Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Introduction To Against Harmony: Radical Buddhism In Thought And Practice, James Mark Shields

Faculty Journal Articles

No abstract provided.

Zen And The Art Of Treason: Radical Buddhism In Meiji Era (1868–1912) Japan, James Mark Shields

Faculty Journal Articles

In the early decades of the twentieth century, as Japanese society became engulfed in war and increasing nationalism, the majority of Buddhist leaders and institutions capitulated to the status quo. At the same time, there was a stream of ‘resistance’ among a few Buddhist figures, both priests and laity. These instances of progressive and ‘radical Buddhism’ had roots in late Edo-period peasant revolts, the lingering discourse of early Meiji period liberalism, trends within Buddhist reform and modernisation and the emergence in the first decade of the twentieth century of radical political thought, including various forms of socialism and anarchism. This …

Technological Boredom, Philosophical Discussion Group, Armstrong State University

The Philosopher's Stone

No abstract provided.

Reviewing Epistemic Authority, Paige Massey

Seaver College Research And Scholarly Achievement Symposium

Given the relationship between personal autonomy and our various commitments across ideological communities, it is important to understand how to navigate peer disagreement and on which bases we may rationally accept a community leader as an authority in the formation of our beliefs. In her most recent book, Epistemic Authority, Linda Zagzebski develops a theory of rational trust to provide a framework for understanding this complex relationship between autonomy and authority. In my project with Professor Bogardus, we set out to coauthor a scholarly review of Zagzebski's book in light of current epistemological research, with the additional aim to provide …

Yes, Safety Is In Danger, Chad Marxen

Seaver College Research And Scholarly Achievement Symposium

In an essay recently published in this journal (“Is Safety in Danger?”), Fernando Broncano Berrocal defends the safety condition on knowledge from a counterexample proposed by Tomas Bogardus (2012). In this paper, we will define the safety condition, briefly explain the proposed counterexample, and outline Broncano-Berrocal’s defense of the safety condition. We will then raise four objections to Broncano-Berrocal’s defense, four implausible implications of his central claim. In the end, we conclude that Broncano-Berrocal’s defense of the safety condition is unsuccessful, and that the safety condition on knowledge should be rejected.

Aeschynē In Aristotle's Conception Of Human Nature, Melissa Marie Coakley

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation provides a thorough examination of the role of aeschynē (as distinct from aidōs) in Aristotle’s conception of human nature by illuminating the political and ethical implications of shame and shamelessness and the effect of these implications in his treatises. It is crucial, both to one’s own personhood and eudaimonia as well as to the existence of a just and balanced state, that aeschynē be understood and respected because of the self-evaluating ability that it maintains.

The aim of this work is to show that a recognition and appreciation of aeschynē as understood in Aristotle’s conception of human …

Gratitude And Displacement: The Political Obligations Of Refugees, Jason R. D'Cruz

Philosophy Faculty Scholarship

On what basis, and to what extent, are refugees obligated to obey the laws of their host countries? Consideration of the specific case of asylum-seekers generates, I think, two competing intuitions: (1) the refugee has a prima facie obligation to obey the laws of her host country and (2) none of the popularly canvassed substrates of political obligation—consent, tacit consent, fairness, or social role—is at all apt to explain the presence of this obligation. I contend that the unfashionable gratitude account of political obligation does the best job of accounting for the intuitions. As has been noticed by other commentators, …

Walter Benjamin's Literary Aura: A Stylistic And Thematic Analysis Of One-Way Street, Stephanie Chapman

Modern Languages and Literatures Annual Graduate Conference

“Brevity” epitomizes Walter Benjamin's One-Way Street, an avant-garde text composed entirely of aphorisms. Benjamin's ideal of literary montage involves the utilization of ideas that he refers to as Abfall, or detritus, and rearranging them—preserved in the momentary spontaneity in which they were conceived—in order to create an entirely new meaning. Noteworthy about Benjamin's style is the manner in which the assembly of momentary thoughts and impressions creates, in a literary sense, the artistic aura of authenticity introduced in his seminal essay, “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction.” By preserving the form, content, and style …

Ressentiment, Violence, And Colonialism, Jose A. Haro

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This project attempts a joint reading of the work of Friedrich Nietzsche and Frantz Fanon. This task, however, is problematic because this body of work is in tension or contradictory. These problems are so acute that a careful reading method is necessary to successfully carry out this reading. In order to facilitate this reading I elaborate and apply a particular philosophical methodology, Mestizaje. The methodology is intended to address works that are contradictory by attempting to read the texts as they are presented while at the same time balancing their positions. The goal is to honestly reflect the thought of …

Feelings Sustaining Text: Aphorisms And Inspiration, Mikhail Pozdniakov

Modern Languages and Literatures Annual Graduate Conference

There are genres of reflection, one of which is constituted by the aphorism. These reflections are an art of ponderance, of pensiveness. Philosophy is not necessarily the best example, nor is it identical with the genre of reflection as such; it has had a hard time breaking with its derivative moments, and its history is of a catalogue of dogmas as well as progressive critiques. In logic, one of philosophy’s products, the continuous or infinite form of knowledge is condensed into the axiom or principle or formula, which carries the appearance of a statement of fact. Contrary to the latter, …

