This article seeks to critically examine and investigate the phenomenon known as Dark Academia, using Donna Tartt’s novel The Secret History as a representative and foundational text of the genre. Dark Academia, both as an aesthetic and subcultural current, is strongly rooted in fan culture, which amplifies its appeal through visual platforms, literary engagement, and performative identity. Key aspects of this cultural current include a fascination with classical learning, elitist educational settings, tragic beauty, and a romanticised view of intellectualism often intertwined with death, transgression, and existential questioning. The Secret History echoes many elements of the American Gothic tradition, embedding a persistent atmosphere of mystery, moral ambiguity, and psychological unease. Tartt’s characters resonate with figures from detective fiction and mythic crime narratives described by Dennis Porter, evoking the archetype of the troubled intellectual entangled in forbidden knowledge. The influence of the campus novel is also evident, particularly in the enclosed, elitist academic setting that becomes a crucible for moral decay and obsession. Furthermore, a psychoanalytic lens reveals how both characters and readers engage with repressed desires — erotic, violent, and otherwise taboo — projected through the aesthetics of Dark Academia. This cultural fascination is not limited to contemporary literature; it draws heavily from classical sources, such as Oscar Wilde’s Picture of Dorian Gray. Though Wilde’s work predates Dark Academia and does not directly align with it, the protagonist’s pursuit of beauty, knowledge, and hedonism positions it as an undeniable precursor to the genre’s sensibilities.

An era defined by rapid technological transformation, the ethical evaluation of artificial intelligence (AI) and biotechnology demands renewed theological reflection grounded in Scripture and contextual African theology. This study explores Genesis 1–3 as a theological framework for assessing ethical boundaries in artificial creation amidst advances in AI and biotechnology. It addresses a critical gap by integrating African theological perspectives into contemporary technology ethics, thereby enriching Sustainable Development discourse with faith-based moral insight. Through exegetical, theological, and ethical analyses informed by development studies, this research proposes a holistic framework for equitable and responsible technological innovation rooted in Scripture and contextual theology. As global technological progress transforms healthcare, agriculture, communication, and governance, many ethical debates remain detached from theological foundations such as imago Dei, divine sovereignty, and the Creator–creature relationship. These doctrines define the permissible limits of human creativity and serve as moral safeguards against technological hubris. Using a historical-critical and theological-ethical approach, Genesis 1–3 is interpreted as a paradigm that affirms human vocation and creativity (Gen 1:28; 2:15) while establishing divine boundaries that restrain moral excess. The Fall narrative (Gen 3) functions as a theological critique of humanity’s pursuit of autonomy through forbidden knowledge and unrestrained innovation. Drawing from interdisciplinary perspectives in theology, ethics, and science, this study fosters dialogue between Scripture and contemporary debates on AI and biotechnology. It integrates Christian ethics, African moral philosophy, and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs 3, 9, and 10) as frameworks for evaluating just and sustainable innovation. The research proposes a faith-informed ethical model that reinterprets these SDGs through a biblical lens emphasizing justice, stewardship, and human dignity. By balancing human creativity with divine limits and integrating imago Dei, divine sovereignty, and relational accountability, this study envisions a future where technological advancement serves the common good, promotes human dignity, preserves cultural integrity, and fosters global equity in harmony with God’s moral order for creation.

This paper reinterprets collective violence as the satisfaction of the egos aggressive instinct, moving beyond the entrenched dichotomy of biological determinism and social constructionism. Against the by-product hypothesis, which interprets coalitional killing as a cultural artifact or rational strategy, this paper exposes this view as a moralistic fallacy, an ideological attempt to renounce humanitys forbidden knowledge of its own aggressivity. What is often cited as proof of an innate aversion to killingthe initial revulsion of perpetratorsis here revealed as a symptom of the civilizing process: guilt and the vigilance of the superego transform instinctual repression into disgust. In modern warfare, what appears as rational duty or institutional obedience is reinterpreted here as a veiled form of instinctual satisfaction: dark fun disguised in moral rationalization. Therefore, collective violence is neither a Darwinian compulsion nor a cultural contingency, but civilizations negotiation with a repressed drive that incessantly seeks expression through sanctioned forms. By unveiling the aggressive instinct beneath civilizations ethical veneer, this paper illuminates how collective violence is a primordial epiphany disguised as rational duty. The conclusion insists that the way forward lies not in denial of this instinct but in its sublimation, i.e., in transforming destructive energies into activities that preserve life, transcend the self, and create values.

