Korbinians Kolleg

The Natural and the Artificial: Dimensions of Humanity

Korbinians Kolleg 2025/26

Humans constantly navigate the tension between the natural and the artificial, wrestling with moral and technical boundaries that are constantly shifting, forcing us to reflect on our scope for decision-making.

Humans are artificial by nature, because they create culture and civilization, thereby changing the nature that surrounds them and also their own nature.

The relationship between the natural and the artificial is therefore a dimension of humanity, but it is also always fraught with tension.

We must therefore ask ourselves whether there is a limit to the artificial, specifically in terms of what art is allowed to express, and more generally in terms of the creation of artificial intelligence, which could increasingly render humans superfluous, from consulting to entire professions. Is it natural to tell the truth in public disputes, and will it remain so? How many and which human factors, in both the good, humanitarian sense and in the bad, unpredictable sense, do we have to take into account when making economic and political decisions? We want to discuss these and many other questions about the relationship between the natural and the artificial together with proven experts.

Wars and Crises: The Risks of the Present

Korbinians Kolleg 2024/25

Crises and wars are shaking the world, creating risks and uncertainties that were unimaginable just a few years ago. Who would have thought that Europe would once again experience war? For more than two years, the conflict in Ukraine has raged on, affecting us in many indirect ways. Key issues include migration, hybrid warfare, disinformation, and energy policy. The economic impact of the war is also being felt. How can liberal democracies protect themselves from the dangers that wars bring? The Korbinians Kolleg – On Contemporary Issues delves into the pressing risks we face today. Renowned scholars will offer insights into the causes and consequences of these challenges.

Our Society – A Diagnosis of the Times

Korbinians Kolleg 2023/2024

A snapshot diagnosis of the state of our society can only be piecemeal, given the myriad challenges we face. What are the most pressing issues? What concerns us the most? The answers vary depending on factors like our age, gender, the aging population, our personal health, our private and political beliefs, our relationship with our history, the state of the environment, the evolution of the knowledge-based society, and public grievances such as populism, among others.

We mustn't overlook the war in Europe, which manifests indirectly through migration, inflation, and the energy crisis. We've only been able to incorporate a few of these insights into our program, but we hope that the discussions at Korbinians Kolleg lectures will broaden our understanding of the times.

We live in a time of crisis.

Korbinians Kolleg 2022/2023

We live in a time of crisis. It is also a time of crisis talk. It is therefore important to be clear about what crises are. They are not states, but dynamic processes. Such processes are mostly triggered by states that have slowly or suddenly become unstable. Wars are such processes. They are crises as long as they are not over, and when they are over they are no longer crises but almost certainly trigger other crises. Crises are processes that arise from asymmetries. Something is out of kilter, health policy due to Corona, the purchasing power of the euro due to the new inflation, the labor market due to falling demand or delivery problems, domestic politics due to refugee movements and migration. It is difficult or even impossible to predict what will happen at the end of such crises. It is so with everything in the future.

However, since it is a matter of overcoming and ending crises in politics, business, health care, culture and in all other areas of life, recipes are advertised and forecasts dared. Some of this is based on solid analysis, some is not. If crisis recipes and forecasts about how to deal with crises serve daily political purposes or personal awareness, then it is talk of a crisis. It is difficult for many people to distinguish one from the other.

In the winter semester 2022/23, the Korbinians Kolleg is examining some, but by no means all, current crises. It is not only political, social and economic, not only collective, but also personal crises that can afflict us as individuals, which we ourselves trigger through our behavior or which overwhelm us through no fault of our own. None of the collective crises leave us alone individually. That is one motive, but not the only one, for the topic 'crisis' this winter semester.

What times are we actually living in?

Korbinians Kolleg 2021/2022

Following the compulsory break caused by the pandemic, the "Korbinians Kolleg" - on questions of the current time – is placing questions, demanding answers we urgently need right now and would like to know, but do not yet understand, at its focus during this winter semester.

Questions about the political and economic development of Germany and Europe in the shadow of the pandemic and the imminent damage caused by climate change.

Questions about the mental and social state that currently shapes our lives. Some questions pick up on concerns that have slipped into the background but arise anew because they have never become obsolete.

The Korbinians Kolleg 2020/2021 did not take place.

Korbinians-Kolleg 2020/2021

This winter semester, the Korbinians-Kolleg on questions of our time will address issues and questions that we are happy to leave to others, as long as we are not affected ourselves, or whose answers we expect from women and men who are supposed to know (who is to be saved - how to continue economically after Corona). Behind these difficult but vital questions are other questions. These questions, however, usually seem to us too difficult, too remote and theoretical or answered long ago (what is true - what is valid - how does truth initiate - what is its significance in politics).

We should not deceive ourselves. Some questions are closely related to others, and the answers are only convincing if they are all discussed and properly answered. The Korbinians-Kolleg wants to find out what answers there are to those questions.

In the winter of 2020/21, the Korbinians Kolleg unfortunately had to be cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Shaping, saving, changing, enjoying life – can we do that?

Korbinians-Kolleg 2019/20

Shaping, saving, changing, enjoying life – can we do that? This is the title of this year’s winter term of the Korbinians Kolleg 2019/2020. A top-class programme awaits you in the pleasant, convivial atmosphere of the Bachmair Weissach Spa & Resort. You will hear leading figures from the worlds of business, politics, science and philosophy speak on the issues of our time.