Arts and Humanities Commons^™

New Research Institute Brings New Funding, Sally Jongsma

The Voice

No abstract provided.

Culture As Divine Gift, David Henreckson

The Voice

No abstract provided.

Baseball Inspires Other Sports To New Heights, Mike Byker

The Voice

No abstract provided.

Taking Climate Action, Lydia Marcus

The Voice

No abstract provided.

Seniors Create Original Musical, Lydia Marcus

The Voice

No abstract provided.

Environmental Studies Students Help Restore Park, Kate Henreckson

The Voice

No abstract provided.

Three Faculty Leave Their Mark At Dordt, Contributing Writer

The Voice

No abstract provided.

Inchoate Feminism In Plato's Republic V, Amy Coplan

Episteme

Is Plato a feminist from the classical era? No, but he comes closer than any other man from that time. Although by no means reducible to modern feminist arguments about equality, Book V of the Republic espouses some important ideas about women, nature, and society. There is no doubt that Plato challenged the prevailing wisdom in Athens and sought a utopia that produced the best possible men and women—at least for the guardian class. We should understand that it is Plato’s elitism, not his misogyny, which influences his handling of the lower social strata. And furthermore, his sexist remarks are …

James Schaap Tells Stories From The Past, Sarah Vander Plaats

The Voice

No abstract provided.

A Question Of Ethics, Joseph Landau

Episteme

“If we look around us, there is no doubt that the question of ethics is currently more complex than it has ever been,” writes the author of this paper, who examines the existential importance that the question of ethics carries in modern times. The author believes that out of this age of confusion and difference, what is needed is an ethic that emphasizes community and mutual understanding. We cannot rely on capital T truth or the ethicists that came before us. Instead, once we realize our dialectical, interdependent identity, we will be able to increase our mutual conversation and acceptance. …

Spanish/Nursing Course Bridges Barriers, Shelbi Gesch

The Voice

No abstract provided.

And Levinas Created A Controversy About Women, Shulamit M. Shapiro

Episteme

Feminist critiques railed against Levinas are not convincing. The “politically correct” feminist critics miss the Biblical and Talmudic application in Levinas’ philosophy. In this paper, the author rejects Luce Irigaray’s argument about the importance of sexual pleasure. Neither does Catherine Chalier succeed with her argument that Levinas essentializes the feminine in a way that keeps women from “the highest destiny of human beings.” In point of fact, Levinas believes in the interdependence of men and women. He finds that the human psyche is better probed through the notion of ethical responsibility than sexual liberation. There’s not anything immoral about this …

Exploring Language, Justice, And Identity, Aleisa Dornbierer-Schat

The Voice

No abstract provided.

Kant And The Noumenal Agent, Heather M. Kendrick

Episteme

This paper’s goal is to defend Kant’s version of freedom, in spite of the confusing metaphysical issues that surround Kant’s rational being (who belongs both to the world of phenomena and the world of noumena). Contrary to a certain line of criticism, the author argues for how Kant’s agent manages to be free—how the noumenal agent can affect action in the sensible world. Kant does not believe that our noumenal selves cause the world our phenomenal selves act in. Some readers misunderstand him. And while sure, Kant’s theory gives rise to questions about how our noumenal self can account for …

Where Do We Fit?, Aleisa Dornbierer-Schat

The Voice

No abstract provided.

You Just Can't Crispin Brains In A Vat, David Miguel Gray

Episteme

In this article, the author lays out a defense of Putnam’s controversial “Brains in a Vat” paper, and it’s famous refutation of the Cartesian brain-in-a-vat skeptic. The author looks closely at the paper, its argument, and its relation to skepticism. In addition to properly understanding the thought experiments and logical argument put forth by Putnam, one must also understand that his refutation is not aimed at the infinitely regressive skeptic, but rather the internal skeptic. The author shows this fact by inventing his own brain-in-a-vat scenario. So, although it remains a possibility that we are brains in a vat, we …

What's In A Name, Erik Hoekstra

The Voice

No abstract provided.

Subjectivity Vs. Use: A Heideggerian Critique Of Sartrean Values, Laura M. Bruce

Episteme

Dostoevsky laments: is everything truly permitted? This article illustrates how Heidegger avoids the phenomenological and ethical deficiencies found in Sartre’s philosophy. The author argues that a rejection of ethical absolutes does not inevitably lead to Sartrean relativism, because Heidegger’s account of Being critiques Sartre and considers shared practices of ordinary experience, which is necessary for values and ethics. Sartre’s phenomenology is characterized by Husserl’s influence and the subject/object distinction that finds values to arise necessarily from Nothingness. The author exposes why Sartre believes what he does and why Heidegger provides a substantially different ontology. Contrary to Sartre’s problematic phenomenology, Heidegger …

Nietzsche's Final Thoughts On Art And Existence: A Reply To Julian Young, David Evenhuis

