Impartialist Ethics And Psychic Disintegration: A Talking Cure, Roman Nakia Briggs

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation deals with integrity understood as a state of the psyche. Its primary interlocutor is Professor Bernard Williams, and its point of departure is my interpretation of his Objection from Integrity to impartialist moral theories. Against Williams, I hope to show that the active adherent of impartialist ethical systems (e.g., act utilitarianism) may retain both moral integrity and integrity. In demonstrating this, I make use of a variant of Roy Schafer’s action language approach to psychoanalysis, and what I call practical aestheticism.

The Transformative And Healing Powers Of Compassion, Forgiveness, And Wonder, Anna C. Eriksson-Marty

Senior Theses

Since time immemorial, humankind has struggled to coexist peacefully together. As human beings, we strive on our relationships with each other and, yet, with actions of hatred and prejudice, we seem to consistently destroy those very relationships we value so deeply. Our current society is plagued by fear, which seems to run more rampant now – more than ever – with assistance of our rapidly evolving communication technology. The question must be asked, “How can we end this madness and heal ourselves into a kinder and more fulfilling future?” By providing up-to-date scientific research on the human emotions of compassion, …

Time To Leave Uchronia: Queer Eco-Temporalities For A Livable World, Claire S. Brault

Doctoral Dissertations

My dissertation is a Feminist contribution to Environmental Political Theory focused on temporality. My research investigates the tension between the urgent need to act fast in a fast-changing world, and the necessity for time to pause and think through such radical and rapid changes. As it signals our nearing the planet’s limits, the emergence of the “anthropocene” crisis challenges growth-driven “progress.” I begin this dissertation with a survey of Environmental Thought that helps situate my contribution to the ongoing debates in this field, underscoring that as ecosophers pose the question of the nonhuman, in so doing they also are confronted …

Variations On Some Rossian Themes, Kristian Olsen

Doctoral Dissertations

In this dissertation, I develop and defend some of W. D. Ross’s moral views. Ross’s views, I argue, are often highly plausible, though it is also often the case that variations on (or modifications to) his views are needed in order to remain philosophically tenable. In my dissertation, I explain why these variations are necessary and what they should look like. In chapter 1, I discuss Ross’s theory of moral rightness in his most important work, The Right and the Good. In chapters 2 and 3, I correct various misunderstandings about Ross’s position: I argue that he is no …

Contesting Gender Concepts, Language And Norms: Three Critical Articles On Ethical And Political Aspects Of Gender Non-Conformity, Stephanie Julia Kapusta

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In chapter one I firstly critique some contemporary family-resemblance approaches to the category woman, and claim that they do not take sufficient account of dis-semblance, that is, resemblances that people have in common with members of the contrast category man. Second, I analyze how the concept of woman is semantically contestable: resemblance/dissemblance structures give rise to vagueness and to borderline cases. Borderline cases can either be included in the category or excluded from it. The factors which incline parties in a dispute about membership to include or exclude depend on metaphysical, ethical, or political background assumptions.

In chapter two, I …

Conduits Of Communion: Monstrous Affections In Algonquin Traditional Territory, Ian S.G. Puppe

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This project investigates the legacies of shifting land tenure and stewardship practices on what is now known as the Ottawa Valley watershed (referred to as the Kitchissippi by the Omamawinini or Algonquin people), and the effects that this central colonization project has had on issues of identity and Nationalism on Canadians, diversely identified as settler-colonists of European or at least “Old World” descent and First Nations, Métis and Inuit (Lawrence 2012).

Focusing on historical and contemporary political and social issues related to Algonquin Provincial Park and its establishment, this project explores; 1) Competing claims levied by First Nations Peoples, local …

Civil Interests, The Social Contract, And The Conditions Of Political Legitimacy, Michael S. Borgida

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation explores the idea of civil interests, and considers how civil interests constrain the legitimate exercise of political authority. John Locke presents the concept of civil interests in A Letter Concerning Toleration as the legitimate object of political authority’s concern. First, I identify the idea of civil interests and its relationship with the social contract in Locke’s Letter. I argue for the prominence of Locke’s contractarian line of argument in his case for toleration. Second, I trace the idea of civil interests through the historical social contract arguments of Locke’s Second Treatise, Thomas Hobbes’ Leviathan, …

