Transformation Of Human Beings Research Articles

The millennial theory of Lucy Hutchinson and Mary Cary

ABSTRACT This essay compares Lucy Hutchinson’s observations concerning millennial theory to those of another seventeenth-century woman writer: the Fifth Monarchist Mary Cary. Near contemporaries, both Hutchinson (b.1620) and Cary (b.1621) were skilled scriptural interpreters who held different views concerning certain aspects of millennial theory, including the number of times Christ would judge the living and the dead. But the views that they share are perhaps more significant: both Hutchinson and Cary eagerly looked forward to the arrival of a millennium they believed was imminent. They were convinced that it would be characterized by a transformation of human beings’ relation both to the natural world and the social and political order. For Hutchinson, who composed her reflections after the Restoration, millennial theory offered a way of thinking about God’s benevolent and continual concern for the godly, despite the setbacks she had experienced, while for Cary, who published her most substantial works between 1648 and 1653, when the godly were politically ascendant, it promised a new societal and spiritual order in which the faithful would be rewarded and vindicated, the material conditions of the poor would be improved, Christian ecclesiology would be reformed, and women would teach the gospel.

城市可持续发展新型定量研究方法进展

PDF HTML阅读 XML下载 导出引用 引用提醒 城市可持续发展新型定量研究方法进展 DOI: 10.5846/stxb202111253331 作者: 作者单位: 作者简介: 通讯作者: 中图分类号: 基金项目: 国家自然科学基金项目(42171287, 41590840); 科技部第二次青藏高原综合科学考察专题项目(2019QZKK1005) Advances in the innovatively quantitative research approach for urban sustainable development Author: Affiliation: Fund Project: 摘要 | 图/表 | 访问统计 | 参考文献 | 相似文献 | 引证文献 | 资源附件 | 文章评论 摘要:城市体现了集约化的发展方式,以仅占陆地3%的面积承载了世界一多半的人口,因此城市是人类社会可持续发展的主阵地,城市可持续发展是区域可持续发展的重要实践。研究试图从可持续发展的基本内涵着手,聚焦于城市尺度的研究,梳理了相关理论和概念演变历程,着重对新型定量方法--评价指标体系法、复杂系统建模、资源环境可持续性探索等进行综述。研究发现指标体系法常用于传统的城市可持续发展评估,大多是针对表象的分析,隔离了系统内部的组织关联,对系统机理探索不够。资源环境对人类社会的发展起到基础支撑作用,从资源环境可持续性出发研究可持续发展诞生了一些较为创新的方法,但研究集中在描述人类对自然的压力和影响,而对于自然对人类的反馈以及人对自然的积极改造探索不足,也很难直接表达系统整体的可持续性。弹性思维和复杂系统科学近年来被多次用于解释城市运行的灰箱模型,但研究稍浅。研究提出可将弹性思维和复杂系统科学结合起来,借助数据科学和计算科学的新兴方法,分析城市的可持续发展,深入探索可持续性的科学表达和深层机理,为解决复杂的城市问题提供科学指导,为城市可持续发展提供理论依据。 Abstract:Cities embody the intensive development mode, with only 3% of the land area to carry more than half of the world's population, so cities are the main front of sustainable development of human society. Urban sustainable development is an important practice of regional sustainable development. Starting from the basic connotation of sustainable development, this study focuses on urban sustainable development research, sorts out the evolution process of related theories and concepts, and reviews the research methods, especially new quantitative methods including evaluation index system method, complex system modeling, resource and environment sustainability exploration, etc. It is found that the index system method is often used in previous urban sustainable development assessments, but most assessments stay only on appearance and isolate the systemically internally organizational association, and the exploration of the system mechanism is not enough. The resources and environment play a fundamental role in supporting the development of human society, so some relatively innovative methods have been developed to study sustainable development from the perspective of resource and environmental sustainability. Human pressure and influence on nature were studied more, and the feedback of nature to human beings and the positive transformation of human beings to nature were not explored enough, also it is difficult to directly express the sustainability of the whole system. In recent years, resilience thinking and complex system science have been used many times to explain the grey box model of urban operation, but the research is slightly superficial. This study proposes research prospects which can combine resilience thinking and complex system science to analyze the sustainable urban development with new approaches in data science and computing science, and explore the scientific expression and deep mechanism of sustainability. Our study could provide scientific guidance for solving the complicated urban problems, and provide a theoretical basis for urban sustainable development. 参考文献 相似文献 引证文献

