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Applying Gadamer: An Evaluation Of Interpretations Of The Confucian Analects By Different Schools Under The Light Of Gadamerian Hermeneutics, Yifeng Xu

Senior Independent Study Theses

This thesis attempts to analyse and evaluate several interpretations of the Confucian Analects under the light of Gadamerian hermeneutics. In chapter 1, I explicate Gadamerian hermeneutics and analyse Gadamer’s hermeneutical view. In chapter 2, I introduce a challenge to Gadamer’s theory regarding the problem of objectivity, give Gadamer a limited defence, and then reconstruct Gadamerian hermeneutics in order to answer the challenge. Chapter 3 deals with some further concerns about the application of Gadamerian hermeneutics in terms of evaluating interpretations. Chapter 4 and 5 are spent on analysing two groups of interpretations of the Confucian Analects as well as the …

Tying Truth's Shoes: The Value Of A Realist Notion Of Truth Within Democratic Discourse, Emma Arvedon

Senior Independent Study Theses

This thesis attempts to answer the question; what is the value of a realist notion of truth in democratic discourse? It is divided into 4 main chapters, along with an introduction and some short concluding remarks.

In my introduction I attempt to give some preliminary reasons I became interested in this question in the first place. I also clarify some terms that I will use for the rest of the paper.

The first chapter is devoted to delineating a realist notion of truth. I focus on defining features of the theory, consider other competing theories of truth, defend a realist …

Humans Are Superior — By Human Standards, Susana Monsó

Animal Sentience

Chapman & Huffman argue that humans are neither unique nor superior to other animals. I believe they are right in claiming that we are no more unique than any other species, but wrong in assuming that this means we cannot be ranked as superior. I show how this need not undermine the central aim of their target article, for superiority can only be measured with respect to a certain standard, and it’s only by using anthropocentric standards that we can be plausibly regarded as superior. Other — perhaps more neutral — standards yield different results.

Animal Cognition: Quantity Has A Quality Of Its Own, Ivaylo Borislavov Iotchev, Kauê Machado Costa

Animal Sentience

Chapman & Huffman’s moral analysis fails to prove that the exploitation of animals or the environment is causally connected to beliefs about human capacities. Their exposition of the philosophical interpretations of animal cognition ignores historical context and confounds different levels of analysis. Their analysis of the scientific literature, from which they conclude that humans should not be considered as different from other animals, does not take into account many recent psychological and neuroscientific developments and rests upon a flawed understanding of the relationship between gradual and categorical differences, misrepresenting the two as mutually exclusive concepts.

Octopus Umwelt Or Umwelten?, Luis H. Favela

Animal Sentience

Even if its intelligent behaviors are the product of decentralized control systems, Mather argues that the octopus has an “Umwelt,” and, thus, a mind. I argue that Umwelt does not provide a conceptual basis for understanding the octopus as having a mind. First, Umwelt does not refer only to an organism’s perceptual abilities. Second, in providing evidence for decentralized control systems that underlie intelligent behaviors, Mather makes a case against an octopus Umwelt. Instead, the octopus is more akin to a collection of systems, or Umwelten, than a single system with an Umwelt.

Intelligence, Complexity, And Individuality In Sheep, Lori Marino, Debra Merskin

Animal Sentience

Domestic sheep (Ovis aries) are among the earliest animals domesticated for human use. They are consumed worldwide as mutton, hogget, and lamb, kept as wool and milk producers, and used extensively in scientific research. The popular stereotype is that sheep are docile, passive, unintelligent, and timid, but a review of the research on their behavior, affect, cognition, and personality reveals that they are complex, individualistic, and social.

Higher-Order Thought And Borderline Cases Of Consciousness: An Objection To Hot, Francesca Karin Beach

Scripps Senior Theses

David Rosenthal, in his Higher-Order Thought (HOT) theory of consciousness, argues that it is a higher-order thought to the effect that the subject is in a conscious state that makes one conscious of his or her own mental states. In this paper, I argue that since phenomenal consciousness can be vague and Rosenthal’s HOT cannot, HOT is not a necessary condition of phenomenal consciousness. I use primarily Ned Blocks’ refrigerator hum case and Sartre’s example of non-positional awareness to argue that the threshold which determines the degree of first-person awareness necessary for a mental state to be conscious is vague …

Superior Or Inferior, Human Uniqueness Is Manifold, Scott Atran

Animal Sentience

Chapman & Huffman (C & H) contend that, as with all biological traits, there is evolutionary continuity underlying cognitive and social traits previously thought to be unique to humans. Yet C & H, like Darwin, appeal to a seemingly unique moral aptitude that enables humans to be kind to conspecific strangers and other species.

