Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Philosophy Of Love And Sex, Skye Cleary

Open Educational Resources

These assignments are part of a course Philosophy of Love and Sex. The assignments: encourage students to be creative in their philosophical thinking, explore how academically rigorous work can be compatible with imaginative work, and include renewable assignments in which students' work may be published on CUNY Academic Commons.

Global Social Theory, Dora Suarez

Open Educational Resources

This course is designed as an introduction to the key questions and concepts of the Social Sciences. It aims at exposing students to a conceptual repertoire that prepares the ground for them to develop critical responses to pressing global issues. To this end, its itinerary engages with a variety of texts that comprise global social theory. A main focus of the course is to train students to read these texts carefully with an eye toward using them to analyze the world around us. In pursuing this goal, we ask: what does it mean to understand humans as thoroughly social, cultural, …

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 …

Lemonade, Jeane Pope

President Lori S. White Inauguration Symposium

"When life gives you lemons, make lemonade." OK, but how? Well-meaning users of this cliché rarely provide the mechanics of how to turn a bitter or sour situation into something positive. However, when we consier the three simple steps of making lemonade - sweeten, dilute, chill - we have at our disposal a powerful metaphor that gives us energy to Rise after even the most painful falls. Anyone thirsty?

The Value In Imperfect Endeavors: Exploring Postcapitalist And Prefigurative Practices At East Wind Intentional Community, Olivia Chandler 23

Student Scholarship

From the emergence of modern capitalism, people have searched for alternatives through building communal societies. The 1960s hippie movement in the United States inspired a surge of communal living, centered around non-violence and living in balance with the environment. The East Wind Intentional Community, an income-sharing egalitarian commune in Missouri, was born of this movement and still exists today, as people continuously look for ways to escape the “rat race” of mainstream society, 9-5 jobs, and economic insecurity arising from a globalized and neoliberal economic system. My research, grounded in interviews and participant observation, focuses on East Wind’s relationship with …

Primitivismo Y Poesía Femenina En El Cono Sur: Gabriela Mistral, Alfonsina Storni Y Juana De Ibarbourou, Ramon Muniz

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Primitivism is a philosophical attitude and artistic view based on the search for origins. It is linked to a simpler conception of life and has been used as a strategy to critique modernity through literature and art, as well as a means to subvert traditional and academicist paradigms in cultural production. Although most scholars have considered Primitivism as a problem of Western ideology, Erik Camayd-Freixas, Marianna Torgovnick, and Ben Etherington have shown that Primitivism is present in all cultures and that its strategies have been deployed to deal with racial, ecological, economic, artistic, and gender issues.

My dissertation analyzes the …

Why Bother? A Historical And Philosophical Analysis Of Motivation, Sara Badrani

Keck Undergraduate Humanities Research Fellows

While there are several competing theories of motivation, the exact nature of motivation and how it has been used to make impactful changes in history has not been well studied. It is apparent there have been various attempts to determine the exact nature of motivation; however, upon further analysis, there seems to be inapplicable flaws in these arguments. As a result, this leads to various dissatisfying theories of motivation that are unable to clearly answer the exact nature of motivation. Looking at both Humean and anti- Humean theories, my research hypothesis will essentially identify the inaccuracy of both arguments. As …

Community Based Inquiry - An Exercise To Develop Student-Led Philosophical Inquiry, Andrew Lambert

Open Educational Resources

This exercise provides opportunity for open philosophical discussion in the classroom, and promotes collaborative inquiry among students. It gives students direct experience of using the basic intellectual tools of philosophical inquiry. These include: clarifying what is at issue, seeking definitions, questioning definitions, spotting assumptions, evaluating inferential reasoning or moral judgments, presenting and examining evidence or explicit arguments.

Realization: A Short Story Collection For An Existentially Confused World, Payton Nguyen

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

The following project is the beginnings of my formal exploration into the existential and spiritual natures of our world, via story. Postmodernism has brought the importance of subjectivity to the forefront of academia, but it has also brought nihilism and secularism. If God is dead, what purpose is there to go on? If subjectivity is unavoidable and possibly at the foundation of existence, what does that mean for truth?

Some intellectuals have tried to fill these existential holes with new philosophical inquiries such as existentialism, absurdism, and effective altruism. Some intellectuals accuse postmodernism of destroying morality, advocating we return back …

Classical Education, Mythos, And Philosophy, Luke Hancock

Senior Honors Theses

Classical education offers a superior education K-12 because it is uniquely equipped to incorporate mythos and philosophy, two important parts of an education that are not included as well in other systems of education. Mythos, which has to do with narratives, story, and myth, has significant uses and benefits in many contexts, including religious, cultural, and academic. Philosophy is important in order for one to live the good life, and is lacking in today’s culture of education. These two concepts are emphasized in classical education. They fit into the classical canon and are best taught in a classical context. For …

Take Your Time, Terry A. Ratzlaff

School of Art, Art History, and Design: Theses and Student Creative Work

I see the world not as one seamless world but as a world composed of other worlds, built on top and within one another. They exist harmoniously, bound not by space but by time. In an instant I can move from one world into another where I can exist in two worlds simultaneously—in space, I am here. In time, I am there.

