Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Kantian Reason & Epistemic Humility, Elias Seeman

Philosophy Senior Capstone

Immanuel Kant continues to be one of the most influential thinkers in the history of philosophy. His thought shapes much of contemporary culture and has dramatically influenced Christian philosophy and theology. While some of this influence is beneficial, there are components of Kantian thought – especially as it pertains to the capabilities of human reason to arrive at true knowledge of God – that are decidedly problematic. In this paper, two different readings on Kant’s work on this subject are presented, followed by a brief overview of key insights and shortcomings. The final section charts a positive way forward for …

A Kantian View Of Transgenderism, Michael S. Mendoza

Eleutheria: John W. Rawlings School of Divinity Academic Journal

• The recent popularity of sex reassignment surgery is logically untenable and immoral when understood in the light of Kantian philosophy. From a Kantian perspective of synthetic a priori judgments, I argue that a biological male cannot rationally claim to “feel like a woman inside.” As a male, any female is part of the noumenal world and cannot be known apart from perception. The statement “I feel like a woman inside” assumes all women feel the same on the inside. Kant’s explanation of the noumenal and phenomenal excludes the possibility of knowing that all women or men feel the same inside …

Auf Dem Weg Zum Cyberpunk (On The Way To Cyberpunk), Yuzhou Sun

Senior Theses and Projects

"Cyberpunk" is a word that is both familiar and unfamiliar to us. In some ways, it is familiar to us. As a sub-genre of science fiction, Cyberpunk is a popular futuristic theme that greatly influenced pop culture in the 21^st century. We are fascinated by the bizarre but realistic fictional world, a dystopian society characteristic of "high tech and low life" for the majority population, it presents. In most works of this genre, an overwhelming technology company monopolies most social resources and dominates society like a "leviathan". The majority population is alienated from the well-being brought by high technology. …

Wildlife Emotions: Animal Rights As Examined Through A Cognitivist Lens, Kristy Schultz

The Hilltop Review

The aim of this article is to revisit and redefine the scope of a Kantian rights-based theory to include non-human animals. Generally, rights-based theories are predicated on a Kantian deontology that excludes all but rational subjects from possessing of basic rights. Historically, non-human animals—once thought to act on impulse and desire alone—have been excluded from rights-based considerations. However, more recent literature from emotions theorist Martha Nussbaum suggests an alternative picture for non-human animals. Cognitivist theories like Nussbaum’s, alongside intensive scientific research, support the notion that non-human animals show signs of intentionality and possess the capacity to emote. If Nussbaum’s theory …

Ecological Investigations: A Phenomenology Of Habitats, Adam Konopka

Faculty Scholarship

These investigations identify and clarify some basic

assumptions and methodological principles involved in

ecological explanations of plant associations. How are

plants geographically distributed into characteristic groups?

What are the basic conditions that organize groups of

interspecific plant populations that are characteristic of

particular kinds of habitats? Answers to these questions

concerning the geographical distribution of plants in late

19th century European plant geography and early 20th

century American plant ecology can be distinguished

according to differing logical assumptions concerning the

habitats of plant associations.

The Province Of Conceptual Reason: Hegel's Post-Kantian Rationalism, William Clark Wolf

Dissertations (1934 -)

In this dissertation, I seek to explain G.W.F. Hegel’s view that human accessible conceptual content can provide knowledge about the nature or essence of things. I call this view “Conceptual Transparency.” It finds its historical antecedent in the views of eighteenth century German rationalists, which were strongly criticized by Immanuel Kant. I argue that Hegel explains Conceptual Transparency in such a way that preserves many implications of German rationalism, but in a form that is largely compatible with Kant’s criticisms of the original rationalist version. After providing background on Hegel’s relationship to the traditional rationalist theory of concepts and Kant’s …

An Exposition And Analysis Of Kant’S Account Of Sublimity, Paulina Simone Calistru

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

I begin by providing an exposition of Kant’s cognitive and phenomenological trajectory during experiences of mathematical and dynamical sublimity. I use this moment of elucidation to highlight certain implications of Kant’s account which reveal a necessary crutch on sublimity’s self-preservationist motivations, concluding realization of the judging subjects as superior to the power intuited and emphasis on the feeling and apprehension of infinity. This skeletal view of Kant’s argument allows for the argument of my three main criticisms: (i) the incoherence of his sublime feeling with other recounted phenomenologies of the experience, (ii) the fallibility of his key premise which states …

