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Articles 1 - 30 of 73
Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
Schaffer And Monism: Validating The Priority Of The Whole, Phillip Av Pennell
Schaffer And Monism: Validating The Priority Of The Whole, Phillip Av Pennell
CMC Senior Theses
Philosophy Thesis
An Incongruent Amalgamation: John Stuart Mill's Utilitarianism On Naturalism, Jeffrey M. Robinson
An Incongruent Amalgamation: John Stuart Mill's Utilitarianism On Naturalism, Jeffrey M. Robinson
Eleutheria: John W. Rawlings School of Divinity Academic Journal
John Stuart Mill's utilitarian principle of the greatest happiness for the greatest number, often surfaces in cultural debates in the contemporary West over the extent and foundations of moral duties. Given the drift from its historical Judeo-Christian moorings, naturalism now provides much of the epistemic grounding in Western culture in relation to moral duties. The amalgamation of Mill’s utilitarianism and naturalism has resulted in a cultural and epistemic disconnect. Naturalism is hard-pressed to provide consistent epistemic support for Mill’s utilitarian principle. This essay provides a number of suggestions as to why Mill’s utilitarianism may be inconsistent on naturalism.
The Lens That Sees Itself: Fruitful Interactions Of Film And Philosophy, Travis Wheeler
The Lens That Sees Itself: Fruitful Interactions Of Film And Philosophy, Travis Wheeler
Cinesthesia
Much of film theory holds that film is primarily an act of communication, whose message the audience understands. While this allows us great insights into the ideological and subconscious functions of a great many films, it falls short of this success with more enigmatic films. In instances such as these, where films are not easily understood, a different paradigm is necessary. Using philosophical texts as comparative tools in film analysis provides the answer to this "blindspot" in film criticism.
Impartialist Ethics And Psychic Disintegration: A Talking Cure, Roman Nakia Briggs
Impartialist Ethics And Psychic Disintegration: A Talking Cure, Roman Nakia Briggs
Graduate Theses and Dissertations
This dissertation deals with integrity understood as a state of the psyche. Its primary interlocutor is Professor Bernard Williams, and its point of departure is my interpretation of his Objection from Integrity to impartialist moral theories. Against Williams, I hope to show that the active adherent of impartialist ethical systems (e.g., act utilitarianism) may retain both moral integrity and integrity. In demonstrating this, I make use of a variant of Roy Schafer’s action language approach to psychoanalysis, and what I call practical aestheticism.
Disentangling Embodied Cognition: An Examination Of The State, Problems, And Possibilities Of Embodied Cognition, Cody Cash
Graduate Theses and Dissertations
Embodied cognition has received a fair amount of attention in philosophical, neuroscientific, and robotic research during the past several decades, yet the precise nature of its goals, methods, and claims are unclear. This dissertation will ascertain and examine the primary themes in the field of embodied cognition as well as why, and if, they offer significant challenges to traditional cognitive science models. Though many theories believe they are providing accounts that should replace traditional models, to do so they will have to overcome the very difficult challenge of arguing that mental content and capabilities derived from sensorimotor activity can continue …
Is There Less Bullshit In For Marx Than In Reading Capital?, William S. Lewis
Is There Less Bullshit In For Marx Than In Reading Capital?, William S. Lewis
Philosophy
This paper explores G. A. Cohen’s claim that Althusser’s Marxist philosophy is bullshit. This exploration is important because, if we are persuaded by Cohen’s assertion that there are only three types of Marxism: analytic, pre-analytic, and bullshit and, further, that only analytic Marxism is concerned with truth and therefore “uniquely legitimate” then, as political philosophers interested in Marxism’s potential philosophical resources, we may wish to privilege its analytic form. However, if Cohen’s attribution is misplaced, then we may wish to explore why Cohen was so insistent in this ascription and what this insistence reveals about his own political philosophy. The …
Department Of Philosophy Colloquium Series, University Of Maine Department Of Philosophy
Department Of Philosophy Colloquium Series, University Of Maine Department Of Philosophy
Cultural Affairs Distinguished Lecture Series
The Department of Philosophy Colloquium Series exposes students and other attendees to discussions of different philosophical topics and viewpoints. Two of the speakers this year will address environmental themes.
