Philosophy Commons^™

Market Virtues And Respect For Human Dignity, Luís C. Calderón Gómez, Robert Talisse, John A. Weymark

Book Chapters

Luigino Bruni and Robert Sugden have provided a normative defense of markets from a virtue ethics perspective. They interpret market exchange as being a practice in the sense of Alasdair MacIntyre. For Bruni and Sugden, the telos of a market is mutual benefit and a market virtue is a character trait or disposition that contributes to the realization of this benefit. They regard market virtues as embodying a moral attitude towards market interactions that is characterized by reciprocity. For MacIntyre, this is a partial account of a virtue. To qualify as a virtue, it is also necessary that it contributes …

Liberating Bioethics Through Agape: A Feminist Perspective From The Periphery, Kimberly Vargas Barreto

Dissertations

Despite the vast number of cultures and peoples that reside in the West, ethical action in bioethics is determined through the perspective of la Totalidad, which does not include the Other or individuals from the periphery. In my dissertation, I argue that the universalization of U.S. clinical bioethics (la bioética estadounidense) and the coloniality of knowledge that extends from it are, at its core, imperialistic in nature and result in the exclusion of patients with intersectional identities. While clinical bioethics was first conceived as a critical tool for medicine, the acceptance of principlism as the central theory in the field …

Reconceiving Virtue: A Mengzian Adaptation Of Eudaimonic Virtue Ethics In Response To Contemporary Criticisms, Gina Elizabeth Lebkuecher

Dissertations

The primary question my dissertation aims to answer is: how might eudaimonic virtue ethics be reimagined to respond to contemporary criticisms from disability scholars, feminists, and empirical psychology? To answer this, I introduce the Eudaimonic View of Virtue, or EV, and propose a Mengzian adaptation of the EV (EV-M) in response to these criticisms. The EV captures the four core claims to which eudaimonic virtue ethical theories are committed: (i) virtues, in the sense of excellent character traits or dispositions, are the foundation of ethics or ethical action (i.e., aretaicism); (ii) virtue is at least partially constitutive of human well-being/flourishing …

The Irrationality Of Human Confidence That An Ageless Existence Would Be Better, Susan B. Levin

Philosophy: Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Dialectics Of Faith: Kierkegaard, Irony, And Conversion, Douglas Zimmerman

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Kierkegaard, the 19th-century Danish philosopher, offers a profound perspective on conversion. According to him, conversion isn't a mere external change, but a deeply personal and internal transformation. It's about moving from a state of despair to faith. Kierkegaard believed that true conversion involves a passionate leap of faith, where an individual confronts their own subjectivity and makes a conscious, often paradoxical, choice to align themselves with their authentic values and spiritual beliefs. In his view, conversion is a constant process, requiring introspection, struggle, and a commitment to live authentically in the face of life's uncertainties. In order to communicate this …

Exploring The Enlightenment Function Of Thought Experiments: Unveiling An Underdeveloped Dimension Absent In Typologies, Dominique Greene-Sanders

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Thought experiments (TEs) are imaginative tools used across various fields to explore theoretical and practical issues. This dissertation focuses on the application of TEs in ethics, specifically emphasizing the underdeveloped enlightenment function. The traditional use of TEs in ethics often aims to clarify, support, or refute specific claims through an argumentative structure. However, this work argues that TEs also play a key role in enhancing ethical competence by acknowledging the complexities of ethical dilemmas and fostering moral skills like critical thinking, moral reasoning, and ethical awareness through non-argumentative and non-theory-centric means.

The dissertation begins by explaining the nature and historical …

Miradas Bioéticas: Antología De Reflexiones Para La Educación, Luisa Johana Lara Rodríguez

Ciencias Administrativas, Económicas y Contables

El libro "Miradas bioéticas: antología de reflexiones para la educación" es un proyecto de varios años que invita al lector a reflexionar sobre temas educativos desde la perspectiva de la bioética. Esta antología recopila ensayos y reflexiones que exploran cuestiones fundamentales como la vida, la salud y la dignidad humana en un contexto de avances científicos y tecnológicos. Cada contribución ofrece una ventana a debates que moldean nuestra comprensión de la bioética en un mundo complejo y tecnológicamente avanzado. El libro subraya el papel crucial de la educación para fomentar un pensamiento crítico y ético, esencial para abordar dilemas éticos …

Picturesque Portraiture: The Composition Of Reality In Hawthorne, Melville, And James, Angela Michael Gattuso Densmore

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Throughout the nineteenth century, American artists were tangled in debates regarding the representation of reality. The Hudson River School of picturesque landscape painters tackled this dilemma with a compromise formula which used the real objects of nature to create ideal scenes. This dissertation applies the same picturesque formula to select examples of literary portraiture, studied under the concept of “picturesque portraiture.” Whereas the Hudson River compromise resulted in an ideal perception of reality, however, the picturesque portraits composed by nineteenth-century authors Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, and Henry James attempt to invoke a non-idealized “actual” reality of the portrait subject’s person …

Philosophy Versus The Continental/Analytic Distinction, Jeremy Barris

Humanities Faculty Research

The distinction between analytic and continental philosophy is not a philosophical distinction. It is a sociological one, incorporating political and psychological dimensions. I shall argue that this distinction is a symptom of, most relevantly, professionalization, and that professionalization excludes philosophy. As a result, the only philosophically meaningful consequence that the analytic/continental distinction has is to alert us by conceptual contrast to what it is that we should concern ourselves with instead. This alternative focus is the a-professional contexts and features of actual philosophy. The analytic/continental distinction usefully points us to these as that to which the specific structure and disciplinary …

Equipmentality As A Pharmakon, Sherif Khalil

Theses and Dissertations

One must lose the world to know himself, if in his attempt to know the world he lost himself.

