Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Nietzsche’S Will To Power As That Which Eternally Recurs, Joshua Aaron Ackerman

Institute for the Humanities Theses

Commonly believed to be a thought experiment to help us with life affirmation, a cosmological or metaphysical interpretation of Nietzsche’s eternal recurrence seems to be gaining ground. I argue for a metaphysical reading of the eternal recurrence. In arguing for this position, I hold that Nietzsche’s view of the eternal recurrence can be traced back to his admiration for the pre-Socratic philosopher Heraclitus. Specifically, I think Nietzsche draws on a few of Heraclitus’ cosmological doctrines which include continuous flux, a unity of opposites, and eternal strife. In Nietzsche adopting Heraclitus’ cosmological standpoints, my view is that Nietzsche’s Will to Power …

Teaching Excellence: The Use Of Heroes In Moral Education, Shaun Douglas Respess

Institute for the Humanities Theses

Heroism allows us to explore morality on a much deeper level, supplying us with people, events, actions, and circumstances that make our beliefs more complex, more meaningful, and more practical. My research evaluates heroism as an instructional tool and subject for the use in moral education and personal development. In this thesis, I argue that heroes are and should be used in moral education to stimulate the retention or reevaluation of cultural values and moral conventions. My objective will be to explain how heroes are currently used to support and guide moral development, while raising important questions regarding the benefits …

Digital Identity Formation: How Social Networking Sites Affect Real World Authenticity, Matthew Joseph Montoya

Institute for the Humanities Theses

The purpose of this paper is to explore the application of Heidegger's authenticity to online identity formation. This paper will attempt to determine if there is any way in which an authentic identity can be created, either online or offline, by using social networking sites. It will examine the positive and negative consequences of social networking sites to determine if these sites can help to contribute to our overall being, or determine if these sites serve only as a dangerous distraction to an authentic personal identity.

To do this, this paper will analyze Heidegger's philosophy to see if it is …

Duchampian Authenticity And The Readymade Consumer, Terra D' An Rudisill

Institute for the Humanities Theses

The goal of this work is to define the term Duchampian authenticity. I focus primarily on the artist Marcel Duchamp's works and philosophies in relation not only to traditional philosophies regarding authenticity but also in relation to his effect on authenticity's metamorphosis in popular culture and the mass market. I propose that the monumental paradigm shifts produced by Duchamp's conceptual and aesthetic experiments within the realm of visual art spread into our cultural bedrock, ultimately defining the consumer's ability to attain authenticity and identity through inauthentic and ephemeral commodities. Marcel Duchamp challenged traditional notions of the authentic experience and translated …

Complexity, Fine-Tuning, And Multiple Universes: The Insufficiency Of Scientific Theories For Determining Metaphysical Views, Ashley Graham Kennedy

Institute for the Humanities Theses

Many argue that science can provide empirical evidence for the existence of God or a designer. In this thesis I examine three such arguments: the irreducible complexity argument from biochemistry, the fine-tuning argument from physics and the rare earth/privileged planet hypothesis from astronomy. I conclude that all three of the arguments fail to show whether or not the universe was designed, because science is not prepared to answer this question. Further, I argue that scientific theories, in general, cannot be used as the sole basis for metaphysical propositions.

Hegel, Nietzsche, And The Postmodern Teleological Impasse, Michael P. Tarpey

Institute for the Humanities Theses

Our postmodern intellectual climate is characterized by two apparently contradictory impulses. One seeks to undermine, unmask, and deflate the pretenses of philosophy as traditionally conceived. The result is a focus on difference, surfaces, and fragmentation. The competing impulse seeks to reconcile, integrate, and synthesize. The result is a holistic focus on deeper similarities behind surface differences. I argue that these competing impulses can be traced back to Hegel and Nietzsche. Thus, an understanding of the relationship between these two thinkers can illuminate our current postmodern condition. I argue that Nietzsche and Hegel are remarkably similar in their approach to many …

