Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Kdcr Radio Significantly Revamps Programming, Lydia Marcus

The Voice

No abstract provided.

Sustainability And Recycling: The December Service Project, Kate Henreckson

The Voice

No abstract provided.

Worship Arts Program Builds New Recording Studio, Shelbi Gesch

The Voice

No abstract provided.

Ag Safety Conference, Sally Jongsma

The Voice

No abstract provided.

A Website That Fits In Your Palm, Lydia Marcus

The Voice

No abstract provided.

New Mpa Program Will Equip Dordt Students For Public Service, Lydia Marcus

The Voice

No abstract provided.

Together: Dordt Starts Juntos Program To Serve Latino Families In The Community, Shelbi Gesch

The Voice

No abstract provided.

Celebrating The Arts, Aleisa Dornbierer-Schat

The Voice

No abstract provided.

Tyranny Of The "Or", Erik Hoekstra

The Voice

No abstract provided.

Lewis Carroll And Mathematical Ideals Of John Allen Paulos: Review Of Alice's Adventures In Wonderland (1865) And Through The Looking-Glass, And What Alice Found There (1871), Paul H. Grawe

Numeracy

At first blush it may seem that linking the acclaimed achievements of John Allen Paulos and the acclaimed achievements of Lewis Carroll (a.k.a. Oxford mathematics don Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) is merely an exercise in free association. Both are prestigious academic mathematicians. Both have an obvious interest in humor. Both have made it to best-seller lists.

That free association, however, is not the issue here. Instead, the issue is whether John Allen Paulos has highlighted basic questions of mathematical literacy and whether the issues that Paulos highlights do not, in fact, reflect mathematical and artistic concerns of Lewis Carroll in writing …

Wittgenstein's Employment Of The Private Language Argument In The Philosophical Investigations, William Voelker

Episteme

The article looks to set the record straight about the function of Wittgenstein’s private language argument. The topic is the role the private language argument plays within/for the later Wittgenstein’s thinking. The author begins by arguing that private language is not amenable to language games, the notion of natural expression, or the logic of reference. He then traces the highlights of the argument, beginning with a problem that arises from 5.6 in the Tractatus. The message becomes clear: private language is absurd, interesting only to bad philosophers, and symbolic of the grammar-caused errors that abound in the history of philosophy. …

Are All Our Readings Misreadings?: Derrida, The Flickering A (A Look At Derrida On Interpretation), Joseph Partain

Episteme

The author here guides us toward a sensible conceptualization of Derrida’s philosophical/literary impact on the world. First, Derrida’s demonstration concerning the a or e in differ(e/a)nce is meant to protest the silence in the universe, the insufficiency of language. He speaks of the term “difference” in linguistic terms; as disruption; and as the space between the two. He goes further than Nietzsche in his assault on Western metaphysics. The author then tells us why Derrida resists being identified and labeled, commenting next on how his playfulness relates to logic and negative theology—how he manages to communicate something that resembles conventional …

The Necessity Of Moral Marxism, David Laraway

Episteme

Doesn’t Marxism need morality? This article takes a look at anti-moral and moral approaches available to Marxists. The Anti-moralist Allen W. Wood believes Marxists make value judgments based on non-moral goods. But this non-moral goods category, when applied, allows for lots of ambiguity concerning goods. Worse, theories that mention non-moral goods usually relate such goods to self-interest, but how can it be in one’s self interest to postpone individual self-satisfaction?—what Marxism theoretically entails. Also, doesn’t the Marxist need an ought, thereby making her or her a moralist? The question becomes which direction should moral Marxism take? An appeal to natural …

Aristotle's Accounts Of Motion In Physics Ii And Viii, Mark Van Hook

Episteme

Aristotle’s disparate accounts of natural change appearing in Physics II and VIII are not incompatible if we realize they answer separate questions about distinct developmental systems. He works in two paradigms. In this paper, the author reviews and evaluates numerous opinions/arguments from commentators about how best to understand what Aristotle means by his potentially contradictory theories of self-change and energia, as well as how to critically assess the consistency and success of Aristotle’s body of work on the subject. The author argues that Daniel W. Graham offers a more accurate assessment of the way Aristotle’s later views on motion (energia, …

Photography As Art In Heidegger's Philosophy, Chris Greenwald

Episteme

What is the status of representational photography in Heidegger’s philosophies of art and technology? Does it count as the epitome of the modern subjective mindset, as Michael E. Zimmerman believes, or does it it actually amount to a higher art form than painting? Answers result from an analysis of Heidegger’s thought on art and truth, but also from a careful study of Heidegger’s philosophy of technology. It seems that the camera can be either a revealer of Being destined as such by Being (which is good), or an instrument for human mastery over all existence (which is bad). The author …

