Practical Wisdom Specialty Seminar

Thinking Critically About Technology
in the Age of AI

Practical Wisdom Seminar

Thinking Critically About Technology in the Age of AI

How do we begin to wrap our heads around the sudden omnipresence of artificial intelligence in almost every aspect of our lives? Have we been launched into completely new territory, without any precedent or rules? Where do we begin to try to take a measure of this powerful, and unregulated, force?

This special seminar will turn to three pre-AI texts, ancient and modern, that help us to frame our thinking about the right use of technology in the human world.

See below for full seminar description and book list.

4-week seminar
Weekly on Mondays at 7:00pm Central
July 28 to August 18, 2025
Seminar leader: Jesse Peterson
Cost:
- $100 for GBGD Seminar Program members
- $200 for non members SPECIAL OFFER FOR NON-PROGRAM MEMBERS: $100

In this four-week discussion-based seminar, we will read from one ancient and two modern texts that think critically about technology and its role in human society.

We start with Plato’s dialogue Phaedrus, where Socrates examines the effect of a technology (writing!) on the human mind and soul. In the following weeks we will read from two 20th century classics that turn a piercing eye on technology and society: Jacques Ellul’s The Technological Society (1954), and Albert Borgmann’s Technology and the Character of Contemporary Life: A Philosophical Inquiry (1984).

These three texts, while all predating the advent of AI (artificial intelligence) as we now know it, will expose us to the kind of crucial philosophical and historical reflection on technology that is often missing from current conversations.

SEMINAR BOOK LIST

Plato, Phaedrus
found in
Plato: Complete Works
Edited by John M. Cooper
Hackett Publishing, 1997
ISBN-13: 978-0872203495
available on Amazon

Jacques Ellul, The Technological Society
Vintage, 1964
ISBN-13: 978-0394703909
available on Amazon

[participants will receive a .pdf with selections from the following work:]
Albert Borgmann, Technology and the Character of Contemporary Life: A Philosophical Inquiry
University of Chicago Press, 1984
ISBN-13: 978-0226066295
available on Amazon

Seminar Leader

Dr. Jesse Peterson is an assistant professor of biblical studies at George Fox University, in Newberg, Oregon. He teaches biblical and classical literature, and is on the core faculty of the Great Books Honors Program.

Jesse earned a PhD in Hebrew Bible from Durham University (UK) in 2021. His first book, Qohelethand the Philosophy of Value (Cambridge University Press, 2025) is an exegetical and philosophical study of Ecclesiastes. His academic research brings biblical texts and traditions into dialogue with philosophy, both ancient and modern.

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