THE TIKVAH SCHOLARS PROGRAM

Judaism, Technology, and Bioethics

Daniel Mark | July 1 - 5

There is no doubt that technological advances of the last century have changed the world in important ways. From man’s ability to play God by creating life in a laboratory to man’s ability to play God by destroying the human race with nuclear weapons, technological advance requires careful attention to mankind’s relationship to science and power.

From a Torah perspective, Judaism provides not only guidelines for the prosaic aspects of daily living but values that shape one’s approach to life’s most serious questions. If so, beyond the specific legal prescriptions of dos and don’ts, what framework does Judaism offer for regulating the use of seemingly unprecedented technology or for ethics in general? Does Judaism adequately address the cutting edge of modern technology? If not, can it, and how?

This course begins with a brief exploration of a Jewish approach to ethics in comparison with the ethical approaches of other major religions. The course then examines contemporary Jewish approaches with respect to the ethics of technology in particular, both their promise and their possible limits, in theory or in practice. Finally, the course turns to the issues of artificial reproductive technology and weapons of mass destruction to test the application of Judaism to these highly vexed ethical issues.

The goal of this course is to consider what it means for Judaism to have a system of ethics through the lens of examining a Jewish approach (or Jewish approaches) to technology. Students will be challenged to investigate whether Judaism can have systematic ethics; what system of ethics, if any, Judaism might have; and what the consequences are of such a system (or the lack of one) for Jews’ engagement with some of the most pressing questions of our time.