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Articles 1 - 11 of 11
Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
Structurally Cosmic Apostasy: The Atheist Occult World Of H.P. Lovecraft, Brian J. Reis
Structurally Cosmic Apostasy: The Atheist Occult World Of H.P. Lovecraft, Brian J. Reis
LUX: A Journal of Transdisciplinary Writing and Research from Claremont Graduate University
The conflict between materialism and spiritualism has a long and sordid philosophical history. Both schools of thought attempted to address the problems of the unknown through varying methods. There are two figures, who i their own ways, one subtle ad the other not so subtle rejected both means. Helena Petrovna Blavatsky sought to counter Spiritualist claims by venturing into her own occult philosophy—Theosophy—seeking to uncover spiritual truths, debunking religious traditions as well as seeking to undermine scientific materialism that had begun to sweep the intellectual life of the 19th century. To do so, she claimed to have translated an …
Remembering And Misremembering Hypatia: The Lessons Of Agora, Donald W. Viney
Remembering And Misremembering Hypatia: The Lessons Of Agora, Donald W. Viney
Faculty Submissions
The film Agora tells a somewhat fictionalized version of the story of Hypatia of Alexandria (d. 415). I raise and attempt to answer the question whether it is good historical fiction. After summarizing what is known from the historical record about Hypatia, my answer to the question is a qualified affirmative. I note the various historical details that the film preserves. The liberties that the film takes with her story are, by turns, problematic (e.g. reinforcing the view of a fundamental conflict between reason and faith), enlightening (e.g. in the introduction of the fictional character of Davus), unfair (e.g. in …
Emerging Truth And The Defeat Of Scientific Racism, Mark Weinstein
Emerging Truth And The Defeat Of Scientific Racism, Mark Weinstein
OSSA Conference Archive
This paper looks at the attack on scientific racism in the 20th century by a group of social and biological scientists. I will utilize the apparatus of my model of emerging truth to show how even in complex socially conditioned argumentation the ultimate virtue is seeking the truth through increasingly powerful logical connections and deeply embedded warrants.
Humans And Nature: Finding Meaning Through Metaphysics, Justin Stone
Humans And Nature: Finding Meaning Through Metaphysics, Justin Stone
Master of Liberal Studies Theses
Before the 19th Century, natural philosophers explored the inner workings of nature and humanity using many different modes of thinking such as logic, mathematics, physics, and metaphysics. The incorporation of these varied concepts brought about a comprehensive understanding of nature and how humans relate to nature. Theories were devised from incorporeal ideas, data was gathered from the human senses, and concrete evidence was pursued to support philosophy. However, through the years from ancient times to modernity, natural philosophy slowly limited its use of revelation and metaphysics, restricting the quest for knowledge to the methodical gathering of empirical data. Science, as …
Syllabus: Kuhn's Philosophy Of Science, Joseph Torchia
Syllabus: Kuhn's Philosophy Of Science, Joseph Torchia
Spring 2013, Kuhn's Philosophy of Science
A critical investigation of the philosophy of science of Thomas Kuhn (1922-1996), with a special focus upon his critique of the classical model of the development of science in terms of a cumulative acquisition of knowledge, and by implication, a gradual progression toward truth. In broader terms, the course assesses the metaphysical and epistemological implications of Kuhn’s understanding of scientific change and the possibility of scientific progress.
Transubstantiation And Quantum Physics: The Parallels Of Mystery In Religion And Science, Zachary Sexton
Transubstantiation And Quantum Physics: The Parallels Of Mystery In Religion And Science, Zachary Sexton
Spring 2013, Science and Religion
As the study of physics has progressed into the abstract realm of quanta, some have argued that the notion of transubstantiation is an unreasonable understanding of the Eucharist. However, when confronted with the uncertainty that modern physics presents, sharp parallels between this uncertainty and the metaphysical mysteries of transubstantiation. If it is reasonable to accept uncertainty in quantum physics, then it should be reasonable to accept the mysteries within the metaphysical world.
Heisenberg’S Uncertainty Principle, Matthew Santos
Heisenberg’S Uncertainty Principle, Matthew Santos
Spring 2013, Kuhn's Philosophy of Science
In 1926 Werner Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle set the field of quantum mechanics on a trajectory riddled with indeterminacy, a trajectory which stood in stark contrast with the classical Newtonian world causality and origin. In doing so, Heisenberg effectively created a new standard by which physicists conducted their science, broadened the scope of that science, and altered the very worldview of those physicists. Such paradigmatic upheaval fits the philosophical model of scientific progress posited by Thomas Kuhn. However, in the ever-changing and still-evolving world of quantum mechanics, Heisenberg’s revolutionary work uniquely strays from Kuhn’s model in its further implications.
The Ever Changing Shape Of The Universe: A Kuhnian Analysis Of Edwin Hubble's Discoveries, John Bugnacki
The Ever Changing Shape Of The Universe: A Kuhnian Analysis Of Edwin Hubble's Discoveries, John Bugnacki
Spring 2013, Kuhn's Philosophy of Science
Thomas Kuhn, author of The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, sought to explain how science changes, functions, and advances. According to Kuhn, science periodically undergoes a paradigm-shift during which time the prevailing methodologies, theories, and commitments of normal-science are all thrown into question until a new dominant paradigm takes hold. However, as his career progressed and his critics railed against his new conception of scientific progress, Kuhn would emphasize the role of linguistic incommensurability in paradigm shifts over normal-science. In 1923, astronomer Edwin Hubble took the first steps toward the discovery of galaxies. In doing so, Hubble simultaneously drew upon …
How Can We Explain Altruism?, Teresa Levasseur
How Can We Explain Altruism?, Teresa Levasseur
Spring 2013, Science and Religion
This paper looks at the topic of Altruism, or more specifically altruistic behaviors. The paper explores the explanations offered from a scientific perspective as well as those from a theological perspective to determine which view offers a deeper understanding of altruism.
On The Metaphysical Necessity Of Suffering From Natural Evil, Ryan Edward Sullivan
On The Metaphysical Necessity Of Suffering From Natural Evil, Ryan Edward Sullivan
Spring 2013, Science and Religion
Why does God permit suffering in the world? If God is wholly good, omnipotent, and omniscient, why would He not intervene to prevent us from suffering? These are questions that pertain to the problem of evil: how to reconcile the existence of God with the evil occurrences of this world, without sacrificing any of His divine attributes. The most potent version of the problem of evil is a recent formulation known as the evidential argument from evil. The evidential argument states that while the existence of God is not logically incompatible with the fact that there are evil occurrences, there …
The Aesthetics Of Ethics, Raam P. Gokhale