Philosophy Commons^™

Artification For Well-Being: Institutional Living As A Special Case, Susann Vihma

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

Millions of people live in institutional residences that differ significantly from their homes. This article looks closely into the quality of these habitations and points out some critical characteristics based on a research project called CoWell. One salient question circles around the concept of homeyness, which in many countries is the main objective to realize in institutional living. Some kind of artification is implemented and is seen as a means for achieving a homey atmosphere and of stimulating the inhabitants and the staff. However, very little research has been done on homeyness. Cleanliness, permanence, and randomness are often recognizable in …

Artification Of Sport: The Case Of Distance Running, Matti Tainio

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

This article deals with the possibilities of artification in sport, using distance running as an example. Sport is viewed as one phenomenon in the history of physical cultures, with both predecessors and also the possibility of developing into something new. Sport was first defined primarily as a competitive activity but, by the end of the twentieth century, it had developed as part of the athletic trend towards exploring experience-seeking fitness sports. Through the developments of contemporary visual art, sport has also become a possible medium of art. These developments, both in sport and art, provide an opportunity to look for …

On Man, Jaret Kanarek

The Intellectual Standard

There is an all-pervasive assault, especially in schools, on "gen­dered" language. Increasingly, it is not acceptable to say he or she, him or her, et cetera (Martyna, 1980). These terms are seen as exclusionary to any and every unspecified party. Instead, students are required to say one, person, s/he or some other non-specific,arbitrary, "gender-neutral" term. The epicenter of the assault, posited as the pinnacle of linguistic evil, is the term man. Man, the assailants say, only denotes males. Females are the excluded party, and thus the use of the term is sexist (Kleinman, 2007). The solution, then, …

On Reason, Michael Christison

The Intellectual Standard

It challenges us to face the truth. It tells us when we are wrong. It can sometimes bewilder us with its brutal simplicity. Some call it logic or rational thinking. Others refer to it as "pure reason:' Whatever you want to call it, we have no choice but to utilize this cognitive ability if we want to achieve our goals. Few, however, tend to figure out what it is that they are doing. If you cannot explain reason, it becomes that much harder to justify any given action. If an action is not taken according to reason, a justification will …

Finding The Consistent Self, Jacob Comer

The Intellectual Standard

Individual identity is absurd in itself. It is excessively complex. Each one of us has our own, so identity is not uniform between people. In fact, we generally think that its purpose is to distinguish ourselves from others as well as from just being that guy or girl over there. Sometimes, our identity is tied to another person, object, circumstance, or idea. Some­times, it is just a feeling, a presence. And as time passes, the item to which we think our identity is bound changes. Perhaps, as adults, we will all find that thing that is "me': or so we …

Introduction To "Faulty Phrases", Jake K. Bates

The Intellectual Standard

Regardless of setting and no matter the circumstances, language is at the root of human interaction. A perplexing phenomenon picked up by toddlers at an almost inconceivably rapid rate, language has been used since the first days of recorded history-because recording history without it would be near impossible. Every voluntary exchange amongst men, and every emerging educational discipline has required effective and efficient communication. From thoughts expressed only in our heads to legal con­tracts manifesting a mutual agreement, language is necessary. Not only in literature, but also in the natural and social sciences, language plays an indispensable role in communicating …

Being In The World : An Existential Inquiry Of Knowing One's Self Through A Personal Project : In The Context Of Dissertation Survival, Tomoe Kitajima

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

This study--a philosophical exploration, partly in an autoethnographical account--provides an empirical demonstration that one's personal project has a strong and positive impact on the dissertation process both for endurance to complete the process and for quality of the product. The concept of project is often explained as one's pursuit of his or her most important philosophical issues. This dissertation originated in the very beginning of my doctoral education in summer 2000 when I first encountered the man behind the coffee shop counter. In his life story he expressed a strong question about the problem of knowledge and authentic living. How …

The Metaphysics Of Improvisation, Tobyn C. Demarco

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In "The Metaphysics of Improvisation," I criticize wrongheaded metaphysical views of, and theories about, improvisation, and put forward a cogent metaphysical theory of improvisation, which includes action theory, an analysis of the relevant genetic and aesthetic properties, and ontology (work-hood).

The dissertation has two Parts. Part I is a survey of the history of many improvisational practices, and of the concept of improvisation. Here I delineate, sketch, and sort out the often vague boundaries between improvising and non-improvising within many art forms and genres, including music, dance, theatre, motion pictures, painting, and literature. In addition, I discuss the concept of …

Research Methodologies: A Look At The Underlying Philosophical Foundations Of Research, Nathapon Siangchokyoo, Andres Sousa-Poza

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

Quantitative and qualitative research methodologies have had their greatest share of debates dating back to the 1970s. Researchers have long argued over the underlying philosophical features between the two methodologies and their ability to derive knowledge (Onwuegbuzie & Leech, 2005, Sale, Lohfeld, & Brazil, 2002; Powell, Mihalas, Onwuegbuzie, Suldo and Daley, 2008; Sechrest and Sidani, 1995). More recently, modern researchers have argued that the integration of quantitative and qualitative methods into a single methodology (known simply as mixed methods research) allows researchers to answer questions otherwise unobtainable (Carey, 1993). The emergence of mixed methods research has gained increasing popularities in …

