Philosophy Commons^™

The Reconciliation Of Personal-Corporate Identity Conflicts By Evangelical Christian Workers, Michael E. Anderson

Communication & Leadership Dissertations and Theses

Communication can be viewed as a negotiation of identity. In that negotiation it is inevitable that conflicts in identity will occur (Lederach, as cited in Stewart, 2006). When that conflict is between one’s personal identity and the corporate identity an organization asks, or even requires of that person, what processes are used to reconcile those differences? This question becomes even more salient in an organization utilizing a cultural style of organizational structure (Conrad & Poole, 2005). Cultural organizational structures are rooted in a belief that people, as emotional beings, need to feel connected to their work community. Understanding identity reconciliation …

Allen D. Breck Award Winner (2012)

Quidditas

Lesley Skousen

The Breck Award recognizes the most distinguished paper given by a junior scholar at the annual conference.

The Signifying Power Of Pearl, Jane Beal

Quidditas

The spiritual language, Ovidian love stories, and use of liturgical time in Pearl all invite allegorical interpretations of the poem. While there is clearly a literal, elegiac sense to the poem, there are also allegorical meanings. This makes perfect sense in light of the tradition of four-fold scriptural and literary interpretation in the Middle Ages, which the Pearl-Poet clearly used to understand biblical parables and compose his poetic masterpiece. The poet’s use of metaphoric language, memory of the legends of Orpheus and Eurydice and Pygmalion and Galatea, and astute interweaving of parables from the church liturgy alongside invocations of the …

Capturing The Imagination Of A Distracted Audience, David Paradis

Quidditas

We compete for students’ attention. Surrounded by smart phones, tablets, and laptops, we compete for their attention, sometimes in the classroom but definitely outside of it. To combat this deluge of distractions, assigned readings must contain attractive content. The challenge can be particularly acute in pre-modern history classes, partly because the language and the content of primary sources, even when translated into clear, modern prose, is often unfathomable to readers accustomed to reading Sparknotes or Wikipedia. One potential solution to this challenge is Maurice Keen’s Outlaws of Medieval Legend (rev. ed. New York: Routledge, 2001).

Approaches To The Atonement In The Mystery Plays, Adam C. Wolfe

Quidditas

The English Corpus Christi plays were a vibrant expression of late medieval Christianity, but they did not survive the Reformation. Many Protestant reformers opposed religious drama altogether, but there were some attempts by reformers to edit the plays and recast them in a Protestant mold, attempts which were ultimately unsuccessful. This paper examines one such attempt and finds that the problem went far beyond obvious references to, and representations of, specifically Catholic beliefs. Focusing on representations of the Atonement in the York and Towneley plays, I found at least four distinct theological approaches to this central concept of Christian theology, …

Aesthetics In Contemporary Art: Philosopher And Performer, Curtis L. Carter

Philosophy Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Foundations Of Skeptical Theism: Cornea, Core, And Conditional Probabilities, Stephen J. Wykstra, Timothy Perrine

University Faculty Publications and Creative Works

Some skeptical theists use Wykstra's CORNEA constraint to undercut Rowestyle inductive arguments from evil. Many critics of skeptical theism accept CORNEA, but argue that Rowe-style arguments meet its constraint. But Justin McBrayer argues that CORNEA is itself mistaken. It is, he claims, akin to "sensitivity" or "truth-tracking" constraints like those of Robert Nozick; but counterexamples show that inductive evidence is often insensitive. We here defend CORNEA against McBrayer's chief counterexample. We first clarify CORNEA, distinguishing it from a deeper underlying principle that we dub "CORE." We then give both principles a probabilistic construal, and show how, on this construal, the …

On Eros In Plotinus: Attempt At A Systematic Reconstruction (With A Preliminary Chapter On Plato), Alberto Bertozzi

Dissertations

This study is an attempt at a systematic reconstruction of Plotinus’ understanding of eros or love in two basic steps, corresponding to Chapters One−Two and Three−Four respectively.

The first step highlights Plotinus’ connection to Plato. In Chapter One, first I argue that Plotinus’ way of reading the dialogues is faithful to Plato’s intention insofar as it is an active engagement in the practice of philosophy advocated in the dialogues; I then try to show that some important elements of Plotinus’ understanding of eros, most notably the differentiation of levels of reality in the soul’s ascent to Beauty and the view …

The Structural Injustice Of Forced Migration And The Failings Of Normative Theory, David Ingram

Philosophy: Faculty Publications and Other Works

I propose to criticize two strands of argument - contractarian and utilitarian – that liberals have put forth in defense of economic coercion, based on the notion of justifiable paternalism. To illustrate my argument, I appeal to the example of forced labor migration, driven by the exigencies of market forces. In particular, I argue that the forced migration of a special subset of unemployed workers lacking other means of subsistence (economic refugees) cannot be redeemed paternalistically as freedom or welfare enhancing in the long run. I further argue that contractarian and utilitarian approaches are normatively incapable of appreciating this fact …

Presence In Nursing Practice: A Critical Hermeneutic Analysis, Alicia Laurel Bright

Doctoral Dissertations

Research Topic

Presence, although it involves action at times, is a humanitarian quality of relating that is ethically generated and has real-world implications for both patient and nurse. It is an interpersonal process characterized by sensitivity, holism, intimacy, vulnerability, and adaptation to unique circumstances that results in enhanced mental wellbeing for nurses and patients, and improved physical wellbeing for patients. Knowing and being with are foundational to being present.

