Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Missing The Mark: Exploring The Forgetting Of Disability In Media, Emily Dobson

Critical Reflections

A common concern within the disability community are the ways in which negative or misguided representations in media produce stigma. Stigma can be broadly defined to include “problems of knowledge (ignorance), problems of attitudes (prejudice), and problems of behaviour (discrimination),” which means that inadequate or unrealistic representations can cause a variety of damaging effects1. In Narrative Prosthesis, David T. Mitchell and Sharon L. Snyder explore the ways in which a broad selection of literature has represented disability as a literary device. Despite an ever growing number of examples of disability in media, the public, and especially many scholars, have forgotten …

Scientific Revolutions As Events: A Kuhnian Critique Of Badiou, Jacob Smith

Critical Reflections

In this essay, I will attempt a critique of the Badiouan formulation of the event by asking if Badiou’s theory, as formulated in Being and Event, explains the phenomenon of the scientific revolution. While Badiou remains relatively cryptic about the status of science in Being and Event and does not refer to any scientific revolutions explicitly, there are several reasons why it might seem problematic if they are not to be included within his theory of the event. After all, they are called revolutions and the historical narrative surrounding them typically develops, much like the Badiouan event, with the …

How To Interpret Spinoza’S Theory Of Attribute: The Subjective And Objective Interpretations Revisited, Xiangnong (Herbert) Hu

Critical Reflections

Scholars disagree on how to interpret two terms, ‘intellect’ and ‘as’, in the definition of attribute given by Spinoza in his Ethics and thus divide themselves into two rival camps: one is known as the subjective interpretation, and the other, objective interpretation. In this essay, I argue that both interpretations are problematic in one way or another, and a better interpretation should take a middle path between the subjective and objective. By this new interpretation, ‘intellect’ should be understood as infinite and finite intellects, and ‘as’ to be ‘as in fact’. Therefore, what the definition of attribute really means is …

A-Theory Or B-Theory Of Time? An Aristotelian Answer, Luca Banfi

Critical Reflections

A-Theory or B-Theory of Time? An Aristotelian Answer

The purpose of this paper is to provide a description of Aristotle’s theory of time, in order to understand if it could introduce a stimulus into the contemporary debate on the nature of time between A-theorists and B-theorists. The first section (§1) of the paper is devoted to a conceptual explanation of these two main positions about the nature of time and their intimate link with eternalism and presentism. The second section (§2) presents the Aristotelian view on the nature of time (Strobach: 1998), considering his analysis on the notion of ‘periods’ …

On Realism And The Pessimistic Meta-Induction, Stanford Howdyshell

Critical Reflections

In this paper I will discuss the Pessimistic Meta-Induction put forth by Larry Laudan in his paper A Confutation of Convergent Realism and discuss how it overcomes the No Miracles argument for scientific realism. I will then reconcile these two positions through the theory that scientific terms posit and refer to models of reality that are relevantly similar to how the world is.

This paper will begin with a discussion of the No Miracles argument and Pessimistic Meta-Induction, resulting in doubt that scientific terms genuinely refer to objects in the world. In order to overcome the anti-realist position that the …

Accusatory Based Discourse Strategies: Apologia, Kategoria And Strategic Image Repair Discourse, Josie E. Richards

Critical Reflections

The purpose of this paper is to suggest that an orator can strategically pick discourse strategies when issuing their apologia if they understand the attitudes they are combatting in the subsequent kategoria. This paper draws heavily on works by William Benoit and Halford Ryan. Using a general understanding of apologia, and the concept of kategoria as conceptualized by Ryan, I suggest that once an orator understands apologia and kategoria as a speech set, they can use Benoit’s image repair tactics as an effective way to repair their image to their respective audience. The combination of an orators understanding of apologia, …

The Paradox Of Imprecision In Language, Henry R. Bauer

Critical Reflections

The Paradox of Imprecision in Language

Abstract

This paper investigates philosophical questions bearing on the relationship between language and mind, through an analysis of the phenomenon of “efficient imprecision” in language. It is argued that language users’ ability to intuitively connect allegedly imprecise linguistic expressions with definite conceptual information presents a paradox that might lead philosophers, linguists and cognitive scientists alike to reconsider the relationship between the computational machinery of human language and its function as the vehicle of conscious thought.

