TECHNOLOGY, SCIENCE, AND POLITICS

Catalog description

This class will investigate a series of questions concerning the intersection of science, technology, and politics. First, we need to understand the meaning of technology? We will seek an answer beyond the idea of technology as tools or instruments. We seek to go to the root of modern man’s technological drive by investigating the origins of the modern scientific project. From there we may begin to glimpse what it is that man seeks through technology and the benefits and pitfalls of modern man’s technologic al prowess. How does this technological prowess and frame of mind impact and inform our democratic republic? We will seek clarity of these issues by looking at the thought of Francis Bacon, Rene Descartes, Martin Heidegger, and other more contemporary writ ers on the challenges technology presents to modern liberal democracy.