Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Kant's Concept Of Freedom In The Metaphysics Lectures, Alin Paul Varciu

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

I argue that we can make use of Kant's metaphysics lectures to have a better understanding of the concepts of practical and transcendental freedom used within the Critique of Pure Reason. Based on Kant's metaphysics lectures I will argue that practical freedom and transcendental freedom are different predicates that apply to our power of choice and that each comprises different sorts of abilities. Practical freedom concerns the abilities we use in choosing the motives for our actions, while transcendental freedom concerns the ability to act otherwise than what nature necessitates through its causal laws. In terms of Kant's free …

Algorithmic Bias: Causes And Effects On Marginalized Communities, Katrina M. Baha

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Individuals from marginalized backgrounds face different healthcare outcomes due to algorithmic bias in the technological healthcare industry. Algorithmic biases, which are the biases that arise from the set of steps used to solve or analyze a problem, are evident when people from marginalized communities use healthcare technology. For example, many pulse oximeters, which are the medical devices used to measure oxygen saturation in the blood, are not able to accurately read people who have darker skin tones. Thus, people with darker skin tones are not able to receive proper health care due to their pulse oximetry data being inaccurate. This …

Illuminating Chinese Aesthetics With Kant’S Account Of Genius? Possibility And Difficulty, Kefu Zhu

Comparative Philosophy

Many scholars interpret Chinese Aesthetics with the Kantian theory of genius because they seem to form a parallel: similar innate and spontaneous mental talents that exceed normal cognition and imagination generates beautiful arts with similar extraordinary qualities. I argue that projecting Kant’s genius to illuminate the creative power analogically, i.e., the carefree-wandering mind, is infeasible. The theory of genius assumes a critical project that stipulates a valuable way to exercise the power of judgment. Genius is only a postulated idea for successfully making aesthetic judgments on artworks. In contrast, the carefree-wandering mind assumes a Daoist metaphysical-ethical theory centering on the …

A Defense Of Kantian Ethics Against Rigorism, Leyna Hong

CMC Senior Theses

Kantian ethics has prevailed as one of the most popular ethical theories due to its appeal to our moral intuitions. The good will is the good with the most intrinsic value, and respect for others as rational beings is at the core of the moral principles. Despite its appeal, Kantian Ethics faces some difficult challenges. One challenge with great force is that of rigorism. The charge is that the moral principles outlined by Kant should allow for exceptions; if they don't, Kantian ethics is too rigorous and inflexible to fit our moral intuitions.

One particular essay of Kant that has …

The Moral Of The Story In Kant's Philosophy Of Religion, Jacob Farris

Ephemeris, the Undergraduate Journal of Philosophy

No abstract provided.

A Mind Of One's Own: Hegel On Becoming Rational, Lucas Johnston

Theses and Dissertations

The `Self-Consciousness' chapter of Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit has been interpreted in a variety of ways. Traditional readings, however, often do not emphasize Hegel's proclamation that the servile consciousness ``acquires a mind of its own'' and becomes ``thinking consciousness'' in the transition from `Self-Consciousness' A to B. Here, I show how to understand the end of part A and its transition to part B. In this transition, Hegel argues that the servant `comes to have a mind of their own' and becomes `thinking consciousness' or `stoic consciousness' in virtue of beginning to become rational. To this end, I argue that …

Why Are They Called Real Numbers If They Aren’T Real, And Other Such Questions?, Rahmat Rashid

Honors Program Theses

This thesis studies the position of mathematical realism (the position that mathematical objects have ontological status) through history, starting with Pythagoras up until W.V.O Quine, and examining how these positions originate from each other. I hope to see how the position has changed and why, and provide an argument against the strongest of the realist positions, drawing on this extensive background. Finally, I advance my own argument against the strongest arguments for mathematical realism, and propose alternatives to a view of mathematical realism.

