Digital Commons Network^™

Reflection And Emotional Well-Being In Nietzsche And Zhuang Zi, Danesh K. Singh

Comparative Philosophy

Nietzsche and Zhuang Zi both believe that the supposed value of certain emotions they deem harmful should be questioned and that reflection can be utilized to change the emotions. They intend to disabuse those of their respective times of conventional morality, with the aim of achieving a state in which negative moral emotions are eliminated and a more natural way of life is embraced. Specifically, Nietzsche examines guilt, a remnant of an ascetic morality endorsed by the religious elite; Zhuang Zi, similarly, considers grief, a moral emotion tied to traditional culture and endorsed by Confucian morality. Living naturally involves the …

The Concept Of Non-Duality In Śaṅkara And Cusanus, Jerome Klotz

Comparative Philosophy

When comparing diverse philosophical traditions, it becomes necessary to establish a common point of departure. This paper offers a comparative analysis of Advaita Vedānta Hinduism and esoteric Christianity, as represented by the two highly celebrated figures of Śaṅkara and Nicholas Cusanus, respectively. The common point of departure on which I base this comparison is the concept of “non-duality”—a concept that is fitting for at least two reasons. First, it is general enough to encompass both traditions, pervading the work of each figure, and thus allowing for a kind of “shared language.” Second, it is specific enough to identify a set …

Fictional Characters And Their Discontents : A Prolegomena To Any Future Metaphysics Of Fictional Entities, Shamik Chakravarty

Lingnan Theses (MPhil & PhD)

In recent metaphysics, the questions of whether fictional entities exist, what their nature is, and how to explain truths of statements such as “Sherlock Holmes lives in 221B Baker Street” and “Holmes was created by Arthur Conan Doyle” have been subject to much debate. The main aim of my thesis is to wrestle with key proponents of the abstractionist view that fictional entities are abstract objects that exist (van Inwagen 1977, 2018, Thomasson 1999 and Salmon 1998) as well as Walton’s (1990) pretense view, which denies the existence of such entities. In the process, I propose modifications to these views …

Issue Introduction Volume 10, David Gray

Landscapes: the Journal of the International Centre for Landscape and Language

Issue Introduction and Editorial for Volume 10, Issue 1.

The Fourfold Route To Empirical Enlightenment Experimental Philosophy’S Adolescence And The Changing Body Of Work, Robert Barnard, Joseph Ulatowski, Jonathan M. Weinberg

Faculty and Student Publications

The time has come to consider whether experimental philosophy’s (“x-phi”) early arguments, debates, and conceptual frameworks, that may have worn well in its early days, fit with the diverse range of projects undertaken by experimental philosophers. Our aim is to propose a novel taxonomy for x-phi that identifies four paths from empirical findings to philosophical consequences, which we call the “fourfold route.” We show how this taxonomy can be fruitfully applied even at what one might have taken to be the furthest edges of possible applications of x-phi in metaphysics and formal philosophy. Ultimately, the fourfold route helps us understand …

Community Unclaimed: Plurality And The Problem Of Sovereignty In Bataille, Nancy, And Blanchot, Gregory J. Grobmeier

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation takes up the exchange between three prominent French thinkers on the question of “community”: Georges Bataille, Jean-Luc Nancy, and Maurice Blanchot. Taken together, and starting with Bataille’s prewar writings and communitarian activism in the 1930s, the exchange between them now spans nearly a century. Georges Bataille’s importance as a political thinker and writer was brought out of relative obscurity with the publication of Jean-Luc Nancy’s “La Communauté désoeuvrée” in 1983. Less than a year after the appearance of Nancy’s inaugural essay, Maurice Blanchot, a close friend of the late Bataille, published La Communauté inavouable. Blanchot’s text was …

The Vorstellungsrepräsentanz, John Shannon Hendrix

Architecture, Art, and Historic Preservation Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Critical Notice Of Words And Contents, Robert Stainton, Arthur Sullivan

Philosophy Publications

Full review of Richard Vallee's 2018 book Words and Thoughts. The article focuses on the explication and critique of John Perry's "pluri-propositional" or "reflexive referential" view, which Vallee applies to a range of context sensitive expressions.

Linguistic Prescriptivism, Alex Barber, Robert Stainton

Philosophy Publications

No abstract provided.