Kant And A Problem Of Motivation, David Jensen

Faculty Publications

In The Moral Problem, Michael Smith argues that there is an on-going tension in discussions among moral philosophers between the putative objectivity of morality, the practicality of moral judgments, and Hume’s view of motivation.¹ From an agent’s point of view, putatively objective claims imply cognitivism, the view that moral judgments express beliefs about the way the world is morally.² But if moral judgments are practical and on Hume’s view of motivation dependent on the desires of an agent, then from a moral standpoint, we risk making claims that the agent cannot be motivated to act upon.³ In …

Conceptualizations Of Wisdom In The Native American Community, Lamar Smith

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This qualitative study examined implicit theories of wisdom in a sample of adult individuals who identified as Native American. The research question focused on definitions of wisdom as they exist in the Native American Community. A total of eight participants were asked to answer the question “What is wisdom and how does one become wise?”. Interviews approximately 60 minutes in length revealed several themes in participant’s conceptualizations of wisdom. The study revealed that participants believed wisdom to be based on fundamental building blocks of a worldview of interconnectedness, a collectivist social structure, and an individual value system promoting of personal …

The Wounded Healer: Finding Meaning In Suffering, Garret B. Wyner

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

In modern history, no event has more profoundly symbolized suffering than the Holocaust. This novel “Husserlian-realist” phenomenological dissertation elucidates the meaning of existential trauma through an interdisciplinary and psychologically integrative vantage point. I use the testimony of a select group of Holocaust witnesses who committed suicide decades after that event as a lens to examine what their despair may reveal about an unprecedented existential, moral, and spiritual crisis of humanity that threatens to undermine our faith in human history and reality itself. By distinguishing what they actually saw about our condition from what they merely believed about reality, I show …

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 …

On The Violence Of Systemic Violence: A Critique Of Slavoj Žižek, Harry Van Der Linden

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

This paper questions the extension of the common notion of violence, i.e., “subjective violence,” involving the intentional use of force to inflict injury or damage, towards social injustice as “systemic violence.” Systemic violence is altogether unlike subjective violence and the work of Slavoj Žižek illustrates that conceptual obfuscation in this regard may lead to an overly broad and facile justification of revolutionary violence as counter-violence to systemic violence, appealing to the ethics of self-defense. I argue that revolutionary violence is only justified to counter subjective violence inflicted or organized by the state. Thus I reject in conclusion Žižek’s further defense …

Ethics Effectiveness: The Nature Of Good Leadership, Joanne B. Ciulla

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

No abstract provided.

A Cognitive Theory Of The Aesthetic Experience, Gianluca Consoli

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

This paper aims at naturalizing the aesthetic experience on the basis of cognitive sciences. In traditional philosophical aesthetics, the aesthetic experience requires a specific attitude and a characteristic work of imagination. Today, cognitive sciences offer a rich set of empirically corroborated concepts useful in explaining these notions in naturalistic terms. This paper extends these concepts to explain how the aesthetic experience is integrated and how it affords knowledge.

From Environmental Aesthetics To Narratives Of Change, Nathalie Blanc

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

Environmental aesthetics is a branch of philosophy that originated in the English-speaking world and is developing in France. It aims to take a new look at how relationships with the environment are constructed. Often addressed from a landscaping, technical or scientific angle, such relationships have remained largely unaddressed from a cultural perspective, i.e., one that includes a series of practices and values that represent a human group. In this article, I will address environmental aesthetics and how they point up tensions between fixed and static visual representations of the environment in the future and representations that can accommodate ordinary encounters, …

The Authentic Self And Advertising : The Effects Advertising Has On The Formation Of The Authentic Self, Lorivie Abapo

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In a world bombarded with advertisements, it may be difficult for the development of an authentic self. Authenticity is a mode of existence in which there is ownership in the sense of self, while at the same time being able to present this sense of self to others. To be authentic is to act and live in a way that expresses a genuine concern for the self in which projects and goals pursued. The sense of self is the feeling of genuineness of the self and representing this self requires actions that correlate to these feelings. Advertisements act as communication …

Embodied Ethics : Transformation, Care, And Activism Through Artistic Engagement, Melissa Rachel Schwartz

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In what follows, I highlight negative environmental perspectives and actions based on traditional patterns of Western dualist thought with the ultimate aim of developing an alternative way of relating to the environment and the ‘other’, in general. In pursuit of such an alternative, I utilize embodied artistic practices in order to present the notion that one can engage more holistically with one’s environment, and the other. Through habitual, lifelong ‚Ways‛ cultivating specific practices generally necessary to creating and to viewing art, I argue, one can refine one’s ethical awareness and action. Following the aims of care ethics’ more context and …

Review Of Betting The Earth: How We Can Still Win The Biggest Gamble Of All Time, Brian G. Henning

Philosophy Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.