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After participating in the module courses, students will be able to critically reflect on different approaches to nature conservation and form their own informed, well-founded opinions about these approaches. They will have acquired in-depth knowledge of sub-areas of natural philosophy, environmental ethics or philosophy of science. As a result, they will be able to critically evaluate specialized publications and to make well-founded contributions to specialized discussions in the field. The deepened understanding of the different positions will also enable students to lead goal-oriented discussions with stakeholders relevant for nature conservation. The seminar will enable and encourage students to develop their own visions for the future of nature conservation on the basis of philosophically informed considerations.

The following contents will be taught in the seminar:
• What are the different conceptions of nature?
• Which value attributions are the basis of these views?
• What are the different justifications for the protection of nature and biodiversity?
• How do these justifications relate to the proposed measures?
• To what extent do current approaches to nature conservation exclude or include humans?
• What does conservation have to do with power relations and global justice?

Advanced knowledge in ecology and landscape planning; module Introduction to the Philosophy of Nature and Landscape.

The course is a seminar in which students work with selected literature on the topic and prepare respective presentations. In this way, the students learn about key content in the field as well as how to critically analyze and reflect on scientific literature. In addition, short presentations by the lecturer on the basics of the philosophy of science and environmental ethics are added to the presentation topics. This enables the students to place the contents developed in the presentations in the overall professional context. Extensive discussions on the respective topics are an integral part of the seminar; in this way, students practice making well-founded arguments and engaging in discussions. Part of the seminar is a writing workshop, in which techniques of creative and scientific writing are introduced, which students can directly apply and practice in the preparation of their scientific paper. The literature review and preparation of the written paper requires dedicated independent study; students are thus being prepared for writing their thesis.

Graded examination is a scientific paper (10-15 pages) combined with an oral presentation (20 min). The topic of the paper can be chosen by the students within the framework of the module topic (nature conservation ethics) and the overall topic of the respective semester. The written paper will be used to determine the extent to which the students are able to evaluate and critically analyze scientific literature and to relate it to the content taught in the seminar. In this way, it becomes apparent whether the contents have been understood, whether they can be applied to the chosen topic of elaboration, and whether the taught methods of critical text analysis and scientific and creative writing have been internalized.

The necessary literature will be provided in the course or via Moodle