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Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
The Esoteric Quality Of Montaigne’S Essays: The Essay As A Philosophic Response To Extreme Forms Of Skepticism, Victoria Russo
The Esoteric Quality Of Montaigne’S Essays: The Essay As A Philosophic Response To Extreme Forms Of Skepticism, Victoria Russo
Honors Program Theses and Projects
According to Judith Shklar (1990, 611) not only is Montaigne Emerson’s hero, but Emerson is the American thinker in whom one finds the greatest understanding and appreciation of Montaigne’s Essays (see also Shklar 1989). The kinship between Montaigne and Emerson extends beyond the latter’s appreciation of the former. Both essayists address the topics of skepticism and the relationship between skepticism and how one ought to live. In doing so, both Emerson and Montaigne speak to the philosophical importance of literature and how one should understand the relationship between literature and philosophy.
The Existential Philosophy Of David Foster Wallace, Shoshana Primak
The Existential Philosophy Of David Foster Wallace, Shoshana Primak
Honors Program Theses and Projects
It is no secret that philosophy and literature are often closely intertwined: beginning with works as old as Plato’s dialogues, philosophers have always seen the merit in utilizing fiction to share philosophy with both their contemporaries and with the general public. The most prominent existentialists are perhaps the most famous for using literature as a vehicle for their philosophical ideas: Friedrich Nietzsche, Søren Kierkegaard, Albert Camus, Simone de Beauvoir, and Jean-Paul Sartre all published some kind of fiction, through parables, novels, plays, and so forth. Likewise, I will argue in this thesis that renowned writer David Foster Wallace was not …
Towards An Understanding Of Nietzsche’S Will To Power, Jeffrey Beery
Towards An Understanding Of Nietzsche’S Will To Power, Jeffrey Beery
Honors Program Theses and Projects
Given his aphoristic writing style, his poetical and metaphorical depictions of philosophical ideas, and his presentations of seemingly logically contradictory or inconsistent views, Friedrich Nietzsche’s philosophy lends itself to a variety of competing interpretations among scholars and a plethora of misconceptions among everyday readers. These misconceptions have invited many negative connotations to be attributed to his philosophy, including Nazism, misogyny, and egoism. Amongst his most misconstrued concepts is the Will to Power, a concept Nietzsche himself never explicitly defines, but discusses in a variety of ways throughout his texts.
A Smithian Perspective On Aristotle's Virtuous Friend, Meagan Fraser
A Smithian Perspective On Aristotle's Virtuous Friend, Meagan Fraser
Honors Program Theses and Projects
No abstract provided.
Epistemic Problems In Contemporary History, Michael Hollien
Epistemic Problems In Contemporary History, Michael Hollien
Honors Program Theses and Projects
A recent trend in contemporary written history is towards what I term “narrative” history, where the significant events of the past are framed within traditional dramatic structure and told through the personal vignettes of the common people who experienced them. This makes for immersive reading, but the complication in this approach is that history, at least in part, purports to be a true telling of the past. Therein lies the problem. I shall argue that narrative history’s pervasive use of literary technique and witness testimony in order to make truth claims about the past is epistemically unjustified. That does not …
Beyond The Process God: A Defense Of The Classical Divine Attributes, Steven J. Young
Beyond The Process God: A Defense Of The Classical Divine Attributes, Steven J. Young
Honors Program Theses and Projects
Because of the work of process philosophers Alfred North Whitehead and Charles Hartshorne, a view of God has emerged as being in a constant state of flux. The power and knowledge of the process God are much more restricted than the power and knowledge of the classical God, but such diminutions supposedly safeguard divine goodness from tyrannical implications. In this paper, I defend the classical divine attributes against process philosophers. More specifically, I argue that God’s omnipotence does not diminish divine goodness and that a deity with such restricted power would not function as a proper object of worship. In …
On Epistemic Egalitarianism For My P-Zombie Twin: In Defense Of The Phenomenal Concept Strategy, Diane Smedberg
On Epistemic Egalitarianism For My P-Zombie Twin: In Defense Of The Phenomenal Concept Strategy, Diane Smedberg
Honors Program Theses and Projects
One current debate in philosophy of mind concerns the ontological and epistemological nature of phenomenal consciousness. Two major camps dominate this debate: property dualists and physicalists. For property dualists, the existence of an epistemic gap between the physical and the phenomenal—that our knowledge of the physical does not secure our knowledge of the phenomenal—entails an ontological gap, so that the physical and the phenomenal exist as fundamentally distinct domains. For physicalists, the ontological gap does not exist because there is only one ontological type of phenomenal property. In this paper, I will criticize the property dualists’ position. I concentrate on …
A Presuppositional Rejection Of Enlightenment Evidentialism, Ethan P. Rogers
A Presuppositional Rejection Of Enlightenment Evidentialism, Ethan P. Rogers
Honors Program Theses and Projects
Epistemology is concerned with the nature of knowledge, truth, and the justification of belief. Epistemology of religion considers these issues in relation to religious truth claims (e.g., whether or not it is reasonable to believe that God exists). Often, the epistemology of religion leads to inquiry into fundamental attitudes towards the criteria for justification. For example, a major strain of contemporary epistemology of religion has been characterized “as a debate over whether evidentialism applies to the belief component of faith, or whether we should instead adopt a more permissive epistemology.” Thus, whether or not evidentialism is the appropriate approach to …