Philosophy Commons^™

Review Of The Movement For Black Lives: Philosophical Perspectives, Daniel Fryer

Reviews

Philosophy gets a bad rap when it comes to its engagement with the world’s most pressing social problems. Recall that famous epigrammatic final note from Karl Marx’s Theses on Feuerbach: “The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways; the point, however, is to change it.” It may be tempting to take this line as a call to substitute studious reasoning for an “act first, think later” strategy. But that doesn’t seem to be Marx’s intention. Rather than being a call for “blind activism” that rejects “rational dialogue, discourse, or discussion,” Marx is better read as challenging philosophy to …

(2024) Blackout (2011), Blizzard (2014), And Hurricane (2021) By John Roccoby John Roccoby John Rocco, Peter Shea

Collected Papers of Peter Shea

In Blackout a hot urban night takes an interesting turn when the power goes out and an urban family -- each busy with something that requires electricity -- discover new things about themselves and their community. Blizzard is based on the author’s childhood experience seeing his neighborhood transformed into an alien landscape by a superstorm and finding ways to get around in it when adults cannot. The book invites readers to re-see “normal” lives and to reconsider what is possible. Hurricane pictures the devastation of today's powerful storms. The hurricane wrecks things and drives people from their homes. The boy …

Wagner (2024) How Did Philosophy Get Back In The Twentieth-Century Pre–High School Classroom?, Paul A. Wagner

IAPC Written Histories

Matthew Lipman befriended me at an APA meeting in 1974. Through more than twenty years of phone calls, I got to chat with, consult with, and learn from Matt the details and challenges of developing philosophy for children. He acknowledged that I convinced him that the program needed “branding,” lest anyone present similar-sounding programs—some of which might be good and others not. He got a snippet of a video of my teaching troubled sixth-graders with his book Harry Stottlemeier’s Discovery on the Today Show with Bryant Gumbel. That did much to shape my future, as did branding for sustaining Matt’s …

(2024) The Big Fur Secret (1944) By Margaret Wise Brown, Peter Shea

Collected Papers of Peter Shea

This little-known book by Margaret Wise Brown follows a boy as he watches animals in a zoo, first just observing, then having fantasies about them: of putting squirrels in his pocket, lying down beside the panda, hugging the polar bear. But he always interrupts his fantasy: the squirrel wouldn’t like to be put in a pocket; he knows better than to lie down next to a panda or to hug a polar bear. The Big Fur Secret is importantly about animals, and about zoos, and about the ways people integrate defenseless beings into their projects and plots. But it is …

(2024) Simone (2024) By Viet Thanh Nguyen, Peter Shea

Collected Papers of Peter Shea

When Simone is awakened by her mom as a wildfire threatens their home, it is the beginning of a life-changing journey. Coziness and comfort disappear in an instant, without much warning, as wildfires threaten peaceful neighborhoods and families seek makeshift shelters, with little hope of going back to normal. Joined by other children sheltering in the gym, Simone, a budding artist, encourages everyone to draw as a way to process their situation.

(2024) I'M Trying To Love Spiders (2019) By Bethany Barton, Peter Shea

Collected Papers of Peter Shea

This is one member of a series of books about trying to love things. In funny and engaging prose, it explores this important, usually neglected, action several ways, not all of which are successful for the narrator, whose 'natural' response to spiders is squashing. It opens lots of questions about getting beyond our first impulses.

Māyā And Mokṣa: Krishnachandra Bhattacharyya's Spiritual Philosophy As A Vedāntin Critique Of Kant, Nalini Bhushan, Jay L. Garfield

Philosophy: Faculty Publications

The Subject As Freedom (1930) is correctly regarded as Krishnachandra Bhattacharyya’s (henceforth KCB) magnum opus. This text relies on a set of ideas and evolves from a set of concerns that KCB develops more explicitly in two essays written both before and after that text, which might be regarded as its intellectual bookends. Those ideas are important and fascinating in their own right. They also illuminate KCB’s engagement with Kant and with the Vedānta tradition as well as his understanding of freedom itself, including its soteriological dimension. These two essays are “Saṅkara’s Doctrine of Māyā” (1930) and “The Advaita and …