Kant And Tetens On Transcendental Philosophy, Richard D. Creek

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation examines the significance of Johann Nikolas Tetens, a German empiricist philosopher working in the 1770's, to the theoretical philosophy of Immanuel Kant. I begin by examining Tetens' discussion of philosophical methodology in his 1775 essay \textit{Über die allgemeine speculativische Philosophie}. I make the case that Tetens' criticism of the methodology of the Scottish common sense philosophers and his subsequent attempt to incorporate what he takes to be their valuable insights into the approach of the broadly Wolffian philosophical tradition provides important context for interpreting Kant's methodology in the \textit{Critique of Pure Reason}. I then examine two different cases …

The Kantian Principle Of Treating Humanity As An End, Erjus Mezini

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This paper emphasizes the central role of the Formula of Humanity in Kantian ethics. It focuses mostly on Kant’s Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals, with hypotheses being tested on Kant’s Metaphysics of Morals as well. It starts with an analysis of the argument Kant offers for the Formula of Humanity in Groundwork II, explicating the meaning of this formula and its distinction from the Formula of the Universal Law. It further develops on comparing all the formulations of the categorical imperative, and it argues that not all formulations are equivalent. It concludes that the categorical imperative is exhausted by …

The Origins Of Morality, Paulina Sanchez

Dialogue & Nexus

In modern society, there exists a standard for moral conduct that seems to reign universal over many societies of people. Pinpointing the origins of morality, however, can become problematic because of how one approaches what morality is and what its purpose is in society. Psychologists may point out the social constructs and norms that allow for morality to unfold. Evolutionary biologists may give evidence of human-related species that have developed similar behavioral standards. A Christian theologian may look to scripture in explaining a Creator who ordained that all abide by the standards of conduct most pleasing to this deity. Which …

I Want To Believe: Kant, The X Files, And Cosmopolitical Unity, Jeremy Knickerbocker

Cinesthesia

Kant’s final chapter of Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View, puts forth certain observations concerning the characteristics of human beings. In order for these observations to have rational validity as a proposed ‘human nature,’ however, Kant admits that it is necessary to compare between humans and another species of rational animal. Thus in an effort not to succumb to a naively anthropocentric thesis of nature, Kant still falls victim to his own anthropocentric privileging of rationality as a strictly human capacity—at least terrestrially speaking. While Kant fails to recognize any other earthly species as a rational animal, he nevertheless …

The Philosophy Of Mythology, Erwin F. Cook

Classical Studies Faculty Research

The early German romantic philosophy of myth can help elucidate the nature of romanticism itself, which notoriously resists descriptive or theoretical definition. To be sure, myth is an equally problematic term, whose precise meaning varies among romantic philosophers, though its role in the romantic project remains usefully consistent: myth is offered as a solution to the crisis of modern alienation, or, more radically, to the crisis of the subject object dichotomy. The sources of this alienation are likewise varied but broadly coherent. I will mention those relevant to the task at hand.

Praesentia Sublimis: Studies In The Differend, Dylan T. Vaughan

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Interrogating the notion of the differend, taken from Jean-Franҫois Lyotard’s book of the same name, in which a wrong occurs along with the impossibility of its representation as a wrong, this thesis attempts to rearticulate the relationship between the distant and heterogeneous theories dealing with a supposedly common subject matter: namely, the sublime. The sublime as it is taken up in the rhetorical pedagogy of Longinus, the transcendental aesthetic of Immanuel Kant, and the postmodern theory of Jean-Franҫois Lyotard refuses to yield a shared dimension that could bind together these major moments of thought. There are sublimes, it seems, …

Intentionality In Kant And Wittgensetin, Ryan Feldbrugge

Journal of Undergraduate Research at Minnesota State University, Mankato

How is thought about and experience of a world possible? This has been the framing question of the present work and it is generally understood as the problem of intentionality. The more specific problem dealt with has been whether or not intentionality has an internal structure that can be made explicit through science, particularly cognitive science. In his Critique of Pure Reason, Immanuel Kant outlines an internal, mental structure that, when imposed on our sensory data, makes thought about and experience of a world possible, which can be viewed as highly anticipatory of modern cognitive science. On the other hand, …