Overview of Higher Education in the 21st Century

No nation gets world-class topper status in higher education overnight. Investment made in the field of education proves its significance or futility after one and a half to two decades. In the contemporary Indian scenario, higher education is shifting away from quality to being market-oriented. The imprecision which is seen in it results in a shift from the traditional pass to the state-of-the-art. It doesn't seem to fit our needs. The level of human resources that are expected to be created from higher education is completely lacking in practical life in our country. Following the policies of Lord Macaulay Mahaprabhu, our education system is sowing the seeds of inequality instead of social harmony. Ignoring the national needs and requirements, our higher education society cannot be relative without the air planners getting acquainted with the ground reality. Where is the adoption of higher education policies of developed nations in societies without basic infrastructure, leading us blindly, social governments can be established in higher education by connecting modern global ideas with traditional knowledge. In this country full of diversities, it is possible to implement a perspective higher education policy. The need is strong willpower. By keeping higher education away from appeasement and political ambivalence, it can be saved from being frivolous.
 Education is the backbone of human civilization. Education is the foundation of civilization and culture. Education is the most effective means of all-round development and transformation of human beings. From ancient times, education in Indian society was broad, knowledge-oriented, well-planned, and well-organized. Through education, our lives are not only refined, refined and refined, pure, intelligent and advanced, but by following the sattvik and moral values-directives of the entire society, human welfare is achieved. Perhaps that is why education is declared as an important parameter of development. Higher education works to strengthen any society and nation within the world. Higher Education Objectives To acquire knowledge or to earn money, in the Indian context, whether higher education is deviating from its original objectives, the seeds of the present form of the Indian education system can be traced in the mirror of the British rule that ruled for almost two hundred years. If it is to be said that the present entire education system is a gift of the British Raj, then there will be no exaggeration. Charles Grant, who is called the father of this education system.01 what they must have imagined in this present distorted form is well known that the British used education in their own interest. They planned to create a new educated class in India who could conduct their colonial rule according to their vision plan. The goal of English education in the early stages was to nurture the roots of the British government while spreading Christianity in India.

Between Religion and Psychotherapy: Responses to Violence in a Secular Age

The aim of my article is to present and critique two different approaches to the problem of violence. On the one hand, I will discuss the religious standpoint present in the deliberations of the Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor. On the other hand, I will examine the secular concept of ethically-oriented psychoanalysis by the American psychiatrist, Robert Drozek. Both thinkers, as I will show, take an exclusivist position towards the question of the moral transformation of human beings. According to Taylor, only a religious perspective, based on the recognition of a transcendent good, is capable of liberating man from the drive towards violence. In his opinion, the secular approach represented by various forms of psychotherapy is insufficient in this respect, because it eschews moral–spiritual language. Drozek, on the other hand, believes that it is psychoanalysis and not religion that can be healing for us. In this paper I will argue for an inclusive position, according to which both religion and ethically-oriented psychoanalysis have transformative potential. I will try to show that the exclusivism of Taylor and Drozek is not tenable, and that the religious and secular perspectives they represent need not be seen as being in opposition to each other.