A Devised Ethnodrama: Conscious Voices, Sonia Pasqual

Master of Liberal Studies Theses

Using techniques of storytelling, dance, poems, and monologues in the process of re-enacting life stories, the ensemble display issues that may be impeding society’s growth—discrimination against body image, blackness, females, and LGBTQ individuals. In addition, engagement in storytelling and performance can help the audience increase their cognitive skills, empathy, and ability to live a communal life. This evidence-based practice can transform lives and society. It has the potential of continuing to other faculties and with other departments, such as film, musical, and additional narratives. This specific work could be extended out beyond art and education into populations of any communities …

Rule-Following, Enculturation, And Normative Identity, Nicholas Odom

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Rule-following has been a controversial issue in professional philosophical literature since Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations. Many authors have developed accounts of rule-following along different lines, including those that naturalistically reduce rule-following to non-normative phenomena and those that take rule-following to be an irreducible aspect of cognition and agency. Hannah Ginsborg, a prominent contributor to rule-following literature, has developed a partially reductive account of rule-following, combining features of both reductionist and nonreductionist accounts. But naturalizing or internalistic theories of rule-following, or even Ginsborg's partial reduction of rule-following, ignore important facets of what it is to follow a rule, particularly its social …

The Lived Experience Of Chronic Pain: On The Contributions Of Phenomenology In Understanding Chronic Pain Disorders, Riley C. Smith

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Chronic pain disorders are estimated to affect a significant proportion of the global population. These disorders are often debilitating and pose a substantial challenge to the everyday life of those affected. Modern medicine has made great strides in understanding the physiological processes involved in chronic pain. However, chronic pain is more than merely a physiological process. Chronic pain is an embodied mode of being-in-the-world that manifests in multiple aspects of lived experience, from the ability to perform day-to-day tasks to the relationship between body and self. Consequently, it is essential to cultivate a rich appreciation of chronic pain as a …

A Touchy Subject: Optimality And Coreference, Jill De Villiers, Jacqueline Cahillane, Emily Altreuter

Philosophy: Faculty Publications

Four studies are reported that compare production and comprehension of structures involving Principle A and B with 68 English speaking children. The stimuli included simple and complex sentences combined with simple and quantified NPs, each with reflexives and pronouns. A novel technique using a laptop proved successful for eliciting stimulus descriptions as well as truth value judgment. The results test a recent Optimality account of binding by Hendriks and Spenader (2004), but it is argued that more constraints are needed. Although the data can be fit well by the constraints, questions remain about whether it is theoretically satisfactory.

Machine Ethics, Ethics For Machines: Context-Based Modeling For Machines Making Ethical Decisions, Jaysa Ramirez

Honors Program Theses

Machine ethics is an emerging, interdisciplinary field that focuses on if – and if so, how – machines can make ethical decisions autonomously. Through a close study of two positions on whether or not machines can be moral agents, this project sheds light on a clash of assumptions that is keeping the field of machine ethics in limbo. After making this clash of assumptions clear, I raise two questions which get at the scope of machine ethics itself: 1) What makes ethical decision-making different from other kinds of decision-making? 2) To what extent can machines engage with ethics and make …

Children's Sensitivity To Prosody And Ostension In Answers To Wh-Questions, Bethany Stoddard, Jill De Villiers

Philosophy: Faculty Publications

This paper examines the effects of two often overlooked factors in children’s answers to wh-questions: the prosodic contour of the question and the complexity of the visual stimuli. There are two potential effects on the interpretation of a question in English: whether it is moved, and what kind of prosody it has.

The Tetralemma Of Nothingness, Samuel O. Sessions

Honors Theses

Grammatically, the question is rather simple. It is when we set out to answer the question that it suddenly becomes complex. What is nothing? Its very asking seems almost impossible because the ‘is’ within it brushes up against its meaning, producing paradox. How do we even begin to get at a something that is not a something? Immediately, you remark how similar this task is to a child chasing fairies in the forest or hunting for ghosts in the attic. Will we be doomed from the outset? If so, then what is the point? Our many predecessors have had varying …

An Existential Philosophy Of History, Bennett Gilbert, Natan Elgabsi

University Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

In this paper we delineate the conditions and features of what we call an existential philosophy of history in relation to customary trends in the field of the philosophy of history. We do this by circumscribing what a transgenerational temporality and what our entanglement in ethical relations with temporal others ask of us as existential and responsive selves and by explicating what attitude we need to have when trying to responsibly respond to other vulnerable beings in our historical world of life.

