Arts and Humanities Commons^™

The Meso-American Goddess Coatlicue: Too Terrifying For The Spaniards, Stanley Krippner

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

The Coatlicue myth of Meso-America is currently represented by the huge basalt statue of the Earth goddess on display at the National Museum of Anthropology and History in Mexico City. The Spanish invaders who unearthed the statue promptly reburied the goddess, who did not again see the light of day until 1803. Today she commands attention both as a singular work of art and as a reminder that Earth is, at the same time, a loving mother and an insatiable monster, one who ultimately devours those to whom she has given birth. From a postmodern stance, myths are

Recovering Heraclitus: Neglected Religious, Ethical And Political Themes In The Work Of A Pre-Socratic Thinker, Thomas Joseph Wood

Wayne State University Dissertations

The early Greek philosopher Heraclitus writes in a puzzling, cryptic way which makes his ideas difficult to work out. Many commentators are content to make some broad statements about his place in the development of philosophy as a natural philosopher or metaphysician; statements for which there is ample support.

In this essay, I argue that we can use Heraclitus’ biography and his historical context to recover his ideas about religion, ethics, and politics. I believe that this method reveals a Heraclitus who was grasping for an early sort of political theory and ethics in response to the turbulent period in …

Idiot Science For A Blue Humanities: Shakespeare's The Comedy Of Errors And Deleuze's Mad Cogito, Steven Swarbrick

Publications and Research

Can we imagine a Blue Humanities that takes the non-relation as a starting point for ecological thought? I believe we can. Following Shakespeare and Deleuze, this essay engages in a thought experiment that, if it is not too absurd, might, like the ship of fools of medieval times, unmoor the Blue Humanities from its current safe harbor by putting the thought of ‘our’ world under erasure. This is not a matter of turning thought around, such that, by turning to the sea, we turn thought away from calculation and instrumental reason and rediscover our true nature. Rather, the image of …

Parental Licensing And Discrimination, Carolyn Mcleod, Andrew Botterell

Philosophy Publications

In order to protect children from risks associated with bad parenting, some philosophers have recommended that all parents be licensed, in much the same way in which drivers of motor vehicles and many professionals, such as physicians, are licensed. In this chapter, we clarify what parental licensing is, describe philosophical theories about it, and assess these theories in terms of how well they deal with problems of discrimination in parental licensing. While much of our discussion focuses on biologism, the privileging of biological parenthood over non-biological forms of parenthood, we also touch on other forms of discrimination that parental licensing …

Quasi-Factives And Cognitive Efficiency, Axel Barcelo Aspeitia, Robert Stainton

Philosophy Publications

We introduce the notion of a "quasi-factive" -- sentences such as 'It isn't widely known that Obama has been arrested', which is true because he hasn't been arrested -- and offer an explanation of why we hear them as if they were factives.

Slurs And Register: A Case Study In Meaning Pluralism, Justina Diaz-Legaspe, Chang Liu, Robert Stainton

Philosophy Publications

Most theories of slurs fall into one of two families: those which understand slurring terms to involve special descriptive/informational content (however conveyed), and those which understand them to encode special emotive/expressive content. Our view is that both offer essential insights, but that part of what sets slurs apart is use-theoretic content. In particular, we urge that slurring words belong at the intersection of a number of categories in a sociolinguistic register taxonomy, one that usually includes [+slang] and [+vulgar] and always includes [-polite] and [+derogatory]. Thus, e.g., what distinguishes ‘Chinese’ from ‘chink’ is neither a peculiar sort of descriptive nor …

Emociones, Ofensa Y Registro Sociolinguistico: El Caso De Los “Usos Distantes” De Los Términos Discriminatorios, Justina Diaz Legaspe, Robert Stainton

Philosophy Publications

There is a particular kind of use of slurs in which the negative emotions typically associated with them (hatred, anger) are not present in the occurrence. Even so, these uses still resonate as incorrect or inadequate. This kind of “detached use” is not only an interesting, rarely mentioned phenomenon per se; it also offers some support to a novel approach to slurs based on the sociolinguistic notion of “register”. This paper examines some types of detached uses, extracts some of their essential features and assesses the way the register-based approach to slurs can account for them.