Worships of Garuda and Death Rituals in Tribles of Vettuva Gounda’s

Rituals are linked to the stages of development that lead to the transformation of human beings. Transitions from birth to death are subject to ritual performance. The benefits of the ritual also determine the cause of the ritual. Animals and birds are worshiped because of the benefits of tribal worship. Garuda worship takes place in the Vettuva Goundar community. They worship the eagle, believing that it will rain on them. It is believed that the eagle completely performed the death rites for humans and thereby obtained rain. he ancestors did so and did it by the way because it got rain. The four who performed the death rites were Dasar, Navidar, Paraiyar and Vannar. The owner of the land where the eagle lay dead accepts the cost of the ritual. Or they collect taxes from everyone and perform rituals. They follow instructions such as not performing a funeral in the twin month.

Bionic design and analysis of a multi-posture wheelchair

Abstract. Posture transformation is an essential function for multi-posture wheelchairs. To improve the natural motion in posture transformation that is a popular problem in the design of multi-posture wheelchairs because the current wheelchair's posture transformation mechanism cannot remain consistent between the rotation center of the wheelchair and the rotation center of the human body joints. This paper proposes a sitting–standing–lying three-posture bionic transformation mechanism for a smart wheelchair. A human–wheelchair coupling model is described and analyzed according to the biomechanical characteristics of the posture transformation of human beings and their functional requirements. The configuration of the transformation mechanism is chosen by comparing the trails of the wheelchair rotation centers and the corresponding human joint rotation centers. The kinematics of the optimized configuration are discussed in detail to obtain the most bionic motion performance using the multivariable nonlinear constraint optimization algorithm. Finally, the mechanism is designed, and its posture transformation performance is simulated and verified using Adams (Automatic Dynamic Analysis of Mechanical Systems) software.

Geleneksel Değerler Üzerinden Bir Transhümanizm Eleştirisi

This article aims to investigate transhumanism, which has become very popular nowadays, and intends both physiological and psychological transformation of human beings by using the possibilities of science and its basic predictions. At the same time, it aims to contribute to the awareness which is tried to be raised about subject. In the first stage of the study, the main elements of the term humanism, which constitute the intellectual origin of transhumanism, and the important turning points in the transition from humanism to transhumanism were pointed out and the possibility of transhumanism was discussed. Then, based on the ideals of development and emancipation, the main objectives of transhumanism are addressed and its possible benefits are mentioned. In the second stage, the main problems likely to arise in case of realization of transhumanist ideals are emphasized. In this context, the problems that transhumanism will cause due to the change of the ontological status of man are critically examined. Additionally, the sociological problems that transhumanism can cause and its effects in the context of traditional religious and moral orders have also been focused on. In this stage of the study, a general evaluation was made based on the criticisms of both conservative and religious circles towards transhumanists.

Nature and information

The genetic code of the human species requires us to react aggressively to threatening situations. Culture, history – as magistra vitae –, philosophy, law and even religion have failed to quell aggressive instincts except through threats and punishments. Until today, scientific achievements have not changed the biological determinants of our species, so as to eliminate its aggressive and destructive components. The recent electronic communication system, which allows not only the exchange of information but also the immediate transmission of emotional and empathic states, can have unpredictable and incisive effects on the collective transformation of human beings.

Some General Remarks and Legal Restrictions in Reproductive and Therapeutic Gene Modification in Russia

The article is aimed at outlining approaches in the sphere of reproductive and therapeutic gene modification in Russia in terms of legal restrictions at the level of the studied legal prescriptions, considered also from the perspective of intellectual property. Other regulations in this sphere are considered along the way. The study is relevant as there is a number of normative prescriptions in this field that were not considered in earlier studies. Thus, the present study serves to fill in this gap. On the basis of analytical reflections on the information obtained from relevant sources and literature, the paper analyses normative prescriptions in Russia, which create patterns of biotechnological potential development and its use from the standpoint of legal restrictions in reproductive and therapeutic gene modification. The author consistently moves from the key points of one act to another in order to understand and outline approaches in this area adopted in Russia. The result of the study is the set of legal restrictions found in the current legislation. The important thing is the contribution to the improvement of the further concept of law-making policy, which should be aimed at the creation of systematic special legislation regulating the field of biotechnology and further improvement of restrictions, prohibitions and responsibilities that would not allow abuse in the form of transformation of human beings into the object of technical biomedical manipulations. The theoretical and practical significance of the results obtained is determined by the fact that foreign researchers will be provided with up-to-date scientific information on the state of Russian legislation in the field under study, which in practical terms will contribute to the understanding of the gap in the achievements of Russian and foreign researchers and practitioners in terms of their implications at the legislative level.

