David DeGrazia
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780195389630
- eISBN:
- 9780199949731
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195389630.003.0003
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy, Philosophy of Science
This chapter addresses ethical issues provoked by the prospect of genetic enhancement. It begins with a brief exploration of the concept of enhancement. Next, several examples of possible future ...
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This chapter addresses ethical issues provoked by the prospect of genetic enhancement. It begins with a brief exploration of the concept of enhancement. Next, several examples of possible future genetic enhancements are presented. Eight of these have a clear basis in current scientific understanding and in that sense may be considered nearer-term; two others, concerning post-humans and post-persons, are far-fetched and have the feel of science fiction, given the current state of technology, but are certainly conceivable. The chapter then provides a perspicuous analysis of the concept of human identity, a concept frequently invoked in objections to biomedical enhancement. Providing the bulk of the ethical analysis, the next two sections develop and address concerns about (1) authenticity (an identity-related value) and (2) perceived risks to human nature (and possibly humanity itself), referring back to the previously described possibilities for genetic enhancement. The overall position that is defended could be described as fairly liberal.Less
This chapter addresses ethical issues provoked by the prospect of genetic enhancement. It begins with a brief exploration of the concept of enhancement. Next, several examples of possible future genetic enhancements are presented. Eight of these have a clear basis in current scientific understanding and in that sense may be considered nearer-term; two others, concerning post-humans and post-persons, are far-fetched and have the feel of science fiction, given the current state of technology, but are certainly conceivable. The chapter then provides a perspicuous analysis of the concept of human identity, a concept frequently invoked in objections to biomedical enhancement. Providing the bulk of the ethical analysis, the next two sections develop and address concerns about (1) authenticity (an identity-related value) and (2) perceived risks to human nature (and possibly humanity itself), referring back to the previously described possibilities for genetic enhancement. The overall position that is defended could be described as fairly liberal.
Deborah Christie
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780823234462
- eISBN:
- 9780823241255
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823234462.003.0006
- Subject:
- Literature, Mythology and Folklore
This chapter traces the modern image of zombies back to Richard Matheson's 1954 novella, I Am Legend, and George Romero's 1968 film Night of the Living Dead. The chapter argues that because readers ...
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This chapter traces the modern image of zombies back to Richard Matheson's 1954 novella, I Am Legend, and George Romero's 1968 film Night of the Living Dead. The chapter argues that because readers and audiences most closely identify with the survivors of an apocalyptic event, they often miss the larger implications of such narratives. Within many apocalyptic narratives, such as a zombie apocalypse, there is a overlying message of violent, transformative renewal that asks us to question normative humanist categories. Matheson and Romero both pointedly direct our attention back on our own body politic and demonstrate humanity's inability to discern its own capacity for inhuman behaviour.Less
This chapter traces the modern image of zombies back to Richard Matheson's 1954 novella, I Am Legend, and George Romero's 1968 film Night of the Living Dead. The chapter argues that because readers and audiences most closely identify with the survivors of an apocalyptic event, they often miss the larger implications of such narratives. Within many apocalyptic narratives, such as a zombie apocalypse, there is a overlying message of violent, transformative renewal that asks us to question normative humanist categories. Matheson and Romero both pointedly direct our attention back on our own body politic and demonstrate humanity's inability to discern its own capacity for inhuman behaviour.
Deborah Christie and Sarah Juliet Lauro (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780823234462
- eISBN:
- 9780823241255
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823234462.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Mythology and Folklore
The zombie is ubiquitous in popular culture: from comic books to video games, to internet applications and homemade films, zombies are all around us. Investigating the zombie from an ...
