Philosophy Commons^™

The Prince -- Brief Synopsis -- Powerpoint, Zach Davidson

Open Educational Resources

This is a very brief PowerPoint covering some key ideas in Machiavelli's THE PRINCE.

How Do Children Deal With Shifted Indexicals?, Jill De Villiers, Ann Nordmeyer, Tom Roeper

Philosophy: Faculty Publications

The topic of indexical shift has, like so many other domains in linguistics, blossomed into a domain showing extensive and unusual variation across languages. One initial goal in this project was to bring an acquisition perspective to the evolving theories early in the process. Initially we began with views derived from Hollebrandse (2000) where the idea was advanced that there is an PoV operator that jointly controls several types of indexicals such as personal pronouns, demonstratives, time and space adverbials.

The Essences Of Objects: Explicating A Theory Of Essence In Object-Oriented Ontology, Stanford Howdyshell

Philosophy Faculty Publications

In this paper, I will discuss the need for a theory of essences within Object-Oriented Ontology (OOO) and then formulate one. I will do so by drawing on Graham Harman’s work on OOO and Martin Heidegger’s thought on the essence of being, presented in his Introduction to Metaphysics. Harman touches on essences, describing them as the tension between a withdrawn object and its withdrawn qualities, but fails to distinguish between essential and inessential qualities within this framework. To fill in the gaps, I will turn to Heidegger’s explication of phusis in order to show that an essential aspect of …

Aesthetics And Poetics Of The Novel In Viet Thanh Nguyen's The Sympathizer And Adam Johnson's The Orphan Master's Son, Frederick Feldman

West Chester University Master’s Theses

Viet Thanh Nguyen’s The Sympathizer and Adam Johnson’s The Orphan Master’s Son are both Pulitzer Prize-winning novels from the first half of the 2010s. Nguyen’s novel of a Vietnamese spy in America during the Vietnam war has been critically acclaimed and has attracted significant scholarly attention, a special issue of PMLA being dedicated to the work. Johnson’s novel about North Korea, while also a recipient of praise, has been comparatively less noticed and attracted little scholarly work. This thesis seeks to contribute to the scholarly literature on American literature and to literature on the poetics of the novel by reading …

In Defense Of Non-Anthropocentrism—A Relational Account Of Value And How It Can Be Integrated, Ian I. Weckler

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Climate change has been show to be caused by humans. Human-centric behaviors have affected the world to the extent that many believe we have entered a new geologic epoch. This epoch— the Anthropocene—has prompted exploration into the ethical relationship between humans and the rest of the world. We know that a purely anthropocentric ethical system of values has lead ecological imbalance and environmental destruction, and that a non-anthropocentric (or humancentric) ethical system of value would be better suited for maintaining and regaining a habitable environment. However, past conceptions of non anthropocentrism have relied on abstract conceptions of value that fail …

Complicity And Climate Change, Shalomita Kristanugraha

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

As individuals, how should we understand our personal complicity in climate change related harms? In this thesis, I argue that the predominant way we think of complicity within the Western moral paradigm—that is, as a distribution problem—is inadequate in helping us understand the nature of our complicity in climate change related harms. This inadequacy, in turn, psychologically hampers individual citizens residing in high-emitting nations of the Global North from effective and sustainable social and political engagement with climate change. To address the inadequacy and obstructions that result from it, I follow the discussion between Christopher Kutz and Iris Marion Young …

A Search For Community, Alexander Moore

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

I attempt to understand what is meant by community by grounding the analysis in Raymond Williams’ historical definition. From this, I work the criteria of community as described by Williams so to determine their precise meaning and primacy. I attempt to show why community must be small in size while arguing that humans are in a community with nonhumans. Building upon this move, I take up an argument for the role of place in community formation. This preceding inquiry is meant to prime an analysis of both virtue ethics and literature, specifically an application of Martha Nussbaum’s Central Capabilities to …

Collaborative Conservation: A Philosophical Analysis Of The Efficacy And Commensurability Of Tek And Western Science, Anne M. Belldina

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This thesis seeks to explore the similarities and differences between traditional ecological knowledge and Western science as a way to address long-held misconceptions about the efficacy of traditional ecological knowledge, or TEK. The motivation for this project arose from a deep desire to investigate the historical injustices toward Indigenous peoples in the name of conservation. The goal of this analysis is to illustrate that effective collaboration between Indigenous knowledge holders and Western scientists is not only possible, but desirable. I outline three major barriers from which I draw out three minimum criteria which much be met if collaborative conservation efforts …

"They Shall Be A Kosmos:" Alexander Von Humboldt And The Ecopoetics Of Walt Whitman, Benjamin Theyerl

Honors Theses

Places the naturalist Alexander Von Humboldt's proto-ecological ideas in conversation with Walt Whitman's poetry to show how the poet developed an ecopoetics in conversation with the natural sciences of his time, with specific attention to Von Humboldt's theory of the "kosmos" - by which Whitman's poetic persona self-identified. These recognitions are combined with how Whitman's idealized version of the American poet as a “kosmos” creates a political ecology in Whitman’s work, placing his ecopoetics into environmental discourses that resonate from their origin in the nineteenth century to our present ecological moment today.

