Arts and Humanities Commons^™

2020 Mlk Keynote Address: Michelle Alexander Presentation, Center For Social Equity & Inclusion, Michelle Alexander, Rosanne Somerson, Matthew Shenoda

Martin Luther King, Jr. Series

2020 MLK Series Keynote Michelle Alexander brings audiences profoundly necessary and meaningful insights on the practice of mass incarceration that plagues the US justice system, as well as eye-opening conversation on how we can end racial caste in America. Lecture Wednesday, January 22, 2020 at 5:30pm, RISD Auditorium, 17 Canal Walk, Providence, RI.

In her acclaimed bestseller The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, Alexander peels back the curtain on systemic racism in the US prison system in a work that the New York Review of Books describes as "striking in the intelligence of her …

Gloria Anzaldúa’S Mexican Genealogy: From Pelados And Pachucos To New Mestizas, Mariana Alessandri, Alexander Stehn

Philosophy Faculty Publications

This essay examines Gloria Anzaldúa’s critical appropriation of two Mexican philosophers in the writing of Borderlands/La Frontera: Samuel Ramos and Octavio Paz. We argue that although neither of these authors is cited in her seminal work, Anzaldúa had them both in mind through the writing process and that their ideas are present in the text itself. Through a genealogical reading of Borderlands/La Frontera, and aided by archival research, we demonstrate how Anzaldúa’s philosophical vision of the “new mestiza” is a critical continuation of the broader tradition known as la filosofía de lo mexicano, which flourished during a golden age of …

Martin Luther King Jr. And Ernest Everett Just - On Evolution Of Ethical Behavior, Theodore Walker

Perkins Faculty Research and Special Events

Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. prescribed an evolutionary advance in ethical behavior: the total “abolition of poverty” and the abolition of war throughout “the world house.” Cell biologist Ernest Everett Just advanced the idea that human ethical behavior evolved from cellular origins.

Also, astrobiologists Chandra Wickramasinghe and Sir Fred Hoyle advanced the idea of cosmic biology, including stellar evolution and cosmic evolution. From cells to humans to stars and cosmology, evolutionary natural science converges with natural theology.

Wildlife Emotions: Animal Rights As Examined Through A Cognitivist Lens, Kristy Schultz

The Hilltop Review

The aim of this article is to revisit and redefine the scope of a Kantian rights-based theory to include non-human animals. Generally, rights-based theories are predicated on a Kantian deontology that excludes all but rational subjects from possessing of basic rights. Historically, non-human animals—once thought to act on impulse and desire alone—have been excluded from rights-based considerations. However, more recent literature from emotions theorist Martha Nussbaum suggests an alternative picture for non-human animals. Cognitivist theories like Nussbaum’s, alongside intensive scientific research, support the notion that non-human animals show signs of intentionality and possess the capacity to emote. If Nussbaum’s theory …

A Revision Of The Buechner–Tavani Model Of Digital Trust And A Philosophical Problem It Raises For Social Robotics, Jeff Buechner

Publications and Research

In this paper the Buechner–Tavani model of digital trust is revised—new conditions for self-trust are incorporated into the model. These new conditions raise several philosophical problems concerning the idea of a substantial self for social robotics, which are closely examined. I conclude that reductionism about the self is incompatible with, while the idea of a substantial self is compatible with, trust relations between human agents, between human agents and artificial agents, and between artificial agents.

The Bioethical Significance Of “The Origin Of Man’S Ethical Behavior” (October 1941, Unpublished) By Ernest Everett Just And Hedwig Anna Schnetzler Just, Theodore Walker Jr.

Journal of the South Carolina Academy of Science

Abstract –

E. E. Just (1883-1941) is an acknowledged “pioneer” in cell biology, and he is perhaps the pioneer in study of egg cell fertilization. Here we discover that Just also made pioneering contributions to general biology and evolutionary bioethics.

