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Sentimental Empiricism: Politics, Philosophy, And Criticism In Postwar France, Davide Panagia

Politics

Sentimental Empiricism reconsiders the legacy of eighteenth and nineteenth century empiricism and moral sentimentalism for the intellectual formation of the generation of postwar French thinkers whose work came to dominate Anglophone conversations across the humanities under the guise of “French theory.” Panagia’s book first shows what was missed in the reception of this literature in the Anglophone academy by attending to how France’s pedagogical milieu plays out church and state relations in the form of educational debates around reading practices, the aesthetics of mimesis, French imperialism, and republican universalism. Panagia then shows how such thinkers as Jean Wahl, Simone de …

Inciting Peace From The Inside Out, Stephen G. Adubato, Ebere Bosco Amakwe, Katherine Hinic, Sarita Maldjian, Forrest Pritchett, Jon Radwan, Nicholas Sooy, Chad Thralls

Conferences

Violence and war can be incited, and so can peace. This volume shares select addresses and responses from Seton Hall University’s 2/7/23 conference “Inciting Peace From The Inside Out.” A multi-disciplinary range of scholars each addresses how reconciliation processes grow from spiritual dynamics. Multiple religious traditions teach contemplative praxes that prioritize and nurture personal reflection oriented toward peace. Social conflicts divide, so engaging them with a partisan orientation only serves to escalate harmful rifts. In contrast, bringing personal awareness and sensitivity, spiritual balance, and holistic integral perspective to conflict can transcend divisions and work toward unity. This volume is supported …

“Women And Lockean Theory: John Locke, Rachel Speght, And Egalitarian Personhood, Katherine Gillespie, Bas Van Der Vossen

Philosophy Faculty Articles and Research

Liberal political thought affirms the moral equality of all persons. The Lockean tradition within liberalism captures this equality by endowing people with equal natural rights. However, a powerful line of criticism holds that the theory fails to live up to its egalitarian billing by treating men and women differently. This article offers a rational reconstruction of the Lockean position on gender equality, and the rights of women in particular. We propose a novel interpretative method which puts Locke into conversation with a contemporary female author, Rachel Speght. In Speght, we find an interesting argument supporting an egalitarian Lockean view, grounded …

Leo Strauss On Machiavelli: Athens Vs. Jerusalem Or Ontological Assumptions About Human Nature And Power, Dickson Tiphaine, Jokić Aleksandar

Philosophy Faculty Publications and Presentations

In this article we focus on the true nature of a disparity asserted in Leo Strauss's discussion of Machiavelli to amount to a virtue battle of sorts between Athens and Jerusalem. To convey this conflict Strauss is drawing both on his once Talmudic scholarship and his expertise in the history of political philosophy. We explore the stunning distortions, both theological and philosophical, in Strauss's discussion that appears aimed to support a conservative position on leadership, which calls for the magnanimous few to exercise power over the many (the lowborn, the poor and the vulgar). Not only does Strauss distort the …

Achille Mbembe, "Brutalism", Atreyee Majumder

Articles

Book Review: Achille Mbembe, Brutalism (Duke University Press 2024)

Beyond The Human: Crossovers For An Onto-Epistemological Bifurcation, Ester Toribio-Roura

Articles

Building upon recent studies in new materialisms and feminist critical posthumanism with a focus on human and more-than-human relationships, this paper examines how the posthuman paradigm, by postulating the queering of identit(ies) via entanglement with the more-than-human (including technology), and by offering a critical examination of diverse modes of existence within a broader ecological context, can foster more inclusive and ethically sound ways of being in the world. Although posthumanism encompasses a wide range of perspectives and theories, including transhumanism, at its core, it challenges traditional notions of humanism, blurring the boundaries between what is human and what is more-than-human, …

Knowing Others And Ourselves, Mark Phelan

Convocations

Lawrence University celebrated the accomplishments of students, faculty, and staff at the annual Honors Convocation Friday afternoon, May 24, 2024.

The Convocation followed a Thursday evening Honors Awards Ceremony and Reception, where 144 students, two student organizations, and five faculty and staff were celebrated with awards that spanned the entire university experience: from academic honors in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and Conservatory of Music to leadership in Student Life and Athletics.

