Human Transgressions Research Articles

Psychological and Brain Responses to Artificial Intelligence's Violation of Community Ethics.

Human moral reactions to artificial intelligence (AI) agents' behavior constitute an important aspect of modern-day human-AI relationships. Although previous studies have mainly focused on autonomy ethics, this study investigates how individuals judge AI agents' violations of community ethics (including betrayals and subversions) compared with human violations. Participants' behavioral responses, event-related potentials (ERPs), and individual differences were assessed. Behavioral findings reveal that participants rated AI agents' community-violating actions less morally negative than human transgressions, possibly because AI agents are commonly perceived as having less agency than human adults. The ERP N1 component showed the same pattern with moral rating scores, indicating the modulation effect of human-AI differences on initial moral intuitions. Moreover, the level of social withdrawal correlated with a smaller N1 in the human condition but not in the AI condition. The N2 and P2 components were sensitive to the difference between the loyalty/betrayal and authority/subversion domains but not human/AI differences. Individual levels of moral sense and autistic traits also influenced behavioral data, especially on the loyalty/betrayal domain. In our opinion, these findings offer insights for predicting moral responses to AI agents and guiding ethical AI development aligned with human moral values.

Exploring The Qur’anic Narrative’s Punishment of Lūṭ’s Tribe: A Comparative Study of the Similarities Between Their Sins and Suffering

This article explores the complex relationship between the wicked actions of Lūṭ’s community, as described in the Qur’an, and the particular type of retribution, known as ‘adhāb, that they experienced. The study used a qualitative research approach to thoroughly examine the Qur’ānic passages, aiming to reveal subtle connections between crimes and divine punishment. This research enhances comprehension of the concept of divine justice as depicted in the Qur’an by utilizing the theoretical framework of the theory of retribution, provided in a thematical explanation. The inquiry delves into the causality of the ‘adhāb as an effect of human transgressions, and in the study of Lūṭ’s narrative, there are various torments bestowed. The findings not only reveal historical and moral lessons embedded in the account of Lūṭ’s tribe but also offer a methodological framework for examining comparable narratives in the Qur’ān. This study seeks to prompt debates on the deep correlations between human behavior and divine repercussions, enhancing understanding of Islamic scriptures’ ethical and spiritual lessons.

ТРАНСГУМАНИЗМ И ПОСТГУМАНИЗМ: ПЛАНЫ РАСЧЕЛОВЕЧИВАНИЯ

The article analyzes the ideas of transhumanism and posthumanism, which appeal to new discoveries in the field of biomedical, information, cognitive and nanotechnology (NBIC-convergent technologies) in order to declare the possibility of their application in the issue of human «improvement». The relevance of the study lies in the fact that human transgression is carried out in line with the analyzed lines of thought, which indicates their anti-humanistic nature. This requires study, reasoned criticism and an appeal to positive humanistic concepts as a counterweight to anti-humanism. In the mainstream of transhumanism, a person is understood not as a concept, but as a construct, as a certain set of properties and components with varying degrees of reliability and value. The human mind is considered the most valuable, while the biological organization of a person is defined as flawed, and therefore requires intervention and correction, and in the future, a person should generally give way to a posthuman. The article provides a reasoned criticism of these ideas. The purpose of the article is to identify both the positive and negative sides of transhumanism and posthumanism, as well as to criticize the methodological foundations of these areas of thought – technicism and reductionism. Posthumanism does not require setting the limits of the existence of human civilization, like transhumanism, but here a person is viewed from an anti-anthropocentric point of view, that is, as a being without value, and no different from everything that exists in the world. The article shows that such ideas contradict both ideas about the evolution of nature and ideas about society and the system of human values. It is unacceptable to dissolve a person in the world of things, plants and animals. This contradicts both the history of nature and the history of mankind. In this study, such research methods as the method of historical and philosophical analysis and the method of comparison are used. The novelty of the research consists in comparing the positions and basic ideas of transhumanism and posthumanism, which makes it possible to identify their continuity in the development of anti-humanistic attitudes and to give a reasoned criticism of these directions.