Plato's Bed: Essence And Archetype In The Theory Of Forms, John Thorp

Philosophy Presentations

The Theory of Forms is a thread that runs through nearly all of Plato’s intellectual career, being variously elaborated, nudged, and tweaked along the way. The project summarized in this poster argues that there is a serious ambiguity underlying the entire theory, an ambiguity that Plato himself never really noticed; at different times he was pursuing two different understandings of the Forms: as archetypes on the one hand, and as essences on the other. Each of these understandings has serious drawbacks.

At The Intersection Of Due Process And Equal Protection: Expanding The Range Of Protected Interests, Vincent J. Samar

Philosophy: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Are the Due Process and Equal Protection clauses interconnected? Justice Kennedy in Obergefell v. Hodges, the Supreme Court case holding the fundamental right to marry includes the right to a same-sex marriage, stated that they are profoundly connected in that each clause “may be instructive as to the meaning and reach of the other.” But exactly what instruction each doctrine might afford the other, Justice Kennedy did not say. An earlier Supreme Court decision, Plyler v. Doe, also suggested a connection, when the Court held unconstitutional a Texas statute baring funding for the education of undocumented children. But …

Reply To Beata Stawarska, Johanna K. Oksala

Philosophy: Faculty Publications and Other Works

No abstract provided.

Crossed Tracks: Mesolimulus, Archaeopteryx, And The Nature Of Fossils, Leonard Finkelman

Faculty Publications

Organisms leave a variety of traces in the fossil record. Among these traces, vertebrate and invertebrate paleontologists conventionally recognize a distinction between the remains of an organism’s phenotype (body fossils) and the remains of an organism’s life activities (trace fossils). The same convention recognizes body fossils as biological structures and trace fossils as geological objects. This convention explains some curious practices in the classification, as with the distinction between taxa for trace fossils and for tracemakers. I consider the distinction between “parallel taxonomies,” or parataxonomies, which privileges some kinds of fossil taxa as “natural” and others as “artificial.” The motivations …

Betting & Hierarchy In Paleontology, Leonard Finkelman

Faculty Publications

In his Rock, Bone, and Ruin: An Optimist’s Guide to the Historical Sciences, Adrian Currie argues that historical scientists should be optimistic about success in reconstructing the past on the basis of future research. This optimism follows in part from examples of success in paleontology. I argue that paleontologists’ success in these cases is underwritten by the hierarchical nature of biological information: extinct organisms have extant analogues at various levels of taxonomic, ecological, and physiological hierarchies, and paleontologists are adept at exploiting analogies within one informational hierarchy to infer information in another. On this account, fossils serve the role …

From Outside Of Ethics: Moss, Sarah. Probabilistic Knowledge, Timothy Smartt

Philosophy Papers and Journal Articles

Book Review published in the "From Outside of Ethics" section of Ethics: An International Journal of Social, Political, and Legal Philosophy.

Moss, Sarah. Probabilistic Knowledge. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018. Pp. 288. $54.00 (cloth).

God’S Stumbler: On Being A Martyr In The World, Glenn J. Morrison

Philosophy Papers and Journal Articles

The martyrs of the faith and charity reveal a dramatic narrative of Christian experience. Like Mary, the martyr’s soul magnifies God rejoicing in the glory of God’s salvation. Testifying to the Gospel, martyrs unearth the trauma of existence with the radiance and splendour of dying and rising with Christ. Equally, the Gospel calls the faithful to journey through the turbulence and stumbling of life towards the Kingdom of God. The Gospel life of the martyr provides an insight into the affectivity and otherness of Christian experience. For encountering people’s suffering, we stumble at the gravity of their pain and outrage, …

Why Analyze A Sonnet? Avoiding Presumption Through Close Reading, Devon Madon

Faculty Publications & Research

In the first session of my Introduction to Shakespeare course, I always teach one of Shakespeare's best-known sonnets: Sonnet 130, "My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun:' I open with this sonnet because students frequently think that they know what the poem is about. W hen I ask the class, someone will usually give me the most common misreading of the sonnet: the speaker tells his mistress that she does not look like other women, but he loves her all the same. Rather than dismissing this reading, I ask many questions. How did you reach this conclusion? What do …

In Memoriam: Richard L. Harp

Quidditas

This volume is dedicated to Professor Richard L. Harp who died at the age of 73 on 7 March 2019. Richard and his spouse Margaret Harp, Professor of French at UNLV have been active members of the Rocky Mountain Medieval and Renaissance Association. Richard served on the Association’s Executive Board, presented papers and chaired sessions at several conferences, and Margaret served as Treasurer, and organized RMMRA’s 2018 Las Vegas conference.