The Honors Convocation, the third and final convocation of the academic year, highlighted those accomplishments and celebrated this year’s Faculty Convocation Award recipient, Mark Phelan, professor …

Pronomian Paradigm: A Pro-Torah, Christocentric Method Of Theology And Apologetics, Gregory Scott Mckenzie

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This dissertation sets out to demonstrate the continued validity of the Torah for all believers today. As such, this dissertation attempts to show that discontinuity of the Mosaic Covenant is scripturally, theologically, and philosophically untenable. The thesis of this dissertation is that Pronomianism is the paradigm that most cohesively melds theology and apologetics, through its interpretation of Paul’s words and deeds at the second Jerusalem council, which unveils the Torah’s centrality in New Testament theology, and that Pronomian moral apologetics reveal the Law of God as the only foundation for objective, biblical morality, and the guide to righteous living. This …

Towards An Ethics Of Difference: Constructing A Post-Structuralist Ethics, Cameron H. Carsten

Student Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Applying Stewardship Leadership That Impacts Employee Work Attitudes To Reduce Voluntary Turnover, H. Dea Dietrick Wood

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

At a time when leadership corruption threatens a hazard to sustainable organization development, a new brand of leadership governance is in demand. Therefore, the importance of this quantitative study was to examine a unique, newly proposed theory—stewardship leadership (SSL). SSL theory, based on a biblical worldview, was hypothesized to influence subordinates perceived organizational support (POS), subordinate affective commitment (AC), and subordinate organizational identification (OI) that, in turn, reinforces job embeddedness (JE) and reduces voluntary turnover intentions (TI) in comparison to servant (SL), transformational (TL), and leader-member exchange (LMX) leadership styles on work attitudes. SSL also appeared to be a composite …

Eng 155: Introduction To Literary Studies, Joseph Donica

Open Educational Resources

An OER syllabus covering the ways humans have read and continue to read literature from a variety of critical and theoretical perspectives. An emphasis is placed on the application of critical thought to writing expository essays and responding to readings.

With Love, ; An Interdisciplinary And Intersectional Look At Why Creativity Is Essential, Theo Starr Gardner

Whittier Scholars Program

My Whittier Scholars Program self-designed major, Teaching Creativity, is a mixture of Art, Literature, and Education classes. My research and praxis classes have been focused on the ‘how?’s and 'why?’s of creativity, so it felt only right that my project should be a constructivist, generative project. The project I have been working on throughout my time at Whittier, and that has just fully come to fruition on April 11th, 2024, was a solo art gallery/open mic event entitled ‘With Love,’. With Love, was conceptually inspired by the research I’ve conducted on creativity and creative arts education over the past few …

Canonical Extensions Of Quantale Enriched Categories, Alexander Kurz

MPP Research Seminar

No abstract provided.

What Is Marxian Communism? Limning The Post-Revolutionary Utopia By Implication, Teodora Blejeru

Honors College

This thesis aims to discover the facts of Marxian communism by implication. By analyzing the works of Marx, this project outlines the contradictions within capitalism and explains how these problems will be solved within Marxian communism. This pro- ject explains historical materialism and how it can be used to explain Marxian com- munism as not only the end of history, but as the end of class antagonisms. It also aims to explain why twentieth century communist regimes cannot be considered truthful exam- ples of Marxian communism. After the introductory chapter, the thesis analyzes The Communist Manifesto, The German Ideology, and …

Determinism & Free Will: An Exploration On Gender Identity As Evidence For Compatibilism, Daniel Mangandi-Escobar

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Determinism is a philosophical concept asserting that every event and action in the universe has been determined by previous causes, which has caused considerable debate within philosophy. Two critical issues within this discussion are the implications of determinism for human agency and moral responsibility. In this work, I argue that free ill is possible, rejecting hard determinism. Specifically, I will be arguing in favor of compatibilism, which is the view that free will can exist even within a deterministic world. From this perspective, free will is not opposed to determinism. Instead, our choices and actions can still be considered free …

40 Years Of Koyaanisqatsi: The Greatest Experimental Film Ever Made, Brian Thomas

Honors Program: Student Scholarship & Creative Works

The 1983 experimental film Koyaanisqatsi remains a visionary artistic work 40 years after it was initially released, because it continues to resonate in contemporary society by vividly depicting the intersection of human life and technology, prompting viewers to contemplate "life out of balance" and its implications. The film makes us question where life is headed and the ways in which we "live technology" today.

