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Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities

A Philosophy Primer, Anthony Cunningham Jan 2024

A Philosophy Primer, Anthony Cunningham

Philosophy Faculty Publications

This philosophy primer serves as an introduction to the general pursuit of philosophy and the practice of sound reasoning. The primer identifies and explains seven important guiding ideals for conducting any intellectual inquiry, along with highlighting eight “good moves” to cultivate and eighteen “bad moves” to avoid.


Harmony & Cancellation Culture, Erica Stonestreet Feb 2022

Harmony & Cancellation Culture, Erica Stonestreet

Philosophy Faculty Publications

“Cancelling” people cuts off relationships in the name of taking back power from those who abuse it. But using the ancient—but still current—concept of harmony, I ask whether this is the best way to go about fixing our problems.


Social Esteem As Moral Recognition, Erica Stonestreet Jan 2019

Social Esteem As Moral Recognition, Erica Stonestreet

Philosophy Faculty Publications

Some strands of feminist and social philosophy suggest that the basis for personhood is having an identity—where identity is not defined entirely in individualistic terms of reason and autonomy and is in fact quite relational. When personhood is conceived in these terms, morality becomes a matter of recognizing persons for who they are, which includes recognizing them as members of social groups. In this paper I explore the notion of esteem as a species of recognition for these layers of identity, claiming that esteem deserves to stand on equal footing with respect as a moral attitude.


Love And Respect As Moral Attitudes And Practices Of Recognition, Erica Stonestreet Jan 2019

Love And Respect As Moral Attitudes And Practices Of Recognition, Erica Stonestreet

Philosophy Faculty Publications

Beginning from the premise that moral deliberation and action have their roots in the recognition of persons, this paper argues that love deserves to stand on equal footing with respect as a mode of moral recognition. I argue first that as attitudes, respect and love are modes of moral recognition responding to specific others. They thus have similar epistemologies, but are distinguished by their positions along a concrete-abstract axis. In particular, I claim, respect is an attitude that recognizes another as a person, whereas love is an attitude that recognizes another as the person they are. Both attitudes check the …


Beyond Respect: Complexities Of Identity, Personhood, And Recognition, Erica Stonestreet Jan 2019

Beyond Respect: Complexities Of Identity, Personhood, And Recognition, Erica Stonestreet

Philosophy Faculty Publications

Mainstream analytic philosophy has long focused on a rationalistic conception of persons as the beings that matter morally. This has led to a heavy concentration on respect as a, if not the, core moral attitude. This paper aims to complicate the picture by arguing that personhood is more complex than this, because the identities in virtue of which persons matter are more complex. Persons matter not only as (abstract) persons, but as specific individuals and members of groups. As a result, they should be recognized in corresponding ways that go beyond respect, including love and esteem. Doing so expands …


Reviewed Work: Why We Argue (And How We Should): A Guide To Political Disagreement, By Scott Aikin And Robert Talisse, Emily Esch Dec 2014

Reviewed Work: Why We Argue (And How We Should): A Guide To Political Disagreement, By Scott Aikin And Robert Talisse, Emily Esch

Philosophy Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.


Love As A Regulative Ideal In Surrogate Decision Making, Erica Stonestreet Oct 2014

Love As A Regulative Ideal In Surrogate Decision Making, Erica Stonestreet

Philosophy Faculty Publications

This discussion aims to give a normative theoretical basis for a “best judgment” model of surrogate decision making rooted in a regulative ideal of love. Currently, there are two basic models of surrogate decision making for incompetent patients: the “substituted judgment” model and the “best interests” model. The former draws on the value of autonomy and responds with respect; the latter draws on the value of welfare and responds with beneficence. It can be difficult to determine which of these two models is more appropriate for a given patient, and both approaches may seem inadequate for a surrogate who loves …


Preserving Moral Recognition In The Face Of Aggression: Aikido As A Practice Of Physical Intersubjectivity, Charles W. Wright Sep 2013

Preserving Moral Recognition In The Face Of Aggression: Aikido As A Practice Of Physical Intersubjectivity, Charles W. Wright

Philosophy Faculty Publications

Practitioners of Aikido advance the claim, peculiar to many, that martial training can support moral action. This essay examines the claim by exploring communicative structures implicit in the response to attack made possible by this art's techniques. This exploration reveals three dimensions of intersubjectivity embedded in the practice of Aikido, dimensions that explicate the ethical imperative of the art.


