Writing Subjectivity

Knowledge: The candidate will:

• have knowledge of the basic principles of economy, ecology and management in the border zone
• understand the value of the border zone as an instrument for global development
• understand social practice as the key to understanding cultural, ethnic and gender variation
• have knowledge of the main conceptions in the philosophy of science
• have knowledge of the basic Western European and Russian philosophical theories of values

Skills: The candidate must through his/her work show that he/she can deliver a philosophical text that demonstrates independent:

• ability to reflect in writing on his/her and others experience
• critical use of literature and concepts from the modules in the course
• use of relevant philosophical methods and arguments

General competence: The candidate will:

• Understand how human activity forms the basis for conceptualizing human beings
• Understand social practice as the key to understanding cultural, ethnic and gender variation
• Be able to know of how the study of the various philosophical disciplines may lead to a systematic strengthening of their basic individual capacity of reflection and to a deepening insight into the conceptual background of his/her actual profession, practice and subjectivity.

Module: Borderology I Presentation of the Nikel-Kirkenes border zone: as a centre for the students empirical field work and research. This border zone has always been a centre for dynamic cross border cooperation in the northern world, and in this sense is a Lebenswelt. The life in the zone is fronting a cosmopolitical understanding of borders as something we carry in common on our shoulders, historically based on centuries of folk to folk contact. But the zone nevertheless contains a population with many unanswered questions about themselves and their future.

The student will be invited to discuss these questions with the support of relevant sociological theories of regional development, as for instance Ulrich Becks ideas of the second modernity but also with a view to the possibilities that lies in wait in the resources of the Barents Sea.

The students will be invited into group discussions concerning the development of the zone as a centre of international cooperation. The never forgotten example of the Pomor trade, the present successful Norwegian-Russian cooperation in the Barents Sea fisheries, the future oil and gas-industry is part of the challende. The analysis of the ecology, economy, and management of the border zone may be part of a solution.

Module: Activity theory The module will give an introduction to root of The Activity Theory and the cultural-hitorical approach that was used by Lev S. Vygotsky, Alexei Leontiev, Sergey L. Rubinstein, Alexander Luria and other in their theoretical and research work. The module will introduce the students to historical starting point for the philosophical foundation for the theory. It will be drawn a line from Heraclitus understanding of motion, through Kant's understanding of cognition, via Hegel¿s dialectical understanding of the development of the world as a continual motion to Marx's and Engels' understanding of dialectical materialism, that human through its special form of activity not only changes the nature, but also changes itself.

Module: The Russian-Norwegian border region as a historic phenomenon In the course the historic aspects of development of the Northern territories of Russia and Norway in the international context are shown. Its chronological frames cover the period from the ancient times till the present day. The main attention is paid to the key problems, such as the factors, which influenced the regional level of the two countries¿ relations; the central governments¿ politics and regional contacts; the history of demarcation and of these treaties; the contacts in the Middle Ages; relations with the indigenous people; the history of colonization of the Northern territories; the Pomor trade; culture contacts, and others.

A special place is given to the history of the Region and of the international relations in the Northern Europe in the 20th century. The main themes here are: the Second World War period; the contacts of Russia and Norway in the soviet period and in the 1990s. Questions of the Barents Region history make a special section of the course. Here the analysis of the peculiarities of development of the neighboring countries and their cooperation in various fields is important.

The characteristic feature of the course is the comparative approach to the history of the Region¿s states and international relations here. Some themes considering mentality, national character, culture, everyday life practices are also included in the course. It makes it possible to interpret the history of the Russian-Norwegian Border Region both as the history of civilizations¿ contacts, and as a sociocultural phenomenon.

Module: History and Philosophy of Science The training of Masters involves their doing research. Hence students must have a certain understanding of what science is, what methods of research exist. The course ¿History and philosophy of science¿ aims at revealing the basic laws of the emergence and development of science. It includes the following parts:

Part 1. General problems of the history and philosophy of science Aspects of the existence of science. The Positivist tradition in philosophy of science. K. Popper¿s conception of the development of science. T. Kuhn¿s conception of changing scientific paradigms. I. Lakatos¿ methodology of research programmes. P.Feyerabend¿s conception of theoretical realism. M. Polanyi's conception of personal knowledge. The problems of internalism and externalism in the understanding of the mechanisms of scientific activity. Traditional and technogenic types of civilization development and their basic values. The value of scientific rationality. Empiric and theoretical levels of science, criteria of their differentiation. The foundations of science: the ideals and norms of cognition, the scientific picture of the world, philosophical foundations of science. The main characteristics of contemporary post-non-classical science. The mastering of self-developing synergetic systems and new strategies of scientific inquiry. Ethical problems of science in the 21st c. The change in the orientation of the view of the world in the technogenic civilization.

Part 2. Problems of the history and philosophy of social sciences and humanities The specific features of the subject and the genesis of the socio-humanitarian cognition. The nature of values and their role in the socio-humanitarian cognition. Socio-cultural and humanitarian content of the concept of life. History as one of the forms of the realization of life. The categories of space and time in the socio-humanitarian cognition. The problem of truth in the social sciences and humanities. Explanation and understanding in social cognition and the humanities. Hermeneutics as a method of understanding and interpretation of the text. The correlation of faith and knowledge in social sciences and humanities.

Module: Values and Borders The problem of values is one of the fundamental problems of philosophy, since it is value complexes that determine and regulate human behaviour; they are reflected in semiotic systems created by people and predetermine the specific features of national traditions.

Different people, things and ideas are significant for the human being in different ways. The human world is a world of values, i. e. of what one finds preferable and significant, what one loves. Values are goods that remain within the scope of one's needs, interests and intentions. Therefore, values can be seen as a phenomenon that marks the border between the desirable and the undesirable, the significant and the insignificant, between what is and what is not good. The `boundary value thus becomes a dividing line manifesting man's attitude to an object, an event and even to the world as a whole. This borderline can be regarded as an anthropological phenomenon.

A value system is something that serves both to unite and divide people, contributing as it does to the emergence of social groups and classes, ethnic groups, peoples and nations. It helps to shape a `collective portrait¿ of any such community, accounting for their specific features that distinguish them from each other.

Module: Philosophy of Language Language is undeniably a key factor in cognition, as well as a major force shaping human culture in general. Although philosophical reflection on language is almost as old as philosophy itself, it was only in the twentieth century that language came to be seen as a central philosophical problem in its own right, sometimes giving philosophy of language a status comparable to that of prima philosophia. The importance of a course in philosophy of language for students on a master¿s degree programme who are required to do research as a major part of their training would seem to be primarily due to the need to alert them to the complexity of the relationships between the cognitive, linguistic and cultural factors involved in various kinds of human activity, including research and practical work in a large number of fields, as well as to introduce them to the major interpretations of these relationships and, more broadly, of the relationships between human language and the world that can be found in philosophy.

The present course aims at providing students with an overview of the major philosophical conceptions of language from ancient Greek philosophy to the present day, with particular emphasis on the topics relevant in the context of Norwegian and Russian students with widely varying backgrounds working on their research projects within the framework of the same master¿s degree programme. These topics are mostly concerned with the problems of language and culture, understanding and dialogue, language and cognition.

The course is based on the assumption that individual students will find some conceptions to be more relevant to their experience than others. They will therefore be encouraged to identify such conceptions as they come up in the course and study them in greater detail than the rest of the material included in the course.