Episteme

Everyone knows that Nietzsche’s thoughts on art do not remain static throughout the course of his writings. The author of this paper responds to Julian Young’s assessment of the ultimate progression of those thoughts. Is it true, as Young suggests, that Nietzsche, in 1888, returns to the pessimism that characterizes his first two works, his period of Wagner and Schopenhauer? No. Although Young picks up on the Apollonian strand of 1888 Nietzsche, the author argues that Young misses or ignores the positive, powerful Dionysian element that keeps Nietzsche’s final thoughts on art from sinking into nihilism. The artistic mood of …

A Modern Composition Of Hegel In Blue, Yellow, And Black: A Study Of Hegel's Aesthetics, Thomas J. Sullivan

Episteme

The paper investigates Hegel’s claim: “art is dead”. What does this phrase mean? What must we know about Hegel’s systematic thought before we can understand this question? Has Hegel claimed rightly? The author answers all of these questions in this study of Hegel, the qualities of Greek and Medieval art, and the meaning and purpose of modern art. The purpose of art, as with religion and philosophy, is to reveal the Absolute, the content of which is freedom. Hegel believes that because the modern human now asks the philosophical “Why?” art no longer can serve the highest function in culture. …

The Reconstruction Of Human Finitude: A 'Retrieval' Of Kierkegaard's Proto-Hermeneutics, Ernesto V. Garcia

Episteme

According to Kierkegaard, each person faces the knotty subject, the necessity of the subjective relationship of the existing individual to her eternal happiness: the God-relationship. In this article, the author focuses on what he finds to be Kierkegaard’s essentially negative reply to the question: “Can the truth be learned?” A study of the dialectical thinking of Johannes Climacus reveals that any positive knowledge, no matter its degree of theory or skepticism, is disingenuous—a position antithetical to philosophers like Hegel and Descartes. Kierkegaard’s thought, which anticipates deconstruction and hermeneutics, shows us that certainty is deceptive and impossible. Rather, we must recognize …

Quickly, Archy, And The Citizens’ Wives; Or, How To Talk To An Elephant, Barbara Sebek

Early Modern Culture

No abstract provided.

Emphasis Added: Reading Shakespeare’S Language Clearly, Cynthia Lewis

Early Modern Culture

No abstract provided.

Close Reading Shakespeare: An Introduction, Peter Parolin, Phyllis Rackin

Early Modern Culture

No abstract provided.

Beyond The Cloister: Catholic Englishwomen And Early Modern Literary Culture / Jenna Lay, Tessie Prakas

Early Modern Culture

No abstract provided.

Deweese, Elizabeth Ann (Phelps), 1842-1915 (Sc 3132), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3132. Weaving drafts (4 originals; 1 photocopy) on long strips of paper, several of which have been stitched together, created by Elizabeth Ann Deweese of Butler County, Kentucky.

Beninger, John, 1850-1922 (Sc 3133), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3133. Notebook containing original and copied poetry by John Beninger, a native of Ohio County, Kentucky. Beninger resided in Versailles, Kentucky, for a number of years, and several of the poems refer to people or places in that community. Beninger often mentions the source of his poem’s inspiration and the date he penned it. Mr. Beninger is buried in the McCord Cemetery in Ohio County, Kentucky.

Oral History: ​Carol Fredette

Zycie w Ameryce: A Collection of Polish-American Oral Histories

This conversation is an oral history interview with a former teacher at the Polish-American high school in Worcester, Saint Mary’s. The interviewee is not Polish, but of Lebanese descent, so provides the point of view of someone who came from outside the community yet still became a part of it. The interview touches on the rising importance of the English language, the Church’s centrality, ethnic parishes, school life, and high school basketball.

Interview keywords: English, ethnic parish, church, nun, club, basketball

"Not Your Mother's Pta": Women's Political Activism In Twentieth-Century America, Jennifer Lynn Mcpherson

History ETDs

Not Your Mother’s PTA: Women’s Political Activism in Twentieth-Century America provides the first in-depth study of women’s political activism in the National PTA and its local PTA units. It closely examines how women integrated themselves and their ideas on women’s and children’s welfare reform into government from the 1890s through the 1970s. This project explores the resources, strategies, and methods used by PTA women working for women and children’s interests at the local and national level, primarily in public schools and government agencies. Not Your Mother’s PTA challenges the subtext of the PTA mother/housewife and shows how women used the …

Emperor Charles V And Sultan Süleyman I: A Comparative Analysis, Samantha Goodrich

History ETDs

This thesis is a comparative analysis of Emperor Charles V and Sultan Süleyman I. Both men were archetypes of their age and perfectly demonstrated the perceived struggle between the East and West, Christianity and Islam. These two were the first generation of sovereigns of the early modern period, and throughout their time as monarchs each sought to counteract and dominate the other by utilizing rhetoric, titulature, propaganda, regalia, and iconography.

The texts and images used throughout serve as the best representatives of the Sultan’s and Emperor’s theatrical conflict. The first chapter focuses on the evolution of the perception of the …