Ringvorlesung „Zukünfte erfinden: Von Frankenstein zur Künstlichen Intelligenz“ Voices of the Created: Sympathy, Agency, and Moral Failure in Frankenstein and AI Ethics Referentin: Eileen Hunt, Teil 2 (University of Notre Dame, digital)

This lecture focuses on the second half of Frankenstein, placing the Creature’s narrative at the center of ethical analysis. By examining the Creature’s account of his education, suffering, and exclusion, the session asks whether his story warrants moral sympathy and how Mary Shelley uses it to challenge readers’ judgments about monstrosity, violence, and responsibility. The lecture also considers Victor Frankenstein’s reaction to the Creature’s plea for companionship and evaluates the ethics of his decision to destroy the female Creature he begins to create. Drawing connections to contemporary AI ethics, the session explores questions of agency, moral status, and the consequences of denial, neglect, and fear in human–machine relationships. The lecture concludes by asking where responsibility ultimately lies in the tragedy of the novel—and what Frankenstein suggests about our ethical obligations to intelligent creations today. 

Die Ringvorlesung „Zukünfte erfinden: Von Frankenstein zur Künstlichen Intelligenz“ lädt dazu ein, von Ingolstadt, dem legendären Schauplatz von Victor Frankensteins Experimenten, aus den Bogen zu schlagen bis in unsere digitale Gegenwart. Expertinnen und Experten aus Literaturwissenschaft, Philosophie, Technik- und Sozialwissenschaften erkunden, welche Bilder, Ideen und Geschichten unser Verhältnis zu den Dingen prägen, die wir erschaffen – besonders dann, wenn sie ein Eigenleben entwickeln.