Digital Commons Network^™

How To Go Beyond The Body: An Introduction, Guy Dove

Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Embodied cognition represents one of most important theoretical developments in contemporary cognitive science. Many cognitive processes appear to be influenced by body morphology, emotions, and sensorimotor systems. This perspective is supported by an ever increasing collection of empirical studies that fall into two broad classes: one consisting of experiments that implicate action, emotion, and perception systems in seemingly abstract cognitive tasks and the other consisting of experiments that demonstrate the contribution of bodily interaction with the external environment to the performance of such tasks.

Now that embodied cognition is fairly well established, the time seems right for assessing its further …

Presence-At-Hand, Eric Lyle Schultz

Graduate School of Art Theses

Abstract

The writing that follows is intended to provide a theoretical framework for the motives behind my practice. The primary concerns addressed are the reception, transmission, and physical shape of knowledge. I will discuss a human condition that exists as a byproduct of both the legacy of representation as well as the innate biology of the brain. I will argue that as a society we are governed by the residue of an extreme logic, and that this condition places severe margins on our potential for creative solutions. I will propose that our ability to create meaning is stifled by the …

Editor's Introduction To The Neo-Kantian Reader, Sebastian Luft

Philosophy Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

The Thesis Of Norm Transformation In The Theory Of Mass Atrocity, Paul Morrow

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

Theoretical accounts of genocide and mass atrocity commonly embrace the thesis of norm transformation. This thesis holds, first, that individual and institutional participation in such crimes is at least partially explained by transformations in basic norms that structure social and political life. It holds, second, that preventing future occurrences of such crimes requires changing norms that currently govern the actions of particular individual and institutional actors. This paper clarifies, defends, and extends the thesis of norm transformation. It clarifies this thesis by providing a general account of the nature and dynamics of norms. It defends this thesis against charges of …

Plato’S Socrates, Local Hermeneutics, And The Just Community Of Learners: Socratic Dialectic As Inclusive Democratic Discourse, James Magrini

Philosophy Scholarship

In previous papers I have brought philosophical hermeneutics in conversation with critical hermeneutics, in order to open the potential for Gadamer’s “moderate hermeneutics” to be re-considered as a potential democratic practice of discourse with the potential of transforming social situations that are unjust and inequitable (Magrini, 2015; 2014). Emerging from this conceptual/theoretical “textual” analysis of philosophical hermeneutics and critical hermeneutics, I offer a reading of the ancient Socratic practice of dialectic as a form of critical, inclusive, and constructive democratic dialogue, i.e., an expression of local normative hermeneutics grounded in a form of understanding that occurs through consensus and negotiation …

What Fanon Said: A Philosophical Introduction To His Life And Thought, Lewis R. Gordon, Sonia Dayan-Herzbrun, Drucilla Cornell

Philosophy & Theory

Challenging the notion of theory as white and experience as black, Lewis Gordon here offers a philosophical portrait of the thought and life of the Martinican-turned-Algerian revolutionary psychiatrist and philosopher Frantz Fanon as an example of “living thought” against the legacies of colonialism and racism, and thereby shows the continued relevance and importance of his ideas.

Subversive Humor, Chris A. Kramer

Dissertations (1934 -)

Oppression is easily recognized. That is, at least, when oppression results from overt, consciously professed racism, for example, in which violence, explicit exclusion from economic opportunities, denial of adequate legal access, and open discrimination perpetuate the subjugation of a group of people. There are relatively clear legal remedies to such oppression. But this is not the case with covert oppression where the psychological harms and resulting legal and economic exclusion are every bit as real, but caused by concealed mechanisms subtly and systematically employed. In many cases, those with power and privilege use cultural stereotypes in order to sustain an …

Health As Embodied Authenticity, Margaret Steele

Dissertations (1934 -)

This dissertation offers a phenomenological and existential account of health. It considers the model of health that is dominant in the contemporary USA. Using the example of fatness, this dissertation argues that the dominant model of health is deeply flawed, because of its largely unexamined commitment to naturalism and positivism (in the Husserlian senses of these terms). It concludes that purported alternatives to the dominant model, such as the Foucault-influenced constructivist approach to health, fail to respond adequately to the problems posed by naturalism and positivism. Instead, this dissertation proposes a model of health as embodied authenticity. This model is …

Auctor In Fabula: Umberto Eco And The Intentio Of Foucault's Pendulum, Douglas Stephens Iv

