Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Eucharist And Dragon Fighting As Resistance: Against Commodity Fetishism And Scientism, Jeffery Nicholas

Jeffery Nicholas

This paper examines two practices – the Roman Catholic Practice of Eucharist and the game Dungeons and Dragons – to show how social critique can be mounted from within a practice. It begins by relating Alasdair MacIntyre’s notion of tradition to his earlier analysis of ideology and to the notion of ideology in general. The paper then tackles two dominant forms of ideology – Commodity Fetishism and Scientism – and shows how both Eucharist and Dungeons and Dragons promote critical thinking to resist those ideologies. In the process, it denies the Althusserian-Foucauldian analysis of ideology as mere materiality and defends …

Historical Dictionary Of Ethics, Harry Gensler, S.J., Earl Spurgin

Earl W. Spurgin

The Historical Dictionary of Ethics covers a very broad range of ethical topics, including ethical theories, historical periods, historical figures, applied ethics, ethical issues, ethical concepts, non-Western approaches, and related disciplines. Harry J. Gensler and Earl W. Spurgin tackle such issues as abortion, capital punishment, stemcell research, and terrorism while also explaining key theories like utilitarianism, natural law, social contract, and virtue ethics. This reference provides a complete overview of ethics through a detailed chronology, an introductory essay, a bibliography, and over 200 cross-referenced dictionary entries, including bioethics, business ethics, Aristotle, Hobbes, autonomy, confidentiality, Confucius, and psychology.

Review Of Patrick Heelan, Space-Perception And The Philosophy Of Science, Cliff Hooker

Research Resources

Heelan has taken a rich philosophical framework and within its categories woven a marvellously detailed and wondrously wide tapestry. That tapestry includes an exciting illumination of Western art and pictorial understanding generally; the sweep of history, scientific and cultural; the enterprise of science and the nature and roles of technology in both science and culture. Heelan's book then has interest at several different levels; in ascending order: there are the specific theses about vision and about science; there is the connecting of philosophy of visual art and philosophy of science; there is Heelan's attempt to set both of these latter …

A Precautionary Tale: Separating The Infant From The Fetus, Lawrence Torcello

Articles

This article confronts growing conservative opposition to abortion based on the slippery slope claim that abortion is morally equivalent to infanticide. By examining the relationship between moral skepticism and precautionary ethics the article promotes completely the permissive position on abortion from conception to birth while consistently rejecting the possibility that such a position entails permissive implications for infanticide. The article introduces and traces the implicit relationship between moral skepticism, the precautionary principle and political liberalism.

The Troodos Hunting Expedition, Published From The Ms Of E. Croker, Kyriakos N. Demetriou

Kyriakos N. Demetriou

The “Troodos Hunting Expedition” came to light recently, as a result of a message received by Mr John Elverson who was doing a research on his great grandfather Edward William Dunlo Croker (14 September 1849 – 10 May 1893). Edward, born at Merrion Square North, Dublin, was the fourth son of Captain Edward Croker of Ballynagarde, county Limerick and his wife Lady Georgiana Ellen Monck ....The family still possesses, inter alia, two documents written by him, that shed some light on a period of his life with focus on Cyprus: First, an account of an expedition that he made to …

Autonomous Military Robotics: Risk, Ethics, And Design, Patrick Lin, George Bekey, Keith Abney

Philosophy

No abstract provided.

Against Pyrrhonian Equipollence, John Everett Button

Philosophy Theses

The production of equipollence is the most important part of the Pyrrhonian skeptic’s method for bringing about the suspension of judgment. The skeptic produces equipollence methodically, by opposing arguments, propositions, or appearances, in anyway whatsoever, until he produces an equality of “weightiness” on both sides of the conflicting views. Having no appropriate criterion to break the deadlock of equipollence, the skeptic (or his interlocutor) is left with no reason to accept either view. I have two main aims in this paper. My first aim is to distinguish between two different types of equipollence; that produced in the Pyrrhonist, called Psychological …

Buddha For Beginners, Stephen Asma

Stephen T Asma

Originally published by Writers and Readers in 1998, this is an iconoclastic, illustrated romp through the life of the Buddha both a credible exploration of his life and teachings and an entertaining introduction to the philosophy of Buddhism.

Many Westerners know about the meditation practices of Buddhism, but few understand the Buddha's philosophical teachings. This book puts the teachings (dharma) in their proper context and unravels some of the more dense knots of Buddha's thinking. And it does all this while entertaining the reader with humorous illustrations and pop-culture sensibility. This primer, constructed like a graphic novel, cuts through the …

To Thine Own Self Be Untrue: A Diagnosis Of The Cable Guy Paradox, D. P. Rowbottom, Peter Baumann

Philosophy Faculty Works

Hajek has recently presented the following paradox. You are certain that a cable guy will visit you tomorrow between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. but you have no further information about when. And you agree to a bet on whether he will come in the morning interval (8, 12] or in the afternoon interval (12, 4). At first, you have no reason to prefer one possibility rather than the other. But you soon realise that there will definitely be a future time at which you will (rationally) assign higher probability to an afternoon arrival than a morning one, due to …

