Philosophy Commons^™

Relational Apophaticism And A Contemporary, Ecumenical Practice Of Christian Spiriutal Direction In The Western Church, Ian Raymond Wilson

Theses

Defining and nurturing Christian spiritual growth and maturity is challenging. This is especially so in a contemporary environment that might be considered individualistic and self-preoccupied and where the meaning of the term ‘spiritual’ has become increasingly vague. This thesis explores the concept of ‘relational apophaticism’ proposing it as a pathway of spiritual growth and the essence of spiritual maturity. A contemporary, ecumenical ministry of Christian spiritual direction in the Western Church, and perspectives on spiritual growth and maturity evident in St. Gregory of Nyssa’s mystical writings The Life of Moses and Homilies on the Song of Songs are drawn on …

Punishment And Resources, Mark D. White

Publications and Research

Philosophers of punishment have paid little attention to resource constraints, which have an undeniable impact on how various approaches to punishment work in the real world. It has fallen on economists, with their central focus on scarcity and opportunity cost, to analyze the resource demands of different philosophies of punishment. However, the utilitarian nature of mainstream economics limits the scope of economic theories of punishment to deterrence, which fits naturally into mathematical economic techniques, as opposed to retributivism, the principled nature of which resists quantification. This chapter explores the resource implications of punishment. It starts by identifying shortcomings of the …

The Life Of International Law Is Not Logic But Experience, David Lefkowitz

Philosophy Faculty Publications

Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. famously maintained that ‘the life of the law has not been logic: it has been experience.’ Holmes’ statement suggests an antecedent question: what is the life of the law? This article construes this question ontologically. What gives law life? What animates it, and in so doing warrants the claim that law contributes to the production of social order in a particular community? The answer, I contend, is that law lives, or exists, only in those societies where law rules, and law rules only when the exercise of political power is conducted under the supervision of …

Compassion Cartography: Mapping The Psychological Landscape Of Altruistic Equity And Effectiveness, Kyle Fiore Law

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Psychologists and philosophers have often championed deliberative reasoning over empathy as a better approach to overcoming parochial biases and guiding altruistic equity and effectiveness. Advocates of the effective altruism (EA) philosophy even advise philanthropists to downregulate empathic responses to maximize the impact of their donations. However, recent research reveals that extraordinary altruists (XAs), such as those who donate organs to strangers, are driven primarily by empathy. This dissertation explores whether empathy necessarily impedes altruistic equity (impartial regard for others’ welfare) and effectiveness (prioritizing impact), revealing a more nuanced reality that challenges this perspective. Across two phases of research involving three …

Volume 15, Connor Thompson, Emily Steffenhagen, Emily Robertson, Luis Fernando Dos Reis, Emily Farmer, Samuel Villa, Robert Allison, Zachary Chessor, Megan Borden, Austin Burnett, Larry W. Grant Jr., Tristan Marowski, Emma Moore, Pearl Siff

Incite: The Journal of Undergraduate Scholarship

Introduction Dr. Amorette Barber, Director, Office of Student Research

From the Editor Dr. Hannah Dudley-Shotwell

Artist’s Statement Connor Thompson

On Mentorship Dr. John Miller

The Meat of the Matter: Alien, Human, and Animal in Terry Bisson’s “They’re Made Out of Meat” by Emily Steffenhagen

“Please REBLOG!”: An Ethical Analysis of Doxxing, Internet Vigilantism and Racists Getting Fired by Emily Robertson

Journaling: Paper Has More Patience Than People by Luis Fernando Dos Reis

The Effects of Climate Change on the Archaeological World by Emily Farmer

Lowered Seat Height Does Not Impair Wingate Performance in Untrained Cyclists by Samuel Villa, Robert Allison, …

Analysing The Prevalence Of Servant Leadership Characteristics And Cultural Values In A Uae-Based Multinational And Multicultural Workforce, Richard John Atkinson

Theses

In an increasingly virtual, pandemic-affected working environment, cross-cultural and people-centric leadership approaches are needed. Scholars have explored leadership effectiveness under different conditions and influences. However, in the body of leadership literature, there is scant attention to the variance across cultures for servant leadership to manage workers effectively.