Senior Honors Theses

Umberto Eco’s 1988 novel Foucault’s Pendulum weaves together a wide range of philosophical and literary threads. Many of these threads find their other ends in Eco’s nonfiction works, which focus primarily on the question of interpretation and the source of meaning. The novel, which follows three distinctly overinterpretive characters as they descend into ruin, has been read by some as a retraction or parody of Eco’s own position. However, if Foucault’s Pendulum is indeed polemical, it must be taken as an argument against the mindset which Eco has termed the “hermetic”. Through an examination of his larger theoretical body, including …

Questions And Inquiry: Some Epistemological Applications, Jason Rourke

Dissertations - ALL

Abstract: A recent and innovative research program in epistemology aims to connect the related phenomena of questions and inquiry with epistemological concerns. This dissertation project contributes to that program, taking as its inspiration the contrastive theory of knowledge developed by Jonathan Schaffer in a series of recent papers. The dissertation is comprised of three main parts. I begin by articulating a positive account of the evaluation of knowledge attributions, an account that aims to respect the basic insights of Schaffer's contrastivism while situating them in a modal framework that makes manifest the utility of questions for epistemological theorizing. Then I …

What The Tortoise Said To Kripke: The Adoption Problem And The Epistemology Of Logic, Romina Padro

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In chapter 1 I introduce the main topics to be addressed and provide a summary of the dissertation. In chapter 2 I summarize Lewis Carroll's famous note "What the Tortoise Said to Achilles" and briefly review some of its most influential interpretations. The rest of the chapter is devoted to Kripke's unpublished interpretation of Carroll's note and the moral he draws from it: in section 2.2 I present and discuss what I call the "adoption problem" and in section 2.3 I clarify certain aspects of it. In chapter 3 I consider a modification of the original set up of the …

The Philosophical Side Of Contemporary Art Forms, Kristina Bodetti

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The purpose of this project is to show that contemporary art forms, specifically popular music, film and comics/graphic novels, are capable of, and do in many cases work as philosophical pieces. I believe that an analysis of these mediums will reveal instances in which the works of art explicate established philosophical theories, expand upon them, and in some cases invent new theories.

Each new medium of art gets examined by philosophy in its turn and its merits as a unique art form are debated. From these arguments it is possible to extrapolate the ways in which these works can become …

Four Tails Problems For Dynamical Collapse Theories, Kelvin J. Mcqueen

Philosophy Faculty Articles and Research

The primary quantum mechanical equation of motion entails that measurements typically do not have determinate outcomes, but result in superpositions of all possible outcomes. Dynamical collapse theories (e.g. GRW) supplement this equation with a stochastic Gaussian collapse function, intended to collapse the superposition of outcomes into one outcome. But the Gaussian collapses are imperfect in a way that leaves the superpositions intact. This is the tails problem. There are several ways of making this problem more precise. But many authors dismiss the problem without considering the more severe formulations. Here I distinguish four distinct tails problems. The first (bare tails …

Quentin Meillassoux: Philosophy In The Making, Graham Harman

Faculty Books

An in-depth study of the emerging French philosopher Quentin Meillassoux Freshly called to a professorship at the Sorbonne, and described as the fastest-rising French philosopher since Derrida, Meillassoux's star has continued to rise. This expanded edition of the only book on Meillassoux remains the best introduction to one of Europe's most promising thinkers. In this expanded edition of his landmark 2011 work on Meillassoux, Graham Harman assesses Meillassoux's publications in English so far, covering new materials not available to the Anglophone reader at the time of the first edition. Along with Meillassoux's startling book on Mallarm's poem 'Un coup de …

Rooted And Rootless Pluralist Approaches To Truth:Two Distinct Interpretations Of Wang Chong’S Account, Bo Mou

Comparative Philosophy

No abstract provided.

Wang Chong, Truth, And Quasi-Pluralism, Lajos L. Brons

Comparative Philosophy

No abstract provided.

Heidegger And Indian Thinking: The Hermeneutic Of A “Belonging-Together” Of Negation And Affirmation , Jaison D. Vallooran

Comparative Philosophy

No abstract provided.

Performativity, Social Ontology, And The Uses Of Narratives In Latin America , Ivan Marquez

Comparative Philosophy

No abstract provided.

Wittgenstein And Buddhism? On Alleged Affinities With Zen And Madhyamaka , Florian Demont-Biaggi

Comparative Philosophy

No abstract provided.

Michel Henry’S Phenomenological Christology: From Transcendentalism To The Gospel Of John, Jeremy H. Smith

English Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

What Is Moral Reasoning?, Leland F. Saunders

SPU Works

No abstract provided.

Ethics In Exhibitions: Considering Indigenous Art, Rachel Bonner

Richard T. Schellhase Essay Prize in Ethics

No abstract provided.