Worldmaking is a conceptual process of seeing connections and making distinctions within our lived reality.1 It is a process of dividing and organizing parts into collections that represent different narratives. Only through suitable arrangements can we handle vast …

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 …

Boring Myself To Death, Henry Curcio '21

Student Scholarship

Henry Curcio attempted to bore himself as much as possible. This included watching paint dry, listening to a thirteen-hour long musical composition, viewing an eleven-hour long film, and much more. This much is recorded recorded below with special attention to the overlapping discussions of boredom between philosophy, psychology, and literature.

Virginia's Criminal Justice System's Current Treatment For People With Mental Illnesses: Some Recommendations Based On What Has Worked (And What Has Not), Anokhi Manchanda '22, Tomas Alvarez-Perez '22

Student Scholarship

In this research we critically review information on Virginia’s criminal justice system’s response to people with mental illness. We first investigate issues that persons with mental illnesses experience as they navigate three stages of Virginia’s criminal justice system. The stages are: first, when people with mental illness are apprehended by the police, second, when they must stand trial, and third, when they are incarcerated. At the apprehension stage, the main issues we identify are that most officers do not have proper crisis intervention training, and that there are not sufficient options for diversion from jail for people with mental illnesses. …

Thinkings 11: Collected Evocations, Interventions, And Readings, Jeff Noonan

Philosophy Publications

No abstract provided.

Three Roles Of Narratives In The Treatment Of Chronic Pain, Nina Atanasova

Philosophy and Religious Studies Department Faculty Publications

In this paper, I discuss the roles narratives play in the diagnostics, treatment, and recovery of chronic pain patients. I show that the successes of this narrative approach to the treatment of chronic pain support the biopsychosocial model of disease. The central example of narrative interventions discussed in the paper is pain neuroscience education. This is an intervention which aims at helping chronic pain patients reconceptualize their pain experiences so as to align them with neuroscientific knowledge of pain. Multiple clinical trials have established the success of these interventions in pain reduction. This shows that neuroscience pain education is in …

Bloomsbury Philosophy Library, Rob Tench

Libraries Faculty & Staff Publications

The article reviews the Web site Bloomsbury Philosophy Library, located at bloomsburyphilosophylibrary.com, from publisher Bloomsbury.

Does The Anthropocene Require Us To Be Saints?, Bennett B. Gilbert

University Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

This presentation is one of several salients for thinking through the place of moral life and thought in human temporality and historicity, including that of future history, such as the Anthropocene, and in particular questions about personhood in a milieu in which non-human species might have moral claims upon us. I hope to launch your further consideration of these matters in your work on the Anthropocene and anti-anthropocentrism.

Country Report: The Teaching Of Philosophy In Singapore Schools, Steven Burik, Matthew Hammerton, Sovan Patra

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Singapore’s education system is widely regarded as one of the best in the world. In this report, we will focus on education at the primary, secondary, and junior college levels, and will not discuss the education offered in polytechnics (vocational colleges) and universities. We will also focus exclusively on Singapore’s public school system, which Singapore citizens are required to attend unless they are granted a special exemption. In addition to public schools, there are also international schools, which cater to the relatively large expatriate population in Singapore and typically offer a curriculum leading to the IB diploma. All public schools …

Verification And Utility In The Arabic Commentaries On The Canon Of Medicine: Examples From The Works Of Fakhr Al-Dīn Al-Rāzī (D. 1210) And Ibn Al-Nafīs (D. 1288), Nahyan Fancy

History Faculty publications

Although over two dozen Arabic commentaries on the Canon of Medicine were composed between the twelfth and fourteenth centuries, historians of medicine have paid scant attention to them. Instead, these commentaries have often been dismissed as being uncritical expositions that further entrenched the dogma of Galenic/Avicennan medical theory. In this article, I shall show that in fact the opposite was the case for at least a subset of the Canon commentaries from this period. Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī developed a new style of verification commentary across his philosophical corpus that he also deployed in his Canon commentary. Even though Fakhr al-Dīn …

Friendship And Partiality: Toward A Theory Of Virtue, Henry Curcio '21

Student Scholarship

We take our friends to be different from others. Unlike the people we pass while walking or acquaintances we have from our work, our friends carry a special sort of value to us. That is to say, we are partial to our friends. This much is seen regularly – maybe when we help our friend who is struggling with work as opposed to any other co-worker. But, what sort of theory supports this claim to partiality? In this paper I will outline a number of accounts, all of which attempt to explain our partiality. I will argue that each of …

