After successful completion of the course, students are able to...

understand the connection between technology and its impact on social opinion-forming processes and trends. They learn to evaluate AI and its impact and to understand it as an interface between humans and machines.

Students learn about the concept of digital humanism and are able to place it in the context of other ethical disciplines, such as business ethics and science ethics.

Students learn about relevant studies on the influence of consciousness and neuroplasticity and better understand the questions they raise.

Students learn different forms of meditation for "self-experience". They will learn about the concept of "small self" and "big SELF" from different wisdom traditions.

They learn about Mahayana Buddhism as a humanistic concept and how it relates to the Western philosophical concepts of "relative and radical constructivism".

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Due to the rapid development of AI and digitalization, we are at various vital junctures in how we want to assume responsibility in science and business. The course therefore deals with "Digital Humanism". The developments, innovations, and fields of application of artificial intelligence are also bringing the issues of technology assessment into the focus of current technological developments.
AI as an interface between man and machine throws people back on themselves and ethical core issues. On an individual, personal level, social media's increasing digitalization and influence has already - neuropsychologically verifiably - imprinted itself on our brains and consciousness. These questions cannot find their answers at the level of concepts and cognitive debate alone but must also be sought in the field of human experience and consciousness.

This "inner laboratory of knowledge" considers the observers and their limits of knowledge in the cognitive process. Since Heisenberg, we have known about the wave-particle duality of light in quantum physics. Whether we perceive light as a wave or a particle depends on the experimental setup and the focus of observation. Therefore, This scientific insight must also be considered in the "experimental setup" of the human knowledge laboratory. People permanently shape their observations through perceptual distortions, so we should focus on our consciousness as the object of cognition. Without us cleaning the mirror of our cognition, it throws back the distorted image of a greater reality that we ultimately wrestle with in ethical discourse. In this course, we bring the object of the desired gain in knowledge, consciousness itself, into the scientific research laboratory. We explore consciousness where we find it, on the inside, not on the outside. Where spirituality and science meet, the SELF-experience of meditation comes into play.

In the course, we design a cognitive process that adds a fifth C to the "4 Cs" of the OECD's "21st Century Skills". In addition to cognitive skills, communication skills, collaboration skills and creativity, we develop the competence of contemplation. Therefore, various forms of meditation and self-awareness are learned and reflected upon in the course. 

Students learn about the concept of "mutually conditioned emergence" (interbeing) and the "emptiness of inherent existence" on three levels of cognition.

1. cognition of hearing - working form: frontal teaching

2. realization of reflection - forms of work: Individual reflection, journaling, small group discussion, plenary reflection

3. realization of (meditation) experience - forms of work: Students inside experience the different effects of "representational" and "non-representational" forms of meditation on their consciousness and learn to categorize these two concepts in Western and Eastern wisdom traditions.

Methodologically, the forms of work alternate between listening, reflection (individually, in small groups, plenary) and self-awareness.

In addition, self-awareness serves to experience different levels of emotional and energetic resonance with oneself and others. In this way, students experience and understand the reciprocal connection with the world around them more deeply. The ethical issues raised thus literally "get under the skin".

The course is deliberately held in an ANALOG format (without technical aids) and devotes 50% of its time to self-awareness and reflection in small groups. Active participation in the exercises is required.

Attendance is compulsory!
Of the six appointments, a maximum of 2 appointments can be excused for appropriate reasons (illness, examination, etc.).

Inner processes cannot be objectified, and "non-intentionality" is an essential point of orientation in one's own "meditation attitude".

Each course concludes with a "30-minute journaling" in which the students describe their inner experiences and how they relate to the questions raised. Joint reflection

Grading points to be achieved per class: 20%
Individual contributions to classes are conditioned by attendance and cannot be repeated.