The Business-Politics Nexus and Violations of the Water Bodies in Dhaka City

In the last four decades, Bangladesh has achieved a remarkable transformation and improvements in terms of its economic and social development. Bangladesh’s achievement in environmental governance and sustainable development, however, is far from satisfactory. Multi-dimensional tragedies have occurred in the public resources, particularly the water bodies in Dhaka City, Bangladesh. Water and forest resources are grabbed, depleted, and destroyed by certain political and economic interest groups. Few studies had focused on the governance of the water bodies in Dhaka City by adopting a political economic approach. Against this backdrop, adopting such an approach, this paper explores how the water bodies of Dhaka City have suffered violations. The paper argues that the ‘tragedy of the public resources’, particularly of the water bodies of Dhaka City, occurred primarily not due to the increasing population pressure but due to business and politics links associated with human transgression. Although the population boom has contributed to the rising pressure for public property and resources, the political business links, combined with a low institutional capacity, have primarily caused the disasters of the water bodies in Dhaka City. Successive governments have designed policies, laws, rules, and regulations for saving and protecting land, forest, and river resources. The government environmental agencies, however, have largely failed to manage and protect the public land and river resources effectively and efficiently. Consequently, the water bodies have been encroached on, misused, and grabbed, endangering the very existence of the rivers and so, ultimately, the process of sustainable development in Bangladesh.

Shakespeare's Comedy of Judgment

Early modern English literary culture was thick with tales of divine judgment. Texts ranging from true-crime pamphlets to Thomas Beard's vast collection The Theatre of God's Judgements (1597) promised to disclose God's work in history, and they found signs of that work in stories of horrific come-uppance: usurers eaten by rats, adulterers mutilated, Sabbath-breakers struck dead. Because they were concerned with the consequences of human transgression, these tales drew heavily on the conventions of tragedy. And because they were concerned with vice and come-uppance, they also drew heavily on the conventions of comedy. They are therefore fraught with difficult questions. When is retribution hilarious, and when is it lamentable? On what imaginative and moral conditions do tragedy and comedy depend? These questions likewise haunted dramatists such as Shakespeare, who drew heavily on the literature of divine retribution for his own experiments in tragic and comic representation. His Othello, especially, is built from tales of vice and retribution, and in it Shakespeare tests the boundaries that separate justice from atrocity, comic satisfaction from tragic violence. By reading Othello alongside the literature of divine judgment, this essay makes several claims: that the hilarious come-uppances of comedy depend on certain cultural conditions; that those conditions have changed in the context of the Reformation, in ways that tales of retribution make graphically visible; and that Shakespeare responds to exactly these changes when, in his own comedy of judgment, he finds the mechanisms of comic justice collapsing.

Aslak Rostad. Human Transgression—Divine Retribution: A Study of Religious Transgressions and Punishments in Greek Cultic Regulation and Lydian-Phrygian Propitiatory Inscriptions (“Confession Inscriptions”)

Aslak Rostad. <i>Human Transgression—Divine Retribution: A Study of Religious Transgressions and Punishments in Greek Cultic Regulation and Lydian-Phrygian Propitiatory Inscriptions (“Confession Inscriptions”)</i>

La trasgressione in Gen 3,1-7

This article analyzes the first human transgression in Gen 3:1-7 through the prism of five headings. The first three headings are of the introductory nature (1. One of the four scenes; 2. The structure of Gen 3:1-7; 3. The delimitation and cohesion of the passage 3:1-7), whereas the last heading functions as the conclusion (5. The lasting instruction of Gen 3:1-7). The main/central part of this article analyzes in four steps the key words and expressions in the passage 3:1-7. The first step scrutinizes the appearance of the serpent in 3:1a and the meaning of its עָרוּם quality. The second step examines the dialogue between the serpent and the woman in 3:1b-5. The third step analyses the woman’s transgression of the divine prohibition (3:6a, 6bA) and man’s participation in the transgression (3:6bB). The fourth step evaluates the consequences of the transgression that are described in 3:7.

A Pantheology of Pandemic: Sex, Race, Nature, and the Virus

A Pantheology of Pandemic: Sex, Race, Nature, and the Virus

Bellamy, Liz. The Language of Fruit: Literature and Horticulture in the Long Eighteenth Century.

Bellamy, Liz. <i>The Language of Fruit: Literature and Horticulture in the Long Eighteenth Century</i>.

