Classics Commons^™

A Poetic Call For And A Reflection And Commentary On Clarity, Understanding, Hope, Courage, And Compassion, Carroy U. Ferguson

Psychology Faculty Publication Series

Finding a published poem I had written as a teenager, titled “The Heavens Weep.” this article uses that poem as the basis for a commentary that reflects on the state of the world today (2026),  As a commentary, the article uses the poetic and metaphoric words in the poem as a relevant "reality check" for what is still going on today.  In essence, the commentary is about a call for Clarity, Understanding, Hope, Courage, and Compassion, or what I call Archetypal Energies, Higher Vibrational Energies that operate deep within our individual and collective psyches to creatively urge us to "see" …

Rethinking The Canon: A Conceptual History Of The Layered Foundations Of Western Politics, Dembael Seidi, Muhammad Andi Firmansyah

Jurnal Wacana Politik

Many accounts of Western political history suggest a direct, straight line from Ancient Greece to modern democracy. This article argues that this “Great Books” narrative is a myth that ignores how political ideas actually change over time. Using Reinhart Koselleck’s Begriffsgeschichte (conceptual history) framework, we demonstrate that key terms such as “law” and “citizenship” were not merely preserved but fundamentally transformed as they moved through Greco-Roman, Islamic, and Judeo-Christian civilizations. We call this transformation “conceptual alchemy”: a series of semantic translations through which Greek rationalism was retheorized via Islamic metaphysics and later synthesized by medieval scholasticism. Consequently, rather than a …

Jadughar: The House Of Magic, Dhruvi A. Shah

Masters Theses

Jadughar or the House of Magic is what people call a 'museum' in parts of South Asia. The practice of museum making, at its origin, is the act of collecting, preserving, interpreting and representing a culture’s tangible and intangible heritage to make it accessible to diverse audiences. Since the early 19th century such practices have been performed at various kala bhandars (art centers) in India, without the need of a formal or institutional organisation. The British introduced the model of a ‘museum’ in South Asia, with the aim of not only preserving ethnographic collections, but also showcasing their power and …

Nietzsche And Socrates: Reflections Of Redefined Virtue In Greek Tragedy, Kyle M. Lowry

Senior Honors Theses

The works of Friedrich Nietzsche were used to study how Greek Tragedy was “born” and “died,” particularly in relation to the rise of Socratic philosophy in Ancient Greece. The intoxicated “Dionysian” and disciplinary, artistic “Apollinian,” are the elements Nietzsche claims encompass and catalyze human experience; the former containing the primal nature of the Being, and the latter containing the ordering through which identity is formed and art is created. Tragedy, the art form perfectly balancing these two elements was “born” within the conditions of a Dionysian Pessimism, by which the inevitable life of suffering was redeemed aesthetically. Socrates introduced rationality …

An Alignment Of Absences: The Medicalization Of Death And Its Implications On Archaeological Methodology, Makayla J. Bowman

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

Absence describes something that is "expected, wanted, or looked for [but] is not present or does not exist," (Merriam-Webster Dictionary 2026). The archaeological discipline interacts with absence in many profound ways, largely in its study of the past dead. This paper focuses on the ways in which the medicalization of death has influenced, limited, and misaligned archaeological methodology, and how the result of those methodologies produces archaeological analysis that is absent of or misrepresents our understanding of life, personhood, and our position within a greater, interconnected biosphere. Thus, I present an anthropological critique of the ways in which death and …

The Story Game: Dissuading The Abolition Of Man With Narrative Intellectual Virtue & The Hunger Games, Camille Bewley

Harding Undergraduate Research Conference

Relativism in modern America is leading society toward the fruition of C.S. Lewis’ warning of the abolition of man. This nation once founded on freedom inches closer to the dystopia which Suzanne Collins depicts in her Hunger Games series. This paper recognizes the growing need for humanity to realign with truth and universal values, first by reorienting itself to narratives. Through intellectual virtues of understanding and prudence as defined by Aristotle, society can translate stories into their inherent purpose; seeing truth and reality within the bottle of imagination. Stories contain the answers, narratives are the way humanity subscribes to reality. …