Cave 2.0. The dualistic roots of transhumanism

Transhumanism (TH) is an intellectual trend that promotes the technological transformation of human beings. We will briefly expose the most conspicuous features of the TH, as well as the main criticisms that have been made to it (section 1). The aim of this article, however, is not to enter into this controversy, so we will provide only the essential keys to be able to move forward. And one of the most intriguing keys of the TH is that, beneath its techno-futurist patina, it refers to certain philosophical ideas as old as incompatible –in appearance– with each other. The TH refers to radical naturalism, as well as to existentialist nihilism. The thesis advocated here is that both, radical naturalism and existentialist nihilism, are products of the various waves of dualism. Once we separate, in the dualistic way, freedom on the one hand and nature on the other, we can count up to two, as the dualists do, or remain just in one, as existentialists do, who stand in freedom, and naturalists as well, who only count on nature. In any case, the image of the human being, which is freedom and nature (without “and”), is damaged. Then the aporetic and sickly animal appears, which has to be saved... from itself. How? Following the Procrustean method, but now with the bio and info prefixes instead of saw and hammer, until the poor human being fits into the utopian bed that some visionaries have dreamed (section 2). But there could be perhaps a way to improve human life without forcing the human scale. In order to draw this way between the radical naturalism, that mutilates, and the existentialist nihilism, that dislodges and stretches, we should deny in advance the dualism that generates both, and follow the common sense, in line with the Aristotelian tradition, rather than utopian daydreams (section 3). In our opinion, the Aristotelian concept of human nature enables us to judge anthropotechnics better than the normativity extracted from the futuristic visions of the TH (section 4).

Bases filosóficas para una crítica al transhumanismo

The present article aims at establishing a discussion with Antonio Dieguez’s recent book intituled Transhumanism. Transhumanism is an intellectual current trend that proposes the transformation of human beings by means of diverse technological interventions. Dieguez makes a very enlightening, informed and fair exposition of what the Transhumanism is, both in its bio and info proposals. In front of the transhumanist proposals, Dieguez adopts a very sensible position. He argues that we should avoid both technophobia and uncritical techophilia. We should neither accept nor reject the anthropotechnical projects en bloc, but we should judge them one by one (section 1). Obviously, a criterion is required to carry out this screening. Dieguez dismisses that the source of this criterion could be the notion of human nature. Instead, he proposes some ideas by the Spanish philosopher Jose Ortega y Gasset. Let’s remember that according to Ortega “man has no nature, he has... history” (2004-2010, VI, 72; my trasnlation). I fully agree with Dieguez on the need of judging anthropotechnics one by one, but I disagree with his appreciation of both, the concept of human nature and the ideas of Ortega. Ortega’s philosophy of technique -original and suggestive as it is- becomes ultimately inoperative due to his anti-naturalist anthropology (section 2). On the other hand, Dieguez’s interpretation of the notion of human nature is - to put it shortly - platonic (section 3). Nevertheless, this concept also admits an Aristotelian interpretation, under which it becomes the best source of criteria for screening anthropotechnics (section 4). Finally, the conclusions of the article will be summarized in section 5.

