Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Philosophy, Richard C. Taylor

Philosophy Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

The Paradox Of Nature: Merleau-Ponty's Semi-Naturalistic Critique Of Husserlian Phenomenology, Shazad Akhtar

Dissertations (1934 -)

This dissertation deals with Merleau-Ponty's critical transformation of Husserl's phenomenology through a rethinking of the concept of "nature," which Husserl, Merleau-Ponty argues, fails to integrate or explain successfully in his philosophical system. The first chapter reconstructs Husserl's "transcendental-phenomenological" project in Ideas I, while the second widens the investigation to cover the ontologically-centered Ideas II and III. In my third chapter, I chart what I call Merleau-Ponty's "organic appropriation" of Husserl and the unique hermeneutical challenges it poses. Here the ambiguity of Ideas II, which both grounds subjectivity in the lived body and separates nature from "spirit" (Geist), plays …

Love's Lack: The Relationship Between Poverty And Eros In Plato's Symposium, Lorelle D. Lamascus

Dissertations (1934 -)

This dissertation responds to a long-standing debate among scholars regarding the nature of Platonic Eros and its relation to lack. The more prominent account of Platonic Eros presents the lack of Eros as a deficiency or need experienced by the lover with respect to the object needed, lacked, or desired, so that the nature of Eros is construed as self-interested or acquisitive, subsisting only so long as the lover lacks the beloved object. This dissertation argues that such an interpretation neglects the different senses of lack present in the Symposium and presents an alternative interpretation of Eros based on the …

Review Of El Pensamiento Filosófico Latinoamericano, Del Caribe Y “Latino” [1300-2000]: Historia, Corrientes, Temas, Filósofos, Grant J. Silva

Philosophy Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Review Of Feminist Interpretations Of Benedict Spinoza By Moira Gatens, Ericka Tucker

Philosophy Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Hegel's Phenomenology: Reverberations In His Later System, Howard P. Kainz

Philosophy Faculty Research and Publications

Hegel indicates toward the end of his Phenomenology of Spirit that there would be a parallelism in the categories of his later system to the various configurations of consciousness in the Phenomenology. Some general correspondences have been indicated by Otto Pöggeler and suggested by Robert Grant McRae, but I argue in this paper that there are at least four important and more specific parallels, bringing out simultaneously a similarity of content and a difference of approach and methodology in the two works: 1) in the philosophical construal of “categories”; 2) in the conceptualization of a “phenomenology”; 3) in the analysis …

Hume's Conception Of Time And Its Implications For His Theories Of Causation And Induction, Daniel Esposito

Dissertations (1934 -)

I begin the dissertation by elucidating Hume's conception of time as a compound abstract idea and explain why Hume believes time must be discrete and atomistic. I then explore the ways in which Hume's theory of causation rests upon this atomistic conception of time, and place special emphasis on Hume's argument that all causes qua causes must precede their effects in time. I claim that this argument is inconsistent with Hume's critique of the causal maxim, a principle which states that whatever begins to exist must have a cause. After exposing and examining this inconsistency, I investigate the degree to …

Atheistic And Christian Existentialism: A Comparison Of Sartre And Marcel, Thomas C. Anderson

Philosophy Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Gabriel Marcel, Thomas C. Anderson

Philosophy Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Natural Law Theory And The "Is"--"Ought" Problem: A Critique Of Four Solutions, Shalina Stilley

Dissertations (1934 -)

This dissertation explores the "Is"--"Ought" problem (IOP) as it relates to natural law theory (NLT). It begins with a brief analysis of the type of "ought"--precepts upheld by traditional natural law theorists as well as a consideration of the precise nature of the IOP. Chapter two considers the attempts of Searle and Gewirth at establishing that it is possible validly to derive an "ought"--conclusion from "is"--premises and asks whether their attempts can be imitated successfully by those who wish to uphold the basic claims of NLT. Chapter three considers whether it is possible to bypass the IOP by beginning with …

I-Thou Relation, Thomas C. Anderson

Philosophy Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Truth Telling As Reparations, Margaret Urban Walker

Philosophy Faculty Research and Publications

International instruments now defend a “right to the truth” for victims of political repression and violence and include truth telling about human rights violations as a kind of reparation as well as a form of redress. While truth telling about violations is obviously a condition of redress or repair for violations, it may not be clear how truth telling itself is a kind of reparations. By showing that concerted truth telling can satisfy four features of suitable reparations vehicles, I defend the idea that politically implemented modes of truth telling to, for, and by those who are victims of gross …

Toward An Epistemology Of Mysticism: Knowing God As Mystery, Theresa Tobin

Philosophy Faculty Research and Publications

While some philosophers suggest that mystical experience may provide evidence for belief in God, skeptics doubt that there is adequate warrant for even accepting the claim of a mystical experience as evidence for anything, except perhaps for some kind of mental instability. Drawing from the work of Gabriel Marcel, I argue that the pervasive philosophical skepticism about the evidential status of mystical experiences is misguided because it rests on too narrow a view about ways of knowing and about what can count as evidence for belief in the divine. I illustrate the advantages of Marcel's approach by applying it to …

Attending To Presence: A Study Of John Duns Scotus' Account Of Sense Cognition, Amy F. Whitworth

Dissertations (1934 -)

This project is guided and motivated by the question concerning the nature of the phantasm as that which mediates between sensation and intellection in John Duns Scotus' account of cognition. Scotus embraces Aristotle's claim that the intellect cannot think without the phantasm. The phantasm is in a corporeal organ, yet the immaterial intellect must act with it to produce an intelligible species. In this project I examine the critical elements of Scotus' cognitive theory in order to understand the nature of the phantasm.

