Courses taught

EXPHIL03 Examen Philosophicum, English Version
This mandatory course for all students at the University of Oslo teaches themes from the history of philosophy, the history of science, and ethics.

FIL4330 Political Philosophy (MA level)
What is territory? Who is a territorial agent? On what grounds are both general and specific claims to territory made by them? And what rights do territorial rights actually encompass? This course examines the main justificatory theories of territorial rights, and their weaknesses and strengths

FIL4300 Ethics (MA level)
The focus of the course is Animal Ethics. Nonhuman animals have been left out of the moral realm during most of the history of Western thought. Up until today, their status as property remains mostly unquestioned. Peter Singer’s claim that “all animals are equal” triggered the beginning of animal ethics as an independent field. The course covers the different theoretical approaches that aim to include nonhuman animals within the moral universe, and specific connections between animal ethics and other fields such as law, environmentalism, and political theories of citizenship and territory. The course also includes a visit to an animal research facility.

FIL2390/4390 Environmental Philosophy (BA and MA level)

In the first part of the course, we look at how the relationship between human and nonhuman life has been conceptualized in Western philosophy, focusing on the developments that took place in moral thinking on this front from the second half of the twentieth century onward. In the second part, we examine the tension between animalism and environmentalism, and whether it can coherently be overcome. We also explore two critiques of environmental ethics; namely, critical ecofeminism and “Third World” environmentalism. In the third part of the course, we look at specific environmental challenges in the Anthropocene, and see how they may be tackled from a philosophical perspective.

FIL2311 Political Philosophy (BA level)
This course examines different approaches to justice within the Western liberal tradition. Specifically, justice as a central virtue of social and political institutions, and connected to concepts like property, liberty, fairness, equality and utility. Is justice realizable only at the state level, or should we aspire to global justice? Is justice a purely human affair, or should nonhumans also be included within its sphere? The course addresses critiques of justice as a tool for perpetuating the historical domination and oppression of different groups, in particular women.

FIL2010 Special Topics in Philosophy (BA level)
This course explores the moral foundations of basic rights in general, and of subsistence rights in particular. It looks at the accounts of different authors in the history of philosophy, as well as contemporary ones, and examines the main views within the global justice debate, and their implications for the question of basic rights.

The Antarctic Treaty and its Challenges (PhD Course in Spanish)
Si bien el Sistema del Tratado Antártico es considerado por muchos como un triunfo de la diplomacia y como un ejemplo de lo que el derecho internacional puede lograr, muchos han levantado voces críticas en las últimas décadas, por su lentitud para abordar desafíos que sólo irán en aumento con el correr de los años (turismo, pesquerías, bioprospección), así como también su insuficiencia para establecer un marco normativo que reemplace la confianza en que los nuevos actores antárticos se “auto-regularán” por un sistema claro de coordinación, normas y sanciones en caso de incumplimiento. El objetivo de este curso es introducir a los participantes en el Sistema del Tratado Antártico, y discutir algunos de los principales desafíos que éste enfrenta.