On Megill And The Birth Of Tragedy, Aaron Bunch

Episteme

What is Nietzsche doing with Apollo and Dionysus in The Birth of Tragedy? The author believes that Allan Megill’s interpretation is way off the mark. Nietzsche is not committed to a realm of inaccessible reality; his two Greek symbols are not epistemological poles. Although Megill’s attention to “immediate” and “mediation” correctly identifies the separate powers that Nietzsche has in mind, Nietzsche’s goal is not to describe the split between reality and appearance; but rather to describe how their union spawned Attic tragedy. They symbolize the contradiction of existence. As made clear in another work from Nietzsche’s early period, On Truth …

On Pain Of Death, Declan Cummings

English Honors Projects

On Pain of Death is a fictional retelling of the story of Sir Pelleas, who, in Thomas Malory’s Le Morte D’Arthur, is depicted as a noble knight with unrequited love for Lady Ettarde. He follows her for weeks, repeatedly declaring his love for her, despite her clear rejections. In rewriting this story, I hope to draw attention to the fact that, by today’s standards, what he is doing is clear-cut stalking. By introducing a character with a periphery perspective, I hope to call into question how “romantic” these stories of unrequited love really are.

Aquinas' Principle Of Individuation, Patrick W. Hughes

Episteme

The author notices ambiguity in Aquinas’ principle of individuation, or how it is that a universal substantial form becomes instantiated in primary substances yet remains universal (to the class). The paper’s first section examines the general notion of the principle of individuation, as well as the three components of primary substance in Aquinas’ and Aristotle’s philosophy. The second investigates Aquinas’ three-tiered concept of matter and how matter is said to be the principle of individuation. The third section clarifies Aquinas’s claim, pointing toward designated matter as signified by quantity as being the specific principle of individuation. But there’s a problem. …

The Pure Ego And Sartre's Transcendence Of The Ego, James T. Hong

Episteme

In this exploration piece, the author attempts to present a clear picture of Husserlian and (pre-Critique of Dialectical Reason) Sartrean phenomenology via a critique of Sartre’s theory of the transcendent ego. Is there is need for a unifying I, or does Sartre’s formulation of consciousness as primordial read more compellingly? Is the ego built by states and actions and vice versa, or does Sartre have the better answer with the ego being constituted through states constituted by consciousnesses? The author points out that Sartre’s positions lead to the problem of consciousness unification. Plus, Sartre’s criticisms of Husserl can be nullified. …

Indeterminacy And The Data Of Introspection, Paul A. Gregory

Episteme

The author of this paper argues that Searle’s introspective critique of Quine’s indeterminacy thesis is not a blow to Quine’s linguistic behaviorism. The paper begins with a general picture of Quine’s argument about the indeterminacy of language, as exhibited during radical translation but also in understanding one self. The author next pokes holes in the logic of Searle’s conclusion that Quine’s thesis is absurd and therefore incorrect. Searle, problematically, is too attached to his belief that there is such thing as determinate meaning. Instead, we must take up a contextualized understanding of meaning. Quine’s findings do not lead to the …

Rights, Duties, And The Future, Timothy A. Duffy

Episteme

Since we appear to be fairly comfortable using rights language in general discourse, the rights approach to ensuring a quality existence for future individuals is one that deserves serious consideration. This paper’s author begins his theory by analyzing concepts such as “right,” “claim,” “correct,” and “association.” He then examines the status of natural rights and the one absolute claim that seems to be valid on that front: “each human [who does or who will exist] has a right to survive to the best of his or her abilities.” Okay, but what duties and obligations are entailed? What is the correlation …

Nietzsche On Description And Interpretation, Joseph Cruz

Episteme

The Analytic tradition ought not to ignore Nietzsche’s insight into the debate between realists and anti-realists. Of course, Nietzsche’s views on language, reference, grammar, science, and value creation classify him as an anti-realist. But we must not describe Nietzsche’s views in such a way that he is unfairly attacked by the correspondence theorist. In reality, Nietzsche is very much in disagreement with even optimist realists. The God’s-eye view of the world is incoherent, as can be supported by the philosophy in Thus Spoke Zarathustra and the Genealogy of Morals. Furthermore, Nietzsche is not a troubling relativist. Rather, Nietzsche’s perspectivism allows …

Loving The Other: An Inter-Subjective Alternative To Sartre's Analysis, Steven Corinth

Episteme

In this paper, the author argues for how we might construct an ontology-based theory of being-in love compatible with Sartre’s Being and Nothingness. Since we want to avoid Sartre’s pessimistic conclusions, such a theory would need to include a structure of intersubjectivity, which, though against Sartre’s stated likings, is needed to improve Sartre’s account of love. First of all, Sartre’s ontology and concept of bad faith make the idea of being in love impossible. The insistence on being-for-others is the disease in Sartre’s system, here—the being-with must be allowed its full capacity. To this end, we must first distinguish between …

