Are Humans Becoming Gods? Technology, Science, and Faith in a Posthuman Age [Import]
- Dozent/in
- Dr. Samuel Loncar
- Angaben
- Proseminar/Hauptseminar
Rein Präsenz Unterrichtssprache Englisch
Zeit und Ort: Blockveranstaltung 30.6.2023-1.7.2023 Fr, Sa, So 10:00 - 18:00, FL2/01.01; Einzeltermin am 2.7.2023 10:00 - 13:00, FL2/01.01
- Voraussetzungen / Organisatorisches
- Für Anfänger eher nicht geeignet, anrechenbar in den Modulen praktische Philosophie und philosophische Anthoropologie:
BA-Philosophie:
- BM2 (prakt. Ph.), BM4 (ph. Anthr.);
- Aufbaumodule: AM1 (prakt. Ph.);
- Vertiefungsmodule: VM1 (prakt. Ph.), VM3 (ph. Anthr.); erw. Qual.
MA-Philosophie:
- Kernmodule: KM1 (prakt. Ph.);
- Schwerpunktmodule: SM-pP, SM-pA, freie Spezialisierung;
- Public Ethics;
LA-Philosophie/Ethik (Studienbeginn vor SoSe 2023):
- Basismodule für LA-Gymn. und LA-GS/MS/RS.: BM2 (prakt. Ph.), BM4 (ph. Anthr.); LA2 (Religionsph.); bei Gymn. zusätzl.: LA4 (Vertiefung)
- Inhalt
- Are humans becoming gods? What may seem a question for science fiction is reshaping the
worlds of technology, science, and religion. Many of the leading businesses in Silicon Valley
(including Google), the heart of technological innovation, are funding projects to make humans
immortal, to upload our consciousness to the cloud, and to escape our entanglements with the
material world, including our bodies. Some scholars of these projects, widely known as
transhumanism or posthumanism, recognize the truth: that at the heart of business and science
today is an emerging new religion - Posthumanism, one taking the ancient ideal of immortal life,
but seeking to realize it through capitalism, science, and an anti-material (some might say
Gnostic) philosophy that says humans need a serious upgrade. In this religion, humans and
bodies are the problem, and technology and its high priests are the solution. What are we to make
of this? How can thoughtful people, whether believers, agnostics, or atheists, engage these
powerful forces with understanding and discernment? “Are Humans Becoming Gods” explores
these questions through reading essays and reviews from a variety of perspectives, focused
through the lens of philosophy as the key to understanding the future in an age when humans
themselves may well become history.
Students will gain an introduction to perspectives on technology, science, and religion that
include theology, history of science, media theory, poetry, and myth, and will be encouraged to
personally develop their own concerns and ideas as they engage the course material and their
colleagues.
- Empfohlene Literatur
- Readings and Schedule:
Class readings include excerpts of biblical and mythic stories, poetry, and short pieces by
philosophers and writers on technology and science. The readings will not total more than 50
pages each class section. Authors and artists engaged include Plato, Novalis, Heidegger, Ernest
Becker, Edna Vincent St. Millay, T.S. Eliot, Marshall McLuhan, Diana Pasulka, Plato, and
Werner Herzog. A detailed outline of the week will be provided a week prior to class, but the arc
of the course is outlined below with tentative readings. All the readings will be provided to the
students as a pdf. reader.
Part 1: How Humans Lost the World: The Origin of Technology and the Birth of the Gods
Readings: Genesis 1-3; Plato, Republic, Bk. VII 514-520, Allegory of the Cave; T.S.
Eliot, “The Rock,” Loncar, “The Vibrant Religious Life of Silicon Valley, and How It’s
Killing the Economy,”
Part 2: The Gods of this Age: Science, Technology, and the Myth of Modernity
Readings: Loncar, “Science vs. Religion and Other Modern Myths,” Marginalia Review
of Books; Neil Postman, “Science and the Story we Need,” First Things; Marshall
McLuhan, “Introduction,” from The Gutenberg Galaxy; Edna Vincent St. Millay, “Upon
this gifted age,”
Part 3: Death, Thou Shalt Die: Silicon Valley and the Shadow of Death
Readings: Ernest Becker, “Introduction” and “Chapter one,” from The Denial of Death;
Dara Horn, “The Men Who Want to Live Forever,” New York Times; “Silicon Valley’s Quest to
Live Forever,” The New Yorker; Samuel Loncar, “The Wisdom of Death”
Part 4: No Exit: The Dilemma of Technological Critique as a Philosophical Crisis
Readings: Plato, The Phaedrus, excerpt; Martin Heidegger, “The Question Concerning
Technology,”
Part 5: Technology as Poetry and Translation: Novalis and the Re-enchantment of the
World
- Englischsprachige Informationen:
- Title:
- Are Humans Becoming Gods? Technology, Science, and Faith in a Posthuman Age
- Institution: Lehrstuhl für Philosophie II
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