This course will deal with the philosophical foundations needed for a correct understanding of the phenomenon of life. What is organic life and how can we recognize its presence? In what does its novelty consist with respect to the material world? How does an organism differ from a machine? How essential are theology and the doctrine of creation to the adjudication of these questions? By analyzing these and similar questions, the course will provide the adequate philosophical basis needed for dealing with the ethical problems posed by biotechnology.
Selected Texts
Leon Kass, Life Liberty and the Defense of Dignity: The Challenge for Bioethics.
Joseph Ratzinger, “In the Beginning…” A Catholic Understanding of the Story of Creation and the Fall.
Hans Jonas, The Phenomenon of Life.
Richard McKeon (ed.), The Basic Works of Aristotle.
E.A. Burtt, The Metaphysical Foundations of Modern Science.
Lee Silver, Remaking Eden: How Genetic Engineering and Cloning Will Transform the American Family.
Steven Baldner and William Carroll, Aquinas on Creation.
Hans Urs von Balthasar, Theo-Logic, Vol. I: The Truth of the World.
Faculty
Michael Hanby
Associate Professor of Religion and Philosophy of Science
Dr. Hanby is author of No God, No Science?: Theology, Cosmology, Biology (Wiley-Blackwell 2013) which reassesses the relationship between the doctrine of creation, Darwinian evolutionary biology, and science more generally. He is also author of Augustine and Modernity (Routledge 2003).
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