Preserving The Autographic/Allographic Distinction, P.D. Magnus, Jason R. D'Cruz
Preserving The Autographic/Allographic Distinction, P.D. Magnus, Jason R. D'Cruz
Philosophy Faculty Scholarship
In his study of forms of representation, Nel- son Goodman sought to explain why some representations, like words or musical scores, are considered replicable while others, such as paintings, are not. He named the replicable rep- resentations allographic and the ones we consider nonreplicable autographic (Goodman 1976, 113). His explanation of what grounds this distinction is in his theory of notations (chaps. IV–V). That theory essentially seeks to secure the possibility of identity for representations, as well as the possibility of knowing such identity, by setting out a number of requirements. Unless a repre- sentational practice satisfies the requirements (is …
Politics After Macintyre, Philip E. Devine
Politics After Macintyre, Philip E. Devine
Philosophy Faculty Publications
No abstract provided.
What Difference Does It Make? An Essay Review Of Beyond Versus: The Struggle To Understand The Interaction Of Nature And Nurture; James Tabery; Mit Press: Cambridge, Ma, 2014, Peter J. Taylor
Working Papers on Science in a Changing World
Beyond versus makes its contribution to the thriving industry of books that clarify or recast nature-nurture issues through seven conceptual moves. The first is to posit a divide between sociological and philosophical inquiry. As Tabery depicts them, commentators on the science invoked in nature-nurture debates often focus on the racist or other political views of disputants or on their flawed understanding of scientific concepts. Tabery, in contrast, as a philosopher of science, explains past and present disagreements as stemming from “a disagreement concerning how explanation works in science.” (The other moves include explanatory and terminological divides, connecting associations to mechanisms, …
Syllabus: Faith And Science, Nicanor Austriaco
Syllabus: Faith And Science, Nicanor Austriaco
Spring 2015, Faith and Science
No abstract provided.
Why Philosophy Is Important For Administrators In Education, Nicolas Michaud
Why Philosophy Is Important For Administrators In Education, Nicolas Michaud
Journal of Inquiry and Action in Education
The fact that “philosophy,” to many people, is just a mysterious word that brings to mind images of white beards and mysticism is no surprise. Contemporary society seem to have little reason to value a field devoted to ideas rather than production. Simply, philosophy is impractical, a distraction from the important world of growing an economy and living real life. What, perhaps, is more surprising is that philosophy is now, also, a dying field within academia itself. As research and inquiry becomes more specialized, there is little reason to indulge the pedantic meanderings of those who do not wish to …
Free Will And Agency: A Scoping Review And Map, Paul Fehrmann
Free Will And Agency: A Scoping Review And Map, Paul Fehrmann
Paul Fehrmann
Systematic reviews (SR) are important in the health and social sciences, and could have value for theoretical and philosophical psychology (TPP). Three objectives are addressed in this paper: 1. To identify a SR framework for topics in TPP. 2. To assess current SR methods use in the TPP literature. 3. Scoping is a type of SR, and a third objective is to explore using scoping SR on this broad topic: how is the topic of “free will and agency” addressed in the TPP literature? Corresponding to the three objectives, these methods were used: 1. Major systematic review guidelines and recent …
Berkeley And The Mind Of God, Craig Berchet Knepley
Berkeley And The Mind Of God, Craig Berchet Knepley
Theses and Dissertations
I tackle a troubling question of interpretation: Does Berkeley's God feel pain? Berkeley's anti-skepticism seems to bar him from saying that God does not feel pain, for this would mean there is something to reality 'beyond' the perceptible. Yet Berkeley's concerns for common sense and orthodoxy bar him from saying that God does have an idea of pain. For Berkeley to have an idea of pain just is to suffer it, and an immutable God cannot suffer. Thus solving the pain problem requires answers to further questions: What are God's perceptions, for Berkeley? What are God's acts of will? How …
A Biopsychological Foundation For Linguistics, Jonathan J. Life
A Biopsychological Foundation For Linguistics, Jonathan J. Life
Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository
In this dissertation, I defend the view that natural languages are concrete biopsychological phenomena to be studied empirically. In Section One, I begin with an historical explanation. Some analytic philosophers, I argue, misapply formal logic as an analysis of natural language, when it was in fact originally developed as an alternative to natural language, employed for scientific purposes. Abstract, quasi-mathematical philosophies of language, I argue, are partially a result of this misunderstanding. I respond to Jerrold Katz’ argument that a proper understanding of analytic truth requires this quasi-mathematical philosophy of language through a model-theoretical analysis of analytic truth in modal …
Hegels Phänomenologie Des Geistes: Ein Dialogischer Kommentar. Volume 1: Gewißheit Und Vernunft. Volume 2: Geist Und Religion By Pirmin Stekeler (Review), Daniel Breazeale
Hegels Phänomenologie Des Geistes: Ein Dialogischer Kommentar. Volume 1: Gewißheit Und Vernunft. Volume 2: Geist Und Religion By Pirmin Stekeler (Review), Daniel Breazeale
Philosophy Faculty Publications
No abstract provided.