Full Issue

Quidditas

No abstract provided.

Ecopedagogy: Learning How To Participate In Ecological Consciousness, Peterson, Eric

CONSCIOUSNESS: Ideas and Research for the Twenty-First Century

This paper is the result of an inquiry into ecological consciousness through a participatory paradigm. The dialectical relationship between institutionalized education and consciousness is central to this inquiry’s focus. This exploration into ecological consciousness has lead to the following question: How can institutionalized education be designed, delivered, and experienced in a way that nurtures ecological intelligence, ecological consciousness, and more importantly, ecological activism? The ‘sense of self ‘is a central theme within the paper, and led to the conception of intraearthal and interearthal relationships as a way of communicating our need to identify as being in Earth. The author utilizes …

Ethics, X-Phi, And The Expanded Methodological Toolbox: How The Think Aloud Method And Interview Reveal People’S Judgments On Issues In Ethics And Beyond, Kyle Thompson

CGU Theses & Dissertations

Ethics isn’t a conversation exclusive to philosophers. There is value, then, in not only understanding how laypeople think about issues in ethics, but also bringing their judgments into dialogue with those of philosophers in order to make sense of agreement, disagreement, and the consequences of each. Experimental philosophers facilitate this dialogue uniquely by capturing laypeople’s judgments and analyzing them in light of philosophical theory. They have done so almost exclusively by using face valid quantitative surveys about philosophically interesting thought experiments. Based on high participant support for this or that response, researchers conclude that a given theory is more or …

Climate Change Mitigation And The U.N. Security Council: A Just War Analysis, Harry Van Der Linden

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

Should the U.N. Security Council (unsc) use its coercive powers to bring about effective climate change mitigation? This question remains relevant considering the inadequate mitigation goals set by the signatories of the Paris Climate Accord and the ramifications of U.S. withdrawal from the Accord. This paper argues that the option of the unsc coercing climate change mitigation through military action, or the threat thereof, is morally flawed and ultimately antithetical to effectively addressing climate change. This assessment is based significantly on the application of jus ad bellum principles of just war theory, incorporating some feminist critiques of this theory.

Adoção De Medidas De Precaução Diante Dos Riscos No Uso Das Inovações Tecnocientíficas, Hugh Lacey

Philosophy Faculty Works

Identifico medidas de precaução que devem ser adotadas para prevenir ou reduzir o risco dos efeitos danosos possivelmente ocasionados pelos usos das inovações científicas. Meu argumento se vale em especial de situações em que há incerteza a respeito dos riscos envolvidos. Sustenta que medidas eticamente adequadas precisam ser informadas pelos resultados das pesquisas científicas empreendidas (sob as estratégias metodológicas apropriadas) com o fim de identificar, tanto quanto possível, os efeitos danosos possíveis e a variedade dos mecanismos que levem à sua efetiva ocorrência, bem como as condições em que eles atualmente ocorreriam, e com qual magnitude e probabilidade, bem como …

Epic Stories: Sequence Fiction, Young Readers, And The Aesthetics Of World Building, Jordana Estelle Hall

Theses and Dissertations

This study theorizes the world building processes that sequence fiction engages within a framework of intratextual structuralism and cognitive aesthetic stage theory. The study begins with an interdisciplinary overview of fictional and possible worlds theory before proposing a structural adaptation of this lens that explains the developmental, aesthetic benefits of the genre for young readers. Chapter II is an application of the adapted lens to a canonical epic, the His Dark Materials sequence by Philip Pullman. I interpret the intentional structure of the story world across novels to discuss how these engage readers at different aesthetic milestones and encourage a …

What’S So Authentic About Restoration?, Remei Capdevila-Werning, Sue Spaid

Philosophy Faculty Publications

When shown two identical works of art, and told that one is the original and the other an artist-sanctioned copy, most viewers claim that they prefer the ‘original’, precisely because they imagine that something of the artist’s hand remains. Knowing full well that most everything that is old, yet still exists, has undergone some form of restoration, we are surprised that some philosophers still share viewers’ preference for some original over its sanctioned copy, as if they too believe that something of the artist’s hand remains, even if paint molecules have chipped off or surfaces have been (unbeknownst to them) …