Cosmetics occupy a paradoxical role in human history, functioning both as sacred instruments of ritual and as contested symbols of vanity and seduction. This paper traces the shifting meanings of cosmetics across mythic, religious, and cultural contexts, with a focus on their enduring legacy. The narrative begins with the Book of Enoch, where the fallen angel Azazel imparts forbidden knowledge of beautification, framing cosmetics as a transgressive act that blurred the boundary between divine order and human artifice. Ancient Near Eastern and Mediterranean societies, however, incorporated pigments, perfumes, and ointments into religious rites, where adornment symbolized consecration as well as potential corruption. In the Hellenistic period, elite women, particularly in Ptolemaic and Seleucid contexts, wielded cosmetics as expressions of status and cultural agency, despite philosophical critiques that labeled them deceptive. Bridal adornment emerged as a sanctified practice, enshrined in Jewish and early Christian traditions as both a ritual obligation and a symbol of spiritual fidelity. While Church Fathers such as Tertullian condemned cosmetic use, local customs maintained it as an essential expression of purity and joy. These ancient tensions persisted in subsequent religious debates, with rabbinic, Christian, and ascetic authorities negotiating the fine line between sanctification and vanity. Yet many ancient ingredients and ritual practices survive in modern beauty culture, revealing continuity beneath evolving meanings. Ultimately, cosmetics emerge as cultural constants-mutable in interpretation yet enduring in practice-embodying humanity's perennial effort to reconcile bodily fragility with ideals of beauty, power, and transcendence.

William Beckford's Vathek (1786) is a significant piece in the Orientalist literary genre. It combines beautiful Eastern art with deep questions about morality and the mind. This study examines how Beckford employed Orientalist imagery to discuss universal themes such as ambition, rebellion, and the pursuit of forbidden knowledge, which contravened the social and religious conventions of 18th-century England. The thesis demonstrates how Beckford subverts conventional portrayals of the East through a meticulous analysis of characters such as Vathek, Nouronihar, Carathis, and Emir Fakreddin. It also demonstrates the intricate interplay between Eastern environments and Western philosophical issues. This study posits that Vathek serves as both a celebration of the allure of Eastern culture and a critique of unrestrained human desire, drawing on historical examples such as the Abbasid dynasty and incorporating contemporary research on Orientalism and Gothic literature. Beckford's work becomes a complex commentary on moral ambiguity and the effects of crossing ethical lines when he puts the story in the context of Faustian and Gothic storytelling. It gives us lasting insights into how culture, power, and morality work together.

