Functional images of your brain, maps of your genes, evolutionary explanations of your love interests. Almost daily, scientific discoveries and technological advances are announced that challenge long-held beliefs about the nature of being human. What physical characteristics support our memories and hopes? What capacities differentiate us from other animals? In what ways are we smarter than the smartest machines? New knowledge is expanding our self-understanding even as it blurs distinctions between humans, animals, and machines.

University instructors, who are beginning to offer new courses in these interdisciplinary areas, face the challenge of absorbing large quantities of information from a variety of fields and making it intelligible to their students. Students in the sciences and in the humanities are grappling with the issues because of the implications for the study of philosophy, history, the arts, and religion. To date, no single initiative has tried to gather and digest the information, ponder its implications, and help teachers organize it for their students.

The National Humanities Center has taken on this task. With the support of the Teagle Foundation, the Center announces On the Human (www.onthehuman.org), a website designed by and for professors teaching courses on humans and our relations to animals and machines.

On the Human serves a growing network of scholars in the humanities, sciences, and engineering disciplines discussing central questions of human existence. The site, free and open to the public, assists in the development and dissemination of cutting-edge courses on the question of the human. Participants work with colleagues in their own and other institutions and disciplines developing materials for classes from introduction to philosophy and biology to medical ethics to the future of microcomputing.

On the Human grows out of the NHC's three-year initiative "Autonomy, Singularity, Creativity: The Human and the Humanities" (ASC) which attracted the participation of many of the world's leading minds from the sciences and the humanities in a sustained conversation on controversial issues emerging about "the human" within and among their disciplines. Participation in these discussions will now be broadened to include a wider and more diverse audience as various international experts take turns appearing as Commentators for On the Human. In the next few months, world-renowned scientists and philosophers will take questions and comments, including:

The issues to be discussed cut to the heart of what it means to be human. "Recently," notes Gary Comstock, editor-in-chief of On the Human, "a monkey was hooked up to a computer at Duke University and taught to move a cursor with just its thoughts. Experiments like these raise fundamental questions about who we are, how our relations with machines and animals are evolving, and what ethical obligations constrain research in these areas." Comstock, a Fellow of the National Humanities Center and professor of philosophy at NC State University, emphasizes the usefulness of the new website: "On the Human provides a forum for everyone interested in investigating these matters in the classroom."

Geoffrey Harpham, president and director of the National Humanities Center agrees. "Interest in the ASC initiative has grown exponentially over the past three years, and, thanks to the Teagle foundation, we have been able to expand our outreach to teachers working with these topics. Already this year, we are seeing courses being taught at a number of colleges and universities that are based on ASC, and I expect that the number of such courses will increase steadily as word gets around," said Harpham. "On the Human is an exciting new development at the Center, making our expertise in humanities research and resource development available to an even wider audience in the higher education community."

» A brief summary about On the Human (PDF).

About the National Humanities Center

The National Humanities Center, located in the Research Triangle Park of North Carolina, is a privately incorporated, independent institute for advanced study in the humanities. Since 1978 the Center has awarded fellowships to leading scholars in the humanities, whose work at the Center has resulted in the publication of more than 1,200 books in all fields of humanistic study. The Center is also a leader in providing professional training and curricular materials for teachers in America's secondary schools and universities. The Center also hosts regular public events including lectures, colloquia, concerts, and exhibits to encourage greater public awareness and understanding of the importance of the humanities in American life.

For further information about Center initiatives, including On the Human, contact:

Don Solomon, Director of Communications
dsolomon@nationalhumanitiescenter.org
919-549-0661