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Articles 1 - 14 of 14
Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
Biological Teleology In The Modern World, Kathryn Siena
Biological Teleology In The Modern World, Kathryn Siena
Honors Theses
In humans, the heart moves blood through the body. Does the heart therefore have a teleological explanation? Aristotelian teleology (described in Aristotle’s Physics) is the cause-for-the-sake-of-which, or the end towards which something moves. It is evident from current scientific knowledge that there is some sort of orientation of organisms toward an end. This orientation, following Aristotle’s definition of teleology, is conceptually distinct from efficient causation. This orientation is also metaphysically distinct from efficient causation because efficient causal explanations do not properly describe the orientation. However, two common ways of describing teleological explanations imply efficient causation as a metaphysical element. …
Emotional Perspectives On Existential Threat: Evaluating The Rationality Of Climate Anxiety, Rachael Lange
Emotional Perspectives On Existential Threat: Evaluating The Rationality Of Climate Anxiety, Rachael Lange
Honors Theses
This thesis seeks to answer the following question: Is climate anxiety a rational emotion? In order to arrive at an answer, several queries embedded in the main question must be addressed. This paper will outline a theory of emotion in order to define anxiety, assess climate change as a specific emotional object, and compare the rationality of anxiety using two evaluative standards. Climate anxiety is an emerging emotional phenomenon experienced in response to the perceived detrimental effects of a warming climate. Due to the novel identification of this contemporary emotional phenomenon with the established emotion of anxiety, there has thus …
Addressing The Harms Of Pornography, Gillian Allison
Addressing The Harms Of Pornography, Gillian Allison
Honors Theses
Within this paper I look at the existing philosophical work on pornography, from scholars like Catherine MacKinnon, Ronald Dworkin, and Rae Langton to show the current state of the pornography debate that I intend to enter by presenting my own argument about the morality of pornography. I argue that while pornography is harmful, these harms are best resolved through increased sexual education and the popularization and production of more inclusive pornography. The harms pornography causes are so great because pornography is where a lot of people learn about sex. Pornography was never designed to depict an average sexual experience. If …
Avoiding The Basilisk: An Evaluation Of Top-Down, Bottom-Up, And Hybrid Ethical Approaches To Artificial Intelligence, Cole Shardelow
Avoiding The Basilisk: An Evaluation Of Top-Down, Bottom-Up, And Hybrid Ethical Approaches To Artificial Intelligence, Cole Shardelow
Honors Theses
This thesis focuses on three specific approaches to implementing morality into artificial superintelligence (ASI) systems: top-down, bottom-up, and hybrid approaches. Each approach defines both the mechanical and moral functions an AI would attain if implemented. While research on machine ethics is already scarce, even less attention has been directed to which of these three prominent approaches would be most optimal in producing a moral ASI and avoiding a malevolent AI. Thus, this paper argues of the three machine ethics approaches, a hybrid model would best avoid the problems of superintelligent AI because it minimizes the problems of bottom-up and top-down …
Socrates And The Divine Mission Of Political Friendship, Ronahn I. Clarke
Socrates And The Divine Mission Of Political Friendship, Ronahn I. Clarke
Honors Theses
Plato is widely regarded as an authoritarian political thinker on account of Socrates’ endorsement of rule by philosopher kings in the Republic. Yet the Republic should not be mistaken for a political treatise or the entirety of Socrates’ political theorizing. Each of the Socratic dialogues is concerned with the political endeavour of reorienting souls within communities of souls toward virtue via philosophical discussion. This project examines the Lysis, the Gorgias, the Symposium, the Republic, and other dialogues in the context of the philosophical mission Socrates establishes in the Apology. Socrates’ philosophical work expresses a …
On The Question Of Thinking: A Study Of Heidegger's Later Philosophy, Shishir Budha
On The Question Of Thinking: A Study Of Heidegger's Later Philosophy, Shishir Budha
Honors Theses
This thesis explores the writings of the 20th-century German philosopher Martin Heidegger to understand what “thinking” is and how thinking needs to be undertaken. I examine Heidegger’s commitments to phenomenology in his early writings, his revaluation of the meaning of truth in traditional Western metaphysics, his criticism of calculative thinking and scientific rationality, his diagnosis of the human alienation and homelessness, and his evocation of the redemptive power of art and poetry through which we can find our place in the world. By questioning through all these themes, I attempt to trace Heidegger’s path towards a deeper and more original …
The New White Moderate: Bearing Witness To The Differend Of Race, Ethan T. Ashley
The New White Moderate: Bearing Witness To The Differend Of Race, Ethan T. Ashley
Honors Theses
As Frantz Fanon demonstrates in his text, Black Skin, White Masks, Sartrean existentialism fails to account for differences in racialized existence. Quite simply, the notion that “existence precedes essence” is reversed in the case of the black subject; he/she is living in a world that has rendered the black subject subservient to a predetermined essence. Ultimately, the fact that the white subject exists and may freely determine his/her essence while the black subject may not further demonstrates this gap or a chasm between black and white subjects that calls for further examination. In the first chapter, I will use …
