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Review Of: Agency And The Foundations Of Ethics: Nietzschean Constitutivism By Paul Katsafanas, Ariela Tubert

All Faculty Scholarship

This article reviews the book Agency and the Foundations of Ethics: Nietzschean Constitutivism by Paul Katsafanas

The Hidden Point Of Intersection: Bio-Politics In Foucault And Agamben, Jason Walsh

Puget Sound Undergraduate Philosophy Conference

The relationship between sovereignty and bio-politics has been frequently discussed and debated in the literature sounding the work of Michel Foucault and Giorgio Agamben. A number of commentators firmly align themselves with Foucault, charging Agamben with some combination of ahistoricism and reductionism in his account of sovereignty. They see Foucault as not guilty of these sins, and therefore preferable. Many of these critiques, however, arise from conflating two separate levels of analysis: history and power. By holding apart these two domains, I will attempt to offer a qualified defense of Agamben and subsequently show that he and Foucault are not …

Commentary On "Contrasting Models Of The God-World Relation: Avicenna, Maimonides And Al-Shahrastani", Matthew Williams

Puget Sound Undergraduate Philosophy Conference

In his paper “Contrasting Models of the God-World Relationship: Avicenna, Maimonides and Al-Shahrasānī,” Harrington Critchley makes a very cogent argument for the superior adaptability of Avicenna’s model for the necessary existence of God, as compared to Maimonides’ and Al-Shahrasānī’s own. Though there are certainly problems to be found in Avicenna’s model, I would prefer to take this opportunity to admire rather than critique it.

Contrasting Models Of The God-World Relation: Avicenna, Maimonides And Al-Shahrastani", Harrington Critchley

Puget Sound Undergraduate Philosophy Conference

This essay considers Avicenna’s conception of God as the ‘Necessary Existent’ and the subsequent uses of this designation in the thinking of Moses Maimonides and Muhammad Al-Shahrastānī. Specifically, it considers how this term affects each thinker’s understanding of God’s being ‘above perfection,’ as suggested by their respective intimations regarding what they take to be His most prominent attribute. In turn, these distinct understandings influence their contrasting models of the relationship between God and the created order. I demonstrate how Avicenna employs his modal categories in order to determine God’s attributes, pinpointing ‘necessity’ as the attribute that he highlights as best …

Pragmatic-Expressivist Semantics In Ovid's Poetics, Jaryth Webber

Puget Sound Undergraduate Philosophy Conference

The Augustan poets had at their disposal a vast storehouse of philosophical vocabulary, consimilar to their cache of both mythological and historical vocabularies. Vergil, for instance, had incorporated much of both the prevailing Epicureanism and the impending Stoicism of his age; the notion of philosophical appropriation in poetry as a defense against amphigory is superabundant in the aesthetics of Horace’s Ars Poetica:

Humano capiti ceruicem pictor equinam

iungere si uelit et uarias inducere plumas

undique collatis membris, ut turpiter atrum

desinat in piscem mulier formosa superne,

spectatum admissi, risum teneatis, amici? [i]

It would not be a maggoty, vagarious …

Philosophical Consolation, Sam Taylor

Puget Sound Undergraduate Philosophy Conference

In November of 2012 my father was diagnosed with a severe form of brain cancer. In this paper, I outline how I try to use the teachings of two philosophers, Epictetus and Albert Camus, to try and find solace and consolation my father’s diagnosis and fate.

By No Mere Means, Lu-Vada Dunford

Puget Sound Undergraduate Philosophy Conference

Photographs are many things. The mechanical process by which photographs are generated ensures their factivity. The information they carry is independent of whatever a photographer might believe. We have faith in the veracity of photographs. And they are democratic. Anyone who has access to a camera has the means to image reality. But photographs are not just exemplar recordings. They can be so much more. Photographic art speaks to us and continuously inspires new personal realizations. But Scruton claims that to defend photography as art is to place in the hands of everyone the means to be an artist. I …

Comments On ‘A Marxist Critique Of The Individual, Rational, Self-Interested, Wealth Maximizer”, Lee Pennebaker

Puget Sound Undergraduate Philosophy Conference

This paper brings to light many pertinent observations and claims about the nature of individuals, our relationships to one another, and society as a whole. This paper appears to be deeply concerned with human psychology and the philosophical conditions that characterize it. I plan to focus my comments on both the psychological and normative aspects of the paper: specifically, concerns about the author’s[1] examination of the processes that shape our minds and the prevailing questions that almost certainly follow if these claims are true. In short, I would like to explore further the author’s examination of the human mind …

Unified Teleology: Paul Taylor's Biocentric Egalitarianism Through Aristotle, Zoe Grabow

Puget Sound Undergraduate Philosophy Conference

In this paper I examine the similarities between Paul Taylor’s and Aristotle’s teleological accounts as outlined in Taylor’s concept of biocentric egalitarianism from Respect for Nature and Aristotle’s concept of “for the sake of” from Politics I.8, and I show how Aristotle’s account can partially support Taylor’s. I discuss Aristotle’s virtue ethics and what they offer in terms of piecing together an environmental ethic, and I draw attention to an implied value—recipient value—that assigns significant worth to all living things “for the sake of” that is similar to Taylor’s biocentric egalitarianism. Lastly I address two problems that arise for Taylor’s …

Divergent Teleology: A Response To Zoe Grabow’S Reconciliation Of Taylor And Aristotle, Austen Harrison

Puget Sound Undergraduate Philosophy Conference

In this paper, I will provide a commentary of “Unified Teleology: Paul Taylor’s Biocentric Egalitarianism through Aristotle.” In addition to providing an account of Zoe Grabow’s reconciliation of Aristotle’s value ethics with Paul Taylor’s “respect for nature,” I will also attempt to offer a few thoughts on some of the primary philosophical tensions mentioned by Grabow. The most notable of these issues include the adoption of Aristotle’s ancient philosophy to a modern conception of environmental ethics, the limitations of Taylor’s “biocentric egalitarianism”, and the nature of the relationship between humans and the environment.

Commentary On "Narrow Bridge Games And Their Rescue Of Rational Constraints In Moral Contractualism", Maia Bernick

Puget Sound Undergraduate Philosophy Conference

Commentary on "Narrow Bridge Games and Their Rescue of Rational Constraints in Moral Contractualism"

Narrow Bridge Games And Their Rescue Of Rational Constraints In Moral Contractualism, Gabriel Rusk

Puget Sound Undergraduate Philosophy Conference

Contractualism is a normative theory of ethics that posits that what an individual ought or ought not do arises from an antecedent (or prior) moral agreement, deliberation, or acknowledgement. The nature of this agreement, as in its conditions, such as the nature of the persons involved, the circumstances of the agreeing process, and the constraints on the process should produce the resulting deliberative and normative morality. In this paper I will explore the “constraint critique” of contractualism. First I will explore the necessary tenets of contractualism and why any constraints are necessary. Second, I will explain why contractualist agreements cannot …