The Hypocrisy Of The Wizards—A Proposal To Correct Incentives In Higher Education Loan Financing, Caden Benedict

School of Public Policy Capstones

This paper explores the origins of the student loan debt crisis and proposes tying university incentives to graduates' repayment plans and disclosing median earnings for degrees before students apply. Specifically, while there are numerous factors explaining why the price of education has increased dramatically since the 1970s, this paper proposes solutions that will specifically target university moral hazards by requiring universities fund: (1) the current subsidies to federal student loan repayments under income-driven plans as the House of Representatives intended before the Senate removed "risk-sharing," and (2) bankruptcy law discharge amounts. Moreover, requiring universities to disclose the median earnings of …

Aristotle And The Proslavery Writings Of The Antebellum South, Ace Farris

The Cardinal Edge

This paper explores how nineteenth-century Southern intellectuals appropriated and adapted Aristotle’s ancient defense of slavery to legitimize racial slavery in the antebellum United States. Although Aristotle’s theory of “natural slavery” emerged from the social and economic conditions of classical Greece, where enslaved people constituted essential components of the household, Southern thinkers tailored his argument to justify the peculiar institution. The paper begins by outlining Aristotle’s defense of slavery in his Politics, which states that some individuals naturally lack the capacity for rational deliberation, thereby benefiting from enslavement. Then, it traces how the American South’s investment in classical education allowed …

Parallel Concepts Found In The Thousand And One Nights And Sufi Hagiography, Walaa Kamal Emam Kamel

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis argues that The Thousand and One Nights functions as more than mere populist entertainment; rather, it constitutes a literary corpus imbued with Sufi mystical epistemologies that reflect the spiritual quests and Sufi concepts evident in hagiographical traditions. Through discourse and intertextual analysis of two Nights stories, “The City of Brass” and “The Porter and the Three Ladies of Baghdad,” alongside Farīd al-Dīn ʿAṭṭār’s Tadhkirat al-awliyāʾ, this study demonstrates how shared rhetorical strategies—specifically David Pinault’s Leitwörter analysis and L.A. Paul’s Transformative Experience concept—reveal a narrative and rhetorical emphasis on the metamorphosis of the self from worldly attachment toward …

Humanity Is Evolving Its Consciousness: The Role Of Archetypal Energies As Guides During An Unfolding Weeding Out And Alignment Process, Carroy U. Ferguson

Psychology Faculty Publication Series

Humanity is evolving its consciousness at individual and collective levels.  Given these seemingly tumultuous times, as of this writing (January 2026), to make such a statement may sound like a strange thing to say.  However, I suggest that if you are alive today and if you are reading these words, these are the very times for which you were born—to assist Humanity as it evolves its consciousness with your unique gifts, whatever they may be.  That is, this period of our individual and collective human being-ness may be characterized as an unfolding period of weeding out and alignment with the …

Kajian Arsitektur Lumbung Padi, Lolo Gedang, Kerinci, Romario Lubis

Multikultura

Rice barns are agrarian vernacular architecture that reflects local knowledge, environmental adaptation, and the socio-cultural values of the supporting community. This study aims to examine the architectural characteristics of traditional rice barns in Lolo Gedang Village, Kerinci, through analysis of form, construction techniques, and cultural context. The method used is descriptive qualitative with inductive reasoning based on literature studies and analysis of the architectural elements of the barn as a cultural artifact. The results show that the Lolo Gedang rice barn is designed adaptively to highland climate conditions, especially in maintaining the quality of grain from humidity and pests, through …

Reinterpreting The Kutika Manuscript: A Buginese Ethnoecological Perspective, Rahmatia Ayu Widyaningrum, Priscila Fitriasih Limbong, Titik Pudjiastuti, Mamlahatun -. Buduroh -