Aesthetic Mediation And The Politics Of Technology: (Re)New(Ed) Strategies For A Critical Social Theory, Andrew J. Pierce

Philosophy, Theology and Religious Studies Faculty Publications

There is a rich history in early critical theory of attempting to harness the power of aesthetic imagination for the purposes of political liberation. But this approach has largely faded to the background of contemporary critical theory, eclipsed lately by attempts to reconstruct and apply norms of rationality to processes of democratic will formation a` la Habermas. This paper represents a small attempt to return the aesthetic element to its proper place within critical theory, by investigating the aesthetic aspects of certain forms of resistance to technological domination, forms of resistance that become ‘‘embodied’’ in technologies themselves. The phenomena of …

Hegel’S Account Of The Unconscious And Why It Matters, Richard Thomas Eldridge

Philosophy Faculty Works

Hegel’s account of the unconscious and his broader philosophy of mind offer us a well worked out form of non-dualist, non-reductionist, non-eliminativist, non-representationalist naturalism. Hegel describes the development of discursively structured thought (and responsiveness to norms) in ethological terms as emerging from initial somatic-sensory states, from states and processes of bodily activity on the part of a feeling soul, and from structured habituation in relation to other subjects. Importantly, earlier, less organized states of sensory awareness and feeling persist as residues underneath cognitive development in “the pit of imagination.” Imagistic and sensory-somatic materials from this pit can burst out, among …

The Mechanistic Approach Of 'The Theory Of Island Biogeography' And Its Current Relevance, Viorel Pâslaru

Philosophy Faculty Publications

Philosophers of science have examined The Theory of Island Biogeography by Robert MacArthur and E. O. Wilson (1967) mainly due to its important contribution to modeling in ecology, but they have not examined it as a representative case of ecological explanation. In this paper, I scrutinize the type of explanation used in this paradigmatic work of ecology. I describe the philosophy of science of MacArthur and Wilson and show that it is mechanistic. Based on this account and in light of contributions to the mechanistic conception of explanation due to Craver (2007), and Bechtel and Richardson (1993), I argue that …

Keynote Address: Untying The Moral Knot Of Abortion, Caitlin E. Borgmann

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

Innocent Burdens, James Edwin Mahon

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

False Speech: Quagmire?, Christopher P. Guzelian

San Diego Law Review

Recently decided cases in several Federal Courts of Appeals and the United States Supreme Court show that First Amendment false speech case law is contradictory and unpredictable. This Article gives examples and concludes that legal liability for false speech will continue to be arbitrary and even susceptible to intentionally unjust decisionmaking if judges and juries individually and collectively disregard or downplay the necessity of an honest search for truth under the guise of tolerance and evenhandedness. If Americans wish to avoid an anything-goes “quagmire” about truth, they must—despite inevitable resistance in a civilization increasingly rife with skeptics—undergo transformations of their …

Should Public Law Accommodate The Claims Of Conscience?, William A. Galston

San Diego Law Review

In the end, it seems to me, the matter boils down to a single issue. Many individuals consider themselves bound by two sources of authority, public law and conscience, whose demands do not always coincide. Is the state prepared to take cognizance of this fact, and if so, how should it respond? Unlike other regimes, liberal democracies should not find these questions unduly challenging. To be a liberal state is to recognize limits on the legitimate scope of public authority; to be a liberal democracy is to recognize limits on the authority of the people and on the writ of …

"Those Stubborn Principles": From Stoicism To Sociability In Joseph Addison’S Cato, Christine Dunn Henderson, Mark Yellin

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Joseph Addison’s 1713 play, Cato: A Tragedy, dramatizes the final days of Cato the Younger’s resistance to Julius Caesar before his eventual suicide at Utica in 46 BC. Although Addison initially seems to present Cato as a model for emulation, we argue that Addison is ultimately critical of both Cato and the Stoicism he embodies. Via the play’s romantic subplot and via his work as an essayist, Addison offers a revision of the Catonic model, reworking it into a gentler model that elevates qualities such as love, friendship, and sympathy and that is more appropriate to the type of peaceful …

Mitigated Skepticism Explanations And Why Its Valuable, Shane Crouch

Undergraduate Theses and Capstone Projects

Skepticism is one of the oldest epistemological positions. Since the time of the Greeks, philosophers have been asking the question of is any knowledge possible. The Ancient skeptics of the time doubted everything while David Hume was skeptical of only some things. He further recognized that a global view was not viable for daily life. I argue in this paper that we should follow Hume’s approach in adopting a skepticism that begins with doubt and then examines the evidence for claims before coming to a conclusion. This will be markedly different from a priori assumptions of no knowledge which will …

Phytol Derived Immunoadjuvants As Oil-In-Water Micro-Emulsions For Use In Vaccines, Dylan M. Johnson