Within Just’s published contributions to observational cell biology, there are substantial fragments of his theory of ethical behavior, a theory with roots in cell biology. In addition to such previously available fragments, Just’s fully developed theory is now available. This recently discovered unpublished book-length manuscript argues for the biological origins of ethical behavior (evolving from cells to humans, within a …

Anarchaeologies: Reading As Misreading [Table Of Contents], Erin Graff Zivin

Literature

How do we read after the so-called death of literature? If we are to attend to the proclamations that the representational apparatuses of literature and politics are dead, what aesthetic, ethical, and political possibilities remain for us today? Our critical moment, Graff Zivin argues, demands anarchaeological reading: reading for the blind spots, errors, points of opacity or untranslatability in works of philosophy and art.

Rather than applying concepts from philosophy in order to understand or elucidate cultural works, the book exposes works of philosophy, literary theory, narrative, poetry, film, and performance art and activism to one another. Working specifically …

Is Safe-Enough Pragmatism Good Enough?, Richard Thomas Eldridge

Philosophy Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

Sagp Newsletter 2019/20.2 Scs And Eastern Division Programs, Anthony Preus

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

SAGP Panels for the meetings of the Society for Classical Studies and the Eastern Division of the American Philosophical Association for January 2020

Clement Of Alexandria And The Logos, Lois Eveleth

Faculty and Staff - Articles & Papers

Director of a catechetical school in Alexandria, Clement employed a key concept in Middle Platonism, i.e. Logos, as a means to spread the Gospel among Hellenized Egyptians and Berbers. Ever the pedagogue, Clement freely employed rich metaphors; especially memorable was "Christ the Minstrel"; singing a "... new song for the cosmos."

Recent Publications, Editorial Office

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

No abstract provided.

Notices, Editorial Office

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

No abstract provided.

On The Transcendental Freedom Of The Intellect, Colin Mclear

Department of Philosophy: Faculty Publications

One well-known point of emphasis in the critical philosophy is that only transcendental idealism can safeguard the possibility of the spontaneity and agent-causal freedom of rational beings. If such freedom were not possible, then in Kant’s estimation there would be no hope for conceiving of rational agents as morally responsible; for if rational agents were totally in the grip of the deterministic causal nexus of the Spatio-temporal world then moral requirements could not apply.

However, as the epigraph above makes clear, Kant also considers the causal nexus of phenomenal nature to threaten the status of human beings not just as …

The Sparrow Hawk Castle - A Mostly Ignored Literary Motif Across The Cultures And The Centuries, Albrecht Classen

Quidditas

Johann Schiltberger included a curious episode about the ‘Sparrow Hawk Mountain’ in his famous travelogue Reisebericht from 1427. This episode can be traced back to John Mandeville’s Travels in the German translation by Michel Velser. This study examines the similarities between Mandeville’s text and Schiltberger’s account, but then also the use of this motif in the tradition of the Melusine novel (Jean d’Arras and Thüring von Ringoltingen). Further attempts are made to identify sources for this episode Mandeville might have drawn from, including an Armenian chronicle and even the love treatise De amore by Andreas Capellanus.

Explanations And Justifications Of War In The British Kingdoms In The Seventeenth Century, Roger B. Manning

Quidditas

The influence of Machiavelli on English and Scottish political discourse can be detected not just on politicians and military men, but also among clerics and the well educated elite– even when they do not cite him directly. In England and Scotland, as in mainland European countries, Machiavellian discourse placed war at the center of discussion. Some justified their bellicosity in the secularized language of Roman historians and Italian humanists and thought that since war was the main theme of history and could be regarded as an inevitable phenomenon, England might as well profit by it. This necessarily brought England into …

Perennialism Through The Lens Of Otherness, Gabriel Fernandez-Borsot

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies Advance Publication Archive

Otherness has been a subject of the utmost relevance for continental philosophy since the beginning of the 20th century, constituting what might be characterized as an otherness turn. Otherness is here understood as the awareness that one has that other beings or things have their own separate beingness that is not subsumed within oneself. Its essential role in human relations permits the creation of a critical perspective of analysis, a “lens of otherness.” Applying this lens to perennialism up through its latest iterations reveals some problematic aspects of this approach. By contrast, participatory thought may be a more “otherness compliant” …

Intimations Of A Spiritual New Age: Iv. Carl Jung's Archetypal Imagination As Futural Planetary Neo-Shamanism, Harry T. Hunt

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies Advance Publication Archive