Cruel Insensibility and an Ethics Without Authority

This article considers the phenomenon of being insensible to animal cruelty, and how such insensibility relates to human transgressions of the planet. I consider the visualization of animal culls that appeared upon the emergence of the coronavirus pandemic. The spectacular wasting of animal life, I argue, discloses the economic logic by which humanity secures itself as a sovereign species. Such a logic and its visuality are not only underpinned by a broader necropolitical paradigm, moreover, they co-constitute a primal scene that enables the liquidation of animal life to the point of extinction. Following the evolutionary biologist Rob Wallace, I consider animal culls in relation to the phenomenon of virus dumping, a systemic perturbation of forest ecologies preceded by the influx of capital in agricultural markets that results in the release and rapid evolution of viruses. I therefore recapitulate the relationship between animal cruelty and the economy of planet wasting that subtends it. In this vein, I consider how the visuality of animal cruelty is predicated on a banal violence. Yet, drawing from Hannah Arendt, I call for an ethics without authority, a version of the Sensus Communis by which we might witness cruelty from within the depths of planetary transgressions.

데커의 팸플릿에 재현된 ‘카멜레온 같은’ 역병

This paper explores Thomas Dekker’s plague pamphlets, especially The Wonderful Year as compared to other contemporary plague discourses. Unlike writers of religious or medical treatises on the plague, who invariably interpret the disease as God’s scourge for human transgressions, Dekker represents it as inscrutable, as being “Chameleon-like,” in that it is outrageously random in the selection of its victims, and its affliction is unfathomable for the living within the “charnel-house” that the city was converted to. His reportage-style depiction of the utter terror of the plague leads him to conclude that dogmatic sermons and preposterous health advice are not efficacious in the relief of the agony from the devastating epidemic. Dekker, instead, offers narratives of dreadful experiences rendered delectable as an agent of consolation for the survivors. He suggests that the memory rehearsal of the past plague outbreaks helps people cope with its trauma by making them culturally accommodated to the disease. Through the sundry tales at the end of The Wonderful Year, Dekker demonstrates that mirth and laughter from the stories can be “wholesome against the plague” as he has proclaimed in the dedication.

Cerebral musings on environmental humanities, human transgression, and healthcare preparedness: Looking beyond the “streetlight effect” of the COVID-19 pandemic

Cerebral musings on environmental humanities, human transgression, and healthcare preparedness: Looking beyond the “streetlight effect” of the COVID-19 pandemic

Ted Hughes and Christianity by David Troupes

Reviewed by: Ted Hughes and Christianity by David Troupes Terry Gifford (bio) Ted Hughes and Christianity David Troupes Cambridge University Press, 2019. xii + 252 pp. $99.00 hardcover. This book is remarkable for the sophistication of approach and detail of its scholarship in making an interpretation of Christian imagery and ideas in the work of Ted Hughes that is convincing to an atheistic reader, such as the writer of this review. Considering not only the range of evidence under discussion in the work, but also the development of its use in Hughes's central poetic achievements that Troupes demonstrates here, it is surprising that such a thorough study has not been undertaken before. Because Troupes is always open to alternative readings and aware of the possible scepticism of some readers, he manages to negotiate a very clear, and well supported, entirely new position in Hughes scholarship. Indeed, Troupes is often at his most convincing in his insights when he himself is sceptical about Hughes's own prose statements about his poetic works, or when a subtle distinction is made between Hughes's different uses of God, for example. This carefully structured book takes the reader on a journey through the development of Hughes's opus, articulating his most profound achievements whilst not evading telling weaknesses. Troupes traces what turns out to be a pattern of changing imagery and ideas that are central [End Page 159] to the complex metaphysics of Hughes's exploration of human relations with the natural world. He makes the case for Hughes's engagements with Christian culture as far more than occasional imagery or incidental themes, but as the very mode of his poetic drive for the deepest and most difficult poetic insights. In doing so, this book makes a coherent, if at times necessarily challenging, introduction to Hughes's whole oeuvre, not least because of its clear, and clarifying, style and structure. Troupes begins by examining what Hughes means by his references to religion and to God with an emphasis on Hughes's concern for a new sense of divinity that might be accessed by imaginative art in the face of the collapse of organized Christianity. Avoiding treating Hughes's statements as definitive or systematized, Troupes establishes his cautious approach that nevertheless attempts to articulate and clarify Hughes's sense of a spirituality that cannot be "reduced to ecology or psychology" (12). This study intends to address previous readings of Hughes's work as "anti-Christian" by offering a "more nuanced, theologically informed reading of the relationship between his work and the Christian tradition" (17). Troupes rightly observes that previous critical studies have focussed upon Hughes's use of non-Christian myths and folklore as representing critiques of what Neil Roberts has called "post-Reformation Christianity" (13). Troupes makes the case, in his discussion of the poem "Logos" in Wodwo (1967), that Hughes's "superficial rage against Christianity exists side-by-side with an acceptance of the Christian metaphysic" (22). That "rage" against a suppression of instinct and intuition, desires and dreams, in the work up to Crow (1970), Troupes traces as the presence of what he calls a sense of a "biological fall" (41) into "civilisation" (48) and "culture" (49), and an exploration of it in terms of the "Biblical fall" (50) involving notions of "Eden" (50) and of "dominion" over the earth (60). In the three parts of chapter one, what have formerly been read as social critiques in Hughes's work Troupes demonstrates to be engagements with a spiritual inadequacy often explored in the terms of an institutionally damaged Christianity. Troupes identifies "a persistent religious irony which varies in tenor from book to book," but which allows "a tolerable means of handling Christian material, essential to the task of diagnosing and treating the collective soul of the West" (22-23). This irony is traced by Troupes in the following chapters in which Hughes's sense of human transgression against divine nature is figured in images of possible reconciliation that begin with necessary suffering and ego diminishment centered around the idea, and images of, crucifixion. The theologically informed and thoughtfully nuanced readings of important poems in chapters on "The Biological Fall," "The Biblical...

