Being in the Universe

Catalog description

"Being in the Universe" considers three fundamental questions of human existence from both humanistic and scientific perspectives: (1) What is the nature of our universe, and to what extent are creatures like ourselves a predictable consequence of it? (2) What is the nature of time, and what does it mean to be a conscious being living our lives through time? (3) What would it mean for humans to be alone in the Galaxy or the universe, or alternatively, not alone? "Being in the Universe" is an integrative GH+GN GenEd course. The course's three major units cover the following topics: (1) We discuss cosmology and religion as human enterprises, as well as the history of science; (2) We study the basic scientific theory of the Big Bang universe, and consider its implications for human life; (3) We address contemporary theories of the multiverse from scientific, philosophical, and literary perspectives; (4) We consider the thermodynamic and relativistic theories of time, and the basic philosophical approaches to time, and discuss the implications of these for our ordinary human experience of the past, present, and future; (5) We discuss the history of life in the universe, the possibility of life on other planets, and the social, religious, and imaginative reactions to those possibilities in literature and film.