Philosophy Commons^™

Rhizomatic Mnemosyne: Warburg, Serres, And The Atlas Of Hermes, María Del Carmen Molina Barea

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

This essay aims to examine Aby Warburg’s Mnemosyne Atlas according to two conceptual perspectives that seem deeply interwoven, Deleuze and Guattari’s notion of rhizome and Michel Serres’s metaphor on Hermes. Both theoretical approaches cast light on the epistemological implications of the Mnemosyne Atlas and explore its intriguing composition from an innovative point of view. Specifically, this paper excavates the disrupted nature of the Warburgian Atlas, paying particular attention to the schizophrenic proliferation of unexpected connections. In this scenario, it will be necessary to elucidate the terminological opposition between ‘atlas’ and ‘archive,’ as studied by Boris Groys, Foucault, and Derrida, …

Marsilio Ficino’S Neo-Platonist Concepts Of Power As Represented In Selected Paintings By Sandro Botticelli: A Study In Representation, Iconography, Iconology And Reasoning, Frank C. Martin, Ii

Theses and Dissertations

arsilio Ficino's Neo-Platonist assessments of differing aspects of powers or capacities associated with the human soul (spiritual, conceptual, influential, and the capacity to engender effects upon material reality), as represented within selected religious and secular paintings by Sandro Botticelli, are discussed in this study for an analysis of the innovative, syncretic conceptual unity of ancient North-African, MiddleEastern, Greco-Roman and early Christian and Medieval philosophical and theological traditions which are advocated by Ficino’s theoretical formulations. Botticelli's paintings are considered for the manner in which they may be understood, within the context of Ficino's conceptual systems, as externalizing, serving as a catalyst …

Real Potential, Jennifer Mckitrick

Department of Philosophy: Faculty Publications

There's a student in my philosophy class who has "real potential." I might express this thought in any of the following ways: "She is potentially a philosopher"; "She is a potential philosopher"; "She has the potential to be a philosopher." The first way uses a cognate of "potential" as an adverb to modify "is." The second ways uses "potential" as an adjective to modify "philosopher." However, the third way uses "potential" as a noun to refer to something that the student has. What kind of thing is this potential? One worry about even asking this question is that this nominalization …

Feminist Metaphysics: Can This Marriage Be Saved?, Jennifer Mckitrick

Department of Philosophy: Faculty Publications

Feminist metaphysics is simultaneously feminist theorizing and metaphysics. Part of feminist metaphysics concerns social ontology and considers such questions as, What is the nature of social kinds, such as genders? Feminist metaphysicians also consider whether gendered perspectives influence metaphysical theorizing; for example, have approaches to the nature of the self or free will been conducted from a masculinist perspective, and would a feminist perspective yield different theories? Some feminist metaphysicians develop metaphysical theories with the aim of furthering certain social goals, such as gender equality.

Despite these and other intriguing research projects, feminist metaphysics faces challenges from two flanks: one …

On The Relationship Between Economics And Ethics, Mark D. White

Publications and Research

Economics and ethics have been linked since the days of Adam Smith, but this connection became tenuous after the formalization of economic theory in the twentieth century, the success of which in academia, government, and business serves to insulate it from ethical critique. Nonetheless, a field of “economics and ethics” has developed to restore this connection, albeit in two directions with disparate methodological approaches: one applying mainstream economic theory, primarily based in utilitarian ethics, to topics of ethical concern, and the other incorporating alternate forms of ethics, such as deontology and virtue ethics, to enrich economic analysis.

Determinism And The Problem Of Individual Freedom In Li Zehou’S Thought, Andrew Lambert

Publications and Research

Li Zehou’s work can be understood as an account of a Chinese modernity, a vision for Chinese society that seeks to integrate three distinct philosophical approaches. These are Chinese history and culture, which Li understands as largely Confucian; Marxism, which has exerted such influence on a modernizing China; and Western learning more generally, as expressed by figures such as Immanuel Kant and Sigmund Freud. Li also frequently expresses the hope that a Chinese modernity will be one in which the importance of the individual is recognized, and rights and freedoms upheld (e.g., 2006, p. 182). But this stance raises an …

Against The Intentional Definition Of Argument, G. C. Goddu

Philosophy Faculty Publications

Intentional definitions of argument, i.e. the conclusion being intended to follow from the premises, abound. Yet, there are numerous problem cases in which we appear to have arguments, but no intention. One way to try to avoid these problem cases is to appeal to acts, in which case one has to give up on the repeatability of arguments. One can keep repeatability and intentions if one resorts to act types, but then it appears that the problem cases re-emerge.

From Justice To Fairness: Does Kant's Doctrine Of Right Imply A Theory Of Distributive Justice?, Michael Nance, Jeppe Von Platz

Philosophy Faculty Publications

The fact that Kant does not articulate a theory of distributive justice has not kept political philosophers from citing Kant as inspiration and support for whatever theory of distributive justice they favor - including those who argue that the notion of distributive justice is itself mistaken. This widespread reliance on Kant invites the question, "Does the Doctrine of Right imply a theory of distributive justice?"