Religious Tones And Overtones In The Human Sufficiency Arguments Of Marx And Nietzsche, Norman Rudolph Saliba

Masters Theses

It is often assumed that since Marx and Nietzsche were both anti-religious thinkers, religion played no part in the formulation of their philosophical outlooks. With this assumption, the influence of historical religions on rhetoric has received a subordinate role, if at all, in the discourse on 19^th century German critiques of those very religions. Although differing fundamentally in the debate on inclusiveness versus individuality, this essay asserts that Marx and Nietzsche, both from families of religious scholars, broke with previous philosophical tradition and utilized a religious form of rhetoric in their writings to combat doctrines of human deficiency inherent …

The Modern Secularization Of Just War Theory And Its Lessons For Contemporary Thought, Aviva Shiller

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Just war theory is a family of views that has undergone many important changes throughout its development in the Western philosophical tradition. The following is an historical analysis of the transition from a religious to a secular conception of just war theory in the Early Modern period. My main argument is that the secularization of the theory led to the separation of jus ad bellum from jus in bello, a major change that had positive consequences on the theory and its application. One important consequence of this change was to place combatants on both sides of a conflict on …

Principles And Policies: Comparing The Counterterrorist Strategies Of United States Think Tanks In The Wake Of September 11th, Malcolm Kelly

Honors Theses

United States think tanks work in a “marketplace of ideas” where they compete to spread their views and influence policy-makers. Although think tanks often claim to be independent organizations free of politicization, they are political bodies. Analysts in think tanks share common assumptions about international relations and think tanks have clear political orientations, which guide their members while researching and promoting policies to decision makers. To what extent can global events alter or transform these underlying assumptions? Are global events interpreted anew or are they absorbed into the particular core values and basic principles mirrored in think tank mission statements? …

Responsibility, Blame And The Psychopath, Matthew William Ruble

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation examines the moral responsibility of psychopaths. I begin with an analysis of the concept of psychopathy by situating it within the context of a central debate in the philosophy of psychiatry over the conceptual nature of mental illness to demonstrate that psychopathy is an inherently value-laden concept. I argue against the disease-model of psychopathy and against their automatic exemption from moral responsibility as argued for by many moral philosophers. Psychopaths possess sufficient agency such that exempting them from moral responsibility is problematic both epistemically and morally. Yet psychopaths frequently offer reasons for their behavior that reveal their distance …

Kierkegaard On Truth, Caroline Moore

Undergraduate Theses and Capstone Projects

Many philosophers believe in three types of truth and all of them are considered objective: correspondence, coherence and pragmatist. Objective knowledge “can designate a knowledge-claim having, roughly, the status of being fully supported or proven.”i If asked, philosophers often say that they believe in a mixture of two or more of the objective truths because each of the truths has points of weakness. While the objective truths cover much of what is considered to be valid truth, they all leave something out, subjective truth. Subjective truth is “a judgment or belief’ “that is compelling for some rational beings (subjects) but …

Relationship Of Ethical Knowledge To Action In Senior Baccalaureate Nursing Students, Catherine S. Moe

Ed.D. Dissertations

Nursing educators are expected to prepare students to practice in a complex health care environment yet nursing curriculums vary in how the ethical reasoning ability of students is developed. To effectively manage clinical situations that have ethical implications, practitioners need to be able to recognizing these situations and have the ability to take action. Using an established instrument known as Ketefian’s Judgments About Nursing Decisions (JAND) to survey nursing students, this study examined the relationship between knowledge of the Code of Ethics for Nurses to choices of action in senior nursing students in baccalaureate nursing programs enrolled in the last …

Everyday Workplace Ethics For The Millennial Business And Engineering Undergraduate Student: A Situated Learning Model, Nisha Kumar

Theses and Dissertations

Undergraduate ethics instruction in business and engineering can be broadly divided into two models – disciplinary ethics (integrated within a course where discussions about ethics pertain to a particular profession or discipline) and standalone ethics (where the concept of ethics and ethical conduct are discussed in broad, theoretical terms). While both these models have educational value, they have not been able to help the millennial undergraduate student with everyday routine ethical decision making that they might encounter in the workplace. This is largely because both these models do not consider the organizational or the cultural context (the context in which …

