Szegedi Tudományegyetem - Ahol tudás és szándék találkozik

Chair: Prof. Dezső Csejtei DSc
Institute of Social Theory, Department of Philosophy
H-6722 Szeged, Petőfi sgt. 30-34.
Phone/Fax: +36-62-544-179
E-mail: cse@philo.u-szeged.hu

The School was founded in 2007 by Professor Dezső Csejtei, Department of Philosophy. Our program is an integral development of nearly a century’s tradition of philosophical research at the University of Szeged with its focus on the history of Continental philosophy from the Greeks to 20th century currents of philosophy such as hermeneutics and phenomenology. Our programmes formally fit in with the newly introduced Bologna system in which the traditionally unified framework of higher education in philosophy has split into three different disciplines, viz., philosophy, ethics and aesthetics. Our School is exceptional in the country in that those obtaining an MA degree in ethics in the Bologna system can integrally pursue their studies in ethics at graduate level with us.

Our programmes are the following:
1. Metaphysics and Criticisms of Metaphysics 
2. Ethics, Social Theory and Applied Philosophy 
3. Philosophy of Art

These programmes represent an institutionalized framework of our inderdisciplinary profile. We are well aware of the world-wide tendency of disciplinary atomization, yet we are also convinced that genuinely innovative scientific research often assumes interdisciplinary perspectives, methods and cooperation. As a discipline standing at the borderline of arts subjects and some aspects of the social and natural sciences, philosophy is perfectly able to assume such an integrating and mediating role among various disciplines, even if its traditional status as philosophia perennisappears to have been weakened in the past century.

1. Metaphysics and Criticisms of Metaphysics 
A more traditional profile of our School is represented by this programme in which students can explore traditional issues in Continental philosophy within research topics such as Ontology, Epistemology, Philosophy of Religion and History of Metaphysics. Courses and research topics entail the whole history of philosophy, with special regard to the critical awareness representatives of this tradition have exhibited to the tradition itself. Within this program we also include a more experimental research subject, Cosmology, which is a subject to represent our interdisciplinary profile.

2. Ethics, Social Theory and Applied Philosophy
This programme entails ethical issues in historical and contemporary contexts. In terms of our interdisciplinary mission the Applied philosophy module within this programme must be highlighted as a relatively novel interdisciplinary subject in its own right. Our Department has organized various national and international conferences on Applied Philosophy in cooperation with the Biology Department of the University, a connection we would like to use for further joint projects. Our graduate program in Applied Philosophy is currently unique within the country and thus we are proud of being the first institution in Hungary to offer graduate instruction for those interested in this dynamically developing discipline.

3. Philosophy of Art
This programme also deserves special mention. Interdisciplinary cooperation within arts subjects at our Faculty has a longstanding tradition in which the Department of Philosophy has played a major role. Our cooperation with members of the joint graduate program of various Departments of Literature has highly contributed to establishing a special program in which research and instruction concerns general theoretical issues of art, including literature as well as fine art and theater.

Our research priorities are thus in part innovative, in part supplementary in terms of the scope of other philosophy Graduate Schools in Hungary. We represent some fields of research entirely missing from the profile of other Graduate Schools (Cosmology, Ethics, Applied Philosophy) and we highlight fields of research that are less paramount elsewhere (Metaphysics and Criticisms of Metaphysics and some aspects of the Philosophy of Art).

The members of our School are internationally acknowledged scholars representing a wide range of research fields with plenty of scope for students to select from to suit their individual research interests. We have a wide range of professional contacts both in Hungary and abroad. We have organized numerous national and international conferences and workshops, have invited guest lecturers from various countries and are in permanent touch with foreign universities and research institutes. Our professional experience guarantees that students will be offered expert thesis supervision and many occasions to launch their careers in national and international academic life in philosophy.

EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMMES

1. Metaphysics and Criticisms of Metaphysics
Programme director: Prof. Dezső Csejtei DSc
Institute of Social Theory, Department of Philosophy
H-6722 Szeged, Petőfi sgt. 30-34.
Phone: +36-62-544-179
E-mail: cse@philo.u-szeged.hu

Major fields of research:
- Cosmology (Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Tibor Sutyák)
- Ontology (Supervisor: Prof. Dezső Csejtei, DSc)
- Epistemology (Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Tibor Sutyák)
- Philosophy of History (Supervisor: Prof. Dezső Csejtei, DSc)
- Philosophy of Science (Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. János Tóth)
- History of Metaphysics (Supervisor: Prof. Dezső Csejtei, DSc)

Courses:
Workshop (Assoc. Prof. Tibor Sutyák, Assoc. Prof. Ferenc Simon):
PhD students present their works in progress (conference papers, essays, chapters of the thesis) and discuss them by the help of their supervisors and the seminar leader. The objective is to enhance the students’ abilities of oral presentation and refine the structure, argumentation and style of their written work in progress.

