Ethics and Political Philosophy Commons^™

Reconceiving Responsibility: A Review Of Iris Marion Young’S Responsibility For Justice, Eric S. Godoy

Faculty Publications - Philosophy

In Responsibility for Justice, published 5 years after her untimely death, Iris Marion Young addresses the difficulties of thinking about responsibility in our complex, globally interconnected world. Our everyday errands, such as shopping for food, clothing and even light bulbs, now raise questions about our connection to grave injustices that occur around the world. Yet the limits of our ability to think seriously about these connections are evident. Even tracking responsibility within localized events is difficult when multiple layers of agency are involved. For instance, is BP, Transocean, or Halliburton responsible for the Deepwater debacle? 1 Unfortunately, Young began working …

[Review] Stories From The Street: A Theology Of Homelessness. David Nixon, Laura Stivers

Collected Faculty Scholarship

David Nixon in his book Stories from the Street: A Theology of Homelessness places stories of people who are homeless in dialogue with Christian scriptures, Church tradition, and particular theologies to construct a “theology of homelessness” (7). Drawing on liberation theology, Nixon argues that stories told by poor people can offer a deeper sense of the meaning of God and relationship, can reinvigorate the Christian story, and can in fact, change the world. Nixon shares a number of life histories of homeless people and teases out biographical and emotional themes from their stories in relation to spirituality. He also recounts …

Book Review Of This Is Not Sufficient, Frank Garrett

Between the Species

No abstract provided.

Gabriel Marcel And American Philosophy, David W. Rodick

Faculty Scholarship

Gabriel Marcel's thought is deeply informed by the American philosophical tradition. Marcel's earliest work focused upon the idealism of Josiah Royce. By the time Marcel completed his Royce writings, he had moved beyond idealism and adopted a form of metaphysical realism attributed to William Ernest Hocking. Marcel also developed a longstanding relationship with the American philosopher Henry Bugbee. These important philosophical relationships will be examined through the Marcellian themes of ontological exigence, intersubjective being, and secondary reflection. Marcel's relationships with these philosophers are not serendipitous. They are expressions of Marcel's deep Christian faith

The Future Of Military Virtue: Autonomous Systems And The Moral Deskilling Of The Military, Shannon Vallor

Philosophy

Autonomous systems, including unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), anti-munitions systems, armed robots, cyber attack and cyber defense systems, are projected to become the centerpiece of 21st century military and counter-terrorism operations. This trend has challenged legal experts, policymakers and military ethicists to make sense of these developments within existing normative frameworks of international law and just war theory. This paper highlights a different yet equally profound ethical challenge: understanding how this trend may lead to a moral deskilling of the military profession, potentially destabilizing traditional norms of military virtue and their power to motivate ethical restraint in the conduct of war. …

The Fragility Of Consensus: Public Reason, Diversity And Stability, John Thrasher, Kevin Vallier

Philosophy Faculty Articles and Research

John Rawls's transition from A Theory of Justice to Political Liberalism was driven by his rejection of Theory's account of stability. The key to his later account of stability is the idea of public reason. We see Rawls's account of stability as an attempt to solve a mutual assurance problem. We maintain that Rawls's solution fails because his primary assurance mechanism, in the form of public reason, is fragile. His conception of public reason relies on a condition of consensus that we argue is unrealistic in modern, pluralistic democracies. After rejecting Rawls's conception of public reason, we offer an ‘indirect …

Basic Desert Of Reactive Emotions, Zac Cogley

Publication

In this paper, I explore the idea that someone can deserve resentment or other reactive emotions for what she does by attention to three psychological functions of such emotions – appraisal, communication, and sanction – that I argue ground claims of their desert. I argue that attention to these functions helps to elucidate the moral aims of reactive emotions and to distinguish the distinct claims of desert, as opposed to other moral considerations.

Democracy And Scientific Expertise: Illusions Of Political And Epistemic Inclusion, J.D. Trout

Philosophy: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Realizing the ideal of democracy requires political inclusion for citizens. A legitimate democracy must give citizens the opportunity to express their attitudes about the relative attractions of different policies, and access to political mechanisms through which they can be counted and heard. Actual governance often aims not at accurate belief, but at nonepistemic factors like achieving and maintaining institutional stability, creating the feeling of government legitimacy among citizens, or managing access to influence on policy decision-making. I examine the traditional relationship between inclusiveness and accuracy, and illustrate this connection by discussing empirical work on how group decision-making can improve accuracy. …

Modern Libertarian: Philosophy An Uncertain Lineage, Ian Ludd

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

This study examines the true nature of libertarian political philosophy, avoiding reductive arguments and attempting to present these positions in a holistic manner that cuts to the core of what distinguishes this philosophy as being unique. The study then challenges the libertarian claim that many highly praised and well-respected historic political and economic philosophers are their philosophical antecedents.

The study examines the political philosphies of Classical Liberal thinkers and well-respected economists, presenting their positions in the same holistic manner and avoiding any selective quoting that serves only to oversimply the complexity of their arguments. The challenge of the study will …

Intersections In Immanence: Spinoza, Deleuze, Negri, Abigail Lowe

Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The connection between French philosopher Gilles Deleuze and Italian political theorist Antonio Negri has drawn attention in academic publications over the last decade. For both thinkers, the philosophical concept of immanence is central to how both respectively conceptualize the world. However, in order to consider their work with regard to a metaphysical grounding, one may benefit from turning to each thinker’s engagement with Jewish Dutch philosopher Baruch Spinoza whose immanent ontology, or monism, was indeed his Ethics. This essay concentrates on drawing out an ontological distinction between the philosophical projects of Deleuze and Negri by way of a close reading …

The State Of Nature X: Why Leave? A Preface On The State Of Nature Theory, Zachary S. Stirparo

Senior Honors Theses

Great minds have addressed the issue of forming a polity, dating back to Plato. Yet, most of these great minds, such as Thomas Hobbes, John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, argue for the need to escape the state of nature into a civil form of government. However, after taking the three essential elements of man that these philosophers all comment on, self-preservation, reason, and will, a new state of nature model is created that is stronger. It is stronger because of its definition of man and the analytic inferences that flow from that definition. Therefore, the state of nature theory does …

Academic Integrity: Values, Responsibilities, And Policies In Postsecondary Education, Sara Scully '13

Honor Scholar Theses

No abstract provided.

