Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Mis-Construction: Changes In Art And Aesthetics East/West, Curtis L. Carter

Philosophy Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Ethical Bedrock Under A Changing Negotiation Landscape, Kevin Gibson

Philosophy Faculty Research and Publications

Editors' Note: Your dilemmas as a negotiator fall into two basic sets, “what’s possible?” and “what's right?” The first is treated by many chapters in this book. Here, from his philosopher's background, Gibson writes about the influence of morality on negotiations, and how we can think more clearly about what's the right thing to do. This chapter should be read in conjunction with Carrie-Meadow’s chapter on The Morality of Compromise.

Aspects Of Intentionality In Two 16th Century Aristotelians, James B. South

Philosophy Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Recent Publications, Editorial Office

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

No abstract provided.

Terrorist Aesthetics As Ideal Types: From Spectacle To "Vicious Lottery", Marshall Battani, Michaelyn Mankel

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

This essay builds on Arnold Berleant’s concept of the negative sublime and his less-appreciated image of the vicious lottery to engage the ongoing discussion about the importance of aesthetic analysis for understanding terrorism. Sociological definitions of aesthetics and terrorism are presented as potential tools to aid in the analyses of terrorist aesthetics. Three aesthetic types of terrorism are developed in the tradition of Weberian sociological ideal typification. The article discusses the appropriateness and applicability of that typology for enriching our understanding of terrorism and counterterrorism.

Socio-Musical Performing Artistry, Aron Edidin

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

Philosophical discussion of artistry in performance has focused on the relation of performers to musical works and to their instruments. But an important domain of musical artistry is social, relating musicians to their fellows in performing groups. This “socio-musical” artistry contributes to the artistic accomplishments of performing groups as a whole. I identify two distinct kinds of socio-musical artistry, and discuss some of the ways in which different forms of group organization articulate different possibilities for their exercise. Finally, I discuss at some length the extreme case of a performing role that is purely socio-musical, that of the orchestral conductor. …

Building A Paradise? On The Quest For The Optimal Human Habitat, Anu Besson

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

Do humans have a natural habitat? If yes, is it the original habitat of early hominids or the most optimal environment for today’s humans? Are these two the same thing and, if not, what does ‘optimal habitat’ mean? I examine the concept of the optimal habitat from four viewpoints: 1) paradise; 2) urban design based on environmental psychology; 3) favorite places; and 4) environment as an invitation for action. I conclude that an optimal habitat is not a collection of more or less fixed elements but an environment that can be experienced as a beneficial feedback loop based on and …

Notices, Editorial Office

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

No abstract provided.

Aesthetic Value Of Minimalist Architecture In Gaza, Salem Al Qudwa

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

This paper aims to visually study the simple objects that exist around us and the buildings people live in, in order to account for how a simple architectural language can help in the current situation in the Gaza Strip. A descriptive analytical method was adopted as the main methodological tool in order to gather information about existing minimalist objects and ordinary architecture in Gaza. Field investigations were conducted in order to photograph different areas in the Strip’s communities: Gaza city, rural-to-urban areas, and marginalized areas were compared to well-known minimalist artworks. Minimalist architecture in Gaza is not an alternative paradigm …

Sublime And Anti-Sublime: Reconsidering The Relation Of The Sublime To Technology, Konstantinos Vassiliou

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

The aesthetic notion of the sublime has been traced in different fields in the growing spheres of technology, capitalism, and digitality. The variable character of the sublime is partly due to the fact that it is identified with specific objects or sources. It can emerge whenever there is an antithesis between the infinite extensions of reason and the limits of the representative faculty. Taking into account this variance, this article seeks to reexamine the relationship of the sublime to technology, especially in view of current digital capabilities. In doing so, I argue that the notion of the sublime involves its …

Performer, Persona, And The Evaluation Of Musical Performance, Theodore Gracyk

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

Engaging with recent ideas about the moral evaluation of art, I argue that facts about the lifestyle, attitudes, and moral character of music performers are relevant to evaluating a musical performance. When it contributes to a better understanding of the performance, this knowledge contributes to a more accurate estimation of its aesthetic merits and flaws. I explain how my view departs from those of Berys Gaut and Jeanette Bicknell.

