Hons 3965/CogS 4200

Science, Technology and Human Values

Spring, 2000 - T/Th 2:30-4:00

Instructor: Dr. Tom Carter

PSB 287a
667-3175
tom@csustan.edu
http://cogs.csustan.edu/~tom

Texts: The books for the class are:

Scientific Literacy and the Myth of the Scientific Method, Henry H. Bauer
Why Things Bite Back, Edward Tenner
Simians, Cyborgs, and Women, Donna Harraway
The Lathe of Heaven , Ursula K. Le Guin
A Canticle for Leibowitz,, Walter M. Miller
Earth Abides, George R. Stewart

General Introduction: This class is a combined Honors and Cognitive Studies class. We will look at the intersection among Science, Technology and Values/valuing, and how they impact and inform our lives. Part of the course will involve literary approaches to understanding the effects of scientific endeavors on our lives.


Requirements/Responsibilities: Your primary responsibility is to be an active, engaged, prepared participant in the course. There will be quite a bit of reading which will require your consistent attention. Remember also that learning and understanding are active, not passive processes. You will have to take responsibility for your own learning, and you will be expected to contribute to other's learning also. Part of your learning will involve expressing yourself, in writing and verbally.

Other specific requirements:

1. You will write several papers, some short, some longer, some in class, some out of class.

2. There will be a joint project among a small group, including presentations in class. We will discuss this in more detail later.

The work you do for this course will be your own. You are not to submit other people's work and represent it as your own. However, I do expect and encourage you to work collaboratively with others during the course.