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Articles 1 - 30 of 35
Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
A Philosophy Primer, Anthony Cunningham
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
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.
Can Lethal Autonomous Weapons Be Just?, Noreen L. Herzfeld, Robert H. Latiff
Can Lethal Autonomous Weapons Be Just?, Noreen L. Herzfeld, Robert H. Latiff
Computer Science Faculty Publications
In 2018 the United States Department of Defense (DoD) created a new Joint Artificial Intelligence Center to study the adoption of AI by the military. Their strategy, outlined in a document entitled, “Harnessing AI to Advance Our Security and Prosperity,” proposes to accelerate the adoption of AI in the military by fostering a culture of experimentation and calculated risk taking, noting that AI will change the character of the future battlefield and, even more, the pace of battle. Is there any way to ensure that this future battlefield will be just? Can the age-old precepts of just warfare help guide …
Why Darwin Remains A Problem For Theism, John Houston
Why Darwin Remains A Problem For Theism, John Houston
Forum Lectures
Several recent works in theology have argued that evolutionary theory is compatible with theism. This, of course, is true: theism and evolutionary theory are indeed logically and metaphysically compatible. However, little is being demonstrated on behalf of theism when this conclusion is established. For, the logical and metaphysical compatibility of conceptual frameworks or narratives is a very low bar for attempting to analyze the world and its fundamental nature, and such compatibility tells us little about how the world really is. In this paper I focus on why Darwinian evolutionary theory, though logically and metaphysically compatible with theism, continues to …
Implementation Considerations For Mitigating Bias In Supervised Machine Learning, Bardia Bijani Aval
Implementation Considerations For Mitigating Bias In Supervised Machine Learning, Bardia Bijani Aval
CSB and SJU Distinguished Thesis
Machine Learning (ML) is an important component of computer science and a mainstream way of making sense of large amounts of data. Although the technology is establishing new possibilities in different fields, there are also problems to consider, one of which is bias. Due to the inductive reasoning of ML algorithms in creating mathematical models, the predictions and trends found by the models will never necessarily be true – just more or less probable. Knowing this, it is unreasonable for us to expect the applied deductive reasoning of these models to ever be fully unbiased. Therefore, it is important that …
Social Esteem As Moral Recognition, Erica Stonestreet
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
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
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 …
Preserving Dignity In The Long Term Care Of Actively Dying Residents, Libby-Rose Cronican
Preserving Dignity In The Long Term Care Of Actively Dying Residents, Libby-Rose Cronican
All College Thesis Program, 2016-2019
As one goes through the process of aging and approaches death, they experience a series of losses: from the loss of physical or mental ability to the ultimate loss of life. These losses make the individual vulnerable to harms that can come from a variety of sources. One source is found within the everyday interactions of long-term care nurses and aides with their elderly, dying residents. Creating this harm stems from a poor nursing practice where the nurse or aide fails to recognize and promote the resident’s dignity and autonomy. The normal notion of dignity and autonomy does not encompass …
Globalization And The Sex Trafficking Industry: Examination Of Effects On Regional Value Chain Operations, Mary R. Gilbertson
Globalization And The Sex Trafficking Industry: Examination Of Effects On Regional Value Chain Operations, Mary R. Gilbertson
Honors Theses, 1963-2015
The purpose of this paper is to examine sex trafficking as a profitable, international, and illegal industry. One goal of this paper is to explain what sex trafficking is and how it differs from other industries. Sex trafficking is an underground activity and its growth worldwide since the 1980s has had a destructive impact on global societies and economies. Beyond this, the study wants to show that, aside from moral and socio-cultural implications, that sex trafficking is indeed an industry, with a structure not so different from other industries. Understanding sex trafficking as an industry is critical to understanding how …
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
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
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
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.
