Fifth period Frankensteiners ~ This is the question for the week of March 17th. You have until March 23rd to submit your responses. If you plan to leave for break on the 21st, make sure to visit our blog before you hit the beach or whereva. You need only post once this week.Scholars sometimes use Frankenstein as an argument against scientific technology that creates life forms. Others argue that it is NOT the technology that's the issue, but the use to which it is put that presents an ethical problem. (An ethical problem is a situation involving conflict about the right thing to do.) What do you think Shelley's position is on this? What is yours? This is a chin scratcher. Think about our fishbowl discussion last week.
FY-eye, I will not post a question next Sunday. I, too, will be on spring break.
10 comments:
I think that Mary's opinion is that the problem is not technology but the ethical issues that people use them for. She definitely agrees with this. In Frankenstien she shows this by using the creature and Victor and their relationship. Victor miss-used his knowledge of science to create life and horrible things came out of it. In my opinion, i think that it is how people use technology and knowledge to their advantage and sometimes for the wrong reasons. Sometimes we do learn from from mistakes, but sometimes we just want to be so right that we ignore those mistakes and keep trying and making those same mistakes over and over and over again.
I believe that Mary Shelly is trying to show us that Frankenstein was trying to play God by making life. But when he had the idea of creating life he had hoped it would start off as an intelligent being. By showing how Victor just ran away from the creature when he should have nurtured it, Shelly makes it clear that in her opinion the problem is ethics. In my opinion, it is almost never a bad thing when we advance our technology, but sometimes people are just too power-hungry. When people want to be remembered they don't always think about what they are doing, Frankenstein just wanted to reanimate a person so he could be remembered as the man who could bring people to life. But when his creation resembled an unintelligent zombie, he ran, and the monster started killing people.
I believe that Mary Shelly believes that if you try to go against the "norm" bad things will happen. In this case, Victor was told time and time again that this was not a good idea, but he didn't care. Being selfish and wanting fame, he went against the "norm" and created the creature. Because of this, Victor got a creature he didn't expect. The creature is now causing problems for Victor, as well as his family and friends. I believe that it is a good thing to expirement areas of science, but not when more intelligent people are telling you otherwise. In the outcome, those people are just trying to help you, making it an ethical issue in a sense.
I think that Victor just wanted the fame and popularity and that it's okay to make advancements in science as long as your careful and take care of it. I'd have to agree with what Nate was saying when he brought up the fact that he was "too power hungry" This is true in the sense that he should've been more careful and helped the creature instead of running away. It was his creation after all.
I think that Shelley's position is that technology is a useful and good thing, but that we have to use it properly and correctly. I also personally agree with Shelley. I believe that the right thing to do would have been to not run away from the creature-but rather to stay with it, take care of it, and teach it how to behave. In this case, I think that Victor Frankenstein misused technology.
I think that Mary Shelly believes that technology is unethical and it is wrong to create a person like character. In some ways she has made Frankenstein to play god and try to create a better being. I think that technology is not the issue, because there are so many new things that we have created that have done better to the world that technology is not the the issue. I believe some specific creations can go against ethics.
I agree with Maria when she says that this is an issue. You see everyday in the modern world that people use their knowledge for the wrong things. In this case, VIctor did not use his knowledge for the right cause, and I think, regrets his decision. he is smart though, and I think he may be able to work it out.
I think Mary is trying to show us that by Victor wanting to create this creature, he is (like nate said) trying to play God. Also, that if the technology that we have is misused then bad things will happen. I think that when Victor ran away from his problem (the monster), it made a path for destruction. The monster may have been good if Victor or anyone else made him not feel lonely or ugly. He wouldn't of killed anyone if 'society' didn't shun him by his appearance.
I'm late sorry, but at least i'll try to get some credit :) I think that Shelley's position on creating life is that it's not so much a technological problem, but an ethical issue. Since there really hasn't been extensive cloning, and certainly not in humans we don't really know what would happen if we created life. I believe that in Frankenstein shelley aimed to open people's eyes about how we need to careful what we do when creating life. Since life is a precious and gift that only comes once she is saying that we should be careful in what we do with it. I think that cloning people is wrong because I think that we were only meant to be on this earth once.
I think Mary was trying to make something that would make a difference in science. He wanted to be known, so he decided to do something that would make people notice him. Once, he realized what he did wouldn't make him look good, he panicked and let the creature go off on his own. Victor should have nurtured the creature and use him to advance science instead of wasting him.I think it was a good idea for victor to try and advance science, i don't think he did anything wrong in that sense, if victor would've cared for him he could've gotten something good out of him.
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