Transpersonal Space/Time Through The Arts, Lisa Herman

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

As transpersonal researchers and practitioners work to articulate the meaning of transpersonal individually and collectively, I suggest conceptualizing transpersonal space/time as real in a physically felt sense. This embodied knowing is best practiced and expressed through the arts. The premise is situated within a larger field using the term liminal as a parallel meaning construct for transpersonal I present my own work referencing a range of disciplines where scholars and practitioners using the terms liminal, transpersonal and others, artfully express their understanding of extra-ordinary experience. A personal example through creative writing is offered demonstrating the way my body/mind inquiring into …

The Civilian Basilian: Marshall Mcluhan And St. John Fisher College, Timothy Madigan

Philosophy and Classical Studies Faculty/Staff Publications

In lieu of an abstract, here is the chapter's first paragraph:

In 2004 I became a professor of philosophy at St. John Fisher College, a small liberal arts institution in the Rochester, New York founded in 1949 by a Catholic religious order called the Congregation of St. Basil (CSB). Some years after joining the college, while working on a project with Diane Lucas, our then-campus archivist, I was startled when she mentioned to me in passing that Marshall McLuhan’s daughter Stephanie had been doing research in our archives on her father’s work. Marshall McLuhan?! I was astonished to hear that …

The ‘New’ Heidegger, Babette Babich

Articles and Chapters in Academic Book Collections

If discussion of “new” approaches to Martin Heidegger contradicts Heidegger’s own indictment of the passion for “novelty” in philosophy, today’s Black Notebooks scandal reminds us of the ontic problem of new news. Indeed the backwards working evidence of the notebooks kept before, during, and after WWII both vindicates and problematizes his notion of temporality temporalizing from the future -- lapsing into the past -- setting up what is now regarded as patent in the present. Simultaneously, we see that if heretofore many philosophers of technology sought to dismiss engagement with Heidegger’s critique of technology, these critical contributions turn out to …

On Derivative Moral Responsibility And The Epistemic Connection Required For Moral Responsibility, William Simkulet

Philosophy and Religious Studies Department Faculty Publications

Derivative moral responsibility is not moral responsibility at all. Much of the confusion found in the literature concerning moral responsibility and the free will problem can be traced back to a penchant to reconcile our philosophical theories of moral responsibility with our folk commonsense linguistic accounts of moral responsibility, a tradition that is notable for its utter lack of making two important distinctions - (1) the distinction between derivative moral responsibility and non-derivative moral responsibility (what Galen Strawson calls “true moral responsibility”) and (2) the distinction between the scope and degree of one’s moral responsibility.1 The failure to make such …

The Philosophical Differences Between Heisenberg And Bohr, Patrick Heelan

Research Resources

Chapter from: Patrick Aidan Heelan, The Observable: Heisenberg’s Philosophy of Quantum Mechanics. With a foreword by Michel Bitbol. Edited and with a foreword by Babette Babich. Oxford: Peter Lang, 2015.

The Art Of Observation And Experience, Andrée Salom

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

Mindfulness practices aim to develop intentional awareness of the present moment. This paper touches on two of the difficulties that may arise in the course of such practice. On the one hand, the present moment may be overwhelming if there is an over-identification with the content that the practices uncover. On the other hand, the present moment may seem excessively foreign if there is an over-identification with the witnessing of such content. Art can prevent an over-identification on both poles of this equation by acting as a container for content, a source of somatic discharge, and a facilitator for observing …

The Lost Dialogue Of Artists: Negotiating The Conjuring Of Art, Diane L. Meyer

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

This article examines the nature of the duologue between artist and creative source, as a lost interplay and negotiation within the gestation of the work in a uniquely individual language that can never be fully revealed, translated, or understood by a viewer. The author, an elder, late career studio artist, draws comparisons to sacred language and interpretation positing that the conversations and relationships that form between artist and art are very different from those between works of art and humanity and have never been appropriately examined from an insider perspective. She offers reflections and writings of master artists as an …

Of The World That Freely Offers Itself: An Exploration Of Writerly/Artistic Rituals, Geri Lipschultz

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

The author, a fiction writer, explores the relationship between the writer/artist and the so-called Muse, especially with respect to working rituals that precede the artist’s creative expression and make it more accessible. She takes an informal approach to a collaborative inquiry and experiments with her own musings as she navigates through her colleagues’ responses to a questionnaire in which she asks them to qualify and self-analyze their pre-writing/painting rituals and ensuing working habits. Her attempt to deepen her own experience by understanding the experience of others unfolds in this lyric essay in which linguistic strategies serve to differentiate inner process …