This series of papers on early anticipations of a spiritual New Age ends with Carl Jung’s version of a futural planetary-wide unus mundus rejoining person and cosmos, based on his psychoid linkage of quantum physics and consciousness, and especially on the neo-shamanic worldview emerging out of his spirit guided initiation in the more recently published Red Book. A cognitive-psychological re-evaluation of Jung’s archetypal imagination, the metaphoricity of his alchemical writings, and a comparison of Jung and Levi-Strauss on mythological thinking all support a contemporary view of Jung’s active imagination and mythic amplification as a spiritual intelligence based on a formal …

Residential Segregation And Rethinking The Imperative Of Integration, Ronald R. Sundstrom

Philosophy

In this chapter I consider the place of the topic of racial and ethnic urban residential segregation factors into political philosophy. I begin with a short history of residential segregation and the ghetto, and their role in systems of racial domination and oppression, and remarks on the general neglect of this topic in contemporary political philosophy, including in nonideal political philosophy, which proports to take on examples of real-world injustices and inequalities. I then examine, from the standpoint of liberal-egalitarian political theory, what segregation, as a con- cept, entails, and its harms to individuals, communities, and societies. Segregation in all …

Alejandro Napolitano Jawerbaum's Portfolio, Alejandro Jorge Napolitano Jawerbaum

Honors College Portfolios

This portfolio is a journey through my process in these first two years at Duquesne. I decided to do this now rather than later because I'm finishing my philosophy Honors Thesis and my computer science senior project, which is also a thesis, and in the following semesters I will be focusing on mathematics and computer science.

The writings are varied, reflecting the fact that I am pursuing three majors and two minors. The order will reflect my progression, but will generally correspond to topics. First will be my 'simpler' writings as I began my studies here, and are mostly composed …

Finding Common Ground For Citizen Empowerment In The Smart City, John D. Kelleher, Aphra Kerr

Articles

Corporate smart city initiatives are just one example of the contemporary culture of surveillance. They rely on extensive information gathering systems and Big Data analysis to predict citizen behaviour and optimise city services. In this paper we argue that many smart city and social media technologies result in a paradox whereby digital inclusion for the purposes of service provision also results in marginalisation and disempowerment of citizens. Drawing upon insights garnered from a digital inclusion workshop conducted in the Galapagos islands, we propose that critically and creatively unpacking the computational techniques embedded in data services is needed as a first …

Kierkegaard's Theory Of Boredom And The Development Of Personality, Luke Wadhams

Theses and Dissertations--Philosophy

This dissertation examines the conception of boredom presented in the work of Søren Kierkegaard. Kierkegaard is known for deriving philosophical insights into human nature from phenomenological analyses of various moods. However, while Kierkegaard provides explicit and complete accounts of anxiety, despair, and melancholy, his analyses of boredom are only ever fragmentary and dispersed. Additionally, most scholars either neglect Kierkegaard’s descriptions of boredom or dismiss them as mere novelty, and, even though a few scholars analyze the concept, there is still no sustained and thorough account of the same. This dissertation advances Kierkegaard scholarship by piecing together Kierkegaard’s theory of boredom …

Remembering Eden: A Study Of Garden Imagery In Judeo-Christian Worship Spaces, Luc Berard

Honors Student Works

Vases of flowers, a mural of wildlife, and poetic references to a garden, these artistic elements are all commonplace in Judeo-Christian worship spaces; but why? While all of these are certainly aesthetically pleasing, there is likely much more going on than mere interior decoration. This paper will begin by examining the source of garden imagery in the poetry of the Judeo-Christian tradition, demonstrating the significance and prevalence of Eden in the memory of the Judeo-Christian memory. Following this, the paper will then furnish and analyze several examples of Edenic imagery in the worship spaces, highlighting several important artistic elements shared …

Eliberative Democracy In The Writing Classroom And Beyond Author(S): Michael Reich, Michael Reich

Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation I explore the consequences of adopting a deliberative pedagogy, based on the study of one or two sample courses taught in 2018 at St. John’s University. The project as a whole argues that the university should be an idea place for students to develop a sense of personal and political agency, and First Year Writing courses organized around deliberation allow students to learn to listen and reason with each other as individuals and as citizens. My first chapter defends the methodology of a humanistic idea of deliberation (a pedagogy not based in classroom drills or Standard English) …

