Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Book Review: Theory Of Identities, David B. Levy

Touro University Libraries Publications and Research

The author reviews the book Theory of Identities.

Book Review: Philosophy Of Science: Key Concepts, David B. Levy

Touro University Libraries Publications and Research

The author reviews the book Philosophy of Science: Key Concepts.

Book Review - Philosophy In Schools: An Introduction For Philosophers And Teachers, Laura D'Olimpio

Philosophy Papers and Journal Articles

Book Review - Philosophy in Schools: An introduction for philosophers and teachers edited by Sara Goering, Nicholas J Shudak and Thomas E Wartenberg (2013). (Routledge Studies in Contemporary Philosophy) Taylor & Francis, New York, NY. ISBN: 9780415640633.

An Analysis Of Domestic Violence In Mass Media & Motion Pictures, Renee Delcambre

UCUR

No abstract provided.

Is 'Equal Pay For Equal Work' Merely A Principle Of Nondiscrimination?, Jeffrey Moriarty

Philosophy Faculty Publications

Should people who perform equal work receive equal pay? Most would say ‘yes’, at least insofar as this question is understood to be asking whether employers should be permitted to discriminate against employees on the basis of race or sex. But suppose the employees belong to all of the same traditionally protected groups. Is (what I call) nondiscriminatory unequal pay for equal work wrong? Drawing an analogy with price discrimination, I argue that it is not intrinsically wrong, but it can be deceptive, in which case it is wrong.

A Rejection Of Skeptical Theism, Mike Thousand

Conspectus Borealis

No abstract provided.

The Physicist - Philosophers: The Legacy Of James Clerk Maxwell And Herrmann Von Helmholtz, Peter Skiff

Faculty Books & Manuscripts

One of the most effective, and most mysterious, tools of modern theoretical physics is a mathematical method including what is here called “field theory.” The success of this procedure in unraveling the “zoology” of fundamental particles and their behavior is a marvel. The philosophical context of this marvel is the source of endless academic controversy. The core of the method is a blend of mathematics and description created by “physicist-philosophers,” from Maxwell and Helmholtz to Einstein and Schrödinger. This book tries to unravel the mystery, or at least chronicle it.

Libertarian Welfare Rights? An Inquiry Into The Coherence Of Some Common Libertarian Commitments, Nicole Hassoun

Philosophy Faculty Scholarship

This paper argues that libertarians should endorse some welfare rights understood as rights that all states must guarantee to their subjects as a condition of legitimacy. For, it argues that libertarians, because they should be actual consent theorists, must agree to the following condition for state legitimacy: States must do what they can to ensure that their rights-respecting subjects secure the basic reasoning and planning capacities they need to consent to their rules.

How People Think About Distributing Aid, Nicole Hassoun, Emir Malikov, Nathan Lubchenco

Philosophy Faculty Scholarship

This paper examines how people think about aiding others in a way that can inform both theory and practice. It uses data gathered from Kiva, an online, non-profit organization that allows individuals to aid other individuals around the world, to isolate intuitions that people find broadly compelling. The central result of the paper is that people seem to give more priority to aiding those in greater need at least below some threshold. That is, the data strongly suggest incorporating both a threshold and a prioritarian principle into the analysis of what principles for aid distribution people accept. This conclusion should …

Conserving Nature; Preserving Identity, Nicole Hassoun, D. Wong

Philosophy Faculty Scholarship

Fundamental approaches to environmental ethics currently seem polarized between two broad varieties: the “conservationist” approach on which we should conserve the environment when it is in our interest to do so and the “preservationist” approach on which we should preserve the environment even when it is not in our interest to do so. The first approach obviously has a broader potential audience and is invoked even by preservationists when they seek to marshal the broadest possible support for environmental protection. For preservationists, however, the conservationist approach has obvious limitations. It permits damage to the environment whenever required by the balance …

Six Degrees Of Bertrand Russell, Timothy Madigan

Philosophy and Classical Studies Faculty/Staff Publications

In lieu of an abstract, here is the chapter's first paragraph:

ONE OF THE MOST QUOTED PHRASES in current popular culture is "six degrees of separation." It expresses the idea that, on average, any human ^being is connected with any other human being by at most six acquaintances. While there is much debate as to whether this is literally true, it is an interesting thought-experiment, as well as the basis for many fun parlor games. One of these is entitled "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon," in which film fans try to connect the aforementioned actor with any other movie star …

Russell In Popular Culture, Timothy Madigan

Philosophy and Classical Studies Faculty/Staff Publications

In lieu of an abstract, here is the chapter's first paragraph:

IN DIRECTOR/SCREENWRITER JOHN MICHAEL MCDONAGH'S 2011 Quentin Tarantino-Hke comic film The Guard, there is a bizarre scene where three hit men, for no apparent reason, while driving down an Irish road get into a heated debate over who the world's greatest philosopher might be.