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The main objective of this study is to evaluate an oil-in-water micro-emulsion of phytanol which we have named PHIS59 with multiple antigens: ovalbumin, a protein and microorganism that include a reference laboratory strain of methicillin susceptible Staphylococcus aureus (MSSA) and methicillin resistant S. aureus (MRSA). PHIS59 was compared with the previously described crude oil-in-water emulsion PHIS-01 and the similarly formulated squalene as an oil-in-water micro-emulsion based on the commercial product MF59 referred to here as NV59. Safety and efficacy of PHIS59 and NV59 was evaluated in a mouse and rabbit vaccine models. Determinations of safety were reported as the range …

Conservative Evolution, Sustainability, And Culture, Gábor Náray-Szabó

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his article "Conservative Evolution, Sustainability, and Culture" Gábor Náray-Szabó argues that evolution is conservative in the sense that throughout the history of the universe old constructs like elementary particles, amino acids, and living cells remained conserved while the world evolved/evolves in complexity. A similar process can be observed in cultural evolution as components of society and culture continue to evolve. Considering the increasing pressure on natural resources by material consumption, a close alliance between past, present, and future generations is unavoidable and thus Náray-Szabó posits that concepts of conservative evolution and sustainability are related. However, in order to avoid …

Pursuits Of The Human Condition, Philosophical Discussion Group, Armstrong State University

The Philosopher's Stone

No abstract provided.

Hauerwas On Hauerwas: Review Of 'Approaching The End: Eschatological Reflections On Church, Politics, And Life', William L. Portier

Theology and Religious Studies Faculty Publications

Stanley Hauerwas has achieved singular preeminence among theologians in the United States as a public intellectual. Writing on subjects from Christian ethics to law, pacifism, bioethics, and political philosophy, he has provided bountiful fodder for academics while managing to leave footprints in the general culture-he is surely one of very few theologians ever to appear on Oprah. Any new book bearing Hauerwas' name is noteworthy, and the latest one doesn't disappoint.

Uncommon Art From Common Folk, Curtis Carter

Philosophy Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Aristotelian Support For Davidson’S Argument Against The Intelligibility Of Conceptual Relativism, David A. Jensen

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Donald Davidson argues that we cannot make the notion of conceptual relativism, and all that it entails, intelligible. I proposed, in my study, to show how Aristotle’s ontology supports Davidson’s argument. I will thus summarize the following: Davidson’s argument, Aristotle’s ontologies, connections between the two approaches, and the support which, according to my thesis, the latter lends to the former. I must mention, however, that in any type of summary, as with this one, it is impossible to avoid, if not likely to make, inaccuracies and overly general, unqualified assertions. Nevertheless, this summary should give an idea of the development …

Time Wounds All Heels: Human Nature And The Rationality Of Just Behavior, Timothy Glenn Slattery

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

We share our world with many people who ignore the principles of justice and who regularly take advantage of others by breaching trust or breaking agreements. This dissertation is about the irrationality of the actions of these covenant-breakers. A covenant-breaker typically believes that unjust behavior is to his advantage and that only a fool would act in any other way. Would it not be disturbing if this were true?

My central claim will be that adherence to the precepts of justice is a rational strategy for a self-interested actor. I intend to demonstrate that con men and covenant-breakers do not …

The Evolutionary Function Of Conscious Information Processing Is Revealed By Its Task-Dependency In The Olfactory System, Andreas Keller

Publications and Research

Although many responses to odorous stimuli are mediated without olfactory information being consciously processed, some olfactory behaviors require conscious information processing. I will here contrast situations in which olfactory information is processed consciously to situations in which it is processed non-consciously. This contrastive analysis reveals that conscious information processing is required when an organism is faced with tasks in which there are many behavioral options available. I therefore propose that it is the evolutionary function of conscious information processing to guide behaviors in situations in which the organism has to choose between many possible responses.

Understanding Leadership: An Experimental-Experiential Model, George T. Hole Ph.D

Journal of Inquiry and Action in Education

Books about leadership are dangerous to readers who fantasize about being leaders or apply leadership ideas as if they were proven formulas. As an antidote, I offer an experimental framework in which any leadership-management model can be tested to gain experiential understanding of the model. As a result one can gain reality-based insights about leadership and oneself. The experiment is described; resistances to engaging it are considered; and examples from a leadership group implementing Covey’s “Seven Principles are summarized. In the course of discussing individual’s experiments objections were voiced against this Socratic approach to understanding leadership. Finally, I sketch a …

Kill To Conserve: Ethical Implications Of Trophy Hunting Conservation Measures, Nicholas Bashqawi

2014 Honors Council of the Illinois Region Papers

No abstract provided.

Communicative Action And Mass Communication Via Internet Technologies, Jonathan Kaye

2014 Honors Council of the Illinois Region Papers

The purpose of this study was to analyze the work of German philosopher Jürgen Habermas, focusing on his theory of communicative action. In his work, Habermas specifically probes the epistemological question; how human beings can know anything at all? Through an interconnected scheme of: survival challenges, knowledge and action; there is found grounding for the physical sciences, the social sciences and philosophy itself. Communicative action becomes the “glue” that holds society together in reference to those sciences, for Habermas, communicative action is how shared meaning about the world is established and it is through communicative action and based on communicative …