An Exploration Of The Societal Impact Of Neuroethics In Scientific And General Communities, Katelyn Marie Edel

Honors Capstone Projects - All

Neuroethics serves as a roadmap for maneuvering the difficult and often personal concerns that arise concurrently with advancements in neuroscience. It is important to consider these issues at present and to take a proactive, rather than reactive, approach towards assuaging fears and hesitations related to the quickening applications of neuroscience into the non-scientific community. This Capstone explores recent suggestions made by prominent scholars in the neuroethics field related to the integration of neuroscience into society. Three cogent issues in neuroscience are discussed, with a focus on the possible effects that neuroscientific advancements have on society. Using a framework of human …

Revision Of United States Drug Law, Alexander Fernandez

Honors Capstone Projects - All

In this essay I will lay out two distinct but associated arguments that will show that United States drug policy on is both in principle and in practice unjustifiable. I will be focusing specifically on marijuana cocaine and heroin. While there are many controlled substances in the DEA schedules, I take it that showing current policy to be unjustifiable for these three substances will be sufficient to show that the policy of total prohibition and harsh punishment is wrong. The first section will normatively analyze the current policies of prohibition and punishment for use and sale of illicit substances. I …

In The Shadows Of Dominion: Anthropocentrism And The Continuance Of A Culture Of Oppression, Christopher A. Shields

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The oppression of nonhuman animals in Western culture observed in societal institutions and practices such as the factory farm, hunting, and vivisection, exhibits alarming linkages and parallels to some episodes of the oppression of human animals. This work traces the foundations of anthropocentrism in Western philosophy and connects them to the oppressions of racism, sexism, and ethnocentrism. In outlining a uniform theory of oppression detailed through the marginalization, isolation, and exploitation of human and nonhuman animals alike, parallels among the groups emerge as the fused oppression of each exhibits a commonality among them. The analysis conducted within this work highlights …

Jacques-Louis David And The Enlightenment: The Intersection Of Art And Politics In Prerevolutionary France, Ashley B. Mullen

Senior Theses and Projects

An analysis of Jacques-Louis David's art and politics before and during the French Revolution.

Illusory Democracy: A Platonic Examination Of Perception, Opinion, And Neoliberalism, Gregory A. Palmer

Senior Theses and Projects

This thesis sets out to define and investigate the problem of "Illusory Democracy" as well as, how it relates to the modern American political system. This thesis uses Plato, through a Straussian lens, to interpret and analyze the nature, causes, and possible solutions to this modern problem facing the American democratic system.

The Failure Of The Colorblind Ideal, Bahiyyah Williams

Senior Theses and Projects

No abstract provided.

An Assessment Of The Therapeutic Fib: The Ethical And Emotional Role Of Therapeutic Lying In The Caregiving Of Alzheimer's Disease Patients By Non-Medical Caregivers, Dina Green

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study qualitatively assesses the various aspects of the use of the therapeutic lie in care giving for Alzheimer's Disease patients while examining the ethics of lying associated in and out of the medical setting. The objectives of this study are to: gain an understanding of the role therapeutic lying plays in the care given by non-medical caregivers through a series of focus groups and interviews; examine the moral and emotional issues related to the use of this practice with a focus on non-medical caregivers; gather knowledge of the use of therapeutic lying in order to improve care for Alzheimer's …

De Heidegger À Henry, Critique De La Transcendance Et Phénoménologie Du Corps Vivant, Vincent Marzano-Poitras

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis evaluates Michel Henry’s phenomenology of the lived body: A thorough reconsideration of the role of the lived body in the transcendental constitution of our world has important ethical consequences. We begin with Heidegger’s definition of phenomenology, which rests on his understanding of time as the horizon of being. We then turn to Henry’s criticism of transcendental monism and its phenomenological derealization. Henry subsequently argues for a new thinking of immanence, which requires a redefinition of phenomenology through the immediate experience of the embodied self. This immediate immanence manifests itself, through our perception of transcendence, as the affective tonality …