The article is devoted to the investigation of the cultural-anthropological aspects of structuring the human lifeworld, with a particular focus on the role of the horrific in the ontological structures of the personality. Special emphasis is placed on the social modifications of the phenomenon of the horrific in historical retrospect and in the framework conditions of contemporary Ukrainian society, where the horrific acquires an ontological status in models of life-creating activity during the wartime period. The study of the phenomenon of the horrific, carried out within the landscapes of the life-creating activity of a Ukrainian existential-anthropological philosopher, and the overcoming in the public consciousness of Ukrainians of the dogmatic understanding of Gogol exclusively as a Russian writer, occurred only during the era of independence. The inner drama of M. Gogol, which revolved around the torment of searching for his own identity, is today actualized by the military aggression of the Russian Federation, directed against the statehood, freedom, independence, and the right to free choice of Ukraine, which displays all the characteristics of overt ressentiment. Gogol's opposition of the living/the dead, the beautiful/the horrific, becomes ever more relevant in present-day practices, as a confrontation of the Ukrainian living world against the Russian dead world. The phenomenon of the horrific is comprehended and interpreted by M. Gogol as a complex sociocultural formation, rooted in the deep layers of ethnonational being and possessing a specific way of experiencing the horrific. Gogol's philosophy of horror presents several invariants: horror as an aesthetic effect – the fear of the “revelation” of the Other within oneself or the acquisition of “forbidden knowledge”; horror as a transgression of the boundary between the living/the dead, the corporeal/the sacred; fear as the core of human experience; fear as a mechanism of marginalization, etc. The phenomenon of the horrific is explored by the author on several levels – the mystical (“Viy”), the social (“The Government Inspector”), the existential (“The Overcoat”), and the metaphysical (“Dead Souls”). The horrific appears not only in literary creativity but also in the artist's life project, as evidenced by his epistolary legacy, religious quests, and life crises, as well as attempts at selfcreation, preserved in his spiritual biography and autobiographical texts. It is established that the dialectic of the beautiful and the horrific in Gogol's works is presented as the coexistence of the world of “living” and “dead” souls within the ontological perspective of the postcolonial elevation of the Ukrainian world and the personal-existential search for one's own identity. For Gogol, the comprehension of the horrific is not only a means of philosophical and literary cognition of reality but also the result of personal existential work within the practices of his own life-creation.

The article focuses on hitherto understudied Paracelsus (1835), an early dramatic poem by Robert Browning. The poem is discussed within a “Faustian typology” (H. Levin) with a two-fold intention: to see Faust in his relation to other archetypal figures (Prometheus, Lucifer, Ulysses), and compare Paracelsus to other Faust-like literary characters in Tennyson, Byron, and Balzac. The article provides an overview of the genesis of the poem and highlights some points in its critical reception. The article aims to explain what is the most characteristic about Browning’s interpretation of the Faustian theme: there is no contract with the devil and no plot concerning love and adventure; a tension between love and knowledge is important; and the poem has an ironic ending. Paracelsus’s monologues demonstrate that he shares the doctrine of “mystical panvitalism” (A. Koyré), a faith in the dynamic unity of the world-organism. It makes less relevant the problem of forbidden knowledge and punishment and leads to a conception of love that is rather pantheistic than Christian. It is possible to give an ambiguous interpretation to the final of the poem because of the irony towards Paracelsus’s ideas of natural philosophy.

Ibn al-Furak was one of the most influential hadith scholars in the fourth century. His prominence in the ‎field of hadith can be seen through his masterpieces, including Mushkil al-Hadīth. This book contains the ‎description and point of view of Imam Ibn Furak on the hadiths of khabariyyah attributes and their explanations. This ‎study is essential in analysing Imam Ibn Furak's facts on the meaning of hadiths of ‎ khabariyyah attributes due to his expertise in various disciplines. By observing the khabariyyah attributes of hadiths from ‎the correct perspective, the general public will gain accurate knowledge that aligns with the wishes of the ‎nuṣūṣ (textual) and the beliefs of the salaf. This study aims to identify Imam Ibn Furak's view on hadith khabariyyah attributes based on the content of the book Mushkil al-Hadīth. Next, the study formulates ‎the concept of understanding and interacting with khabariyyah attributes hadiths according to the beliefs of the Salaf. This study applies ‎the inductive method to obtain hadiths related to the description of the Salaf in the book Mushkil al-Hadīth. ‎Descriptive methods are carried out to describe and summarise Imam Ibn Furak's statement regarding the ‎concept of interacting with khabariyyah attributes hadiths. The study's findings show that Imam Ibn Furak has ‎explained the correct description of interacting with the hadiths of khabariyyah attributes and dispelled any ‎accusation that he used the forbidden knowledge of kalam. In addition, he often discusses Arabic language debates in the book Mushkil al-Hadīth. Overall, khabariyyah attributes hadiths not only need to be confirmed to be authentic, but they also need to be ‎based on the understanding of the Salaf that is in line with the guidance of the sunnah.‎

