PHL4609 Techne Logos and the Future of Humankind
(Formerly Technology, Nature and Values)
4 Advanced Liberal Arts Credits
This seminar will explore philosophical problems related to technology. Human life would be unthinkable without technology, but many don’t stop to think about what technology is. The word techne comes from the Greek word for skill, craft, or technique. Logos refers to reason and logic. Seen this way, technology is a crafting or making-centered way of viewing reality, specifically as it relates to tools and their creation. Yet technology is so much more, as it gives us the power to alter our genes, explore deep space, communicate across time, and destroy life on planet earth as we know it. Philosophical debates about technology raise ethical, epistemological, and existential questions that should be on all our minds because they prompt reflection on our future as a species. This semester we will study some of these and explore our responsibilities for the awesome potential of techne-logos.
Prerequisites: Any combination of 2 ILA (HSS, LTA, CSP, LVA, CVA)