Transhumanism

   —   Committed to the improvement of the human condition, transhumanism is rooted in the humanism of the Enlightenment with its focus on progress. At the same time, it exceeds classical humanist objectives of education and cultural refinement by inquiring into the possibilities offered by technology to overcome human nature’s biological limitations. While inseparably linked to emergent technologies’ impact on human nature, transhumanist thinking is multi- and interdisciplinary; it involves not only the natural sciences, but also the human sciences by addressing the social and ethical concerns of technologically mediated human enhancement.      —   In this course we will explore the social and ethical dimensions of transhumanist key issues, such as health- and lifespan enhancement, human-machine-interfaces, prosthetic bodies, simulations, and alternative biologies, as well as their social and ethical implications. We will focus on seminal transhumanist theorists like Max More, Natasha Vita-More, Nick Bostrom, Ray Kurzweil and James Hughes, and on some “proto-transhumanists”: Pico della Mirandola, Francis Bacon, and the Marquis de Condorcet.      —   3-6 ECTS