Human Groundedness in an Age of Intelligent Artifice | Professor Cyrus Zargar
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Cyrus Ali Zargar is Al-Ghazali Distinguished Professor of Islamic Studies and Professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Central Florida. Zargar’s research interests focus on the metaphysical, aesthetic, and ethical intersections between Sufism and Islamic philosophy. His most recent books include, Religion of Love: Sufism and Self-Transformation in the Poetic Imagination of ʿAṭṭār; The Ethics of Karbala: Myths, Modernity, and Virtues of Nobility; and The Polished Mirror: Storytelling and the Pursuit of Virtue in Islamic Philosophy and Sufism.
0:00 Hadith on Anger: Physical Actions as Emotional Regulation
0:57 Why Touch Calms Anger With Family
3:00 Disembodied Conflict: Family Anger Through Phones & Screens
4:48 Modern Life, Distance, and “Exile” From Family & Place
6:11 Embodiment as a Lens for AI & Tech
7:37 Growing Up Pre-Internet: Knowledge Scarcity, Boredom, and Real-World Presence
11:39 AI Convenience vs Human Contact
13:02 Humans Made From Clay: Qur’anic Anthropology & the Body–Soul Question
16:16 Clay, Identity, and Ziyārah: Bodily Origins in Shi‘i Narrations
22:00 AI vs Real Knowledge: Art, Muharram, Hyperreality, and Meaning
DISCLAIMER
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The views expressed in ICAIR’s public lectures do not necessarily reflect the views of ICAIR or the WFKSIMC.
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