Philosophy Commons^™

The Fall And Rise Of Bengali Muslim Conciousness: Conceptualising The Identity Of The Bangla Universal, Habib Khan

Theses and Dissertations

The emergence of modern-nation states saw the end of the empirical era of exploitation and exercise of inherent racist tendencies towards the 'other'. However, the effect of that colonial system is still ever-present in the creation and governance of these newly independent states. While every new state aims to be 'modern', they adopt the international legal framework of the West as their own - a system they had initially wanted to escape. The concept of Muslim universality in the form of the ummah should have freed Pakistan from the shackles of its former colonial masters. Instead, this phenomenon was replaced …

Eco-Interoception: What Plants, Fungi And Protista Have Taught My Body, Sara Riley Dotterer

Art Theses and Dissertations

To me, ecology is the relational, full-body awareness that I am made up of and deeply connected to everything around me; and for better or worse, this is reciprocal. I form ecotones, an ecological transitional zone between two ecosystems, with the world around me. I use this ecotonal lens to blur binaries and dissolve boundaries between me and the world “outside my body.” During my Masters of Fine Arts at Southern Methodist University, I have continuously explored and represented the lives of various more-than-human species outside of my body, including plants, fungi and protista through an ecotonal lens. Although these …

The Hospitality Of Doubt, Ian Grieve

Art Theses and Dissertations

This paper discusses the last two years of research toward a Master of Fine Art in Studio Art. I mainly address my painting practice, but while in the program, I have worked in collage, ceramics, intaglio printmaking, and sculpture. My paintings are thick, multilayered, and often contain ambiguous narratives. The pictures develop through engagement, openness, and response within the work. I seek and embrace connection with viewers of the work. The spectator ‘completes’ the art and enhances or alters the artworks meaning by observing it and applying their individual perspectives. I seek to incorporate a sense of nostalgia and familiarity. …

The Polarization Of Political Parties And The American Republic, Patricia Cazeau

Helm's School of Government Conference

In the modern age of the 24-hour news cycle and social media, misinformation is rampant, and tensions are high. With a constant barrage of information coming from either direction, political opinions grow in number, and often in opposition to one another. This widens the fissure between the two major political parties in America, the conservative Republican, and liberal Democratic parties. Based on a study of 11 countries, including the United States, political polarization threatens democracies by creating political “tribes” that subscribe to groupthink, a harmful ideology that uplifts one school of thought while condemning others. In addition to having violent …

Jean-Jacques Rousseau’S Discourse On Inequality And Its Impact On Modern Western Society, Roger Engle

Helm's School of Government Conference

The famous French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau has undoubtedly left his mark on history and heavily influenced numerous governments over the last two hundred years. Rousseau’s “Discourse on Inequality”, in particular, changed the way in which individuals view society, religion, and morality in a significant manner. The worldview which is presented in this writing is the product of years of abandonment, sexual promiscuity, and a lack of personal responsibility. The real-world implications of which have led to the deaths of millions upon millions in one of the bloodiest centuries in all of human history and inspired some of modern history’s most …

Peripheral Minds: An Abridged Phenomenological Analysis Of Dyslexia, John Henry Reilly

Graduate Student Research Symposium

This paper endeavors to provide a novel way of understanding Dyslexia through the phenomenology of Edmund Husserl. Dyslexia is currently defined as a neurodevelopmental disorder. It is “a specific and persistent learning disability affecting the acquisition and development of the written language code (reading and spelling) and causing significant handicap to academic achievement and/or activities of daily life.” This medicalized definition has several conceptual problems and does not commensurate with the lived experience of Dyslexic people.