Art By Jerks, Bernard Wills, Jason Holt

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

Is it wrong to enjoy art created by immoral people? Some people express discomfort with listening to or reading the works of artists who have been abusive to others in their personal lives. In this paper, the authors argue that, generally speaking, moral and aesthetic judgment should be kept distinct, as authors and their works formally differ. Indeed, works by morally dubious artists may well contain crucial acts of moral imagination we should not deprive ourselves of as ethical beings. Nonetheless, the authors argue there are limits to how far the ethical and aesthetic can be divorced. Art that is …

Imaginative Intersections: Engaging Aesthetic Experience At The Shofuso Japanese House, Peter L. Doebler

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

This essay explores how the imagination creates dynamic aesthetic experiences by negotiating the intersection of opposites. The goal is to enrich our thinking about the relation of nature and art within a more comprehensive environmental aesthetics. I focus on a single example, the intersections created by the particular experience of space and time in the paintings of Hiroshi Senju, at the Shofuso Japanese House in Philadelphia. First, I provide a brief introduction to Senju and the work at Shofuso. Next, building on perspectives from within environmental aesthetics and Senju’s own writings, I sketch out a framework for thinking about the …

The Aesthetic Appreciation Of Animals In Zoological Parks, Marta Tafalla

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

Can we appreciate in a serious and deep way the aesthetic qualities of wild species in exemplars held captive for exhibition in the artificial installations of a zoo? To answer this question I invoke theories concerning the aesthetic appreciation of nature propounded by Yuriko Saito and Allen Carlson. I then argue that zoos impose their story on animals, thereby preventing us from appreciating the animals on their own terms. I claim that captivity and its effects on the health, behavior, and appearance of animals make serious and deep appreciation of the aesthetic qualities of wild species impossible.

On The Front: Aesthetics Vs. Popular Arts And Mass Culture - I, Ken-Ichi Sasaki

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

The popular arts and mass culture represent our environment. The flood of their products reduces high art to minority status. This situation leads us to reconsider the privileged status of high art and the role of aesthetics as its theory, which is my main focus here. I take up three different cultural eras: early modern times, when the notions of art and aesthetics as a philosophical discipline were founded; our own day as the time of mass culture; and, lastly, the popular culture in the Edo period in Japan, the seventeenth to the mid-nineteenth centuries, which reflected different choices.

In …

The Aesthetics Of Conversation: Dewey And Davidson, Kalle Puolakka

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

Conversation is one of the most mundane events of human life, yet the conversations we have can vary a lot. Some proceed only with great effort, while others engage us thoroughly. Drawing on Dewey’s aesthetics, this paper argues that the movement and rhythm of conversations can make them into genuine candidates for an aesthetic status. The key term of the paper is interaction. For Dewey, all experience, aesthetic experience included, is constituted by an interaction between humans and their environment. In his later philosophy of language, which is critical of conventionalist explanations of language, Davidson, in turn, offers a very …

The Role Of Imperfection In Everyday Aesthetics, Yuriko Saito

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

The notions of perfection and imperfection do not have the same prominent presence they once occupied in earlier aesthetics discourse. However, they still play an important role as criteria for aesthetic judgments today in our everyday life. The wide-spread and easily accepted aesthetic appeal of objects with perfection tends to overshadow the potential aesthetic value of imperfect objects that are considered to be defective or deficient. This not only impoverishes our aesthetic lives but also leads to some serious environmental and social consequences. I first argue for the need to cultivate an aesthetic sensibility to appreciate imperfection in our everyday …

Bio-Aesthetics: The Evolution Of Sensibility Through Nature, Katya Mandoki

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

[1] This paper gathers a few points developed in my recent book, The Indispensable Excess of the Aesthetic: Evolution of Sensibility in Nature, where I explore the processes that involve aisthesis from their most primal manifestations to their more complex. I propose the concept of bio-aesthetics as the study of all forms of sensibility in living beings, and that, given the fact that it is a function of our corporeal condition, the required starting point is the evolutionary paradigm. Another crucial tool for understanding how different types of creatures value, understand, react, and relate to their environment is provided by …