International Review of Humanities Studies

This article offers a reinterpretation of the Kutika manuscript from a Buginese ethnoecological perspective. Departing from a philological study of the Lontara’ Kutika text in the National Library of Indonesia (PNRI) collection (code VT 129), this research examines how Buginese communities articulate their interaction with nature through this manuscript. The Kutika text has generally been understood merely as a book of time calculation, yet its background is imbued with philosophical values that show how the Buginese talk to nature, read signs, and treat nature as an equal element rather than a mere object. Using the framework of human ecology, this …

Infinite Line, Infinite Knowledge: The 'Spera' And Organized Chaos In Lambert's Encyclopedia, The 'Liber Floridus', Ava Romano

Theses and Dissertations

The Liber Floridus is a medieval encyclopedia renowned for its program of circular diagrams, or sperae. Inside this manuscript of 190 chapters, these diagrams frame and embody written knowledge, revealing a connection between encyclopedism and life in the Benedictine monastery by creating a coherent visual organization of chapters.

Legal Stories Without Villains, Alison Peck

Law Faculty Scholarship

Lawyers have always been storytellers, and cognitive science is increasingly demonstrating that human beings are wired to learn through story. But legal stories may have a dark side if, as theorists have recently suggested, stories motivate pro-social action by reinforcing in-group identification and out-group hatred. In an increasingly divided polity, are we doomed to stories that drive us toward social disintegration? A solution to the legal storyteller’s dilemma may be found in an ancient source: Aristotle’s Poetics. By crafting legal stories that track the elements of the Tragedy as described by Aristotle and adapted by modern storytellers from Broadway …

Just War Theory In The Hunger Games: Suzanne Collins’S Critique Of Violence, Power, And Rebellion, Laila Hannum

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis applies just war theory to Suzanne Collins's The Hunger Games trilogy, arguing that while the districts' rebellion satisfies the principles of jus ad bellum (justice in going to war), it systematically violates jus in bello (justice in the conduct of war) and jus post bellum (justice after war), and ultimately replicates the oppressive structures of the Capitol it sought to overthrow.

Drawing primarily on Michael Walzer's Just and Unjust Wars and on Brian Orend's ideas on post-war justice, this thesis traces the rebellion's moral arc across all three novels. Chapter One shows that the rebellion meets the criteria …

The Intelligent Troglodyte’S Guide To Plato’S Republic, Douglas Drabkin

Philosophy Open Educational Resources

The Republic of Plato is one of the classic gateway texts into the study and practice of philosophy, and it is just the sort of book that has been able to arrest and redirect lives. How it has been able to do this, and whether or not it will be able to do this in your own case, is something you can only discover for yourself. The present guidebook aims to help a person get fairly deep, fairly quickly, into the project. It divides the dialogue into 96 sections and provides commentary on each section as well as questions for …

Cormac’S Court: Knights Without God In A Savage Land; Or, Chivalry And Existentialism In Cormac Mccarthy’S The Road, Zoë Margaret Metelerkamp

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Cormac McCarthy scholars have examined the influence of romantic grail quest literature and existential philosophy on McCarthy’s oeuvre, but they have treated these subjects independently of each other. This thesis offers a novel exploration of McCarthy’s use of these specific philosophical and literary precedents by focusing on the ways The Road unifies medieval literary principles in Chretien’s Perceval with the existential chivalry Søren Kierkegaard extrapolates in Fear and Trembling.

A Confucian Response To Stoic Perspectives On Physician Burnout, Charlene Tan, Ruth Neo

Journal of Wellness

Aimed at promoting cross-cultural dialogue and exchange of ideas in the humanities, this article provides a Confucian response to the Stoic viewpoints expounded by Kutch in this journal. Two arguments are made in this paper: first, Confucius shares the Stoics’ emphasis on being mindful. Secondly, a significant difference between Confucius and the Stoics is that the former replaces the Stoics’ fate with Heaven (tian), which is a central Confucian spiritual ideal. Applying Confucian and Stoic insights to burnout, medical professionals are encouraged to (re)gain strength by reflecting on and embracing spiritual ideals, whether it is fate or Heaven. …

