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Templeton Research Lectures, "The Challenges of Transhumanism: Religion, Science, and Technology" |
Professor Hava Tirosh-Samuelson and her interdisciplinary committee received the Templeton Research Lectures for Constructive Engagement of Science and Religion for 2006-09. This multi-year, interdisciplinary grant of up to $500,000.00 will sponsor public lectures, workshops, conference and book publications that will examine and evaluate the claims of transhumanism. The project will be conducted under the auspices of the Center for the Study of Religion and Conflict. "Transhumanism" is the term give to the new phase in human evolution that has emerged due to the confluence of new developments in the life sciences (e.g., genomics, stem-cell research, genetic enhancement, germ-line engineering,), technology (i.e., robotics, nanotechnology, pattern recognition technologies), and neurosciences (e.g., neuro-pharmacology and artificial intelligence). Today human beings are not only able to enhance their own performance and make important strides against devastating diseases such as cancer, diabetes, and AIDS but also inherit humanly-engineered traits to future generations. The new technologies will bring about not only human beings with enhanced capabilities who will live longer, but also the human capacity to create (i.e., clone) other animals, including humans. In the transhuman phase, humans will become their own makers, transforming their environment and themselves. The Templeton Research Lectures will be the first systematic attempt to engage transhumanism philosophically, historically, culturally, and socially. The first year will focus on philosophical issues, the second year will be devoted to social, legal, and political questions, the third year will engage environmental issues, and the fourth year will examine the religious aspects of transhumanism. This multi-faceted investigation will takes into consideration the entire scope of human evolution and culturally specific conceptions of humanity. It will illustrate how the humanities can and should interface with the social and natural sciences, and how scientific discourses are culturally bound and historically situated. The Templeton Research Lectures will build upon conversations and collaborations of recent years and will creatively generate new research projects. The Project Director, Prof. Hava Tirosh-Samuelson, is an intellectual historian whose interests and teaching encompass Jewish intellectual history, European intellectual history, feminist philosophy, religion and ecology, and religion and science. She writes on the interplay between rationalism and mysticism in Judaism, the cultural interaction between Judaism, Christianity, and Islam in the Middle Ages, Jewish culture in Renaissance Italy, feminism and Jewish philosophy, Jewish attitudes toward the natural world, and Judaism and science. Prior to joining the faculty of ASU in 1999, she has taught at Columbia University (1982-88), Emory University (1988-1991), and Indiana University (1991-1999). She holds a Ph.D. in Jewish Philosophy from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (1978) and a B.A. in Religious Studies (1974) from SUNY-Stony Brook. Prof. Tirosh-Samuelson is the author of Between Worlds: The Life and Work of Rabbi David ben Judah Messer Leon (SUNY Press, 1991), which received the award of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem for the best work in Jewish history for that year, and the author of Happiness in Premodern Judaism: Virtue, Knowledge and Well-Being in Pre-modern Judaism (Hebrew Union College Press, 2003). She is also the editor of Judaism and Ecology: Created World and Revealed World (Harvard University Press, 2002) and Women and Gender in Jewish Philosophy (Indiana University Press, 2004). In addition to these books, she has authored articles in peer-reviewed journals such as Science in Context , Zygon: Journal for Religion and Science , Feminist Theology , and AJS Review, and books chapters in collections such as Cambridge History of Medieval Jewish Philosophy , Routledge History of Jewish Philosophy , and the Jewish Studies Bible . She currently works on a book titled Judaism and Nature (Rowman & Littlefield), and co-edits Judaism and the Phenomenon of Life: The Legacy of Hans Jonas (Brill Academic Publishers) with Prof. Christian Wiese ( Erfurt University , Germany ). In addition to her academic post, Prof. Tirosh-Samuelson is on the editorial boards of the Journal of American Academy of Religion and Studies in Medieval and Renaissance History, the Academic Advisory Board of Metanexus Institute on Science and Religion and the Academic Advisory Board of the Center for the Study of Religion and Conflict at ASU. She consults various national granting institutions, academic journals, and publishing houses about grant applications and manuscripts submitted for publications. |
Principal Investigator |
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Hava Tirosh-Samuelson, |
Contact Information |
Hava Tirosh-Samuelson |
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