Righting Health Policy: Bioethics, Political Philosophy, And The Normative Justification Of Health Law And Policy, D. Robert Macdougall

Publications and Research

In Righting Health Policy, D. Robert MacDougall argues that bioethics needs but does not have adequate tools for justifying law and policy. Bioethics’ tools are mostly theories about what we owe each other. But justifying laws and policies requires more; at a minimum, it requires tools for explaining the legitimacy of actions intended to control or influence others. It consequently requires political, rather than moral, philosophy. After showing how bioethicists have consistently failed to use tools suitable for achieving their political aims, MacDougall develops an interpretation of Kant’s political philosophy. On this account the legitimacy of health laws does …

Authenticity, Individuality, And Morality: An Existentialist Investigation Into The Possibility Of A Meaningful Existence, Ella Boyd

Scripps Senior Theses

This paper addresses the tension between individuality and morality with the goal of maximizing meaning in one’s own life. Drawing from Nietzschean ideas of authenticity and flourishing as they relate to the individual, the Categorical Imperative is then introduced as a way to ensure one’s own moral goodness within society. After accepting Sartre’s theory of existentialism, and, with it, the idea that existence precedes essence, one can begin an investigation into this creation of meaning in their own life. First drawing from Either/Or, Kierkegaard’s three life models are presented and, ultimately, dismissed in favor of Nietzsche’s idea that the key …

God And Kant’S Suicide Maxim, Carlo Alvaro

Publications and Research

Kant’s argument against suicide is widely dismissed by scholars and often avoided by teachers because it is deemed inconsistent with Kant’s moral philosophy. This paper attempts to show a way to make sense of Kant’s injunction against suicide that is consistent with his moral system. One of the strategies adopted in order to accomplish my goal is a de-secularization of Kant’s ethics. I argue that all actions of self-killing (or suicide) are morally impermissible because they are inconsistent with God’s established nature and order. It is argued that the existence of God as the locus of moral value and duty …

Beyond Depraved: Villainy And Self-Deception In Kant's Taxonomy Of Evil, Kevin Alexander Korczyk

Theses and Dissertations

Kant’s account of evil has often been criticized for being overly restrictive in that it seems unable to account for profoundly immoral acts such as those committed by the Nazis. In response, most defenders of Kant have attempted to gerrymander his original categories of evil such that they become expansive enough to account for these cases. In this paper, I argue that such defenses fail because they rule out the possibility of immoral acts committed intentionally and in full knowledge of their immorality. However, I also show that there is room in Kant’s ethics for an additional category of evil …

The Destructive Draw Of Historical Determinism, Jared Russell

Honors Projects

Historical determinism can be understood as the idea that future events are predestined, usually by an esoteric or economic force. This is accompanied by the belief that there is a certain group of enlightened people that know what this future outcome will be. These people are also often convinced that it is their duty to help bring about this historical synthesis. While there are different iterations of historical determinism that can be critiqued, this paper will be focusing on some of the most influential. Specifically, the connection between a historical determinism as imagined by Hegel which was then adapted into …

Metaphysics Supervenes On Logic: The Role Of The Logical Forms In Hegel's "Replacement" Of Metaphysics, W. Clark Wolf

Philosophy Faculty Research and Publications

In this paper, I seek to explain Hegel’s view that his “logic” replaces metaphysics. I argue that Hegel’s discussion of logical forms of judgment and syllogism in book III of The Science of Logic is meant to be the foundation of his reformation of metaphysics. Implicit in Hegel’s discussion of the logical forms is the view that the metaphysical concepts discussed in books I and II of the Logic supervene on the role of subject and predicate terms in the logical forms discussed in book III. Hegel thus has an explanation for the nature and signifcance of metaphysical concepts that …

The Transcendental Foundation Of Kant's Cosmopolitanism, Daniel J. Ellison

Honors Theses

Scholarship on Kant’s philosophy of history has insufficiently considered its place in the larger system of transcendental idealism. In this project, I argue that Kant’s guarantee of progress in history is grounded in his universal characterizations of human nature, which he makes both explicitly, as with the notion of “unsociable sociability” put forth in “Idea for a Universal History from a Cosmopolitan Perspective,” and implicitly, as with what I term a responsiveness to reasons. These characterizations are grounded, I claim, in an attribution of reason which is always already achieved to the constitution of human beings, which emerges out of …

Dinner Service: Echoing The Value Of Philosophy Through Character And Story, India Li Harrison

Senior Projects Spring 2021

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Social Studies of Bard College.

