Philosophy Commons^™

“The Poetics Of Graphite Stone Paintings” And The Quality Of Modern Scholars' Paintings: Wu Changshuo And Pan Tianshou As Examples, Zhongyi Xia

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

To identify why only “the poetics of graphite stone paintings” in Wu Changshuo and Pan Tianshou's works deserve to be referred to as representative of “modern scholars' paintings,” several issues need clarification. First, what is the boundary between “paintings by scholars” and “paintings by literati?” Second, how does one identify Wu's “stubborn stone” not only as a kind of “scholarly painting,” but also as “modern?” Third, how does one recognize Pan's “massive rock” as a “scholarly painting” worthy of being called “modern?” The response is as follows. Firstly, “scholarly painting” is rooted in tranquility and introverted in the self-sanctity of …

On “Posthumanism”, Martin Crowley

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

The label “posthumanism” identifies neither a doctrine, nor an intellectual or analytical approach with a defining set of protocols. Rather, we may take “posthumanism” as a term loosely applied to a range of contributions and approaches, on the basis of a generally under-specified collection of sympathies and commitments. Approximately stated, these sympathies and commitments would entail the claim that — with due allowance for historical variation — the category of “the human” has long played a key role at the centre of Western thought; that this role has included serving to justify the promotion of human beings above other forms …

The Invention Of Tradition: From Ancient “Articles” To May Fourth “Literature” — A Concurrent Explanation Of The Connotation Of “Chinese Literary Theory”, Xu Xu

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

This article focuses on the relationship between literary views and article studies of May Fourth scholars from the perspective of hermeneutics, in order to re-explain the connotation of “Chinese literary theory” and consider the construction of a Chinese literary theory discourse system. Rooted in interpretations of the interplay between literature and dao, May Fourth scholars reshaped the traditional framework, shifting the focus to the relationship between literature and humanity, through the integration of ideals and dao. Their commitment to broad, applied literary views led to a progression from a simple division between cultural traits and literary function to a more …

The Consciousness Inherent In Chasing Your Tail, Sergio M. Pellis Dr.

Animal Sentience

Who is conscious and how do we know? Complexity in behavior and cognition is certainly a clue that cannot be ignored in identifying this trait, and as Mather’s target article shows, it is hard not to imagine consciousness arising in cephalopods. But how complex is complex? An alternative may be gleaned from the fact that all living things rely on negative feedback to navigate their worlds, and this requires all sentient beings knowing what is to be stabilized in reflection to themselves. If so, consciousness is a universal trait.

Accounting For Tastes: On The Epistemic Significance Of Affective Character, Sofia Berinstein

Philosophy Faculty Works

This article explores the epistemology of a particular dimension of perceptual experience: its affective character. This includes the ‘badness’ of, for example, the smell of garbage or the pain of a stubbed toe and the ‘goodness’ of the taste of chocolate, touch of sunshine, or sound of a musical chord. I take the view that affective character is epistemically significant, disclosing objective axiological relations in which elements (garbage, bodily harm, sunshine, chocolate, and consonance) stand to perceivers. To this end I analyze two representationalist approaches to valenced perception—evaluativism and attitudinalism—which serve as exemplars of, respectively, cognitivism and non-cognitivism. Cognitivists …

Teaching Cybersecurity And Ai Across Borders: From Foundations To Ethics, George Antoniou

Faculty and Staff Publications & Presentations

This presentation examines how interdisciplinary course design in AI and cybersecurity can expand undergraduate research while directly supporting career readiness. At Lynn University, the Foundations of Cybersecurity & AI course was updated to serve as the entry point for both Cybersecurity and Data Analytics majors. The course integrates case studies, digital forensics and cloud security labs, and applied exercises with AI-enabled defense-in-depth strategies. Students build core technical competencies while engaging in course-based research that mirrors industry practice. As part of a Fulbright grant, a complementary course, AI & Ethics, was developed for the University of Tirana. Proposed as a mandatory …

