Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Inferring And Explaining, Jeffery L. Johnson

PDXOpen: Open Educational Resources

Inferring and Explaining is a book in practical epistemology. It examines the notion of evidence and assumes that good evidence is the essence of rational thinking. Evidence is the cornerstone of the natural, social, and behavioral sciences. But it is equally central to almost all academic pursuits and, perhaps most importantly, to the basic need to live an intelligent and reflective life.

The book further assumes that a particular model of evidence— Inference to the Best Explanation—not only captures the essence of (good) evidence but suggests a very practical, and pedagogically useful, procedure for evidence evaluation. The book is intended …

Art Addressing The Anthropocene, Wolfgang Welsch

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

The current diagnosis that the era we are living in ought to be conceived as anthropocene has two implications: 1. Human activity is changing the superficial as well as the deep structure of our planet to a formerly unknown degree; and 2. The foreseeable catastrophic consequences of our impact on life on this planet command a fundamental change of our technological-consumerist attitude. How can the arts address this situation?

One relatively superficial option is ecological art. But, despite all its good intentions, it often just contributes to the widespread sedation procedures that prevent us from taking the necessary measures. A …

Psychology Of Cargo Cults And Contemporary Cargo Security, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article describes a convergence between the psychology of cargo cults and contemporary cargo security

Three Reasons Martin Luther King Jr. Disliked Being Labeled "Civil Rights Leader", Theodore Walker

Perkins Faculty Research and Special Events

Three reasons King disliked being labeled "civil rights leader:"

(1) He was a religious leader, a preacher (not a secular politician).

(2) He advanced "economic rights" ("civil rights" do not include "economic rights").

(3) He opposed war in Vietnam (not a civil rights issue).

Migratorial Disobedience: The Fetishization Of Immigration Law, Grant J. Silva

Philosophy Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Slogans Appropriate To The Legacy Of Martin Luther King Jr., Theodore Walker

Perkins Faculty Research and Special Events

For printing signs, banners, posters, tee shirts, and bumper stickers (and for preaching sermons) that are appropriate to the legacy of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., please consider the following slogans: ABOLISH WAR, ABOLISH POVERTY, AMEND THE CONSTITUTION, SUPPORT AN ECONOMIC BILL OF RIGHTS, JOBS FOR ALL, GUARANTEED INCOME FOR ALL, SUPPORT UNIVERSAL BASIC INCOME, and GOOD NEWS TO THE POOR - Luke 4:14-19.

Do Government Shut Downs Shut Down Aviation Security?, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

There have been reports of a growing number of Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents calling in sick and refusing to work for no pay (1). The immediate question becomes, what’s the impact on aviation security? The answer is a negative one, but not as negative as one might think, and one only adding to festering, pre-shutdown problems.

Mackie's Arguement For The Infinite Man, Abigail J. Basile

Quaerens Deum: The Liberty Undergraduate Journal for Philosophy of Religion

Theists and non-theists alike have toiled with the characteristics of the Judeo-Christian God and how they may or may not be contradictory with the existence of evil. Some philosophers, such as J. L. Mackie, have decided that God and evil cannot coexist, mainly because the existence of evil means that any God is unable to keep evil and suffering away from His beloved creation, and such a limited God is no God at all. But Mackie’s argument rests on flawed foundation. Mankind is necessarily finite because even the infinite God cannot do the logically impossible and create the infinite—nothing infinite …

Truth-Makers And The "Grounding Objection" To Molinism, Tyler Crown

Quaerens Deum: The Liberty Undergraduate Journal for Philosophy of Religion

One of the most discussed topics on the nature of God, in Christian circles today, is the subject of God’s knowledge. There are a few popular positions today that are engaged in a serious debate as to what the true biblical and philosophical position on the nature of God’s knowledge is. One such position, which has become increasingly popular and has found support among many leading Christian philosophers, such as Alvin Plantinga, Thomas Flint, and William Lane Craig, is called Molinism. While Molinism does have an abundance of supporters, there are many detractors as well. Calvinist’s, Thomists and open theists …

Call For Papers

Acta Cogitata: An Undergraduate Journal in Philosophy

No abstract provided.

