A Metaphysics Of Artifacts: Essence And Mind-Dependence, 2022 University of Massachusetts Amherst
A Metaphysics Of Artifacts: Essence And Mind-Dependence, Tim Juvshik
Doctoral Dissertations
My dissertation explores the nature of artifacts – things like chairs, tables, and pinball machines – and addresses the question of whether there is anything essential to being an artifact and a member of a particular artifact kind. My dissertation offers new arguments against both the anti-essentialist and current essentialist proposals. Roughly put, the view is that artifacts are successful products of an intention to make something with certain features constitutive of an artifact kind. The constitutive features are often functional features, but may include structural, material, aesthetic, and other features. I further explore the ways in which artifacts are …
Spirituality, Well-Being, And The Role Of Oneness, 2022 University of New Mexico
Spirituality, Well-Being, And The Role Of Oneness, Kelly S. Erickson Albonico
Psychology ETDs
Spirituality is generally found to have a significant but small positive association with well-being; however, the associations between spirituality and well-being vary greatly. One organizing framework for understanding the varying associations may be the degree to which spirituality and well-being measures capture connection, the pinnacle of which may be conceptualized as Oneness. The purpose of this paper is twofold: to begin exploring this hypothesis by examining the associations between beliefs in Oneness and dimensions of subjective well-being and to test possible conflating and contributing factors in the associations between beliefs in Oneness and subjective well-being. Results indicated preliminary support for …
Actual Causation: Apt Causal Models And Causal Relativism, 2022 The Graduate Center, City University of New York
Actual Causation: Apt Causal Models And Causal Relativism, Jennifer R. Mcdonald
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
This dissertation begins by addressing the question of when a causal model is apt for deciding questions of actual causation with respect to some target situation. I first provide relevant background about causal models, explain what makes them promising as a tool for analyzing actual causation, and motivate the need for a theory of aptness as part of such an analysis (Chapter 1). I then define what it is for a model on a given interpretation to be accurate of, that is, say only true things about, some target situation. This involves a systematization of various representational principles …
Dworkin Versus Hart Revisited: The Challenge Of Non-Lexical Determination, 2022 University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School
Dworkin Versus Hart Revisited: The Challenge Of Non-Lexical Determination, Mitchell N. Berman
All Faculty Scholarship
A fundamental task for legal philosophy is to explain what makes it the case that the law has the content that it does. Anti-positivists say that moral norms play an ineliminable role in the determination of legal content, while positivists say that they play no role, or only a contingent one. Increasingly, scholars report finding the debate stale. This article hopes to freshen it by, ironically, revisiting what might be thought its opening round: Dworkin’s challenge to Hartian positivism leveled in The Model of Rules I. It argues that the underappreciated significance of Dworkin’s distinction between rules and principles is …
How Speech Act Theory Can Help Address Problems In Theology And Church Posed By Modern Philosophy, 2022 Concordia Seminary, St. Louis
How Speech Act Theory Can Help Address Problems In Theology And Church Posed By Modern Philosophy, Charles W. Westby
Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation
Westby, Charles W. “How Speech Act Theory Can Help Address Problems in Theology and Church Posed by Modern Philosophy.” Ph.D. diss., Concordia Seminary, 2022. 347 pp.
This dissertation analyzes modern idealism as developed by René Descartes and Immanuel Kant to show how modern philosophy has impacted conservative theology, focusing on the theology of Carl F. H. Henry. The relationship between theology and philosophy is analyzed in terms of foundationalism, using postliberal theological analysis propounded by Hans Frei and George Lindbeck. Speech Act Theory as propounded by J. L. Austin and John R. Searle is used to critique modern idealism in …
Metaphysical Coherentism, 2022 Syracuse University
Metaphysical Coherentism, Jan Swiderski
Dissertations - ALL
I defend metaphysical coherentism, according to which reality is an interdependent network, system, or web, held together by a relation philosophers call "metaphysical explanation" or "grounding". If coherentism is true, nothing is ungrounded, things ground each other, and understanding what it is to be any given thing – a tree, a house, or a person – is grasping how it fits in: how it grounds and is grounded by its environment.
Coherentism is inconsistent with a widely-accepted, orthodox view of grounding, according to which certain fundamental facts about reality asymmetrically determine everything else. In Chapter 1, I argue that this …
Adoration Above Objectification: The Promotion Of Other In Black, Mexican And Arabic Love Poetry, 2022 Seattle Pacific University
Adoration Above Objectification: The Promotion Of Other In Black, Mexican And Arabic Love Poetry, Joycelynn L. Baker
Honors Projects
This paper analyzes the philosophical fundamentals of sexual objectification and presents opposing literature, written in the 20th century, by Black, Mexican and Arabic male poets in contrast. In vigorous patriarchal environments that provide more opportunities to practice sexual objectification, the poets reframe male metaphysical perception and behavior in romantic or sexual contexts by promoting the autonomy and agency of women above themselves, and displaying their enjoyment of that situation. This paper will discuss how Western metaphysical philosophy impacts self-perception and belief in contemporary romantic contexts.
