Philosophy Commons^™

Thinking, Meaning, And Truth: Arendt On Heidegger And The Possibility Of Critique, Jennifer Gaffney

Philosophy: Faculty Publications and Other Works

No abstract provided.

Recognition And Positive Freedom, David Ingram

Philosophy: Faculty Publications and Other Works

This chapter explores what, if any, contributions a Hegelian ethics of recognition makes towards enriching our understanding of the intersubjective foundations of freedom. Against Berlin, I argue that recognition is wrongly construed as a form of solidarity with society that threatens individual freedom. Drawing from recent work by Honneth, I submit that distinct recognition regimes correspond to distinct social action spheres in a way that that facilitates critical reflection and freedom to resist over-reaching action spheres. I conclude that reconciling these action spheres on both individual and social levels by means of a meta-level form of social recognition in the …

Ethical Issues In Data Journalism, Bastiaan Vanacker

School of Communication: Faculty Publications and Other Works

This chapter starts out by situating data journalism in relation to computer-assisted reporting and computational journalism and argues that data journalism has ballooned in recent decades as a result of the great availability of databases, increased training, and lower costs of computers. It then analyzes the main issues that can spring up at each phase of the data journalism process. During the collection process, journalists can be manipulated by flawed data or ethically compromised by using illegally obtained data. When they obtain data through surreptitiously scraping the web or paying for datasets, they might be violating notions of transparency and …

What An Ethics Of Discourse And Recognition Can Contribute To A Critical Theory Of Refugee Claim Adjudication, David Ingram

Philosophy: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Thanks to Axel Honneth, recognition theory has become a prominent fixture of critical social theory. In recent years, he has deployed his recognition theory in diagnosing pathologies and injustices that afflict institutional practices. Some of these institutional practices revolve around specifically juridical institutions, such as human rights and democratic citizenship, that directly impact the lives of the most desperate migrants. Hence it is worthwhile asking what recognition theory can add to a critical theory of migration. In this paper, I argue that, although its contribution to a critical theory of migration is limited, it nonetheless carves out a unique body …

What An Ethics Of Discourse And Recognition Can Contribute To A Critical Theory Of Refugee Claim Adjudication: Reclaiming Epistemic Justice For Gender-Based Asylum Seekers, David Ingram

Philosophy: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Abstract: Using examples drawn from gender-based asylum cases, this chapter examines how far recognition theory (RT) and discourse theory (DT) can guide social criticism of the judicial processing of women’s applications for protection under the Geneva Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees (1951) and subsequent protocols and guidelines put forward by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). I argue that these theories can guide social criticism only when combined with other ethical approaches. In addition to humanitarian and human rights law, these theories must rely upon ideas drawn from distributive, compensatory, and epistemic justice. Drawing from recent …

Dying Well In Nursing Homes During Covid-19 And Beyond: The Need For A Relational And Familial Ethic, Jennifer Parks, Maria Howard

Philosophy: Faculty Publications and Other Works

This paper applies a relational and familial ethic to address concerns relating to nursing home deaths and advance care planning during Covid-19 and beyond. The deaths of our elderly in nursing homes during this pandemic have been made more complicated by the restriction of visitors even at the end of life, a time when families would normally be present. While we must be vigilant about preventing unnecessary deaths caused by coronavirus outbreaks in nursing homes, some deaths of our elders are inevitable. Thus, it is essential that advanced care planning occurs in a way that upholds the familial and relational …

Skill, Practice, And Virtue: Some Questions And Objections For Stalnaker, Richard Kim

Philosophy: Faculty Publications and Other Works

No abstract provided.

Political Justificationism: A More Realistic Epistemology Of Political Disagreement, Randolph Jay Carlson

Dissertations

Disagreement is probably the most salient feature of our contemporary political environment. This project aims to examine political disagreements from the perspective of the recent discussions of the epistemology of disagreement more generally. Some, known as conciliationists, argue that when confronted with a disagreement with someone who is equally knowledgeable and well-informed as you are on the issue (known as an "epistemic peer"), one should become substantially less confident in that antecedently held belief. While some have tried to straightforwardly apply the conciliationist approach to political disagreements, I argue that such an approach makes us vulnerable to significant cognitive biases …

Environmental Reforestation And Social Justice In Cameroon: A Test Case For Pope Francis' Concept Of 'Integral Ecology' In Laudato Sí, Augustin Vondou

Dissertations

The following quotation from Pope Francis' encyclical Laudato Sí is one of the most quoted parts of his well-known encyclical: We are faced not with two separate crises, one environmental and the other social, but rather with one complex crisis which is both social and environmental. Strategies for a solution demand an integrated approach to combating poverty, restoring dignity to the excluded, and at the same time protecting nature (139).