In the first chapter I discuss key elements of Aristotle's metaphysics and give a close, textual reading …

Arabic Influences In Aquinas's Doctrine Of Intelligible Species, Max Herrera

Dissertations (1934 -)

In contemporary literature, one can find much information concerning Thomas Aquinas's doctrine of intelligible species. However, none of the literature takes into account how and why Aquinas developed his doctrine of intelligible species. Often, it is purported that Aquinas is just following Aristotle. However, this is not the case. There are aporiae in the Aristotelian corpus, and those who followed Aristotle tried to resolve the intellection and hylomorphism aporia, an aporia that arose as a result of denying Platonic forms and affirming hylomorphism. Among those who attempted to resolve this aporia were Avicenna and Averroes from whom Aquinas drew and …

Towards A Latin American Political Philosophy Of/For The United States: From The Discovery Of America To Immigrant Encounters, Grant J. Silva

Philosophy Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Friendship And Fidelity: An Historical And Critical Examination, Joshua Walter Schulz

Dissertations (1934 -)

Aristotle considers friendship the greatest external good, one integral to the attainment of happiness. However, while Aristotle limits distrust to what he calls imperfect forms of friendship, subsequent philosophers have stressed our uncertainty regarding the benevolence, beneficence and loyalty we may expect of friends. They do so in part because overcoming this uncertainty requires the exercise of the virtues of trust and loyalty if our friendships are to survive intact.

For example, insofar as Aquinas holds that we cannot scrutinize the wills of others - thus inviting uncertainty regarding their present and future conduct - he argues that friendship requires …

The Attestation Of The Self As A Bridge Between Hermeneutics And Ontology In The Philosophy Of Paul Ricoeur, Sebastian Kaufmann

Dissertations (1934 -)

Ricoeur defines attestation as the "assurance of being oneself acting and suffering" or as the "assurance - the credence and the trust - of existing in the mode of selfhood." In this dissertation I discuss the concept of attestation in Ricoeur's philosophy in relation to the main dimensions of the self: Capacities, personal identity, memory and otherness. I state that attestation is the key to the three dialectics of Ricoeur's hermeneutics of the self: The dialectic between reflection and analysis, the dialectic between idem-identity and ipse-identity and the dialectic between oneself and other. In these three dialectics, attestation, as the …

Pan Gongkai: Reflections On Beginnings, Opposites, Changes Re: Contemporary Chinese Art, Curtis Carter

Philosophy Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

The Axiological Turn In Early Twentieth Century American Philosophy: Alain Locke And José Vasconcelos In Epistemology, Value, And The Emotions, Grant J. Silva

Philosophy Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Neo-Kantianism In Germany And France, Sebastian Luft, Fabien Capeillères

Philosophy Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Das Subjekt Als Moralische Person. Zu Husserls Späten Reflexionen Bezüglich Des Personenbegriffs, Sebastian Luft

Philosophy Faculty Research and Publications

In this essay, I will attempt a systematic reconstruction of the general shape of Husserl's late philosophy, insofar as it centers on the concept of personhood. The systematic concatenation of this and other themes in Husserl's late work - the method of epoché and reduction, ethics, personhood, and teleology - has only recently begun to be explored in Husserl scholarship, and this article is a modest contribution to the further e1ucidation of their mutual relationship. One of the most striking results of this reconstructive analysis is Husserl's final concept of "person", which goes beyond the traditional distinctions, such as "heart" …

Symbol And Function In Contemporary Architecture For Museums, Curtis Carter

Philosophy Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Toward An Understanding Of Sculpture As Public Art, Curtis Carter

Philosophy Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

"Philosophy On The Track Of Freedom" Or "Systematizing Systemlessness": Novalis’S Reflections On The Wissenschaftslehre, 1795–1796, Michael Vater

Philosophy Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Hegelian Priorities In Christendom: A Reconsideration, Howard P. Kainz

Philosophy Faculty Research and Publications

Arguments from the nineteenth century concerning whether Hegel was an atheist or a theist are still ongoing. This paper examines Hegel’s philosophical and theological milieu, his influence on the history of philosophy and on politics, his unique interpretation of the unity of theology and philosophy, and his unusually sanguine interpretation of the relationship between church and state, along with special problems he discerned in the emergence of democracies.

Toward An Understanding Of Sculpture As Public Art (Chinese Version), Curtis Carter

Philosophy Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.