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Cosmic City - Cosmic Teleology: A Reading Of Metaphysics Λ 10 And Politics I 2, Brandon Henrigillis
Cosmic City - Cosmic Teleology: A Reading Of Metaphysics Λ 10 And Politics I 2, Brandon Henrigillis
Dissertations (1934 -)
The goal of my project is to provide a reading of Metaphysics Λ 10. Λ 10 states that there is an order in the cosmos, or a cosmic nature. The problem for the interpreter of Aristotle is how to make sense of this claim given Aristotle’s arguments elsewhere regarding nature/substance and the priority of substances over the parts of a substance. To explain what Aristotle means when he states that there is a cosmic nature and arrangement, I first examine the army and household analogies offered by Aristotle in Λ 10. I contend that the household analogy in particular provides …
Al-Fārābī Metaphysics, And The Construction Of Social Knowledge: Is Deception Warranted If It Leads To Happiness?, Nicholas Andrew Oschman
Al-Fārābī Metaphysics, And The Construction Of Social Knowledge: Is Deception Warranted If It Leads To Happiness?, Nicholas Andrew Oschman
Dissertations (1934 -)
When questioning whether political deception can be ethically warranted, two competing intuitions jump to the fore. First, political deception is a fact of human life, used in the realpolitik of governance. Second, the ethical warrant of truth asserts itself as inexorably and indefatigably preferable to falsehood. Unfortunately, a cursory examination of the history of philosophy reveals a paucity of models to marry these basic intuitions. Some thinkers (e.g., Augustine, Aquinas, Grotius, Kant, Mill, and Rawls) privilege the truth by neglecting the realpolitik, i.e., the truth is inviolate. Others (e.g., Machiavelli, Bentham, and the often infamous caché of 20th century dictators) …
The Province Of Conceptual Reason: Hegel's Post-Kantian Rationalism, William Clark Wolf
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 …
Theo-Poetics: Figure And Metaphysics In The Thought Of Hans Urs Von Balthasar, Anne Carpenter
Theo-Poetics: Figure And Metaphysics In The Thought Of Hans Urs Von Balthasar, Anne Carpenter
Dissertations (1934 -)
Hans Urs von Balthasar (1905-1988) was a Swiss-Catholic theologian of great importance in the twentieth century. His formal education included a doctorate in literature, which resulted in a massive, three-volume work on the state of German literature and philosophy entitled Der Apokalypse der deutschen Seele (The Apocalypse of the German Soul) - and licentiates in both theology and philosophy. Throughout his life, von Balthasar continued to display a thoroughgoing interest in art and theology. With a background particularly attuned to this link, von Balthasar set out to "recover" the transcendental of beauty in theology, which he argued had been a …
Spinoza On Individuals And Individuation: Metaphysics, Morals, And Politics, Matthew David Wion
Spinoza On Individuals And Individuation: Metaphysics, Morals, And Politics, Matthew David Wion
Dissertations (1934 -)
This dissertation examines Spinoza's position regarding the relationship of the individual to the community and to other individuals in the context of a particular reading of Spinoza's metaphysics as holistic. By the term "holistic metaphysics," I refer to a view of reality as a unified whole rather than as a collection of entirely separate parts. The latter I call a "reductionistic metaphysics." If a reductionistic metaphysics tends to see individuals as essentially separate and only secondarily relational, a holistic metaphysics pictures individuals as primarily relational and only by means of their relations capable of any meaningful "separateness" from other individuals. …
The Ontological Foundations For Natural Law Theory And Contemporary Ethical Naturalism, Bernard Mauser
The Ontological Foundations For Natural Law Theory And Contemporary Ethical Naturalism, Bernard Mauser
Dissertations (1934 -)
This dissertation explores some objections to natural law theory- many of which are also leveled against contemporary naturalism. Despite the way the natural law tradition has fallen into disrepute in much of the American academy, this dissertation defends a classical Thomistic approach to natural law from some modern and contemporary criticisms. It begins with a brief explanation of the theory of natural law that will be defended from these contemporary objections. Chapter three examines G.E. Moore and David Hume's classical problems posed to natural law, along with some contemporary defenders of Moore's position. These arguments are purported to undermine using …