Pascal Germann, Dr., History of Medicine, Bern University
Dr. Germann is a Swiss expert on the history of eugenics. Major works: Laboratorien der Vererbung Rassenforschung und Humangenetik in der Schweiz, 1900-1970 (2016).

The Future of Humanity (BA Lecture Series, FS 2019)

Where do we come from? Where do we go? These are basic questions of human life and societies in search of our destiny, our role in the world to come. In past centuries Christian eschatology determined the fate of the future world. But since 18th century’s enlightenment secular utopia compete and entangle with religious images of the future. A New Age is proclaimed. A new, more perfect image of the human being is designed, philosophically as in Russian biocosmism, the American transcendentalist movement or Western esotericism. In late 20th philosophers of posthumanism and transhumanism announced the end of the human era: humans and their values should be overcome by artificial intelligence and cyborgs, the merger of humans and technology. The so-called Singularity promises immortality and omniscience for humans and the expansion of artificial life into the universe.

This interdisciplinary lecture series (Ringvorlesung / cycle de conférence) unites contributions by philosophy, history, literature, religious studies and sociology. We will focus on the entanglement of science, religion, literature and philosophy in utopian visions from 19th century until today. An input by hard sciences by researchers from Fribourg’s Human-Ist Centre is also envisioned.

The lecture aims at the German and French speaking student bodies as well as international students.