Placing The Stateless Refugee: A Philosophy Of Statelessness, Nationality, And Rights, Ruby J. Gould
Placing The Stateless Refugee: A Philosophy Of Statelessness, Nationality, And Rights, Ruby J. Gould
Honors Theses
In this thesis, I many related questions regarding the fluctuating relationships between national communities and outsiders, specifically in the case of refugees and stateless peoples. After discussing the meanings of these terms, such as the definition and identities of the refugee and the nation-state, I delve into a philosophical examination of individual rights, particularly rights that are defended by nation-states, and the relationships between national communities and those existing outside of those communities whose lives may depend on their acceptance into a nation-state. I philosophically outline the likely experiences of refugees as they are faced with statelessness, including what forces …
The Ethics Of Environmentalism For The Individual Consumer, Molly Collins
The Ethics Of Environmentalism For The Individual Consumer, Molly Collins
Honors Theses
Climate change harms the well-being of humans. It is the poor choices of individual consumers that contribute to climate change. I argue that it is immoral to cause harm to others, thus climate change is an ethical dilemma for individual consumers. I begin with a pluralistic discussion of harm, before discussing the duties of individuals to make choices that will mitigate the current harms of climate change and the wrong moral assumptions that individuals make regarding their contribution to climate change. I discuss the principles of ethical consumerism, specifically in housing, food, and transportation. Lastly, I argue that climate change …
La Vie De Blaise Pascal Et Son Heritage Mathématique Et Philosophique, Katherine Weeks
La Vie De Blaise Pascal Et Son Heritage Mathématique Et Philosophique, Katherine Weeks
Honors Theses
This paper will discuss the life of Blaise Pascal, his philosophy and mathematics. We will first study the life of Pascal, by looking at his family, the success of his family, and how he was educated. We will then move onto study the history of the arithmetic triangle, which eventually becomes known as Pascal’s Triangle. Finally we will look at Pascal’s Pensées. Finally we will conclude that Pascal is not only known for Pascal’s Triangle but also his legacy in the Philosophic world. It becomes clear that Pascal would not have been the mathematician he was without the philosophy, and …
The Tragedy Of Punishment: An Insight Into Why Doing Something Good Feels Bad, Trevor Martin
The Tragedy Of Punishment: An Insight Into Why Doing Something Good Feels Bad, Trevor Martin
Honors Theses
My motivation for writing on what I have come to call “the tragedy of punishment” is the seemingly paradoxical state of affairs associated with punishment. The first state of affairs is the general understanding that punishment is not just a necessary practice but also a morally good one that serves not only to give criminals their just deserts but also generally benefit society and those in it. The second state of affairs is the realization that, despite the understanding that punishment is painted as a moral good, when thinking about all the harm caused by punishment one cannot help but …
Seeing Flight: Ancient Greek Theories Of Vision And Their Application To Winged Sculptures, Jessica John
Seeing Flight: Ancient Greek Theories Of Vision And Their Application To Winged Sculptures, Jessica John
Honors Theses
Ancient Greek philosophers attempted to understand and describe the way by which humans see. Each of the greatest philosophers of the time, including Plato, Leucippus, and Aristotle, had an innovative theory of vision. The number of theories demonstrates the importance the Greeks placed on comprehending how the image of the world was imprinted on the mind. With an understanding of how the body physically sees, the theories can be expanded to determine how the Greeks interpreted their surroundings, specifically sculptures. This thesis will examine the leading theories of the visual process and subsequently apply them to how the Greeks saw …
Saving Morality: Why We Cannot, And Why We Must, Jon Drake
Saving Morality: Why We Cannot, And Why We Must, Jon Drake
Honors Theses
Philosophers and laymen alike have often used morality to invite misconceptions of human life into ethics, and also of ethics into human life. The Kant/Williams discourse provides a rich backdrop on which to consider these misconceptions. But the misconceptionsof morality involved are just as numerous and just as serious. One thing that the Kant/Williams discourse shows is this: that ethics can be neither contained by nor cultivated without morality. Though much of Williams’ critique of Kantian morality is quite astute, thephilosophical and ethical wisdoms of morality abound in spite of these. Morality understands the fundamental condition of moral loss, and …
Break The Sky: An Exploration Of Ethics With Swords And Superheroes, Kris Miranda
Break The Sky: An Exploration Of Ethics With Swords And Superheroes, Kris Miranda
Honors Theses
In an extended piece of speculative fiction (specifically, a cross between the sword-and-sorcery and superhero genres), I try to explore the complexities of ethical deliberation in difficult circumstances. Through my protagonist I also present an “alternative” to Enlightenment ethics. I’ve referred to this alternative as an “ethics of the badass and the beautiful,” a little (but only a little) jokingly. The reason for doing all of this through fiction, and not a conventional philosophical paper, is that I believe my ethical education started in stories, and it’s still in good stories and the creative exploration of concretely realized personalities (as …