"Forbidden knowledge" claims are central to conspiracy theories, yet they have received little systematic study. Forbidden knowledge claims imply that information is censored or suppressed. Theoretically, forbidden knowledge could be alluring or alarming, depending on alignment with recipients' political worldviews. In three studies (N = 2363, two preregistered), we examined censorship claims about (conservative-aligned) controversial COVID-19 topics. In Studies 1a and 2 participants read COVID-19 claims framed as censored or not. Conservatives reported more attraction to and belief in the claims, regardless of censorship condition, while liberals showed decreased interest and belief when information was presented as censored. Study 1b revealed divergent interpretations of suppression motives: liberals assumed censored information was harmful or false, whereas conservatives deemed it valuable and true. In Study 2, conservatives made more critical thinking errors in a vaccine risk reasoning task when information was framed as censored. Findings reveal the polarizing effects of forbidden knowledge frames.

The paper draws a brief parallel between the works of Percy Bysshe Shelley Prometheus Unbound (1820) and of the Romanian Alexandru Philippide The Banishment of Prometheus (1922). It starts from the Greek writers’ image of Prometheus in Hesiod’s Works and Days and Theogony and in Aeschylus’ Prometheus Unbound. It also discusses Harold Bloom’s theory as it analyses the potential anxiety of influence of the Greek writers on Shelley and Philippide and it shows forth this effect seen as a “revisionary ratio” and named by Bloom (1973) a tessera, which means “completion and antithesis”. Both authors create a complex Prometheus character who holds multiple facets. Both authors shape Prometheus as a figure that contains the Western core of values, be they positive or negative. Prometheus actually commits the original sin for man’s sake. This haughty act can be compared to the biblical theft of forbidden knowledge. The author claims that the aim of this theft and the punishment meted out to Prometheus by Zeus are destined to estrange man from nature and from God and to push man into hubris. These also kindle man’s Faustian propensity which turns man into his own divinity, or which recasts the divinity according to man’s own design. If Shelley’s Prometheus turns out to be the Romantic hero achieving moral and intellectual perfection, being uplifted by authentic, selfless and noble goals, Philippide’s Prometheus is the disillusioned, bitter hero from a well-wrought ars poetica, who seeks another mankind on whom to bestow his love and selfless goodwill gestures. His poem represents a symbol of the artist living in his ivory tower failing to be understood by his fellow beings.

:<i>Forbidden Knowledge: Medicine, Science and Censorship in Early Modern Italy.</i>

The topic of book curses has not hitherto been discussed in Incantatio and is often ignored in the wider literature on magic and magic charms, perhaps because it is neither folklore nor literature. Book curses can serve two purposes. The obvious one is to try to prevent the theft of books by terrifying potential thieves; the less obvious one is to attract readers or buyers with promises of secret or forbidden knowledge. In our article, we shall examine one of each kind found together in a single Russian volume.

Abstract Quantum mechanics, in its orthodox version, imposes severe limits on what can be known, or even said, about the condition of a quantum system between two observations. A relatively new approach, based on so‐called “weak measurements”, suggests that such forbidden knowledge can be gained by studying the system's response to an inaccurate weakly perturbing measuring device. It goes further to propose revising the whole concept of physics variables, and offers various examples of counterintuitive quantum behavior. Both views go to the very heart of quantum theory, and yet are rarely compared directly. A new technique must either transcend the orthodox limits, or just prove that these limits are indeed necessary. Both possibilities are studied and orthodoxy is vindicated.

