Seminar in Philosophy of Technology

Catalog description

The human condition may very well be a technological condition. Developing and refining technology have proven central to cultural and perhaps even evolutionary history, the development of science, our economic practices, and-most importantly-our selfunderstanding. Should we understand the co-development of humanity and technology as a continuous history? Or have the past two centuries-with the development of industrial mechanization, the computer, and now the Internet-marked a radical shift of some kind? This course will explore the philosophy of technology in more focused and rigorous ways than the department's lower-division course, PHIL 107 , seeking to understand the way in which technology is transforming our relationships to ourselves, to other people, and to our world. Guiding questions for the course include: What is technology? How does it inform and inflect human flourishing and the human condition? What are its ramifications for ethical thought?