Like the puzzle about the identity relation which Gottlob Frege presents in the seminal Sense and Reference (1892), which …

Law And Oppression: A Moral Call To Abstain From The Use Of Moral Language, Benjamin L. Stalnaker

Critical Reflections

Abstract: In this presentation, I first establish that morality is invoked to justify the existence of discriminatory or otherwise oppressive laws that harm marginalized groups. Examples that demonstrate this point will be pulled from past and present laws that target homosexual and transgender populations, ranging from anti-sodomy laws to trans bathroom bills. Next, I argue that moral language is imbued with normative and motivational force because of its association with legitimate moral judgments. Since normative judgments provide reason to act, the invocation of such judgments is seen to carry that same reason and motivational force. In the absence of legitimate …

Virtue Theory As A Feminist Ethical Framework, Alejandro Navas

Critical Reflections

In recent decades, feminists have pointed out how prominent ethical theories are primarily concerned with establishing rules of conduct between strangers who share (or are theorized as if they share) the same social status. As Claudia Card points out, such theories outline explicit expectations and rewards of formal relationships; these relationships characterize formal institutions, such as law and business, and the considerations of upper-class men who predominate in such institutions. An ethics which focuses on the impersonal application of rules risks overlooking attentiveness to personal needs, a crucial quality in caring relationships which women and poorer classes have had primary …

Understanding Pain In Non-Human Animals: A Critical Exploration Of Arguements, Jessica L. Sitko

Critical Reflections

Abstract

This essay contains a critical analysis of common understandings of pain in animals and challenges common arguments for the presence of phenomenological pain sensations in non-human animals. I will argue that (i) pain behaviors are neither necessary nor sufficient for pain sensations, (ii) the presence of nerve structures in non-human animals which are similar to that of humans are not sufficient for pain sensations, (iii) we cannot rely on similarities between human and non-human experiences of pain to argue for the presence of pain sensations in animals, unless we think that animals are self-conscious in the same way that …

The Truth Of Carousing Peasants Becomes Disclosed, Sebastian Kanally

Critical Reflections

The Truth Of Carousing Peasants Becomes Disclosed

In this paper, I attempt to reconstruct the central points of Martin Heidegger’s theory of the work of art, and argue that Adriaen van Ostade's 1634 painting, "Carousing Peasants In a Rustic Interior," is a perfect lens to see the strength and validity of Heidegger's understanding of art. Heidegger's philosophy of art contains three major components, each of which I examine and argue is manifest in Ostade's painting. The three components the work of art reveals are the following: firstly, a tension is created between "earth" and "world" by instigating what Heidegger calls …

On The Rawlsian Anthropology And The "Autonomous" Account, Jared Mayer

Critical Reflections

In his later major work, Political Liberalism, John Rawls argues for a “political conception of justice,” one that is intended to operate in a diverse and morally pluralistic polity. A crucial feature of this political conception of justice is its ability to supersede (nearly) all other morals claims. This is because the political conception of justice is intended to be “a freestanding view;” that is, it is intended to ground its own normative force without needing to appeal to any particular comprehensive doctrine or set of doctrines. Joseph Raz, in critiquing Rawls, claims that any given justification of political …

At Death’S Door: Unsuccessful Political Entreaties In Antigone And The Apology, Zoe Grabow

Critical Reflections

In this paper, I compare the positions of two iconoclasts on the brink of death, Antigone in Sophocles’ Antigone and Socrates in Plato’s Apology, as well as their motivations for addressing the public while facing execution, examining controversial lines from both works. First I assay Antigone’s final lament, focusing on her statement that she would not bestow the same burial honors on a husband or child as she did for her brother (lines 967-970). This is followed by an analysis of Socrates’ defense speech, focusing on his claim to be the wisest human living (23b). I study the contexts …

Authoritative Faith’S Relation To Reason In The Writings Of St. Thomas Aquinas, Mitchell Witteveen