Généticisation Et Responsabilité: Les Habits Neufs De La Gouvernance Néolibérale (Uncorrected Proofs), Antoinette Rouvroy

Antoinette Rouvroy

Loin du phantasme spectaculaire d’une “maléabilité” génétique de l’être humain, et nonobstant les discours grandiloquants qui ont accompagné la très coûteuse exploration du génome humain, la “nouvelle génétique humaine” ne révèle ni ne porte atteinte à l’essence de l’être humain (encore faudrait-il qu’une telle essence puisse jamais être définie), mais révolutionne notre perception des causes des smilitudes et variations au sein de l’espèce humaine. Le néologisme ‘généticisation’ désigne la contamination progressive des discours sociétaux (médicaux, juridiques, politiques, sociologiques,...) par une logique réductionniste et essentialiste faisant des gènes la cause privilégiée sinon exclusive des variations inter-personnelles et inter-communautaires au sein de …

Untangling The Debate: The Ethics Of Human Enhancement, Patrick Lin, Fritz Allhoff

Philosophy

Human enhancement, in which nanotechnology is expected to play a major role, continues to be a highly contentious ethical debate, with experts on both sides calling it the single most important issue facing science and society in this brave, new century. This paper is a broad introduction to the symposium herein that explores a range of perspectives related to that debate. We will discuss what human enhancement is and its apparent contrast to therapy; and we will begin to tease apart the myriad intertwined issues that arise in the debate: (1) freedom & autonomy, (2) health & safety, (3) fairness …

Book Review Essays, Richard A. Stevick

Psychology Educator Scholarship

Book review essay of: John L. Ruth, Forgiveness: A Legacy of the Amish School; Donald Kraybill, Steven Nolt, and David Weaver-Zercher, Amish Grace; Harvey Yoder, The Happening: Nickle Mines Tragedy, reviewed by Richard A. Stevick

The Moral Justification For Journalism, Sandra L. Borden

Center for the Study of Ethics in Society Papers

Papers presented for the Center for the Study of Ethics in Society Western Michigan University

Themistius As A Commentator On Aristotle: Understanding And Appreciating His Conception Of 'Nous Pathetikos' And 'Phantasia', Myrna Gabbe

Philosophy Faculty Publications

Themistius is not only a commentator on Aristotle; he is also one of our main sources of Theophrastus on the intellect. Hence, it is important to understand how he approaches and reads texts. It is my view that care and rigor are reflected in his treatment of nous pathêtikos. In this paper, I argue that Themistius postulates a third intellect whose job is to discern enmattered forms-i.e., sensible particulars-on the reasonable assumption that the productive and potential intellects are responsible solely for our contemplation of un-enmattered forms. As such, the passive intellect is responsible for what Aristotle calls incidental …

Concerned Philosophers For Peace, Vol. 28, Concerned Philosophers For Peace

Concerned Philosophers for Peace

No abstract provided.

The Role Of Causal Processes In The Neutral And Nearly Neutral Theories, Michael R. Dietrich, Roberta L. Millstein

Dartmouth Scholarship

The neutral and nearly neutral theories of molecular evolution are sometimes characterized as theories about drift alone, where drift is described solely as an outcome, rather than a process. We argue, however, that both selection and drift, as causal processes, are integral parts of both theories. However, the nearly neutral theory explicitly recognizes alleles and/or molecular substitutions that, while engaging in weakly selected causal processes, exhibit outcomes thought to be characteristic of random drift. A narrow focus on outcomes obscures the significant role of weakly selected causal processes in the nearly neutral theory.

L’Éthique Et L’Esthétique Chez Ousmane Sembéne, Frederic Ivor Case

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

The ethics and aesthetics of the films and novels of Sembène reflect the axiological principles of his work. Sembène’s impact can be felt throughout as his practice in both cinema and literature helped redefi ne the features of the African novel and film. For him, writing was fed by the experiences, however painful, of workers of diverse origins attempting to survive their difficult conditions. His novels reveal the agony of this world but also various opportunities for self realization among his characters. Such practice, born out of the sweat, resistance and determination of men and women eking out their living, …

La Quête Poétique Dans L’Oeuvre De Fouad Gabriel Naffah, Georges Khoriaty

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

In his poetic search, Fouad Gabriel Naffah states his conception of a poetic image revealing the absolute and the universal, his verbal adventure which consists of disintegrating the conventional language with sclerotic forms in order to have access to the authenticity and to ensure the everlasting poem. He also sets out the poetry of the imaginary which, through a dialectic and harmonization of contradictories, extends all over the universe to include and reach the study of the eternal return that satisfies his longing for eternity.

Sagp Newsletter 2008/9.1 East Philol, Anthony Preus

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

Announcement of SAGP programs with the American Philological Association and with the American Philosophical Association 2008/2009 academic year.