This mixed-methods study explores whether servant leadership relates to cultural characteristics across three different nationalities in a UAE-based multinational organisation, providing a more comprehensive understanding of these relationships and differences and employees' perceptions. The quantitative method is examined using context-specific knowledge and the qualitative method explores the nuances of participant responses making the …

An Ideal Science, Kyle Singh

Dartmouth College Master’s Theses

Many contemporary debates and distinctions in the philosophy of science stem from a methodological view that takes the project of metaphysics to be descriptive in nature. I argue that if one adopts an approach that looks at how we use and change our concepts instead several key implications follow. The first is that non-trivial conceptual continuity between theories is unavoidable. The second is that Identifying these continuities can help us determine how we ought to develop successive theories. My prime example for a candidate that merits this kind of continuous status are ghost fields in Quantum Field Theory (QFT). In …

Becoming A Good Creature (2020) By Sy Montgomery, Samantha Piede

Picture Books

Becoming a Good Creature outlines moral lessons Sy Montgomery has learned from interactions with animals, both domestic and wild, such as “Love Little Lives,” “Don’t Be Afraid,” and “Make Your Own Family.” Our willingness to be attentive to other creatures – not just the ones like us with “two legs,” but also “four or even eight” – opens up the possibility of finding something ethically significant in these encounters. She tells us that “all have taught me something important about how to be a good creature in the world.”

Feathers Together (2022) By Caron Levis, Maughn Rollins Gregory

Picture Books

Feathers Together tells the story of a mated couple of white storks who live and migrate together between Croatia and South Africa, until the female is wounded and can no longer fly. An elderly man builds a rooftop nest for them with a walkway for the injured female and cares for her when the male migrates. On one level, this story is standard animal fable that conveys truths and moral values about the human condition. But the book’s afterword, explaining that this is a true story, raises philosophical questions about the emotional lives of wild animals, the ethics of hunting …

Ugly Place (2022) By Laura Deal, Samantha Piede

Picture Books

Many of us can recall moments when we were stopped dead in our tracks and experienced selfless awe – sometimes in nature, sometimes in art, sometimes in the beauty of another person. The inarticulacy of these moments may present an interesting philosophical struggle for both children and adults trying to capture these phenomena. Still, the recognition that these moments are possible – and ethically significant – presents opportunities for rich discussion. The Ugly Place highlights the importance of moments in which we are reminded that we are not, in fact, the center of the universe – for it is more …

Southwest Sunrise (2020) By Nikki Grimes, Maughn Rollins Gregory

Picture Books

A genuine philosophical inquiry into the natural world has to begin with a genuine encounter with that world. In this arresting picture book by Nikki Grimes, a young boy named Jayden from New York City is forced into such an encounter when his parents relocate to the desert of New Mexico. This review focuses on suggestions the book offers for experiencing a natural landscape deeply, like slowing down, using all the senses, trying ‘beginner’s mind,’ making art, and using a field guide.

V.1 Winter 2024, Center For Arts & Language, Students Of Risd, Risd Archives

All Student Newspapers

v.1 is a publishing platform for the ongoing work, ideas, discussions, debates, and aspirations of students at the Rhode Island School of Design. The Winter 2024 issue is formatted as a calendar featuring images of current RISD students recreating scenes from historical photos taken at RISD.

Reflections On Williamson On Logic And Validity, Graham Priest

Publications and Research

Over many years now, Tim Williamson and I have engaged in debates over fundamental issues concerning logic. On some things, we have disagreed strongly; on others, we have agreed.

