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Articles 1 - 5 of 5
Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
Biological Teleology In The Modern World, Kathryn Siena
Biological Teleology In The Modern World, Kathryn Siena
Honors Theses
In humans, the heart moves blood through the body. Does the heart therefore have a teleological explanation? Aristotelian teleology (described in Aristotle’s Physics) is the cause-for-the-sake-of-which, or the end towards which something moves. It is evident from current scientific knowledge that there is some sort of orientation of organisms toward an end. This orientation, following Aristotle’s definition of teleology, is conceptually distinct from efficient causation. This orientation is also metaphysically distinct from efficient causation because efficient causal explanations do not properly describe the orientation. However, two common ways of describing teleological explanations imply efficient causation as a metaphysical element. …
Emotional Perspectives On Existential Threat: Evaluating The Rationality Of Climate Anxiety, Rachael Lange
Emotional Perspectives On Existential Threat: Evaluating The Rationality Of Climate Anxiety, Rachael Lange
Honors Theses
This thesis seeks to answer the following question: Is climate anxiety a rational emotion? In order to arrive at an answer, several queries embedded in the main question must be addressed. This paper will outline a theory of emotion in order to define anxiety, assess climate change as a specific emotional object, and compare the rationality of anxiety using two evaluative standards. Climate anxiety is an emerging emotional phenomenon experienced in response to the perceived detrimental effects of a warming climate. Due to the novel identification of this contemporary emotional phenomenon with the established emotion of anxiety, there has thus …
Addressing The Harms Of Pornography, Gillian Allison
Addressing The Harms Of Pornography, Gillian Allison
Honors Theses
Within this paper I look at the existing philosophical work on pornography, from scholars like Catherine MacKinnon, Ronald Dworkin, and Rae Langton to show the current state of the pornography debate that I intend to enter by presenting my own argument about the morality of pornography. I argue that while pornography is harmful, these harms are best resolved through increased sexual education and the popularization and production of more inclusive pornography. The harms pornography causes are so great because pornography is where a lot of people learn about sex. Pornography was never designed to depict an average sexual experience. If …
Avoiding The Basilisk: An Evaluation Of Top-Down, Bottom-Up, And Hybrid Ethical Approaches To Artificial Intelligence, Cole Shardelow
Avoiding The Basilisk: An Evaluation Of Top-Down, Bottom-Up, And Hybrid Ethical Approaches To Artificial Intelligence, Cole Shardelow
Honors Theses
This thesis focuses on three specific approaches to implementing morality into artificial superintelligence (ASI) systems: top-down, bottom-up, and hybrid approaches. Each approach defines both the mechanical and moral functions an AI would attain if implemented. While research on machine ethics is already scarce, even less attention has been directed to which of these three prominent approaches would be most optimal in producing a moral ASI and avoiding a malevolent AI. Thus, this paper argues of the three machine ethics approaches, a hybrid model would best avoid the problems of superintelligent AI because it minimizes the problems of bottom-up and top-down …
Justice In Exchange: The Difficulty Of Establishing Commensurability In Aristotle’S Nichomachean Ethics, Asher Hilton
Justice In Exchange: The Difficulty Of Establishing Commensurability In Aristotle’S Nichomachean Ethics, Asher Hilton
Honors Theses
In Chapter 5 of Book V of the Nichomachean Ethics, an analysis of justice in exchange leads Aristotle to conclude that differing things can only be made commensurate in a practical sense. The passage sets up a relationship between association, exchange, equality, and commensurability in market exchange and leaves Aristotle with differing notions of commensurability. Aristotle considers demand (a need for resources) to be a means of resolving the tension; however, this possibility is subject to objections. Aristotle’s analysis of association for exchange is problematic, as is his exchange-equality relationship; examples from economic game theory illustrate the objections to …