In this thesis, I argue that equipment is a pharmakon in that its harm lies in the service it is supposed to provide. Through equipment one gets to have a practical sense of the world. But, the world in this sense is a world for everyone and for no one in particular, that is, it is made to the measure of the average person who has no aspirations to realize his authenticity. That is how equipment helps us practically make sense …

C. S. Lewis: An Inclusive Apologist, Braden Daniels

NEXUS: The Liberty Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies

No abstract provided.

J. R. R. Tolkien And Escapism, Caleb Webb

NEXUS: The Liberty Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies

No abstract provided.

Exploring The Genetics Of Myotonic Dystrophy Type 1 And Its Ethical Implications, Caleb Smith

NEXUS: The Liberty Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies

No abstract provided.

Inciting Peace From The Inside Out, Stephen G. Adubato, Ebere Bosco Amakwe, Katherine Hinic, Sarita Maldjian, Forrest Pritchett, Jon Radwan, Nicholas Sooy, Chad Thralls

Conferences

Violence and war can be incited, and so can peace. This volume shares select addresses and responses from Seton Hall University’s 2/7/23 conference “Inciting Peace From The Inside Out.” A multi-disciplinary range of scholars each addresses how reconciliation processes grow from spiritual dynamics. Multiple religious traditions teach contemplative praxes that prioritize and nurture personal reflection oriented toward peace. Social conflicts divide, so engaging them with a partisan orientation only serves to escalate harmful rifts. In contrast, bringing personal awareness and sensitivity, spiritual balance, and holistic integral perspective to conflict can transcend divisions and work toward unity. This volume is supported …

“Women And Lockean Theory: John Locke, Rachel Speght, And Egalitarian Personhood, Katherine Gillespie, Bas Van Der Vossen

Philosophy Faculty Articles and Research

Liberal political thought affirms the moral equality of all persons. The Lockean tradition within liberalism captures this equality by endowing people with equal natural rights. However, a powerful line of criticism holds that the theory fails to live up to its egalitarian billing by treating men and women differently. This article offers a rational reconstruction of the Lockean position on gender equality, and the rights of women in particular. We propose a novel interpretative method which puts Locke into conversation with a contemporary female author, Rachel Speght. In Speght, we find an interesting argument supporting an egalitarian Lockean view, grounded …

Socrates On Cookery And Rhetoric, Freya M. Mobus

Philosophy: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Socrates believes that living well is primarily an intellectual undertaking: we live well if we think correctly. To intellectualists, one might think, the body and activities related to it are of little interest. Yet Socrates has much to say about food, eating, and cookery. This paper examines Socrates’ criticism of ‘feeding on opson’ (opsophagia) in Xenophon’s Memorabilia and of opson cookery (opsopoiia) in Plato’s Gorgias. I argue that if we consider the specific cultural meaning of eating opson, we can see that Socrates takes a nuanced stance on food and cookery: he recommends careful consumption and skillful production, not austerity …

Neo-Aristotelian Friendship And Non-Human Animals: Can I Be Friends With My Dog?, Dustin Sigsbee

Between the Species

“A dog is man’s best friend” is a well-known and widely used phrase, but are we right in thinking that dogs are our friends? If so, do we owe our dogs what we owe our friends? Aristotle recognized three different kinds of friends: friends of utility, friends of pleasure, and friends of virtue. I suggest that dogs can meet the conditions necessary for entering into the first two kinds of friendship, but that there is a potential moral hazard in thinking about our relationship with dogs in these terms. It is unclear whether dogs can meet the more stringent conditions …

Korean Newspapers And The “Irish Problem”: Japanese Censorship In Colonial Korea, 1920-1930, Jaehyun Kim

Student Work

Jaehyun Kim’s thesis, “Korean Newspapers and the ‘Irish Problem’: Japanese Censorship in Colonial Korea, 1920-1930,” touches upon a subject that scholars of colonial Korea have given insufficient attention to. Kim asks why there featured so many colonial Korean run newspaper articles on the Irish Independent movement in the 1920s and 1930s when the Japanese colonial government actively censored Korean newspapers. Indeed, in the wake of the March First Independent Movement, the colonial authorities shifted its harsh military rule to a more conciliatory cultural policy, allowing Koreans to vent their nationalistic sentiments within the confines of state control. However, the level …

The One-And-A-Half Chinas’ Problem: Taiwan And The Origins Of Peaceful Reunification, 1978–1988, Lucas Miner

Student Work

Lucas Miner’s thesis, “The One-and-a-Half Chinas’ Problem, Taiwan and the Origins of Peaceful Reunification, 1978–1988,” deals with attempts by the Chinese Communist Party and the Guomindang to achieve unification between the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and Taiwan during the early phase of China’s reform era. The thesis seeks to update our interpretation of Cross-Strait relations by exploring the origins of peaceful reunification, tracing its early evolution from 1978 to 1985. Primary sources from both sides of the strait—especially from the rich repository at the Academia Historica in Taipei—allows Miner to construct a nuanced and significant narrative that uniquely incorporates …

Leo Strauss On Machiavelli: Athens Vs. Jerusalem Or Ontological Assumptions About Human Nature And Power, Dickson Tiphaine, Jokić Aleksandar

Philosophy Faculty Publications and Presentations

In this article we focus on the true nature of a disparity asserted in Leo Strauss's discussion of Machiavelli to amount to a virtue battle of sorts between Athens and Jerusalem. To convey this conflict Strauss is drawing both on his once Talmudic scholarship and his expertise in the history of political philosophy. We explore the stunning distortions, both theological and philosophical, in Strauss's discussion that appears aimed to support a conservative position on leadership, which calls for the magnanimous few to exercise power over the many (the lowborn, the poor and the vulgar). Not only does Strauss distort the …