Philosophy Commons^™

Beyond Human Perception: The Remarkable Science Of Donald R. Griffin, Gareth Jones

Animal Sentience

Carolyn Ristau shows how Donald Griffin’s revolutionary science sometimes progressed from ridicule, to opposition, to being self-evident. Griffin’s work involved phenomena beyond human perception, making it sometimes difficult for others to fathom. His work on ultrasonic echolocation, navigation and animal cognition has shifted established paradigms. His ‘zoomorphic’ approach provides a realistic framework for understanding how other animals perceive the world.

Is Sexyy Red Minstrelsy, Or Are We Overreacting?, Malik Brizan-Reed

Capstones

This criticism piece explores the controversial female rapper Sexyy Red. It challenges negative perspectives about her persona, primarily based on respectability politics. It highlights Sexyy Red's ability to capitalize on a moment and business savviness. The article has themes of racial double standards and classism. Sexyy Red is more than the "ghetto Black girl," aesthetic. She's a mother and entrepreneur who is authentic to herself.

Her (Ettinger’S) Diotima, His (Levinas’) Diotima: On The Vitalness Of Eros In Education, Shiran Greenberg

Artizein: Arts and Teaching Journal

No abstract provided.

Donald Griffin: A Visionary In Science And Consciousness, Brock Fenton

Animal Sentience

I share some reflections on a sabbatical with Donald Griffin a half-century ago, with fieldwork on bats and echolocating swiftlets in Australia and our discussions of animal behavior and consciousness. Griffin's influence has been vast, from recent advances in bat research, including learning, navigation, and longevity, to his enduring legacy as a pioneer in animal cognition.

Effect Of Epistemic Cognition And Self-Regulation On The Evaluation Of Online Information, Devin T. Foschi

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

While research has shown that epistemic cognition plays an important role in self-regulation, the way in which it does so in online contexts needs further research. The objective of this dissertation was to examine the relationship between Internet-specific epistemic cognition and Internet-specific self-regulated learning, and to use a mixed-methods approach in order to expand upon the way learners undergo the evaluation of information in online spaces beyond the traditional method of only using self-report measures and other common quantitative techniques. Using an explanatory sequential mixed-methods design, Phase 1 (N = 117) used quantitative methods to first look at the relationship …

Objective Bat Phenomenology, Thomas Nagel

Animal Sentience

Our discussions prompted Donald Griffin to campaign for the recognition of animal consciousness as a subject for scientific investigation. Ristau shows how much has since been discovered about the experiences of bats and other creatures, by Griffin and others, in spite of the limits to full knowledge imposed by our biological differences. But Ristau seriously misrepresents me as holding that we can know nothing about what it is like to be a bat, whereas these results are precisely of the kind I envisioned in proposing an “objective phenomenology.”

Communication In Noise Is The Window On Cognition, R. Haven Wiley

Animal Sentience

As Griffin surmised, communication is the window on cognition, but as shown here, only if it is noisy. This commentary is an invitation to consider the full implications of the evolution of noisy communication. A combination of Information Theory, Signal Detection Theory, and Natural Selection, in a unified theory of the evolution of communication, reveals that noise is inevitable. All organisms are thus decision makers. Perception, thought, freedom of decision, self-awareness, metabolism, and natural selection all share the consequences of signals in noise. A full understanding of each requires attention to the errors of receivers. Griffin’s hunch is correct with …

Attempting To Answer The Question Of Animal Awareness, Alexandra Horowitz

Animal Sentience

It was as a graduate student that I first encountered the work of both Donald Griffin and Carolyn Ristau. Griffin's The Question of Animal Awareness (1976) and Animal Minds (2001) helped a budding animal-minds researcher appreciate both the possibilities of studying non-human animal consciousness and the struggle that such an undertaking would face. Now Ristau's (2024a,b) timely biography helps explain how Griffin became the figure in animal cognition that he is.

Donald Griffin, Sentience, And Animal Research Ethics, John Gluck

Animal Sentience

Recollection of early encounters with Donald Griffin’s pioneering work on animal awareness, provoking intense, often hostile academic responses, later forgotten.

