Description
[cross-listed with LIT 3907] Our collective understanding of what it means to be human is changing—and that is changing the world. Whereas Aristotle once defined the human as “a rational animal,” or Protagoras made humankind “the measure of all things,” or Descartes started within himself when he said “I think, therefore I am,” contemporary scholars are asking whether it might be time to entirely relinquish the notion of the human. We are, some would say, post-human now. Post-humanism unsettles the longstanding view, implied by Descartes, that a human is a mysterious composite of a body and a soul. Some posthumanists insist we are only body’s structure or function, while others insist that our humanity lies in an informational pattern that is unique to each one of us. How we define human has a profound influence on a range of ethical questions related to development, ability, gender, race, and technology. In this seminar we will read both literary works and philosophical theorie