From Statistical Dependence To The Space Of Possible Superdeterministic Theories, Mordecai Waegell, Kelvin J. Mcqueen

Philosophy Faculty Articles and Research

Bell’s theorem demonstrates that any physical theory that is consistent with the predictions of quantum mechanics, and which satisfies some apparently innocuous assumptions, must violate the principle of local causality. It may therefore be possible to maintain local causality by rejecting one of these other assumptions instead. One possibility that has recently received significant attention involves rejecting the principle of statistical independence (SI). In this paper, we consider the frequency interpretation of SI, which states that ρ(λ) ≈ ρ(λ|Z), where ρ(λ) is the relative frequency of an element of an ensemble being in the state λ, and Z is a …

Cobbler's Corner: Socratic Conversations With Children, Sophia A. Stone

Faculty and Staff Publications & Presentations

Dr. Sophia Stone, associate professor in the College of Arts and Sciences, presented her talk, "Cobbler's Corner: Socratic Conversations with Children," at the XV Prague Plato Symposium in Prague, Czech Republic. It marked the first time international Plato scholars publicly engaged in the inclusive discussion method of gentle Socratic inquiry, as developed by p4cHI—philosophy for children, Hawai'i style.

Following her presentation on Socrates as a public philosopher, seven scholars participated in a live p4cHI demonstration exploring whether new Forms have emerged since Plato's time. Participants praised the method for fostering open, respectful dialogue and contemporary philosophical reflection.

Dr. Stone …

Reimagining Democratic Education With Care Ethics—Toward Care-Full Democratic Education, Selja Koponen, Tuija Kasa

Democracy & Education

In an era of democratic crises, democratic education in basic education is considered crucial. However, recent studies show that young people perceive their influence both at school and in society as limited, which decreases their civic activity later in life. The aim of this theoretical study is to reevaluate democratic education through feminist care ethics, which is an under-researched topic in the current theoretical debate. In our article, we outline a novel approach to caring democratic education (i.e., care-full democratic education), which presents a complementary stance toward current democratic education, which relies heavily on the theories of liberal democracy and …

Ethical Dilemmas Surrounding Community Water Fluoridation, Roopwant Kaur, Herminio Perez, Mark Moss

Journal of the American College of Dentists

Since the 1950s, community water fluoridation (CWF) has stood as a cornerstone of dental public health. However, a growing amount of public scrutiny necessitates reflection on the ethical basis for coming to a firm position on the topic. Aside from CWF, fluoride in the form of ingestible supplements has recently been identified as a concern by the US Food and Drug Administration. Indeed, it is challenging to wade through the facts, opinions, misinformation, and policy shifts. This article examines the ethical dilemmas that surround CWF through the lens of the American Dental Association (ADA) Principles of Ethics and Code of …

J Am Coll Dent 2025 92 1

Journal of the American College of Dentists

The Journal of the American College of Dentists (JACD) publishes scholarly articles, editorials, essays, and reflections addressing the ethical, professional, and social dimensions of dentistry. The Journal serves as a forum for advancing ethics, professionalism, leadership, and excellence within the dental community. By fostering dialogue across disciplines and perspectives, JACD provides readers with insights that encourage ethical, professional practice, lifelong learning, and service to the public, reinforcing dentistry’s commitment to advancing oral healthcare and the common good.

Utilitarianism, Dune, And The Moral Problem Of Genetic Engineering, Mathias W. Alling

Quest

Moral Philosophy Essay

Research in progress for PHIL 2306: Introduction to Ethics (Honors)

Faculty Mentor: John Macready, PhD

This article began as a research essay during the Fall 2024 semester for my honors- level course, Introduction to Ethics (PHIL 2306). In this course, students are asked to research a moral issue and offer an argument for whether the issue is morally required, morally permitted, morally permissible, or morally impermissible. Mathias Alling’s philosophically ambitious article “Utilitarianism, Dune, and the Moral Problem of Genetic Engineering” examines the moral permissibility of genetic engineering through the fictional universe of Frank Herbert’s novel Dune …