New Animals, 2022 CUNY Hunter College
New Animals, Alina Iakirevitch
Theses and Dissertations
To transfer the rhythms of the body into the earth, in Lippard’s language, one has to engage in a non verbal, illogical action. Art is the sphere of this action. Staying engaged with the unpredictable in us, the random, the primal, is the core of art making and encountering art.
A Challenge To Psychological And Biological Theories Of Personal Identity, 2022 University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
A Challenge To Psychological And Biological Theories Of Personal Identity, Felix Alberto Benzant
Theses and Dissertations
Traditionally, reductive accounts of personal identity within a three-dimensionalist framework face notorious problems. I focus mainly on the problem of graduality. This problem arises out of the apparent tension that exists between the nature of identity as a degreeless relation and standard accounts that seem to admit of degrees. An assessment concerning the nature of these relations is given in order to make the apparent tension explicit. It is then argued that the philosophical implications of such a problem entail a rejection of reductive theories that admit of degrees; paradigmatically, those that analyze personal identity either as psychological continuity or …
Negation & Acosmism: Hegel's Acosmist Reading Of Spinoza, 2022 William & Mary
Negation & Acosmism: Hegel's Acosmist Reading Of Spinoza, Jared Jones
Undergraduate Honors Theses
In this thesis, I argue that Spinoza's views on negation are coupled with a view of being which, although Hegel misunderstands it to an extent, makes it impossible for finite things to exist, as Hegel's "acosmist" reading of Spinoza maintains. I begin by arguing that acosmism would present an internal problem for Spinoza's system in the Ethics, framing the importance of the topic and showing why Hegel's interpretation, as an interpretation, does not work. After that, I first provide an account of Hegel and Spinoza's views on negation. In the process, I give an account of Hegel's views on …
Speech Acts As Contingent Encounters: Realizing Agency In Contaminated Worlds, 2022 University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
Speech Acts As Contingent Encounters: Realizing Agency In Contaminated Worlds, Zachary Cross
Honors Theses
Agency is realized in the act of speaking, an act which is always contingent on a collaborative process that transforms all parties involved. We think and act with one another and our concepts, there is no act of speech prior to encounter. In this paper I explore different ways which language shapes our thinking and play with those structures to use them as models for realizing agency. This exploration became personal insofar as exploring ways of thinking transformed my own sense of agency in the speech act. The completion of this paper is thus essential to its conclusion.
Indeterminacy, Disagreement, And Reasonable Reference Magnetism, 2022 William & Mary
Indeterminacy, Disagreement, And Reasonable Reference Magnetism, Jaocb (Hengyun) Yang
Undergraduate Honors Theses
According to reference magnetism, some properties are easier to refer than others. The proposal finds many applications in the different fields of philosophy, but it has also been criticized as an ad hoc solution to philosophical problems. This thesis provides a novel account of reference magnetism that preserves its explanatory power but is, hopefully, more reasonable.
The Foundation Of A Grand Unified Metaphysics, 2022 University of Arkansas, Fayetteville
The Foundation Of A Grand Unified Metaphysics, Jason R. Miller
Graduate Theses and Dissertations
Philosophers from Leibniz to Parfit have tackled the problem of existence and the problem of arbitrarity. I divide the solutions to these two problems into three general categories: (1) infinite regress answers, (2) ex nihilo answers, and (3) self-caused cause answers. I show that the first two (infinite regress and ex nihilo) categories of answers either fail to answer the problem of existence or the problem of arbitrarity or fail to satisfy one or more reasonable assumptions about said problems. Believing it to be useful to a self-caused cause answer to the problem of existence and the problem of arbitrarily, …
On Certain Antinomies Of Freedom: Divine Foreknowledge And Immutability, 2022 William & Mary
On Certain Antinomies Of Freedom: Divine Foreknowledge And Immutability, Tanja T. Rounds
Undergraduate Honors Theses
The objective of this inquiry is to establish the compatibility of free operation in the divine essence given that God is omniscient, and immutable. As such, this inquiry differs from conventional philosophical debate surrounding the divine attributes and creaturely freedom. Chapter I will respond to the antinomy of God’s foreknowledge and divine freedom, and offers a theory for divine freedom and foreknowledge compatibilism from the theory of truthmaking. Chapter II will respond to the antinomy of divine freedom and immutability, and offers a Neo-Thomist account of freedom to explain free action in the divine essence.