It is amusing that the chauvinistic characters are willing to reconsider Russell's greatness once they can stop thinking of him as an Englishman, but no doubt Lord Russell himself, given his cosmopolitan leanings as well as his oft-professed love for his Englishness, might have …

Spread A Little Love., Nikitha Rajendran

Sierpinski’s Square

We now live in a digital era of toddlers with IPads, teens who know little of current events, and adults staggering to fill the technological generation gap. We even have a tiny friend named Siri trapped in our cell phones to tend to our every question and cellular need. Where has our natural curiosity gone? Humans, the single most advanced species on the planet, the inventors of the wheel, are now stuck behind a white and blue screen.

"The Box" And The Dark Night Of The Soul: An Autoethnography From The Force Of Losing A Child In The Delivery Room, Santiago Pinon Jr

Journal of Health Ethics

From the perspective of parents who have lost children in labor and delivery rooms due to miscarriages, stillbirths, or who were born too early, the author argues that health care personnel including administrators, nurses, and doctors must be held accountable to the ethical responsibilities of caring for the parents of the children who have died. Based on the fact that administrators market their services to pregnant couples and promise to provide care, health care workers are ethically responsible to provide continued compassion.

The Confluence Of Philosophy And Biology: An Excavation Of Philosophical Issues In Molecular And Developmental Biology, Patrick Johnson Mendie, Emmanuel Bassey Eyo (Ph.D)

Journal of Health Ethics

Philosophical evaluations have played an influential role in the growth and development of molecular and developmental biology to ensure that every individual is born healthy, born wanted and has the privilege to fulfil his or her potentials for a life free from disease and disability. This is why it becomes necessary for biologists to carefully understand human genes, evolution, cells and general human anatomy to fulfil this project. During this process, they are faced with challenges where they also lack the foundation on how to solve them. This challenge gave birth to a philosophical excavation of molecular and developmental biology. …

The Entanglement Of Anzaldúan Materiality As Bodily Knowing: Matter, Meaning, And Interrelatedness, Robyn Henderson-Espinoza

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This project weaves together the theoretically rich and diverse work of ancient materialist philosophers, modern philosophy which advanced a theory of monism, and contemporary philosophies that further extends monism into new terrain, including 'new materialism.' While monism is a strand of this project, the core features of this project are materiality and bodies; these two concepts create the particular entanglement and central thrust of this project, which is becoming. While this project is conceptually organized around matter and bodies, and a particular notion of becoming traced from ancient through contemporary thought, this project, also, introduces the importance of Gloria Anzaldúa …

Phenomenology And Blindness: Merleau-Ponty, Levinas, And An Alternative Metaphysical Vision, Jesse Younger Workman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This project addresses the problem of an "ocularcentric" bias in philosophy, with a focus on phenomenological and continental thought. Being a blind phenomenologist, I noticed an ocularcentric tendency dominating philosophers' perspectives, including their arguments, use of metaphors, and choices of examples. As a blind reader I found that such ocularcentrism prevented me from understanding their claims. This made me wonder whether ocularcentric biases might be leading them to unbalanced or invalid arguments and world-views. The questions raised are: Can there be philosophy that is not reliant on vision above all other senses? Is it possible for philosophy to not be …

The Impact Of Philanthropy, Jonathan F. Denzler

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Forwarding a narrative framework of philanthropic impact this thesis problematizes the evaluation methods used by social engagement organizations to measure the impact or change that they are contributing to in a community. By focusing on the example of food access, and the corresponding language of the "food desert", this project locates the power to control the framing of social issues in the hands of funders as opposed to those who experience the real life effects of living in poverty or resource-poor communities. This process then lets the philanthropists set a goal and meet that goal without ever truly communicating or …

Revolutionary Technologies: Praxical Time As A Way Of Overcoming Reification, RóIsíN Lally

Leadership Studies Faculty Scholarship

This article argues that by recognizing the fundamental relationship between praxical time and dwelling as a matrix of interweaving modes of being, society can subvert the potential reification of humanity by technology. This can only be achieved through a democratic process that involves participatory agents not only at the design level but also in the event of naming future innovations. By looking at the work of Alain Badiou, it is shown how a fusion of Heideggerian-inspired phenomenology and speculative ontology is critical for the advancement of social theory, as revolutionary technologies become increasingly immersive.

