What is human? What distinguishes humans from nonhuman animals? How do we exist as a species and a civilization? How are we enmeshed within the environment? The discussion around human nature and human’s relation to the world is the existential question of our kind and thus one of the most essential themes in philosophy, intellectual history, history of science, as well as literature. By inquiring into “The Human and the Nonhuman” throughout Western history, we will discuss the foundation and evolvement of Western ethics, how separation from animals has defined the human society, how the boundaries gradually become shaky and uncanny under new lights of science and technology, how sciences and humanities have constantly dialogued with each other and stayed in tension, how we perceive our position in the world from different ecological, social, or speculative perspectives, etc. With unfolding ecological crises in the age of the Anthropocene and game-changing technologies toward a transhumanist or posthumanist world, revisiting these historical ideas and debates would prepare us to observe our larger world, reflect on our individual and collective existence, engage sciences with humanities, and better understand and face our contemporary environmental, social, bodily, and affective mutation.

本课程以“人类与非人类世界”为主题，串联起西方从古至今在文采和思辨性上俱佳、背景丰富且影响深远的名短篇。本课的设计基于三个目的：1）引导学生细读西方人文经典文本，所选篇目难度和篇幅适当，适合用以提高学生的文本感受力和分析力；2）作为文学史和思想史上的名篇，每篇文本又都可以小窥大，各自代表一段重要的历史思想、文化主题或文学风格，适合用以为学生提供关于西方人文演变的通识教育；3）全课篇目围绕一个核心主题，有重点地带领学生进行思辨。通过西方从古至今的“人类与非人类世界”主题，可以展现西方伦理学的基础和近代变迁，人与动物的界限如何定义了人类社会又如何被挑战，历史上科学与人文思想的不断对话，不同的生态、科技或社会视角如何理解和反思人在世界中的地位和与万物的关联。这些话题都可以启发学生对世界的观察，对人之为人的存在意识，省视人文与科学的关系，更智慧地面对当下的气候与生态、生物技术与人工智能等议题。