Apocalyptic Ecology: The Book of Revelation, the Earth, and the Future by Micah D. Kiel

Reviewed by: Apocalyptic Ecology: The Book of Revelation, the Earth, and the Future by Micah D. Kiel Dianne Bergant micah d. kiel, Apocalyptic Ecology: The Book of Revelation, the Earth, and the Future ( Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2017). Pp. xxvii + 160. Paper $24.95. The devastation of elements of the natural world as found in the Book of Revelation has been a source of great concern for contemporary ecologically sensitive readers. Some might ask: Why should innocent plants and animals suffer because of human transgression? Looking to the end-time, others wonder: Why should we care for the earth when, in the end, God is simply going to destroy it anyway? Such dire attitudes toward the condition and fate of the natural world as found in Revelation are countered by Kiel as he offers us ways to understand the message(s) of that book from the perspective of theocentric ecology. Kiel uses five elements of the literary form of biography as an operative metaphor for describing his interpretative approach: personality, ancestors, upbringing, career, and legacy. In the first chapter ("Revelation's Personality: The Earth and the Future in an Apocalyptic Ecology"), his treatment of the book's "personality" or character is quite straight-forward. Here he explains Revelation's literary structure and form, identifies its important content and the message it puts forward, and provides sociohistorical information needed for appreciating its basic meaning. In chap. 2 ("Revelation's Ancestors: An Ecological Alternative in the Context of Hellenistic War"), he notes the earlier motifs, emphases, catalysts, and pieces of literature that influenced this book's composition. He relies heavily on the apocryphal 1 Enoch as a corresponding apocalyptic book that presents an ecological alternative for valuing creation. His focus on the role played by elements of the natural world in this earlier book lays the foundation for his understanding of the character and fate of creation as found in Revelation. This understanding is reinforced in chap. 3 ("Revelation's Upbringing: Critique of Empire and Its Ecological Components") as he sketches the historical context within which Revelation was composed. He does this by showing the correspondence between 1 Enoch as resistance literature in the face of Hellenistic supremacy and Revelation as resistance literature at the time of Roman domination. In chap. 4 ("Revelation's Career: Environmental Entanglement in Illuminated Manuscripts"), K. moves away from biblical analysis toward a kind of history of interpretation. He shows how nature scenes from Revelation became themes for several illuminated manuscripts from medieval representations to the contemporary Saint John's Bible. It is clear from the illustrations chosen that often the art demonstrates the perspective of the artist as much as, if not more than, that of the biblical author—not unlike a reader-response reading of the Bible. Despite the eisegetical reading of the biblical passage, these artistic depictions are clearly evidence of how dramatic scenes from Revelation have continued to influence generations down through the ages. [End Page 734] Kiel's investigation leads the reader to see that the violence and destruction depicted in Revelation are really a metaphor for the violence and destruction wrought by Roman domination. It is not until the final chapter ("Revelation's Legacy: Endings and Beginnings") that he treats ecological issues as such. He identifies these issues as environment entanglement, integral ecology, ecological alternative, and ecological debt, to name a few. While he does raise the issues, he does not suggest how Revelation, not simply eco-sensitivity, might help us address them. Instead, he offers three points of conviction and action spurred by the book: belief in the centrality of God and the interconnectedness of all natural creation; the courage to stand in resistance to ecological exploitation; and a different way of viewing the future. In other words, he suggests not a program of action but a transformation of mind and heart. Kiel's multifaceted approach might appear to be rather complex. However, he leads the reader through his analysis carefully and clearly, thus enabling even the nonspecialist reader to follow his thought. Dianne Bergant CSA, Catholic Theological Union, Chicago, IL 60615 Copyright © 2018 The Catholic Biblical Association of America