Table Of Contents / Masthead

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

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Participatory Transpersonalism: Transformative Relational Process, Not The Structure Of Ultimate Reality, Glenn Hartelius

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

NA

The Effect Of Internally Versus Externally Focused Balance Training On Mindfulness, Kathleen J. Pantano, Jeremy E. C. Genovese

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

The purpose of this study was to determine how alternative types of instruction provided during a 6-week balance exercise program affect mindfulness. A sample of 63 college students was recruited for the study. Group 1 (N = 33) received a 6-week balance exercise intervention instructed with an internal focus of attention (IFA). Group 2 (N = 30) received the same intervention, but exercises were instructed with an external focus of attention (EFA). Mindfulness was measured at baseline and at 6 weeks using the Freiburg Mindfulness Inventory (FMI). Baseline FMI scores between groups were similar (Group 1: 41.6; Group 2: 41.3), …

Going Berserk: Battle Trance And Ecstatic Holy Warriors In The European War Magic Tradition, Jenny Wade

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

Largely ignored in transpersonal studies to date, dark magic involves socially-transgressive processes called becoming-intense and becoming-animal that produce non-ordinary states useful in the arts, hunting, sex, and fighting. War magic, a form of dark magic that involves powers of destruction and invulnerability, is ubiquitous and universal, and one of its primary features is the production of helpful, nonordinary states in combat. Berserkergang (going berserk) is one such state, the latest documented in a long history of Indo-European ecstatic warrior cults. Berserkergang was the battle-trance of the elite consecrated warrior-shamans of Odin, god of magic, poetry, battle, and death. Distinguishing features …

Harnessing The Placebo Effect: A New Model For Mind-Body Healing Mechanisms, Gabriel Crane

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

The placebo effect is a phenomenon that has confounded Western medicine and research for over sixty years. While the field has historically and continues to be rife with misconceptions and confusion, recent research aims to reignite the art of medicine by turning the effect's underlying mechanisms to therapeutic benefit. However, researchers may not have the appropriate theoretical framework to do so. While significant progress has been made in identifying a number of the placebo effect's underlying mechanisms, conceptual deficiencies hinder application of advances in the field. In part, this is because the placebo effect unearths a number of problematic philosophical …

Introduction To The Special Topic Section On Black Psychology And Spirituality, Angelina Graham

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

N/A

A Critical Analysis Of African-Centered Psychology: From Ism To Praxis, A. Ebede-Ndi

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

The purpose of this article is to critically evaluate what is perceived as shortcomings in the scholarly field of African-centered psychology and mode of transcendence, specifically in terms of the existence of an African identity. A great number of scholars advocate a total embrace of a universal African identity that unites Africans in the diaspora and those on the continent and that can be used as a remedy to a Eurocentric domination of psychology at the detriment of Black communities’ specific needs. Another group of scholars argue for a relative African identity, emphasizing diversity and differences among African people both …

Prayer Songs: Therapy That Aided A People's Survival, Bisola Marignay

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

This paper proposes a parallelism between existential psychotherapy and the psychospiritual healing function Negro Spirituals had for enslaved people in the United States. The songs’ beauty and profundity are asserted as having high value in their therapeutic function. The courage and wisdom enslaved people employed to resist psychic domination are discussed in conjunction with examples of their ways of maintaining hope, which is viewed as a prerequisite for their restorative use of the Spirituals. The attributes of sound and music are discussed with descriptions of how they have been used to substantiate the power of the Spirituals as distinct expressions …

Womanist Preservation: An Analysis Of Black Women’S Spiritual Coping, Angelina Graham

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

The highly spiritual and religious nature of Black women is fairly established in the social science arena, yet the transpersonal field yields very little discourse on this relevant nexus. This static void resembles the macro and micro aggressions Black women face routinely in the Western world which perpetually diminishes and nullifies their collective character and lived experiences. The ostracism Black women face regularly stems primarily from the triple threat of racism, sexism and socioeconomic status which thereby stimulates the inherent and roused use of spiritual practices as a form of resiliency. By analyzing existing research this investigation exposes the experiences, …

Considerations And Caveats For The Use Of Placebo Responses In Clinical Care: Minding The Matter Of Mechanisms–And Morality– In Medical Treatment, James Giordano

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

NA

Reference Magnetism As A Solution To The Moral Twin Earth Problem, William Dunaway

Philosophy Faculty Works

‘Moral Twin Earth’ thought experiments constitute a central semantic challenge to naturalistic normative realism. This paper first outlines a general framework for understanding the challenge, according to which (i) central normative terms are semantically stable in ways that contrast with many other paradigmatic descriptive terms, and (ii) realists should expect to have a unified meta-semantic theory that explains the difference in stability between the normative and descriptive terms in question. The most attractive way of meeting this challenge, we argue, appeals to the idea of reference magnetism. According to this influential idea, some properties are reference magnets, which (roughly) means …