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Full-Text Articles in Intellectual History

The Art And Mystery Of Pragmatic History, David Hardin Dec 2023

The Art And Mystery Of Pragmatic History, David Hardin

History Theses

This thesis considers how we make meaning in our individual lives and in practice as historians. From an initializing question —Why do people believe things that have either been proven false or shown improbable?— born out of historical discourse in the liminal space between mythology and history, this thesis embarks on a inquiry into meaning that is both deeply philosophical and practical. The work develops a historical method that falls within the tradition of Pragmatism, and then turns this method toward two case studies (Pedro Huízar and Señora Candelaria) from San Antonio, Texas. The aim is to explore two myths …


Stop Making Sense: Hegel’S Critique Of Common Understanding, Daniel A. Burnfin Sep 2020

Stop Making Sense: Hegel’S Critique Of Common Understanding, Daniel A. Burnfin

Masters Theses

This thesis presents Hegel’s account of abstract ‘understanding’ (Verstand) and asserts that his thought is to be read as primarily presenting a critique of abstract understanding. Verstand involves the methodological supposition of a self-subsistent fundament of what it speaks of, and hence the critique of understanding is the critique of the supposition of self-subsistent fundaments. Grasping his account and reading him in its critical light yields a very different image of Hegel than the caricature of ‘totalizing systems’. The dimension of the Verstandeskritik has been relatively neglected in Hegel-reception and misunderstandings result from trying to ‘understand’ Hegel, by …


Philosophical Self-Presentation In Late Antique Cappadocia, Stefan Vernon Hodges-Kluck May 2017

Philosophical Self-Presentation In Late Antique Cappadocia, Stefan Vernon Hodges-Kluck

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation offers a new perspective to the development of religious orthodoxy in the second half of the fourth century CE by examining the role of the body in the inter- and intra-religious battles between Christians and “pagans” over the claim to the cultural capital of philosophy. Focusing on Cappadocia (modern-day central Turkey), a particularly vital region of the fourth-century Roman empire, I argue that during this time, Greek-speaking intellectuals created and disputed boundaries between Christianity and “paganism,” as well as between “orthodoxy” and “heresy,” based on longstanding elite notions of how an ideal philosopher should look, think, and act. …