An Unexpected Hobbesian Defense Of The Black Lives Matter Movement, Christine Kovacs

Acta Cogitata: An Undergraduate Journal in Philosophy

Civil disobedience has been a well-known tool for many of the political movements over the past century. Once such movement is called Black Lives Matter (BLM), and its aim is to bring attention to and challenge violence and anti-black racism at a structural and personal level. Like other political movements before them, BLM is often criticized as being immoral when they engage civil disobedience. This is a famously Hobbesian interpretation of morality--that if you break a law, you are immoral. However, this interpretation of Hobbes is oversimplified; in fact, I will argue that, if properly informed, Hobbes would likely support …

The Epistemic Blindness Of White Solipsism, Mason Majszak

Acta Cogitata: An Undergraduate Journal in Philosophy

This paper focuses on a specific type of knowledge, this being the type of knowledge that allows for the ability of an individual to know another person. I analyzed Shannon Sullivan’s book Revealing Whiteness: The Unconscious Habits of Racial Privilege to gain insight into an individuals ability to know another person. Within the text, I concentrated on the first chapter “Ignorance and Habit”, and the argument Sullivan articulates in this chapter. This argument is in regard to the consequence of what Sullivan describes as white solipsism and how it can cause unconscious habits. To better display Sullivan’s argument, I used …

Confrontations With Death: A Zhuangzian Approach To Mortality*, Katelyn Pyles

Acta Cogitata: An Undergraduate Journal in Philosophy

Since the culture surrounding death in the West is shrouded in fear and anxiety, it is necessary to illuminate the realities of living and what we presume to be its antithesis, death, with notions outside of our normative thinking. This paper works to reframe the subject of death when one is considering: 1) the death of a loved one, 2) one’s own death, and 3) the option of self-immolation. I believe an understanding of Dao supplies one with the peace necessary to celebrate death as one might celebrate living. I argue that seeing and living in accord with the virtues …

A League Of Their Own: A Feminist Interpretation Of Women’S Sport In The U.S., Nicholas Paradise

Acta Cogitata: An Undergraduate Journal in Philosophy

The goal of this essay is to examine American sports through the lens of feminist philosophy. I am particularly interested in the questions of what the American attitude is toward women’s sports and the involvement of women in men’s sports, does that attitude reflect a cultural limit that Americans have reached regarding women’s sports (I intend to argue that it does), and does that limit reveal essentializing notions about sex which still haunt American society. In answering these questions, I will be using Wendy Williams’ article, “The Equality Crisis,” specifically her sections on the culture of men and women as …

Citizens At War: Reframing Lgbtq+ Military Insecurity, Erica Bigelow

Acta Cogitata: An Undergraduate Journal in Philosophy

As an institution, the U.S. Military allows a certain strain of heteronormative masculinity to flourish, subsequently pushing to the margins individuals who do not fit such a standard. In this paper, I use this phenomenon as the basis for an exploration of the different forms of insecurity experienced by LGBTQ+ persons within the military, a project that necessarily includes viewing security as a holistic issue, rather than just as one which affects a person’s immediate physical safety. I engage in a project of seeking out a linguistic framework through which to deconstruct LGBTQ+ insecurity within the military that is both …

Letter From The Editor, C. Áine Keefer

Acta Cogitata: An Undergraduate Journal in Philosophy

No abstract provided.

Cover Art, Morgan Burgard

Acta Cogitata: An Undergraduate Journal in Philosophy

No abstract provided.

Acta Cogitata - Volume 6

Acta Cogitata: An Undergraduate Journal in Philosophy

No abstract provided.

Structural Justice: A Critical Feminist Framework Exploring The Intersection Between Justice, Equity And Structural Reconciliation., Camille Burnett, Michael Swanberg, Ashley Hudson, Donna Schminkey

Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practice

Violence against women is a human rights violation (UN, 2006). It affects the health of women globally (UN, 2009) and its elimination is at the heart of many international and national goals. Intimate partner violence (IPV), one of the most common forms of gender-based violence, affects one in three women worldwide (WHO, 2013). The consequences of IPV create negative health outcomes for women that diminish their quality of life and their overall well-being. Abused women access community supports such as shelters to seek safe refuge from the abuse and restore their lives. While shelters play an extensive role in helping …

Japanese-English Translation: Nishida Kitarō—Self-Determination Of The Expressive Self (May 1930), Christopher Southward

Comparative Literature Faculty and Student Scholarship

Excerpt of working translation of 「表現的自己の自己限定」、西田幾多郎著. Source: 『西田幾多郎全集』、第五巻 （第一回配本）。東京、株式会社岩波書店、二〇〇二年一一月二七日。ページ 十一〜六十七。[The Complete Works of Nishida Kitarō, Vol. 5 (1st edition). Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, Nov. 27, 2002. Pages 11-67].

