We can’t address these challenges piecemeal. The solutions to these future challenges are interwoven. Simple science education alone is insufficient to correct this. And ethical reflection on them devoid of a scientific basis falls flat. Rather, people best prepared to deal with and lead in the face of future challenges are those who have acquired two sets of knowledge: (a) detailed scientific understanding of the problems and (b) the creative, ethical, and logical skills to generate and apply solutions.

In this pair of courses -- PHIL288E and BIOL110 -- we will therefore tackle problems of the future from both philosophical and biological perspectives, integrating knowledge from both fields, and along the way, reflect on ways to make progress on future problems. In PHIL288E, we’ll be paying special attention to the way the Catholic Intellectual Tradition may provide us with distinctive resources. In BIOL110, we’ll be dissecting current biological primary literature on topics that present existential challenges to humanity and human civilization. In both classes, we’ll be pairing with community partners to bring our work beyond the university community. What’s more: we’ll be framing our units using some of our favorite science fiction texts.

The learning goals for the courses are as follows:

• Explain the contributions major philosophical questions make to the understanding of ourselves as humans

• Articulate some of the major problems and range of responses central to philosophical inquiry

• Be able to demonstrate understanding of the various approaches to the philosophical study of human culture and civilization

• Appreciate the two-way nature of science communication and community-based research.

• Interact with and learn from a community group (e.g. a faith community) to understand how community members view the topics covered in the course, where there might be challenges, and how those challenges might be overcome.

• Demonstrate their understanding of the scientific method, the diversity of life, the classification of organisms , cell structure and function , the chromosomal and molecular basis of inheritance and the organ systems of the human body.

Philosophy and Biology for the Future is only possible because of the generous support of Notre Dame’s Institute for Ethics and the Common Good, Notre Dame’s Philosophy as a Way of Life project, Loyola’s Hank Center for Catholic Intellectual Heritage, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Interfaith America, the National Endowment for Humanities, and the Inklings Project.