A Community Of Minds, Bennett L. Schwartz

Animal Sentience

Mather (2019) provides an excellent overview of the literature on octopus perception, cognition, memory, and behavior. Anyone interested in cephalopod cognition and brain organization will find her target article informative and interesting. In this commentary, I challenge the idea that an individual organism must have an individual mind. Given the structure of the octopus brain and their complex behavior, one must consider the possibility that an octopus is a community of minds rather than a single mind.

Predictors Of Perceived Multicultural Competence Among Neuropsychological Trainees, Hannah K. Greenbaum

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Multicultural competence is necessary to provide psychological services to an increasingly diverse population (Sue, 2001). It is established that multicultural competence is important for training in psychology (Bodin et al., 2014; Diaz-Santos & Hill, 2016). Despite increased interest in recent years, multicultural competence in neuropsychology has not progressed in parallel with the focus of multiculturalism in psychology broadly (Rivera Mindt, Byrd, Saez, & Manly, 2010). Little is known about multicultural assessment, and it is not yet known what factors in training contribute to perceived multicultural competence in neuropsychological trainees (Elbulok-Charape, Rabin, Spadaccini, & Barr, 2014). The primary purpose of this …

Epic Stories: Sequence Fiction, Young Readers, And The Aesthetics Of World Building, Jordana Estelle Hall

Theses and Dissertations

This study theorizes the world building processes that sequence fiction engages within a framework of intratextual structuralism and cognitive aesthetic stage theory. The study begins with an interdisciplinary overview of fictional and possible worlds theory before proposing a structural adaptation of this lens that explains the developmental, aesthetic benefits of the genre for young readers. Chapter II is an application of the adapted lens to a canonical epic, the His Dark Materials sequence by Philip Pullman. I interpret the intentional structure of the story world across novels to discuss how these engage readers at different aesthetic milestones and encourage a …

Understanding The Lived Experiences Of Counselors Who Have Been Assaulted By Clients, Cynthia S. Ellison

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Assault of community-based mental health professionals is a worldwide phenomenon, and current extant literature examines the prevalence of client assault on counselors, social workers, and psychiatric personnel. While there is significant quantitative scholarship on the incidence of this phenomenon on social workers and psychiatric personnel, there are limited statistical data on client-perpetrated violence against community-based counselors and no qualitative studies found that examined how these professionals experience this occupation risk. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to explore how counselors who work in community-based settings make sense of these experiences. Through semi structured interviews, 6 community-based counselors living in …

Tweet!! Persidangan Burung Singapura, Harry Aveling

Paradigma: Jurnal Kajian Budaya

Religions have become the main topics in the novels by a prolific Singaporean author, Isa Kamari (born in 1960). His understanding and interpretation of religions have begun to develop with the writing of his first novel Satu Bumi (One Earth) in 1998. His latest novel, Tweet (2016) was influenced by an allegorical and mystical work, Persidangan Burung (Bird Conference) (c.1177). Two main narratives, one in the form of a physical nature between a grandfather and his grandson in a bird garden in Singapore and the other in the form of a spiritual nature concerning spiritual birds, ran parallel and converged …

Virus Wannacry Dalam Teks Berita: Analisis Wacana Kritis Atas Laman Kemkominfo, Kompas.Com, Dan Jawapos.Com, Izhatullaili Izhatullaili

Paradigma: Jurnal Kajian Budaya

Critical Discourse Analysis is a study that analyzes language usage in terms of linguistic features and a social practice. Each type of mass media shows a different tendency in conveying information through the language it uses. Likewise, there are some differences between government and non-government media as well. The data in this study were obtained by collecting texts related to WannaCry virus news taken from the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, Kompas.com and JawaPos.com. Abductive inferences technique was used to draw conclusions by connecting one text to other texts. The different tendencies in media’s linguistic features and ideologies were …

Turbulent National Identity In Laos: The Hmong Ethnic Group As A Case Study, Dewi Hermawati Resminingayu