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The zombie is ubiquitous in popular culture: from comic books to video games, to internet applications and homemade films, zombies are all around us. Investigating the zombie from an interdisciplinary perspective, with an emphasis on deep analytical engagement with diverse kinds of texts, this book addresses some of the more unlikely venues where zombies are found while providing the reader with a classic overview of the zombie's folkloric and cinematic history. What has the zombie metaphor meant in the past? Why does it continue to be so prevalent in our culture? Where others have looked at the zombie as an allegory for humanity's inner machinations or claimed the zombie as capitalist critique, this book seeks to provide an archaeology of the zombie-tracing its lineage from Haiti, mapping its various cultural transformations, and suggesting the post-humanist direction in which the zombie is ultimately heading. Approaching the zombie from many different points of view, the chapters here look across history and across media. Though they represent various theoretical perspectives, the whole makes a cohesive argument: The zombie has not just evolved within narratives; it has evolved in a way that transforms narrative. This book announces a new post-zombie, even before the boundaries of this rich and mysterious myth have been completely charted.Less
The zombie is ubiquitous in popular culture: from comic books to video games, to internet applications and homemade films, zombies are all around us. Investigating the zombie from an interdisciplinary perspective, with an emphasis on deep analytical engagement with diverse kinds of texts, this book addresses some of the more unlikely venues where zombies are found while providing the reader with a classic overview of the zombie's folkloric and cinematic history. What has the zombie metaphor meant in the past? Why does it continue to be so prevalent in our culture? Where others have looked at the zombie as an allegory for humanity's inner machinations or claimed the zombie as capitalist critique, this book seeks to provide an archaeology of the zombie-tracing its lineage from Haiti, mapping its various cultural transformations, and suggesting the post-humanist direction in which the zombie is ultimately heading. Approaching the zombie from many different points of view, the chapters here look across history and across media. Though they represent various theoretical perspectives, the whole makes a cohesive argument: The zombie has not just evolved within narratives; it has evolved in a way that transforms narrative. This book announces a new post-zombie, even before the boundaries of this rich and mysterious myth have been completely charted.
Sorcha Ní Fhlainn
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780823234462
- eISBN:
- 9780823241255
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823234462.003.0010
- Subject:
- Literature, Mythology and Folklore
This chapter offers a provocative study of dehumanization—or zombification—in several post-modern films that explore the depersonalizing force of the military-industrial complex on the psyche of ...
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This chapter offers a provocative study of dehumanization—or zombification—in several post-modern films that explore the depersonalizing force of the military-industrial complex on the psyche of ordinary humans. It argues that the resulting post-human solider exists in a liminal space between our traditional understanding of zombies and a contemporary awareness of victims of post-traumatic stress disorder. The chapter offers an unflinching analysis of the dehumanization of the person, through the removal of individual thought, explicitly characterized by soldiers in modern warfare, especially in films like 28 Days Later, Universal Soldier, Full Metal Jacket, and Jacob's Ladder.Less
This chapter offers a provocative study of dehumanization—or zombification—in several post-modern films that explore the depersonalizing force of the military-industrial complex on the psyche of ordinary humans. It argues that the resulting post-human solider exists in a liminal space between our traditional understanding of zombies and a contemporary awareness of victims of post-traumatic stress disorder. The chapter offers an unflinching analysis of the dehumanization of the person, through the removal of individual thought, explicitly characterized by soldiers in modern warfare, especially in films like 28 Days Later, Universal Soldier, Full Metal Jacket, and Jacob's Ladder.
Jean-Michel Rabaté
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780823270859
- eISBN:
- 9780823270903
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823270859.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century Literature and Modernism
This book offers a new interpretation of the links between literature, ethics, and philosophy in Beckett’s works. It surveys the entire corpus with a focus on the post-war period, when Beckett found ...
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This book offers a new interpretation of the links between literature, ethics, and philosophy in Beckett’s works. It surveys the entire corpus with a focus on the post-war period, when Beckett found a wider audience and broke from his mentors Joyce and Proust. Beckett’s decision to write in French, and his subsequent bilingualism, were no accidents but followed a program placing him among post-war writers who rejected Sartre and developed a “writing degree zero” as offering a post-Holocaust literary expression. Two philosophers examined in this historical context are Adorno and Badiou. If they often contradict each other, they converge on many points: Adorno sees that one can be a poet after Auschwitz; Badiou grasps how one can combine beautiful forms and a reduction of life to its generic essentials. For both, Beckett offers a lesson in courage, showing that life is worth living in spite of innumerable reasons to despair. The theme of animals permits a further exploration of life reduced to survival. A red thread comes from Beckett’s friendship with Bataille and their fascination with the Marquis de Sade. Both debunk post-war humanism. Bataille’s philosophy of the Impossible, of excess and transgression, was rephrased in a muted manner by Beckett who preferred Dante, Descartes, Geulincx, Kant and Freud to sketch an ethics of humility. All the while, his works are marked by an inimitable sense of metaphysical comedy that creates an infectious and enduring laughter.Less
This book offers a new interpretation of the links between literature, ethics, and philosophy in Beckett’s works. It surveys the entire corpus with a focus on the post-war period, when Beckett found a wider audience and broke from his mentors Joyce and Proust. Beckett’s decision to write in French, and his subsequent bilingualism, were no accidents but followed a program placing him among post-war writers who rejected Sartre and developed a “writing degree zero” as offering a post-Holocaust literary expression. Two philosophers examined in this historical context are Adorno and Badiou. If they often contradict each other, they converge on many points: Adorno sees that one can be a poet after Auschwitz; Badiou grasps how one can combine beautiful forms and a reduction of life to its generic essentials. For both, Beckett offers a lesson in courage, showing that life is worth living in spite of innumerable reasons to despair. The theme of animals permits a further exploration of life reduced to survival. A red thread comes from Beckett’s friendship with Bataille and their fascination with the Marquis de Sade. Both debunk post-war humanism. Bataille’s philosophy of the Impossible, of excess and transgression, was rephrased in a muted manner by Beckett who preferred Dante, Descartes, Geulincx, Kant and Freud to sketch an ethics of humility. All the while, his works are marked by an inimitable sense of metaphysical comedy that creates an infectious and enduring laughter.