A Phenomenological Inquiry Into The Nature Of The Sacred, Ana Maria Janssen

Institute for the Humanities Theses

There is good reason to believe that sacred experience is available to all humans. Yet the question of the sacred is frequently reduced to a debate between believers of various religions. As the focus of contention narrows, the ubiquity of sacred experience is neglected. Keeping this in mind, this analysis of the sacred confines itself strictly to the phenomenon of the sacred as a human experience, without confirming or denying the existence of a god or the veracity of any system of belief. Heidegger's Phenomenology is a useful model for such an analysis precisely because it lays aside conjecture about …

Collapsing The Philosophy/Rhetoric Disjunct: Nietzsche, Plato And The Perspectival Turn, Ned Vankevich

Institute for the Humanities Theses

Often overlooked within the standard views of academe lie hidden a number of tacit assumptions. Until the time of Nietzsche, the status of rhetoric as a discourse formation in Western intellectual history was often colored by the unflattering view generated by Plato in a number of his dialogues. In this thesis I present a case that revisits Plato and Nietzsche with an eye toward understanding the reasons why these two highly influential figures in contemporary philosophy adopt the views they advocate. In doing so, I attempt to illumine the reason Plato forms a fundamental split between philosophy and rhetoric and …

Searching For Zarathustra: A Nietzschean Critique Of Post-Traditional Ethical Theory, Joshua Knutsen

Institute for the Humanities Theses

Following Friedrich Nietzsche's critique of ethics, twentieth century philosophical investigations into ethics have attempted to abandon the universalist principles which guided the endeavors of Christianity, Kant and Bentham. The purpose of this work was to examine exactly how successful that endeavor has been. In order to represent the field of ethics as a whole given the limited space of the work I chose three distinct ethics, which in their formulations are representative of the current ethical clime. Jean-Paul Sartre's existentialism serves as a model for radical individualism and solipsism. Alasdair MacIntyre' s virtue based ethic demonstrates communitarian trends. And the …

Wittgenstein On Freedom Of The Will, Grant Allen Marler

Institute for the Humanities Theses

This thesis is an exposition and clarification of two lectures on freedom of the will delivered by Ludwig Wittgenstein in 1939. Wittgenstein asks whether it makes sense to say that the "decision of a person was not free because it was determined by natural laws." I offer a brief explanation and defense of Wittgenstein's method of linguistic analysis, then proceed in its spirit. Associated with the words 'determined' and 'free' are certain pictures which, if misapplied, may lead us to misjudge their function. Among these are the picture of natural laws as "rails" that compel events, and that the meaning …

The Emperor Julian (A.D. 331-363): His Life And His Neoplatonic Philosophy, Anthony W. Nattania

Institute for the Humanities Theses

The Neoplatonism of the Emperor Julian (A.D. 331-363) is critically compared to the Neoplatonism of Plotinus (A.D. 205-270). This is done by analyzing their concepts of First Principles, Fate and Destiny, Existence of the Divine Being, the Human Soul, Matter, Time and Eternity, the Contemplation of "The One," and "The One" itself. Julian's psychology is analyzed in light of his Neoplatonism, Mithrasism, and tragic life history. The historical aspects of the attempted pagan reformation during the reign of Julian (A.D. 360-363) is assessed for its historical effects on the Later Roman Empire and its successive generations, while the history of …

Finding Godot: Postmodernism And Truth, Robert T. Gregory Jr.

Institute for the Humanities Theses

Postmodernism has enjoyed a wide range of influence as a critical enterprise, often being accused as nothing more than a method of critique. In addition, it is often objected that postmodernism advocates a radical relativism which is ultimately self-contradictory and lacks an overall sense of agency that can apply to concrete action. These issues are particularly significant when considering theories of truth. Given postmodernism criticizes traditional notions of truth and objectivity, it is appropriate to ask if postmodernism possesses a positive position on truth as an alternative. I argue in this work that while postmodernism has a significant critical enterprise, …

The Appropriation Of Nietzschean Thought By Donald Kuspit In The Critic Is Artist: The Intentionality Of Art And The Existential Activist Painter: The Example Of Leon Golub, Frederic S. Bayersdorfer