Under The Watchful Eye: The Highly Intrusive Nature Of Facial Recognition Technology, Rocco Carzo

The Review: A Journal of Undergraduate Student Research

In lieu of an abstract, below is the first paragraph of the paper.

Facial recognition technology, or FRT, has the potential to provide numerous benefits, both to individual persons and to society as a whole. Among these benefits, convenience for everyday tasks and increased safety/security are possible. However, the likely benefits that FRT can provide are overshadowed by one major weakness of the technology: the invasion of one's privacy. FRT intrudes on the lives of all people. This can potentially lead to false accusations and/or people altering their lifestyles. Because people never know when or where they are being watched, …

An Examination Of Artificial Reproduction Versus Adoption: Taking On The Test-Tube, Marie Heberger

The Review: A Journal of Undergraduate Student Research

In lieu of an abstract, below is the first paragraph of the paper.

Human self-knowledge continues to increase monumentally, as well as the accompanying consequences. One aspect of human life that is being conquered is reproduction. While it doesn't take a genius to procreate naturally, technologies to make artificial reproduction possible are becoming more popular. Men and women who cannot conceive children naturally are getting help, and this help is leading to many ethical dilemmas and scientific questions and dilemmas. By being swept away with the abilities to make children in a lab, there are forgotten children born into unfortunate …

Leadership: Dr. Stephen Coan, Rebecca Coan

Philosophy Student Scholarship

The goal of the Leadership wiki was to collect information and inform others about the qualities of good leadership. Such exemplary leaders are ones who engage in a specific practice, maintain the standards of their practice against personal temptation or institutional pressures to be more efficient, seek excellence in the whole of human life by transforming their personal desires to pursue what is truly good, and finally confront what is wrong with culture. The wiki will explain practice, practical reasoning, and virtue in general. For the Leadership wiki I chose my uncle, Dr. Stephen Coan, as my exemplary leader.

Ethical Ambivalence In Local Television Weathercasting: A Rossian Analysis, Vernon Keith Thompson

Masters Theses

Today’s television weathercasters are being called upon increasingly to go beyond benign weather prognostications to become the “newsroom experts” for science topics. The expectation to act as both scientists and journalists can cause ethical ambivalence (EA), a sociological condition in which, faced with conflicting norms, the subject feels that he/she is being pulled psychologically in two different directions (Jansen & Von Glinow, 1985). This thesis presents a Rossian analysis of climate change in weathercasting, a topic that captures the most important ethical tensions arising from conflicting duties within the weathercaster role, specifically: a) how might the duties of the television …

Reading Dewey’S Political Philosophy Through Addams’S Political Compromises, Marilyn Fischer

Philosophy Faculty Publications

Both John Dewey and Jane Addams believed that the cure for the ills of democracy is more democracy. While their vision of democracy is rightly called radical, the processes through which they proposed to cure the ills of democracy are in large measure conservative, in the classical, Burkean sense of the term. To show this, I first explain how well their political philosophies line up, particularly their proposals for political reconstruction. I then use Addams’s experiences as a delegate to the 1912 Progressive Party Convention as a test case in real time for Dewey’s proposals for political reconstruction. The compromises …

Social Media And The Transformation Of The Humanitarian Narrative: A Comparative Analysis Of Humanitarian Discourse In Libya 2011 And Bosnia 1994, Ellen Noble

Political Science Honors Projects

Within humanitarian discourse, there is a prevailing narrative: the powerful liberal heroes are saving the helpless, weak victims. However, the beginning of the 21^st century marks the expansion of the digital revolution throughout lesser-developed states. Growing access to the Internet has enabled aid recipients to communicate with the outside world, giving them an unprecedented opportunity to reshape discourses surrounding humanitarianism. Through a comparative discourse analysis of Libyan Tweets, 1994 newspaper reports on Bosnia, and 2011 newspaper reports on Libya, this paper analyzes whether aid recipient discourse can resist the dominant humanitarian narrative and if that resistance can influence dominant …

Uniqueness And Symmetry In Bargaining Theories Of Justice, John Thrasher

Philosophy Faculty Articles and Research

For contractarians, justice is the result of a rational bargain. The goal is to show that the rules of justice are consistent with rationality. The two most important bargaining theories of justice are David Gauthier’s and those that use the Nash’s bargaining solution. I argue that both of these approaches are fatally undermined by their reliance on a symmetry condition. Symmetry is a substantive constraint, not an implication of rationality. I argue that using symmetry to generate uniqueness undermines the goal of bargaining theories of justice.

Sheltering Xenophobia, Ronald Sundstrom

Philosophy

What is xenophobia? Why is xenophobia immoral? How is xenophobia’s conceptual and moral meaning diminished? Investigations of these questions would invigorate xenophobia as a topic in public morality and discourage the public’s acquiesc- ing to xenophobia’s new prominence. This paper focuses on the third question, the diminishment of xenophobia. In the first sec- tion, I outline a general conception of xenophobia. In the second, I explain how theories of membership in liberal democratic soci- eties relegate xenophobia to a minor moral concern. And, in the third, that the conflation of xenophobia with racism disadvantages the former. How liberal Democratic nations …