On Some Moral Implications Of Linguistic Narrativism Theory, Natan Elgabsi, Bennett Gilbert

University Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

In this essay we consider the moral claims of one branch of non-realist theory known as linguistic narrativism theory. By highlighting the moral implications of linguistic narrativism theory, we argue that the “moral vision” expressed by this theory can entail, at worst, undesirable moral agnosticism if not related to a transcendental and supra-personal normativity in our moral life. With its appeal to volitionism and intuitionism, the ethical sensitivity of this theory enters into difficulties brought about by several internal tensions as to what morality and moral judgements involve. We contend that the proponents of linguistic narrativism theory must strongly recognize …

V.1 Winter 2020, 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 2020 issue contains articles on cultural touchstones, family memories, reality tv in paradise, and cultural artifacts in Italy, along with student creative writing.

Profile Evidence, Fairness, And The Risks Of Mistaken Convictions, Collin O'Neil, Marcello Di Bello

Publications and Research

Many oppose the use of profile evidence against defendants at trial, even when the statistical correlations are reliable and the jury is free from prejudice. The literature has struggled to justify this opposition. We argue that admitting profile evidence is objectionable because it violates what we call “equal protection”—that is, a right of innocent defendants not to be exposed to higher ex ante risks of mistaken conviction compared to other innocent defendants facing similar charges. We also show why admitting other forms of evidence, such as eyewitness, trace, and motive evidence, does not violate equal protection.

Paternalism And Autonomy In Transgender Healthcare, Charles Finley

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

Transgender healthcare has made considerable advancements in the quality of patient care and gender confirmation surgical technique throughout the past several decades, which has led to a significant increase in patient satisfaction and overall physical and mental wellbeing. However, there are still several issues that remain to be addressed, many associated with excess paternalism by physicians and violations of patient autonomy. These problems can be mitigated by improving LGBTQ+ and transgender-related medical education for physicians, updating healthcare insurance coverage requirements to be more in line with current care standards, developing appropriate guidelines for lifelong primary care and geriatric care, and …

How To Reconcile A Unified Account Of Explanation With Explanatory Diversity, Collin Rice, Yasha Rohwer

Philosophy Faculty Research and Scholarship

The concept of explanation is central to scientific practice. However, scientists explain phenomena in very different ways. That is, there are many different kinds of explanation; e.g. causal, mechanistic, statistical, or equilibrium explanations. In light of the myriad kinds of explanation identified in the literature, most philosophers of science have adopted some kind of explanatory pluralism. While pluralism about explanation seems plausible, it faces a dilemma (Pincock in: Reutlinger A, Saatsi J (eds) Explanation beyond causation, Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 39–56, 2018). Either there is nothing that unifies all instances of scientific explanation that makes them count as explanations, …

Reevaluating Politicized Identity & Notions Of An American Political Community In The Legal & Political Process, Marvin L. Astrada Jd, Phd

Indiana Journal of Law and Social Equality

No abstract provided.

Habermas And Argumentation In The Philippine Context, Maria Lovelyn Corpuz Paclibar

Philosophy Department Faculty Publications

The article critically analyzes the perception on the incompatibility of the Filipino self-understanding as kapwa with Habermas's notion of argumentative discourse that champions autonomy and individuality. It argues that this apparent incompatibility is more due to the absence of an imagination of non-Western forms of rationalization processes and reflexivity, than to the commonly held claim of the incommensurability of lifeworlds. The key to this imagination is to locate potential rationalization processes from within modes of communication that reinforce kapwa solidarity. In the end, the article shows that kwentuhan, which is the mode of communication that is integrated with kapwa solidarity, …

Aletheia: The Orphic Ouroboros, Glen Mcknight

Theses : Honours

This thesis shows how The Orphic Hymns function as a katábasis, a descent to the underworld, representing a process of becoming and psychological rebirth. I begin with the Greek concept of sparagmόs, a dismemberment or deconstruction, as a necessary precursor in that it emphasises at once both primordial unity and yet also the incipient tensions within the Orphic initiates on this path to katabasis. The argument herein extends beyond literary explication to consider how the Orphics sought to enact this process in Greek society itself.

The thesis then establishes the connections between the Hymns and the thinking of …

An Extension Of Social Justice : A Rawlsian Application Of Justice For The Intellectually Disabled, Jennifer Christina Tillman

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

In this dissertation, I add to the literature in the following way. First, I review the existing criticisms of Rawls’s theory of justice, which claims that he is unable to address the question of justice for individuals with intellectual disabilities. Second, I explain how Rawls’s idea of reciprocity can accommodate some forms of disability but not the more severe cases. Third, I develop an account of a right to political identity that can provide an extension of Rawls’s theory to address the more severe cases of disability. From these steps, I will suggest that these changes will allow us to …

Against Bloom: A Defense Of Smithian Fellow-Feeling, Damian Thomas Masterson

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

In his 2016 book, Against Empathy: The Case for Rational Compassion, Paul Bloom argues that “if we want to be good caring people, if we want to make the world a better place, then we are better off without empathy.” I’ve specifically chosen this formulation of Bloom’s position because it gets at the issue I will most directly challenge him on - that we would, or even could, be better off without empathy. The position I will defend is that our empathy plays an indispensable role in the development of our moral conscience, and an ongoing role in the cultivation …

The Obligation Of Promises, Toan Tran

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

In my dissertation I discuss the historical and philosophical significance of the commonplace moral phenomenon of promising and I lay out the essential features of a promise. I claim that promises have five features; they produce a moral obligation, they are directed toward another individual who holds the right to demand action and is the one wronged in case of failure, they are successful only if there is uptake, and finally that they are self-imposed. My discussion of the puzzle created by these features starts in David Hume and extends into David Owens. The need to resolve this puzzle in …