UMER CHAPRA CONTRIBUTION IN BUILDING MUSLIM CIVILIZATION

The idea of Umer Chapra in building Muslim civilization was based on his research on the position of Muslims who from time to time more and more felt strange with the civilization and Islamic values itself, even the civilization was gradually increasingly eroded and marginalized by Western culture. He tried to restore the Muslim position which should be done as the Messenger of Allah had pointed out, and their positive role in building civilization. The Islamic civilization has the power that lies in the development of morals and material strength. For Chapra, the moral development without being integrated with the economic development cannot be realized. And at the same time, this economic development must also have a worldview and strategy that is in line with religious objectives (<em>maqashid asy-s</em><em>yari’ah</em>). The development of Muslim civilization requires the transformation of human beings and their institutions, focusing in the increasing of education and personality development, and the simultaneous mobilization of material, economic and technological resources for the rearrangement of community structures over the principles of deliberation and accountability, unity, independence and justice.

Ценностные трансформации современной студенческой молодежи

<p>В статье рассматриваются ценностные аспекты развития современной молодежи. Показано, что ценности выступают несущими конструкциями любого общества и составляют менталитет входящих в него членов. Обсуждаются социокультурные проблемы и деформации ценностного пространства воспитания, которые связаны с процессами дегуманизации культуры и демонтажем основных общественных институтов.</p><p>На психолого-педагогическом уровне изменения связаны с превращением человека из носителя культурных ценностей в носителя потребностей; на макросоциальном уровне констатируется системный сдвиг социальной структуры в логике перехода от модели «общества социального благосостояния» к модели «общества потребления». Раскрываются психологическая функция и педагогическое значение ценностей как источников личностного достоинства и социального заказа для воспитания. Показано деструктивное влияние общества потребления, современных массмедиа и информационных технологий на сознание молодежи.</p><p>Заключается, что мир ценностей создает систему жизненных координат, в которой молодой человек может найти себя, обрести свою общность с другими, определить свое уникальное место и уверенно двигаться по жизни. Наличие в обществе внятных, устойчивых, согласованных ценностей обеспечивает духовный и социокультурный иммунитет народа. Ценности стоят на страже культуры. Общество, теряющее свои ценности, неизбежно сходит со сцены истории. Ценности задают нормативно-императивный ландшафт для развития и воспитания молодежи. Зная и усваивая этот ландшафт, молодежь располагает четким пониманием и представлением о том, что от нее ожидает общество, как жить, какими быть и к чему стремиться. </p>

Gewoon goddelijk

Abstract This article explores the early Christian symbol of theosis or deification for its potential to generate an inspiring, gender-bending, and transformative view of salvation. The idea of theosis or deification (literally: becoming divine) is present in many religious traditions. In early Christianity, it refers to the transformation of human beings effected by Christ and the way they become partakers in the divine life. As Athanasius of Alexandria wrote: ‘God became human so that the human might become God’. In Eastern Orthodoxy, the idea of deification and its corresponding spiritual and ascetic practices obtained a leading role, while, in Protestant theology, it was considered to be more close to the essence of sin. The article makes a case for a feminist-protestant retrieval of deification, not in the least because the concept enables an embodied, progressive, and even cosmic understanding of salvation. After mapping, and taking position within, the disciplinary fields of theology and Genderstudies, the author sets off to discuss the recent ecumenical interest in deification. She then listens to the voices of twentieth-century French/Russian Orthodox women theologians who have engaged with the concept of deification, also in relation to issues of gender and corporeality. Present-day Anglican theologian Sarah Coakley adds to the choir with her intriguing analysis of the ‘messy entanglements’ of sexual desire and the desire for God. Coakley’s plea for a ‘renewed asceticism’ and her reappraisal of ‘sacrifice’ and ‘surrender’ in self-realization, echoing the tradition of theosis, are surprising and edgy contributions to postmodern gender theory. The article concludes with remarks about the relevance of this deification research project for other current debates.