Dyslexia is therefore defined by negation—it is defined through what it is not. This paper utilizes Husserlian phenomenology to work toward a definition …

Sociopaths Have Formed Social Media, Alexandra Drews

Arts & Sciences Undergraduate Showcase

This philosophical analysis delves into the complex and interwoven dynamics between social media and two of Adam Kotsko's subcategories of Sociopathy, namely the "Climbers" and the "Schemers." By scrutinizing their motivations and behaviors within the realm of social media, this inquiry reveals the profound consequences that emerge from their actions. The "Climbers," driven by an insatiable desire for social status, exhibit a propensity for betraying others to achieve personal gain. Conversely, the "Schemers" engage in impulsive behaviors, prompted by an inherent need to alleviate boredom. Moreover, it becomes evident that the interplay between these subcategories has not only spawned a …

Elsewhere: In Defense Of Daydreaming, Alex Braden

MFA in Visual Art

Much like music, organic life is an absurd, improbable, and serendipitous instance. I set circular, electric, acoustic, and magnetic forces in motion and allow them to coalesce freely in the hopes of synthesizing unexpected moments of beauty, connection, and harmony.

Becoming The Imperfect Friend: Sḵwx̱Wú7mesh And Contemplative Pathways To Healing And Reconciliation In Higher Education, Denise Marie Findlay

Journal of Contemplative and Holistic Education

Throughout this reflective essay I explore Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Indigenous philosophy and contemplative education as ethical pathways to healing and reconciliation in higher education. I put forth the idea of becoming the imperfect friend in a world ethos of death by a thousand cuts as a response to the violence of colonialism perpetuated in academia. I reflect on the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh values of eslhélha7kwhiws and stélmexw as contemplative dispositions that lend themselves to the process of becoming the imperfect friend. I conclude by describing a Sḵwx̱wú7mesh -led program hosted by Simon Fraser University (SFU) in 2022-2023, named Moving Together In The Ways …

Reflections On The Heuristic Power Of Contemplative Art In Teaching And Research, Patricia Morgan Dr

Journal of Contemplative and Holistic Education

In this article I discuss the heuristic power of combining contemplative and creative practices using different stages of my research into learning through contemplation. This began with a realisation I had, in my first meditation retreat, about the similarities between creative and contemplative consciousness. It initiated twenty-three years of applied and theoretical research that started with contemplative art workshops I ran in rehabilitation centres. In PhD research that followed I tested a hypothesis of learning through contemplation founded on the concept of an elemental ground of learning that contained an integrating force I termed the feeling nexus. In later …

Legends Of Light: Crafting Middle Grade Fantasy In The Tradition Of Catholic Philosophy And Medieval Visual Culture, Bernadette Lamb

MFA in Illustration & Visual Culture

This essay promotes the writing and illustrating of middle grade literature that mirrors the wonder-inducing experiences of leafing through an illuminated manuscript and stepping into a Gothic cathedral. An examination of Catholic medieval visual culture moves into a discussion on its underlying philosophy and theology, which are profoundly centered on relational healing and the dignity of the human person. Christian writers including St. Pope John Paul II, C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Josef Pieper, Madeline L’Engle, Dr. Bob Schuchts, Makoto Fujimura, and Andrew Peterson inform an exploration of mercy, forgiveness, and love as self-gift in the context of illustration and storytelling …

Anxiety In The Capitalism Of Late Modernity, Toyo Kawabata

Emancipations: A Journal of Critical Social Analysis

The logic of capitalism affects both individuals and society. Alienation augments existential anxiety in the current precarity capitalism, which keeps urging competition among individuals to survive in capitalism and grow more. Excessive individualism, materialism, and consumerism in capitalism may weaken social ties and lower self-recognition, augmenting the existential anxiety of individuals. Losers in capitalism aggravate their anxiety whereas even winners may keep being anxious in the never-ending competition in capitalism. As long as people are kept engaged in capitalism, the pressure of the competition leads to a vicious cycle that keeps inducing anxiety, which signifies the precarity of capitalism. Existential …

Social Pathologies As Educational Injustices, Esther Neuhann

Emancipations: A Journal of Critical Social Analysis

For Axel Honneth, not all social problems can be understood as injustices. Therefore, he introduces the additional diagnostic concept of social pathology. In his book Freedom’s Right (FR), it is defined as an accumulation of persons’ inability to adequately participate in social institutions due to misunderstanding them. In contrast, injustices consist in the denial of access to social institutions for certain groups. According to the aim of presenting an ‘extended’ theory of justice in FR, Honneth intends to reconstruct all institutions necessary for realizing individual freedom in a liberal-democratic society. Like in the historical model of his project (Hegel’s Elements …