Can We Use Judgement Bias To Assess The Welfare Of Fish In Aquariums And Zoos?, Culum Brown

Animal Sentience

This commentary examines the potential of tests of judgment bias to assess fish welfare in aquariums and zoos. Judgment bias offers a non-invasive approach to interpreting affective states in animals, using cognitive responses to ambiguous stimuli as indicators of mental wellbeing. Despite the constraints of captive environments—such as limited handling and species diversity in exhibits—recent adaptations of judgment-bias protocols make them suitable across taxa, including fishes. Collaborations with progressive zoos and aquariums could facilitate this research, based on the shared goal of enhancing animal welfare and promoting public education.

It’S Worse If Superman Does It: Perceptions Of Moral Transgressions Committed By Superheroes And Supervillains, Justin F. Martin, Hansika Kapoor

Heroism Science

Superheroes are distinguished from supervillains due to their morally relevant behavior. However, what happens when they both engage in immoral behavior? This study examined how individuals perceive moral transgressions by their favorite superhero/villain in a quasi-experimental design. In line with Social Cognitive Domain Theory and Moral Foundations Theory, transgressions related to harm and justice were assessed. Specifically, participants (N = 363, predominantly White/Caucasian and South Asian) assessed characters’ likability, character traits, and moral evaluations. In line with hypotheses, results suggested that (a) superheroes were liked more than supervillains; (b) transgressions by superheroes were more morally impermissible than those by supervillains, …

Précis Of: "Birds, Bats And Minds: Tales Of A Revolutionary Scientist, Donald R. Griffin", Carolyn A. Ristau

Animal Sentience

Donald Griffin co-discovered bat sonar and founded the field of echolocation. He studied bird migration and founded Cognitive Ethology, the study of animal awareness and mental experiences. In all these endeavors, he faced hostile opposition. The biography (Ristau 2024) examines Griffin's life and the scientific explorations by him and others in these fields. This Précis emphasizes his arguments and supporting evidence for animal consciousness as well as his later research. Griffin considered the inhibiting assumptions made by scientists, including Cartesian views, the misunderstanding of innate behaviors, prejudice against lower animals, concern with violations of parsimony, and the assertions of the …

Self-Identifying Minoritized Doctoral Students’ Experiences Of Epistemic Injustice In Counselor Education And Supervision, Francisca Rivas

Counseling & Human Services Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine and understand how epistemic injustice (EI) is experienced by minoritized doctoral students in Counselor Education and Supervision programs. The primary researcher performed a phenomenological study examining the experiences of EI for minoritized CES students (n = 8). There were three female participants with an average age of 31, two male participants with an average age of 31, and three nonbinary/trans participants with the average age of 33. Five participants were BIPOC, one being an international student, and six participants were LGBTQPA+. Five participants held Ph.Ds. at time of their interview, having …

Devices And Dining: A Cross-Cultural Analysis Of Mobile Device Use In Italian And American Restaurants, O'Malley Jenkins

Senior Theses

The field of technology ethics has seen increasing growth and interest over the years. Many have begun to consider the impacts of technology’s use and whether it is being employed in a healthy manner by users. However, there has been limited investigation into whether the ways in which technology use varies across cultures. This study begins to address this gap by researching Italian and American device usage in fast food settings. Non-participant naturalistic observations were used to record data for 89 Italian and 88 American customers of fast food restaurants. Analysis of the collected data indicates that Americans use their …

An Integral Approach To Philosophy Of Nature, Carol Richardson

Journal of Conscious Evolution

Abstract

Quantum physicists and quantum biologists enjoy a mathematically-inspired romance with the wonders of nature at the quantum level. Recognizing the romance of mathematics and the quantum-to-cosmic level relational energetics of Nature can lead to a more integral, romantic, and even embodied phenomenology of the intelligence inherent within Nature’s relational and embodied energies. Approaching this quantum nature of Nature from the more romantic, wholistic views of the right hemisphere of the brain, rather than from the fragmenting views of the left hemisphere of the brain, one can begin to discover the self-organizing abilities of the energies of Nature at all …

Perceptual Expectation, Rebecca Keller

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

You are currently seeing many things, and, hopefully, you are currently about to see many other things. Many of the things that you are about to see will not be surprising, because you expect to see them. Sometimes, though, when you expect to see one thing and are faced with another, that thing will look like the thing you expected it to be, and not like the thing it actually is. This dissertation is an attempt to get a handle on what is happening in the visual system in these instances. In particular, I am trying to figure out what …

Archetypal Energies And Global Mental Health, Carroy U. Ferguson

Psychology Faculty Publication Series

As a keynote speaker at the Global Mental Health Conference 2024, held at Sophia University, Costa Mesa, CA, in-person and virtually, August 16-18, 2024, my topic was "Archetypal Energies As A Framework for Self-Empowerment and Well Being". The theme of this 2024 global conference was: Enlightened Minds, Compassionate Hearts, and Embodied Wisdom. To supplement my keynote address, I wrote this blog article titled "Archetypal Energies and Global Mental Health".

