Please read the introduction with care.
This first lesson consists of four videos that you should watch carefully and two sessions of readings plus extra material.
As you will notice videos 1 and 2 are interrupted by reading sessions where you have to choose several reading.
We do advise to set aside roughly 40 minutes for the videos without readings and a little bit more than one hour for the videos which reading some will be faster. Someone will be slower. And the reading break can be an opportunity to take a breath. The reading that we are suggesting are available at the end of the page.
Course material
First video :
Second video :
Third video :
Fourth video
Readings 1 - Existential risk studies
List A : academic papers from Existential Risk Studies’ (ERS) scholars. They will help you understand what ERS are and what are the main ideas.
Bostrom, N. (2002). Existential risks : Analyzing human extinction scenarios and related hazards. Journal of Evolution and technology, 9.
Cotton-Barratt, O., & Ord, T. (2015). Existential risk and existential hope : definitions.
Ord, T. (2020). The precipice : Existential risk and the future of humanity. Hachette UK.
List B : academic papers orbiting around Existential Risk Studies.
Beard, S. J., & Torres, P. (2020). Ripples on the great sea of life : A brief history of existential risk studies. An Anthology of Global Risk, 23.
Moynihan, T. (2020). Existential risk and human extinction : An intellectual history. Futures, 116, 102495.
Torres, P. (2023). Existential risks : a philosophical analysis. Inquiry, 66(4), 614-639.
List C : a chapter from a book discussing ERS.
Schuster, J., & Woods, D. (2021). Calamity theory : Three critiques of existential risk. U of Minnesota Press.
Vanderlinden, J-P. (2025). Anthropocene and Existential Risk, UVED.
moynihan_2020_-_existential_risks_and_human_extinction_-_an_intellectual_story.p