Dismodernizing The Working Class And Social Reproduction, After The Pandemic Lumpenproletariat: Towards An Autonomist Disability Perspective, Arianna Introna Dr

Emancipations: A Journal of Critical Social Analysis

Capitalism establishes a fundamental connection between the constitution of society and the sphere of production. Whether in the form of direct participation or indirectly through the performance of social reproduction, the working class is expected to be working. The universals of capitalist society as a work-based society revolve around the material and symbolic centrality of the working class, its struggle and its social reproduction. This association is reinforced by the othering effect that the definitional politics of the universal working class has on subjects defined by their non-relation to the sphere of production, but also by the categories we …

The Gladius And The Katana: Viewing The Seven Samurai Through The Lens Of Roman Stoicism, Joseph White

Honors College Theses

This paper examines the concepts of traditional Bushido and Roman Stoicism as they relate to the unique interpretation of Bushido by Akira Kurosawa in the movie the Seven Samurai. I explain the main concepts of Bushido and Roman Stoicism, focusing upon the virtues of each, and their connection to Kurosawa’s view on how Bushido should be practiced. I then draw similarities between these two ways of life. I examine how the genre of film dealing with samurai deals with this question.

Entre Rêve Et Résignation – Références Intertextuelles Dans Les Chemins Qui Montent (1957) De Mouloud Feraoun, Inès Kremer

Journal of Amazigh Studies

Résumé :

Malgré la présence évidente et continue des références intertextuelles dans les romans de Mouloud Feraoun, celles-ci n’ont été que rarement étudiées. C’est notamment dans son troisième roman, Les chemins qui montent, que les renvois à la littérature orale de la Kabylie comme à l’œuvre romanesque et philosophique d’Albert Camus se prêtent particulièrement à une analyse approfondie. Ils révèlent la résignation profonde du protagoniste qui se refuse à la révolte métaphysique au sens camusien, révolte rendue impossible par la condition coloniale.

Mots clés : Feraoun, intertextualité, Camus, et littérature orale kabyle

Abstract:

Despite the importance of intertextual references …

Review Of C. S. Lewis On Politics And The Natural Law, Crystal Hurd

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

A review of Justin Buckley Dyer and Micah J. Watson, C. S. Lewis on Politics and the Natural Law (New York, NY: Cambridge, 2016). ix+160 pages. $26.99. ISBN 9781107518971.

C. S. Lewis On Atheism, Joel D. Heck

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

Lewis had a lot to say about atheists and atheism, mentioning the topic at least seventy-eight times in at least thirty books and essays. Having been an atheist himself, he understood Christianity from—as he put it—the outside. He held many of the same positions that atheists did in the 1910s and 1920s and for many of the same reasons that still influence people today. Although he did not compose any sort of systematic description, definition, or formal reaction to atheism, we can glean a great deal from his writings. Perhaps most important of all, Lewis knew quite a few atheists …

Mere Christianity And The Moral Argument For The Existence Of God, Christopher A. Shrock

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

C. S. Lewis’s moral argument for the existence of God from Mere Christianity has been called the “most widely-convincing apologetic argument of the twentieth century.” It is concise and commonsensical. But Lewis’s argument has come under heavy fire in past decades, most notably from John Beversluis and Erik Wielenberg. This article offers an alternative reading on which the moral argument from the opening chapters of Mere Christianity is not only valid but also original and defensible. Unlike other moral arguments, Lewis deals in neither metaethics nor moral pragmatics. So he avoids prickly objections related to Divine Command Theory and accusations …

Paradise Retained: C. S. Lewis On The Nature Of Knowledge, Reality, And Morality In Perelandra, Richard L. W. Clarke

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

The world-view which informs Perelandra (1943) in particular and the so-called “space trilogy” more generally, of which it is the second volume, is deeply infused with that blend of Christianity and Platonism that is the hallmark of the thought of C. S. Lewis and which I explore at some length in the companion essay to this piece in this volume, “The Neoplatonic Christianity of C. S. Lewis.” Perelandra is, I would argue, a literary rendition of some of the most important philosophical arguments in defense of Christianity mounted by Lewis in Mere Christianity and elsewhere.