The perception of disability by community groups: Stories of local understanding, beliefs and challenges in a rural part of Kenya.

Cultural narratives on disability have received much attention over the past few decades. In contexts of poverty, limited information and everyday challenges associated with having, or caring for someone with a disability, different understandings have emerged. A project was set up to promote disability awareness in neighborhood communities in a rural part of Kenya, using a process of reflection and education. This paper reports on the first aspect–reflection. The aim was to investigate local understanding of disability as a co-constructed concept. The research questions were: 1. What cultural beliefs shape local understanding of disability? 2. What challenges are perceived to be associated with disability? A phenomenological approach was adopted. Focus group discussions were conducted with twenty-one community groups involving 263 participants and audio-recorded. The data were transcribed and thematic analysis was carried out. Visual maps were created to illustrate any interconnections, before establishing the final conclusions. Local beliefs attributed disability to: human transgression of social conventions, particularly concerning inappropriate family relations, which invoked a curse; supernatural forces affecting the child; the will of God; unexplained events; and biomedical factors. Challenges associated with disability related to the burden of caregiving and perceived barriers to inclusion, with stress as a shared bi-product. Local understanding of disability in this rural part of Kenya demonstrated overlapping explanations and plurality of beliefs. Two possible interpretations are offered. Firstly, oscillation between explanatory lines demonstrated instability, affecting broader acceptance of disability. Secondly, and more positively, in the face of challenges, the desire to make sense of the existing situation, reflected a healthy pluralism.

An artificial intelligence framework for compensating transgressions and its application to diet management

Today, there is considerable interest in personal healthcare. The pervasiveness of technology allows to precisely track human behavior; however, when dealing with the development of an intelligent assistant exploiting data acquired through such technologies, a critical issue has to be taken into account; namely, that of supporting the user in the event of any transgression with respect to the optimal behavior. In this paper we present a reasoning framework based on Simple Temporal Problems that can be applied to a general class of problems, which we called cake&carrot problems, to support reasoning in presence of human transgression. The reasoning framework offers a number of facilities to ensure a smart management of possible “wrong behaviors” by a user to reach the goals defined by the problem.This paper describes the framework by means of the prototypical use case of diet domain. Indeed, following a healthy diet can be a difficult task for both practical and psychological reasons and dietary transgressions are hard to avoid. Therefore, the framework is tolerant to dietary transgressions and adapts the following meals to facilitate users in recovering from such transgressions. Finally, through a simulation involving a real hospital menu, we show that the framework can effectively achieve good results in a realistic scenario.