To address this question, we discuss Paul Guyer's argument that Kant's Doctrine of Right implies, roughly, the principles of distributive justice as found in Rawls's justice as fairness. Guyer's argument is that Kant's theory of …

In Defense Of Penalizing (But Not Punishing) Civil Disobedience, David Lefkowitz

Philosophy Faculty Publications

While many contemporary political philosophers agree that citizens of a legitimate state enjoy a moral right to civil disobedience, they differ over both the grounds of that right and its content. This essay defends the view that the moral right to civil disobedience derives from (or is a facet of) a general right to political participation, and the characterization of that right as precluding the state from punishing, but not from penalizing, those who exercise it. The argument proceeds by way of rebuttals to criticisms of both claims recently advanced by Kimberley Brownlee. While in some cases those criticisms fail …

แนวคิดเรื่องความอยุติธรรมเชิงญาณวิทยาของมิแรนด้า ฟริกเกอร์, ภคมน สุภัคคุณธรรม

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

วิทยานิพนธ์นี้มีจุดมุ่งหมายเพื่อวิเคราะห์มโนทัศน์เรื่องความอยุติธรรมเชิงญาณวิทยาของมิแรนด้า ฟริกเกอร์ (Miranda Fricker) ฟริกเกอร์แบ่งความอยุติธรรมเชิงญาณวิทยาเป็นสองแบบ ได้แก่ความอยุติธรรมในการรับฟังคำบอกเล่าของผู้อื่น (Testimonial Injustice) หมายถึงการที่ผู้พูดถูกผู้ฟังตัดสินด้วยอคติที่มีต่อตัวผู้พูด และความอยุติธรรมในการตีความ (Hermeneutical Injustice) หมายถึงการที่บริบทของสังคมไม่เอื้อต่อการทำความเข้าใจประสบการณ์ของคนบางกลุ่ม โดยมีสาเหตุมาจากการที่ความรู้ของคนชายขอบไม่ถูกนำมารวมเป็นองค์ความรู้ของสังคม เธอเห็นว่าสาเหตุของความอยุติธรรมเชิงญาณวิทยามาจากอคติ โดยแสดงออกมาในรูปของสามัญทัศน์ที่มีอคติแฝงอยู่ (Prejudicial Stereotype) ซึ่งสามารถแก้ไขได้โดยการใช้ความอ่อนไหวต่ออคติเพื่อจะไม่ตัดสินผู้พูดจากอคติที่แฝงอยู่ในสามัญทัศน์ วิทยานิพนธ์นี้จะอภิปรายข้อวิพากษ์ของนักญาณวิทยาต่างๆที่มีต่อข้อเสนอของฟริกเกอร์ ได้แก่ ลอร่า บีบี้ (Laura Beeby) ที่โต้แย้งว่าความอยุติธรรมในการตีความนั้นไม่ได้เป็นเรื่องเชิงญาณวิทยาแต่เป็นปัญหาจากสภาพสังคม และเจมส์ โบแมน (James Bohman) ที่แย้งว่าสาเหตุของความอยุติธรรมคือการครอบงำและจะแก้ปัญหานี้ได้ด้วยการสร้างพื้นที่ที่ปราศจากการครอบงำ ทั้งนี้ผู้วิจัยได้นำแนวคิดที่สนับสนุนฟริกเกอร์มาร่วมอภิปรายด้วย ได้แก่ ไซมอน เม (Simon May) ซึ่งเสนอตัวอย่างแย้งให้เห็นว่าความอยุติธรรมที่ไม่ได้เกิดจากการครอบงำนั้นมีอยู่ และแซลลี่ ฮาสแลนเจอร์ (Sally Haslanger) ที่อธิบายถึงจุดเริ่มต้นของอคติและเป็นการสร้างความชอบธรรมให้กับการจัดการสิ่งผิดปกติ วิทยานิพนธ์นี้ต้องการเสนอว่าสาเหตุของความอยุติธรรมเชิงญาณวิทยานั้นเกิดได้ทั้งจากอคติและการครอบงำ โดยอคตินั้นเป็นจุดเริ่มต้นของสภาพสังคมที่มีการกดทับ ในขณะที่การครอบงำนั้นเป็นการทำให้สภาพสังคมดังกล่าวคงอยู่และสืบทอดอำนาจต่อไป ดังนั้นการแก้ไขปัญหานี้จึงต้องทำควบคู่กันไป ด้วยการส่งเสริมให้คนมีความตระหนักรู้ต่อความอยุติธรรมพร้อมกับการที่สถาบันเข้ามาสร้างให้คนรู้สิทธิของตนเองและไม่ปล่อยให้ถูกครอบงำโดยอคติ

Helene Stöcker, Weimar Germany And Prophylactics: An Investigation Into The Context And Effects Of The Reichsgesestz Zur Bekämpfung Geschlechtskrankheiten, Joshua Stern

Dissertations and Theses

This paper investigates German gender studies in the Weimar Era. It looks at a specific law, passed regarding contraceptive devices. It seeks to show how women were presented with a guise of freedom, while living in a truly paternalistic society.