Female Insanity: The Portrayal Of A Murderess In Alias Grace, Maria Medlyn

Scholarly Horizons: University of Minnesota, Morris Undergraduate Journal

In this paper, I analyze Margaret Atwood’s biographical novel Alias Grace which is based on the life of Grace Marks, a servant who was convicted of murdering her employer and his housekeeper. I use feminist and psychological perspectives to recount Atwood’s interpretation of the 1800s social hierarchy and the use of labels in controlling individuals. First, I explain the severe oppression of women in the 19^th century. For example, women in this era were financially controlled by men, held to high moral standards, expected to be chaste yet submissive, and restricted to domestic roles. Next, I describe the changing …

Diverging Roots: The Coming Insurrection’S Situationist Lineage, Timothy Fitzgerald

Scholarly Horizons: University of Minnesota, Morris Undergraduate Journal

Over the past 60 years, there has been a resurgence of anarchism in Western Society. The revolutionary spirit has very much returned to the consciousness of popular culture, if it ever left at all. This ‘comeback’ of anarchist ideology has become progressively louder in the past decade, with the rise of cyberterrorist/hacktivist groups such as Anonymous and Lulzsec, the proliferation of political and governmental distrust following the 2008 recession, and the vocal increase in anti-fascist, anarcho-capitalist, post-left anarchism, eco-anarchism, and insurrectionary anarchist groups and activists such as The Invisible Committee. But many of these ideas haven’t been pulled from thin-air, …

Unifying The Oppressed Through Biofiction, Cain Boney

Scholarly Horizons: University of Minnesota, Morris Undergraduate Journal

Why does Zora Neale Hurston combine the histories of African Americans and Hebrews in Moses, Man of the Mountain? For what reason does Colum McCann include Frederick Douglass and a Kenyan scholar in his Irish-focused novel TransAtlantic? Furthermore, why does Mario Vargas Llosa create a protagonist that repeatedly compares the oppressed conditions of the geographically disparate Irish, Congolese, and Peruvian peoples in Dream of the Celt ? All three of these biofiction authors close the gaps between cultures and continents in order to synthesize the experience of the oppressed on a global level. Moving beyond the genre capabilities …

Kant Revisited, Lisa Bellantoni

Episteme

Kant’s first critique is hard to understand, but this author endeavors to bring-out and/or extend aspects of it so that Kant’s system might better account for the existence of consciousnesses as particular subjectivities. The author’s argument about Kant incorporates many connected concerns: the nature of consciousness; the distinction between pure and practical reason; the role intersubjectivity has to play in positing freedom and in bridging subject and object; the foundations of otherness and subjectivity; the relation between being and knowing; and, outer experience and inner sense. In short, the author holds that Kant’s theory produces subjects either too similar or …

An Existential Ethical Imperative, Kent A. Lambert

Episteme

The author’s purpose in this article is to show that Sartre’s ontological structure has room in it for an existential imperative that makes moral activity possible. The author dramatically reveals that “we cannot will freedom without grasping, on an interhuman level, the ambiguous existence of each other.” This reality results from an understanding of Sartre’s notions of consciousness, temporality, bad faith, authenticity, freedom, responsibility, and especially the Other. By the end of his exegesis, the author has shown that Sartre’s phenomenology requires each of us to be authentic as being-for-itself and as being-for-others. The author uses this conclusion to negate …

Wittgenstein, Lewis Carroll And The Philosophical Puzzlement Of Language, Amy L. Kind

Episteme

The author’s method in this paper is to draw connections between Wittgenstein’s thoughts and Lewis Carroll’s play on words in the Alice tales. Even though Carroll obviously wishes to delight the reader, his puzzles map closely with the philosophical puzzlement at the heart of Wittgenstein’s language-game and meaning as use concepts. The author highlights Wittgenstein’s notion of meaning as use in connection to the nature of time, the concept of “nobody,” and language on holiday, all of which are ideas played upon in the Alice tales. The author also invokes Hegel’s philosophy about Now in order to help clarify what …

Darwin And Dennett: The Operationalist Debate And The Teleological Response, John W. Roorda

Episteme

The author of this paper makes an analogy between the 20th century debate in artificial intelligence and the 18th and 19th century debate concerning the design of the natural world. In the more recent disagreement, Turing and Searle represent the two poles in the AI discussion of computers and intentionality. In the earlier debate, the author identifies theologian William Paley and Hume as opposites, displaying arguments quite similar to those raised in the contemporary hot topic of AI. The author ends his overview of both debates by introducing the argument that moves the topic into a direction that makes use …