Murderer At The Switch: Thomson, Kant, And The Trolley Problem, James E. Mahon

Publications and Research

In this book chapter I argue that contrary to what is said by Paul Guyer in Kant (Routledge, 2006) Kant's moral philosophy prohibits the bystander from throwing the switch to divert the runaway trolley to a side track with an innocent person on it in order to save more people who are in the path of the trolley in the "Trolley Problem" case made famous by Judith Jarvis Thomson (1976; 1985). Furthermore, Thomson herself (2008) came to agree that it would be wrong to throw the switch, just as it is wrong to push the person off the bridge to …

The Choice Of Parenthood: Abortion And Protecting Autonomy, Nimmi M. Mathews

Mako: NSU Undergraduate Student Journal

This paper attempts to address the morality of abortion using a Kantian perspective on the significance of autonomy, a property that all rational beings subscribe to. I reject the oft argued notion that the ethicality of abortion is contingent on the ability to determine whether the fetus possesses the right to life. Instead, I claim that denying women the choice to obtain an abortion disrespects their autonomy, hence requiring them to take up motherhood against their will. I then discuss how Kant’s framework for morality is demonstrated heavily in the legal concept of ‘human rights', and yet this is not …

The Political Aesthetic Of Hannah Arendt: Modernity, Judgment, And Culture, Quixote R. Vassilakis

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The plan of this thesis is, first, to interpret Arendt’s critique of the modern age. Next, this paper outlines Arendt’s reconceptualization of Kant’s theory of judgment as the basis for a novel model of the public sphere in light of the conditions of modernity. Finally, this paper explores Arendt’s poetics as a means of activating the faculty of judgment in order to reconcile with the modern world. In order to address the political crises of modernity, Arendt develops a political aesthetic alive to the role of narrative and culture in reconstituting political communities. I argue that Hannah Arendt develops a …

Cognition Without Construction: Kant, Maimon, And The Transcendental Philosophy Of Mathematics, Nicholas A. J. Birmingham

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In the Critique of Pure Reason, Immanuel Kant takes the ostensive constructions characteristic of Euclidean-style demonstrations to be the paradigm of both mathematical proofs and synthetic a priori cognition in general. However, the development of calculus included a number of techniques for representing infinite series of sums or differences, which could not be represented with the direct geometrical demonstrations of the past. Salomon Maimon’s Essay on Transcendental Philosophy addresses precisely this disparity. Maimon, owing much to G. W. Leibniz, proposes that differentials of sensation achieve what Kantian constructions could not. More importantly, Maimon develops a kind of symbolic cognition that …

Why Does Aristotle Make So Much Sense? A Philosophical Analysis Of Aristotle, Kant, And Mill’S Moral Theories, Will Sileo

CMC Senior Theses

Throughout my experience as a student of philosophy these past four years, the philosophy that has interested me the most has been that which gives us something to take back to daily life or the ‘real world’ with us. As a result, I've been strongly drawn to ethics and pulled into the debate between the three main schools of ethics — virtue ethics, deontology, and consequentialism, with a strong affinity for virtue ethics, especially the ideas of Aristotle.

The question that I am exploring in this paper is if there is something unique about Aristotle’s virtue ethics compared to the …

Li Zehou: Synthesizing Kongzi, Marx, And Kant, Andrew Lambert

Publications and Research

To understand the details of Li Zehou’s work, it is helpful to first locate it within the social and historical contexts to which Li was responding. Specifically, his work can be understood as a contribution to the struggle to establish the intellectual foundations of a Chinese modernity. As China transitioned away from the long-lived dynastic system that had ended early in the twentieth century, there was intense debate in China about what forms of social and political order should take its place. Marxism emerged as the governing ideology after the Communist revolution, but this did not settle the outstanding social …

The Efficacy Of Comedy, Mark Anthony Castricone

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Efficacy of Comedy: Focusing on the efficacy of comedy as a genre, utilizing Aristotle, Nietzsche, and Heidegger’s philosophy. It begins with a historical analysis of the efficacy of comedy in Ancient 4th and 5th century Athens focusing on Aristotle’s conceptions of comedy. It analyses what Aristotle wrote about comedy and attempts a reconstruction of what his book on comedy from the poetics may have said. It then examines the shift to aesthetics rather than the Philosophy of Art with a focus on Kant and the Critique of Judgment. Comedy here is used as an interpretive tool in order to …