Promising To Try, Jason R. D'Cruz, Justin Kalef
Promising To Try, Jason R. D'Cruz, Justin Kalef
Philosophy Faculty Scholarship
We maintain that in many contexts promising to try is expressive of responsibility as a promiser. This morally significant application of promising to try speaks in favor of the view that responsible promisers favor evidentialism about promises. Contra Berislav Marusˇic´, we contend that responsible promisers typically withdraw from promising to act and instead promise to try, in circumstances in which they recognize that there is a significant chance that they will not succeed.
Monaden Im Diskurs. Monas, Monaden, Monadologien (1600 Bis 1770) By Hanss-Peter Neumann (Review), Brandon C. Look
Monaden Im Diskurs. Monas, Monaden, Monadologien (1600 Bis 1770) By Hanss-Peter Neumann (Review), Brandon C. Look
Philosophy Faculty Publications
No abstract provided.
Mackenzie, Catriona; Rogers, Wendy; And Dodds, Susan, Eds. Vulnerability: New Essays In Ethics And Feminist Philosophy (Review), Anita Superson
Mackenzie, Catriona; Rogers, Wendy; And Dodds, Susan, Eds. Vulnerability: New Essays In Ethics And Feminist Philosophy (Review), Anita Superson
Philosophy Faculty Publications
No abstract provided.
The Technological Singularity: An Ideological Critique, Phillip Stephens
The Technological Singularity: An Ideological Critique, Phillip Stephens
Graduate Theses and Dissertations
The Technological Singularity represents a confluence of techno-cultural narratives of progress in which the projected exponential growth of artificial intelligence and nanotechnology will usher in a moment of irrevocable change for the human race – a change that many claim is scant decades away. Although the concept saw its modern clarification by science fiction author Vernor Vinge, the Singularity sits astride both fictional and nonfictional narratives of the future. It is the aim of this study to explore the ideological discourses that emerge from texts on the Singularity and the unfathomable posthuman future it ushers in. Doing so reveals how …
What The Fuck Is This?: Aesthetic Nature Of Being Or Ontology In The Poetry Of Gerard Manley Hopkins, Alexis Stephenson
What The Fuck Is This?: Aesthetic Nature Of Being Or Ontology In The Poetry Of Gerard Manley Hopkins, Alexis Stephenson
Graduate Theses and Dissertations
“What the Fuck is This?” examines the intersection of phenomenology and poetry arguing for an aesthetic nature of Being and focuses on how we know or experience the world instead of Cartesian absolutes. This subjective knowledge does not compete against objective knowledge but simply recognizes the use that poetic language has for communicating the subjective knowledge from experience of being as it unfolds for us. The major movements of the thesis focus on aesthetic objects, aesthetic intersubjectivity, and the aesthetic self. These are labeled “aesthetic” because a phenomenological methodology reveals a dialectic between that which is unfolding and that which …
The Problem Of Epistemically Irrelevant Causal Factors, Derek L. Mcallister
The Problem Of Epistemically Irrelevant Causal Factors, Derek L. Mcallister
Graduate Theses and Dissertations
The problem of epistemically irrelevant causal factors is an epistemological phenomenon that occurs when a person becomes aware of some non-epistemic, causal factor that threatens to adversely influence her present belief, yet this factor is irrelevant to her deliberation concerning that belief. While the problem itself is apparently relatively widespread, very few have given it a detailed analysis. This thesis is one attempt to improve that. The first part, and the bulk, of this thesis is an analysis and explanation of what exactly the problem is and how it differs from nearby, related epistemological phenomena. The second part is my …
Willful Understanding: Avicenna’S Philosophy Of Action And Theory Of The Will, Jon Mcginnis, Anthony Ruffus
Willful Understanding: Avicenna’S Philosophy Of Action And Theory Of The Will, Jon Mcginnis, Anthony Ruffus
Philosophy Faculty Works
In this study, we look at two interpretive puzzles associated with the thought of Avicenna that are still of intrinsic philosophical interest today. The first concerns to what extent, if at all, Avicenna’s deity can be said to act freely. The second concerns to what extent, if at all, humans within Avicenna’s philosophical system can be said to act freely. It is our contention that only through a careful analysis of Avicenna’s theory of action can one begin to assess his position concerning the status of the will and so provide a satisfactory response to these two interpretative issues. We …
Women In Philosophy: A Qualitative Assessment Of Experiences At The Undergraduate Level, Crystal Nicole Lilith Aymelek
Women In Philosophy: A Qualitative Assessment Of Experiences At The Undergraduate Level, Crystal Nicole Lilith Aymelek
PSU McNair Scholars Online Journal
The underrepresentation of women in the field of philosophy has been a major concern for women in the discipline for at least the past ten years, and is increasingly gaining attention within academia. Current research at the undergraduate level suggests male and female enrollment occurs in relatively proportionate numbers in introductory philosophy courses but women’s enrollment dramatically decreases with the progression to upper division courses (Paxton, Figdor & Tiberius, 2012). To date, very little research has focused on the experiences of women philosophy majors at the undergraduate level. The present study conducted in-depth interviews with women who were either senior …
A Teleological Exploration Of The Plausibility Of Moral Knowledge, Kevin Lebel King Jr.