In 1600, Cesare Cremonini, one of the most "investigated thinkers in the early modern Catholic world," turned "from censured to censor" (p.73), accepting to participate in the "honorata impresa" of expurgating medical books.This calculated choice was meant to help his image in the eyes of the Church, integrating him with the authorities prosecuting him.This is just one of the multiple stories that Hannah Marcus deploys to illustrate and discuss the "complex interplay between intellectual control and the demand for prohibited knowledge in Counter-Reformation Italy" (p.34).Focusing on medical knowledge, Marcus explores the censorship mechanism as a negotiated process in intellectual and social respects.While Cremonini and his Paduan colleagues failed to fulfill the Catholic demands, other medical doctors volunteered with enthusiasm in the censoring effort, and hundreds of physicians asked and obtained licenses to read prohibited books.Marcus provides a fresh perspective on the complex, often conflictual, relationship between religion and science in the Counter-Reformation age, illustrating the tortuous reception of prohibited medical texts in Catholic Italy.In this context, prohibited knowledge intertwined with Catholic piety, resulting in both material and discursive effects.Between the 17th and the 18th centuries, forbidden books found their place on both private and great public Catholic libraries, becoming physically and intellectually integrated in Catholic culture.This was made possible by the continuous tension between preservation and obliteration, implied in the censorship mechanism.While the Catholic Roman Church acknowledged the importance of lay professional expertise to build Catholic knowledge, medical scholars were able to stress the utility of medical works, creating a discourse that intensified over the course of the 16th and 17th centuries.In Marcus' book, the utility of these books to the medical profession and the utility of this profession to Catholic society is addressed as a distinct historical subject.It was the imposition of expurgations and licensing to amplify the discourse on utility, which was endorsed by the ecclesiastical authorities and became one of the defining features of scientific culture.In an age of confessional divides, the Catholic censorship of medical books confessionalised scientific knowledge and defined the Catholic medical community.It altered methods of scholarship and nourished the ideal of science as a useful and practical form of knowledge.Since the opening of the Archives of the Congregation of the Doctrine of Faith (acdf) in 1998, historiography has largely investigated the Congregation

Overfitting in linear regression is broken down into two main causes. First, the formula for the estimator includes “forbidden knowledge” about training observations’ residuals, and it loses this advantage when deployed out-of-sample. Second, the estimator has “specialized training” that makes it particularly capable of explaining movements in the predictors that are idiosyncratic to the training sample. An out-of-sample counterpart is introduced to the popular “leverage” measure of training observations’ importance. A new method is proposed to forecast out-of-sample fit at the time of deployment, when the values for the predictors are known but the true outcome variable is not. In Monte Carlo simulations and in an empirical application using MRI brain scans, the proposed estimator performs comparably to Predicted Residual Error Sum of Squares (PRESS) for the average out-of-sample case and unlike PRESS, also performs consistently across different test samples, even those that differ substantially from the training set.

Grappling with LDS Identity Formation: A Review of Recent Young Adult Novels

<i>Forbidden Knowledge: Medicine, Science, and Censorship in Early Modern Italy</i>. By Hannah Marcus. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2020. Pp. xii+356. $45.00 (cloth); $10.00 to $45.00 (e-book).

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The development of computer science has raised ethical concerns regarding the potential negative impacts of machine learning tools on people and society. Some examples are pornographic deepfakes used as weapons of war against women; pattern recognition designed to uncover sexual orientation; and misuse of data and deep learning by private companies to influence democratic elections. We contend that these three examples are cases of automated evil. In this article, we defend that the concept of forbidden knowledge can help to inform a coherent ethical framework in the context of machine learning research. We conclude that restricting generalised access to extensive data and limiting access to ready-to-use codes would mitigate potential harms caused by machine learning tools. In addition, the notions of intersectionality and interdisciplinarity should be systematically introduced in data and computer science research.

Abstract The Book of the Watchers (1 Enoch 1–36; = BW) features Asael as the culprit who illicitly distributed forbidden knowledge to the mortals. In retaliation, God rendered multiple punishments, one of which was the targeting of Asael’s sight (10:5). However, the text itself does not explain why God chose to inflict this form of penalty. This article aims to fill in this literary lacuna in light of the triadic association between sight, light, and knowledge – an association that was widely known in antiquity. This undertaking suggests that the particular offense of the Watchers, including Asael, described in 16:3 (i.e., misusing sight and light in knowledge acquisition) is critical to understanding Asael’s optical sentence. Ultimately, BW demonstrates a talionic correspondence between Asael’s sin and sentence.