The Formal Structure Of Metaphysics And The Importance Of Being Earnest, Jeremy Barris

Humanities Faculty Research

This article considers how the formal structure of metaphysical thought is displayed in Oscar Wilde's Importance of Being Earnest. One frequent aim of metaphysics is to understand the world as a whole. We cannot gain such a global vantage point without separating ourselves from all the particular meanings things have for us within the world. But we start within the world, and so can only proceed on the basis of those particular meanings. Consequently we can only separate ourselves from them if they work to cancel themselves in favor of the global understanding. When the separate range of meanings is …

Changing The Negative Behavioral And Development Outcomes To A Toxic Prenatal Environment Through Maternal Education, Angela Eileen Laughlin Lebedev

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of current education materials on changing maternal smoking attitudes. Children are affected by prenatal exposure to tobacco smoke. Although there are educational efforts to discourage pregnant women from smoking, the practice continues in a significant number of pregnancies. New materials, based on current research, were also evaluated for effectiveness. The theoretical framework for this study was adult learning theory presented by Knowles which made the assumption that an individual is shaped by environmental systems, that adult learning is affected by previous knowledge they bring to the learning and that adults …

"An Almost Single Inference": Kant's Deduction Of The Categories Reconsidered, Konstantin Pollok

Faculty Publications

By taking into account some texts published between the first and the second edition of the Critique of Pure Reason that have been neglected by most of those who have dealt with the deduction of the categories, I argue that the core of the deduction is to be identified as the 'almost single inference from the precisely determined definition of a judgment in general,' which Kant adumbrates in the Metaphysical Foundations in order to 'make up for the deficiency' of the A-deduction. Whereas the first step of the B-deduction is an attempt to show that the manifold of an intuition …

On The Concept Of A Morally Relevant Harm, David Lefkowitz

Philosophy Faculty Publications

In this paper I explicate and defend the concept of a morally relevant harm. This concept figures prominently in common-sense and contractualist moral reasoning concerning cases where an agent can prevent harm to members of a large group or a small one, but not both. When the two harms to which members of these groups are exposed are morally relevant to one another, an agent is permitted (or perhaps required) to take into account the number of people he can save. When the harms are irrelevant, an agent should not even consider preventing the lesser harm, regardless of how many …

International Terrorism:Role ,Responsibility And Operation Of Media Channles, Ratnesh Dwivedi Mr

Ratnesh Dwivedi

"Terrorism" is a term that cannot be given a stable defintion. Or rather, it can, but to do so forstalls any attempt to examine the major feature of its relation to television in the contemporary world. As the central public arena for organising ways of picturing and talking about social and political life, TV plays a pivotal role in the contest between competing defintions, accounts and explanations of terrorism. Which term is used in any particular context is inextricably tied to judgemements about the legitimacy of the action in question and of the political system against which it is directed. …

French Theory, By François Cussett, Robert J. Stainton

Robert J. Stainton

No abstract provided.

Plus On Est Observé, Moins On Est Sensible Aux Atteintes À La Vie Privée, Antoinette Rouvroy

Antoinette Rouvroy

Voir ce qui se passe dans sa rue, sur une plage aux Maldives ou au Nord-Kivu, au mètre près et en teps réel, ou presque. C'est le pari de e-Corce, un concept d'observation de la terre imaginé par l'agence spatiale française. Super Google Earth ou Big Brother?

Child Abuse, Racism And The State, Chase Parker Turner

Philosophy Theses

Using a Millian framework, this thesis examines whether or not children are victims of child abuse when they are inculcated with racist belief systems. The conclusion is that children are not harmed and so not the victims of child abuse, but instead are badly parented.

Niebuhr’S Immoral Society And Bellah’S Good Society: A Conversation About Moral Man, Harlan Stelmach

Collected Faculty and Staff Scholarship

The title of my paper is an indication of where I began my thinking about this project. I was convinced from the start that Niebuhr’s and Bellah’s most significant disagreement would be how they viewed the role of collective life. Second, I assumed that they would have their most significant area of agreement on the moral capacity and responsibility of individuals. If you focus on Niebuhr’s early work, especially in Moral Man and Immoral Society and Bellah’s mature work today, these assumptions are generally true. Further, I still expected some broad lines of continuity in the work of these two …

A Time For The Humanities: Futurity And The Limits Of Autonomy, James J. Bono, Tim Dean, Ewa P. Ziarek

Education

This book brings together an international roster of renowned scholars from disciplines including philosophy, political theory, intellectual history, and literary studies to address the conceptual foundations of the humanities and the question of their future. What notions of the future, of the human, and of finitude underlie recurring anxieties about the humanities in our current geopolitical situation? How can we think about the unpredictable and unthought dimensions of praxis implicit in the very notion of futurity?

The essays here argue that the uncertainty of the future represents both an opportunity for critical engagement and a matrix for invention. Broadly conceived, …

Referral In The Wake Of Conscientious Objection To Abortion, Carolyn Mcleod

Philosophy Publications

Currently, the preferred accommodation for conscientious objection to abortion in medicine is to allow the objector to refuse to accede to the patient's request so long as the objector refers the patient to a physician who performs abortions. The referral part of this arrangement is controversial, however. Pro-life advocates claim that referrals make objectors complicit in the performance of acts that they, the objectors, find morally offensive. McLeod argues that the referral requirement is justifiable, although not in the way that people usually assume.