This part of the program provides the foundational concepts and language to think – and talk – about thinking. Integrating multiple perspectives provided by philosophy, psychology, and cognitive science it explores the mind/brain as an embodied, biological, cybernetic system – and then asks how it is possible for such a system to perceive and represent its environment, exhibit intelligence, and be the seat of consciousness.

The course consists of the following parts (more details and updates will follow):

• What is thinking? (10h) with Prof. Francis Heylighen. A comprehensive introduction to what we think we know about thinking delivered in the form of knowledge-intense lectures.

• The brain (6h) with Prof. em. Romain Meeusen. A glimpse of the biology behind perception, consciousness, learning, and cognitive aging, and of the relation between the body and the mind.

• Non-human thinking and embodied cognition (4h) with Dr. Clément Vidal and Meredith Root-Bernstein, PhD. A seminar exploring the concrete, experiential nature of thinking and the way it includes the entirety of the thinker’s body (and sometimes its tools and environment).

• Thinking Better (12h) with a.o. Prof. Francis Heylighen, Prof. Jean-Paul Van Bendegem (TBC), and Prof. Gerard de Zeeuw. A recurring panel discussion, bridging the gap between deep philosophical questions about thinking, and the very pragmatic task of improving it. Renowned researchers bring together the perspective of philosophy, logic(s), cognitive science and action research to explore what it means to become more intelligent, rational, logical or effective at thinking – and how to achieve it. The program of the panel is largely set by the students themselves. Most of the sessions of Thinking Better are shaped by questions brainstormed by students at the conclusion of the previous session – in reaction to the class and the associated readings.

Beautiful Minds is a guided study in going beyond extraordinary contributions to human culture in order to recognize the minds that were able to call them to life. Inspired by the practice of art appreciation, the course asks: “What if minds could be experienced and appreciated for their beauty?”. It invites the students to explore and celebrate unique ways of thinking, thus helping them to expand their own range of approaches to how one could think.

Founded on a specific philosophical and aesthetic toolkit, explained in introductory lectures (4h) it also consists of interactive workshops (10h), individual or group work (60h), as well as 1h of consultation for each working group or person. It is facilitated by Weaver D.R. Weinbaum, PhD – in cooperation with other instructors.

The largest part of the curriculum provides the students with a rich array of advanced thinking frameworks, methods, and tools. It consists of several smaller modules, each introducing a certain approach to thinking.

The objectives for this are two-layered. On the one hand the students are invited to apply the tools they learn in practice, experimenting on their own, or guiding others (collaborators, teams, organisations) in joining in and thinking together. On the other, the sheer number of perspectives, models and approaches encountered along the way results in increased flexibility and less reliance on any particular one.  By being able to experiment with the affordances and limitation of each set of tools, the students will exercise the power, plasticity, and movability of thought itself.

The course consists of the following parts (more details and updates will follow):

• Fallacies and biases (6h) with Maciej Świeży, PhD
• Critical thinking (6h) with Karin Verelst, PhD
• Divergent and lateral thinking (6h) with Prof. Edward Nęcka (TBC)
• Extended mind (6h) with Orion Maxted and Katarina Petrovič
• Co-thinking (6h) with Iwona Sołtysińska (TBC)
• Paradoxical Thinking with Karin Verelst, PhD
• Dialectical thinking (6h) with Cadell Last, PhD
• Systems thinking (6h) with mag. Stefan Blachfellner (TBC)
• Complexity thinking (6h) with Prof. Cathy Macharis
• Game thinking (6h) with Weaver, D.W. Weinbaum, PhD.
• Worldviews and identities (6h) with Paul Wouters
• Worldviews and the Noosphere with Clément Vidal, PhD
• Nurturing intelligence (6h) with Lotte Van Lith
• Engaged Thinking with Barbara Van Dyck, PhD
• Art, Culture and Self-Reflective Thinking with Saddie Choua

The  ‘Thinking Toolkit’ course comprises 72 hours of instruction and 240 hours of individual work (individual exercises and writing). Instruction is carried out in an interactive, hands(heads)-on manner. The teaching methods include group exercises, individual and group experimentation, mini-lectures, discussions, teamwork, games and practical assignments. Each module is preceded by a reading assignment, sometimes supplemented by a pre-work exercise documented in a correspondence between the participants and the instructor.

Serving as space for integrating new learning and translating it to life outside the program, the Thinking Studio is a recurring workshop that aims for stability and containment among all the creative chaos. Facilitated by the program founder or current director, the workshop provides a group learning environment for integrating the teaching and learning processes happening in the entire programme. Special emphasis is put on the integration of the new knowledge, ideas, and skills into the unique everyday practice of each student.

Thinking Studio doubles as a source of inspiration and guidance for individual projects carried out by the students. It presents them with three long-term tasks that can be adapted to specific personal and professional contexts.

• Intervention (Portfolio task 2) happens in social context. The participants choose a specific problem caused or worsened by apparent limitations of thinking – and then try to understand it deeper, possibly helping to develop a way to go beyond the limitations.
• Dialogue (Portfolio task 3) is a creative writing exercise in which the students come to grips with various potential parts that their own minds consist of.

This course is facilitated by Orion Maxted and Evo Busseniers – in coordination with Karin Verelst and for each specific course with its respective instructor. It comprises 26 hours of workshops, 3 hours of individual consultations, 52 hours dedicated to individual exercises, and 52 hours dedicated to writing the final reports.

From its inception the VUB has always prided itself on its guiding philosophy of Liberal Enquiry and Free Thinking, as reflected in its mottos ‘Thinking should never submit itself’, ‘Reason and Engage’ and ‘Nothing is unthinkable’, and more generally in its striving for diversity of perspectives, interdisciplinary collaboration, and engagement with contemporary issues. Free, critical, creative, and independent thinking, being the focus of our programme, constitutes a core element of the university’s DNA and is consistently taught in several well established open seminar series, organised around the campus.

Our programme interlinks these initiatives, making the participation in the selected series into an integral part of the curriculum. The students select at least one among the on-going series and follow it throughout one semester. In addition to the regular participation, the students carry out an observation assignment designed to advance their understanding of the processes of co-thinking.

The list of available seminars includes:

• Crosstalks: a series of open dialogues between academic and corporate researchers, philosophers, artists, designers, policymakers and citizens;
• Back to Thinking: an online podcast series of the VUB Engage, a broad participatory trajectory of the VUB.
• Reason and Engage: a university-wide course that stimulates students to reflect about controversial, contemporary issues;
• Think-tank Poincaré: a flexible group of VUB researchers reflecting about contemporary issues, such as cities, that touch on many disciplines;
• The world needs you. There are dozens of projects at the VUB where you can contribute to a better world. You can join ‘Ateliers‘ which are co-creative workshops to discuss and carry out concrete actions around a specific P: People, Prosperity, Planet, Partnership, Peace). Or, follow their Public Programme designed to broaden your horizons and create more impact.
• CLEA seminars: a long-running series of weekly interdisciplinary seminars and discussions organized by the Center Leo Apostel with presenters from around the world.

This component of the curriculum assumes that the students will allocate 26 hours to the participation in the seminar series of their choice and 48 hours to the assignment. Additionally, each student receives 1 hour of individual consultation.

• Illeism (Portfolio task 1) is a self-observation task, in which participants are invited to take a detached, third-person perspective on their own thought processes, as they happen in solitude or while interacting with other people. Keeping a regular log of their observations helps students to become more aware of their own recurring patterns of thought.