"Mankind has never been in this position before. Without having improved appreciably in virtue or enjoying wiser guidance, it has got into its own hands the tools by which it can unfailingly accomplish its own extermination. . . . It is therefore above all things important that the moral philosophy and spiritual conceptions of men and nations should hold their own amid these formidable scientific evolutions."
---- Winston Churchill, Thoughts and Adventures (1932)
This course explores some of the more complicated challenges that science and engineering pose for society; it also considers the challenges that societies can pose for science and engineering. These questions will be pursued both through core texts in the Western Tradition and through more contemporary writings and films. Although we seek a general or fundamental understanding of these issues, we will take up a few of the particularly hot controversies that currently surround such fields as neuroscience and GNR – genetics, nanotechnology, and robotics.
On the Certificate in Engineering, Science, and Society
Final Exam: General Description,Review Questions