What is a human being?...

The nature, possibilities and limitations of the human greatly affect economy and law, as well as technological developments. Technology takes over ever more ‘higher’ functions of the human. In the past mechanical devices and electricity saved on physical labour and human energy. Today computers increasingly are replacing routine aspects of thinking; and in laboratories researchers are investigating whether also ‘higher’ functions of the mind, such as cognition, consciousness and morality, can be replaced with the help of the life sciences, ICT, pharmacology and nanotechnology.

This course addresses certain philosophical questions that have consequences for technological development, economy and law, questions such as: What is a human being? What is (personal) identity? Which cultural (including technological) and/or natural features constitute human nature? How is the human being different from (other) animals? How do technological developments affect the autonomy of humans and the way they shape their life? These questions will be investigated from different perspectives, such as classical ontology and epistemology (Aristotle, Descartes), German Idealism (Kant, Hegel), historical materialism (Marx), existentialism and phenomenology (Nietzsche, Heidegger, Sartre), and philosophy of technology (Ellul, Gehlen, Ihde, Clark). Philosophers who believe that the human is an autonomous being with inherent capacities such as rationality and freedom often warn against the destructive influence of technology on the human mind and its products, i.e., on culture, science, morality, self-determination. Philosophers who understand the human as a being who throughout history has always constituted him or herself by virtue of technical aids and artefacts often see in emerging technologies new opportunities for the human. The German idealism of Hegel, for example, conceives autonomy and emancipation as a challenge that cannot be met on individual level but rather only by virtue of active participation in a society that has to secure social, economical and political conditions. From this perspective also technologies could contribute to realizing freedom.

http://www.thomasmore.nl/collegeaanbod-ciano-aydin-2014-2015.

P.s: on a déjà eu l'occasion de rencontrer ce philosophe en REAL.