Philosophy Commons^™

Ai-Supported Analysis Of Jury Deliberation Impact Factors, Jennifer Siciliani Phd

Generative AI Teaching Activities

Students conduct a controlled, two-run generative AI jury simulation to examine how a single socio-legal variable affects simulated jury deliberation. They compare and manually code the AI-generated outcomes against peer-reviewed human jury research to evaluate the model’s accuracy, limitations, and potential biases.

How U.S. Legal Stagnation Can Be Aided By Decolonization, Marquel Gardner

McNair Summer Research Program

Decolonization is a term often used to present a simple shift from colonial thinking, heavily maintaining the establishment of colonial systems today. However, this usage oversimplifies and overshadows the word’s key purpose. Common proclamations of the term forgo the fundamental indigenous essence behind the word. Doing so, we not only strip the word of its inherent power, but obstruct further possibilities for actual decolonization to appear in our world. Many argue that the U.S. legal system, a product of colonial factors, has reached an alarming state. Our current legal, political atmosphere gears not towards justice or morality, but fascism and …

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" …

Confronting Founding Injustices: Reconstructive Constitutional Adjudication And Constitutional Legitimacy In Postcolonial States, Mutasim Abuzeid

International Studies (MA) Theses

Why do some postcolonial constitutions achieve higher constitutional legitimacy than others? Across the Global South, constitutions have proliferated while legitimacy remains uneven and contested. Existing scholarship explains variation in constitutional legitimacy in postcolonial states through three dominant paradigms. Institutionalist theories equate legitimacy with procedural design and endurance, presuming that stable institutions generate compliance and, over time, diffuse support. Transformative constitutionalism locates legitimacy in social justice, emphasizing judicial doctrines such as proportionality and reasonableness to advance equality and material inclusion. Transitional justice approaches, by contrast, locate moral repair largely outside constitutional law—through truth commissions, reparations, and memory projects—often leaving the constitutional …

Reinforcing Media Governance In Indonesian Dynamic Cyber Space, Poppy Setiawaty Nurisnaeny, Hendra Kaprisma, Chrisna Yudhawinata, Sudirman Sudirman

International Review of Humanities Studies

Following the rapid change in technology development, the Indonesian mass media have undergone a digital transformation. This digital mass media and its users have evolved, assimilated, and integrated themselves to fit in the cyber world. This distinguishing feature distinguishes them from traditional mass media. The cyber environment's infinite international boundaries are both advantageous and disadvantageous, as it is difficult to govern digital activity outside Indonesia's jurisdiction. This unregulated environment became a breeding ground for cybercrime, making the digital space unsafe for individuals and threatening national security. In response to this issue, the Indonesian government has enacted various laws and policies, …

The Indonesian Conjunction Dan ‘And’ And Its Chinese Correspondences: A Corpus-Based Approach To Syntactic And Register Variation, Hatmi Idris

International Review of Humanities Studies

This study examines how the Indonesian conjunction dan ‘and’ is rendered in Chinese across syntactic units using a corpus-based contrastive approach. Focusing on children’s books, classic novels, and online news, it analyzes coordination at word, phrase, and clause level from a syntactic and register perspective. Findings show that dan ‘and’ does not correspond to a single Chinese form. At the word and phrase level, nominal coordination employs hé (和) ‘and’, yǔ (与) ‘and’, and yǐjí (以及) ‘as well as’ , with formal news discourse favoring yǔ (与) ‘and’ and yǐjí (以及) ‘as well as’. In verbal coordination, bìng (并) ‘furthermore’ …

Social Archeology In Colonial Capitalism: Space Analysis, Class, And Race In The Nederlandsche Handel-Maatschappij Batavia In Early Twentieth Century, Rendy Dharmawansyah, Irmawati Marwoto Imj

International Review of Humanities Studies

The research is to analyze the building of Nederlandsche Handel-Maatschappij (NHM) in its position as a Dutch Trade Company in the Dutch East Indies. It shows an influence of the colonial image, that is discriminative against the social condition of the native Indonesian in its structural architecture. By applying a Marxist theory on the analysis of social class, this writing examines the building of the NHM trade office and the material remains that revealed social class and racial segregation. The result of the study discloses that the architecture of the NHM building pointed out the dominating colonial power over …