Exploring The Experiences Of Refugee Youth In Public Schools: An Ethical Phenomenological Inquiry, Hilary T. Stim

Theses and Dissertations

The study outlined in this dissertation focuses on the intersection between refugee youth between the ages of 13-18 and the United States public school, specifically the manner in which refugee youth experience institutionalized education. It utilizes ethical phenomenology as a means to amplify the voices of refugee students and to centralize the students' experiences, thoughts, and ideas related to education The study was framed by one research question that is addressed to the participants: “What is it like being a student in a public school?” Seven students took part in the study. Collaborative dialogues took place with the participants across …

Sense Make Before Book, Bradley Sinanan

Theses and Dissertations

“Sense Make Before Book” is an Indo-Caribbean turn of phrase which refers to common sense being more important than book smarts. My sister sent me a post the other day on Instagram of an Trinidadian woman using this phrase, saying it was one of Indo-Caribbean origin. I was interested and asked my mom about it. My mom says that when she was younger my grandpa said it often around their house in Princes Town, Trinidad and Tobago. This adage feels charged thinking about the history of indenture and its effects on the Indo-Caribbean diaspora.

The written word of archival history …

Exposing The Camera: The Pedagogical Possibilities Of Critical Camera-Based Arts Curriculum, Oscar Keyes

Theses and Dissertations

Cameras are a ubiquitous part of our everyday lives, especially in schools, found in students’ smartphones and state-of-the-art surveillance systems. This research project emerged from an iterative redesign process of a Photography for Art Education course, structured around the camera’s dual nature as a tool for creative expression and social control. While cameras have long been used to address social issues through documentary techniques; this critical eye can be turned onto the apparatus itself. This study drew heavily upon the historical work of Allan Sekula (1986), who observed how easier access to cameras resulted in both democratization (for the People) …

After The Collapse: Herman Melville’S And Friedrich Nietzsche's Existentialism, Ryan L. Smith

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation compares the works of Herman Melville and Friedrich Nietzsche. Melville and Nietzsche articulate similar arguments about the collapse of Christian metaphysics as a traditional philosophical system. Both authors recognize the moral, intellectual, and spiritual void this collapse revealed, and they craft similar texts that illustrate humanity’s emotional turmoil facing the abyss. In addition to these scenes of upheaval, Melville and Nietzsche promote the importance of the individual’s will to overcome the possible fall into psychological nihilism resulting from recognizing the emptiness of traditional religion’s teachings. Melville’s and Nietzsche’s striving against complete despair in the wake of this collapse …

World Spirit And The Apotheosis Of Artificial Superintelligence: A Speculative Design Proposal, Ian Gonsher

Scholarly Research

This essay puts forth a speculative design proposal for a device with affordances for talking to, and receiving responses from, God. We begin with an analysis and critique of the concept of God, framing this concept within an understanding of Hegelian Spirit (Geist) and technological evolution. In this context, Spirit, or World Spirit (Weltgeist), can be characterized as the aggregate consciousness of all people - as human consciousness itself: In the simplest terms, this immanent framing of the “mind of God” is culturally and socially constituted as the communication that people engage in with each other, in all the diverse …

"Fulfil In Beauty My Imperfect Prayer": Mythologization In Santayana's Aesthetics Of Religion, India M. Johnson-Mccauley

Honors College Theses

This thesis addresses George Santayana’s theories of art and religion in the context of turn-of-the-century religious thought and introduces the concept of the mythologization of religion. Santayana, the Spanish-American turn-of-the-century philosopher, poet, and novelist, took a naturalist, pragmatist, and religious non-realist approach to understanding the world that prompted works regarding the nature of art, The Sense of Beauty (1896), and the nature of religion, Interpretations of Poetry and Religion (1900). Within these two works, Santayana proposes a theory of aesthetics and a theory of religion that seem to function in tandem with each other. According to his theories, art, particularly …

A More Modern Prometheus: What Frankenstein Tells Us About Genetic Modification, Allison M. Ambrose

Honors College Theses

Mary Shelley’s famous novel, Frankenstein, is often hailed as the first true science fiction novel. In my thesis, I use the premonitive lens towards creation of life provided in Frankenstein to evaluate the morality of genetic modification of children. CRISPR-Cas9 is quickly emerging as the most important development in reprogenetic technology of our time, and many argue for its merits as a method of designing our children. I argue against this trend of “designer babies,” specifically raising questions about the soundness of modifying non-disease traits in future children and encouraging a more cautious attitude in both the scientific and philosophical …