Buddhism, Daoism, And Jeet Kune Do: A Contemporary Analysis Of Nondual Traditions In A New Age Martial Art, James H. Sutton

Journal of Conscious Evolution

Traditional martial arts are known for their focus on spiritual cultivation through a combination of self-defense training and contemplative practices like meditation. Traditional martial art systems tend to utilize nondual traditions commonly associated with Buddhism and Daoism; however, modern martial art practices, particularly those of MMA, no longer place a strong emphasis on such traditions. In turn, this has led to the development of high-performance sport athletes who emphasize self-defense efficiency in combat (usually combat sports) over all other attributes while also mixing “arts” or “styles” as necessary for the individual’s own self growth. I dub these as “new age” …

Psychopathy And Moral Decision Making, Dimitra Kourtesi

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Since the 1800s, psychopathy has been regarded as the absence of morality. The goal of our study was to explore whether psychopathic traits can affect the moral decision-making process in sacrificial moral dilemmas. Participants completed multiple self-report measures of psychopathic traits, utilitarian tendencies, and 16 sacrificial moral dilemma vignettes. After each hypothetical vignette, participants decided whether they believed it was morally right, permissible, and whether they behaviorally intended to sacrifice one person to save five people. Positive correlations emerged among all variables, which allowed us to perform a mediation analysis. Instrumental Harm – the idea of sacrificing one individual to …

Praying To Tiktok, Seeking The Self: How Rhetoric Reveals And Conceals The World’S Most Powerful Guru Of The Postindustrial Age, Samantha L. Gillespie-Hoffman

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

Imagine a world where the most powerful leader is a wellness guru that runs an elaborate church with millions of followers. The guru is so powerful that everyone believes they can read minds and make ordinary people rich and famous. The guru controls forms of communication, media channels, consumer tastes, and what people eat, drink, say, and even think. What if this guru was not human but actually an algorithm? Does this sound like the plot of a science fiction novel? I argue that this scenario is closer to reality than most will admit. In this project, readers encounter a …

Bunuh Diri Dan Untai Problematikanya: Sebuah Rekonstruksi Teoritik Atas Bunuh Diri, Nastiti Soegeng Lestari

Masyarakat: Jurnal Sosiologi

In Indonesia, suicide research has largely overlooked structural factors at the meso and macro levels, whether as primary causes, contributing factors, or considerations for prevention strategies. The dominance of psychological and psychiatric approaches has marginalized sociological perspectives, limiting a more holistic understanding of suicide. Existing heuristic models primarily frame suicide as a consequence of mental health disorders or economic conditions, reinforcing a dichotomy: one perspective views suicide as a psychological and/or psychiatric phenomenon, while the other treats it as a sociological fact. However, suicide encompasses a far more complex reality that transcends this binary. This study offers a comprehensive theoretical …

Towards A Mosim Christology: A Korean Response, Hwang Kyung-Hoon

Asia Pacific Mission Studies

This article will reflect on Jesus' understanding of God, and will then move on to discuss the Korean people's cultural understanding of Jesus. It will offer Mosim Christology (mosim means reverencing or serving humans and God in one's heart sincerely) as a meaningful Christology for Korean people. It will show the relationship between Jesus' experience of God as Abba and mosim, our main theme.

Understanding And Accessing North Korean Religion, Byun Jin Heung

Asia Pacific Mission Studies

Questions about North Korean religion always come with a question mark, and the general level of understanding about North Korean society is very low. This stems from doubts about North Korean communism. However, North Korea is a human society in which people live. As the society of North Korea has changed, so has the religion of North Korea. North Korea, especially after the collapse of the Cold War between East and West, has sought to change to survive and has used religion to gain recognition and acceptance from the international community. Religion has always been a tool to be used. …

Observing Cairene Narratives And Subjectivities Towards Covid-19: Reflections On The First Year Of The Pandemic, Sarra Moneir