Persuasive Strategies In Umrah Marketing On Social Media: A Comparative Study Of Arabic And Indonesian, Stevania C. Asahri

International Review of Humanities Studies

This study examines persuasive strategies in Arabic- and Indonesian-language Umrah marketing flyers circulated on social media. As public interest in Umrah continues to grow, travel agencies increasingly rely on digital platforms not only to promote travel packages but also to construct spiritual appeal, religious credibility, and consumer trust. This study therefore aims to analyze how spiritual imagery is constructed, how rhetorical and pragmatic persuasive strategies are used, and how persuasive patterns differ between Arabic- and Indonesian-language Umrah marketing flyers. The study adopts a qualitative-dominant convergent parallel mixed-methods design. The qualitative analysis is based on Fairclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), integrated …

Radical Responsibility: Sartre And The Ecocentric Erosion Of Human Agency, Khodadad Azizi, Naupal Asnawi, Abby Gina Boang Manalu

International Review of Humanities Studies

Contemporary ecological crisis persists despite decades of environmental ethics discourse and rising public awareness, a discrepancy researchers have named the awareness-action gap. One influential corrective, running from Aldo Leopold’s land ethic through Arne Naess’s deep ecology, addresses anthropocentric domination by folding the human being back into the biotic community as one member among others. This article argues that such levelling, whatever its merits against domination, carries an underexamined cost: it erodes the very ground on which anyone can be held responsible for ecological destruction, since only a being capable of choice, not soil, water, or rock, can be asked to …

Hairdressing Service Request In Japanese, Kirana Insyafira Rafa, Filia Filia Dr.

International Review of Humanities Studies

This study aims to explain the request for hairdressing services in Japanese beauty salon, focusing on the use of verbal and nonverbal markers. This study use descriptive qualitative design. The data source consists of video conversations between clients and hairstylist on the NARIKYO channel on YouTube. The results of analysis revealed 128 request data through two strategies, such as 77 verbal and 51 nonverbal. Verbally, desiderative forms (such as -tai and -hoshii) with 33 data, followed by declarative forms (such as -ga ii, omakase de, unfinished tense) with 17 data and embedded forms (such as -you na, -mitai na, -hou …

Onomatopoeia In The Digital Comic The Wormworld Saga (2010), Nur Kholidah, Julia Wulandari

International Review of Humanities Studies

This study examines the forms and meanings of onomatopoeia derived from concrete sounds in the digital comic The Wormworld Saga. The study aims to explore the use of onomatopoeia in The Wormworld Saga and to describe its forms and meanings using a descriptive qualitative method. This study analyzes the forms of onomatopoeia based on the categories proposed by Gross (1988) and analyzes their meanings based on the classification proposed by Körtvélyessy and Štekauer (2024). The results show that there are 54 onomatopoeia classified as concrete sounds. In terms of form, the most common onomatopoeia are non-word forms, accounting for 41 …

Constructing Geisha Representation: Textual Analysis Of Memoirs Of A Geisha On Social Media X, Khadijah Hamumpuni Setyawan, Rouli Esther Pasaribu

International Review of Humanities Studies

Geisha are professional entertainers who have mastered Japanese traditional arts and often appear in various media covering Japanese culture. However, there are frequent misunderstandings about geisha outside Japan. The release of the Japanese-produced film Shogun has sparked discussions about older films from the west that are set in Japan, such as Memoirs of a Geisha. This study aims to analyze the representation of geisha in Memoirs of a Geisha (2005) and how that representation is constructed and reinterpreted by Japanese and Western audiences through the social media platform X. Using textual analysis, this study examines the movie as a cultural …

Myth As A System Of Meaning: Naturalization In The Expression “Ojo Lungguh Ning Tengah Lawang, Mengko Ora Ilok”, Sara Dwi Anjani, Triaswarin Sutanarihesti