Gamete Provision And Moral Responsibility, Reuven A. Brandt

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Abstract

The use of third-party gametes in reproductive procedures has raised ethical questions about what responsibilities, if any, the providers of these gametes have towards the children they help to create. Much of this debate has focused on the conditions under which individuals acquire parental responsibilities, and the manner in which these responsibilities can be ethically discharged. Rather than taking parenthood as a starting point, however I focus on the conditions under which care-taking responsibilities arise more generally. I defend the thesis that gamete providers acquire substantial inalienable care-taking responsibilities towards their biological offspring, but that these responsibilities do not …

Ayn Rand’S Rejection Of Environmentalism: Toward Challenging Right-Wing Inaction On Environmental Issues In The United States, Taylor M. Bailey

Undergraduate Distinction Papers

Environmental protection has become a volatile political issue in the United States, especially within the past decade. This toxicity must be remedied to facilitate substantive reform. Anti-environmentalism on the part of the American Right can be partially traced back to the writings of the conservative philosopher Ayn Rand. In this paper, I aim to show that Rand fundamentally misunderstood the mainstream environmental movement in the U.S., and similarly her environmental philosophy, as well as her answers to solving environmental damages, are inadequate in providing answers to collective environmental problems (i.e. climate change). I argue that even in a framework as …

Violent Sex Versus Sexual Violence: Constructing A Consensual Moral Framework, Katherine A. Barnekow

Honors Program Theses

This project aims to, through an analysis of existing frameworks and their resulting harms, justify the need for a new sexual ethical framework. Such a framework is then constructed, employing three discrete philosophical tools, and justified by existing theory and answers to potential objections.

Managing An Effective Way To Teach Business Ethics, John Linn Walls

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Unethical behavior is prominent in the business world and typically leads to negative consequences for people and the environment. Business ethics education acknowledges that ethics teaching has a positive effect on business decisions; however, the problem was the lack of information that is specific to the factors and strategies required to best educate students in business ethics. This lack of information is demonstrated by continued ethical lapses. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to research what is known and unknown on the subject of teaching business ethics through a design intended to understand the lived experiences of ethics instructors. …

Adelphia: An Exploratory Case Study Of Corporate Culture And Ethical Judgment, Susan Bishop

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

White collar corporate corruption continues to be prevalent in the United States, costing shareholders billions of dollars annually. This study of the collapse of Coudersport, PA firm, Adelphia Communications, explored how and why leadership of this prominent and successful company made unethical decisions, created an atmosphere of moral disengagement, and led to the downfall of the company. Taped interviews with 10 executives who were employed at the company during the years of its rise and demise (1996-2006) were transcribed, hand coded, and analyzed to explore the ethical culture and leadership practices at Adelphia. These insights offer a possible explanation for …

Quasi-Subjectivity And Ethics In Non-Modernity, Justin T. Simpson

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The inspiration behind this philosophical endeavor is an ethical one: interested in what it means to flourish as a human being – how to live well and authentically. Similar to medicine and how the ability to prescribe the appropriate treatment depends on first making a diagnosis, the focus of this work will to be understand the human condition and the ways in which subjectivity, one’s sense of self, is constituted. Given the general dissatisfaction with the modern metaphysical picture of the world, which analyzes the world in terms of the mutually exclusive and completely separate categories of nature/objects and society/subjects, …

Multi-Cultural Model Of Relational Personhood And Implementing Philosophy For Children (P4c): A Refusal Of The Illusion Of Individualism In America, Aron J. Burnett

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The goal of this thesis is to influence a re-evaluation of self conceptions in America in order to influence an alternative relational understanding of one’s self and others. This thesis begins based on the premise that individualism is a prominent aspect of American societies meaning its member’s understandings of their selves are self-centered, often non-empathetic, and in general more concerned with their own lives than that of others. The first half of this thesis is dedicated analyzing the American situation through an analysis of the sources of individualism and proving that individualism is actually an illusion that individuals falsely believe …

Humorous Developments: Ridicule, Recognition, And The Development Of Agency, Kevin Andrew Afflerbach

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis I examine various theories of humor to establish an account of the functional roles of humor in social interaction and agentive development. These roles are integrated into a view of agency developed by G.H. Mead, and further refined by the recognition theory of Axel Honneth. The core thesis is: Humor is under-examined as an aspect of human interaction, because it plays such an integral role in individual agency and social development. Understanding how humor works helps to explain how agents are formed through the internalization of the expectations of others via processes of recognition, either positively or …