Institute for the Humanities Theses

The prolific scholar and art critic, Donald Kuspit has frequently cited the works of Friedrich Nietzsche as a means to elucidate his art critical theories. This paper is an investigation of these citations in two of his most important works, The Critic is Artist: The Intentionality of Art, published in 1984, and The Existential Activist Painter: The Example of Leon Golub, published in 1986. In each of these two works many citations revolve around two Nietzschean concepts, the will to power and ressentiment. This paper first explores the relevance of using the philosophical work of Nietzsche as a point of …

The Role Of Laughter In The Thought Of Friedrich Nietzsche, Paul D. Gerdes

Institute for the Humanities Theses

The objective of this thesis is an analysis of the role of laughter in the thought of Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900), by which I mean both its influence on his intellectual development, and the incorporation of it in his philosophy. Such an undertaking is important because, while it might seem somewhat odd for a philosopher, and particularly a German philosopher, to consider laughter fundamental to his thought, laughter does play an essential role in all of Nietzsche's writing.

For the purposes of this thesis, I will investigate three separate but interrelated aspects of Nietzsche's thought: the influence of the Dionysian tragic-comic …

Creativity Its Phenomenology In Man And Nature, Margaret L. Mccoy

Institute for the Humanities Theses

The phenomenal world comes into being. The act is an autonomous process weaving the abstract world and the concrete world into one reality. We name this process "Creativity." A journey into mind and matter, into the inner subjective realm and the outer objective realm, is required to observe Creativity's grand performance. Western thought may be revolutionized in finding that in exploring Creativity man is exploring himself; Nature has consciousness as he does, and barriers between mind and matter are non-existent in the womb of creation. As ancient philosophies and mystical ideas of the East once proposed: the Many is One. …

Overall Laughing One And The Experiences, Anina Porter Adams

Institute for the Humanities Theses

A fictional play based on the study of writings by psychotherapist Carl Gustav Jung. The action is set in the imaginary realm of archetypes, amoral personified energies which appear in tales from diverse cultures. In this play the mythical characters move in an ordered, ritualistic manner. They are dependent upon a geometrically centered black box for the provision of human forms through which they experience "being." A female is the human form provided in this instance and she combines her own energy with that of the other characters though she is not conscious of this fact. The archetypal energies focus …

Knowing God In William Blake: A Study To Find Meaning In His Work Through Plato, Swedenborg, And Mystical Tradition, David B. Gabel

Institute for the Humanities Theses

This project takes a look into the philosophical and theological sources found in the work of William Blake as they culminate in his epic poem Jerusalem. This study includes an examination of the philosophies of Plato and Emanuel Swedenborg, the mystical pathway, the Jewish mystical tradition known as Kabbalah, and finally an examination of the works of Blake himself. We work from a three-fold premise: 1) that mystical experience occurs, 2) that archetypes exist in the collective unconscious, and 3) that these archetypes can be known through intuition and mystical experience. The focus is on those elements which are characteristic …

Valuing In The Arts, Nonna B. Runner

Institute for the Humanities Theses

The topic of this thesis, valuing in the arts, involves the fine and performing arts, cultural values, kinds of education, and the quality of life. The purpose in talking about the value of the arts is to show how and why they have been valued throughout recorded history, to present an approach to art which fosters personal growth and enjoyment in the interaction with the arts, and to present arguments for the continued support by the present society for their encouragement and preservation. I will discuss false impressions about art which have limited the general public's enjoyment of arts, then …

Psyche And Time: The Phenomenology Of Time Consciousness, Sharon Fleet Hartman

Institute for the Humanities Theses

Time in its inward form may be able to provide a significance which sustains the human spirit. If this is true, it becomes unnecessary to seek an enduring significance for life in the transcendent.

Western man's attitudes toward time are a composite of religious, historical, and cultural assumptions. The Christian model of time supported man by its emphasis on God's interventions in the world. The scientific model of time left man adrift in an objective world. The ascendancy of the scientific model brought a devaluation of both time and human life.

Bergson, Husserl, and Merleau-Ponty all describe a type of …