Digital Ghosts, Moral Algorithms, and the Challenge of Teaching Ethics in the Posthuman Age

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Published: 2026-01-12
DOI: https://doi.org/10.17163/soph.n40.2026.02
Keywords:
digital ethics, academic integrity, posthuman education, moral algorithms, surveillance capitalism, virtue ethics

Main Article Content

Amitabh Dwivedi
Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University, UT of Jammu & Kashmir
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7779-2654

Abstract

The article tracks how AI sorting tools and profit-seeking metrics quietly rewrite the ethical
rulebook of the university. Introducing the concept of “digital ghosts” to describe the artefactual traces of authorship, intent, and authenticity produced by technology-mediated work, it contends that current educational models encourage a posthuman form of responsibility characterized by weakened accountability. Through empirical vignettes—including algorithm-driven citation inflation, dissertations constructed with large language models, and a July 2025 incident in which institutional affiliations were openly sold on LinkedIn—the article documents an academy where ethical judgment is displaced by platform logic and metrics, and where growing dependence on
dashboards increases integrity risks for students and faculty alike. It explains how algorithmic
infrastructures reshape authorship and evaluation, examines the consequences across academic roles, and proposes a program to restore accountability that pairs provenance and audit-ready practices with pedagogy integrating technical literacy and ethical reasoning. The article concludes that academic integrity must be deliberately redesigned for digitally mediated scholarship rather
than assumed to remain intact.

Article Details

Issue
No. 40 (2026): (January-June 2026): Philosophy in Education of Principles and values
Section
Monographic articles
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Author Biography

Amitabh Dwivedi, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University, UT of Jammu & Kashmir

Dr. Amitabh Vikram Dwivedi is a Harvard University-certified expert in the "Art of Writing & Public Speaking" and serves as a faculty member in the School of Languages and Literature at Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University, India. His academic expertise spans the fields of Linguistics and Literature, with a special focus on language documentation, the development of descriptive grammar, and the preservation of endangered and minority languages in South Asia.

He has designed and taught numerous courses for prestigious academic institutions and online platforms, including Udemy and Academia. His notable courses include:

Academic Writing (Academia)
Analyzing Text: Introduction to Literary Criticism and Theory (Academia)
Understanding Syntax (Udemy)
Literary Criticism and Theory (Udemy)
Stylistics (Udemy)
Literary Text Analysis: Theory and Practice (Udemy)

Dr. Dwivedi is a recognized scholar, with over 200,000 readers engaging with his work on ResearchGate. His research on the Bhadarwahi language is prominently featured on the official website of the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger.

His published works are housed in the libraries of prestigious institutions, including Stanford University and Princeton University. Dr. Dwivedi's extensive academic contributions include over 180 research chapters in leading academic resources such as EBSCO, and encyclopedias published by Springer-Nature, SAGE, Rowman & Littlefield, and ABC-CLIO Publications. He has also authored numerous papers for Science Citation Index and SCOPUS journals.

In addition to his individual research, Dr. Dwivedi served as a Co-Director for the research project titled "A Comprehensive Study of Culture, Philosophy, Literature, and Language of Jammu & Kashmir", sanctioned by the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR).

From April 2024 to November 2024, Dr. Dwivedi held the position of Head, Information and Language Technology at the Central Institute of Hindi, Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India. In this role, he led key initiatives aimed at integrating information technology into the preservation and promotion of language resources.

His scholarly publications include several authoritative books, notably:

A Grammar of Sarazi (Lincom Europa, Munich, 2019)
Dogri and its Dialects (Lincom Europa, Munich, 2018)
A Grammar of Hadoti (Lincom Europa, Munich, 2012)
A Grammar of Bhadarwahi (Lincom Europa, Munich, 2013)
चिनार-का-सूखा-पत्ता "The Dry Leaf of the Chinar Tree" (2015, Hindi)
Something Lurks It Seems (2017, Marfa House, Texas)

As a poet, he has contributed extensively to numerous anthologies, journals, and magazines worldwide. His poem "Mother" was recently featured as the prologue to Motherhood and War: International Perspectives (Eds.), published by Palgrave Macmillan Press.

Dr. Dwivedi continues to make substantial contributions to the academic and literary world, with a particular commitment to the preservation and study of South Asia’s linguistic and cultural heritage.

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