A Cognitive Approach To Teaching Strategies, Emily Esch Jun 2013

A Cognitive Approach To Teaching Strategies, Emily Esch

Philosophy Faculty Publications

Our knowledge of how the mind works is growing rapidly. One area of particular interest to philosophy teachers is research on reasoning and decision making processes. I explore one model of human cognition that offers new ways of thinking about how to teach philosophical skills. The bulk of the paper is dedicated to exposition of the model and the evidence that supports it; at the end of the paper, I suggest ways these findings might be incorporated into the classroom.


The Purpose Of Personal Value, Erica Stonestreet Mar 2012

The Purpose Of Personal Value, Erica Stonestreet

Philosophy Faculty Publications

It seems as if there are things that have what we might call personal value—special objects, artwork by our children, etc. This term is meant to mark a difference between things whose value seems tied to a particular person, as opposed to things (like the Mona Lisa) that are valuable, period. The concept of personal value hasn’t received much focused attention, but I believe that it is of not only theoretical, but practical importance. In this paper, I explore the practical angle, arguing that personal value is important to our ability to make sense of ourselves. I give …


Why Do Fools Fall In Love? Spinoza's Commentary On Genesis 29, Eugene Garver Jul 2011

Why Do Fools Fall In Love? Spinoza's Commentary On Genesis 29, Eugene Garver

Philosophy Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.


Rethinking Ruddick And The Ethnocentrism Critique Of Maternal Thinking, Jean Keller Oct 2010

Rethinking Ruddick And The Ethnocentrism Critique Of Maternal Thinking, Jean Keller

Philosophy Faculty Publications

In the early 1990s, Sara Ruddick's Maternal Thinking was criticized for harboring a latent ethnocentrism. Ruddick responded to these critiques in the 1995 edition of her book, but her response has not yet been addressed in the feminist philosophical literature. This essay addresses this lacuna in the scholarship on Ruddick. In the last installment of this critique, Alison Bailey and Patrice DiQuinzio suggested that the only way for Ruddick to avoid the ethnocentrism charge would require her near-universalistic claims about mothering to be rejected in favor of 'particularized, localized accounts of mothering.' In this essay I'll show that this claim …


The Empirical Basis Of Ethics, Timothy A. Robinson Jan 2010

The Empirical Basis Of Ethics, Timothy A. Robinson

Philosophy Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.


Compresence Of Opposites In Nehamas, Irwin, And Fine, Timothy A. Robinson Jan 2007

Compresence Of Opposites In Nehamas, Irwin, And Fine, Timothy A. Robinson

Philosophy Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.


Great Anger, Anthony Cunningham Oct 2005

Great Anger, Anthony Cunningham

Philosophy Faculty Publications

Anger has had a major hand in a history of inhumanity. In this light, some schools of thought have suggested that we do best to jettison anger entirely. However, anger, like grief, is tied to caring deeply, and as such, both emotions can speak to what is best and most beautiful about human life and character.


A New Formalization Of Anselm's Ontological Argument, Timothy A. Robinson Jan 2004

A New Formalization Of Anselm's Ontological Argument, Timothy A. Robinson

Philosophy Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.


Why We Should All Be Platonists, Timothy A. Robinson Jan 2002

Why We Should All Be Platonists, Timothy A. Robinson

Philosophy Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.


Moral Addicts, Anthony Cunningham Jan 1994

Moral Addicts, Anthony Cunningham

Philosophy Faculty Publications

Moral exemplars are often depicted as those who go to extraordinary lengths in preventing suffering and eradicating injustice. Thus, figure like Gandhi, Mother Theresa, and Martin Luther King are apt to be identified as moral saints in the sense of being the morally best people. However, any adequate conception of moral excellence must be broader and more complex.