Human-Wildlife Conflict And Coexistence In A More-Than-Human World: A Multiple Case Study Exploring The Human-Elephant-Conservation Nexus In Namibia And Sri Lanka, Cynthia Castaldo-Walsh

Department of Conflict Resolution Studies Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative multiple case study explored human-elephant conflict-coexistence relationships and issues of conservation in Namibia (Damaraland) and Sri Lanka (Wasgamuwa) from a posthumanist, multispecies perspective. Within each region, conflict between humans and elephants is considered high, elephants are considered endangered and are of high conservation priority, the human population has grown significantly, and community-based organizations are implementing holistic approaches to increase positive relations between humans and elephants. This study was guided by research questions that explored the current landscape of the human-elephant-conservation nexus within each region, the shared histories between humans and elephants over time, and the value in utilizing …

Thomas Hobbes's Belief Concerning Human Nature And The Government, Devron B. Unrugh

A with Honors Projects

Thomas Hobbes was a English philosopher, born 1588 and died 1679. He was considered to be one of the founders of modem political philosophy, the other being John Locke. Best known for his book "The Leviathan," Hobbes was interested in many aspects of philosophy, even as a child, but none more than his idea of the perfect kind of governing system. His ideas of government made him unpopular with people, as he favored a monarchy, and as such he was exiled. Despite the fact he was exiled, his thoughts on the matter might be true. Monarchy, as long as not …

Gillick Competence: An Unnecessary Burden, Nigel Zimmermann

Arts Papers and Journal Articles

This study of the implications of Gillick competence argues it is an unnecessary burden with an unethical foundation. The ethics of adolescent medical decision-making is a fraught area for medical ethics because it deals with the threshold boundaries between childhood and adulthood and Gillick adds a burden upon children and adolescent patients that is unwarranted and through which damage is done to integral human relationships. In light of Gillick, it can be seen that the context of adolescent decision-making and childhood, is a neglected topic of ethical reflection.

Liberal Democratic Civic Education And Rampage School Gun Violence: Why We Need An Alternative Theory Of Democracy To Guide Contemporary Civic Education, Samantha Deane

Dissertations

In this dissertation, which relies on philosophical inquiry, I use the case of rampage school gun violence to explore democratic education. Drawing a distinction between liberal-foundational democratic education, which aims to educate the individual on how to become an autonomous rational agent and pragmatic-antifoundational democratic education, which looks to help individuals to understand agency as shared, I argue antifoundational democratic education teaches individuals how to affect their environment and take responsibility for the renewal of their democratic society. Rather than allocating blame in the singular individual, antifoundational democracy teaches citizens how to share the blame, take responsibility for unacceptable violence, …

Collective Nobility: Spinoza And The Politics Of Emotion, Ethan K. Uhlig

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The intent of this thesis is to examine Spinoza's philosophy of emotion as it relates to groups of individuals, or collectives. These groups, especially political collectives such as nation-states, are evaluated through Spinozist understandings of virtue, nobility, and blessedness. From this analysis, a novel concept of "collective nobility" is used to create philosophical guidance for the emotional dimensions of politics and state action. Drug policy is used as a case study to understand how emotion influences policymaking and vice versa, both negatively (as in the United States) and positively (as in Portugal).

The Metaphysics Of The Collective Unconscious, Oscar B. Jablon

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This thesis shows how the metaphysical features of the Jungian collective unconscious can be demystified by viewing the collective unconscious through the lens of functionalism. The features of the collective unconscious that will be investigated in this thesis are the possibility of the collective unconscious being present in every person, the archetypes as being the formal feature of some of our modes of perception, psychic energy, and synchronicity. By admitting functionalism, Jung doesn't need to posit synchronicity to explain how it is possible for the archetypes to interact with the body. This is because functionalism can view mental states as …

An Ecofeminist Analysis Of The Ready-Made Garment Industry In Bangladesh, Yasmin Fakhoury

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Bangladesh's ready-made garment industry and its harsh working conditions have been the center of intense scrutiny for the past decade, especially following the massive death tolls of the Tazreen Fashions factory fire in 2012 and the Rana Plaza building collapse in 2013. While lauded by many for its tremendous contributions to the Bangladeshi economy and its employment of primarily women, the garment industry is responsible for causing harm both to the women who work there and the local environment. Women workers are physically and verbally abused in the workplace for little pay, while the factories emit pollutants that contaminate the …