Philosophy Commons^™

Acquiring The Notion Of Dependent Origination: Reply To Berger, Jay L. Garfield, Jan Westerhoff

Philosophy: Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

An Examination Into Fundamental Attunements: Anxiety, Boredom, Depression, And Joy, John Milligan

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Jean Hampton’S Theory Of Punishment: A Critical Appreciation, Richard Dagger

Political Science Faculty Publications

Jean Hampton’s work first came to my attention in 1984, when the summer issue of Philosophy & Public Affairs appeared in my mailbox. Hampton’s essay in that issue, “The Moral Education Theory of Punishment,” did not persuade me—or many others, I suspect—that “punishment should not be justified as a deserved evil, but rather as an attempt, by someone who cares, to improve a wayward person” (Hampton 1984, 237). The essay did persuade me, though, that moral education is a plausible aim of punishment, even if it is not the “full and complete justification” Hampton claimed it to be (Hampton 1984, …

Direct And Indirect Roles For Values In Science, Kevin Elliott

Faculty Publications

Although many philosophers have employed the distinction between "direct" and "indirect" roles for values in science, I argue that it merits further clarification. The distinction can be formulated in several ways: as a logical point, as a distinction between epistemic attitudes, or as a clarification of different consequences associated with accepting scientific claims. Moreover, it can serve either as part of a normative ideal or as a tool for policing how values influence science. While various formulations of the distinction may (with further clarification) contribute to a normative ideal, they have limited effectiveness for regulating how values influence science.

Philosophy & World Religions Department Newsletter, V2, Spring 2011, University Of Northern Iowa. Department Of Philosophy And World Religions.

Philosophy & World Religions Department Newsletter

Inside this issue:

-- Notes from the Head
-- Francis Degnin, Service Work
-- Betty DeBerg, American Academy of Religion Task Force
-- Professors Named to Advisory Board of Turkish American Society of Iowa
-- Faculty Spotlight: Bill Clohesy, Professor of Philosophy
-- Faculty Spotlight: Martie Reineke, Professor of Religion
-- Darwin & Intelligent Design: A Lecture by Elliot Sober
-- Holiday Party
-- Discussion & Lectures by Stephen Nathanson
-- Look for UNI Department of Philosophy & World Religions on facebook
-- Student Interview: Joel Anderson
-- Student Interview: John Anderson
-- Student Interview: Selena Losee
-- Philosophy Club …

The Ontological Foundations For Natural Law Theory And Contemporary Ethical Naturalism, Bernard Mauser

Dissertations (1934 -)

This dissertation explores some objections to natural law theory- many of which are also leveled against contemporary naturalism. Despite the way the natural law tradition has fallen into disrepute in much of the American academy, this dissertation defends a classical Thomistic approach to natural law from some modern and contemporary criticisms. It begins with a brief explanation of the theory of natural law that will be defended from these contemporary objections. Chapter three examines G.E. Moore and David Hume's classical problems posed to natural law, along with some contemporary defenders of Moore's position. These arguments are purported to undermine using …

The Poetics Of Remembrance: Communal Memory And Identity In Heidegger And Ricoeur, David Leichter

Dissertations (1934 -)

In this dissertation, I explore the significance of remembering, especially in its communal form, and its relationship to narrative identity by examining the practices that make possible the formation and transmission of a heritage. To explore this issue I use Martin Heidegger and Paul Ricoeur, who have dedicated several of their major works to remembrance and forgetting. In comparing Heidegger and Ricoeur, I suggest that Ricoeur's formulation of the identity of a subject and a community offers an alternative to Heidegger's account. For, if Heidegger's critique of subjectivity offers the possibility of a new relationship to history and community, it …

The Beauty Of The Ethical: An Everyday Ethics That Brings Grace To Life, Ross W. Mccullough

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

Excerpt: "Malcolm Muggeridge entitled his reflection on Mother Teresa Something Beautiful for God. Perhaps the force of that expression does not immediately strike us, but consider how curious a statement it is: that here was something—an act, a project, a life—beautiful for God. By far the most curious aspect, and the hardest to see afresh and not as mere formula, is that it was for God; but I leave that to a subsequent essay, with only the saints, here Teresa and Irenaeus, to point toward my sequel. For now note instead that it was something beautiful."

Philosophy And Theology: Notes On Conscience Protections For Health Care Workers, Christopher Kaczor

Philosophy Faculty Works

The article reviews reports on the philosophy and theology of bio ethics, including "Is Conscientious Objection Incompatible with a Physician's Professional Obligations?" and "Negative and Positive Claims of Conscience," both by Mark R. Wicclair, published in the January 2009 issue of "Cambridge Quarterly of Health Care Ethics." Wicclair discusses the incompatibility thesis. The article also observes that the contemporary debate on conscience protection has intensified.

