Philosophy Commons^™

Keynote Address: Untying The Moral Knot Of Abortion, Caitlin E. Borgmann

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

Innocent Burdens, James Edwin Mahon

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

Conservative Evolution, Sustainability, And Culture, Gábor Náray-Szabó

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his article "Conservative Evolution, Sustainability, and Culture" Gábor Náray-Szabó argues that evolution is conservative in the sense that throughout the history of the universe old constructs like elementary particles, amino acids, and living cells remained conserved while the world evolved/evolves in complexity. A similar process can be observed in cultural evolution as components of society and culture continue to evolve. Considering the increasing pressure on natural resources by material consumption, a close alliance between past, present, and future generations is unavoidable and thus Náray-Szabó posits that concepts of conservative evolution and sustainability are related. However, in order to avoid …

Mitigated Skepticism Explanations And Why Its Valuable, Shane Crouch

Undergraduate Theses and Capstone Projects

Skepticism is one of the oldest epistemological positions. Since the time of the Greeks, philosophers have been asking the question of is any knowledge possible. The Ancient skeptics of the time doubted everything while David Hume was skeptical of only some things. He further recognized that a global view was not viable for daily life. I argue in this paper that we should follow Hume’s approach in adopting a skepticism that begins with doubt and then examines the evidence for claims before coming to a conclusion. This will be markedly different from a priori assumptions of no knowledge which will …

"Those Stubborn Principles": From Stoicism To Sociability In Joseph Addison’S Cato, Christine Dunn Henderson, Mark Yellin

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Joseph Addison’s 1713 play, Cato: A Tragedy, dramatizes the final days of Cato the Younger’s resistance to Julius Caesar before his eventual suicide at Utica in 46 BC. Although Addison initially seems to present Cato as a model for emulation, we argue that Addison is ultimately critical of both Cato and the Stoicism he embodies. Via the play’s romantic subplot and via his work as an essayist, Addison offers a revision of the Catonic model, reworking it into a gentler model that elevates qualities such as love, friendship, and sympathy and that is more appropriate to the type of peaceful …

Phytol Derived Immunoadjuvants As Oil-In-Water Micro-Emulsions For Use In Vaccines, Dylan M. Johnson

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The main objective of this study is to evaluate an oil-in-water micro-emulsion of phytanol which we have named PHIS59 with multiple antigens: ovalbumin, a protein and microorganism that include a reference laboratory strain of methicillin susceptible Staphylococcus aureus (MSSA) and methicillin resistant S. aureus (MRSA). PHIS59 was compared with the previously described crude oil-in-water emulsion PHIS-01 and the similarly formulated squalene as an oil-in-water micro-emulsion based on the commercial product MF59 referred to here as NV59. Safety and efficacy of PHIS59 and NV59 was evaluated in a mouse and rabbit vaccine models. Determinations of safety were reported as the range …

Should Public Law Accommodate The Claims Of Conscience?, William A. Galston

San Diego Law Review

In the end, it seems to me, the matter boils down to a single issue. Many individuals consider themselves bound by two sources of authority, public law and conscience, whose demands do not always coincide. Is the state prepared to take cognizance of this fact, and if so, how should it respond? Unlike other regimes, liberal democracies should not find these questions unduly challenging. To be a liberal state is to recognize limits on the legitimate scope of public authority; to be a liberal democracy is to recognize limits on the authority of the people and on the writ of …

False Speech: Quagmire?, Christopher P. Guzelian

San Diego Law Review

Recently decided cases in several Federal Courts of Appeals and the United States Supreme Court show that First Amendment false speech case law is contradictory and unpredictable. This Article gives examples and concludes that legal liability for false speech will continue to be arbitrary and even susceptible to intentionally unjust decisionmaking if judges and juries individually and collectively disregard or downplay the necessity of an honest search for truth under the guise of tolerance and evenhandedness. If Americans wish to avoid an anything-goes “quagmire” about truth, they must—despite inevitable resistance in a civilization increasingly rife with skeptics—undergo transformations of their …

Pursuits Of The Human Condition, Philosophical Discussion Group, Armstrong State University

The Philosopher's Stone

No abstract provided.

Hauerwas On Hauerwas: Review Of 'Approaching The End: Eschatological Reflections On Church, Politics, And Life', William L. Portier

Theology and Religious Studies Faculty Publications

Stanley Hauerwas has achieved singular preeminence among theologians in the United States as a public intellectual. Writing on subjects from Christian ethics to law, pacifism, bioethics, and political philosophy, he has provided bountiful fodder for academics while managing to leave footprints in the general culture-he is surely one of very few theologians ever to appear on Oprah. Any new book bearing Hauerwas' name is noteworthy, and the latest one doesn't disappoint.

