Philosophy Commons^™

The Profoundest Problem Of Ethics: About The Possibility Of A Profound Solution, Pol Pardini Gispert

LSU Master's Theses

My thesis is concerned with the prospects for finding a solution to what Henry Sidgwick called the Profoundest Problem of Ethics. I begin by analysing Sidgwick’s The Methods of Ethics to reveal the assumptions about rationality that led Sidgwick to claim that Ethics is plagued with a profoundest problem. I then evaluate the capacity of seven accounts – those of Derek Parfit, Roger Crisp, David Brink, David Phillips, William Frankena, Owen McLeod, and Katarzyna de Lazari-Radek and Peter Singer – to solve the Profoundest Problem of Ethics; arguing that not one is able to solve it. In the conclusion, I …

"La Llorona": Evolución, Ideología Y Uso En El Mundo Hispano, Raquel Sáenz-Llano

LSU Master's Theses

This thesis studies the evolution, ideology and use of the myth of La Llorona through time in the Hispanic World. Considering this myth as one of the most known traditional narratives of the American continent, I begin by providing visual, ethnohistorical and ethnographical insights of weeping in Mesoamerica and South America and the specific mention of a weeping woman in some Spanish chronicles to say how western values were stablished in “the new continent” through this legend. I suggest that during the postcolonialism the legend did not tell anymore about a mother that cries and search a place for their …

Aristotle's Quarrel With Socrates: Friendship In Political Thought, John Boersma

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Friendship played an outsized role in ancient political thought in comparison to medieval and modern political philosophies. Most modern scholarship has paid relatively little attention to the role of friendship in ancient political philosophy. Recently, however, scholars are increasingly beginning to investigate classical conceptions of friendship. My dissertation joins this growing interest by examining the importance of friendship in the political thought of Socrates and Aristotle. Specifically, I analyze the divergent approaches that Socrates and Aristotle take to politics and trace these distinct approaches to their differing conceptions of friendship. Through an examination of two Platonic dialogues—the Lysis and the …

A State Of Impermanence: Buddhism, Liberalism, And The Problem Of Politics, Cory Michael Sukala

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation explores the relationship of Buddhist political thought and liberal political thought at the level of first principles. I will examine the tension created by the Buddhist view of political life as instrumental and secondary to man's being as a function of the transition of the Buddhist world into the sphere of Western political life, which views the role of politics as primary to man's nature. In Part I, this will be accomplished through a consideration of the origins of political life and the foundation of the political state in each tradition as viewed through the themes of human …

In Between Realms: The Search For Feminine Selfhood In The Essais Of Montaigne, Anna Suarez

Comparative Woman

My purpose is to explore factors of the Renaissance that determined women’s selfhood in Montaigne’s Essais. I argue that the shift into modernity is responsible for the loss of women’s autonomy as well as the anxiety experienced by men regarding their power as well as their potential. Montaigne and Renaissance discourse defines women only by their bodies (sexual organs) and I explore the elements that established biological essentialism. This paper exemplifies comparative literature in the sense that it combines literature, theory, and art for the purpose of creating a well-researched examination of the root causes for why women were …

Inventing An Ethics: Existentialism And Engagement Through Literature, Michael Foster Wickham

LSU Master's Theses

The existentialist ethics of Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone De Beauvoir offers a unique perspective that challenges a traditional, normative picture that has been dominant throughout the history of ethical thinking and continues to dominate in contemporary discourse. The perspective in question refuses to rely on essence to ground its positions, opting instead to focus on the contingency of the subject and the interpersonal as being fundamental in the invention of moral values and ethical practices. This thesis looks to – in the first chapter – explore the relationship between the subjective and the interpersonal through a discussion of Heidegger’s Mitsein …

The Genealogy Of Mass Surveillance: Foucault, Diagrams, And The U.S. Intelligence Community (1945-2001), David Williams

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Emmanuel Levinas And The Meaning Of Ecological Responsibility, Joe Matthew Larios

LSU Master's Theses

Recent work in eco-phenomenology has often tried to find a way to situate Emmanuel Levinas’s ethical philosophy in a way that would be productive for environmental ethical concerns. This has often proved difficult due to the anthropocentrism of Levinas’s philosophy and the sometimes inconsistent interpretations of what the face of the Other signifies and whether it should be understood as perceptually present to the one who “sees” it in any way. This, combined with a general lack of engagement with Levinas’s writings on politics, has often made an ecological interpretation of Levinas difficult or awkward.