Biological Teleology In The Modern World, Kathryn Siena

Honors Theses

In humans, the heart moves blood through the body. Does the heart therefore have a teleological explanation? Aristotelian teleology (described in Aristotle’s Physics) is the cause-for-the-sake-of-which, or the end towards which something moves. It is evident from current scientific knowledge that there is some sort of orientation of organisms toward an end. This orientation, following Aristotle’s definition of teleology, is conceptually distinct from efficient causation. This orientation is also metaphysically distinct from efficient causation because efficient causal explanations do not properly describe the orientation. However, two common ways of describing teleological explanations imply efficient causation as a metaphysical element. …

The Framing Of Authority In The Acrl Framework On Information Literacy: Multidisciplinary Perspectives On Truth, Authority, Expertise And Belief., Lisa M. Rose-Wiles

Praxis Publications

Purpose This paper engages multidisciplinary perspectives on truth, authority, expertise and belief to unpack and better understand the underlying epistemology and implications of the ACRL frame “authority is constructed and contextual”.' Design/Methodology/Approach Following an overview of the issues confronting us in a “post-truth world”, the paper reviews critiques of the ACRL frame “authority is constructed and contextual” and examines the related concepts of truth, authority, expertise and belief from multidisciplinary perspectives. Findings While the frame acknowledges the limitations and biases of current scholarly publishing and implicitly supports social justice, it runs the danger of promoting relativism and is ambiguous regarding …

No Self: Consciousness, Life, And Value, Jiawei Ma

Philosophy Honors Projects

The problem of personal identity has been an ongoing debate in the history of philosophy for thousands of years. This thesis examines personal identity from a variety of philosophical approaches. I begin with the historical assumption made by Descartes and Locke that people have a 'self' because they have successive consciousness over time. I argue that no 'self' exists as a coherent entity because consciousness, which makes up the self, exists as separate pieces. By exploring the weakness of defining the self as consciousness, I argue that society is the efficient cause and final cause of personal identity. By studying …

Philosophy In Science: Can Philosophers Of Science Permeate Through Science And Produce Scientific Knowledge?, Thomas Pradeu, Maël Lemoine, Mahdi Khelfaoui, Yves Gingras

Presidential Fellows Articles and Research

Most philosophers of science do philosophy ‘on’ science. By contrast, others do philosophy ‘in’ science (PinS), that is, they use philosophical tools to address scientific problems and to provide scientifically useful proposals. Here, we consider the evidence in favour of a trend of this nature. We proceed in two stages. First, we identify relevant authors and articles empirically with bibliometric tools, given that PinS would be likely to infiltrate science and thus to be published in scientific journals (‘intervention’), cited in scientific journals (‘visibility’), and sometimes recognized as a scientific result by scientists (‘contribution’). We show that many central figures …

Efficacy Post-Event: Mass Killing Integrated Response Training, Danny Scott Jarrell

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Regarding the killing or attempted killing of people in confined and populated areas, whether defined as an active threat, active shooter, or active killer, the results for public safety professionals responding to these incidents are the same. The Federal Bureau of Investigation statistics indicate that many mass killing events involve the use of firearms(s) with no pattern or method to the killer's selection of victims. The increasing frequency of these events, coinciding with the high number of casualties, is forcing first responders to adopt improved operational responses. Developing procedures through the collaborative efforts between first responders (e.g., fire, emergency medical …

A Narrative Study: Professional Development Of A Piano Teacher Through Various Music Education Philosophies And Psychologies In Different Sociocultural Contexts, Shuenda Wong

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Philosophers have analyzed music education philosophies since Ancient times. For example, Plato and Aristotle in Greece mused over such matters, as did Confucius and Mozi in China. Today, music educators must examine both philosophies and psychologies of music education to understand the value of teaching music. They need music education philosophies to critique their actions and delve into their pedagogical methods to gain meaning from their teaching efforts. Previous research focused on music education philosophies in one or two countries without a thorough comparative analysis between countries or continents. This narrative study on music education philosophies traced the unique journey …

Charge The Cockpit Or Die: An Anatomy Of Fear-Driven Political Rhetoric In American Conservatism, Daniel Hostetter