A Defense Of Moral Realism, 2022 University of Mary Washington
A Defense Of Moral Realism, Caleb Robb
Student Research Submissions
My Theis is a defense of the moral metaethical theory known as moral realism. Moral realism is the idea that moral laws are objective, true, non-natural, and applicable to all moral agents. I reference and subscribe to the form of moral relativism that is proposed by Russ Shafer-Landau in his book Moral Realism. In my thesis I argue that moral realism is the correct view of moral laws, and that relativism, error theory, and noncognitivism are all incorrect views. Relativism argues that moral laws stem from the culture and people in each society, and that they are subjective to only …
Where Epistemology And Metaphysics Touch In Lois Lowry's The Giver, 2022 Morgan State University
Where Epistemology And Metaphysics Touch In Lois Lowry's The Giver, Seth Vannatta
Far West Popular Culture Association Annual Conference
In Lois Lowry’s dystopian young adult novel, The Giver, the veil of perception— the gap between appearance and reality— is woven into the community as a policy measure meant to establish Sameness—the effort to insure a world without conflict, inequality, difference, pain, or freedom of choice. But a question lingers in the premise of the novel’s community. Given that our options for bridging the gap amount to building a bridge of experience across it or digging a tunnel of existence under it, has the bridge been sabotaged to render perception spurious, or has the tunnel been blocked to alter reality …
A Humanist's Account: Manetti On Humanism's Impact On Morality In 15th Century Italy., 2022 University of Louisville
A Humanist's Account: Manetti On Humanism's Impact On Morality In 15th Century Italy., Connor Kurtz, Beau Kilpatrick
Undergraduate Research Events
Abstract
Religion, art, and politics were at their peak during the Italian Renaissance. However, because of the generously allocated talent of the Italian sphere at this time it is easy to overlook the contributions of those who broke away from the Catholic concentration and kick started this humanistic era. Giannozzo Manetti, an Italian politician who in 1452 wrote De Ignate er Excellencia Hominis, a challenge to Pope Innocent III’s philosophy. The text has been translated to “On Human Worth and Excellence” and describes a deep-rooted foundation of humanism in religion. He concludes a functionality of society and religion in …
The Theological Structure For Forming Christian Vocational Spirituality: A Practical Method For The Whole Of The Christian Life, 2022 Southern Methodist University
The Theological Structure For Forming Christian Vocational Spirituality: A Practical Method For The Whole Of The Christian Life, Yong Sub Sim
Doctor of Ministry Projects and Theses
The Christian church works for reconciliation between God and his creatures through Jesus Christ. For this, the church calls people and helps them hear, understand, recognize and receive the Spirit of God through Jesus. This dissertation explains this process as walking with, working with and following Jesus.
This dissertation builds a theological structure for forming “Christian vocational spirituality” as the whole of the Christian life reconciled with the Spirit of God through Jesus Christ. This theological structure guides the process through which a human being becomes a true Christian being, and a Christian being becomes a true human being reconciled …
Knowledge Through Divine Light: Ghazali’S Notions Of Mystical Cognition, 2022 American University in Cairo
Knowledge Through Divine Light: Ghazali’S Notions Of Mystical Cognition, Maisara Maasoum Marzouk
The Undergraduate Research Journal
Illumination, or knowledge through divine light, is a type of mystical cognition that Abu Hamid Ghazali regarded to be the cause of his rescue from his famous skeptical crisis. According to him, this type of divine knowledge is the apex of knowledge, to which all other sciences are subordinate. The receptive organ of this knowledge is the heart, a divine and cognitive subtlety that is distinct though related to the physical heart. Such is done by removing the veils that obstruct divine light from reaching it by means of the science of unveiling. The disclosure of knowledge that occurs once …
Theory Of Knowledge In The Tretise Of Al-Gazali “Al-Kistasu-Lmustakim” (Right Scales), 2022 Bukhara State University
Theory Of Knowledge In The Tretise Of Al-Gazali “Al-Kistasu-Lmustakim” (Right Scales), Kodirov Davronbek
The Light of Islam
Today, one of the urgent tasks of the social sciences is the construction of the Third Renaissance in our country, the transfer of the heritage of our ancestors to the younger generation, and their education in the spirit of moral and spiritual ideas based on Islamic philosophy. Therefore, it is important to study and research the sources that underlie the religious and philosophical views that have been formed and consolidated in our country for centuries. One of these philosophical writings is Al-Qistasu-l-Mustakim (Right scales) by Abu Hamid Muhammad ibn Muhammad alGhazali, a thinker, lawyer, philosopher, and mystic who lived and …