Research methodology seminar (Assoc. Prof. Tamás Pavlovits):
The objective of this seminar is to provide students with a thorough knowledge of research methodology in philosophy through short written assignments related to their fields of research. The main methodological issues to be put to practice in the written assigments include outlining the theoretical and/or historical background of the issues addressed, the plausibility of the author’s approach, presentation of and argumentation for the thesis and drawing conclusions.

History of Metaphysics (Prof. Dezső Csejtei, DSc, Zoltán Gyenge, DSc, Assoc. Prof. Emese Mogyoródi, Assoc. Prof. József Simon)
The subject includes alternating courses on the following topics. Greek philosophy (Presocratics, Plato and Aristotle), Medieval philosophy (Duns Scotus and Aquinas), Early modern philosophy (Descartes, Montaigne, Leibniz), German Idealism (Kant, Hegel, Schelling), Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Ortega y Gasset), German and French phenomenology, hermeneutics (Gadamer, Heidegger), Foucault, Lévinas, Merleau-Ponty, Michel Henry.

Philosophical Problems of Quantum Mechanics (Assoc. Prof. Tibor Sutyák)
Related courses discuss the new scientific paradigm represented by quantum physics and its challenge for philosophy. It surveys various interpretations of quantum mechanics (Coppenhagen interpretation, participation universe, multiple-world theories) and relates them to phenomenological responses.

History and Metaphysics (Prof. Dezső Csejtei, DSc, Assoc. Prof. Sándor Krémer, Assoc. Prof. Ferenc Simon)
Related courses discuss the survival and alteration of metaphysical issues in post-Hegelian philosophy of history in the oeuvre of Schopenhauer, Burckhardt, Nietzsche, Droysen, Dilthey, Simmel, Spengler, Heidegger, Jaspers, Bergyajev, Ortega, Ricoeur, Hempel, Dray, Atkinson as well as phenomenological criticisms of metaphysics by Sartre, Merleau-Ponty, Lévinas, Lyotard, Deleuze and Derrida.

 

2. Ethics, Social Theory and Applied Philosophy
Programme director: Prof. Zoltán Gyenge DSc
Institute of Social Theory, Department of Philosophy
H-6722 Szeged, Petőfi sgt. 30-34.
Phone: +36-62-544-179
E-mail: cse@philo.u-szeged.hu

Major fields of research:
- Ethics (Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Emese Mogyoródi)
- Intersubjectivity (Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Alpár Losoncz)
- Contemporary Political Philosophy (Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Alpár Losoncz)
- Hermeneutics, Phenomenology and Social Theory (Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Sándor Krémer)
- Game Theory (Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. János Tóth)
- Applied philosophy (Bioethics, Environmental ethics, Medical ethics, Economic ethics, Radical ecology – Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. János Tóth)

Courses:
Workshop (Assoc. Prof. Ferenc Simon, Assoc. Prof. Tibor Sutyák):
PhD students present their works in progress (conference papers, essays, chapters of the thesis) and discuss them by the help of their supervisors and the seminar leader. The objective is to enhance the students’ abilities of oral presentation and refine the structure, argumentation and style of their written work in progress.

Research methodology seminar (Assoc. Prof. Tamás Pavlovits):
The objective of this seminar is to provide students with a thorough knowledge of research methodology through short written assignments related to their fields of research. The main methodological issues to be put to practice in the written assigments include outlining the theoretical and/or historical background of the issues addressed, the plausibility of the author’s approach, presentation of and argumentation for the thesis and drawing conclusions.

Plato’s Republic (Assoc. Prof. Emese Mogyoródi)
Systematic survey of Plato’s Republic as arguable the most holistic theory of justice and an ”ideal state” together with its modern critics. The ten Books are assigned to students for presentation and 20th century interpretations and debates are discussed in connection with major contemporary social theoretical issues such as social justice, totalitarianism and democracy and the relationship of ethics and politics.