Critical Reflections

There seems little reason for a philosopher to have religious faith. Beliefs derived from faith are often described as being without evidence or sacrosanct from scrutiny. This is not the belief of St. Thomas Aquinas. I begin the paper by drawing necessary distinctions to other forms of intellectual assent to make clear exactly what Aquinas means when he writes of fides. I then seek to explain how Aquinas seeks to ground the preambles in faith in his philosophical investigations of God, and how the gap between what is known by philosophy and what is known by theology allows for the …

The Ties That Blind: The Moral Value (And Disvalue) Of Anonymity, Julie Ponesse

The Canadian Society for Study of Practical Ethics / Société Canadienne Pour L'étude De L'éthique Appliquée — SCEEA

This paper has two main aims: one is to understand the mechanisms that allow anonymity to facilitate both good and bad ends; the other is to use this understanding to determine the value of anonymity relative to its disvalue across a variety of moral and socio-political domains. Building on previous work in which I characterize anonymity by what I call the ‘central anonymity paradigm,’ I argue here that anonymity is primarily instrumentally valuable as a strategic device to procure some other valued good or set of goods, and is justified derivatively to the extent that it successfully achieves this end. …

Ask The Philosopher: Practical Advice And Self-Help In Antiquity And Today, Dimitrios Dentsoras

The Canadian Society for Study of Practical Ethics / Société Canadienne Pour L'étude De L'éthique Appliquée — SCEEA

This paper examines the genre of practical philosophical treatises in antiquity, contrasting it with contemporary literature in philosophical practice. Its main focus concerns the role of the philosopher as a guide to practical everyday concerns and the relationship between theoretical and practical ethics. An important question for ancient works on practical philosophy (and to a lesser extent their contemporary equivalents) has to do with whether, and to what extent, adopting the philosopher’s advice also requires an adoption of that person’s broader philosophical framework (Stoicism, Neoplatonism, Skepticism, etc.). Philosophers tend to put heavy emphasis on the existence of a broader philosophical …

Ethics And Economics: An Internal Relation, Bruce Morito

The Canadian Society for Study of Practical Ethics / Société Canadienne Pour L'étude De L'éthique Appliquée — SCEEA

The relationship between ethics and economics in the modern age is typically viewed as external. This view is usually articulated in the notion that for economic relations to be ethical, an ethic must be imposed. Otherwise, economic relations are amoral. I try to show how the relationship is actually best explained by adopting an explanatory framework of inter-dependent arising, according to which the emergence and development of both ethical and economic relations is a matter of mutual determination. Ethical values emerge in the course of developing economic relations and, in turn, direct or at least implicate economic relations. The consequences …

Before The Birth Of Bioethics: The Shaping Of Physicians’ Ethics In Canada, 1940-1970, Maureen Muldoon

The Canadian Society for Study of Practical Ethics / Société Canadienne Pour L'étude De L'éthique Appliquée — SCEEA

Students who study bioethics today usually learn very little about the medical ethics of physicians prior to the 1970’s. The practices of earlier physicians are often characterized as being paternalistic and lacking in respect for patient autonomy and justice. Yet just as the emergence of bioethics was shaped by social context, so was the medical ethics that preceded it.

This paper is a work in “descriptive ethics,” which explores the de facto morality of physicians roughly between 1940 and 1970. De facto morality refers to the profession’s officially endorsed standards as stated in its codes of ethics and related documents, …

Trait Attribution Error, W. Owen Thornton

The Canadian Society for Study of Practical Ethics / Société Canadienne Pour L'étude De L'éthique Appliquée — SCEEA

Sometimes we make the choice to rely upon the trait of being on time over making the choice to rely upon the trait of driving safely. So Gerry can run the red light to respect Stephanie’s time, while striking Paul’s car and disrespecting his property and life in the process. It appears that there are single situations with two or more morally salient features where we can apply different and ordinarily positive traits to our moral choices and by selecting the wrong moral choice, we can be seen to behave abominably. Notice that when utilizing the trait attribution error as …

Exploitation As A Path To Development: Sweatshop Labour, Micro-Unfairness, And The Non-Worseness Claim, Michael Randall Barnes