The Romantic Posthuman And Posthumanities, Elizabeth Effinger

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation focuses on the way Romantic-period philosophers, artists and writers were critically engaged with various Romantic-period disciplines, those branches of learning that were complexly enmeshed with the inhuman and putting increasing pressure on the concept of “the human.” Over the course of five chapters, this study pursues the problematic of “the human” across the borders of philosophy, where Immanuel Kant entertains extraterrestrials while organizing the new discipline of pragmatic anthropology; the early and late illuminated work of poet-engraver William Blake, which enables us to think the inhumanities within the human; the closet drama and poetry of Percy Bysshe Shelley, …

A Kantian Argument For Sovereignty Rights Of Indigenous Peoples, Krista Karbowski Thomason

Philosophy Faculty Works

Kant’s non-voluntarist conception of political obligation has led some philosophers to argue that he would reject self-government rights for indigenous peoples. Some recent scholarship suggests, however, that Kant’s critique of colonialism provides an argument in favor of granting self-government rights. Here I argue for a stronger conclusion: Kantian political theory not only can but must include sovereignty for indigenous peoples. Normally these rights are considered redress for historic injustice. On a Kantian view, however, I argue that they are not remedial. Sovereignty rights are a necessary part of establishing perpetual peace. By failing to acknowledge the sovereignty of native groups, …

Prolegomena To Kant's Theory Of The Derangement Of The Cognitive Faculties, Gisele Velarde La Rosa

Dissertations

In the literature on Immanuel Kant there is no systematic account of the derangement of the constitutive cognitive faculties from an exclusively philosophical point of view. This dissertation opens the path for the development of such an account. It does so by presenting Kant's positive account of the proper functioning of the constitutive cognitive faculties, namely, sensibility, imagination, and understanding. As such, the dissertation offers a series of "prolegomena" to a Kantian theory of the derangement of the cognitive faculties. At the foundation of Kant's theory of cognition is the transcendental unity of apperception, the original ground of cognition. Through …

Beauty Or Bane: Advancing An Aesthetic Appreciation Of Wind Turbine Farms, Tyson-Lord J. Gray

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

I begin this paper by looking at declining wind turbine sales during the years 2007 to 2010. In an attempt to locate a reason for this decline, I evaluate two claims by wind farm opponents: 1) that wind farms reduce property value, and 2) that wind farms ruin the beauty of nature. The first claim I respond to by looking at three studies conducted on residential property sales located near wind farms. For the second claim, I engage in a comparison of Immanuel Kant’s and John Dewey’s aesthetics. I ultimately advance an aesthetic appreciation of wind farms that seeks to …

But What Kind Of Badness?: An Inquiry Into The Ethical Significance Of Pain, Andrew L. Hookom

Philosophy Theses

In this thesis, I argue against a claim about pain which I call the "Minimization Thesis" or MT. According to MT, pain is objectively unconditionally intrinsically bad. Using the case of grief, I argue that although MT may be true of pain as such, it is not true of particular pains. I then turn to an examination of the justification provided by Thomas Nagle for offering the MT and find that his argument is inadequate because it depends on an implausible phenomenology of pain experience. I argue it is more plausible to claim, as Kant does, that pain has desire-conditional …

Nietzsche On Copernicus, Shane C. Callahan

Philosophy Theses

I show that we have reason to believe a view on scientific theory change can be discerned in what I call the “Copernicus passages” of Nietzsche’s published work—specifically, the incommensurability thesis. Since this view denies what Maudemarie Clark calls the “equivalence principle,” she claims incommensurability cannot reasonably be attributed to Nietzsche. I argue, however, that we can reasonably attribute incommensurability to Nietzsche in the Copernicus passages, so my reading should not be ruled out. The first upshot to this project is that I provide a reading of passages that have received no scholarly attention to date. The second upshot is …

Autonomy, De Facto And De Jure, Paul Tulipana

Philosophy Theses

On a standard philosophical conception, being autonomous is roughly equivalent to having some particular natural capacity. This paper provides argues that this conception is incorrect, or at least incomplete. The first chapter suggests that adopting an alternative conception of autonomy promises to resolve to several objections to the metaethical constitutivism, and so promises to provide highly desirable theory of moral reasons. The second chapter first motivates a broadly Kantian account of autonomous action, and then gives reasons to think that Kant's own development of this theory runs into damaging action-theoretic problems. The way to address these problems, I argue, is …

Plantinga, Kant, And Cognitive Reliability, Peter Zuk

Global Tides

This article applies Alvin Plantinga’s principle that self-defeat is inherent in any theory which gives the theorist reason to doubt her own cognitive faculties to Kant’s theory of perception, transcendental idealism. Because transcendental idealism excludes the possibility of knowledge about things in themselves, including the transcendental idealist’s own cognitive faculties, the theory is self-defeating under Plantinga’s argument. The article continues by arguing that Kant’s appeal to God as a way to vindicate the transcendental idealist’s cognitive faculties is problematic in several ways, and that the theory therefore cannot avoid self-defeat.

