Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Mobile Phones And The Breakdown Of Face-To-Face Communication: Kierkegaard's Call To Friluftsliv, Bjørn R. Kristensen

Critical Reflections

In this paper, I address the negative side effects on face-to-face communication and well-being resulting from our continual use of mobile-mediated technology (MMT). I consider these consequences by drawing on Søren Kierkegaard's deductions on deficient communication, and discuss one remedy he suggests: a closer relationship with nature. However, technology is so ubiquitous in the modern age that the prospect of escaping it, is nearly futile. In response, I offer a solution from the ideology of friluftsliv, which views a regular relationship with nature as a way of getting in touch with one's natural human identity and restoring balance in …

The Web Of Technics: Education And Lewis Mumford In The Information Age, Brigham Bartol

Critical Reflections

This paper examines the status of the World Wide Web in the context of education, using the ideas of 20th century thinker Lewis Mumford to understand potential virtues and problems in the Web as an educational device. In general, my paper examines the conditions of possibility for education on the Web, and suggests some solutions to the problems faced when imagining an educational system which includes the Web.

First, I attempt to define the technics of the Web using some of Mumford’s terminology: I consider the possibility of viewing the Web as either a tool that invites active use or …

Van Inwagen's Modal Argument For Incompatibilism, Katerina Psaroudaki

Critical Reflections

Abstract: Incompatibilism is the philosophical view, according to which, free will is incompatible with determinism. Van Inwagen in his paper “A modal argument for incompatibilism”, presents one of the most compelling arguments in favor of the view by showing that, if we don’t “have a choice about whether” determinism is true nor do we “have a choice about whether” the proposition representing the past and the conjunction of the laws of nature is true, then necessarily we don’t “have a choice about whether” any future description of the world is true. Even though most of the premises of the modal …

The Place Of Health In The Liberal Theory Of Justice, Paul Tubig

Critical Reflections

Author Information:

Paul Tubig

PhD Philosophy Student, University of Washington - Seattle

ptubig@uw.edu

Submission Title:

The Place of Health in the Liberal Theory of Justice

Abstract:

The purpose of this paper is to articulate the relationship between health and justice. Ethical claims, such as the World Health Organization’s assertion that health is a fundamental human right or that global health inequalities are normative inequities, require a conceptual analysis of the meaning and value of health within a particular framework of justice. Working from the liberal conception of justice as developed by John Rawls, I will argue that the political significance …

The Led Theory Of Material Objects, Michael Tze-Sung Longenecker

Critical Reflections

I present a new theory of the composition of material objects. An important component of it is the claim that objects have non-concrete objects as parts. A non-concrete object is an object that lacks many of the features that concrete objects typically have—size, shape, mass, location, causal abilities, etc.—but yet is unlike typical abstract objects since a non-concrete object could have those features. This is an ontology defended by Timothy Williamson, but I employ it in a new manner to solve problems in the metaphysics of material objects. Specifically, I think it allows us to improve upon the Worm Theory, …

The Implications Of Belonging, Yussiif Yakubu

Critical Reflections

The Implications of Belonging

Abstract

The efforts to explain the evolution of social and moral behaviour often focus exclusively on the positive social and moral traits, or the prosocial traits (in the parlance of evolutionary biology). The standard practice under extant evolutionary modeling has been to represent all social behaviour by the term altruism and all non-social or counter-social behaviour by the contrasting term - selfishness. Such a modeling scheme leaves the negative social/moral behaviours such has bigotry, racism, homophobia, patriarchy, bullying etc. unaccounted for or worse still, they are presumed erroneously to be on the selfishness side of …

Fifty Shades Of Kramer: An Analysis Of Kramer’S Account Of The Nature Of Sadomasochism And Torture, Udoka Okafor

Critical Reflections

Abstract For The University of Windsor Philosophy Conference

In his book, Torture and Moral Integrity, Kramer gives an account of sadomasochism, and an analysis of instances of sadomasochism that counts as either simulations of torture or torture itself. He also expounds an argument for why he thinks that acts of sadomasochism are always and everywhere morally wrong. This paper is going to examine the arguments put forth by Kramer with respect to the relationship between sadomasochism and torture. Ultimately, this paper is going to argue, based on the analysis conducted, that Kramer has a very simplistic understanding of the …

Failings Of Strong Moral Particularism, Timothy Grainger Mr

Critical Reflections

In this paper I will be investigating the possibilities involved with and the consequences of accepting a particularist approach to ethics. Such particularist approaches that reject the use of principles in moral decision making are becoming more popular in contemporary ethical debates underlining modern care ethics, feminist relational ethics, contextualism, and Maclntyre's virtue ethics among others. I will argue that extreme particularism that utterly rejects principles as defended by Jonathan Dancy is an untenable position that does not capture how humans make moral decisions and moreover would remove any hope of being able to discuss morality meaningfully. In order to …

Diagreement, Internalism And Genuine Assertions Of Ppts, Brendan L. Learnihan-Sylvester

Critical Reflections

The problem of lost disagreement is seen as a problem for contextualists when it comes to providing an account of predicates of personal taste (further referred to as PPTs). If Mary says, “The chili is tasty” and John says “The chili is not tasty” we would take there to be a disagreement between them. However, if what Mary means is “The chili is tasty [for Mary]” and what John means is “The chili is not tasty [for John]” then it seems like the disagreement between them simply vanishes. Peter Lasersohn argues that the problem of lost disagreement causes intractable problems …

Disagreement And Faith: Ockham On Faith As An Intellectual Virtue., Adam Langridge

Critical Reflections

At the beginning of Chapter III, Book VI of the Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle lists five intellectual virtues or veridical habits: art, scientific knowledge, prudence, intellectual intuition, and wisdom (1139b14-1139b19). The intellectual virtues are habitual powers of the mind to act that promote certainty and true belief, and Aristotle distinguishes them from opinion, in which “we may be mistaken” (1139b19). Unlike beliefs attributable to the veridical habits, which altogether exclude falsity and doubt, it is recognized even by those who hold them that opinions are less than certain, and that they could be either true or false. Regarding faith, however, …