Kantian and Post-Kantian Ethics (Assoc. Prof. András Gausz)

Related courses discuss Kantian ethics and its criticisms by Schelling, Schopenhauer, Kierkegaard and Nietzsche. Issues discussed at length include the conception of freedom, will and choice and the dichotomy of good and evil in connection with anthropology, the individual and aesthetics.

Phenomenology and Ethics in Contemporary French Philosophy (Prof. Dezső Csejtei, DSc, Assoc. Prof. Tamás Pavlovits)
Related courses discuss phenomenological responses to contemporary moral issues in the work of Michel Henry, Paul Ricoeur, Emmanuel Lévinas and Jean-Luc Marion.

Environmental ethics (Assoc. Prof. János Tóth, Assoc. Prof. Anikó Juhász)
Related courses discuss two major trends of environmental ethics, the criticisms of Western ethical conception with its anthropomorphism and instrumental conception of nature and positive systems of environmental ethics with their competing representatives (Aldo Leopold, Peter Singer, Tom Regan, Baird Callicott, Paul Taylor, Hans Jonas) and movements (earth ethics, animal liberation, animal rights, biocentrism, ecocentrism, responsibility ethics).

 

3. Philosophy of Art

Programme director: Prof. György Endre Szőnyi DSc

Institute of English and American Studies, Department of English Language and Literature
H-6722 Szeged, Egyetem u. 1.

Phone: +36-62-544-030
E-mail: geszonyi@lit.u-szeged.hu

Major fields of research:
- Semiotics and Iconology of Artistic Expression (Supervisor: Prof. György Endre Szőnyi, DSc)
- Semiotics of Film and Theatre (Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Ferenc Odorics)
- History of the Philosophy of Art (Supervisor: Prof. Zoltán Gyenge, DSc)
- Intercultural Theatre (Supervisor: Prof. Zoltán Gyenge, DSc)
- Expression and Interpretation in Art (Supervisor: Assistant Prof. András Czeglédi,)

Courses:
Workshop (Prof. Zoltán Gyenge, DSc):
PhD students present their works in progress (conference papers, essays, chapters of the thesis) and discuss them by the help of their supervisors and the seminar leader. The objective is to enhance the students’ abilities of oral presentation and refine the structure, argumentation and style of their written work in progress.

Research methodology seminar (Assoc. Prof. Tamás Pavlovits):
The objective of this seminar is to provide students with a thorough knowledge of research methodology through short written assignments related to their fields of research. The main methodological issues to be put to practice in the written assigments include outlining the theoretical and/or historical background of the issues addressed, the plausibility of the author’s approach, presentation of and argumentation for the thesis and drawing conclusions.

Expression and Interpretation in Art (Assistant Prof. András Czeglédi)
Students discuss and analyze various works of art in literature, fine art, film and theatre and write short essays on their chosen subject.

Cross-Currents of Phenomenology and Philosophical Anthropology: Body and Art (Assoc. Prof. Alpár Losoncs, Assoc. Prof. Tibor Sutyák)
Related courses discuss 20th century currents of anthropology (Plessner, Gehlen, etc.) and their phenomenological background (Husserl, Merleau-Ponty) with view to the philosophy of the body, which has had a major influence on art. Contemporary trends in visual culture and music are discussed in the context of the philosophy of the body, which offers an illuminating perspetive on issues of visuality, touching and auditivity.

Semiotics and Iconology of Artistic Expression (Prof. György Endre Szőnyi, Assoc. Prof. Ferenc Odorics)
Related courses address theoretical issues in art such as What is a text? What is an image? What is poetry? What is art? through discussing major 19th and 20th century theories of semiotics and iconology (Peirce, Saussure, Cassirer, Warburg, Panofsky), structuralism (Jakobson, Eco) and representatives of the „image turn” (Belting, Baudrillard, Danto, Goodman, Mitchell).

Inter-Cultural Theatre: A Response to Globalisation (Zoltán Gyenge, DSc)
Related courses discuss historical preliminaries of multi-culturalism, cross-culturalism or trans-culturalism in connection with, among others, A. Artaud’s conception of theatre. major representatives of inter-cultural theater (P. Brook, A. Mnouchkine, R. Schechner, E. Barba, Robert Wilson, Robert Lepage) are presented through their theoretical work as well as their productions.