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The Ethical Functions Of Deuteronomic Laws In Early Second Temple Judaism, Paul Cizek

Dissertations (1934 -)

This study is about the ethical functions of Deuteronomic laws in the 3rd–1st centuries BCE: what they were and how to study them.Since the 1980’s boom in Hebrew Bible ethics studies, at least eight theses regarding the ethical functions of Deuteronomic laws in antiquity have become prominent. Though the scholars who advance these theses employ diverse methods, they commonly make the Deuteronomic laws themselves their direct objects of analysis, basing conclusions about how the laws functioned on the structure, logic, form, or historical and literary contexts of the laws. As Henry McKeating noted in 1979, however, how a law actually …

Should Biomedical Research With Great Apes Be Restricted? A Systematic Review Of Reasons, Bernardo Aguilera, Javiera Perez Gomez, David Degrazia

Philosophy Faculty Research and Publications

Background

The use of great apes (GA) in invasive biomedical research is one of the most debated topics in animal ethics. GA are, thus far, the only animal group that has frequently been banned from invasive research; yet some believe that these bans could inaugurate a broader trend towards greater restrictions on the use of primates and other animals in research. Despite ongoing academic and policy debate on this issue, there is no comprehensive overview of the reasons advanced for or against restricting invasive research with GA. To address this gap, we conducted a systematic review of the reasons reported …

Care Of The Sexual Self: Askesis As A Route To Sex Education, Shaun Douglas Miller

Dissertations (1934 -)

In adolescent sex education, the contemporary debate has developed into two camps: the paternalistic view and the liberal view. I argue that both sides of the camp have been too focused on actions and behavior and are assuming a heteronormative background. This dissertation argues that the way to take care of the self is through exercises, techniques, self-discipline, and self-cultivation—what the ancient Greeks called áskēsis. By applying áskēsis to sex education, students will gain the character of taking care of the sexual self and have a robust outlook of themselves via sexuality.After looking at countless syllabi, I reduce three …

The Social And Historical Subject In Sartre And Foucault And Its Implications For Healthcare Ethics, Kimberly Siobhan Engels

Dissertations (1934 -)

This dissertation explores Jean Paul Sartre’s and Michel Foucault’s view that subjectivity is socially and historically constituted. Additionally, it explores their corresponding ethical thought and how these viewpoints can be applied to ethical issues in the delivery of healthcare. Sartre and Foucault both hold the view that human beings as subjects are not just participants or spectators in social practices, rather, they become subjects with ontological possibilities through their interaction with these practices. In Chapter One, I trace Sartre’s views on subjectivity in his two major works Being and Nothingness and The Critique of Dialectical Reason, Volume 1, showing how …

The Secular Transformation Of Pride And Humility In The Moral Philosophy Of David Hume, Kirstin April Carlson Mcpherson

Dissertations (1934 -)

In this dissertation I examine Hume’s secular re-definition and re-evaluation of the traditional Christian understanding of pride and humility as part of his project to establish a fully secular account of ethics and to undermine what he thought to be the harmful aspects of religious morality. Christians traditionally have seen humility, understood as receptivity to God, to be crucial for individual and social flourishing, and pride as the root of individual and social disorder. By contrast, Hume, who conceives of pride and humility immanently in terms of our self-appraisals, sees pride as a key virtue that serves as the ultimate …

Theo-Dramatic Ethics: A Balthasarian Approach To Moral Formation, Andrew John Kuzma

Dissertations (1934 -)

What role does beauty play in our moral formation? What difference does the perception of beauty make to the way we live our lives? In order to answer these questions, I look to the twentieth-century Catholic theologian, Hans Urs von Balthasar. Relatively little has been written about Balthasar’s ethics. He is, perhaps, best known for his retrieval of beauty as a transcendental property of being. Balthasar, though, never set down an extended account of his ethics or moral theology. While he had no explicit ethic, he certainly thought that his theology could be lived. The Theo-Drama, for instance, discusses the …

Sexualized Violence, Moral Disintegration And Ethical Advocacy, Melissa Mosko

Dissertations (1934 -)

This dissertation develops and defends a conception of sexualized violence that is rooted in philosophical theories of violence, and at the same time helps us understand the way that violence is connected to various kinds of oppression, namely, the oppression of women. It argues that sexualized violence, which is typically theorized through related notions of physical violation and psychological trauma, is best understood in terms of its moral quality. Sexualized violence against women is fundamentally a moral problem insofar as it disrupts victims' ability to grow and develop in relationships with others, to conceive and meet responsibilities to and emerging …

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. …

Ethics Brewed In An African Pot, Agbonkhianmeghe E. Orobator

Theology Faculty Research and Publications

Doing ethics in African Christianity raises the challenge of over-generalization in the midst of diversity and variety. This essay surveys the wide ethical landscape of Africa, explores key ethical issues on the continent within the context of the world church, and proposes priorities for action in view of a global ethical partnership.

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 …

The Attestation Of The Self As A Bridge Between Hermeneutics And Ontology In The Philosophy Of Paul Ricoeur, Sebastian Kaufmann

Dissertations (1934 -)

Ricoeur defines attestation as the "assurance of being oneself acting and suffering" or as the "assurance - the credence and the trust - of existing in the mode of selfhood." In this dissertation I discuss the concept of attestation in Ricoeur's philosophy in relation to the main dimensions of the self: Capacities, personal identity, memory and otherness. I state that attestation is the key to the three dialectics of Ricoeur's hermeneutics of the self: The dialectic between reflection and analysis, the dialectic between idem-identity and ipse-identity and the dialectic between oneself and other. In these three dialectics, attestation, as the …

Whom The Gods Would Destroy, They First Make Myopic: Religion And Ethics In Cross-Disciplinary Ecological Dialogue, Daniel C. Maguire

Theology Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Genesis And Abortion: An Exegetical Test Of A Biblical Warrant In Ethics, William Kurz

Theology Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.