“Values, Ethics and Innovation

by | May 22, 2020 | ethics

  1. How do “society and technology develop in tandem, with technologies shaping and embodying societal values,”?
  2. Why can we no longer assume that technological and economic progress are automatically aligned with social progress?
  3. What are the two most widely held beliefs about technology and how do they both reflect an inadequate understanding of technology’s role in society?
  4. What is Collingridge’s dilemma?
  5. How has the US responded to this dilemma vs. European countries like the UK?
  6. The article uses the example of the automobile as a technology that fundamentally changed society. It lists many changes, both positive and negative, that

the automobile brought to society but also makes sure to state that “None of these impacts were inevitable”. Why?

  1. According to the article, what is the “central question” surrounding technology that a humancentered approach must always take into consideration?
  2. The question of what a meaningful future for mankind might look like could be different for a variety of people so why can’t we simply let the free market

decide what the “majority” of people want?

  1. The article claims that, “Despite the tendency to think of technologies as objects or tools, they inevitably embody the values of their creators,”. Who do

we generally think of as the creators of technology? Is there a bias inherent in this type of thinking and/or the reality of who creates technology for whom?

How does the article propose to fix this bias?

  1. How can inclusion practices help mitigate the potential consequences of “surface assumptions” in creating new technology and/or its uses in society?
  2. How is it profitable as well as ethical to adhere to what the article calls “transformative innovation”?
  3. What do they mean when they say that the challenge to create a transformative and ethical relationship between technology and society is a “systemic

challenge”? Bonus Question: How can innovation and the creation of new technologies be compared to having a child?

Sample Solution

Sample solution

Dante Alighieri played a critical role in the literature world through his poem Divine Comedy that was written in the 14th century. The poem contains Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. The Inferno is a description of the nine circles of torment that are found on the earth. It depicts the realms of the people that have gone against the spiritual values and who, instead, have chosen bestial appetite, violence, or fraud and malice. The nine circles of hell are limbo, lust, gluttony, greed and wrath. Others are heresy, violence, fraud, and treachery. The purpose of this paper is to examine the Dante’s Inferno in the perspective of its portrayal of God’s image and the justification of hell. 

In this epic poem, God is portrayed as a super being guilty of multiple weaknesses including being egotistic, unjust, and hypocritical. Dante, in this poem, depicts God as being more human than divine by challenging God’s omnipotence. Additionally, the manner in which Dante describes Hell is in full contradiction to the morals of God as written in the Bible. When god arranges Hell to flatter Himself, He commits egotism, a sin that is common among human beings (Cheney, 2016). The weakness is depicted in Limbo and on the Gate of Hell where, for instance, God sends those who do not worship Him to Hell. This implies that failure to worship Him is a sin.


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God is also depicted as lacking justice in His actions thus removing the godly image. The injustice is portrayed by the manner in which the sodomites and opportunists are treated. The opportunists are subjected to banner chasing in their lives after death followed by being stung by insects and maggots. They are known to having done neither good nor bad during their lifetimes and, therefore, justice could have demanded that they be granted a neutral punishment having lived a neutral life. The sodomites are also punished unfairly by God when Brunetto Lattini is condemned to hell despite being a good leader (Babor, T. F., McGovern, T., & Robaina, K. (2017). While he commited sodomy, God chooses to ignore all the other good deeds that Brunetto did.

Finally, God is also portrayed as being hypocritical in His actions, a sin that further diminishes His godliness and makes Him more human. A case in point is when God condemns the sin of egotism and goes ahead to commit it repeatedly. Proverbs 29:23 states that “arrogance will bring your downfall, but if you are humble, you will be respected.” When Slattery condemns Dante’s human state as being weak, doubtful, and limited, he is proving God’s hypocrisy because He is also human (Verdicchio, 2015). The actions of God in Hell as portrayed by Dante are inconsistent with the Biblical literature. Both Dante and God are prone to making mistakes, something common among human beings thus making God more human.

To wrap it up, Dante portrays God is more human since He commits the same sins that humans commit: egotism, hypocrisy, and injustice. Hell is justified as being a destination for victims of the mistakes committed by God. The Hell is presented as being a totally different place as compared to what is written about it in the Bible. As a result, reading through the text gives an image of God who is prone to the very mistakes common to humans thus ripping Him off His lofty status of divine and, instead, making Him a mere human. Whether or not Dante did it intentionally is subject to debate but one thing is clear in the poem: the misconstrued notion of God is revealed to future generations.

 

References

Babor, T. F., McGovern, T., & Robaina, K. (2017). Dante’s inferno: Seven deadly sins in scientific publishing and how to avoid them. Addiction Science: A Guide for the Perplexed, 267.

Cheney, L. D. G. (2016). Illustrations for Dante’s Inferno: A Comparative Study of Sandro Botticelli, Giovanni Stradano, and Federico Zuccaro. Cultural and Religious Studies, 4(8), 487.

Verdicchio, M. (2015). Irony and Desire in Dante’s” Inferno” 27. Italica, 285-297.

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