This course will explore philosophical questions concerning a number of different but related themes, including science, technology, political ambition, and self-knowledge, through readings from Plato, Aristotle, Francis Bacon, Martin Heidegger and others.
Our age is characterized by unprecedented scientific and technological progress. This progress has produced immense benefits for humankind and at the same time poses grave dangers. What posture should we adopt toward our ever more technological world and our ever-greater dependence on technology? Should we embrace these developments or resist them?
To consider these questions properly it will be helpful to return to the origins. What we call “technology” is a consequence of the modern scientific project, which came into being in the 17th century. The founders of this project included great philosophers such as Francis Bacon and René Descartes. In their works are to be found the original justifications for our scientific and technological society.
But to understand and evaluate these justifications we must go back even further, to the pre-modern approach to science which the moderns deliberately rejected. The leading exponent of that approach and the main target of the moderns’ attack was Aristotle, who argued for the priority of form over matter and held that scientific knowledge ought to be pursued as an end in itself rather than for any practical utility. The moderns, by contrast, argued for a materialistic understanding of nature and demanded a new, practical goal for science: to master nature and make it serve human needs.
This course, therefore, begins with Aristotle, followed by Francis Bacon as a representative of the modern project. Next, we take up more recent views on technology through essays by Martin Heidegger and others.
Last but not least we will return once more to the origins, to Greek philosophy, in order to consider Socrates’ quest for a science of the human good, a science inseparable from self-knowledge. In particular we will examine Plato’s account of Socrates’ intriguing relationship with Alcibiades, a young man of brilliant talents and high political ambition whom Socrates attempts to convert to the philosophic life.
A note of the use of "Artificial Intelligence":
Our purpose in this course is to do our own reading, writing, and thinking, not to outsource these tasks to a machine. I therefore recommend that you avoid using “generative AI” entirely. But if you do make use of it for any of your written work, to avoid plagiarism you must cite your AI source in accordance with JCU guidelines: https://johncabot.libguides.com/artificial-intelligence/using. If you wish to use an AI-assisted grammar tool such as Grammarly, please consult me first.