Ella Brians
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748638642
- eISBN:
- 9780748652679
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748638642.003.0006
- Subject:
- Philosophy, General
This chapter examines the ‘techno-fantasy’ of a disembodied thought in cyber and post-human discourses, and discusses the importance of Gilles Deleuze's thoughts in articulating an embodied ...
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This chapter examines the ‘techno-fantasy’ of a disembodied thought in cyber and post-human discourses, and discusses the importance of Gilles Deleuze's thoughts in articulating an embodied relationship to technology. It discusses Deleuze's rejection of transcendent thinking and his ontological critique of representation, and suggests that his work can be critically and productively employed to challenge certain tendencies in cyber theory, particularly the central question of the body, its materiality, and its relation to identity. The chapter contends that there are very good reasons for maintaining fidelity to Deleuze's materialism and his repeated rejection of any transcendent worldview.Less
This chapter examines the ‘techno-fantasy’ of a disembodied thought in cyber and post-human discourses, and discusses the importance of Gilles Deleuze's thoughts in articulating an embodied relationship to technology. It discusses Deleuze's rejection of transcendent thinking and his ontological critique of representation, and suggests that his work can be critically and productively employed to challenge certain tendencies in cyber theory, particularly the central question of the body, its materiality, and its relation to identity. The chapter contends that there are very good reasons for maintaining fidelity to Deleuze's materialism and his repeated rejection of any transcendent worldview.
Eleonore Stump
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780198813866
- eISBN:
- 9780191851605
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198813866.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion in the Ancient World
This chapter takes as its starting point the Thomistic interpretation of the doctrine of the atonement, on which the role of the atonement is to bring a human person into a life in grace; and it ...
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This chapter takes as its starting point the Thomistic interpretation of the doctrine of the atonement, on which the role of the atonement is to bring a human person into a life in grace; and it argues against one interpretation—Eckhart’s or else an Eckhart-like interpretation—of what a life in grace is. Understanding the internal psychic state of a person in grace is a help to understanding the atonement, but this chapter argues that the psychic state Eckhart recommends for life in grace is actually pernicious to the traditionally understood purpose of both suffering and atonement. Whatever the internal configuration is of a human person in a condition of mutual indwelling with God, it is not the self-destructive absence of desire urged by Eckhart. Aquinas’s view that Christ’s prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane is the model for such a state is much more promising.Less
This chapter takes as its starting point the Thomistic interpretation of the doctrine of the atonement, on which the role of the atonement is to bring a human person into a life in grace; and it argues against one interpretation—Eckhart’s or else an Eckhart-like interpretation—of what a life in grace is. Understanding the internal psychic state of a person in grace is a help to understanding the atonement, but this chapter argues that the psychic state Eckhart recommends for life in grace is actually pernicious to the traditionally understood purpose of both suffering and atonement. Whatever the internal configuration is of a human person in a condition of mutual indwelling with God, it is not the self-destructive absence of desire urged by Eckhart. Aquinas’s view that Christ’s prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane is the model for such a state is much more promising.
Alistair Brown
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781526122162
- eISBN:
- 9781526138767
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9781526122162.003.0010
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
In evaluating the interplay of biological and social interpretations of the incest taboo, most literary commentaries have used fiction to show how notions of incest have changed historically through ...
