PHILOSOPHER FOR HIRE

Here is a selection of the courses, lectures and talks I offer in both the English and Danish language.

Each comes with a reading list and can be changed to suit particular needs if necessary.

Contact me for prices, tailor-made courses, lectures and talks.

COURSES

 A RUMP THROUGH THE HISTORY OF WONDER: This course focuses on wonder from antiquity and into the 21st century. During Six lectures we shall engage with wonderers and thinkers such as Hesiod, Plato, Aristotle, St. Augustin, Nicholas of Cusa, Francis Bacon, Rene Descartes, Adam Smith, Immanuel Kant, Alexander Pope, Lord Byron, H. P. Lovecraft, Robert C. Fuller and Anders Schinkel.

INTRODUCTION TO LESSER-KNOWN MORAL PHILOSOPHIES: This introductory course spans four lectures and covers lesser-known philosophical approaches to moral philosophy including stoicism, Epicureanism and Løgstrup’s ontological ethics.

INTRODUCTION TO MORAL PHILOSOPHY & ETHICS: This introductory course spans four lectures and covers the major philosophical approaches to moral philosophy including virtue ethics, duty-based ethics (Kantianism and Divine Command Ethics) and Consequentialism (Classical Utilitarianism).

INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE: This introductory course spans six lectures and covers the major approaches to science including positivism, phenomenology and hermeneutics and social constructivism. It also presents students with a history of science.

INTRODUCTION TO WONDER: This introductory course spans four lectures and focuses on wonder including the etymology of wonder, the history of wonder, the difference between wonder, awe, the sublime and horror and the question of why sometimes we are prevented from wondering.

THE WONDER-FILLED WEIRD FICTION OF H. P. LOVECRAFT: This course spans over five lectures and focuses on one of the 20th century greatest weird fiction writers H. P. Lovecraft and his relationship with wonder. The course explores who Lovecraft was, his tales of wonder, horror and terror and the states of mind they bring about. Furthermore it offers insight into Lovecraft’s particular history with wonder, what inspired wonder in him and how his wonder stories are deliberately infused with wonder-provoking tropes. 

TALKS

ALEXANDER’S LETTER TO ARISTOTLE: In the medieval period a fake letter written by “Alexander the Great” to Aristotle emerged describing the art of war, strange animals and monsters on Alexanders travels towards India. This hour-long talk explores both the content and purpose the letter.

BOREDOM AND MELANCHOLY IN ROMANTIC LITERATURE: Boredom and melancholy often go hand in hand and many think it is entirely a modern phenomenon. This hour-long talk focuses on boredom and melancholy in the works of Romantic writers such as John Keats, Lord Byron, William Wordsworth and H. P. Lovecraft with the aim of making clear how these singular writers suffered from boredom and melancholy but also to make clear that most of us are more Romantic than we think.

DARK WONDER - A PLACE BETWEEN WONDER AND HORROR: This hour-long talk focuses on ‘dark wonder’, what it is, where it pops up in the realm of science and literature and how it is different from wonder and the wondrous, horror and the horrible.

DECONFLICT, AIKIDO & INNOVATION: Using the notion of deconflict, assertiveness and the philosophy of aikido this hour-long talk focuses on how to deal with conflicts or potential conflicts at work in an positive, easily applicable and innovative way.

HOWARD PHILLIPS LOVECRAFT: A ROMANTIC: The 20th century author Howard Phillips Lovecraft is known for his weird fiction and presented himself as a scientific orientated person. However, his wonder stories links him to Edgar Allan Poe, Lord Dunsany, John Keats and William Wordsworth. This hour-long talk explore these links and argues that Lovecraft was indeed a Romantic.

MONSTERS AND THE NUREMBERG CHRONICLE: In 1493 Hartmann Schedel published the Nuremberg chronicle: A complete history of the Christian world to date. The book harbours a map showcasing a gathering of monsters from places beyond Christendom. Who and what these monsters were; what they represented is the focus of this hour-long talk.   

ON BOETHIUS AND THE CONSOLATION OF PHILOSOPHY: This hour-long talk focusses on the Roman thinker Boethius and his famous book The Consolation of Philosophy and why Boethius is relevant today.

ON THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN WONDER AND CURIOSITY: Wonder and curiosity is often used interchangeably but there is a difference. Drawing on the the intellectual history of the Vest this hour-long talk focuses on wherein the difference between wonder and curiosity consist and argues why wonder as a modus of investigation is to be preferred.

PHILOSOPHY AND THE MONSTROUS: Focusses on the word monster, its etymology, history and how it is weaved together with the philosophy and religious thinking in the Vest. Great thinkers like Plato, Aristotle and St. Agustine not forgetting travellers like Marco Polo and Sir John Mandeville; resaissancefolk like Ambrose Pare and Romantic writer Mary Shelley all have dealt with the monstrous and its relation to human beings and will all be adressed in this hour-long talk.

WHAT IS LOVE?: PLATO’S SYMPOSIUM: Most people think they know what love is but what is it really? Based on Plato’s famous dialogue the Symposium this hour-long talk focuses on the nature of love and the competing ideas of what it actually is.

WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO WONDER?: This hour-long talk focuses on the importance of wonder in relation to human flourishing. The talk which is introductory and does not demand any prior philosophical knowledge begins with a preliminary sketch of Aristotle’s philosophy concerning human flourishing (eudaimonia) and what it means to wonder. It then moves on to highlight three aspects of human flourishing: 1) individuality, 2) relations and 3) the political in order to show the connection to wonder and the wondrous.

WOULD LOVECRAFT DRINK A BEER? NO!: This hour-long talk focuses on American weird fiction writer Howard Philips Lovecraft and his utter hate of anything alcoholic, how he bombastically declared his teetotalism in his essays and how alcohol was used as a baneful trope in his fiction. The talk provides Lovecraftians a glimpse into the complexities of Lovecraft’s mindset, his values and character.

THE DREAM OF UTOPIA: The English statesman Sir Thomas More is famous partly because he wrote perhaps the most famous of all the utopias and because he invented the term but what is utopia and why do intellectuals deal in them? Drawing on a selection of philosophers and literary people including Plato, Aristotle and indeed Thomas More this hour-long talk aims to answer these questions.