Arts and Humanities Commons^™

From Positivism To ‘Anti-Positivism’ In Mexico: Some Notable Continuities, Alexander V. Stehn

Philosophy Faculty Publications

A general consensus has emerged in the scholarship on Latin American thought dating from the latter half of the nineteenth century through the first quarter of the twentieth. Latin American intellectuals widely adapted the European philosophy of positivism in keeping with the demands of their own social and political contexts, effectively making positivism the second most important philosophical tradition in the history of Latin America, after scholasticism. However, as thinkers across Latin America faced the challenges of the twentieth century, they grew increasingly disappointed with positivism, so that “anti-positivism” stands out as a defining feature of Latin American philosophy in …

When Should Philosophers Be Silent?, Jason Decker, Charles Taliaferro

Philosophy Faculty Work

Are there general precepts governing when philosophers should not conduct inquiry on a given topic? When, if ever, should a philosopher just be silent? In this paper we look at a number of practical, epistemic, and moral arguments for philosophical silence. Some are quite general, and suggest that it is best never to engage in philosophical inquiry, while others are more domain – or context – specific. We argue that these arguments fail to establish their conclusions. We do, however, try to identify and defend several substantive constraints on philosophical dialogue and inquiry. In practice, though, respecting these constraints needn’t …

Derrida, Lacan And Deconstruction, Taylor Konieczka

Undergraduate Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

Playing Fair With Prisoners, Richard Dagger

Political Science Faculty Publications

Oddness aside, however, I think there is much to recommend the attempt to restore rehabilitation to a central place in the practice of punishment. Nor do I think that rehabilitation must displace retribution in that practice. Properly understood, the two aims are not only compatible but also complementary. If we are to understand them properly, though, we shall need to see them as components of a theory of punishment that is grounded in considerations of fair play. Such a theory also has the advantage of offering guidance with regard to other controversial matters of penal policy, such as the question …

Social Cognition And The Allure Of The Second-Person Perspective: In Defense Of Empathy And Simulation, Karsten R. Stueber

Philosophy Department Faculty Scholarship

This essay serves as an evaluation of challenges to the orthodox way of conceiving "mindreading" abilities by defending a 2006 claim by the author that those abilities involve basic and reenactive empathy .

The Philosopher-Priest And The Mythology Of Reason, John Panteleimon Manoussakis

Philosophy Department Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Logic Of Divine-Human Reconciliation: A Critical Analysis Of Penal Substitution As An Explanatory Feature Of Atonement, Blaine Swen

Dissertations

The purpose of this research is to offer an analysis of the major conceptual and ethical problems facing penal substitution insofar as it is utilized as an explanatory feature of Christ's contribution to divine-human reconciliation. I present fourteen problems and argue that penal substitution can overcome these problems by embracing a "divine-manifest offering" approach to atonement. On this approach, God mercifully chooses to require satisfaction for sin through penal substitution in order to give God's Self the opportunity to meet this requirement by satisfaction through penal self-substitution. This divine self-substitution is intended by God to elicit a free human response …

Embodied Ethics : Transformation, Care, And Activism Through Artistic Engagement, Melissa Rachel Schwartz

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In what follows, I highlight negative environmental perspectives and actions based on traditional patterns of Western dualist thought with the ultimate aim of developing an alternative way of relating to the environment and the ‘other’, in general. In pursuit of such an alternative, I utilize embodied artistic practices in order to present the notion that one can engage more holistically with one’s environment, and the other. Through habitual, lifelong ‚Ways‛ cultivating specific practices generally necessary to creating and to viewing art, I argue, one can refine one’s ethical awareness and action. Following the aims of care ethics’ more context and …

Covenant Nation: The Politics Of Grace In Early American Literature, Justin M. Scott-Coe

CGU Theses & Dissertations

The argument of this dissertation is that a critical reading of the concept of "covenant" in early American writings is instrumental to understanding the paradoxes in the American political concepts of freedom and equality. Following Slavoj Zizek's theoretical approach to theology, I trace the covenant concept in early American literature from the theological expressions and disputes in Puritan Massachusetts through Jonathan Edwards's Freedom of Will and the essays of Ralph Waldo Emerson, showing how the covenant theology of colonial New England dispersed into more "secular" forms of what may be called an American political theology. The first chapter provides an …

How Porous Are The Walls That Separate Us?: Transformative Service-Learning, Women’S Incarceration, And The Unsettled Self, Coralynn V. Davis, Carol Wayne White

Faculty Journal Articles

In this article, we refine a politics of thinking from the margins by exploring a pedagogical model that advances transformative notions of service learning as social justice teaching. Drawing on a recent course we taught involving both incarcerated women and traditional college students, we contend that when communication among differentiated and stratified parties occurs, one possible result is not just a view of the other but also a transformation of the self and other. More specifically, we suggest that an engaged feminist praxis of teaching incarcerated women together with college students helps illuminate the porous nature of fixed markers that …

Research Methodologies: A Look At The Underlying Philosophical Foundations Of Research, Nathapon Siangchokyoo, Andres Sousa-Poza