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In evaluating the interplay of biological and social interpretations of the incest taboo, most literary commentaries have used fiction to show how notions of incest have changed historically through the variable of culture; in these accounts, the biological body remains a constant, whilst society adapts its parameters for what counts as incest. However, science fiction introduces material embodiment itself as a variable, as it hypothesises bodies that can be altered (e.g. through genetics) or even eliminated (e.g. through virtualising the mind via a computer). Through comparing three science fiction novels, this chapter evaluates whether such changing types of embodiment will also change the way in which society approaches the incest taboo, or even remove it entirely.Less
In evaluating the interplay of biological and social interpretations of the incest taboo, most literary commentaries have used fiction to show how notions of incest have changed historically through the variable of culture; in these accounts, the biological body remains a constant, whilst society adapts its parameters for what counts as incest. However, science fiction introduces material embodiment itself as a variable, as it hypothesises bodies that can be altered (e.g. through genetics) or even eliminated (e.g. through virtualising the mind via a computer). Through comparing three science fiction novels, this chapter evaluates whether such changing types of embodiment will also change the way in which society approaches the incest taboo, or even remove it entirely.
Gregory E. Kaebnick
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199347216
- eISBN:
- 9780199347247
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199347216.003.0008
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy, General
Can it make sense to say that biomedical enhancements to human beings are morally unappealing? This chapter begins by considering what “human nature” must mean in the context of the debate about ...
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Can it make sense to say that biomedical enhancements to human beings are morally unappealing? This chapter begins by considering what “human nature” must mean in the context of the debate about human enhancement and argues that a detailed theory of a fixed human nature is not necessary to ground objections to human enhancement. It explores the range of moral arguments against human enhancement, including the positions of Leon Kass, Francis Fukuyama, Paul Lauritzen, Michael Sandel, Jürgen Habermas, and Thomas Murray. The chapter argues that none of the arguments gives conclusive reasons to regard human enhancement across the board as violating publicly enforceable moral obligations. It argues instead for working toward a more complex view of enhancement, in which some forms of enhancement might be considered impermissible, some could actually be obligatory, and many would be regarded as a matter of personal moral ideals.Less
Can it make sense to say that biomedical enhancements to human beings are morally unappealing? This chapter begins by considering what “human nature” must mean in the context of the debate about human enhancement and argues that a detailed theory of a fixed human nature is not necessary to ground objections to human enhancement. It explores the range of moral arguments against human enhancement, including the positions of Leon Kass, Francis Fukuyama, Paul Lauritzen, Michael Sandel, Jürgen Habermas, and Thomas Murray. The chapter argues that none of the arguments gives conclusive reasons to regard human enhancement across the board as violating publicly enforceable moral obligations. It argues instead for working toward a more complex view of enhancement, in which some forms of enhancement might be considered impermissible, some could actually be obligatory, and many would be regarded as a matter of personal moral ideals.
Sophia Rose Arjana
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- December 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199324927
- eISBN:
- 9780190207298
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199324927.003.0007
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter looks at how the attacks of September 11, 2001, affected the production of Muslim monsters in American popular culture and draws conclusions regarding the importance of Muslim monsters ...
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This chapter looks at how the attacks of September 11, 2001, affected the production of Muslim monsters in American popular culture and draws conclusions regarding the importance of Muslim monsters in the Western imaginaire from the Middle Ages to the present. Political discourse, film, and television feature Muslim characters generated by the fear and anxiety associated with the 9/11 attacks. These monsters exhibit the Saracen doxology first established in the medieval era that is substantiated by Orientalist neo-colonial ideologies in vogue in recent years. Consequences of this discourse include the punishments meted out on Muslim bodies, defined by some scholars as post-human, at Abu Ghraib and other sites of horror. This book suggests that the dehumanization of Muslim men, which is seen in the Muslim monsters documented in this study, has led to the torture and murder of Muslim subjects.Less
This chapter looks at how the attacks of September 11, 2001, affected the production of Muslim monsters in American popular culture and draws conclusions regarding the importance of Muslim monsters in the Western imaginaire from the Middle Ages to the present. Political discourse, film, and television feature Muslim characters generated by the fear and anxiety associated with the 9/11 attacks. These monsters exhibit the Saracen doxology first established in the medieval era that is substantiated by Orientalist neo-colonial ideologies in vogue in recent years. Consequences of this discourse include the punishments meted out on Muslim bodies, defined by some scholars as post-human, at Abu Ghraib and other sites of horror. This book suggests that the dehumanization of Muslim men, which is seen in the Muslim monsters documented in this study, has led to the torture and murder of Muslim subjects.
