Course title: On the Human
GEP category: Interdisciplinary Perspectives, Humanities (Philosophy)
Time/days: T/Th 10:15AM -11:30AM
Location: HVC Conference Room 202 (University Honors Village)
Credits: 3 credits
Instructor: Dr. Gary Comstock, Professor of Philosophy
Gary Comstock is professor of philosophy at NC State. His research concerns ethical questions in the biological sciences. Most recently, he co-edited The Moral Rights of Animals and wrote Research Ethics: A Philosophical Guide to the Responsible Conduct of Research and Vexing Nature? On the Ethical Case Against Agricultural Biotechnology. Vexing Nature was called a "watershed" in the discussion of genetically modified foods and a critic wrote that its nuanced treatment of the issue is "virtually unprecedented in applied philosophy." Comstock edited Life Science Ethics, Religious Autobiographies, and Is There a Moral Obligation to Save the Family Farm? and was named a Fellow at the National Humanities Center. He spends his free time listening to string quartets, dragging his walker at noon onto the basketball floor in Carmichael, and wondering what goes on in horses' heads.
Course description: The goal of this course is to deepen our understanding of the human using philosophical and scientific modes of inquiry. We focus on human singularity: the properties, if any, that distinguish us from nonhuman animals and cyborgs.
It's a commonplace to think humans unique in a variety of ways. Only we have music, language, reason, free will, souls, religion, empathy, altruism, social cooperation, reciprocity, self-consciousness, ability to use tools, or lead autobiographical lives. But what are these things? What is a soul or free will? Or music or language for that matter? Do all humans have all of the properties listed? What is the status of those who lack one or another of them? And what about animals? Might some other mammals, or birds, or even fish— be self-conscious or act altruistically? And what about future machines? Might we one day engineer reason and emotion into an advanced artificial intelligence? Would that cyborg then be our moral equal?
There are many opinions about the correct answers to these questions and we will evaluate them. We’ll pay particular attention to the conclusions drawn from scientific experiments. Toward that end, we will review the results of an experiment at Duke University in which a computer is being used to read a monkey’s brain and assist it in playing computer games, a robot that seems capable of training itself to pick up objects in much the same way as a human child learns to do so, and an orangutan who spontaneously and without training begins to whistle, a very un-orangutanian thing to do. What is human nature? Is there such a thing? How do we differ, if at all, from other animals and machines? What are the ethical implications, if any, of these differences? If technology allows us to change our nature, should we shape public policy to allow or disallow such changes? Should we be allowed one day to implant memory chips in our brains or upload our conscious states into a virtual Matrix where, presumably, we may live forever in a disembodied state?