Existing Competencies In The Teaching Of Ethics In Computer Science Faculties, Ethics4eu Consortium

Reports

This report is one of the deliverables for the Ethics4EU project. It presents results obtained from a survey conducted in early 2020 that polled faculty from Computer Science and related disciplines on teaching practices in Computer Ethics in Computer Science across Europe. The survey was completed by respondents from 61 universities across 23 European countries. Participants were surveyed on whether or not Computer Ethics is taught to Computer Science students at each institution, the reasons why Computer Ethics is or is not taught, how Computer Ethics is taught (for example, as a standalone course or embedded within other courses), the …

Ecological And Holistic Analysis Of The Epistemic Value Of Law Libraries, Paul D. Callister, Dana Neacsu

Law Faculty Publications

We examine the libraries' roles within the "epistemic foundation of society.” Our analysis is in response to the omission of Yale Law Dean Gerken of the role of libraries in her recent article about legal education's new focus and to remarks by AALS President Vicki Jackson that suggest an uncertain role for libraries. We have adapted holistic ecological media theory, as developed by Ronald Deibert, to reject a technologically deterministic view of libraries as having no future. We have considered the role of law libraries in the social epistemology or cognitive authority of the legal community, the role of law …

The Role Of Empathy In Moral Inquiry, William Gray Kidder

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

In this dissertation, I defend the view that, despite empathy’s susceptibility to problematic biases, we can and should cultivate empathy to aid our understanding of our own values and the values of others. I argue that empathy allows us to critically examine and potentially revise our values by considering concrete moral problems and our own moral views from the perspective of another person. Appropriately calibrated empathy helps us achieve a critical distance from our own moral perspective and is thus tied to impartiality in moral inquiry. In defending this role for empathy in moral inquiry, I draw on empirical work …

แนวคิดปฏิสังสรรค์กระทำการกับปัญหาเรื่องช่องว่าง, พงศ์ศิริ ศรีวรรธนะ

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

วิทยานิพนธ์ฉบับนี้มีวัตถุประสงเพื่อวิเคราะห์และประเมินข้อถกเถียงเกี่ยวกับปัญหาเรื่องช่องว่างในกลุ่มแนวคิดปฏิสังสรรค์กระทำการ และต้องการปกป้องแนวทางการแก้ปัญหาเรื่องช่องว่างภายใต้กรอบแนวคิดปฏิสังสรรค์กระทำการแบบสร้างตนเองโดยอิสระ กล่าวคือ กลุ่มแนวคิดปฏิสังสรรค์กระทำการมีข้อเสนอร่วมกันต่อการแก้ปัญหาช่องว่างระหว่างความรู้เกี่ยวกับข้อเท็จจริงทางกายภาพกับความรู้เกี่ยวกับข้อเท็จจริงทางปรากฏการณ์ว่า ความรู้เกี่ยวกับข้อเท็จจริงทางกายภาพที่เชื่อมโยงกับความรู้เกี่ยวกับข้อเท็จจริงทางปรากฏการณ์ เป็นความรู้เกี่ยวกับรูปแบบการมีปฏิสัมพันธ์ระหว่างระบบการรู้คิดซึ่งประกอบด้วยสมองและร่างกาย กับสิ่งแวดล้อม อย่างไรก็ตาม มีข้อถกเถียงในกลุ่มแนวคิดปฏิสังสรรค์กระทำการว่า ระบบการรู้คิดซึ่งเป็นส่วนหนึ่งของปฏิสัมพันธ์ดังกล่าว เป็นระบบที่มีความสามารถสร้างตัวตนหรือไม่ ในขณะที่แนวคิดปฏิสังสรรค์กระทำการแบบสร้างตนเองโดยอิสระให้ความสำคัญกับความสามารถเรื่องการสร้างตัวตน แต่แนวคิดปฏิสังสรรค์กระทำการแบบรับสัมผัสและเคลื่อนไหวและแนวคิดปฏิสังสรรค์กระทำการแบบถึงรากถึงโคนแย้งความเห็นดังกล่าว โดยอ้างมโนทัศน์เรื่องความสามารถปรับตัว วิทยานิพนธ์ฉบับนี้ปกป้องแนวคิดปฏิสังสรรค์กระทำการแบบสร้างตนเองโดยอิสระว่าเป็นแนวทางที่แก้ปัญหาช่องว่างได้ เนื่องจากมโนทัศน์เรื่องความสามารถสร้างตัวตนเป็นมโนทัศน์ที่จำเป็นต่อการแก้ปัญหาช่องว่าง มโนทัศน์ดังกล่าวสามารถอธิบายกระบวนการการสร้างอัตลักษณ์ของระบบการรู้คิดที่แสดงถึงความเป็น ‘ผู้กระทำการ’ ของระบบ และแสดงถึงการเป็นประธานผู้มีมุมมองแบบอัตวิสัยที่มีปฏิสัมพันธ์กับสิ่งแวดล้อม การมีมุมมองอัตวิสัยของผู้กระทำการนี้เป็นพื้นฐานสำคัญของการมีประสบการณ์ความรู้สึก แต่มโนทัศน์เรื่องความสามารถปรับตัวเพียงอย่างเดียวนั้น ไม่เพียงพอที่จะอธิบายลักษณะดังกล่าวของระบบการรู้คิด จึงไม่สามารถแก้ปัญหาเรื่องช่องว่างได้