In this thesis, I try …

Diversity And Development In Early Christian Gnostic Thought: An Analysis Of Chaos, The Salvific Function Of Humanity, And The True Nature Of The Rulers In The Secret Book Of John, The Nature Of The Rulers, And On The Origin Of The World, Mikaela Shayne Allen

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

[Review Of] Robert J. Richards And Michael Ruse, Debating Darwin, Charles H. Pence

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Evotext: A New Tool For Analyzing The Biological Sciences, Grant Ramsey, Charles H. Pence

Faculty Publications

We introduce here evoText, a new tool for automated analysis of the literature in the biological sciences. evoText contains a database of hundreds of thousands of journal articles and an array of analysis tools for generating quantitative data on the nature and history of life science, especially ecology and evolutionary biology. This article describes the features of evoText, presents a variety of examples of the kinds of analyses that evoText can run, and offers a brief tutorial describing how to use it.

“My Way Or The Highway To Heaven”: The Role Of Choice In Religious Conversion, Marylynn Smitherman

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Augustine And Heidegger: Curiosity And The Structure Of Time, Phillip Andrew Mclean

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Is Genetic Drift A Force?, Charles H. Pence

Faculty Publications

One hotly debated philosophical question in the analysis of evolutionary theory concerns whether or not evolution and the various factors which constitute it (selection, drift, mutation, and so on) may profitably be considered as analogous to “forces” in the traditional, Newtonian sense. Several compelling arguments assert that the force picture is incoherent, due to the peculiar nature of genetic drift. I consider two of those arguments here—that drift lacks a predictable direction, and that drift is constitutive of evolutionary systems—and show that they both fail to demonstrate that a view of genetic drift as a force is untenable. I go …

Index

1650-1850: Ideas, Aesthetics, and Inquiries in the Early Modern Era

No abstract provided.

Front Matter

1650-1850: Ideas, Aesthetics, and Inquiries in the Early Modern Era

No abstract provided.

Moving Letters In Eighteenth-Century Epistolary Writing Arrivals And Departures, Hélène Dachez, Allan Ingram

1650-1850: Ideas, Aesthetics, and Inquiries in the Early Modern Era

No abstract provided.

Motion In (Eighteenth-Century) Poetry, Bill Overton

1650-1850: Ideas, Aesthetics, and Inquiries in the Early Modern Era

No abstract provided.

Picturesque Movement In Ann Radcliffe's Novels, Julien Morel

1650-1850: Ideas, Aesthetics, and Inquiries in the Early Modern Era

No abstract provided.

Kinetic Metaphors In Alexander Pope's The Rape Oe The Lock, Essay On Man, And The Dunciad, Michael Szczekalla

1650-1850: Ideas, Aesthetics, and Inquiries in the Early Modern Era

No abstract provided.

Swift's Concept Of Physical Exercise: The Gravel Path To Human Perfection, Esther F. Sommer

1650-1850: Ideas, Aesthetics, and Inquiries in the Early Modern Era

No abstract provided.

Drifting Unguided Or Involuntary Motion And The Enlightenment Sense Of Direction, Kevin L Cope

1650-1850: Ideas, Aesthetics, and Inquiries in the Early Modern Era

No abstract provided.

Stability Turned Into Motion Erasmus Darwin's Recourse To Ovid's Metamorphoses, Sonja Fielitz

1650-1850: Ideas, Aesthetics, and Inquiries in the Early Modern Era

No abstract provided.

Turning Round Or Standing Still Movement And Stasis In Defoe, Pope, And Sterne, Allan Ingram, Hélène Dachez

1650-1850: Ideas, Aesthetics, and Inquiries in the Early Modern Era

No abstract provided.

The Creative Cost Of Jane Austen's Move To Bath, Gerald J Butler

1650-1850: Ideas, Aesthetics, and Inquiries in the Early Modern Era

No abstract provided.

Thomas Jefferson, Travel Writer, Kevin J Hayes

1650-1850: Ideas, Aesthetics, and Inquiries in the Early Modern Era

No abstract provided.

Traveling To Rome For Artistic Purposes The Theoretical Background In Eighteenth-Century France And Britain, Elisabeth Martichou

1650-1850: Ideas, Aesthetics, and Inquiries in the Early Modern Era

No abstract provided.

Yorick And Lovelace Physical Manifestations And Internal E-Motions, Maryam Ghabris

1650-1850: Ideas, Aesthetics, and Inquiries in the Early Modern Era

No abstract provided.

Social Mobility And Personal Displacement Queen Charlotte Between England And Germany, Mascha Hansen

1650-1850: Ideas, Aesthetics, and Inquiries in the Early Modern Era

No abstract provided.

Eighteenth-Century Merchant Circles In London's Wapping Peter Hieuusson, Maritime Trade, And The Global Movement Of Money, Kenneth J Cozens

1650-1850: Ideas, Aesthetics, and Inquiries in the Early Modern Era

No abstract provided.