A Teleological Exploration Of The Plausibility Of Moral Knowledge, Kevin Lebel King Jr.
Masters Theses
Natural selection seems to offer a compelling case for the development of evaluative judgments independent of evaluative facts. If such a case can be made, then how do moral judgments correlate to moral facts? It seems that there would be no tight connection from judgments to truth and moral judgments would be unwarranted. Gilbert Harman realized the implications of a probable non-moral genealogy. Richard Joyce goes on to provide a probable non-moral genealogy that would epistemically undermine moral judgments as Harman thought. Joyce argues that in a naturalistic world natural selection can account for moral judgments, but that the truth …
The Problem Of Nomological Impossibility For Epistemic Structural Realism, Patrick Manzanares
The Problem Of Nomological Impossibility For Epistemic Structural Realism, Patrick Manzanares
The Hilltop Review
The philosophical view known as Epistemic Structural Realism appeals to the concept of ‘structure’ in order to defend a version of Scientific Realism that nevertheless respects historical considerations of ontological discontinuity between successive scientific theories. It seems that the structures of some scientific theories are only continuous with the structures of successor theories when the former are characterized as nomologically impossible idealizations of the latter, since this continuity involves allowing some quantity in the formal structure of the successor theory to tend towards some physically unrealizable limit. But if this is the case, then the earlier theory cannot be physically …
Wittgenstein And The Problem Of Abusive Language, Alexander S. Coppins
Wittgenstein And The Problem Of Abusive Language, Alexander S. Coppins
Philosophy Honors Projects
These days, more and more social movements are focusing on changing the ways we speak. As a result of these movements, words that were once commonplace until quite recently are being pushed out of our language because of their power to hurt people. This tells us that political groups recognize the power of words to greatly damage us. In this paper, I explore Wittgenstein’s philosophy of language in order to shed light on how we can use language to insult each other. Both the early and the later Wittgenstein are able to account, in some respects, for how we understand …
Examining The Role Of Consciousness And The Absurd In Suicide, Alexandra R. Azevedo
Examining The Role Of Consciousness And The Absurd In Suicide, Alexandra R. Azevedo
Senior Honors Projects
In order to emphasize the significance of suicide as a subjective experience, this research project explores suicide through a philosophical lens, primarily focusing on the absurdist school of thought that gained prominence with the twentieth century French philosopher and writer Albert Camus. Despite recent advances in the scientific study of suicide, I argue that many of the historically divisive questions surrounding suicide are rooted in philosophy. My original work attempts to rectify the current disconnect between suicidality and philosophy through the analysis and application of Camus’ chief work on the subjects, The Myth of Sisyphus. Recognizing the efficacy of …
Explaining Consciousness: An Argument Against Physicalism And An Argument For Theism, Benjamin Dobler
Explaining Consciousness: An Argument Against Physicalism And An Argument For Theism, Benjamin Dobler
Honors Projects
Consciousness, the mental phenomenon of our subjective experience of the world, has long been the subject of philosophical debate. The world we experience is full of sights, sounds, taste, smells, and feelings--phenomenal experiences. As the vehicle of phenomenal experience, consciousness is one of the most familiar and readily accessible features of our world, and perhaps the hardest to deny. Yet science tells us that our world is entirely composed of matter and energy, and physical phenomena can be explained as just that. In Part I, I argue that consciousness stands wholly at odds with this scientistic worldview, providing evidence against …
Animal Cognition, Kristin Andrews, Ljiljana Radenovic
Animal Cognition, Kristin Andrews, Ljiljana Radenovic
Kristin Andrews, PhD
Debates in applied ethics about the proper treatment of animals often refer to empirical data about animal cognition, emotion, and behavior. In addition, there is increasing interest in the question of whether any nonhuman animal could be something like a moral agent.