Fat in Contemporary Autobiographical Writing and Publishing

Fat in Contemporary Autobiographical Writing and Publishing

From Blueblood to Trueblood: Ngugi wa Thiongo’s and Ralph Ellison’s Rewritings of Conrad’s "Lord Jim"

Postcolonial re-writings of Joseph Conrad’s works rarely make use of Lord Jim, Ngugi wa Thiongo’s A Grain of Wheat being one of the few exceptions. It is also a rare example of a re-writing in which evident intertextual connections ( in this case to Under Western Eyes and Heart of Darkness, as well as The Tempest) conceal other, more deeply embedded ones (Lord Jim). Ngugi’s version of Lord Jim has at its center John Thompson, the British antagonist of all the Gikuyu characters in the novel, and a parodic embodiment of Lord Jim’s dreams of power and glory. The most salient difference between Thompson and Jim lies in the way in which they perceive their own status within the British colonial enterprise. The Oxonian Thompson is fully conscious of the ideological implications of his occupation, while uneducated Jim can barely see the surface of his. Thompson’s state-sanctioned escape from Kenya on the day of its regaining independence, read as a parody of Jim’s escape from the Patna, opens the fi eld for an incisive ideological critique of the colonial contexts of Jim’s tragedy. Ralph Ellison’s rewriting of Lord Jim is limited to the Trueblood episode of Invisible Man and focuses on the main character’s breaking of the incest taboo, which may be compared to Jim’s abandoning ship. Trueblood’s attempt to „move without moving” echoes Jim’s account of his purportedly unconscious jump from the Patna. While Jim, as well as Marlow, present these events and those that occur later, in Patusan, as versions of the Greek tragic paradigm of human transgression and divine retribution, Ellison brings Trueblood’s transgression down to a more quotidian level, substituting a family tragedy in which the gods do not intervene for the pathos with which Conrad endows Jim. Norton in this version of Conrad’s novel serves a similar purpose – he is the parodic, downsized equivalent of Brierly, the captain who commits suicide after realizing that if he had found himself in Jim’s position on the Patna he would have done the same thing. Compared with the reality of a black sharecropper’s life in Alabama, Jim’s obsession with valor and honor, as well as his lust for adventure, are simply infantile, and the imperialist underpinnings of his transgression make it a parody of taboo-breaking. Ellison’s „signifying” on Lord Jim, as far as I know, has not been hitherto noticed by critics.

Editorial

The final months of 2014 have seen many critical events in respect to mobility: Apple introduced its Apple Watch, a cyborg technology that adds a novel, substantially corporeal layer to our “always on” connectedness—what Sherry Turkle has termed the “tethered self.”1 Moreover, it is said to revolutionize mobile paying systems, and it might finally implement mobile body monitoring techniques into daily life.2 Ebola is terrorizing Africa and frightening the world; its outbreak and spread is based on human mobility, and researchers are calling for better control and quantifi cation of human mobility in the affected regions to contain the disease.3 Even its initial spread from animals to humans may have had its origin in human transgressions beyond traditional habitats, by intruding into insular bush regions and using the local fruit bats as food. Due to global mobility patterns, the viral passenger switched transport modes, from animal to airplane. On the other hand, private space fl ight suff ered two serious setbacks in just one week when the Antares rocket of Orbital Sciences, with supplies for the International Space Station and satellites on board, exploded, and shortly after, SpaceShipTwo crashed over the Mojave Desert. Th ese catastrophic failures ignited wide media discussion on the challenges, dangers, and signifi cance of space mobility, its ongoing commercialization and privatization, and, in particular, plans for future manned space travel for “tourists.”4

English

This paper aims at investigating the interplay of the sublime and beauty in Graham Swift&rsquo;s attempts at communicating humanly and vividly with readers about human experience. In the author&#39;s works, both the sublime and beauty convey a sense of order and destabilisation. Both can be construed as &nbsp;enlightening transitions. Sublime patterns of human transgression trigger a quasi-divine sublime revenge and result in the unveiling of a new agnostic order. However, this new sublime-induced order is in turn irremediably damaged by the mutual erosion of art and reality created by sublime terrorism. As far as beauty is concerned, if characters do discover their integritas, the total fulfilment of their possibilities linking them to the universe and hence to the natural order at large, if er&ocirc;s and philia have them progress towards greater truth, the novelist&#39;s aesthetic conceptions prove to be far from stable. Indeed, Graham Swift&#39;s sense of beauty incorporates contemporary anti-aesthetics, the elaboration of a beautiful realism as well as a critical distanciation on beauty. &nbsp; &nbsp; Key words: Graham Swift, contemporary British literature, beauty, sublime, aesthetics.&nbsp; The novel is the one bright book of life. Books are not life. They are only tremulations on the ether. But the novel as a tremulation can make the whole man alive tremble. (Lawrence, 1936: 535).&nbsp; &nbsp