erasmus and erasmus mundus

Special courses

Philosophical Anthropology: Systematic Approach, 6 ECTS

Prof. Dr. habil. Valery Dinev

Course outline: to be added

Philososphical Method, 6 ECTS

Prof. Dr. habil. Aneta Karageorgieva

Course outline: Time and again the problems of methodology become peak-important for philosophy. One reason for this is that the concept of method is inherent to the very concept of philosophy as such. This course offers two optional tracks of investigation: history of philosophical method in Antiquity and analysis of contemporary methods. Both begin with explication of the concept of method, then taking up a different direction. Reading anew Plato, Aristotle and the Sceptics within the first one throws light on many up-to-date issues, like the relationship between logic and mathematics, the role of linguistic and social conventions in knowledge and reasoning, the importance of memory knowledge and the consequences of relativism.

Objectives: To present the main figures of Ancient philosophy through a model of reconstruction first developed by Th. Kuhn concerning evolution of science: through paradigms of philosophical thinking; to foster students’ skills for interpretation of ancient texts, analysing concept development, and making reasonable generalizations about the history of philosophy.

Social Philosophy, 6 ECTS

Prof. Dr. habil. Maria Dimitrova

Course outline: This course assumes that the everyday type of social interaction repeats the way social experience is inherited in the traditional communities. The Modern society is represented mainly through its universalization strategies, abolishing the differences, its emancipation project, consolidation of the national state, and building its institutions. Post-Modernity is viewed as a kind of late Modernity, where deep transformation stake place in constructing and maintaining the identity of the individals and groups, new global stratification, the openness of the social system and the specific Post-Modern mobility of the life style. The issues of the globalization and power are discusses as an ever-present dimension at all levels of social relations.

Objectives: To follow the changes in the philosophical categories corresponding to the changes in the various types of social organization. To analyze the transformation of the most important categories of the social philosophy such as social time and space, state and its institutions, the way of socialization, power, justice, etc. To develop student’s capability for understanding, reflection, and self-reflection.

Philosophy of Intercultural Relations, 6 ECTS

Prof. Dr. habil. Plamen Makariev

Course outline: The basic problem, which is discussed in this course is the relation between universalist and particularist norms of social and cultural life. The alternatives of liberal universalism are considered in two dimensions: along the line of the “community – society” relations, and along the line of underestimating vs. exaggerating the importance of cultural differences. These two matters “meet” in the last theme of the program, which refers to some very “hot” issues of the coexistence of ethnic, as well as religious communities in our times.

Objectives: To demonstrate the possibilities of applying abstract philosophical categories for the conceptualization of actual social and cultural problems, as well as for guidance of the designing of public policies for their solution.

Ethics, 6 ECTS

Prof. Dr. Nelly Videva

Course outline: to be added

Continental Philosophy, 6 ECTS

Prof. Dr. Alexander L. Gungov

Course outline: An attempt will be made to cover the basic ideas of the most prominent 20th century European philosophers following the non-analytical approach. Their teachings will be correlated to the most urgent issues of the contemporary, social, political, and moral life.

Objectives: To introduce students to the views of some of the most prominent representatives of the contemporary philosophy. To outline the specific features of the current European philosophy in comparison with the philosophical ideas in Modernity. To identify the importance of the Continental tradition for the contemporary humanities and social sciences.

Philosophy of Subjectity’s Action, 6 ECTS

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Vesselin Dafov

Course outline: This is an elective course offered to students in order to respond the further needs in the specific area of philosophy and particularly of ontology. Despite the course specification the content is harmonized with both the core courses  and the student’s profile.

Objectives: The intention is this course to offer the students the opportunities to study the specific problems of the philosophy of subjectivity. It is aimed at improving students skills and competence in thinking procedures concerning both the reality of objectivity and the reality of subjectivity as self-developing in actuality. Students will study the leading ideas on subjectivity in the history of philosophy. A research on recent and actual problems by means of the Activity and Subjectivity methodology is expected to be done at the end of the course.

Philosophical Anthropology: Main Trends and Thinkers, 6 ECTS

Prof. Dr. habil. Valery Dinev

Course outline: to be added

Existential Dialectics, 6 ECTS

Prof. Dr. habil.  Maria Dimitrova

Course outline:

1. M. Heidegger: Ontology and  Humanism.
2. K. Jaspers: Existence and Transcendence
3. J.-P. Sartre: Existentialism and Humanism
4. A. Camus: The Absurd and the Rebel
5. E. Levinas: Ontology and Ethics
6. E. Levinas: Responsibility for the Other and Freedom

Axiology, 6 ECTS

Prof. Dr. Nelly Videva

Course outline: to be added

Meaning and Truth, 6 ECTS

Prof. Dr. habil. Aneta Karageorgieva

Course outline: The nature of meaning and the terms in which it is to be analysed have interested philosophers of the last 100 very intensively. What is the ultimate meaning bearer – words, sentences or persons, and why does such a close relation between meaning and truth exist? Are our semantic intuitions more basic than those about truth, and how are we doing things by words? These and other questions of contemporary philosophy of language are the main content of the course.

Objectives: To the end of the course the students should be better acquainted with the main 20th century theories; the course aims at raising students’ analytical skills, in application to concrete philosophical puzzles posed by the texts discussed.

Philosophy of Culture, 6 ECTS

Prof. Dr. Alexander L. Gungov

Course outline: This course aims at discussing culture as a general notion outlining the highest achievements of humanity. Views, which will be studied, belong to the 18th--20th century European philosophers who made significant impact both on contemporary philosophy and humanities in general. Special attention will be paid to the role of imagination in creating culture.

Objectives: To develop skills necessary to discuss various cultural phenomena. To concentrate attention to the examples of  ideological discourse and manipulation in the field of culture.