The Human Being as Sign in Augustine’s De doctrina christiana

This article offers an interpretation of Augustine’s De doctrina christiana I-II.5.6, which brings contemporary semiotic theory into dialogue with Augustinian theology in order to flesh out Augustine’s incipient semiotic theological anthropology. The argument focuses on the interrelation between Augustine’s two seminal distinctions, between signum and res, and between uti and frui, reading the first (semiotic) distinction in the light of the second (theological) distinction, and vice versa. The principal claim is that human beings are signs of God; but this is qualified in the course of the argument, resulting in the revised claim that the difference between God and creation becomes manifest in the transformation of human semiotic relations. Specifically, I argue, God’s redemptive transformation of human beings consists in their liberation from mutually reductive (dyadic) interpretation, freeing them for new signification in new contexts. The article ends with the bold conjecture that a genuinely triadic semiotics implies and requires a doctrine of creation.

On the creativity and innateness of the “strong, moving vital force”: A discussion of Feng Youlan’s “explanation of Mencius’ chapter on the ‘strong, moving vital force’ ”

Feng Youlan emphasizes the concept of “creativity” in his article “Explanation of Mencius’ Chapter on Strong, Moving Vital Force”, in particular highlighting the problem whether the “strong, moving vital force” is “innate” or “acquired”. Cheng Hao and Zhu Xi believed the “strong, moving vital force” was endowed by Heaven, so was therefore innate; “nourishment” cleared fog and allowed one to “recover one’s original nature”. Mencius’ theory on “the good of human nature” is illustrated in the concept of integrated “original endowment”. So Cheng Hao and Zhu Xi’s theory of “recovering the original nature” proposed that the “strong, moving vital force” was innate, which is in complete agreement with Mencius and of which there is ample evidence in Mencius. However, “nature” is “created by the accumulation of righteousness”. Namely, it is the completion and presentation of the process of creation and transformation of human beings. Only when we consider both Cheng Hao and Zhu Xi’s theory and Feng Youlan’s theory can we fully understand Mencius’ theory of “the nourishment of the strong, moving vital force”, which is of great theoretical and academic value in accurately understanding Mencius and the Confucian theory of mind-nature.

Apocalyptic AI: Religion and the Promise of Artificial Intelligence

Popular science publications in robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) reveal a striking merger between apocalyptic religious thought and scientific research. Three major elements characterize early Jewish and Christian apocalypticism: alienation within the world, desire for the establishment of a heavenly new world, and the transformation of human beings so that they may live in that world in purified bodies. In Apocalyptic AI, these characteristics are attributed scientific authority. Apocalyptic AI advocates, frustrated by the limitations of bodily life, look forward to a virtual world inhabited by intelligent machines and human beings who have left their bodies. Having downloaded their consciousnesses into machines, human beings will possess enhanced mental abilities and, through their infinite replicability, immortality.

The Pied Piper of Hamelin: Adorno on Music Education

Whilst the German philosopher Theodor W. Adorno (1903-1969) is widely known for his innovative ideas on music, aesthetics and sociology, he was also one of the most prominent critics of German music education before and after World War II. He argued against humanistic and idealistic philosophies of music education, which pursued a transformation of human beings through making music. For Adorno, music education should be focused on the music itself and the education of musically critical and self-determined students. The main intent of this article is an examination of Adorno's critique of music education, specifically in terms of the misuse of music education for ideological purposes. This article draws on examples of Adorno's work not yet translated into English, to question and challenge current practices of music education.

Flesh to Metal: Soviet Literature and the Alchemy of Revolution (review)

