JPI 667
Dominion and Technê
This course ponders the theological and ontological roots of dominion—God’s command to “subdue the earth”; and of technê—technique, technology. The course begins with the Old and New Testaments, considering the Biblical meaning of dominion: its meaning as integral to man’s imaging of God; in relation to man’s being created male and female and being called “to be fruitful and multiply”; in terms of the Covenant that God establishes with man and with all of creation through man; and finally in terms of the new Covenant established by God in Jesus Christ through the Virgin Mary. The second part of the course considers the meaning of dominion and technê as conceived and practiced in ancient Greece (e.g., Plato, Aristotle, W. Jaeger). Finally, the third part of the course reflects on the new meaning given dominion (work) and technê in modernity—in the seventeenth-century beginnings of modern science—and on into the contemporary period (e.g., Descartes, Bacon, J. Monod). A major concern in this third part of the course will be to reflect not only on the sense in which modern science is technological in its original nature as such, but also on what is meant by the assertion (cf., e.g., Heidegger, G. Grant) that “technology is the ontology of modernity.” An overarching purpose will be to examine the meaning of this assertion in terms of the dominant conceptions of reason, freedom, and God, as well as general patterns of life and culture, in liberal societies (cf., e.g., F. Ulrich, W. Berry). The course will consider further how these conceptions operate in current biotechnological theory and practice (therapeutic and reproductive technologies, questions of gender and familial relations, and the like). Readings will be drawn, in addition to those mentioned above, from various classical, modern, and contemporary theologians, philosophers, and scientists, as well as from the writings of John Paul II and Ratzinger/Benedict XVI.
