Knowledge at your fingertips

“The times are out of joint,” as Hamlet puts it in Shakespeare’s play. Chancellor Scholz declared a “turning point” immediately following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022. Initially, this referred to foreign and security policy, but many associate much more with the term, for indeed: many certainties no longer hold true; much has been thrown into disarray.

‘Turning point’ – at first glance, the phrase reads like an event, a process, something that happens, something that descends upon people. They seem powerless, at the mercy of the excesses of turbo-capitalism, global warming and anti-democratic regimes. Many find it difficult to respond in an innovative and flexible manner. Tried-and-tested patterns of thought and tools that have worked until now are failing to keep pace with the dynamism and speed of change.

With its lecture series in the summer semester of 2023, Mittweida University of Applied Sciences is not so much taking stock as asking: How can politics, academia and society rise to the challenges of this turning point in history? Where does the path to keeping pace with the times lead? The aim is to address the major issues in a manner commensurate with the gravity of the situation: war and displacement, the climate crisis and capitalism, anti-democratic tendencies, populism, pandemics and artificial intelligence. Experts from academia and research will attempt to provide answers to pressing questions.

It is not just since Donald Trump’s presidency that concepts such as ‘alternative facts’ or ‘fake news’ have been all the rage. Institutions traditionally responsible for the production and dissemination of knowledge – be they research organisations or the press – are increasingly viewed with suspicion. Their work is sometimes perceived as biased and influenced by those in power. Experts, such as climate scientists, face pressure to justify their legitimacy. 

The boundaries between opinion, belief and knowledge – according to Kant, the three modes of holding something to be true – seem to be becoming increasingly blurred. In a society that describes itself as a knowledge society, belief in knowledge appears to be waning, whilst the power of opinion and mere assertion seems to be on the rise. Do we (still) believe what we know, and do we actually know what we believe? This is not a new phenomenon of the so-called knowledge society. There have always been, and continue to be, different cultures of knowledge that vie with one another for recognition and ‘truth’. Homeopathy, conventional medicine and traditional Chinese medicine are examples of this.

Over the course of ten evenings, we explored the boundaries of knowledge, belief and opinion in fields such as philosophy, education, medicine, genetics, religion and climate.
We would like to thank, on the one hand, the insightful and well-informed guest speakers from the social sciences, natural sciences, engineering and the humanities for their excellent support and substantial contributions. And, on the other hand, our engaged audience for their active participation – including those joining us online.

Evil is everywhere. It seems to confront us every day: in news reports of terrorist attacks, natural disasters, epidemics, the rampages of violent criminals, the ruthlessness of political autocrats, but also in the shadowy corners of democratic society, in the form of lies, fraud and deception on a daily basis. 

But where, in its omnipresence, is evil to be found? Is it rooted in human nature (in the soul), in the external forces of nature, or in the structures of society, culture and politics? Are there really evil people and evil communities? Or does ‘evil’ not rather mark the limits of our ability to explain and of our empathy? Does it not stand for our bewilderment and our refusal to face the truth? 

If evil were absolute, there would in fact be nothing left to understand. Thus, it is also, to some extent, a construct; sometimes even merely a (wicked?) game, played to possess and showcase the good, or to indulge in that delightful shudder. Evil must also serve as a means of morally elevating ourselves through its antithesis, the good – to console ourselves, but also to arm ourselves to the hilt. Here, history sometimes comes full circle – in paradoxical and fatal ways – with evil supposedly serving the cause of good, or good emerging as the result of Mephistophelean machinations. Even if evil cannot be banished from the world, there is no reason not to do something about it.