Arts and Humanities Commons^™

The Embodied Performance Of Tics And Tourette Syndrome In The Academic Environment, Benjamin Allen

Honors College

This thesis examines the lived experience of tic disorders, such as Tourette Syndrome, and discusses how that lived experience has been impacted by ableist ideological medical theorizations of the “ticcing body.” In my review of the medical discourse on TS, I point out how the failure to adequately account for the experience of “ticcing” has obfuscated some of the most important characteristics of tic disorders, including the experience of performing tics in social settings as opposed to performing tics away from others. I believe this obfuscation is not intentional, but it is the effect of a discourse that is not …

Introduction Of 'Distracted From Meaning: A Philosophy Of Smartphones', Tiger C. Roholt

Department of Philosophy Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

When our smartphones distract us, much more is at stake than a momentary lapse of attention. Our use of smartphones can interfere with the building-blocks of meaningfulness and the actions that shape our self-identity.

By analyzing social interactions and evolving experiences, Roholt reveals the mechanisms of smartphone-distraction that impact our meaningful projects and activities. Roholt’s conception of meaning in life draws from a disparate group of philosophers—Susan Wolf, John Dewey, Hubert Dreyfus, Martin Heidegger, and Albert Borgmann. Central to Roholt’s argument are what Borgmann calls focal practices: dinners with friends, running, a college seminar, attending sporting events. As a recurring …

Early Intervention And Prediction Of Risk Management Issues In Law Enforcement: A Phenomenological Study, Pamela Lynn Smith

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to research the Early Intervention Systems (EIS) and prediction of risk management issues in law enforcement. The following questions guided the study:

1. How do law enforcement personnel describe their experience with EIS programs as an intervention for officers with behavioral or conduct issues?
2. How do EIS programs affect law enforcement agencies as a whole?
3. What indicators could law enforcement supervisors look for in officers to circumvent misconduct (on or off duty)?
4. What interventions have been observed personally or with other officers regarding discipline, counseling, additional training, etc.?

The setting for this study was …

Actualization Through Constraint: An Analysis Of Hegelian Self- Consciousness In Fascism- Exclusionary Expression And In Modular Orchestral Composition, Marisa Kaye Janke

2022 Symposium

How does a conscious entity become aware of itself and its place in the world? According to German Idealist Philosopher G.F.W. Hegel, there are required conditions that facilitate this movement of awareness. Recognition serves as a central requirement, for a consciousness cannot progress in an isolated space. Coexistence allows for referential points, and is often necessary for the actualization of concepts by providing social interactions wherein recognition both of and by others can occur.

This paper illustrates the progression of two such concepts, discourse and musical composition as forms of freedom “in-itself”. They are both imperfect for the promotion of …

Heidegger On The “Futural” Poet Rilke Poetizing The Essential Truth Of Being?, James Magrini

Philosophy Scholarship

This essay poses and responds uniquely to the following crucial questions: Does Rilke’s poetry poetize the event of Being for Dasein? Does Rilke indicate that the human being can yet achieve such a mode of “historical” existence in relation to the Earth or the holy? Heidegger responds to the first query in the affirmative; Rilke does poetize this event, albeit through a “tempered” and somewhat traditional view of Western metaphysics. To the second query, it appears that Heidegger responds in a slightly cryptic and ambiguous manner, and to clarify this response, I turn to Heidegger’s interpretation of Rilke’s “Angel” as …

Being-With Smartphones, Tiger C. Roholt

Department of Philosophy Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

In a social situation, why is it sometimes off-putting when a person reaches for his smartphone? In small-group contexts such as a college seminar, a business meeting, a family meal, or a small musical performance, when a person begins texting or interacting with social media on a smartphone he may disengage from the group. When we do find this off-putting, we typically consider it to be just impolite or inappropriate. In this essay, I argue that something more profound is at stake. One significant way in which individuals shape their self-identities is through interactions with others in small groups. Much …

Thinking Reasonably About Indeterministic Choice Beliefs, Andrew Kissel

Philosophy Faculty Publications

Recent research suggests that, regardless of the truth of libertarianism about free will, there appears to be a widespread belief among nonphilosopher laypersons that the choices of free agents are not causally necessitated by prior states of affairs. In this paper, I propose a new class of debunking explanation for this belief which I call ‘reasons-based accounts’ (RBAs). I start the paper by briefly recounting the failures of extant approaches to debunking explanations, and then use this as a jumping off point to articulate several alternatives, highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of each.