Real Smart (Data) City: Le Colonialisme Par Les Données, Conor Mcgarrigle Dr., Noel Fitzpatrick

Book chapters

This chapter sets out to define the Data City by counteracting the Smart City as ahistorical, uprooted and dislocated, the Data city approach will highlight the rootedness, the historical and locate context of data colonalisation both historical and within contemporary Smart City Discourse. The Data City is, hence, taken within the paradigm of discourses in relation to the smart city, the smart city is here understood as the spectrum of discourses about the contemporary city. This spectrum encapsulates city authorities laudable aspirations for more social inclusion and better distribution of services to the Smart City as a form of technological …

An Introduction To Blaga's Philosophy For Readers Of Zalmoxis, Michael Jones

Faculty Publications and Presentations

In his excellent preface to Plantus' translation of Zalmoxis, Keith Hitchins mentions, but does not describe in detail, the philosophical system created by Lucian Blaga as a compliment to and source of his drama and poetry. In her forward, Plantus, the translator of Zalmoxis, likewise alludes to the philosophical undercurrents present in Blaga’s literary works in general and in Zalmoxis in particular. In my chapter I briefly outline this philosophical system for the readers of Zalmoxis. I do so – and the translator has invited me to do so – because, while Blaga’s poetry is not slave to his philosophy, …

Prometheus' Gift Of Fire And Technics: Contemplating The Meaning Of Fire, Affect, And Californian Pyrophytes In The Pyrocene, Marjolein Oele

Philosophy

This chapter offers a philosophical response to the devastating and deadly wildfires that have been ravaging in California in the past few years; it turns to the myth of Prometheus (as interpreted through Bernard Stiegler’s Technics and Time) for theoretical guidance. The chapter’s central argument is that the Promethean duplicitous gift—of fire and technical skills (technē)—to humanity has both led to the current tragedy of the anthropocene and may offer impetus to imagine a future beyond the anthropocene, but only if fire and technical skills come to be seen in a different light, and solicit different affects. To reimagine our …

The Saint And The Swan: Animal Interactions In The Hagiography Of Hugh Of Avalon, Emma Grover

Quidditas

Animals in medieval hagiography typically appear in conjunction with saints who practice withdrawal from normal human society or are otherwise socially marginalized, such as hermits, outcasts, or mendicant friars. The association of these figures with animals emphasizes the saints’ status on the social margins; for these saints, interaction with animals is a substitute for participation in human society. An exception to this pattern is Hugh of Avalon, bishop of Lincoln in the late twelfth century. An animal companion, the swan of Stow, appears prominently in all three hagiographical accounts of Hugh’s life and is the most recognizable characteristic of his …

Front Matter

Quidditas

No abstract provided.

Welcoming Newcomers And Becoming Native To A Place_ Arendt’S Polis And The City Beautiful Of Detroit.Pdf, Jules Simon

Selected Works Temporary Series

My goal, in interpreting Arendt’s analyses of the polis – both modern and ancient – is to conceptualize the role that ‘healthy’ public spaces can play in modern cities. What distinguishes my interpretation of her work is how I integrate her seminal conception of a philosophy of natality in the constellation of elemental concepts: labor, work, and action, as a way to understand the rise and fall of Detroit and to set the possible horizon for its reincarnation as a ‘sustainable’ and flourishing city beautiful. For me, it is precisely this conceptualization, as a philosophy of natality, that enables us …

Pessimism, Hope, And The Tragic-Art Of The Greeks (Nietzsche And The Pandora Myth), James Magrini

Philosophy Scholarship

This essay is focused on Nietzsche’s unique reading of the Pandora myth as it appears in Human, All Too Human and develops an interpretation of Hope, the most profound evil of the many evils released by Pandora infecting the human condition, as it might be understood in relation to Nietzsche’s analysis of the ancient Greeks in The Birth of Tragedy. In reading this early work of Nietzsche, modes of comportment that fall under two specific categories are considered: Passive Nihilism-Pessimism of Decline and Active Nihilism-Pessimism of Strength as understood by Nietzsche in the late compilation of his notes …