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What does it mean to be religious believers for people whose living
conditions are defined by an increasingly secularized environment?
Is the common distinction between faith and knowledge valid? The 21
essays cover approaches from various fields of the humanities. Some
explore post-Kantian thoughts, discussing, i.a., American
Pragmatism, M. Buber, M. Horkheimer, H. Putnam, J. Habermas, Ch.
Taylor and variants of deconstruction, while other essays focus on
ways in which the conflict between agnostics and seekers is
addressed in US literary works, as in Fl. O’Connor, W. Percy, N.
Hawthorne, J. Updike and in novels dealing with pandemics, for
instance by L. Wright, E. M. Wiseman and R. Cook. Historical
studies examine the intermingling of the sacred and the secular in
the American South and neo-scholastic objections to modernity.
Theological issues are being re-framed in essays discussing the
relevance of pluralism, the relation of religious conviction and
public opinion, the situation of scientists who believe and the
thoughts of N. Frye and M. McLuhan. Finally, essays pay attention
to religious aspects in works of art, e.g. in Ukrainian poetry, G.
Mahler’s symphonies and in a TV show presenting new “American
Gods” of globalization.
The technological innovations that have made "learning" computers
possible are being met with utopian hopes as well as apocalyptic
apprehensions. Will AI research eventually lead to software systems
that have consciousness and are capable of autonomous decision
making? The essays challenge "strong AI" from the perspective of
human agency and moral judgment, explain the categorical difference
between vulnerable humans and AI devices, and discuss diverse forms
of applied AI, such as prograns of natural language processing,
computional creativity, neuroenhancement, and the use of AI in
international healthcare. These theoretical issues are illustrated
in essays that focus on the encounter with artificial beings in
film, literature and theater. Examining science fiction that blurs
the borderline between humans and deep-learning androids, the
essays explore, and challenge, ways of questioning human
exceptionalism, for instance by visualizing non-conscious cognition
and sentience. The book suggests a sober distinction between
well-argued achievements of digital technology and excessive,
unfounded expectations.
Although German Americans number almost 43 million and are the
largest ethnic group in the United States, scholars of American
literature have paid little attention to this influential and
ethnically diverse cultural group. In a work of unparalleled depth
and range, Waldemar Zacharasiewicz explores the cultural and
historical background of the varied images of Germany and Germans
throughout the past two centuries. Using an interdisciplinary
approach known as comparative imagology, which borrows from social
psychology and cultural anthropology, Zacharasiewicz samples a
broad spectrum of original sources, including literary works,
letters, diaries, autobiographical accounts, travelogues, newspaper
reports, films, and even cartoons and political caricatures.
Starting with the notion of Germany as the ideal site for academic
study and travel in the nineteenth century and concluding with the
twentieth-century image of Germany as an aggressive country, this
innovative work examines the everchanging image of Germans and
Germany in the writings of Louisa May Alcott, Samuel Clemens, Henry
James, William James, George Santayana, W. E. B. Du Bois, John
Dewey, H. L. Mencken, Katherine Anne Porter, Kay Boyle, Thomas
Wolfe, Upton Sinclair, Gertrude Stein, Kurt Vonnegut, Thomas
Pynchon, William Styron, Walker Percy, and John Hawkes, among
others. Zacharasiewicz's careful writing and rigorous documentation
will appeal to scholars and students alike. This unflinching look
at German history and the image of Germans in American literature
is sure to invigorate a lively debate among scholars on both sides
of the Atlantic.
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