Merleau-Ponty's Poetic Of The World: Philosophy And Literature [Table Of Contents], Galen A. Johnson, Emmanuel De Saint Aubert, Mauro Carbone

Philosophy & Theory

Merleau-Ponty’s Poets and Poetics offers detailed studies of the philosopher’s engagements with Proust, Claudel, Claude Simon, André Breton, Mallarmé, Francis Ponge, and more. From Proust, Merleau-Ponty developed his conception of “sensible ideas,” from Claudel, his conjoining of birth and knowledge as “co-naissance,” from Valéry came “implex” or the “animal of words” and the “chiasma of two destinies.” Thus also arise the questions of expression, metaphor, and truth and the meaning of a Merleau-Pontyan poetics. The poetic of Merleau-Ponty is, inseparably, a poetic of the flesh, a poetic of mystery, and a poetic of the visible in its relation …

Interviews With Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Cormac Coyle

Honors College

In 2016, a collection of previously unreleased audio-recorded interviews and dialogues with phenomenological philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty were transcribed and published in French in Entretiens avec Georges Charbonnier: et autres dialogues, 1946-1959. Here, to my knowledge, I have translated three of those interviews into English for the very first time. Given that these interviews were recorded for broadcast to the general public, they provide an accessible entry point into some of the thoughts of Merleau-Ponty. The first interview that I have translated is Merleau-Ponty explaining his research in Philosophy. The second interview discusses Husserl, the concept of lived experience, and the …

The Sun Cuts In, Madison Manns

Honors Scholars Collaborative Projects

My work seeks to tear down the privileging of the objective at the expense of the subjective—the universal truth at the expense of the knowledge in the body, in the being—in order to restore the fruitful dialogue between the subjective observer as the object of perceived stimuli that become the mover. As a high-achieving individual encouraged in academic endeavors—one intimately acquainted with the language of prestige and intellect—I am seeking a new way to address theory through a return to material language; language connected to, informed by, and describing the world in the way that we know, rather than what …

The Ends Of Medicine And The Experience Of Patients, D. Robert Macdougall

Publications and Research

The ends of medicine are sometimes construed simply as promotion of health, treatment and prevention of disease, and alleviation of pain. Practitioners might agree that this simple formulation captures much of what medical practice is about. But while the ends of medicine may seem simple or even obvious, the essays in this issue demonstrate the wide variety of philosophical questions and issues associated with the ends of medicine. They raise questions about how to characterize terms like “health” and “disease”; whether medicine’s goals should be extended to include enhancement beyond normal human function; and whether the ends of medicine are …

Ecological Investigations: A Phenomenology Of Habitats, Adam Konopka

Faculty Scholarship

These investigations identify and clarify some basic

assumptions and methodological principles involved in

ecological explanations of plant associations. How are

plants geographically distributed into characteristic groups?

What are the basic conditions that organize groups of

interspecific plant populations that are characteristic of

particular kinds of habitats? Answers to these questions

concerning the geographical distribution of plants in late

19th century European plant geography and early 20th

century American plant ecology can be distinguished

according to differing logical assumptions concerning the

habitats of plant associations.

Beyond A Call To Action, Quinn A. E. Bohner

Summer Research

This paper is intended as a critique and development of morality in literature, seeking to prove that literature can have deep effects on a reader's moral character. The stakes for such research are rather high: especially during the pandemic, our culture is heavily informed by social and mass media, and it is hard to imagine a good future for the world if these mediums cannot shake the status quo.