Reviewed by: Flesh to Metal: Soviet Literature and the Alchemy of Revolution Andrew Jenks (bio) Flesh to Metal: Soviet Literature and the Alchemy of Revolution. By Rolf Hellebust. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 2003. Pp. x+221. $42.50/18.95. Rolf Hellebust's fine book explores the multifaceted meanings of metal in Soviet culture. Examining a wide array of literary sources, he argues that the creation of steel from iron represented two related goals: forging real steel to modernize Russia and re-forging flawed human nature. The person [End Page 838] of Stalin embodied this dual mission. His revolutionary moniker was derived from the Russian word for steel. His infamous associate Molotov adopted his name from the Russian word for hammer, abandoning his original name of Scryabin, which he shared with a mystical prerevolutionary composer. Both Stalin and Molotov were exemplars of the flesh-to-metal transformation, and thus models for the ideal Soviet citizen. Ultimately, the transformation of human beings into something akin to steel was more like enslavement than emancipation. Enacting the flesh-to-metal metaphor thus betrayed the revolution's goal of human liberation. Hellebust draws intriguing parallels between the Soviet obsession with re-forging human nature and similar Promethean ideas among medieval alchemists. Prometheus, like the Bolsheviks, defied the gods, as did the medieval alchemists. Alchemists embodied a revolutionary spirit that was expressed in the attempt to fashion a new human being. Among the Rosicrucians of the Reformation, alchemy became a "metaphor for human transformation," as it did for the Freemason movement (p. 25). When alchemists attempted to perfect nature, they considered this transformation a spiritual act which involved self-perfection, similar to Marx's linkage of labor with a self-transformation that would overcome "the opposition of worker and machine" (p. 28). Hellebust notes the expression of similar ideas in East Slavic folk culture. Intriguingly, he suggests a link between Russian Orthodoxy's idea of "the laboring, suffering body as the locus for spiritual transformation" and the Soviet "resacralization of labor via the flesh-to-metal myth" (p. 179). Drawing on such parallels, he suggests that the roots of the Soviet metal obsession went well beyond the modern era or Marxist ideology. In Hellebust's words, these roots prefigured "the goal of Bolshevik heroes in their symbolic ordeals of self-tempering" (p. 15). This book complements similar studies of the West such as Anson Rabinbach's The Human Motor: Energy, Fatigue and the Origins of Modernity (1992) or Mark Seltzer's Bodies and Machines (1992). More comparisons with this literature might have helped to elaborate the uniqueness of the flesh-to-metal phenomenon in Soviet culture. At times, Hellebust makes claims that require further explanation. He suggests that the Socialist opponents of the Bolsheviks, the Mensheviks, had a "pastoral" conception wherein "history is nature," which distinguished them from Lenin and his group. But Hellebust does not cite evidence to illustrate this point, making it difficult to agree with his conclusion that, unlike the Mensheviks, "Bolshevik romantics like Lenin find more comfort in the prospect for action offered by the scene of the blacksmith and the proverbial chains" (pp. 18–19). He also makes claims regarding Marx's technological determinism which might have benefited from a reading of essays in Merritt Roe Smith and Leo Marx's edited volume, Does Technology Drive History? The Dilemma of Technological Determinism (1994). Hellebust could have qualified his claims about the flesh-to-metal [End Page 839] metaphor in Soviet politics by paying more attention to very different kinds of metaphors at work in Soviet society. As he himself notes in passing, Soviet artists and intellectuals complained about the dehumanizing quality of the flesh-to-metal metaphor. Aleksei Gastev, whom Hellebust uses as a primary example of Soviet flesh-to-metal thinking, was purged during Stalin's Great Terror. Does his execution suggest a fundamental shift in official thinking toward the kind of ideology Gastev preached? This question remains unanswered. One might also note the flowering of peasant folk culture under the Soviets. The peasant craftsmen of the 1920s and 1930s were widely celebrated as new kinds of Soviet men and women. Rather than metal, they worked in...

Managers as Androids: Reading Moral Agency in Philip Dick

Philip Dick's science fiction (SF) offers a stimulating critique of modernity. One of his important themes was the gradual replacement of the empathy of humans with the cold logic of machines. Using Arendt (1964), Bauman (1991) and Tester (1997), I argue that managers are prone to moral indifference. This tendency was termed androidization by Dick, the transformation of human beings into machines. Through two novels and a film adaptation, I discuss how his characters combat this tendency, exercising moral agency. I point to the importance of identifying avenues for managers to resist their androidization.