The Less Visible Side Of Transhumanism Is Dangerously Un-Radical, Susan B. Levin

Philosophy: Faculty Publications

According to transhumanists who urge the radical enhancement of human beings, humanity’s top priority should be engineering “posthumans,” whose features would include agelessness. Increasingly, transhumanism is critiqued on foundational grounds rather than based largely on anticipated results of its implementation, such as rising social inequality. This expansion is crucial but insufficient because, despite its radical aim, transhumanism reflects beliefs and attitudes that are evident in the broader culture. With a focus on the yearning to eliminate aging, I consider four of these: a disproportionate reliance on science and technology to address major human challenges; the conceptualization of human beings in …

Social Atomism And Its Problems – Metaphysical And Political, Graham Priest

Publications and Research

Social atomism is a view that informs much contemporary social thinking. Drawing on arguments from Marxism and Buddhism, I will argue that it is false, and explore the consequences of this for a number of issues, notably those related to the ideology of capitalism.

Identifying Youth Appeals In Alcohol Alternative Social Media Content Through Framing, Melina Oneal

West Chester University Master’s Theses

Proposed regulations for alcohol advertising prevent beverage companies from targeting people under the legal drinking age. However, similar regulations for alcohol alternative beverages are less explored, which could allow alcohol alternative products to create awareness for alcoholic beverages among youth. Alcohol alternatives beverages, including no-alcohol and low-alcohol products, are increasing in popularity and can function as compliments to alcoholic products to decrease the total alcohol volume consumed or as substitutes for alcoholic products. Framing theory can be operationalized through the Content Appealing to Youth Index, an index of content elements found in research literature to be appealing to youth, to …

The Evolution Of Stoicism: An Overview Of Prominent Features And Discussions In Modern Stoicism, Christopher Sanchez

West Chester University Master’s Theses

This thesis project is an overview of the philosophy of Stoicism and its history, including research on prominent features and discussions in contemporary Stoicism. Stoicism today, known as “Modern Stoicism” or “contemporary Stoicism,” has undergone a recent revival in interest, leading to a new wave of academic and popular study. One purpose of this project is to investigate why and how this resurgence of Stoicism took place; I argue that one primary cause of the resurgence and manifestation of Modern Stoicism is a characteristic of accessibility in Stoic philosophy. This accessibility allows for an exponential growth of interaction with Stoic …

Discordium: Existentialism And The Metapsychology Of Reality, Schyler Richards

West Chester University Master’s Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to introduce a phenomenological theory wherein the problem of disharmony, or what can also be viewed as the problem of reality, can be understood and, insofar as it is possible, resolved. I will attempt here to develop my theory of the phenomenon in terms of its relation to nine other concepts: reality, appearance, experience, the idea, essence, nature, existence, the will, and the psyche or “mind.” In the process, I will provide a general explanation of how my theory of the phenomenon is informed …

The Standing Of Anger: Insights From The Debate(S) On Constructed Emotion, Andrew Holzer

CMC Senior Theses

In her book, Anger and Forgiveness: Resentment, Generosity, Justice, Martha Nussbaum argues that anger is inherently flawed because it fundamentally contains the desire for payback. To support her argument, she posits specific metaphysical claims about the nature of emotions like anger. This thesis is an extended critique of her metaphysical foundation from the perspective of empirical research in the neuroscience of emotion. The first reason to dispute this picture is descriptive; this view of anger is based on an outdated version of cognitive appraisal theory, which sees emotions as triggered directly by static moments of cognitive appraisal. The second …

Integrating Contradictory Perspectives In Latin American Philosophy: A Multialism Approach, Maikel Yelandi Leyva Vázquez, Florentin Smarandache

Branch Mathematics and Statistics Faculty and Staff Publications

This study explores the integration of indigenous philosophies and postcolonial modernist theories within the framework of MultiAlism, highlighting the potential for dialogue and synthesis between these diverse philosophical traditions in Latin America. MultiAlism, a concept developed by Florentin Smarandache, is utilized to bridge the gaps and contradictions between these systems by focusing on areas of neutrality such as cultural diversity and power structure critiques. The research emphasizes the importance of incorporating both ancestral wisdom and modern critiques to foster a deeper understanding and appreciation of Latin America’s rich philosophical heritage. This integrative approach offers practical insights for developing inclusive policies …

Shame And History, Bennett B. Gilbert

University Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

If history—our past, the sum of our thoughts, passions, and deeds—is so pervasive, influential, and meaningful, why then do we lose sight of it? Why do we not gain good values from it? And if it is part of our existential core, why then do we so often fail to ravel it into our deliberations?