Accessibility And Conformity: English Prose And Indian Poetry, Saralyn A. Clark

Scholars Week

Raja Rao Kanthapura stirs rhetorical discourse among scholars on effectivity through his infused Kannada/English writing style that both Indian and English readers can engage with and acknowledge the British-colonialist violence set within the novel. This essay criticizes existing scholarship that analyses through European rhetorical analysis such as reader-response lenses; and argues for research on Dhvani, Rasa Sutra and Puranic theories that support Rao’s aesthetic language and his rhetorical purpose. Kanthapura’s language hybridizes English prose with Indian poetics and invites both Indian and Western readers to engage with resistance against colonialization in a narrative that refuses Indian identity erasure. The novel’s …

The Construction And Reflection Of The Theoretical Knowledge System Of Chinese Literature And Art:Summary Of The 16th Annual Conference Of The Chinese Association For Theory Of Literature And Art, Qianpeng Gu

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

No abstract provided.

Différance, Transparency And Truth: Jean-Luc Nancy On Beauty, Zhizhong Zhang

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

In God, Justice, Love, Beauty, Jean-Luc Nancy thoroughly elucidates his perspectives on beauty, extending beyond the confines of conventional epistemological aesthetics by introducing deconstructionism to the discourses on aesthetic issues. Specifically, Nancy reinterprets the legend of Narcissus, positioning its theme as the movement of beauty's self differentialspacing, and unveiling the différance inherent in beauty. However, as a generalized spacing movement, différance cannot highlight the singularity of beauty. Consequently, through an analysis of douard Manet's painting Reading, Nancy contends that beauty, as a motion of meaning that transcends signification, can only be represented as being of near-nothingness, that is, as a …

Dufrenne's Genetic Phenomenological Explanation Of “Affective A Priori”, Ziming Huang

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

The discussion on the nature of the affective in phenomenology can be traced back to the debate on the universality of the aesthetic affective in modern epistemological aesthetics. Dufrenne interpreted it from the perspective of genetic phenomenology and identified it as a problem of “affective a priori.” The “affective” is an object of feeling triggered by the work and constituted by the subject; and “a priori” is a means of preforming the object within the subject. As the constituent structure of the object, the affective a priori indicates the unity of the objective cosmological a priori and …

Rita Felski's Critique Of Contextualism: Taking Rem Koolhaas And Bruno Latour As A Clue, Lijun Su

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

With a special nested structure, Rita Felski follows and finalizes Rem Koolhaas and Bruno Latour's manifesto of “Context Stinks!” The three theorists of different disciplines such as architecture, sociology and literature take context as a conservative proposition. In response to the contextualist paradigm that is threatened by self-limitation, self-exclusion and generalization, Koolhaas creates space for innovation through the strategy of “bigness”, while Latour questions the theory of social entities, introducing non-human actors into a new coordinate system. Based on them, Felski tries to remold the future of literature within the framework of actor-network theory, in order to forestall text from …

Derrida's Theory Of Sovereignty—And His Criticism Of Robinson Crusoe, Jinlong Xiao

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

The 20th century has witnessed an unprecedented exploration and development of the concept of human essence in the Western theoretical community. In the early 20th century, Heidegger proposed that human essence was existence. Later, Foucault argued that human essence was power. By the end of the 20th century, Derrida clearly pointed out that human essence was neither pure existence as advocated by the existentialists, nor pure power, as claimed by the power theorists. Instead, it is something between existence and power: the “powerization” of existence, which Derrida termed “sovereignty.” The operating rhythm of sovereignty involves the autonomy of automation, specifically …

Atmosphere And Artistic Appeal (Qi Yun): An Unfinished Reflection On The Modern Interpretation Of “Artistic Appeal And Rhythmic Vitality” From The Perspective Of Atmosphere Aesthetics, Lei Li

