Arts and Humanities Commons^™

On The Coexistence Of Freedom And Necessity, George Younger

Kaleidoscope

No abstract provided.

"Speak 'Em Fair": Discourse And Dissembling In The Jew Of Malta, Andrew Bozio

Kaleidoscope

Barabas, the title character of Marlowe's tragedy, is the embodiment of contradiction. Under persecution, he trangresses Christian norms in order to create his own identity, and yet, in the same instant, his antics make him the very monster of medieval legend. Hence the question arises: is Barabas' rebellion skillful enough to deconstruct Maltese (and English) anti-Semitism, or do his actions merely confirm the Jewish stereotype? In working toward an answer, in this paper I provide an introduction to the French philosopher Michel Foucault, using containment theory to create a theoretical framework for addressing the problems of representation in The Jew …

Art, Attention, And Consciousness: An Experiment In Experiential Painting, Ben Drewry, Johannes Kohler

Kaleidoscope

A “transformation of perception” is investigated by looking both at the interrelationship among art, attention, and consciousness and by looking into their common origin. The role attention plays in consciousness is considered. A new model of consciousness is summarized that claims that attention is the primary factor in creating consciousness, and posits a prereflective self prior to all perceptual experience. This model is compared to states of pure consciousness described by Eastern sages, and the role attention plays in achieving those states is examined. Our experiment in experiential painting is described, and we then attempt to tie together the three …

Nietzsche Contra Wright: On Becoming What You Are, Jordan Rodgers

Kaleidoscope

Robert Wright’s recent book on evolutionary psychology, The Moral Animal, is concerned largely with the ethical implications of recent evolutionary science, and espouses a form of utilitarianism as the ethical theory that should naturally follow evolutionary insights into human psychology. This paper challenges that notion, with constant reference to the work of the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, on the basis that such an ethical theory places far too little emphasis on the individual as such, and is tantamount to a form of nihilism. This paper also argues that, while seeking for the happiness of other people is a good thing, our …

Autopoiesis: Self-Creation In Nietzsche, Andrew Crown-Weber

Kaleidoscope

A recurrent theme in the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche is his imperative that we must create ourselves. Though this theme of self-creation runs throughout the entirety of his published works, Nietzsche neither fully articulates in one place the processes and guidelines by which such self-creation could occur, nor does he fully resolve the paradoxes inherent in this concept. This paper attempts to distill from these fragments a coherent interpretation of both how we can and why we should, despite (or, paradoxically, because of) our many external and internal constraints, fashion ourselves the way an artist shapes a work of art.

Hegels Phänomenologie Des Geistes: Ein Dialogischer Kommentar. Volume 1: Gewißheit Und Vernunft. Volume 2: Geist Und Religion By Pirmin Stekeler (Review), Daniel Breazeale

Philosophy Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Monaden Im Diskurs. Monas, Monaden, Monadologien (1600 Bis 1770) By Hanss-Peter Neumann (Review), Brandon C. Look

Philosophy Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Mackenzie, Catriona; Rogers, Wendy; And Dodds, Susan, Eds. Vulnerability: New Essays In Ethics And Feminist Philosophy (Review), Anita Superson

Philosophy Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Italian Mind: Vernacular Logic In Renaissance Italy (1540 –1551). Marco Sgarbi (Review), Alan R. Perreiah

Philosophy Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Partial Minds: The Strategic Underrepresentation Of Consciousness In Postwar American Novels, Nathan A. Shank

Theses and Dissertations--English

Partial Minds argues that contemporary American novels strategically break conventionally-defined norms for the representation of fictional minds to highlight unusual character thoughts. Certain states of mind—including traumatic experiences, conflicting feelings, some memories, and the simultaneous possession of multiple identities—are more difficult to represent than others, and so some authors or narrators reject conventional cognitive representations, such as naming feelings, if they seem poor tools for effectively communicating that character’s exceptional quality to the reader. For example, the trauma of Marianne in Joyce Carol Oates’s We Were the Mulvaneys is represented by the narrator, her brother Judd. But in attempting to …

Critical-Reflective Thinking: A Phenomenology, Margot D. Wielgus

Theses and Dissertations--Philosophy

This dissertation formulates and describes a type of thinking called critical-reflective thinking. Examples of critical-reflective thinking appear in the works of many major Western philosophical figures, including the main thinkers considered here, Plato, Martin Heidegger, Hannah Arendt, and Henry David Thoreau. Although this list of thinkers is eclectic, these philosophers come together in describing a common phenomenon, although they do not thematically designate or explain it. Their works illustrate a type of thinking in which people are invited by prompting events to consider their presuppositions—notions they have taken as true without prior consideration. I have deemed this phenomenon “critical-reflective thinking” …

Unconditional Forgivingness, Kimberly Goard

Theses and Dissertations--Philosophy

In the last few decades, some scholars have questioned the moral value of forgiveness. They have argued that in order for a victim to preserve his self-respect, to not condone the wrongdoing, and to avoid unjustly pardoning the offender, he must consider forgiving only after the offender has satisfied specific conditions that have been demanded of him. Forgiveness, they claim, is morally permissible only when it is given conditionally. Unconditional forgiveness cannot be virtuous.

This dissertation addresses the issues surrounding this claim. I argue that Forgivingness, which is the virtue associated with forgiving, causes its possessor to reliably offer …

Perception And Judgment In Plato's Theaetetus, Paul Dirado

Theses and Dissertations--Philosophy

I will argue that Plato’s dialogue Theaetetus demonstrates that knowledge is never caused by sense perception. While various kinds of qualities appear to the soul or mind as a result of sense perception—as a result of external bodies impacting with the sense organs—the being (einai or ousia) of these qualities is something different from the mere appearance of the qualities that occurs through the senses. While white colors appear to the soul through vision, perception itself does not reveal that these many appearances are all instances of one white quality. However, I will demonstrate that it is impossible to …