Paradigma: Jurnal Kajian Budaya

Since the independence, Laos has changed its national identity based on different principles namely Buddhism, Socialism and Consolidation between Buddhism and Socialism. These changes have given dynamic impacts to the identity of the people not only from their political life but also from socio-cultural life. This paper will specifically discuss the impacts undergone by the Hmong as one of the ethnic minorities that are often excluded from the discussion of ethnic groups in Laos. The discussion uses three approaches of ethnicity, namely Primordialism, Instrumentalism, and Constructivism in order to explain the dynamic identity of the Hmong. This paper argues that …

Hitam Putih Prri-Permesta: Konvergensi Dua Kepentingan Berbeda 1956–1961, Faishal Hilmy Maulida

Paradigma: Jurnal Kajian Budaya

Regional upheavals that occurred in Sumatra and Sulawesi in the period of 1956–1961 indicated a meeting point between two interests, i.e. the desire of the regions to get rights through regional autonomy and develop power to eradicate communism. This paper aimed at analysing regional upheavals involving PRRI-Permesta in terms of the meeting point between the two different interests. The method used in this study is a historical one. The results showed that the upheavals that arose from certain interests could not be accommodated by the central government, and this made the region take the initiative to solve them with military …

Asia As Method: Toward Deimperialization, Ade Solihat

Paradigma: Jurnal Kajian Budaya

No abstract provided.

Representasi Sipil-Militer Dan Konstruksi Maskulinitas Pada Film Jenderal Soedirman (2015), Hary Ganjar Budiman, Kunto Sofianto

Paradigma: Jurnal Kajian Budaya

Jenderal Soedirman (2015) is a historical film that reveals the story of General Soedirman during the guerrilla war to maintain the Indonesia’s independence. The film was sponsored directly by the army (Kartika Eka Paksi Foundation and TNI) and involved the army in its making process. Therefore, the historical representation of this film is a history from the army’s point of view. Referring to Gramsci, a film can be seen as a hegemonic apparatus that contributes to the process of negotiating the interests of dominant groups. This study attempted to elaborate such representations of civil-military relationships and masculinity construction contained in …

Sovereign Women In A Muslim Kingdom. The Sultanahs Of Aceh, 1641 – 1699, Julianti Parani

Paradigma: Jurnal Kajian Budaya

No abstract provided.

Foucault And The Recommencement Of Philosophy, Javier De La Higuera

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

Javier de la Higuera discusses in his “Foucault and the Recommencement of Philosophy” the idea of a recommencement of philosophy that Michel Foucault has posited on several occasions, although with different meaning and intentions. This article reconstructs how he approached this in the 1960s and shows the fundamental changes that this idea of recommencement underwent in the later Foucault. In his last three years at the Collège de France, Foucault appeared to reinterpret the very idea of philosophy based on his analysis of ancient spirituality and of parrhesiastic philosophical practice. The interpretation that Gilles Deleuze gave of late Foucault, devoted …

Of The Processes Of Subjectivation As A Subspecies Of The Event: The Deleuzian Reading Of The Later Foucault, Francisco J. Alcalá

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his article, “On the Processes of Subjectivation as a Subspecies of the Event: the Deleuzian Reading of the Later Foucault” Francisco Alcala discusses the well-known theoretical separation that occurred between Gilles Deleuze and Michel Foucault after the publication of The Will to Knowledge. Deleuze disagreed with the new function that Foucault attributed in this book to the apparatuses of power (to be constitutive of truth) because he considered that such an approach denied an inherent status to the phenomena of resistance, making all reality a truth of power. The aim of this paper is to analyze this controversy: …

Literature Of The Self In Foucault: Parrhesia And Autobiographical Discourse, Álvaro Luque

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his article "Literature of the Self in Foucault: Parrhesia and Autobiographical Discourse" Álvaro Luque Amo analyzes the framework of Foucault’s study of the technologies of the self. In his study, Michel Foucault analyses the practices of self-writing in the Graeco-Roman period. From this perspective, Foucault approaches the texts of classical authors to interpret what he calls a process of ethopoiesis, or construction of the subject: a subject who tells the truth about himself in the text. Foucault introduces concepts and ideas that are essential to understanding the evolution of autobiography and literature of the self. This article studies …

Jewish Mysticism From Borges To Cirlot: A Transatlantic Approach To The Possibility Of A Non-Subject Subjectivity, Erika Martínez

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article “Jewish Mysticism from Borges to Cirlot,” Erika Martínez discusses the form in which some Latin American and Spanish poets of the twentieth century have experimented, in a disruptive way, with the subjective possibilities of stillness and of time capable of overflowing. Foucault defended, in his last lectures, the construction of a new governmentality of self and of others. Among the many possible technologies to achieve it would be that of the writing of a poetry without words, knowing the insurrectional potentiality of silence. This provides us with a possible starting point for reading the post-secular revision of …

