Program Type
Pre-term Seminar

Led by
Peter Wicks

Semester
Fall 2025

Technology, Ethics, and Human Nature

Monday, August 25 | 10.307.30 | Elm Library

A one-day seminar exploring the ideas of some of the most historically influential thinkers on the subject of technology, as well as some of the most profound modern voices in debates about the way new technologies have changed our relationship to the world and each other. Readings include selections from Francis Bacon, Martin Heidegger, Lewis Mumford, Langdon Winner, and Leon Kass.

The seminar is open to all Yale students.

Schedule
11.00-12.30 Session 1: Key Concepts and Historical Sources
12.30-1.30 LUNCH
1.30-2.45 Session 2: Heidegger and His Influence
2.45-3.00 BREAK
3.00-4.15 Session 3: Technology and Human Values
4.15-4.30 BREAK
4.30-5.45 Session 4: The Human Enhancement Debate
6.00-7.30 DINNER @ SITAR

We shape our tools and thereafter they shape us.

John Culkin, “A Schoolman’s Guide to Marshall McLuhan”

Diego Velázquez, Apollo in the Forge of Vulcan (1630)