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

Quantitative and qualitative research methodologies have had their greatest share of debates dating back to the 1970s. Researchers have long argued over the underlying philosophical features between the two methodologies and their ability to derive knowledge (Onwuegbuzie & Leech, 2005, Sale, Lohfeld, & Brazil, 2002; Powell, Mihalas, Onwuegbuzie, Suldo and Daley, 2008; Sechrest and Sidani, 1995). More recently, modern researchers have argued that the integration of quantitative and qualitative methods into a single methodology (known simply as mixed methods research) allows researchers to answer questions otherwise unobtainable (Carey, 1993). The emergence of mixed methods research has gained increasing popularities in …

Development Of Clinical Ethics Services In The Uk: A National Survey, Anne Marie Slowther, Leah Mcclimans, Charlotte Price

Faculty Publications

Background In 2001 a report on the provision of clinical ethics support in UK healthcare institutions identified 20 clinical ethics committees. Since then there has been no systematic evaluation or documentation of their work at a national level. Recent national surveys of clinical ethics services in other countries have identified wide variation in practice and scope of activities.

Objective To describe the current provision of ethics support in the UK and its development since 2001.

Method A postal/electronic questionnaire survey administered to the chairs of all 82 clinical ethics services registered with the UK Clinical Ethics Network in July 2010. …

Mystical Experience And Its Defense On The Mystical's Proper Understanding And Usage, Adrian Contreras

Philosophy & Humanities Theses - Archive

This document will closely examine the issue of mystical experience by reviewing its origins in sacred concepts and leading arguments in the field of philosophy of mysticism. Ultimately, this document will attempt to prove the manner by which it might most properly be understood, as well as the practical use of such experience for those who have lived & experienced it within his/her day-to-day life.

Inflationary Truth-Theoretic Semantics, Michael Brady Horton

Theses and Dissertations--Philosophy

I argue that satisfaction and reference—and therefore, truth—are multiply realizable properties. I advocate a novel approach motivated by a commitment to the robustness and fruitfulness of truth-theoretic approaches to natural language semantics.

DEFLATIONISM: Philosophers keen on deflating the metaphysical pretensions of truth theories claim that we need not appeal to a substantive truth-property. Recently, however, some philosophers have sought to combine deflationism about truth with the view that our concept of truth or the truth-predicate can play an important role in natural language semantics.

TRUTH-THEORETIC SEMANTICS: The goal of a formal semantic theory of a natural language is to provide …

Conceptions Of Mechanisms And Insensitivity Of Causation, Viorel Pâslaru

Philosophy Faculty Publications

Conceptions of mechanisms due to Glennan (1996; 2002), Machamer, Darden, and Craver (2000), Bechtel and Abrahamsen (2005) have developed in opposition to the nomological approach to explanation. It is less emphasized, however, that these conceptions have also developed as alternatives to the causal perspective on explanation. In this paper, I argue that despite their distancing from the topic of causation, the mechanistic conceptions need to incorporate in their definitions of mechanisms the notion of insensitivity of causal relations that was examined by Woodward (2006).

Biological Autonomy, A. Grandpierre, Menas Kafatos

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

We argue that genuine biological autonomy, or described at human level as free will, requires taking into account quantum vacuum processes in the context of biological teleology. One faces at least three basic problems of genuine biological autonomy: (1) if biological autonomy is not physical, where does it come from? (2) Is there a room for biological causes? And (3) how to obtain a workable model of biological teleology? It is shown here that the solution of all these three problems is related to the quantum vacuum. We present a short review of how this basic aspect of the fundamentals …

Voting Rights And Wrongs: Philosophical Justification For Universal Suffrage, Michelle Brody

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis analyzes Jason Brennan's paper "The Right to a Competent Electorate," then critiques his argument in favor of restricting voting rights to those deemed competent. I consider the practical and ethical implications of testing for competence, then conclude, contrary to Brennan, that granting all citizens voting rights is more just than restricting the voting population.

Is There A Right To Healthcare? An Analysis From The Perspective Of Liberty And Libertarianism, Sarah R. Robinson

CMC Senior Theses

Despite already having the most expensive healthcare system in the world, the U.S. is facing rapidly rising costs, a growing population not covered by health insurance, and outcomes that are no better, and frequently worse, than those seen in the majority of developed nations with universal healthcare. Popular justifications of keeping the state out of healthcare appeal to protecting individual liberty; those who assert that there is a universal right to healthcare usually fail to address this claim. This paper describes the kinds of obligations in healthcare that are consistent with, if not demanded by, theories of justice that emphasize …

Mary’S Dilemma: A Novel Take On Jackson’S Famous Thought Experiment, Noah O. Abolafia-Rosenzweig

CMC Senior Theses

This paper explores and evaluates the famous Mary case put forward by Frank Jackson in support of what he calls the knowledge argument against physicalism. After laying out Jackson’s position, I set out to determine whether certain previous physicalist attempts at undermining it have been successful. Finding that they have not, I use their shortcomings to inform the construction of a new position, one which I argue renders the Mary case at odds with itself and frees physicalism from the knowledge argument’s grasp.

