The Course:
The future is a minefield of technological challenges and the moral quagmires that accompany them. The looming specters of antimicrobial-resistant pathogens, human-driven climate change, corporate-controlled artificial intelligence, genetic engineering, artificial cognitive and moral enhancement, and a host of other nascent topics present us with major hurdles to overcome in the near future.
We can’t address these challenges piecemeal. The solutions to these future challenges are interwoven. Simple science education alone is insufficient to correct this. And ethical reflection on them devoid of a scientific basis falls flat. Rather, people best prepared to deal with and lead in the face of future challenges are those who have acquired two sets of knowledge: (a) detailed scientific understanding of the problems and (b) the creative, ethical, and logical skills to generate and apply solutions.
In this pair of courses -- PHIL288E and BIOL395E -- we will therefore tackle problems of the future from both philosophical and biological perspectives, integrating knowledge from both fields, and along the way, reflect on ways to make progress on future problems. In PHIL288E, we’ll be paying special attention to the way the Catholic Intellectual Tradition may provide us with distinctive resources. In BIOL395E, we’ll be dissecting current biological primary literature on topics that present existential challenges to humanity and human civilization. In both classes, we’ll be pairing with community partners to bring our work beyond the university community. What’s more: we’ll be framing our units using some of our favorite science fiction texts.
The learning goals for the course are as follows:
Understand relevant areas of intersection between biological sciences, ethics, religious faiths, and the future of humanity on Earth.
Be familiar with the core ethical and theological principles, especially those coming out of the Catholic Intellectual Tradition
Develop an understanding of near-future potential technologies in light of the ethical issues they raise.
Integrate technological details with literary, philosophical, and ethical frameworks.
Appreciate the two-way nature of science communication and community-based research.
Interact with and learn from a community group (e.g. a faith community) to understand how community members view the topics covered in the course, where there might be challenges, and how those challenges might be overcome.
Philosophy and Biology for the Future is only possible because of the generous support of Notre Dame’s Philosophy as a Way of Life project, Loyola’s Hank Center for Catholic Intellectual Heritage, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Interfaith America, the National Endowment for Humanities, and the Inklings Project.