International Review of Humanities Studies

The phrase “ojo lungguh ning tengah lawang, mengko ora ilok” is a traditional prohibition still known and applied in everyday life by Javanese people. This phrase not only functions as a rule of behavior, but as part of a system of cultural meaning passed down from generation to generation. This study aims to explain how Javanese people of different generations understand this phrase and how it functions as a myth in social life. This study employs a qualitative approach utilizing Roland Barthes’s semiotic framework and the identity perspectives of Mary Bucholtz and Kira Hall. Data were collected through …

Voters’ Perception Of Nigeria’S Electoral Process: An X-Ray Of The 2023 Presidential Election, Omamurhieme Julia Akpodovhan, Chukwuma Anyanwu Dr

International Review of Humanities Studies

In its six decades of post-independence, Nigeria has experienced the best and worst in military and democratic governance fluctuating from one to the other. It has purportedly settled into a democracy but with highly flawed electoral processes. This paper interrogates the February 25, 2023 Presidential election with a view to assessing the perception of voters in the exercise to determine whether there has been an improvement or otherwise in the status quo of how previous elections were conducted. Drawing from historical antecedents, participant observation and opinion poll research techniques, the authors relied on information from five of ten polling booths …

Contested Borders And National Identity In Southeast Asia: An Analysis Of Thailand– Cambodia Dispute Through Nontawat Numbenchapol’S Documentary Film, Boundary, Mirwan Andan

International Review of Humanities Studies

Southeast Asia remains a region marked by numerous interstate border disputes. Among these, the Thailand–Cambodia border dispute surrounding the Preah Vihear Temple, located between Sisaket Province in Thailand and Preah Vihear Province in Cambodia, represents one of the conflicts with the greatest potential to affect regional stability and harmony in the region. This dispute extends beyond questions of territorial sovereignty, encompassing the construction of national identity, historical memory, and the domestic political dynamics of both countries. This article examines the representation of nationalism in Boundary (2013), a documentary film directed by Thai independent filmmaker Nontawat Numbenchapol. Drawing on perspectives interdisciplinary …

Morphological And Woodworking Technology Analysis Of Wooden Piles From The Molenvliet Canal, Mrt Jakarta Phase 2 Cp-202 Project, Central Jakarta, Aisyah F. Sugoro, R. Cecep Permana

International Review of Humanities Studies

The aim of this study is to determine the correlation between the wooden embankment structure (wooden beams, wooden piles, and wooden planks) in the embankment installation system and the geographical conditions of Batavia along Jalan Hayam Wuruk and Jalan Gajah Mada, where the embankment structure has shifted due to ground movement. The research stages consist of observation, description, and explanation or interpretation of the processed data. Based on the analysis of wooden piles from the Molenvliet Canal embankment structure, it can be concluded that 17^th century Batavian society applied a multi-stage pile production process, ranging from raw material selection, …

Sanggit And The Essence Of Power In The Wayang Performing Arts Play Jaka Tingkir By Ki Purbo Asmoro, Darmoko Darmoko

International Review of Humanities Studies

The puppeteer as a director composes an art performance based on material, understanding the  context of history and genealogy, myths and beliefs, traditions and conventions, the breadth of  imagination, sensitivity of intuition, breadth of knowledge and experience, and depth of  understanding of cultural codes and conventions. The play Jaka Tingkir, an episode in Babad Tanah  Jawi, is composed and presented in the performing arts to foster artistic creativity and  innovation, while showcasing strength and ability in narrative strategies and staging creativity.  Power is arranged based on a person's status, role, and knowledge obtained through the traditional  method of nglakoni in …

Sumedang Larang Heritage Trail Experience: Tracing Cultural Footsteps From The Ancient Palace To Traditional Citizens' Dwellings, Retno Raswaty