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Drawing from the traditional binary thinking of subject-object division and confrontation, the modern interpretation of “artistic appeal and rhythmic vitality” since the twentieth century considers it either as an aesthetic feature or the overall spirit of the artwork, or as the painter's inner harmony and resonance, failing to fully realize that the ideal effect of “artistic appeal and rhythmic vitality” can only be generated by the two-way communication and resonance between the creator and the object. In the light of the aesthetics of atmosphere, “artistic appeal” is a special category or an advanced state of atmosphere that arises from the …

A Study Of The Historical Formation Of The “Fengyao” Pattern And The “Touchun” Pattern In Five-Character Metrical Poetry, Zhao Zhang

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Since the Song dynasty, the touchun pattern has referred to the five-character metrical poetry in which the antithesis is used in the first couplet rather than the second; the fengyao pattern has referred to those in which the antithesis is only used in the third couplet. These two patterns began to flourish in the works of Shen Quanqi and Song Zhiwen. During the High Tang dynasty, they were equated in number with the standard format of metrical poetry. It was not until the Dali era that they were finally confirmed as variant formats of five-character metrical poetry. This trend of …

A New Explanation Of The Connotation And Poetic Significance Of “Poetry Springs From Emotions And Hence Reads Beautifully” In Rhapsody On Literature, Yanfeng Cai, Xiaoli Wei

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Traditionally, “poetry springs from emotions and hence reads beautifully” in Rhapsody on Literature has been interpreted primarily within the poetic context of expressing emotions and aspirations, often overlooking the broader connotation of “emotion” and the logical relationship between “springing from emotions” (yuanqing) and “beautiful” (qimi). Two key concepts are essential in understanding of this sentence. The first is “emotions”, which has been widely used to denote an objective state, essence, and reality since the pre-Qin era. Recognizing the objective meaning of “emotion” is crucial for a correct understanding of the poetic connotation of “springing from emotions”. …

New Changes In The Theater Ecology In The Late-Qing Shanghai: A Study Based On Wang Guifen's Contract Payment Lawsuit, Chunning Zhao

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Contract payment lawsuits discussed in this paper were disputes over rights and interests arising from the operation of modern xiqu (Chinese opera). During Wang Guifen's performances in Shanghai, he was involved in such lawsuits with quite a few theaters, including Xin Dangui, Tianxian, Liuchun, Tianfu, and Guixian. The practice of inviting and recruiting famous actors with high contract payments was a common form of commercial competition in Shanghai's theaters, and it was also the direct cause of job-hopping by well-known actors and their involvement in legal disputes. The high contract payments intensified malicious competition between theaters, hindered the healthy development …

A Semiotic Interpretation Of Landscape Painting And Its Limitations: A Focus On Duan Lian, Yiqing Liu, Zhijie Sun

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Duan Lian has offered a semiotic interpretation of the history of landscape painting. He argues that the formation, development, divergence and decline of landscape painting are all conveyed through the form of images. This constitutes an interaction of image symbols from form to concept, providing new perspectives and paradigms for the study of landscape painting and semiotics. However, regarding the transcendence of landscape painting, we contend that Duan Lian's semiotic interpretation of landscape painting cannot fully capture its intrinsic aesthetics and spirit, as this approach may lead to an underestimation and weakening of the artistic essence of landscape painting. Semiotics, …

Education For The Average Person And The Celestial-Human Strategy In Ancient Poetry Education: Pedagogical Choices In The Context Of The Li-Du And Su-Huang Debates, Shugong Zhao

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

As early as the Wei and Jin dynasties, Chinese literary culture developed a marked adulation of genius. Yet, poetry education took a distinct approach, which favored models not solely based on genius. In discussions contrasting Li Bai and Du Fu, Li Bai was esteemed for his rare natural gift, while Du Fu was valued for his profound intellectual insight. Similarly, in the Su-Huang debates, Su Shi was praised for innate talent, while Huang Tingjian was noted for his disciplined scholarship. Despite these distinctions, poetry education consistently recommended emulating figures like Du Fu and Huang Tingjian. This choice reflects the ancient …