Do You Have A Conscience?, Jeremy Bendik-Keymer

Faculty Scholarship

“Do you have a conscience?” There was a time when this would have been a question that was immediately intelligible to people, like asking whether a person holding a ball can throw it. For much of the history of philosophy—that ancient Greek invention—the name for what allows one to stay in touch with moral principles in the midst of particular decisions was “conscience” (Langston 2001). To ask whether I have a conscience was tantamount to asking whether I can keep my decisions moral, whether I was capable of being a mature human being. Since morality is the domain of duties …

Sustainability Trajectory And Possibility, Roger Saillant, Jeremy Bendik-Keymer

Faculty Scholarship

There was a time in our prehistorical past when we as a species were subject to the forces of nature in much the same ways as all other living beings of the time. Our technology was only moderately protective. We human beings were a blend of instincts and common sense. Although communities among us could overshoot our resources, we managed to live within the biosphere relatively well. We were no noble savages—consider our genocide of the Neanderthals and our contribution to the North American mega fauna extinctions—but neither were we capable of affecting the entire global system of life as …

Following The Trail Of Ants: An Examination Of The Work Of E.O. Wilson, Samantha Kee

Writing Across the Curriculum

No abstract provided.

Introduction To The Intellectual Standard, Jaret Kanarek

The Intellectual Standard

It is with great pleasure that I introduce The Intellectual Standard to Illinois Wesleyan University. The Intellectual Standard is an interdisci­plinary' student-run academic journal. With philosophy as its fundamen­tal base, it covers a myriad of topics, including the social sciences, the natu­ral sciences, current events, culture, and art. Its goal is to bring intellectual thought into the mainstream environment of Illinois Wesleyan University, and thereby set an intellectual standard for students, professors, and publi­cations alike.

Philosophy And Nascar, Jake K. Bates

The Intellectual Standard

Philosophy is typically considered a thought-provoking science appropriately reserved for discussion between "intellectuals;' and NAS­CAR contrarily carries a stigma of uneducated masses of fans supporting a racer of their choice with a frequently drunken passion. Thus, the mar­riage of these two topics may seem entirely inappropriate. Despite their conflicting stereotypes, philosophy and NASCAR must not necessarily be separated. Philosophy-at least the right philosophy-exalts the use of the mind in furthering man's capabilities and simultaneously seeks to under­stand the limitations imposed by nature. It is the science presented and, ideally, answering questions such as "Where am I?;' "How can I discover …

The Learning Process: Inspiration For Computer Scientists, Nick A. Nichols

The Intellectual Standard

The human brain is capable of tasks with which the most com­plex computers have trouble. Comprehending language, a task that chil­dren can begin to develop by their second or third birthday, has only just reached a consistently usable level. Even with years of research, IBM's Wat­son, which competed against two all-time Jeopardy! contestants, was un­able to detect many of the nuances of human communication. Puns, con­text clues, and more are critical parts of communication, but given several of Watson's "confused" answers, they were clearly misinterpreted.1 From this, an important question becomes apparent, "What makes a human able to understand this …

Faulty Phrases: "Good Things Come To Those Who Wait", Jake K. Bates

The Intellectual Standard

"Good things come to those who wait" has become such a staple of English -speaking culture that it has been used in Guinness and Heinz ad campaigns. Just as Heinz encouraged ketchup consumers to endure the bottle's slow trickle, people use the words in a variety of contexts to encour­age patience. A friend or parent may console a student anxious to receive essay results by declaring "good things come to those who waif' In hon­estly analyzing each of the words and the possible meanings interpreted from their interaction, without endowing any white-washed meaning, it should be easily observed that "good …

Making Human Rights Really Real, Jake K. Bates

The Intellectual Standard

In lieu of Illinois Wesleyan's "Making Human Rights Real" endeav­ors this school year, questions arise concerning the meaning of human rights and how we can effectively apply such a concept in the world around us. The discussion of human rights has long been one of the most contested among political philosophers and ordinary citizens alike. And rightfully so, because its conclusions hold drastic implications for individuals every­where at all times. In order to avoid a muddled debate on the subject, it is critical to concretely define human rights. Thus, the concept of a "human;' the concept of a "right:' and …

G. W. F. Hegel (1770-1831), Richard Thomas Eldridge

Philosophy Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

Review Of "Assuming A Body: Transgender And Rhetorics Of Materiality" By G. Salamon, Tamsin E. Lorraine

Philosophy Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

(2012) Economic Crises And Education: Some Philosophical Reflections, Laurance J. Splitter

Collected Papers of Laurance J. Splitter

The ongoing series of global financial crises offers some important philosophical lessons and insights for educators. The epistemological lesson is stark: we should beware of certainty and all claims to it. Were the disposition of generic skepticism in place at all levels of schooling, then the intellectual rigidity that has characterized economics as a “discipline” would be balanced by demands to consider possible alternatives. The ethical lessons to be learned include ensuring that ethics, as a form of rigorous but openended inquiry into key questions about the kind of world in which we want to live, be included in every …