Senior Honors Theses

Subthreshold negative emotions have superseded conscious reason as the initial and strongest motivators of political behavior. Political neuroscience uses the concepts of negativity bias and terror management theory to explore why fear-driven rhetoric plays such an outsized role in determining human political actions. These mechanisms of human anthropology are explored by competing explanations from biblical and evolutionary scholars who attempt to understand their contribution to human vulnerabilities to fear. When these mechanisms are observed in fear-driven political rhetoric, three common characteristics emerge: exaggerated threat, tribal combat, and religious apocalypse, which provide a new framework for explaining how modern populist leaders …

Police Brutality: The Nexus Between Historical Injustices, Police Culture And The African American Experience, Claude M. Rhone

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This study focused on the harassment, maltreatment, and brutality of African Americans by police officers. The recent widespread condemnation and social justice protests in response to incidents of police brutality point to historical injustices inherent to the culture of policing. Slavery provides the overarching backdrop; however, Jim Crow laws cultivated the structural adaptations necessary to fulfill segregation between African Americans and Whites. The American policing model, which evolved from slave patrols to public entities, continued as an apparatus in the marginalization and disenfranchisement of African Americans. The narrative of “defunding the police” suggests that the past’s cultural proximity renders the …

Scholars Day 2024 Program Of Events, Carl Goodson Honors Program

Scholars Day

This is the program of events for the 2023 Scholars Day Conference, where undergraduates across disciplines present their scholarly and creative works.

Taking Employment Seriously: With Some Notes On Universal Basic Income, Larry Udell

Philosophy Faculty Publications

The question of whether to grant all citizens a basic income that would starts with adulthood is the source of much controversy today among people who believe that government should do something to address income inequality (including but not limited to addressing increasingly widespread poverty and homelessness). Philippe Van Parijs famously advocated such a policy, but his proposal was rejected by John Rawls, who demurred at subsidizing Malibu surfers with public support for their leisure and instead emphasized the need for a full employment policy. I argue that a slight modification of Rawls's theory might allow for a limited UBI …

God’S Narrative Of Redemption: Creation, Imago Dei, And Water Imagery, Dawn Lewis Sutherland

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This research demonstrates that the reclamation of imago Dei identity is the ultimate and terminal end-state of God’s plan for humanity’s redemption; this plan is universally expressed to humanity through water imagery in the Old Testament (OT) and in Ancient Near East (ANE) context. The Creator unveils supernatural intent through natural processes and contends that the restoration of imago Dei identity represents the conclusive fulfillment of God’s redemptive plan for humanity. In pursuit of this argument, the research critically explores creational identity, the contrasting biblical notion of idolatry, and the cross-cultural significance of water imagery within the contexts of the …

A Phenomenological Approach To Legal Epistemic Injustice, Christopher Thomas Phillippe-Rodriguez

Philosophy Faculty Publications and Presentations

Injustices in legal contexts are widespread, yet we usually tend to think of them through a social lens. The study of epistemic injustices increases the resolution of this lens; it identifies how we wrong others as "knowers." In this paper, I propose that the tradition of phenomenology may be invoked to describe and identify instances of epistemic injustice in legal contexts. In order to justify this claim, I establish a phenomenological methodology predicated on the synthesis of two ideas: (1) the phenomenological recognition of the Other, and (2) society's duty to endow its members with an epistemic sphere of action.

Does Ai Ask Good Questions? A Discussion Activity, Katherine Tilghman

Generative AI Teaching Activities

Students will prompt ChatGPT to generate discussion questions about a course text or artistic work, then evaluate the questions and modify them to make them more engaging and thought-provoking.

“What Line Can’T Be Measured With A Ruler?” Riddles And Concept-Formation In Mathematics And Aesthetics, William H. Brenner, Samuel J. Wheeler

Philosophy Faculty Publications

We analyze two problems in mathematics – the first (stated in our title) is extracted from Wittgenstein’s “Philosophy for Mathematicians”; the second (“What set of numbers is non-denumerable?”) is taken from Cantor. We then consider, by way of comparison, a problem in musical aesthetics concerning a Brahms variation on a theme by Haydn. Our aim is twofold: first, to bring out and elucidate the essentially riddle-like character of these problems; second, to show that the comparison with riddles does not reduce their solution to an exercise in bare subjectivity