Uncommon Art From Common Folk, Curtis Carter

Philosophy Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Aristotelian Support For Davidson’S Argument Against The Intelligibility Of Conceptual Relativism, David A. Jensen

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Donald Davidson argues that we cannot make the notion of conceptual relativism, and all that it entails, intelligible. I proposed, in my study, to show how Aristotle’s ontology supports Davidson’s argument. I will thus summarize the following: Davidson’s argument, Aristotle’s ontologies, connections between the two approaches, and the support which, according to my thesis, the latter lends to the former. I must mention, however, that in any type of summary, as with this one, it is impossible to avoid, if not likely to make, inaccuracies and overly general, unqualified assertions. Nevertheless, this summary should give an idea of the development …

Time Wounds All Heels: Human Nature And The Rationality Of Just Behavior, Timothy Glenn Slattery

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

We share our world with many people who ignore the principles of justice and who regularly take advantage of others by breaching trust or breaking agreements. This dissertation is about the irrationality of the actions of these covenant-breakers. A covenant-breaker typically believes that unjust behavior is to his advantage and that only a fool would act in any other way. Would it not be disturbing if this were true?

My central claim will be that adherence to the precepts of justice is a rational strategy for a self-interested actor. I intend to demonstrate that con men and covenant-breakers do not …

The Evolutionary Function Of Conscious Information Processing Is Revealed By Its Task-Dependency In The Olfactory System, Andreas Keller

Publications and Research

Although many responses to odorous stimuli are mediated without olfactory information being consciously processed, some olfactory behaviors require conscious information processing. I will here contrast situations in which olfactory information is processed consciously to situations in which it is processed non-consciously. This contrastive analysis reveals that conscious information processing is required when an organism is faced with tasks in which there are many behavioral options available. I therefore propose that it is the evolutionary function of conscious information processing to guide behaviors in situations in which the organism has to choose between many possible responses.

Understanding Leadership: An Experimental-Experiential Model, George T. Hole Ph.D

Journal of Inquiry and Action in Education

Books about leadership are dangerous to readers who fantasize about being leaders or apply leadership ideas as if they were proven formulas. As an antidote, I offer an experimental framework in which any leadership-management model can be tested to gain experiential understanding of the model. As a result one can gain reality-based insights about leadership and oneself. The experiment is described; resistances to engaging it are considered; and examples from a leadership group implementing Covey’s “Seven Principles are summarized. In the course of discussing individual’s experiments objections were voiced against this Socratic approach to understanding leadership. Finally, I sketch a …

Kill To Conserve: Ethical Implications Of Trophy Hunting Conservation Measures, Nicholas Bashqawi

2014 Honors Council of the Illinois Region Papers

No abstract provided.

Communicative Action And Mass Communication Via Internet Technologies, Jonathan Kaye

2014 Honors Council of the Illinois Region Papers

The purpose of this study was to analyze the work of German philosopher Jürgen Habermas, focusing on his theory of communicative action. In his work, Habermas specifically probes the epistemological question; how human beings can know anything at all? Through an interconnected scheme of: survival challenges, knowledge and action; there is found grounding for the physical sciences, the social sciences and philosophy itself. Communicative action becomes the “glue” that holds society together in reference to those sciences, for Habermas, communicative action is how shared meaning about the world is established and it is through communicative action and based on communicative …

Is There An Animal Consciousness? A Phenomenological Approach, Matt Mazur

2014 Honors Council of the Illinois Region Papers

The notion of consciousness, animal or otherwise, has been often discussed throughout the history of human thought. More recently it has become a topic for debate in philosophy with many competing ideas emerging. This paper is an attempt to discuss the nature of animal consciousness using a phenomenological approach. Phenomenology is a branch of philosophy with the goal of discovering and describing the true nature of phenomena beyond the human subjective experience of them. Using the French philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s work on perception, this paper argues for the acceptance of a form of consciousness in many animals while also seeking …

Coming Of Age During The Sixties: A Narration Of Lives Through Music And Battle, Jennifer L. Oliveri

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis has been written based on my retrieved memory, as it concentrates on autobiographical memories and the lives of two politically opposing men, from the American sixties. I discuss the effect of music and the war in Vietnam as it was experienced by these men--a moderately angry veteran and a "hippie." I examine how their stories were "retold" to me, which in turn created new memories. This is a study in the memory of memories.

Partir Marron: Un Parcours Sémantique À Travers Les Trous De La Mémoire Collective Haïtienne, Lucie Carmel Paul

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The word "marron " represents both a totality, and a specificity. Totalizing, the term refers to the slave who fled from the plantation, against the colonial order, that is, the fugitive slave. Specific, in the Haitian lexicography, it stands for a shifty and cunning individual, particularily a " Woule m debò "1. One has to recognize that there is a double meaning associated with the word, and at the same time, the syntagmatic locution "partir marron " reflects the individual's dependency on phenomenology. The moment of crisis is one of an explosion, through which one can only be …