Post Colonial Studies, Nashieli Marcano, Kyle Brooks

Research Guides & Subject Bibliographies

No abstract provided.

Sagp Newsletter 2018/19.2, Anthony Preus

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

Announcement of the 2019 meeting of the Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy with the Eastern Division of the American Philosophical Association.

Pleasure In Virtue: The Possibility Of Willful Virtuous Behavior, Kaleb Terbush

The Hilltop Review

Virtuous behavior has often been construed as having three requisite elements: right action, done for the right reason, and also carried out with the “right feeling,” i.e. without the contrary inclination of Aristotle’s merely continent individual. Some have argued that even if the right motivating reason(s) for action might not be directly within our power to act on at will, there are a number of steps we can take in order to make ourselves more responsive to the appropriate reasons – thus giving us indirect control over which reasons we take to be compelling. However, I believe that such accounts …

An Application Of Risk Analysis To The Doctrine Of Self-Defense, Kirsten Welch

The Hilltop Review

Although it is an unavoidable aspect of any self-defense situation, risk is an underdeveloped concept in the self-defense literature. In this paper, I argue that the existence of objective risk can justify the use of self-defense, even in cases in which defensive action is not clearly necessary. To accomplish this, I first introduce the concept of risk, seeking a definition that incorporates both objective and subjective elements in a manner appropriate to a discussion of self-defense. In section two, I make a case for the appropriate way to carry out and apply risk analysis in self-defense situations, addressing questions of …

Archaeology Of Social Patterning, Chase Bray

Theses and Dissertations

The episteme that created the grid as a structure for logic has been usurped. We compose meaning from an adulterated grid, or pattern. I process meaning through the abuse of acrid patterns and the grid, the reduction of imagery to silhouettes and by referencing both cultural and classical mythology.

“The Healing Balm Of Sympathy Denied”: Moral Sense Philosophy, Patriarchy, And Monstrosity In Mary Shelley’S Frankenstein, Estefania Velez

Theses and Dissertations

Though Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein produces an ideology of sympathy consistent with the literary and philosophical aims of Romanticism, this essay examines Shelley’s critique of patriarchy which posits that though sympathetic companionship in Frankenstein remains an ethical necessity, it is unattainable within a social order marred by misogynist structures of power.

The Cosmography Of Aesthetics, Yrjö Sepänmaa

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

No abstract provided.

Reconsidering Darkness, Matti Tainio

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

No abstract provided.

Representation And Transparency In Artistic Astronomical Photographs, Stephen Chadwick

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

The development of astronomical photography has raised many interesting epistemological, metaphysical, and ethical questions, in addition to questions in aesthetics. One such question concerns the nature of the aesthetic properties possessed by these photographs. In this article I concentrate on one such property, namely representation. That artistic astronomical photographs are representational cannot be disputed, but whether this is an aesthetic property is open to question. In this article, I show that it is an aesthetic property and compare it with the analogous property associated with paintings and traditional artistic photographs. In order to do this, I explain what makes astronomical …

Ethics In A Global Society (Chapter 12 Of Organizational Ethics: A Practical Approach, Craig E. Johnson

Faculty Publications - College of Business

Globalization is having a dramatic impact on life in the 21st century. We inhabit a global society knit together by free trade, international travel, immigration, satellite communication systems, and the Internet. In this interconnected world, ethical responsibilities extend beyond national boundaries. Decisions about raw materials, manufacturing, outsourcing, farm subsidies, investments, marketing strategies, suppliers, safety standards, and energy use made in one country have ramifications for residents of other parts of the world. Organizational citizenship is now played out on a global stage. Businesses, in particular, are being urged to take on a larger role in solving the world's social problems.