Language and Ideology: A role for scientific metaphor

A number of prominent popular science writers have recently argued for the active appropriation of scientific language in the formulation of modern ideologies and ethical systems. A critical examination of scientific narratives in light of contemporary theories of metaphor and relevance suggests that scientific language indeed harbors the same emotive potential that is traditionally ascribed to religious language, and can exhibit potent transformative effects in shaping human thought. Also highlighted through this approach are the challenges of constructing scientific metaphors that are generally meaningful, accurate, and ethically responsible

The Eugenic Origins of Indiana's Muscatatuck Colony: 1920-2005

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)This thesis examines the widely unknown history and origins of Muscatatuck Colony, located in Butlerville, Indiana. The national eugenics movement impacted the United States politically, medically, legally, and socially. While the United States established mental institutions prior to the eugenics movement, many institutions, including ones in Indiana, were founded as eugenic tools to advance the agenda of achieving a “purer” society. Muscatatuck was one such state institution founded during this national movement. I explore various elements that made the national eugenics movement effective, how Indiana helped advance the movement, and how all these elements impacted Muscatatuck’s founding. I investigate the language used to describe people that were considered “mentally inferior,” specifically who the “feeble-minded” were and how Americans were grouped into this category. I research commonly held beliefs by eugenicists of this time-period, eugenic methods implemented, and how these discussions and actions led to the establishment of Muscatatuck in 1920. Muscatatuck Colony, though a byproduct of the national eugenics movement, outlived this scientific effort. Toward the mid and late twentieth century, Muscatatuck leadership executed institutional change to best reflect American society’s evolving thoughts on mental health and how best to treat people with mental disabilities. Muscatatuck Colony reveals a complicated narrative of how best to treat or care for people within these institutions, a complex narrative that many mental institutions share

Women of the future : gender, technology, and cyborgs in Frank Herbert's dune

Cette thèse défend les mérites d’une lecture cyborgienne de l’oeuvre de science-fiction de Frank Herbert, Dune, où la vision particulière des sciences et technologies nous permet d’interpréter plusieurs personnages en tant que réitération Nouvelle Vague du cyborg. Publié en 1965, Dune introduit des personnages féminins atypiques pour cette époque compte tenu de leurs attributs tels qu’une capacité intellectuelle accrue, une imposante puissance de combat et une immunité manifeste contre la faiblesse émotionnelle. Cependant, le roman reste ambivalent en ce qui concerne ces femmes : en dépit de leurs qualités admirables, elles sont d’autre part caractérisées par des stéréotypes régressifs, exposants une sexualité instinctive, qui les confinent tout au mieux aux rôles de mère, maitresse ou épouse. Finalement, dans le roman, elles finissent par jouer le rôle du méchant. Cette caractérisation se rapproche beaucoup de celle du cyborg femelle qui est d’usage courant dans les productions de science fiction pour le grand public des décennies plus récentes. Par conséquent, cette thèse défend qu’une lecture cyborgienne de Dune complète et accroisse une analyse sexospécifique, car cette approche comporte une théorisation essentielle des réactions à l’égard de la technologie qui, selon Evans, sont entretissées dans la réaction patriarcale de ce roman à l’égard des femmes. Bien que ces créatures fictives ne soient pas encore communes à l’époque de la rédaction de Dune, Jessica et certains autres personnages du roman peuvent néanmoins être considérés comme exemples primitifs des cyborgs, parce qu’ils incarnent la science et la technologie de leur culture et qu’ils possèdent d’autres éléments typiques du cyborg. L’hypothèse propose que la représentation des femmes dans Dune ne découle pas seulement de l’attrait pour le chauvinisme ou la misogynie, mais qu’elle est en fait grandement influencée par la peur de la technologie qui est transposée sur la femme comme c’est couramment le cas dans la littérature cyborg subséquente. Ainsi, ce roman annonce le futur sous-genre cyborg de la science-fiction.Evans argues for the merits of a cyborgian reading of Frank Herbert’s seminal science fiction novel, Dune, on the basis that the novel’s particular conception of science and technology allows many of the characters to be understood as New Wave iterations of the cyborg. First published in 1965, Dune includes female characters uncharacteristic for the genre during this period due to the degree of their intelligence, formidable fighting powers, and seeming freedom from emotional weakness. However, the novel is ambivalent about its super-women: despite their admirable qualities, they are otherwise depicted in retrogressive stereotypes, representing the instinctual sex, naturally best limited to roles of mothers, lovers, and wives; by the novel’s conclusion they are cast as villains. This particular characterization of women shares many qualities with the trope of the female cyborg that becomes common in mass media science fiction of later decades. Therefore, this thesis argues that a cyborgian reading of Dune complements and augments a gender analysis of the novel because this approach incorporates an essential theorization of the reactions to technology that, according to Evans, are interwoven into the novel’s patriarchal response to women. Although these fictional creatures were not yet common at the time of Dune’s writing, Jessica and other characters in the novel can be read nonetheless as early examples of cyborgs because they physically embody their culture’s science and technology, and are consistent with other important hallmarks of the figure. The argument is that Herbert’s depiction of women in Dune does not just arise from an appeal to male chauvinism and misogyny, but is, in fact, strongly influenced by a fear of technology that is projected onto women, as is commonly seen in later cyborg literature. According to such a reading, the novel foreshadows the later cyborg sub-genre of science fiction

Bioethics and the Holocaust

This open access book offers a framework for understanding how the Holocaust has shaped and continues to shape medical ethics, health policy, and questions related to human rights around the world. The field of bioethics continues to face questions of social and medical controversy that have their roots in the lessons of the Holocaust, such as debates over beginning-of-life and medical genetics, end-of-life matters such as medical aid in dying, the development of ethical codes and regulations to guide human subject research, and human rights abuses in vulnerable populations. As the only example of medically sanctioned genocide in history, and one that used medicine and science to fundamentally undermine human dignity and the moral foundation of society, the Holocaust provides an invaluable framework for exploring current issues in bioethics and society today. This book, therefore, is of great value to all current and future ethicists, medical practitioners and policymakers – as well as laypeople