Discarnation: Expounding On Marshall Mcluhan's Critique Of Modern Subjectivity, Amanda Sevilla

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This project presents Marshall McLuhan’s work as an explication of discarnate subjectivity in mediated environments, with special focus on the consequences of technological environments in society. The first and second chapters focus on McLuhan’s ground, sensibilities, and practice to shed light on his intricate discussions of social perceptions emerging in modern times—i.e., communal awareness propels perceptual and cultural shifts. The third chapter attends to people’s perceptual compass, or their ability to interpret the world around them. Chapter four considers some of the phenomenological aspects of McLuhan’s probes. The ideas show disconnects between time and space that contribute to discarnation in …

Four Phases Of Subjectivity: A Rhetorical And Phenomenological Analysis Of Aimé Césaire And Cahier D’Un Retour Au Pays Natal, Chelsea Binnie

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation project sets out to perform a rhetorical and phenomenological analysis of the subjectivity that Césaire portrays in his epic poem Cahier d’un retour au pays natal, or Notebook of a Return to My Native Land. Césaire published and republished Cahier four times in a 17-year period and the modified accounts of subjectivity presented in the lines of the poem mirrors that of Césaire’s own human subjectivity. Césaire poetically unleashes Cahier and his Négritude project in an effort to shift the geography of reason from its self-appointed European center, to create a liminal space for the totalized …

Moral Philosophy: A Contemporary Introduction, Daniel R. Denicola

Gettysburg College Faculty Books

Moral Philosophy: A Contemporary Introduction is a compact yet comprehensive book offering an explication and critique of the major theories that have shaped philosophical ethics. Engaging with both historical and contemporary figures, this book explores the scope, limits, and requirements of morality. DeNicola traces our various attempts to ground morality: in nature, in religion, in culture, in social contracts, and in aspects of the human person such as reason, emotions, caring, and intuition.

Narrating The Collapse: The Use And Limits Of A Phenomenology Of Depression, James Bodington

Philosophy ETDs

This project is an attempt to apply certain of the insights of phenomenological philosophy to the analysis of the lived experience of depression. I argue that the centering of experience in phenomenology can, and should, motivate its use in the context of the philosophical analysis of mental health, and may contribute to therapeutic aims as well. While this has been remarked upon in recent and current literature, this project motivates, engages with, augments, and challenges existing philosophical approaches to mental health and depression. I begin by surveying the existing literature, and bringing the critiques of classical phenomenology suggested by Guenther’s …

The Documentality Of Memory In The Post-Truth Era, Claire Scopsi

Proceedings from the Document Academy

This article analyzes the documentality of memories in order to ground further consideration of memory for historical research in the post-truth era. The article compares discussions of the document in document theory to those in French historical epistemology in order to establish what is a reliable documentary source. Formerly, reliability was rooted in the paradigm of truth and the authenticity guaranteed by institutions and scientists. In today's post-truth era, these foundations are questioned. This article suggests that we consider the production of historical narratives as a design process, and that we evaluate the truthfulness of a source according to three …

Transcending The Panels: Varieties Of Experience And Selfhood In Comics., Will D. Simpson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation, I argue that the typical formal features of American comics over the past century have influenced the types of narrative content that tend to be communicated by said medium. I argue that the types of reader experiences that are afforded by the comics form, in part, shape the types of stories told through comics. The experiences that result from the ways we engage perceptually, cognitively, emotionally, and conceptually with comics imply a certain view of selfhood that is potentially subversive in the context of American cultural religiosity and spirituality. The formal features of comics, and the resulting …

Denial: David Irving, And The Complexities Of Representing A Holocaust Denier, Kirril Shields, Ted Nannicelli, Henry Theriault

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

Mick Jackson’s 2016 film Denial, based on the libel case brought against Deborah Lipstatd’s publisher by David Irving, was discussed as a panel event at the 13^th International Association of Genocide Scholars conference, held at the University of Queensland on the evening of July 12, 2017. Dr. Kirril Shields presented on the difficulty of representation, addressing the film’s portrayal of David Irving. Dr. Ted Nannicelli followed with a discussion centered on the film’s use of cinematic rhetoric as positioned in various examples throughout Denial. Dr. Henry Theriault gave the final paper, examining the philosophy of the act of …