Theory and Protocol

This research is grounded in critical hermeneutics and follows an interpretive approach to field research and data analysis (Herda 1999). This orientation places the researcher and participants in …

The Influence Of Intersecting Identities On Acceptance, Disclosure, And Internalized Homonegativity, Megan C. Lytle

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

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Global Artists, Curtis Carter

Philosophy Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Sellars In Context: An Analysis Of Wilfrid Sellars's Early Works, Peter Jackson Olen

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Although Wilfrid Sellars's work holds a prominent place in recent analytic philosophy, little work has been done to situate his early approaches to normativity and the philosophy of language in their proper context. What little work has been done tends to emphasize Sellars's connection to a then dominant logical empiricism at the expense of marginalizing other American philosophical schools. On top of this historical issue, most scholars attempting to explain Sellars's systematic philosophy tend to ignore a developmental picture of Sellars's positions and focus on explicating the systematic character of his thought. My dissertation attempts to correct both of these …

The New Materialism: Althusser, Badiou, And Zizek, Geoffrey Dennis Pfeifer

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation traces the post-Marxist and materialist positions of two leading contemporary European thinkers: Slavoj Zizek and Alain Badiou. These thinkers, I argue, collectively offer a way between the traditional Hegelian Marxist's overarching meta-narrative of a necessary evolution from worse to better, and the post-modern pessimism of a lack of possibility for such a social evolution. It is this middle path, offered by these two thinkers, that this dissertation seeks to explore and further explain. The focal point of this dissertation is the type of philosophical materialism that is collectively offered by Badiou and Zizek, what I call the "New …

Structure And Agency: An Analysis Of The Impact Of Structure On Group Agents, Elizabeth Kaye Victor

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Different kinds of collectives help to coordinate between individuals and social groups to solve distribution problems, supply goods and services, and enable individuals to live fulfilling lives. Collectives, as part of the process of socialization, contribute to the normalization of behaviors, and consequently, structure our ability to be self-reflective autonomous agents. Contemporary philosophy of action models characterize collective action as the product of individuals who have the proper motivations to perform cooperative activities (bottom-up); or they begin with the social-level phenomena and explain this in terms of individual actions and the mental states that motivate them (top-down). One general goal …

Moral Friction, Moral Phenomenology, And The Improviser, Benjamin Scott Young

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation offers a phenomenology of that mode of self-interpretation in which it becomes possible for an interpreter to intentionally participate in the production of moral norms to which the interpreter himself or herself feels bound. Part One draws on Richard Rorty's notion of the "ironist" in order to thematize the phenomenon I call "moral friction"; a condition in which an interpreter becomes explicitly aware of the historical and cultural contingencies of their own moral vocabularies, practices, and concerns and as a result find themselves incapable of feeling the normative weight implicit in these. Part Two draws on Heidegger's existential …

A Commentary On Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz's Discourse On Metaphysics #19, Richard Lamborn Samuel Lamborn

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This commentary on article #19 of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz's Discourse on Metaphysics is for the purpose of promoting the understanding of Leibniz on the role of teleology in physics. Understanding Leibniz on final causes is crucial to understanding his overall natural philosophy. If one approaches Leibniz with a bias regarding either final causes or protestant Christian theology, such that they ignore these aspects of Leibniz, such a person is in danger of completly misunderstanding this philosopher. Leibniz is a mix of natural philosophy, mechanical physics, and protestant Christian theology. The rationale behind this study is to cause the student of …

Notices

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

No abstract provided.

Artification And The Aesthetic Regime Of Art, Aleš Erjavec

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

The author discusses “artification” and attempts to ascertain whether some common features can be found between artification and Jacques Rancière’s aesthetics, especially his notion of the “aesthetic regime of art.” The author argues that Rancière’s project of “art become life” can be employed as a common denominator of both theoretical frameworks, that of artification and that of the aesthetic regime of art. Nonetheless, the art to which Rancière’s notion primarily applies is different from art in the traditional sense, which seems to form the empirical basis of the notion of artification.

[Introduction To] Plato, Aristotle, And The Purpose Of Politics, Kevin M. Cherry

Bookshelf

In this book, Kevin M. Cherry compares the views of Plato and Aristotle about the practice, study, and, above all, the purpose of politics. The first scholar to place Aristotle's Politics in sustained dialogue with Plato's Statesman, Cherry argues that Aristotle rejects the view of politics advanced by Plato's Eleatic Stranger, contrasting them on topics such as the proper categorization of regimes, the usefulness and limitations of the rule of law, and the proper understanding of phronēsis. The various differences between their respective political philosophies, however, reflect a more fundamental difference in how they view the relationship of …