Philosophy Commons^™

Our Moral Relationship To Nature, Benjamin Simpson

Senior Theses

In this paper I will explore the question of whether or not humans, as natural beings, are morally responsible for their actions in relation to nature. After all most natural beings, i.e. deer, wolves, whales, or even plants, regardless of their level of intelegence, are held responsible for their effect on the environment. When a rabbit population explodes and an ecosystem is sent into turmoil, we do not morally find fault with the rabbits. With this in mind I ask: why is it so different when humans send an ecosystem into distress? What is our moral relationship to nature? To …

Superhero Movies And Politics: The Moral Obligations Of Film Makers According To Virtue Ethics, Russell Hendrickson

Senior Theses

The theory of virtue ethics implies that filmmakers have a moral obligation to explore political themes within superhero films. My thesis is comprised of four main sections. I begin by discussing the general theory of virtue ethics and what moral obligations are placed upon someone who subscribes to this moral theory. From there, I establish my argument for why film can be used as a tool of moral education, and I outline a framework for how artists can work to cultivate virtue in themselves through the use of Arnold Berleant’s Artists and Morality: Toward an Ethics of Art as a …

Expertise And Expression In Second Language Acquisition: An Embodied Perspective, Mia Burnett

Senior Theses

In directing our attention to mundane aspects of the human experience, we can discover new ways of interacting with and understanding the world. One such formative experience, regularly seen as mundane in much of the world, is learning a second language. It is no exaggeration to say that second language acquisition is one of the processes which most influences and drives our globalized world, and yet we understand and study this process relatively little.

Continuing the trends of naturalizing phenomenological inquiry, this project attempts to evaluate phenomenological approaches to skill acquisition alongside second language acquisition theory and research through an …

Quaker Virtue Ethics: Religious Life Without Creeds, Dave Nagaji

Senior Theses

Beliefs are conventionally understood to guide people’s actions. Put another way, the actions which people take are understood to be products of what they believe. However, these claims are challenged by the fact that many Quakers hold that they do not have a creed. This feature of Quakerism creates a tension with the theory that actions must follow from beliefs. That tension prompts a question: How can Quakers make ethical decisions in a clear and decisive manner when they lack a creed? The answer to such a question is significant for two reasons. First, it provides insights into the specific …

Sustaining Autonomous Communities In The Modern United States (The United Communities Of America), Lucas Hester

Senior Theses

America has become industrialized and characterized by social anxiety and overconsumption. The inability to be sustainable has led the once plentiful and flourishing nation into an ongoing sustainability crisis. Even if there is a deep connection between them, this essay focuses on social sustainability rather than ecological. It argues for an intentional community-based framework to keep American life sustainable. Pollution, civil unrest, and intense social anxiety create unfulfilling life conditions for many American citizens. Using examples from modern American intentional communities, I will explain the need for self-directing, close-knit communities. Flourishing community members, as it will be considered from sociological …

Rocky Horror Sublimation: Identity As A Contingency Of Experience, Josh Harper

Senior Theses

Queer theory, as a subfield of feminist theories concerned with revealing epistemic, political, and humanitarian problems of a male-dominated society, has been heavily influenced by its founding thinkers, including Judith Butler, the theorist focused on herein. In critiquing various problems of our western society, Butler preserves the structure underlying such problems: through her approach of a gay/straight framework critiquing a male domination of female, the binary is preserved. This is problematic for many reasons, including its exclusion of perspectives that do not fall cleanly into such dichotomies, namely trans and polysexual ones. By appealing to these, as well as to …

A Pedestal Of Power: Analyzing Consciousness In Nonhuman Animals, Conner Lee Varnell

Senior Theses

Humans have an understanding of a concept called consciousness. This idea of consciousness has been the main separating factor between animals and humans regarding humankind's purported superiority of intelligence: humans are conscious and other animals are not. Specifically, it is self-consciousness, awareness of oneself as oneself, that is. Yet extensive research throughout the last few decades shows that this may not be the case. Animals and humans alike show a variety of forms of consciousness and self-consciousness based on the structure of their bodies, brains, habitats and other contributing factors of survival. Hence, I will argue that humans are not …

A Reinterpretation Of The Dao De Jing, Tianyue Luo

Senior Theses

Next to the Bible, the Dao De Jing is the most translated work in world literature. Its popularity certainly shows the power of traditional Chinese thoughts. Late western modern philosophers, such as Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Sartre have been influenced by the thoughts of Dao De Jing. As a foundation of traditional Chinese spirit, the Dao De Jing certainly played a key role. In the new global temporality, it may also help people to eliminate the philosophical, ideological, and eventually the cultural gap as a cultural bridge between the east and west. Compared to the original source, most English references …

Virtue Through Harmony: An Exploration Of The Ethical Role Of Music In Society, Sylvan Tovar

Senior Theses

Music can profoundly affect individuals and societies. Individuals use music to express themselves, their opinions, their worldview, their emotions, all channeled through the medium of sound. Societies use music to help give identity to their culture. Music has inspired people to take up arms for their country, or to revolt. It has gathered people of different backgrounds together under the banner of peace and of war. It has inspired people to march, it has driven them to yell, to scream, to dance, to pray, to kiss and hold, to break down and cry. Music can help people sleep, can affect …

I'M Polynesian Too: Philosophy Of Assimilation, Cosmopolitanism, Colonialism, Race, & Culture, Aaron Hire

Senior Theses

Finding identity is difficult for mixed race and culture Polynesian Americans because there is no full integration into either racial/cultural side. For many Polynesian Americans (mixed race or not), finding an ethnic, cultural, and philosophical identity is a life-long struggle that constantly toils in matters tied to their souls and well being: issues of right and wrong, gender roles, morals/ethics, acceptance, and what it means to be human. For Polynesians and mixed race Polynesians, tribulation and alienation stem from the assimilation model that is present in the world today. “American Consumerist Cosmopolitanism,” as descended from colonialism, has impacted the well-being …

Videogames, Experiential Reality, Ethics, And Gamers, Sean Naubert

Senior Theses

“Videogames are a waste of time and rob people of a chance at a real life.” This has long been the status quo regarding videogames and gamers. Videogames, Experiential Reality, Ethics, and Gamers rallies against this by undermining the philosophical assumption that comes with the claims against gaming, namely that reality is solely and completely physically determined.

On this quest, “legends and philosophical clans” shall be called upon and united to besiege the conventional notion that there is a sole physical reality. This notion is cut down like so many orcs, leaving the Individual Champion as the lone warrior left …

Living The Martial Way, Blair Schur

Senior Theses

In this thesis, I will examine what the idea of a warrior entails, looking at its ethical facets, as well as its historical development, particularly in the East, since this is where the values which seek cultivation are best preserved. I conclude that a warrior is a person who seeks knowledge and the betterment of themselves through honorable virtues. Section two looks at what it means to be a warrior, whereas section three focuses on the different philosophies that constitute the mentality of a warrior. This continues to section four, where I examine how to apply the mindset of a …

A Mind For Language: How Language Shapes Our Reality, Eric Tompkins

Senior Theses

To write of language is an unusual activity, for it is to describe something by, through, and with itself. This thesis not only defends the view advanced by Sapir and Whorf of linguistic relativism, but extends their thesis with an application of Heidegger, and conflates the terms of language and self. Ultimately, I believe this endeavor is one which is not successful, but which also yields significant implications for further thought on the philosophical relevance of linguistic relativism.

Section two presents some initial thoughts on language and self; the third section describes the terms of language, whereas the fourth one …