Though this paper takes a narrower scope of investigation than moral progress itself, the reader should keep in mind that all of our practices of communication can and should be informed …

Three Existentialist Readings Of Gloria Anzaldua's Borderlands/La Frontera, Mariana Alessandri

Philosophy Faculty Publications and Presentations

This essay provides three new and related philosophical readings of Gloria Anzaldúa’s Borderlands/la Frontera: 1) in the lineage of canonical European Existentialists like Jean Paul Sartre, who provides an analysis of shame; 2) in the lineage of Mexican Existentialists like Samuel Ramos and Octavio Paz, who attribute a relative of shame to Mexicans; and 3) in dialogue with Africana Existentialists like Franz Fanon, who describe the bodily shame of nonwhites in racist societies. Anzaldúa’s concept of “linguistic terrorism,” which existentially translates into la vergüenza linguística, extends the scope of European, Africana, and Mexican Existentialisms while putting all three in dialogue …

Virtual Reality As A Pedagogical Tool For Interdisciplinarity And Place-Based Education, Laureen Park

Publications and Research

Place-based education (PBE) has long been recognized as a high-impact educational practice. It embeds learning in a multi-sensory context that nurtures active, praxis-driven, interdisciplinary, and collaborative learning. More recently, educators have begun to utilize digital media and virtual reality technologies in ways that seem to parallel PBE. Using phenomenological concepts, especially following Edmund Husserl and Alfred Schütz, this chapter explores what the parallels and differences might be between physical and virtual places, ontologically as well as in its pedagogical role in PBE. It also attempts to interpret the other chapters of the book in light of the philosophical implications.

The Sanctuary Of Acceptance: Love And Identity Through The Letters And Poetry Of John Keats, Amanda Caridad Estevez Ms.

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, I propose to explain how it is that the life and work of John Keats assists us in answering the question of how we create ourselves through the presence of others. I aim to do this through an analysis of the work that his relationship with Fanny Brawne inspired. In doing so, I hope to prove that romantic love creates a sort of metaphysical sanctuary for us to inhabit as we shift through the various incarnations of our identity throughout our lives. By synthesizing the theories of phenomenology and transgression, I hope to demonstrate how Keats’ rapid …

Welcoming Finitude: Toward A Phenomenology Of Orthodox Liturgy [Table Of Contents], Christina M. Gschwandtner

Philosophy & Theory

What does it mean to experience and engage in religious ritual? How does liturgy structure time and space? How do our bodies move within liturgy, and what impact does it have on our senses? How does the experience of ritual affect us and shape our emotions or dispositions? How is liturgy experienced as a communal event, and how does it form the identity of those who participate in it? Welcoming Finitude explores these broader questions about religious experience by focusing on the manifestation of liturgical experience in the Eastern Christian tradition. Drawing on the methodological tools of contemporary phenomenology and …

Anthropology Embedded In Worldview Studies: Modernity’S Failure And The Response Of Christian Philosophy Of Life In A Postmodern Age Of Expressivism, Nathan Sexten

Senior Honors Theses

This thesis examines two divergent streams of thought in Christian philosophy of life represented by the works of Francis Schaeffer and James K. A. Smith in an effort to help Christians live in a postmodern culture. Schaeffer and Smith ultimately address differing, but complementary, realms of anthropology and the human experience. To see how these two authors might complement each other effectively, this thesis will analyze each author’s work and then explore whether or not the application of Smith's liturgical anthropology and utilization of phenomenology can improve Schaeffer’s system of thought and the worldview concept.

On The Lived Experience Of Truth In An Era Of Educational Reform: Co-Responding To Anti-Intellectualism, Matthew J. Kruger-Ross

Educational Foundations & Policy Studies Faculty Publications

The severity of the challenges made to traditionally and historically accepted understandings of truth, what is true, what is false and “fake,” and even what is real, continues unabated in American public discourse. Nevertheless, the primary argument in this paper does not aim to identify the causes of the breakdown of representation (i.e. in the Trump administration, within the education reform movement) and the correspondence-based conceptions of truth. Instead, the focus is on discussing the hermeneutic phenomenology of Martin Heidegger and offering a conceptualization of truth as lived and experienced. Challenges to truth are to be understood not as an …

Endangered Danger: Christianity, Affect, And Harmless Snakes In Samoa, Ariel Abonizio G. S.