Timbre — A Transcendent Paradox?, Eugenia Siegel Conte

Yale Journal of Music & Religion

Timbre, as ethnomusicologist Cornelia Fales writes, is “paradoxical” precisely because it is one of the most exacting processes in which the human body may sense and comprehend the source of a sound even as that comprehended sound is impossible to describe outside of metaphor or comparison. As one of the more recognizable qualities of sound but the most difficult to describe, timbre allows us to consider physical/emotional (affective) experiences of sound as a key aspect of faith and meditation. In this article, I examine physical-affective intersections of faith and meditation that often are key to praxes of worship, and show …

Lothlórien: Gendered Spaces, Cartographic Nominalism, And Galadriel’S Queerness, Bo Kampmann Walther

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Tolkien’s portrayal of Lothlórien is layered with complexities that reflect broader tensions between the feminine landscape and the masculine impulse to understand, name, and rationalize the world. This article examines the ‘fight’ over Lothlórien and its entitlement to truth from both female and male perspectives. It combines a close reading of passages from The Fellowship of the Ring with theories of name-giving, power, and mapping. The article concludes by evaluating these insights through the lens of Kristeva’s concept of the “abject” and discussing what ‘queer’ might mean in the Tolkien oeuvre.

The Morality Of The Civil War: Just War Theory And Union Policy And Conduct, Michael Payne

Bound Away: The Liberty Journal of History

This article shall argue that the Union army, which was composed primarily of Christian soldiers and officers, prosecuted the Civil War in as moral a fashion as possible. It shall examine the different ways in which one can judge the morality of war, concluding that the tenets of Just War Theory are the best standard by which to judge a belligerent’s actions. It shall then examine Union war policy to determine if it is consistent with Just War Theory. This shall be done through a side-by-side comparison of Just War Theory’s tenets and Union policy. It shall then explore whether …

Marx And The Missing Theory Of Ideology, Peter Baumann

Philosophy Faculty Works

Karl Marx is often and typically seen as one of the main theorists of ideology. However, a closer look shows that Marx does not offer anything like a developed theory of ideology. Rather, there are, as I argue here, elements for 3 quite different accounts of ideology to be found in his work: ideology as superstructure, as the rulers’ ruling ideas, and as false consciousness. This is a new reconstruction of Marx’ ideas about ideology. None of the above 3 ideas has been developed in any greater detail by Marx, and there is even the open question whether they are …

Transmodern Cinema And Decolonial Film Theory: A Study Of Youssef Chahine’S Al Maṣīr, Joshua Polanski

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a book review of Robert K. Beshara, Transmodern Cinema and Decolonial Film Theory: A Study of Youssef Chahine’s Al Maṣīr (Bloomsbury, 2024).

Cinema Illuminating Reality: Media Philosophy Through Buddhism, Teng-Kuan Ng

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a book review of Victor Fan, Cinema Illuminating Reality: Media Philosophy through Buddhism (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2022)

Hermeneutical Priming And Linguistic Hijacking In The God’S Not Dead Series, Brant Entrekin

Journal of Religion & Film

In this paper, I analyze the evangelical Christian film series God's Not Dead. I argue that the film series functions as Christian Nationalist propaganda through its rhetoric and aesthetic choices. I then develop two forms of epistemic manipulation that the film uses to fulfill its propagandistic function: hermeneutical priming and linguistic hijacking. I suggest that the film series' use of these rhetorical strategies highlights some of the ways that evangelical Christian cinema is engaging with rising right-wing political movements and developing unique evangelical imaginations.

Liturgical Aesthetics: A Case For Beauty In The Church, Charlotte Ostric

Philosophy Student Projects

This paper is intended to challenge the contemporary church in America to consider the ways it can reflect beauty in liturgical practices and the importance of beauty in an ecclesial setting. It dispels notions such as "aesthetic autonomy" and offers a method of "fittingness" for churches and ecclesial settings to inform their own liturgical practices.