On Crabs And Statistics, Jonathan Birch

Animal Sentience

I respond to commentaries by Elwood and Seth & Dienes and to a recent critique by Diggles, discussing the link between avoidance learning and sentience, the relevance of the clash between frequentist and Bayesian statistics, the risks to decapod welfare in aquaculture, and the broader concerns one may have about a “precautionary” approach to protecting invertebrates.

A Consideration Of Mason’S Ethical Framework: The Importance Of Papa Factors In The 21st Century: A Seven-Year Study, Katharine Creevey Brown

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Richard Mason proposed a social framework for addressing the major ethical issues of the information age in his pivotal 1986 article “Four Ethical Issues of the Information Age.” In 2006, Alan Peslak validated the framework by measuring the current attitudes of students, IT professionals, and university faculty and staff toward the four key issues proposed by Mason: privacy, accuracy, property, and accessibility (referred to as PAPA). This study continues this inquiry into the seven-year period after Peslak’s research. Previously collected data was analyzed for 312 university computing majors taking a senior-level ethics course where Mason was taught and discussed. Demographic …

Is Viewing A Painting Really Like Reading? An Investigation Of Trans-Symbolic Comprehension Processes, Christian C. Steciuch

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Humans form mental models of the world around them. A large body of research has outlined these mental processes for comprehending texts, yet less work has been conducted in the world of comprehending artworks. The recent Trans-Symbolic Comprehension (TSC) Framework has posited that there are shared comprehension processes between the domains of text and artwork. The current study tested this claim by having individuals think-aloud while viewing paintings and reading texts. Think-aloud protocols were then parsed and coded for six distinct mental processes that the TSC framework claims are required for comprehension across symbol systems. It was hypothesized that individuals …

The Emergence & Evolution Of The Concepts Of “The Author”, “The Work” And “Literary Property” With Specific Reference To Enlightenment England 1450-1769: The Role And Influence Of John Locke In The Case Of Millar V Taylor (1769), Mark Doepel

Theses

This thesis argues that the political philosophy of John Locke, as mostly contained in his Two Treatises of Government, but also in a number of other of his works, and especially in relation to his theory on how property rights might be acquired, had a direct influence on the emergence of the modern notions of the author, the literary work and copyright as witnessed through a series of legal cases brought before the courts of England and Scotland over the period of 1700 to 1780. It is specifically shown that Locke’s philosophy had a direct influence on the acknowledgment of …

Theorizing About Human Capacity: A View From The Nineteenth Century, Sandra J. Peart, David M. Levy

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

Discussions of eugenic policy of the nineteenth century are too often isolated from the larger debates in political economy over human capacity. These debates centered on two questions. First, do all people have roughly the same capabilities, or do some groups have a lower capacity than others? Second, capacity for what? In the nineteenth century political economists in the tradition of Adam Smith through John Stuart Mill argued that, as Gordon Tullock would later put it, “people are people” and there are no racial or other distinctions to be made about our capabilities for labor market, family formation, or other …

The Moral Duty Of Solidarity, Avery Kolers

Faculty and Staff Scholarship

No abstract provided.

From Taquería To Medical School: Juan Carlos, Aristotle, Cognitive Enhancements, And A Good Life, Glenn "Boomer" Mac Trujillo

Faculty and Staff Scholarship

This paper begins with a vignette of Juan Carlos, an immigrant to America who works to support his family, attends classes at a community college, and cares for his ill daughter. It argues that an Aristotelian virtue ethicist could condone a safe, legal, and virtuous use of cognitive enhancements in Juan Carlos’s case. The argument is that if an enhancement can lead him closer to eudaimonia (i.e., flourishing, or a good life), then it is morally permissible to use it. The paper closes by demonstrating how common objections to cognitive enhancement fail to undermine Juan Carlos’s justifiable use of the …

Stewarding Treason: Political Instability In Amis And Amiloun, Maia Farrar

Quidditas

When the unnamed steward in the medieval romance Amis and Amiloun attempts to join the knights’ brotherhood and prevent Amis from defiling the duke’s daughter, he is simultaneously lauded for his fidelity and reviled as a “fals feloun.” Medieval stewards are defined by their status as assistants to the king’s interests, and yet if the narrative or scholarship remember him at all, it is as the stereotypical “fals steward” who betrays his post. This article considers the implications to the political body when the “traitor” has a superior legal political standing than the protagonist(s). The work legitimizes the traitor by …

In Memoriam: Boyd H. Hill, Jr.

Quidditas

Professor Boyd Howard Hill, Jr., died at the age of 87 on July 2nd, 2018, at his home in Longmont, Colorado. Boyd was a medieval historian at the University of Colorado at Boulder from 1964-2001. He received his M.A. and Ph.D. in history at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and published important articles and books on pre-modern anatomy, physiology, comparative history, diplomatics, and Ottonian Germany. He was also the general editor of a text for courses in western civilization. On a personal note for the authors of this article, Boyd was an influential mentor, guiding us first …