Imagination In The Stars: The Role Of The Imagination In Artistic Astronomical Photography, Stephen Chadwick

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

In this article I discuss the role the imagination plays in the production of what I call artistic astronomical photographs. I examine the entire creative process, which has been defined as “that stretch of mental and physical activity between the incept and the final touch.”[1] I begin with an examination of some of the ways in which the imagination is exercised in traditional artistic photography and in observational painting, in order to tease out the similarities and differences. Following a brief explanation of the way artistic astronomical photographs are produced, I examine these similarities and differences and, in doing so, …

Unveiling The Face: The Heavenly Counterpart Traditions In Joseph And Aseneth, Andrei Orlov

Theology Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Luther On Eve, Women, And The Church, Mickey Mattox

Theology Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Do Desenraizamento Ao Fundamentalismo: Uma Visão A Partir Do Enraizamento Weiliano E Do Diálogo Libertador Freireano, Alexandre A. Martins

Theology Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

“I Exist To Resist”: Navigating The Gender Non-Conforming Identity At Humboldt State University, Lizbeth E. Olmedo

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

While transgender research is educating and reforming schools, politics and wider society, there is little work on a gender spectrum that disrupts the gender binary of (trans) men/women. This research is an attempt to fill in the gaps of people, significantly students who do not fit under the “transgender umbrella,” as this term has tended to clump an array of gender and sexual identities together. This qualitative research explores students who go beyond the gender binary and how they navigate non-binary, genderqueer, and gender non-conforming identities within Humboldt State University (HSU). With this present qualitative study, I examined the lived …

The Color Factor: How Paulo Freire’S Philosophy Of Education Highlights That Race Affects Human Growth And Development Of United States Citizens, Alyse Krevh

Masters Essays

No abstract provided.

Of A Healthy Constitution: Socialized Medicine Between The Triumphs Of Social Security And Medicare, Sarah D. Kim

Harvey M. Applebaum ’59 Award

No abstract provided.

Kissinger’S Strategy In The Iraqi Kurdish Rebellion Of 1972-75: False Start Or Foundation Of American-Kurdish Partnership?, Jonathan C. Esty

Harvey M. Applebaum ’59 Award

No abstract provided.

Violence And Edification In 19th Century Fiction: An Analysis Of The Novels Of Charles Dickens And Leo Tolstoy, Caroline Fassett

Honors Theses

This Thesis argues that violence is essential to the structures and plots of Charles Dickens’s Barnaby Rudge and A Tale of Two Cities and of Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace and Anna Karenina, and is particularly essential to the edification, or the moral and intellectual improvement, of principal characters in these four novels. Additionally, this Thesis contends that this edification is both anticipated and reinforced by the novelists’ incorporation of counterparts whose demeanor and/or narrative overtly mirror that of the principal characters.

To support this argument, I bring the theory of Thomas Carlyle into conversation with the novels of Dickens …

Nature And Human Flourishing In The Laws Of Manu And The Daodejing, Qijing Zheng

Honors Theses

By comparing the interpretation of dharma in the ancient Indian Laws of Manu (Manusmṛti) with the concepts of dao in the Chinese classic, Daodejing, this thesis discusses that, despite the plausible perception that the former represents despotic, hierarchical governance while the latter promotes freedom (and even anarchy), the two texts in fact share a similar envision of human flourishing through the following of one's nature, as well as a foundational belief that both laws and political ideals emerge from nature.

When Worlds Collide: Feminism, Conservatism And Twentieth Century Authors, Madison Cooney

Honors Theses

Two streams of literary narratives appearing during the Great Depression grew from personal and historical experiences of their women authors with overlapping but very different perspectives on American cultural history. These were: 1) The accounts of rural frontier Midwestern regional experiences of Laura Ingalls Wilder, as edited and shaped in part by her daughter and writing partner Rose Wilder Lane, in retrospect during the New Deal era; and 2) the 1920s urban African-American experience of Zora Neale Hurston in the context of an emerging national black artistic and intellectual scene. Through a shared feminism emphasizing freedom for women, these authors …

God Is An Animator, Mitchell Gregory

The Messenger

No abstract provided.