Christopher Coker
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199327898
- eISBN:
- 9780199388134
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199327898.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Conflict Politics and Policy
This book examines how technology is transforming the way we think about and fight war, taking three major changes that are driving this process: cybernetic technologies that are folding soldiers ...
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This book examines how technology is transforming the way we think about and fight war, taking three major changes that are driving this process: cybernetic technologies that are folding soldiers into a cybernetic system that will allow the military to read their thoughts and emotions, and mould them accordingly; the coexistence of men and robots in the battle-spaces of tomorrow; and the extent to which we may be able to re-engineer warriors through pharmacological manipulation. By referring back to the Greeks who defined the contours of war for us, it shows how we are in danger of losing touch with our humanity—the name we give not only to a species but the virtues we deem it to embody. The journey from Greeks to Geeks may be a painful one. War can only be rendered more humane if we stay in touch with the ancestors, yet unfortunately we are planning to subcontract our ethical choices to machines. In revaluing technology, are we devaluing our humanity, or the post-human condition, changing our subjectivity and thus the existential dimension of war by changing our relationship with technology both functionally and performatively?Less
This book examines how technology is transforming the way we think about and fight war, taking three major changes that are driving this process: cybernetic technologies that are folding soldiers into a cybernetic system that will allow the military to read their thoughts and emotions, and mould them accordingly; the coexistence of men and robots in the battle-spaces of tomorrow; and the extent to which we may be able to re-engineer warriors through pharmacological manipulation. By referring back to the Greeks who defined the contours of war for us, it shows how we are in danger of losing touch with our humanity—the name we give not only to a species but the virtues we deem it to embody. The journey from Greeks to Geeks may be a painful one. War can only be rendered more humane if we stay in touch with the ancestors, yet unfortunately we are planning to subcontract our ethical choices to machines. In revaluing technology, are we devaluing our humanity, or the post-human condition, changing our subjectivity and thus the existential dimension of war by changing our relationship with technology both functionally and performatively?
Simon Palfrey
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- January 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780226150642
- eISBN:
- 9780226150789
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226150789.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, 16th-century and Renaissance Literature
This section introduces Edgar/Tom’s role as one that epitomizes Shakespeare’s radical testing of theatrical, political, experiential, and metaphysical possibility. It also explains how the book will ...
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This section introduces Edgar/Tom’s role as one that epitomizes Shakespeare’s radical testing of theatrical, political, experiential, and metaphysical possibility. It also explains how the book will be a sustained reading of King Lear. The Edgar-part witnesses, suffers, or refracts everything in the playworld. It distils and explodes theatrical form. It moves in the shadowlands between here and elsewhere, sense and transcendence. This section summarizes how the book understands the relation between the Quarto and Folio Lear-texts, and how Edgar/Tom encapsulates this divided, layered textuality. It summarizes the sources of both Edgar and Tom of Bedlam, and the character’s history in criticism and performance. It explains how the character evades expected types, is at once human, non-human, and post-human, and thus resists easy accommodation or sentiments. The Edgar-part is very intimate to Shakespeare’s most intimate purposes. To get at its secrets, we need to pay unsleeping attention.Less
This section introduces Edgar/Tom’s role as one that epitomizes Shakespeare’s radical testing of theatrical, political, experiential, and metaphysical possibility. It also explains how the book will be a sustained reading of King Lear. The Edgar-part witnesses, suffers, or refracts everything in the playworld. It distils and explodes theatrical form. It moves in the shadowlands between here and elsewhere, sense and transcendence. This section summarizes how the book understands the relation between the Quarto and Folio Lear-texts, and how Edgar/Tom encapsulates this divided, layered textuality. It summarizes the sources of both Edgar and Tom of Bedlam, and the character’s history in criticism and performance. It explains how the character evades expected types, is at once human, non-human, and post-human, and thus resists easy accommodation or sentiments. The Edgar-part is very intimate to Shakespeare’s most intimate purposes. To get at its secrets, we need to pay unsleeping attention.