International Review of Humanities Studies

The heritage trail, or the tracing of historical footprints as an approach to preservation and cultural education in Sumedang Larang culture, will lead to an experience that opens insights into life in the old center of power to the residential patterns of citizens filled with wisdom. As a cultural landscape, the traces of Sumedang Larang are still alive in urban spaces, sites, social practices, and the current residential layout of the community. Through a space-reading based on walking, this article outlines major points of interest such as the town square (alun-alun), the palace or museum, pilgrimage sites, old paths, strategic …

Animal Ethics And The Lowest Common Denominator, John O. Adenitire

Animal Sentience

This commentary assesses the pragmatic framework proposed in Jonathan Birch’s The Edge of Sentience (2024). Celebrating the book's exceptional clarity, scientific rigor, and profound real-world impact on UK legislation, I nevertheless have some questions about the method by which Birch arrives at his policy recommendations for animal protection. In seeking an overlapping consensus between deeply divergent ethical and credal viewpoints, the framework risks defaulting to a minimalist, lowest-common-denominator standard of protection for animals. Birch also risks drawing the standard even lower by including serious academic positions in animal ethics that deny moral status for animals altogether. A rights-based approach offers …

The Case For The Exclusion Of Exclusion: Intellectual Property, Masculine Legal Reason, And The Ethics Of Care, Ragya Shoukry

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis argues that current legal ideals of objectivity and neutrality are historically gendered and inseparable from the development of capitalist property relations and imperial expansion. It traces origins that begin with early modern witch hunts and Francis Bacon’s empiricism, where a new “scientific rationality” emerges alongside intensified patriarchal violence. The thesis then examines John Locke’s labour-based justification of property and the figure of the rational individual, showing how this framework legitimizes enclosure, dispossession and colonial appropriation under the guise of improvement and development. Building on this foundation, the analysis turns to moral psychology and how its allegedly universal stage …

They, The People, Ammel Sharon

Socio-Legal Review

This essay engages with Rohit De and Ornit Shani’s Assembling India’s Constitution by situating it within a broader conceptual history of “the people.” While the book offers a compelling account of participatory constitution-making, the essay suggests that it opens up further questions about the conceptual and historical conditions shaping the people as a political subject. Drawing on contemporary political theory on populism, the essay explores how politics invokes the people through affective and performative practices alongside constitutional forms.

Beyond The Veil Of Modernity: René Guénon, Prophet Of The Metapolitical Imaginary, Frederic Colier

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Heralded by some as one of the greatest intellectuals of the 20th century, French metaphysician René Guénon (1886-1951) is also the controversial father of Primordial Tradition, a metaphysics designed to remedy the decline of Western civilization. Guénon viewed the West in the grip of a prolonged cycle of degeneration. He sought to implement a pseudo-authoritarian spiritual reset that required a total rejection of its Western intellectual heritage and an embrace of Eastern doctrines.

Focusing on his landmark book The Crisis of the Modern World (1927), the dissertation examines how Guénon implemented his controversial reset. After outlining the religious, cultural, and …

Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems And The Principles Of Distinction And Proportionality, Nicholas Cromie

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems (LAWS) challenge the core principles of International Humanitarian Law (IHL), distinction and proportionality, by delegating life-and-death decisions to algorithms rather than human judgment.  This dissertation examines whether LAWS can conform to these principles and, if so, under what conditions.  Through process tracing, the study traces the historical integration of disruptive weapons technologies, including chemical, biological, nuclear, and armed drones, into IHL-compliant frameworks or their exclusion via prohibition.  Each case reveals distinct pathways: outright bans for indiscriminate or inherently inhumane systems (chemical and biological weapons), normative restraint and limited acceptance despite destructive power (nuclear weapons) and phased …

Operational Responsibility In Ai Governance: A User-Centric Liability Framework, Zhengyang Chen

Faculty Publications

Who bears responsibility when artificial intelligence systems cause harm? This question has become central to AI ethics and governance. Most existing approaches focus on developers, yet this faces serious practical and theoretical problems. Drawing on tort law, agency law, and philosophy of technology, this paper argues that AI should be understood as an instrument whose outputs remain the responsibility of human operators rather than developers. We call this 'user-centric governance.' Placing accountability with deployers promotes public trust by creating clear lines of responsibility, a concern that governance approaches have often overlooked. It preserves democratic accountability by keeping human actors answerable …

