As a follow-up to the research into the increasing complexity of the globalized world (A. Giddens’ concept of “reflexive modernity” SS 2019) the seminar will explore the historical genealogy of the existing epistemic-political order focusing on the famous 17thcentury debate between Thomas Hobbes and Robert Boyle. As it is well known, Boyle promoted the vision of a scientific knowledge separated from the interests of power or

faith and produced within a community of peers organized around its own methods and rules and bounded to a limited domain – a vision that led to the creation of the modern scientific disciplines. For Hobbes, on the other hand, the idea of a disciplinary knowledge produced beyond any non-scientific interests was an illusion. He rather doubted the idea of disinterestedness and believed that knowledge is intrinsically political. What can we learn today from this debate and how can we relate its meaning to the contemporary forms of knowledge production?

The examination will take the form of a public dispute. The students will be divided into three groups: a “Hobbes-group” and a “Boyl-group”, each representing one of the two epistemic and political positions, and a small jury. In the debate each student from the two groups will present one of the arguments (prepared in advance in a written form) and discuss it with others. The members of the jury will moderate the debate and at the end present a short summary.