Welcome to the OpenSeminar

On the Human

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The OpenSeminar On the Human (OSOTH) is a repository of free, expert-maintained, undergraduate-level courses about persons and quasi-persons (e.g., animals, artificial intelligences). As persons are biological and autobiographical creatures, we work in the sciences and humanities to explore issues in metaphysics and biology, ethics and neuroscience, experimental philosophy and evolutionary psychology.

The OPEN version of the course is structured around three topics: humans, animals, and machines. The purpose of this course is to deepen one's understanding of the human using philosophical and scientific modes of inquiry.

In addition to a syllabus and calendar, the OPEN course offers discussion questions and a virtual community. OSOTH is easy to use, cost-effective, adaptable, and designed to assist instructors who may lack teaching experience in this interdisciplinary area.

Students

You are welcome to take this course. Look below for a button marked Student Entrance. Click there, then follow this path:

1. Select your institution:

2. Select your professor:

3. Select your course:

Instructors

We encourage you to use these resources and will help you customize a section for your students.*

First-time instructors typically teach one of our syllabi. Experienced teachers design their own courses by adding readings, changing the order of topics, and introducing links. Each new syllabus we add creates synergistic benefits for everyone. In addition to the basic course, peruse the other offerings, checking back for novel ideas.

*Give it a try. We charge no fees, thanks to the generosity of the National Humanities Center and Teagle Foundation. Open your own experimental section by sending an email to pbarron@nhc.rtp.nc.us.

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OSOTH is being developed by humanities scholars and scientists involved in On the Human, an initiative of the National Humanities Center. All materials are used with permission or pursuant to the fair use provisions of Section 107 of Title 17, the United States Copyright law. Further uses may be subject to the copyright law. Materials may be used for non-profit educational purposes if given the customary attribution and notification is sent to the managing editor at pbarron@nhc.rtp.nc.us. Commercial use is prohibited.

OpenSeminar On the Human by Gary Comstock, ed., is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.