Magruder-Clysdale Collection (Mss 284), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 284. Correspondence of the Magruder and Clysdale families of Louisville, Kentucky, London, Ontario and Grand Bend, Ontario. The correspondence covers family matters and the progress of the Magruders' professional work and writing on Protestant theology and social issues. Includes photographs relating to the Clysdales and a related family, the Brighams.

Freedom And The Ideal Republican State: Kant, Jefferson, And The Place Of Individual Freedom In The Republican Constitutional State, Theresa A. Creighton

Philosophy Theses

Of the questions concerning the many great minds of the European Enlightenment, the question of what constitutes right and proper government perhaps had the most enduring influence on the world stage. Both Thomas Jefferson and Immanuel Kant attempted to answer the question of what constitutes right government, in particular by basing the system upon the idea of human freedom as an inalienable right. This project is an attempt to compare the systems proposed by these two authors, as well as to critique each on its ability to protect and foster individual freedom. It is my opinion that neither manages to …

Transcendental Exchange: Alchemical Discourse In Romantic Philosophy And Literature, Elizabeth Olsen Brocious

Theses and Dissertations

Alchemical imagery and ideology is present in many Romantic works of literature, but it has largely been overlooked by literary historians in their contextualization of the time period. The same can be said for mysticism in general, of which alchemy is a subset. This project accounts for alchemy in the works of transcendental philosophers and writers as it contributes to some of the most important conversations of the Romantic time period, particularly the reaction against empirical philosophy and the articulation of creative processes. The transcendental conversation is a transnational one, encompassing Germany, Britain, and America, with its use of alchemy …

Resting In The Court Of Reason: Kant's Resolution To The Antinomy Of Pure Reason, Sarah Ann Alexander

Philosophy Theses

Kant attributes the power to awaken one from dogmatic slumber to skepticism and to the antinomy of pure reason; in his accounts of his own awakening and the origin of the critical philosophy, he credits the antinomy and his memory of David Hume. This essay suggests that Kant’s primary aim in the first Critique was to find a resolution to the antinomy; an examination of this resolution shows Kant’s memory of Hume critical to Kant’s enterprise. Kant’s resolution to the antinomy exploits metaphors of war, jurisprudence, slumber, and historical development, as well as his Transcendental Deduction and explanation of transcendental …

Moral Purity And Moral Progress: The Tension Between Assurance And Perfection In Kant And Wesley, Kevin Twain Lowery

Faculty Scholarship – Theology

The quest for perfection can undermine one's sense of assurance, since it requires some dissatisfaction with one's present state. For Kant, assurance is based on our continual moral progress, but divine assistance is required to overcome our radically evil nature. Still, we must merit this assistance, and this seemingly precludes the type of moral purity Kant asserts. Wesley offers a more robust resolution by upholding justification by faith and by recognizing love as the chief moral motive. Once we have assurance that our sins are forgiven, we respond by loving God in return, and this motivates us to pursue perfection.

Immigration (Reference Entry), Harry Van Der Linden

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

"Immigration," published in Ethics, Revised Edition, pages 715-17, reprinted (or reproduced) by permission of the publisher Salem Press. Copyright, ©, 2004 by Salem Press.

Kantian Ethics (Reference Entry), Harry Van Der Linden

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

"Kantian Ethics," published in Ethics, Revised Edition, pages 806-08, reprinted (or reproduced) by permission of the publisher Salem Press. Copyright, ©, 2004 by Salem Press.

Immanuel Kant (Reference Entry), Harry Van Der Linden

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

"Immanuel Kant," published in Ethics, Revised Edition, pages 804-06, reprinted (or reproduced) by permission of the publisher Salem Press. Copyright, ©, 2004 by Salem Press.