- Docente: Giuliano Pancaldi
- Credits: 6
- SSD: M-STO/05
- Language: Italian
- Teaching Mode: Traditional lectures
- Campus: Bologna
- Corso: Second cycle degree programme (LM) in Philosophical Sciences (cod. 8773)
Learning outcomes
Lectures and teaching materials aim at providing students with an understanding of technologies, focusing especially on their connections with: 1) the sciences, and, 2), the cultural, institutional and economic contexts. A cross-disciplinary approach is encoraged.
Course contents
Topics:
Artificial life?
The technologies of life from Darwin to “gene editing”
We shall introduce and discuss the technologies of life developed over the past few years, focusing especially on “artificial life” and “gene editing”, that promises to become a comparatively easy technique allowing us to modify our own genetic makeup. We shall address the new technologies adopting the vantage point offered by a survey of the historical development of the notion of “life as technology”, from Charles Darwin’s Origin of species (1859) to the present.
Adopting a long-term historical perspective, and paying due attention to the cultural, social and political contexts, we shall pursue an assessment going beyond the usual dichotomy between the uncritical celebration of technological achievements, and their dismissal on moral grounds. With the help of the students we shall aim at revealing the implicit assumptions and beliefs that guide our response to technological innovations affecting life. The goal is to provide new perspectives on the typical dilemma of technologically advanced societies: the dilemma between freedom and regulation.
As an introduction to the main themes addressed, students are expected to study two little books. The first is Marcello Buiatti, Biotecnologie (il Mulino, Collana “Farsi un’idea”, 2004 e 2010). Students will choose the second book among the two following: Sergio Pistoi, Il DNA incontra Facebook: Viaggio nel supermarket della genetica (Marsilio, 2012), and Baroukh Maurice Assael, Il gene del diavolo: Le malattie genetiche, le loro metafore, il sogno e le paure di eliminarle (Bollati Boringhieri, 2016). Foreign students are invited to ask the teacher for alternative readings in English or in their own language.
Excerpts from classical texts in the history of biology developing the notion of “life as technology” will be made available through the e-learning website of the course. Texts by Charles Darwin, Herman Joseph Muller, Julian Huxley, J.B.S. Haldane, Aldous Huxley, Erwin Schrödinger, Francis Crick, Jacques Monod, Richard Dawkins, Craig Venter ... will be included. For details about the website and the password write to: giuliano.pancaldi@unibo.it [mailto:giuliano.pancaldi@unibo.it]
In the same website students will find a number of teaching modules explaining the main recent innovations in the field of the life sciences. The website will host also the papers and presentations submitted and discussed in class by students on topics of their own choice, connected with the main theme of the course.
The final exam will consist in an interview (about twenty minutes) on the themes and readings described above, and - if the student so whishes - on the paper or presentation discussed in class or submitted during the interview.
Readings/Bibliography
As an introduction to the main themes addressed, students are expected to study two little books. The first is Marcello Buiatti, Biotecnologie (il Mulino, Collana “Farsi un’idea”, 2004 e 2010). Students will choose the second book among the two following: Sergio Pistoi, Il DNA incontra Facebook: Viaggio nel supermarket della genetica (Marsilio, 2012), and Baroukh Maurice Assael, Il gene del diavolo: Le malattie genetiche, le loro metafore, il sogno e le paure di eliminarle (Bollati Boringhieri, 2016). Foreign students are invited to ask the teacher for alternative readings in English or in their own language.
Excerpts from classical texts in the history of biology developing the notion of “life as technology” will be made available through the e-learning website of the course. Texts by Charles Darwin, Herman Joseph Muller, Julian Huxley, J.B.S. Haldane, Aldous Huxley, Erwin Schrödinger, Francis Crick, Jacques Monod, Richard Dawkins, Craig Venter ... will be included. For details about the website and the password write to: giuliano.pancaldi@unibo.it [mailto:giuliano.pancaldi@unibo.it]
In the same website students will find a number of teaching modules explaining the main recent innovations in the field of the life sciences. The website will host also the papers and presentations submitted and discussed in class by students on topics of their own choice, connected with the main theme of the course.
Teaching methods
Active participation by students is encouraged, both in the form of frequent questions during lectures, and as papers or reports to be presented and discussed in class. Materials examined in class will be made available through the course's website.
Assessment methods
The final exam will consist in an interview (about twenty minutes) on the themes and readings described above, and - if the student so whishes - on her/his paper or presentation discussed in class or submitted during the interview.
Teaching tools
Lectures and seminars, plus teaching modules and other materials made available online. Write to the teacher for access: giuliano.pancaldi@unibo.it
Office hours
See the website of Giuliano Pancaldi