The Concept Of The Global Subject In Adorno, Sebastian Kanally

Major Papers

Theodor W. Adorno makes the following claim in his 1962 essay “Progress”: “The possibility of progress, of averting the most extreme, total disaster, has migrated to this global subject alone. Everything else involving progress must crystalize around it.” While this is Adorno’s most explicit articulation of the importance of a global subject, it is not the only one. In multiple places across his work he makes reference to mankind’s current lack of a global subject, and the need for a global subject to develop and intervene. This paper weaves together the first systematic analysis of a “global subject [Gesamtsubjekt]” as …

Letters On The Aesthetic Deformation Of Man, Katya Mandoki

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

Friedrich Schiller wrote Letters on the Aesthetic Education of Man hoping to elevate human potential through the arts for the development of free citizens of the Republic, and also in reaction to the decline of the French Revolution into a Reign of Terror. Nowadays, with the prominent role social networks have acquired in human relations, aesthetics is an invaluable tool for capturing attention in marketing and political propaganda, no less than in recruitment and indoctrination by terrorist organizations. Adopting a pragmatics approach, we will examine Schiller’s relevance today regarding uses and abuses of aesthetics related to terrorism, focusing on the …

Unity Of Consciousness In Animals, Bernard E. Rollin

Bernard Rollin, PhD

Both Descartes the rationalist and Hume the empiricist, polar opposites philosophically, denied the unity and continuity of animal mind. Kant pointed out that the presence of retrievable memories entails unity of consciousness. Rowlands now argues that animals too have unity of consciousness.

A Ulysses Pact With Artificial Systems. How To Deliberately Change The Objective Spirit With Cultured Ai, Bruno Gransche

Computer Ethics - Philosophical Enquiry (CEPE) Proceedings

The article introduces a concept of cultured technology, i.e. intelligent systems capable of interacting with humans and showing (or simulating) manners, of following customs and of socio-sensitive considerations. Such technologies might, when deployed on a large scale, influence and change the realm of human customs, traditions, standards of acceptable behavior, etc. This realm is known as the "objective spirit" (Hegel), which usually is thought of as being historically changing but not subject to deliberate human design. The article investigates the question of whether the purposeful design of interactive technologies (as cultured technologies) could enable us to shape modes of …

The Denial Of Transcendental Freedom Is Self-Refuting, Theodore Kahn

CMC Senior Theses

The questions of what kind of freedom morality requires and how to reconcile the capacity for free agency within a determined temporal sequence represent the crux of the free will debate. Traditional compatibilists claim that determinism does not preclude our capacity for moral agency. Nuanced determinists, such as Derk Pereboom, deny the existence of moral agency and argue that free will is not required to save the basic modes of our practical lives, such as our capacity to affect each other and to lead practically morallives. I will argue in favor of Kant’s view, which holds that since freedom and …

The Refutation Of Existing Proofs For The Existence Of God And The Continued Search For A Valid Proof Of The Existence Of God: A Defense And Interpretation Of Kant, Emma Houston

CMC Senior Theses

In this thesis, I use Kant's Transcendental Ideal and Fourth Antinomy in the Critique of Pure Reason as a bedrock to understand mistakes in popular spatio-temporal and transcendental proofs for the existence of God and develop a discussion of the necessity of the continued search for, and potential foundation of, an alternative proof of the existence of God. I will first attempt to instill the thought of the necessity of a commitment to the idea of the existence of God. I will then explain and clarify a) the three transcendental proofs for the existence of God and b) what I …

Psychoanalysis, Dignity, And Life: An Introduction, David Metzger

English Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Impact Of Thoreau's Racial Privilege On His Complicated Views Of Slavery And Abolition, Cassandra Carpenter

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Throughout Henry David Thoreau’s life and writing, he pioneers the Nineteenth Century Transcendental movement as a defender of political morality and individual refinement, while simultaneously stressing the importance of maintaining intimacy with nature. The presumed static nature of Thoreau’s movement, however, does not fully encompass the tumultuous time in American history with which Thoreau exists. Living after the Revolutionary war, during the Mexican war, and before the height of the Civil-War, his thought inhabits a period of changes, sometimes positive and yet mostly negative.