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Course Information

Topics in Philosophy & Literature: Human and Post-Human (PHL 3907)

Term: 2023-24 Fall

Faculty

Aaron Long
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Schedule

Mon-Wed, 8:00 PM - 9:20 PM (8/21/2023 - 12/8/2023) Location: MAIN DH 123

Description

[cross-listed with LIT 3907] Our collective understanding of what it means to be human is changingโ€”and that is changing the world. Whereas Aristotle once defined the human as โ€œa rational animal,โ€ or Protagoras made humankind โ€œthe measure of all things,โ€ or Descartes started within himself when he said โ€œI think, therefore I am,โ€ 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 bodyโ€™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