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The Candoia bibroni (Pacific Boa), is a non-venomous Samoan snake that recently become an endangered species, possibly due to human killing on sight. This interdisciplinary research investigates how Pacific Boa came to be perceived as dangerous animals that need to be killed. Following snake tracks through the history of Samoa and into the present, this research suggests that the relationship between Samoans and the Pacific Boa questions the simple binaries of real/imagined, material/semiotic, subjective/objective, and material/immaterial. Particularly with the introduction of Christianity by missionaries in the early-1800s, the Pacific Boa snake came to inhabit the liminal space between these apparent …

The Ontological Truth Of Film-As-Philosophy: Phenomenology Of Film: A Heideggerian Account Of The Film Experience, By Shawn Loht, James Magrini

Philosophy Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Descriptive Phenomenological Analysis Of Influences To Death Anxiety, Michelle M. Ehle

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

There are two certainties in life: we are born, and we will die. Everything in between birth and death is our life. This truth leads many individuals to existential questions: What is the meaning of life? How do we become satisfied with life, knowing that death is impending? Does awareness of death motivate how we live? Death anxiety is a well-studied subject; well over 500 studies provide information on who is the most fearful of death among a variety of groups (women versus men, religious verses secular, youth verses elderly, et cetera). These studies also use presuppositions to explain fear …

On Affect: Function And Phenomenology, Andreas Elpidorou

Faculty Scholarship

This paper explores the nature of emotions by considering what appear to be two differing, perhaps even conflicting, approaches to affectivity—an evolutionary functional account, on the one hand, and a phenomenological view, on the other. The paper argues for the centrality of the notion of function in both approaches, articulates key differences between them, and attempts to understand how such differences can be overcome.

Panoptic Schooling’S Confused Lessons: A Philosophical Investigation Of Discipline In The School, Donncha Sean Peadar Coyle

Honors College

How does the school instruct us? What is it like for a student to learn in a school? The following thesis construes the school as a site for disciplinary technology purportedly oriented toward educating students. My conceptual analysis rests on the intersection between the sociohistorical practice of schooling and the lived experience of students. I contrast schooling (the organization of a primary planned environment for instruction) and education (an existential facet of growth and social connectedness) at the center of the essay. My argument has three parts. First, I examine Michel Foucault’s concept of disciplinary technology as it pertains to …

The Human 'As-If'-Function And Its Loss In Schizophrenia, Thomas Fuchs

Phenomenology Center Annual Symposium

No abstract provided.

Thinking Too Much. The Psychopathy Of Hyperreflexivity, Thomas Fuchs

Phenomenology Center Annual Symposium

No abstract provided.

Body Memory And The Unconscious, Thomas Fuchs

Phenomenology Center Annual Symposium

No abstract provided.

Interpreting Karl Jaspers' "Phenomenological" Plato Transcending The Bounds Of The Doctrinal Scholarly Tradition, James Magrini

Philosophy Scholarship

Focusing on Karl Jaspers' important reading of Plato, I make the case for the re-conceptualization of Plato as a non-doctrinal philosopher, by means of phenomenological-existential readings of his dialogues related to contemporary Continental thought. The essay builds upon Jaspers' largely overlooked phenomenological-existential readings of both Plato and Socrates in relation to Platonic scholarship emerging from the contemporary phenomenological tradition. I focus on a speculative interpretation of Jaspers' non-doctrinal Plato by analyzing four components of his prescient reading, which is an invaluable historical and philosophical document of Platonic scholarship that precedes contemporary Continental phenomenological approaches to Platonic interpretation by a span …

The Varieties Of Place-Based Education, Laureen Park

Publications and Research

Traditionally, the predominant focus of Place-based educational (PBE) theories and practices has been the natural environment. The focus of this chapter will be on urban and digital environments as incubators of the PBE goals of experiential learning, interdisciplinarity, critical thinking, ethical reflection, and other goals. The framework used to interpret and analyze the various senses of place is based on the notions of the lifeworld, personalistic attitude, noesis and noema, all concepts found in Edmund Husserl’s Ideas I and II. Urban and virtual places share the characteristic of being built, which has resonances for the interactivity and engagement …

A Hermeneutic Phenomenology: The Death Of The Other Understood As Event, Harris B. Bechtol

All Faculty Scholarship

This is a phenomenological description of what is happening when we experience the death of an other that interprets surviving or living on after such death by employing the term event. This term of art from phenomenology and hermeneutics is used to describe a disruptive and transformative experience of singularity. I maintain that the death of the other is an experience of an event because such death is unpredictable or without a horizon of expectation, excessive or without any principle of sufficient reason, and transformative or a death of the world itself.