Future Journal of Social Science

Theoretical and methodological toolkits already existing in the field of political science and social science in the grand sense have been challenged by the tremendous impacts of waves and movements of social change since 2010 in the Arab Region. While political and social scientists were, and still remain, engaged in unravelling questions of how to apprehend the forms of social movements (re-)born, not just in the Arab world but also through the Occupy movements in the US and Europe, they soon had to redirect their focus on issues of migration and refugees, only to find themselves once again confronted with …

Back To The Future? How The Global Powers And The Local Militias Hindered Un Multi-Dimensional Mediation In The Libyan And Syrian Civil Wars After 2011, Ahmed S. Mahdi, Melissia Shapib, Noura Gamie

Future Journal of Social Science

UN mediation efforts in the Libyan and Syrian civil wars, which followed the Arab Revolutions of 2011, were hampered by the great power intervention, and by the belligerents' insistence on solving the problem through military victory instead of negotiation. There is a shortage in the literature which examines an alternative, or how UN mediation can be improved. One of the few models to assess, and improve, UN mediation in civil wars is the so-called Kane Model (2022). Using the model presented by Kane to assess the procedures of a powerful UN mediation process in internationalized civil wars, this paper argues …

Approaches And Tools Of Peace And Conflict Management Between Two Perspectives, Yasmine Z. Radwan

Future Journal of Social Science

This study aims at pointing out the tools of peace and the approaches to conflict management and resolution presented in the Islamic and Western perspectives. It also searches for clarifying the convergent and divergent zones that could help in finding, analyzing and criticizing the basic concepts on which arguments and debates are constructed. This study concluded that the differences between the Islamic and the Western perspective are a human requirement for acquainting and integrating based on a crucial notion, which is identity. Identity is treated in details in many discourses and occupies a large place in the Western literature on …

Anātman & Lack: Between Nāgārjuna And Lacan, Carter Morris

The Confluence

The notion of the Self lies at the heart of subjectivity. This paper aims to analyze and compare two intellectual traditions that have their own subversive philosophies of the Self and subjectivity—these two traditions being Mādhyamaka Buddhism and Lacanian psychoanalysis. Beginning with primers on both Nāgārjuna’s philosophy and Jacques Lacan’s psychoanalytic theory, this paper will discuss the comparative psychologies and philosophies of subjectivity presented by the ideas of non-Self and Lack, respectively. Also briefly compared are the implied metaphysics of both Śūnyatā and Lacanian Lack. An examination of these comparisons’ weaknesses follows along with some closing remarks.

Me And Mathematics: “Doing What You’Re Talking About”: In Dialogue With My Family, Eden Morris

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This paper is a philosophically oriented accompaniment to my audio project (accessible through the following link: https://cuny.manifoldapp.org/projects/me-and-mathematics). Working together, the paper and audio collages form a call to action and a resource. My primary finding is the importance of doing what you’re talking about or exploring and implementing your ideas experientially. Doing what you’re talking about is important for effective teaching/learning and feeling in line with oneself. This working concept came to my attention during my research conversation with my oldest living relative, and then, again, with my youngest (non-baby) relative. This doing what you’re talking about is a way …

Winter Solstice, Jingwen Cao

Masters Theses

For a long time, I have been thinking about what contemporary photography is, what its position is, and what the relationship is between artists and audiences. At the same time, I was developing my concepts and photographic directions and trying to make my work and my perspective on photography relevant. Winter Solstice includes a series of essays that locate my thinking and my work. Its title references the longest night of the year.

The position of photography has changed significantly over the past few decades. The way people read photos is also changing. Perhaps because of reverence for art and …

A Thesis, Or Digressions On Sculptural Practice: In Which, Concepts & Influences Thereof Are Explained, Set Forth, Catalogued, Or Divulged By Way Of Commentaries To A Poem, First Conceived By The Artist, Fed Through Chatg.P.T., And Re-Edited By The Artist, To Which Are Added, Annotated References, Impressions And Ruminations Thereof, Also Including Private Thoughts & Personal Accounts Of The Artist, Jaimie An

Masters Theses

This thesis is an exercise in, perhaps a futile, attempt to trace just some of the ideas, stories, and musings I might meander through in my process. It’s not quite a map, nor is it a neat catalogue; it is a haphazard collection of tickets and receipts from a travel abroad, carelessly tossed in a carry-on, only to be stashed upon returning home. These ideas are derived from much greater thinkers and authors than myself; I am a mere collector or a translator, if that, and not a very good one, for much is lost. I do not claim comprehensive …