Self-Love And Self-Respect In The Meaningful Life, Erica Stonestreet
Self-Love And Self-Respect In The Meaningful Life, Erica Stonestreet
Forum Lectures
Most people have the sense that there's something wrong with living a meaningless life. Since most meaningless lives seem morally blameless, however, it's not obvious exactly what is wrong with it. Starting with a plausible conception of a meaningful life as a life engaged with values beyond oneself, I suggest that the problem is that someone living outside of this conception is not according herself a kind of recognition she deserves as a human being. Comparing self-respect and self-love as candidates for this recognition, I argue that lacking self-love is actually the more fitting explanation for what goes wrong in …
The Purpose Of Personal Value, Erica Stonestreet
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 …
Donald Davidson's Semantics: Radical Interpretation, Triangulation, And The Ambiguity Problem, Karen Duffy
Donald Davidson's Semantics: Radical Interpretation, Triangulation, And The Ambiguity Problem, Karen Duffy
Philosophy Student Work
Donald Davidson was one of the most prominent philosophers of the 20th century. His work is extensive, dense, and controversial. This paper seeks to look at one part of Davidson’s philosophy: his philosophy of language, and in particular, his ideas about meaning. My first aim in this project is to present Davidson’s proposals about meaning as a unified meaning theory – a theory that can specify the meaning of any expression in a language. This theory contains two major parts: the proposal that a properly constrained truth theory can serve as a meaning theory, and the process of radical interpretation, …
Why Do Fools Fall In Love? Spinoza's Commentary On Genesis 29, Eugene Garver
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
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
The Empirical Basis Of Ethics, Timothy A. Robinson
Philosophy Faculty Publications
No abstract provided.
"The End Of Faith?" Science And Theology As Process, Noreen L. Herzfeld
"The End Of Faith?" Science And Theology As Process, Noreen L. Herzfeld
Theology Faculty Publications
A spate of recent books would claim that science’s only role vis a vis theology is to discredit it. Sam Harris, in The End of Faith, credits religious faith as the source of much of the violence in today’s world. Richard Dawkins, in The God Delusion, views religion as, at best, a profound misunderstanding, and at worst a form of madness. Both find an antidote to such irrationality in science. To Harris and Dawkins religion is a body of accumulated knowledge. However, religion can also be thought of as a process, one based on experience, questions, and results. …
Compresence Of Opposites In Nehamas, Irwin, And Fine, Timothy A. Robinson
Compresence Of Opposites In Nehamas, Irwin, And Fine, Timothy A. Robinson
Philosophy Faculty Publications
No abstract provided.
Great Anger, Anthony Cunningham
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
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
Why We Should All Be Platonists, Timothy A. Robinson
Philosophy Faculty Publications
No abstract provided.
Language Speaks: Heidegger's Understanding Of Language, Jason Barrett
Language Speaks: Heidegger's Understanding Of Language, Jason Barrett
Honors Theses, 1963-2015
The central task of my thesis, entitled "Language Speaks: Heidegger on Language," is to bring to light an understanding of language found in the philosophy of Martin Heidegger (18898-1976). This understanding was rendered by a textual exegesis of three difficult texts from Heidegger's corpus: Being and Time (1929), "On the Essence of Truth" (1930), and "Hoelderlin and the Essence of Poetry" (1936). The reading of Being and Time (up to section 34) provided the grounding for the discussions on truth and language by situating Heidegger with regard to the problem of Being an language, articulating Heidegger's foundational thought, and identifying …
A Look At Kabbalah, Scott M. Wellman
Elie Wiesel: Moral Action In An Immoral World, Christopher R. Johnson
Elie Wiesel: Moral Action In An Immoral World, Christopher R. Johnson
Honors Theses, 1963-2015
The essay, "Elie Wiesel: Moral Action in an Immoral World," is an investigation into the three ways Elie Wiesel's characters in his novel The Town Beyond the Wall deal with their own often painful and confusing views of the absurd world about them. Because The Town Beyond the Wall is a very autobiographical work for Wiesel, the backdrop of chaos found in the novel--the concentration camps, the death of the main character's father, mother and sister, the cold indifference with which the rest of the world watched as the Jews were 'liquidated'--are found in Wiesel's world too. Reading Wiesel's works, …
Ethics And The Awareness Of Complex Individuals: Reflections On Adolf Eichmann And Oskar Schindler, Glen Tautges
Ethics And The Awareness Of Complex Individuals: Reflections On Adolf Eichmann And Oskar Schindler, Glen Tautges
Honors Theses, 1963-2015
Like many philosophers who favor Aristotelian virtue ethics over more legalistic and impersonal theories like those of Kant and Mill, I claim that ethics is more a matter of cultivating the right character than of living by a set of rules based on abstract principles. True to this stance, I present a certain attitude toward others as crucial to living well. This attitude involves cultivating a powerful awareness of the intricate complexity of other people and a deep appreciation of the value of such complex beings. Also with this attitude comes a sense of relation and community inspired by our …
Moral Addicts, Anthony Cunningham
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.