I propose that very often and to a great degree it is shame that separates us from history. Shame: garrulous, compulsive, intense, omnivorous. A shamed person pushes away the experiences that shame her, thus cutting off the past.

Feminist Phenomenology And First-Person Narrative: Understanding Gender And Social Conflict In Anna Burns’ Milkman, Sushree Routray, Rashmi Gaur Professor

Comparative Woman

In her magnum opus Milkman (2018), Anna Burns employs a subversive and artfully crafted first-person narrative, deftly exposing the arduous and tumultuous struggles encountered by individuals who dare to defy the confines of traditional gender roles. Through a relentless and unflinching narrative, the novel fearlessly confronts the harrowing manifestations of psychological torment, the insidious spectre of relentless stalking, and the manipulative machinations of gaslighting, all the while fervently interrogating the notion of a fixed and immutable gender identity. In a relentless odyssey toward self-realization, the protagonist's journey unfurls against a backdrop of traumatic events and the unyielding pressures imposed by …

Women, Animals, Food: Planetary Perspectives On The Non-(Hu)Man, Samu/Elle Striewski

Comparative Woman

The paper comparatively reads Mahasweta Devi’s Pterodactyl, Pirtha, and Puran Sahay (1995) and Margaret Atwood’s The Year of the Flood (2009) to trace the ways in which both novels show the complex intertwinement of the climate crisis with gender, class, race, subalternity, anthropocentrism, and veganism. Bringing together Gayatri C. Spivak’s notion of “planetarity” with ecofeminist philosophy and literary criticism, the article proposes a planetary ecogender reading of the two texts and their representation of the non-man, non-human, and non-subject. Building up further on Jacques Derrida’s critique of carno-phallogocentrism, the pedagogy of a relational ethics of “nurturing” is hence presented …

Recovering And Reclaiming Linguistic And Cultural Identities: Revealing Skoo Haints Through The Black Storytelling Tradition, Lisa Marie Westbrooks

Wayne State University Dissertations

This qualitative study uses the first person, “I” to explore the Black Storytelling Tradition as method and methodology. As a Black scholar I centered my grandfather’s empirical knowledge of haints (a metaphor for demoralizing, oppressive, colonizing, and assimilating societal and educational practices upheld by the dominant class) and my empirical teacher knowledge as an American Descendant of Slavery (ADOS) as the site of inquiry. In utilizing the Black Storytelling Tradition, I share interconnected stories, poems, dreams, “memorys”, “rememorys”, stream of consciousness, and sketches that demonstrate how haints shaped the navigation of my heritage language (African American Language, AAL) and my …

Foucault, Michel. Nietzsche: Cours, Conferences Et Travaux. Edited By Bernard E. Harcourt, Paris: Seuil/Gallimard, 2024 (In French) [Book Review], Dana Neacsu

Law Faculty Publications

Today, the defining event of our Western civilization is generative artificial intelligence (GenAI). Philosophically, it might be grounded in Walter Benjamin’s The Metaphysics of Youth where Benjamin’s return to an age of eternal youth, which, due to its lack of memory,⁴ aligns with the ethos of GenAI. Memory seems enough for those who remember the subject matter, the color, or the sound of what they seek in GenAI chats. It becomes adequate as we grow accustomed to summaries of “unread” texts, such as those by Benjamin.⁵ Unlike the AI era of Google searches, which provided an unlimited sea …

How Can Law Enforcement Use Technology To Protect Citizens Justly?, Zach Kantenwein

Emerging Writers

This paper explores the danger of emerging artificial intelligence technology perpetuating racial injustice in law enforcement and how police can ensure the protection of citizens amid this information age. We dissect a real-world case in which AI predictive policing technology resulted in alarming racial discrimination against American minority citizens. We discuss the possible explanations for this result and explore the limitations of artificial intelligence technology. Furthermore, we brainstorm methods for ensuring American citizens' just and constitutional protection as new technology is developed and tested. We propose implementing transparency laws that make the details about any policing technology and surveillance available …