How True Is Causal Closure?, Paul Ravelli

Philosophy and Religious Studies Presentations

Within the study of philosophy of mind, a principle known as causal closure has been a well-accepted topic for many years. Causal closure is used to describe the nature of causality within our universe and the principle goes as follows: “all physical things can have only physical causes.” What this means is that our universe exists as a closed system where things of the physical nature such as atoms can only be influenced by other physical things. If this principle is to be believed, then any type of explanation that is not based in scientific law cannot be used when …

The Existential Philosophy Of David Foster Wallace, Shoshana Primak

Honors Program Theses and Projects

It is no secret that philosophy and literature are often closely intertwined: beginning with works as old as Plato’s dialogues, philosophers have always seen the merit in utilizing fiction to share philosophy with both their contemporaries and with the general public. The most prominent existentialists are perhaps the most famous for using literature as a vehicle for their philosophical ideas: Friedrich Nietzsche, Søren Kierkegaard, Albert Camus, Simone de Beauvoir, and Jean-Paul Sartre all published some kind of fiction, through parables, novels, plays, and so forth. Likewise, I will argue in this thesis that renowned writer David Foster Wallace was not …

Real Possibility: Modality And Responsibility, Julia Gaul

Honors Scholar Theses

Imagine: someone is backing out of a parking space and does not look in their rear view mirror. They subsequently hit a car that was passing by. One could argue that they simply could have avoided the accident had they looked in their mirror. This non-actual possibility, that they could have looked in the mirror, seems legally and morally relevant. One could also argue that they could have avoided the accident had they stuck their feet out of their window and sung La Marseillaise.

My leading questions is: how do we distinguish possibilities that are legally and morally relevant from …

Towards An Understanding Of Nietzsche’S Will To Power, Jeffrey Beery

Honors Program Theses and Projects

Given his aphoristic writing style, his poetical and metaphorical depictions of philosophical ideas, and his presentations of seemingly logically contradictory or inconsistent views, Friedrich Nietzsche’s philosophy lends itself to a variety of competing interpretations among scholars and a plethora of misconceptions among everyday readers. These misconceptions have invited many negative connotations to be attributed to his philosophy, including Nazism, misogyny, and egoism. Amongst his most misconstrued concepts is the Will to Power, a concept Nietzsche himself never explicitly defines, but discusses in a variety of ways throughout his texts.

The Ethical Ramifications Of The Sexual Division Of Labor In The Modern World, Alexandra L. Baker

Philosophy Student Scholarship

Major: Psychology, Women and Gender Studies

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Jeffrey Nicholas, Philosophy

As long as the sexual division of labor exists, human flourishing will be stunted for people of all genders, races, sexualities, and walks of life. In order to respond to this epidemic of restrained flourishing we, as fellow human beings, owe it to one another to make a change, to take that first step in the right direction.

The Sun Cuts In, Madison Manns

Honors Scholars Collaborative Projects

My work seeks to tear down the privileging of the objective at the expense of the subjective—the universal truth at the expense of the knowledge in the body, in the being—in order to restore the fruitful dialogue between the subjective observer as the object of perceived stimuli that become the mover. As a high-achieving individual encouraged in academic endeavors—one intimately acquainted with the language of prestige and intellect—I am seeking a new way to address theory through a return to material language; language connected to, informed by, and describing the world in the way that we know, rather than what …

07. Richard Richards Is A Gay Scientist, David Monroe

Praxis, Poems, and Punchlines: Essays in Honor of Richard C. Richards

A little recognized and under-appreciated fact about the august Richard Richards is that he is a gay scientist. I know what you may be thinking—Richard’s never shagged dudes, and if he has, it’s shitty to out him in an essay that’s meant to honor him. That’s strictly his business. Or you may be thinking that that Richard identifies as a philosopher, not a physicist, biologist, or even (egads!) a psychologist. As far as I know, you would be right in both cases—and it would be terrible to call him out--despite the fact that this will hardly rise to the level …

11. Objectively Funny Jokes: Comedy’S El Dorado Or A Simple Macguffin?, Michael Cundall

Praxis, Poems, and Punchlines: Essays in Honor of Richard C. Richards

Could there ever be an objectively funny joke or bit of humor? With the popularity of certain forms of humor, with the appearance of puns as consistent stages in the development of humor in children, this seems a reasonable query. Further, give recent developments in humor theory, and depending on what stance you take on what is essential to the funny or humorous your answer could be yes or no. [excerpt]

06. Richard Richards, Robert Roberts, And Aristotelian Aristotelianism, Steven Gimbel

Praxis, Poems, and Punchlines: Essays in Honor of Richard C. Richards

This paper is a tribute to a philosopher and a person I have long admired, Richard C. Richards. As a clear and rigorous thinker, a thoughtful and accessible writer, and as a kind, blunt, and extremely funny person, Richard embodies virtues I hope to someday claim as well. [excerpt]