, engineering and related topics, but will also look into very different settings. We will work with the following topics:

Knowledge cultures and types of knowledge
Logic and argumentation
H. C. Ørsted and electromagnetism in a knowledge history setting
Lifeworld and knowledge of Danish farmers in the 18th and 19th century
Representations of knowledge
Expert culture
Knowledge and design
Democracy, controversy and knowledge forms in a society
Artificial knowledge
Humanities, art and objectivity
Your own knowledge

The course will consist of lectures, class discussion, group work, individual work, and several visits to museums.
Course literature
TBA. We will read and discuss academic text, particularly by historians and scholars from different disciplines.
Remarks
This course requires students to work with complicated arguments, long texts, and produce advanced presentations both orally and in writing. It is only recommended to students with (1) a good command of the English language or (2) a good command of Danish and the ability to understand written or orally presented English.
Last updated
02. maj, 2024