William James's Undivided Self And The Possibility Of Immortality, Anthony Karlin

Dissertations (1934 -)

The dissertation explores William James's conception of the self and his belief in the possibility of immortality. In The Divided Self of William James, James scholar Richard M. Gale argues that James unwittingly advanced two incompatible types of selves: a self-assertive "Promethean" self who maximizes desire-satisfaction and a passive mystic self who favors conceptless, mystical intuition. I argue that Gale's dichotomy of James is incorrect and that James's conception of the self is better understood through his growing belief in the possibility of immortality. I develop this idea by considering relevant aspects of both James's personal and philosophical development. I …

Dante’S Understanding Of The Two Ends Of Human Desire And The Relationship Between Philosophy And Theology, Jason Aleksander

Faculty Publications

I discuss Dante’s understanding that human existence is “ordered by two final goals” and how this understanding defines philosophy’s and theology’s respective scopes of authority in guiding human conduct. I show that, while Dante devalues the philosophical authority associated with the traditional Aristotelian emphasis on the significance of contemplative activity, he does so in order to highlight philosophy’s ethico-political authority to guide human conduct toward its “earthly beatitude.” Moreover, I argue that, although Dante subordinates earthly beatitude to spiritual beatitude, he nonetheless maintains that philosophy’s authority to reveal a path to spiritual beatitude requires its fundamental independence from theology.

Sagp Newsletter 2010/11.3 Pacific, Anthony Preus

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Justice As Self-Transmitting Power And Just Acts In Republic 4, Andrew Payne

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

In his influential paper “A Fallacy in Plato’s Republic,” David Sachs charged Plato with committing a fallacy of irrelevancy. Plato’s Socrates is asked to show that justice understood as acting in conformity with conventional morality, so-called vulgar justice, is beneficial to the just person. Socrates actually demonstrates something else, namely that psychic justice, a state of internal harmony between parts of the soul, is beneficial to its possessor. A generation of Plato scholarship has reacted to Sachs’ reading of the Republic by using discussions of moral psychology and education elsewhere in the dialogue to bridge the gap between psychic justice …

Attitudes Of Counselors Regarding Ethical Situations Encountered By In-Home Counselors, Justin Douglas Lauka

Counseling & Human Services Theses & Dissertations

This survey study explored the attitudes of in-home and outpatient counselors in Virginia regarding ethical situations encountered by in-home counselors. Differences in responses were examined across several variables to identify any relationships among those constructs that are salient to in-home counseling and ethics. Of 108 participants, no significant differences were found between the two groups. One variable was found to predict counselors' responses: the percent counselors provide counseling services compared to case management. The item seen as most ethical involved telling a client to apply for needed services, surprising, given its directive nature that runs counter to the counseling profession. …

Revisiting The Zahavi–Brough/Sokolowski Debate, Neal Deroo

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

In 1999, Dan Zahavi’s Self Awareness and Alterity: A Phenomenological Investigation initiated a critique of the standard interpretation of the distinction between the second and third levels of Husserl’s analysis of time-constituting consciousness. At stake was the possibility of a coherent account of self-awareness (Zahavi’s concern), but also the possibility of prereflectively distinguishing the acts of consciousness (Brough and Sokolowski’s rebuttal of Zahavi’s critique). Using insights gained from Husserl’s Analyses Concerning Passive Synthesis rather than the work on time-consciousness, this paper provides a new, more precise vocabulary in which to carry on the debate, in the hopes of bringing it …

Articulating Animals: Animals And Implicit Inferences In Brandom’S Work, Joel D. Musser

Between the Species

Brandom denies animals implicit reasoning by emphasizing their inability to make inferences explicit, and in so doing, denigrates animals by likening their behavior to that of machines and artifacts. With disturbing regularity and ease, Brandom equates pigeons and parrots to machines and thermostats in their inability to express implicit/explicit inferences: neither the pigeon nor the machine can “provid[e] reasons for making other moves in the language game.”

I contest, however, that animals are paradigmatically more than any similarity or analogy to mechanical processing, just as humans are paradigmatically more than any reductive analogy to animals. The human/animal distinction need not …

Aristotle On The Foundations Of Science: A Postmodern Moment, John Thorp

Research Day (Arts & Humanities, FIMS, and Education)

No abstract provided.

The Mechanization Of Philosophy Between 1300-1700, Henrik Lagerlund, Benjamin Hill, Helen Hattab, Dennis Des Chene, Calvin Normore

Research Day (Arts & Humanities, FIMS, and Education)

Standard histories of the development of modern science and philosophy has it that the mechanical philosophy was driven by changes in physics that then required a re-conceptualization of the metaphysics of substance. We contest that this view is backwards. The revisions of the metaphysics of substance occurred in the 14th century and it underlined the well-known changes in physics in the 15th and 16th centuries, which gave rise to mechanical philosophy in the 17th century.

A Sense Of Life In Language Love And Literature, Lawrence Kimmel

Philosophy Faculty Research

The fundamental human activity of telling stories, extended into the cultural tradition of literature, leads to the creation of alternative worlds in which we find resonance with the whole range of human thought and emotion from different and often conflicting perspectives. Fiction has no obligation to the ordinary strictures that bind our public lives, so the mind is free, engaging in literature, to become for the moment whatever imagination can conceive. So we become, in fictive reality, madman and poet, sinner and saint, embrace and embody sorrow and joy, hope and despair and all the rag tag feelings that flesh …

Contractualism And The Moral Status Of Animals, Jennifer Swanson

Between the Species

While contractualism seems to solve some of the more pressing concerns of other moral theories, it does not conclusively address the moral status of non-human animals. Peter Carruthers claims that contractualism excludes animals from having full moral status. I argue that Carruthers’ arguments are fatally flawed due to his reliance on contradictory claims, unlikely assumptions, and flagrant violations of the contractualist method. However, Carruthers also claims that we can treat animals wrongly and that it deserves moral criticism. This claim is based in indirect moral significance. However, this position makes it impossible for Carruthers to avoid endorsing two extremely counter-intuitive …