Analysis, Constructions And Diagrams In Classical Geometry, Marco Panza

MPP Published Research

Greek ancient and early modern geometry necessarily uses diagrams. Among other things, these enter geometrical analysis. The paper distinguishes two sorts of geometrical analysis and shows that in one of them, dubbed “intra-confgurational” analysis, some diagrams necessarily enter as outcomes of a purely material gesture, namely not as result of a codifed constructive procedure, but as result of a free-hand drawing.

Ten Moons: Consciousness And Intentionality In The Alambanapariksa And Its Commentaries, Jay L. Garfield

Philosophy: Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Non-Indian Reservations, Joshua Matthew Rosenau

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This thesis is a skeptical treatment of the logical distinctions presumed to exist between “Indian” and “non-Indian” people. Despite representing 99 percent of the U.S. population, “non-Indians” represent a legal identity which has no explicit definition. The basis for the U.S. Supreme Court’s decisions regarding non-Indians and Indians rests not on any objective, empirical or logical criterion or proof, but rather on the “assumption of a ‘guardian-ward’ status. This thesis investigates this assumption, and recommends that we suspend judgment on whether the difference between “Indians” and “non-Indians” can be determined either by logical argument or by legal assumption.

With Language In Mind, Jill De Villiers

Philosophy: Faculty Publications

Does language have a role to play in conceptual development, and if so, what is that role? Understanding the contents of another person’s mind parallels the development in early childhood of mental state language. Does the conceptual understanding get reflected in and drive the language development, or does the language allow the representation of propositional attitudes like belief? The paper reviews the evidence and sets up the terms of the debate, focusing on the syntax for mental states. It also asks whether syntax development could serve as a scaffold for other concepts that are described by propositions rather than labels. …

Assessing Dual Language Learners Of Spanish And English: Development Of The Quils: Es, Jill De Villiers, Aquiles Iglesias, Roberta Golinkoff, Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, Mary Sweig Wilson, Ratna Nandakumar

Philosophy: Faculty Publications

Introduction and objectives

Developing a language screener for Dual Language Learners presents numerous challenges. We discuss possible solutions for theoretical and methodological problems often encountered in the development of such a test and illustrate possible solutions using a newly developed language screener for Dual Language Learners.

Materials and methods

The process for developing, validating and norming the screener is also offered as a potential model for the development of other assessments for Dual Language Learners throughout the world. The twelve types of subtests are in three categories: Vocabulary, Syntax, and Process.

Results and conclusions

Results from the Tryout and Norming …

Heidegger, Our Monstrous Site: On Reiner Schürmann’S Reading Of The Beiträge, Ian Alexander Moore, Francesco Guercio

Philosophy Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

Memory And Mystical Detachment In Paul Celan's Eckhart-Poems, Ian Alexander Moore

Philosophy Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

Democracy, Information Technology, And Virtue Epistemology, Jason Baehr

Philosophy Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

A Content Analysis Of Euthanasia Polls In Australia And New Zealand: Words Do Matter, Graham Grove, Ian Hughes, Melanie Lovell, Megan Best

IES Papers and Journal Articles

Aim: To explore whether public support for and opposition to Euthanasia and Physician Assisted Suicide (EPAS) as measured in historic Australian and New Zealand polls has been influenced by the wording of survey questions.

Methods: Australian and New Zealand random-sample post-1995 EPAS poll questions asked of the general public were identified and subjected to content analysis. Individual phrases and words were considered in terms of their favourability towards or unfavourability against EPAS and each poll question was assigned a net favourability score. Variation of support for EPAS based on year, location and favourability of language was analysed by various statistical …