Variations In Moral Decision Making: In Morally Ambiguous Scenarios, Riley N. Eaton, Victoria Kempton, Edward Lansing, Troy R. Welker

Aurora

People are tasked with making decisions that often come with consequences, whether it be for someone else or themselves. Due to this, there is an ambiguity in understanding what is “right” and “wrong” in a given scenario. However, limited research has examined how interpersonal relationships and intensity of the punishment may affect this decision-making process. This study examines the effect of interpersonal closeness and punishment intensity on moral decision-making, defined in terms of fairness and empathy. Participants (N = 54) from a midwestern university were randomly assigned to one of three interpersonal closeness conditions (close friend vs. close friend, close …

“Parties Vs. The People” Reconsidering The Voting Mechanisms That Entrench A Bi-Party System In American Democracy, John A. Guthrie

Honors Scholar Theses

This thesis argues that while the founders accepted factions as inevitable within a free republic, the rise of plurality voting and the modern two-party system has distorted the constitutional balance they envisioned. By examining the emergence of America’s first political parties and the evolution of electoral systems, this thesis contends that electoral reforms such as ranked-choice, approval, and STAR voting may better preserve republican representation and reduce partisan domination.

Is Health Deserved? Personal Autonomy, Framing, Ethical Intimidation, And The Politicization Of Healthcare In The United States V. Japan, Ava C. Azucenas

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Is health deserved? Is your health owed to you? What does this mean, and whose responsibility is it? I argue that American culture’s use of  personal autonomy, “framing”, and ethical intimidation has stunted the improvement of both political and legal structures. This is evident in the politicization of the ‘for-profit’ healthcare system in the United States. American policymakers frequently weaponize moral foundations in order to coerce voters into supporting or opposing certain healthcare policies derived from the principle that some people are more "deserving" of health than others. This calculated “framing” of health concepts has deeply politicized such an ethical …

Aquinas In The Twenty-First Century: A Reconciliation With The Catholic Church’S Teaching On The Death Penalty, Diego G. T. Abele

Honors Theses

When the Catholic Church revised its paragraph in the Catechism that concerned the teaching on the death penalty, many believed that this seemed to contradict the Church’s traditional teaching on the death penalty, which has included the writings of thinkers like St. Thomas Aquinas. However, after applying principles of his natural law theory, this apparent contradiction goes away, and the full Catholic teaching on the death penalty comes to light. Several key theses of Thomist natural law will be described, addressing the metaphysical, epistemological, and ethical questions it seeks to answer. This will be the backbone of my paper as …

Human Dignity In The Foundational Political Documents Of The United States, Kalista Roades

Honors Theses

Human dignity is integral to modern discussions of human rights and liberties, but this connection can be found stretching back through history to the early developments of human rights. This paper begins with modern philosophical definitions of human dignity, especially from Rosen and Kateb. Rosen discusses four “strands” of dignity- Intrinsic Dignity, Status Dignity, Manner Dignity, and Respect Dignity. This paper then uses that framework to find human dignity implicit within the founding documents of the United States including the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights, as well as “Common Sense” and the Magna Carta to …

Writing As A Process Of Inquiry In Autoethnography For Meaning-Making: Reflections And Some Points For Consideration, Niroj Dahal

The Qualitative Report

This article explores writing as a process of inquiry and meaning-making in the autoethnographic tradition, offering reflections on the recursive, emergent, and dialogical/dialectical nature of writing, along with some points for consideration. Drawing on perspectives from qualitative research and narrative inquiry (Riessman, 2008), I argue that autoethnographic writing serves as a method of inquiry and/or discovery, generating ontological, epistemological, and axiological-driven cultural meaning that functions as a site of reflection, interrogation, and re-storying of lived experiences. This recursive, often messy, and reflexive act allows researchers to excavate, analyze, and interpret their lived experiences. Rather than viewing writing as a final-stage …