The Canadian Society for Study of Practical Ethics / Société Canadienne Pour L'étude De L'éthique Appliquée — SCEEA

Sweatshop labour is sometimes defended from critics by arguments that stress the voluntariness of the worker’s choice, and the fact that sweatshops provide a source of income where no other similar source exists. The idea is if it’s exploitation—as their opponents charge—it’s mutually beneficial and consensual exploitation. This defence appeals to the non-worseness claim (NWC), which says that if exploitation is better for the exploited party than neglect, it cannot be seriously wrong. The NWC renders otherwise exploitative—and therefore morally wrong—transactions permissible, making the exploitation of the global poor a justifiable path to development. In this paper, I argue that …

Why Practical Ethics Should Be Interested In Cognitive Science, Sheldon J. Chow

The Canadian Society for Study of Practical Ethics / Société Canadienne Pour L'étude De L'éthique Appliquée — SCEEA

Practical ethics can greatly benefit from the work in cognitive science. Cognitive science boasts substantial research and data on how people think, reason, and process information, as well as on the nature of the mind. I argue that cognitive science research and data are invaluable to investigating how people conduct themselves as they plod through practical moral problems. I discuss three reasons why practical ethics should be interested in cognitive science: cognitive science :(i) helps us to better understand how people reason and offers theories about underlying mental processes; (ii) offers substantive discussion on normative accounts of reason and rationality; …

National Responsibilities To Citizens: Past Or Present?, Melany Banks

The Canadian Society for Study of Practical Ethics / Société Canadienne Pour L'étude De L'éthique Appliquée — SCEEA

Throughout history governments have neglected, mistreated, or intentionally harmed their own citizens. In Canada this includes the denial of equal rights, the internment of Japanese Canadians during and after WWII, and the forced expulsion of the Acadians in1755, as well as other events. In the literature on reparations, the most popular examples of harm perpetrated by a state is the capture and enslavement of Africans and the acquisition of Aboriginal lands during European exploration and colonization in North America.

In this paper I will examine the argument for reparative claims against nations. I will argue that when we closely examine …

Thinkings 7: Collected Evocations, Interventions, And Readings, Jeff Noonan

Philosophy Publications

No abstract provided.

Can Corporations Care?, Kira Tomsons

The Canadian Society for Study of Practical Ethics / Société Canadienne Pour L'étude De L'éthique Appliquée — SCEEA

This paper is part of a larger project of developing a new narrative for talking about business activity. Feminist approaches to social life have traditionally been explicitly about changing the narrative, and I believe that a feminist approach to ethics, namely the ethics of care, can help provide the foundation for a new narrative within business and business ethics.

Forgiveness, Finitude, Apology And Acknowledgment, Mano Daniel, Jim Gough

The Canadian Society for Study of Practical Ethics / Société Canadienne Pour L'étude De L'éthique Appliquée — SCEEA

We argue for a particular conception of forgiveness with the following characteristics: forgiveness as transactional (primarily bi-lateral, rather than unilateral), elective (not obligatory) and conditional. Initiating the process requires forgiveness to be extended to the wrongdoer but not at the expense of forgetting, excusing, or condoning the wrong. The offer of the apology shifts the control or power from the wrongdoer to the victim who may initiate the conditional decision which may culminate in the repairing of the damaged relationship. A wrong may not be simply a perpetration of harm, but also a moral insult. It is the insult, this …

Thinking Beyond Electronic Borders: Global Ideas, Global Values, Benjamin D. Lowinsky

The Canadian Society for Study of Practical Ethics / Société Canadienne Pour L'étude De L'éthique Appliquée — SCEEA

The theme and indeed title of this Conference is “Thinking beyond Borders: Global Ideas, Global Values.” It is a theme in keeping with numerous developments both within and between countries, nationalities, ethnicities and groups of people in general, that militates against old fashioned and traditional notions of nation state and geopolitical, social, cultural and linguistic boundaries founded on some of the basic ingredients of nationhood, nation-making, and nationalism. To think beyond borders is therefore to give voice to global ideas and global values of the sort that transcend national, regional, municipal borders and thereby embrace truly international, world-wide, and universal …