This is a very challenging statement. Not everyone accepts this idea of an ‘integral ecology’; that is, the notion that the condition of human society is directly linked to the …

Refuting The Single Story Of Political Action In Hannah Arendt: Navigating Arendt's Eurocentrism And Anti-Black Racism, Katherine Brichacek

Dissertations

In this dissertation, I argue for a reconceptualization of political action according to Hannah Arendt that relies on more than her text often read text, The Human Condition. I argue that a monolithic understanding of political action which solely relies on The Human Condition allows for a narrow and ineffectual account of the concept. Taking up the analogy of one-dimensional blueprints, I claim that using The Human Condition alone only provides one perspective on and version of political action. I promote, instead, a multi-dimensional perspective of political action much like an architectural rendering software such as AutoCAD provides, or renders, …

Building Bridges: Epistemic Violence And Mother–Daughter Pedagogies From The U.S.–Mexico Border, Tanya J. Gaxiola Serrano, Elvia Serrano

Journal of Critical Scholarship on Higher Education and Student Affairs

Living in the U.S.–Mexico borderlands, residents have intimately learned about the impact of the militarized policing of the physical border on their lives. While not often discussed, the policing transcends the border institution and targets the ways of knowing of People and Immigrants of Color. This essay features pláticas between two Mexican women educators from the border, la frontera, to challenge epistemic violence on the lives of U.S. Chicanas/Latinas. Intergenerational pedagogies of a mother–daughter dyad from the Tijuana–San Diego region serve as exemplars of the survival and resistance found in the borderlands. The narratives highlight their unique experiences, one as …

How Inclusive And Accessible Is Your Statement On Inclusion And Accessibility?, Freya M. Mobus

Philosophy: Faculty Publications and Other Works

No abstract provided.

Gestation As Mothering, Timothy F. Murphy, Jennifer Parks

Philosophy: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Some commentators maintain that gestational surrogates are not ‘mothers’ in a way capable of grounding a claim to motherhood. These commentators find that the practices that constitute motherhood do not extend to gestational surrogates. We argue that gestational surrogates should be construed as mothers of the children they bear, even if they fully intend to surrender those children at birth to the care of others. These women stand in a certain relationship to the expected children: They live in changed moral circumstances by reason of their pregnancy, and they engage in the practices said to define motherhood in the post-birth …

Holding On: A Community Approach To Autonomy In Dementia, Kit Rempala, Marley Hornewer, Joseph Vukov, Rohan Meda, Sarah Khan

Philosophy: Faculty Publications and Other Works

No abstract provided.

The Legacy Of The Iraq Sanctions Regime Is Alive And Well In Us Foreign Policy Today, Joy Gordon

Philosophy: Faculty Publications and Other Works

No abstract provided.

From Knowing To Understanding: Revisiting Consent, Kit Rempala, Marley Hornewer, Joseph Vukov, Rohan Meda, Sarah Khan

Philosophy: Faculty Publications and Other Works

No abstract provided.

Natural Law In Mencius And Aquinas, Richard Kim

Philosophy: Faculty Publications and Other Works

No abstract provided.

The Enduring Lessons Of The Iraq Sanctions, Joy Gordon

Philosophy: Faculty Publications and Other Works

No abstract provided.

Bci-Mediated Action, Blame, And Responsibility, Joseph Vukov, Kit Rempala

Philosophy: Faculty Publications and Other Works

No abstract provided.

When Microcredit Doesn’T Empower Poor Women: Recognition Theory’S Contribution To The Debate Over Adaptive Preferences, David Ingram

Philosophy: Faculty Publications and Other Works

This essay proposes recognition theory as a preferred approach to explaining poor women’s puzzling preference for patriarchal subordination even after they have accessed an ostensibly empowering asset: microfinance. Neither the standard account of adaptive preference offered by Martha Nussbaum nor the competing account of constrained rational choice offered by Harriet Baber satisfactorily explains an important variation of what Serene Khader, in discussing microfinance, dubs the self-subordination social recognition paradox. The variation in question involves women who, refusing to reject the combined socio-economic benefits of patriarchal recognition and empowering microfinance, dissemble their subordination to men. In this situation, women experience …

Recognition And Positive Freedom, David Ingram

Philosophy: Faculty Publications and Other Works

A number of well-known Hegel-inspired theorists have recently defended a distinctive type of social freedom that, while bearing some resemblance to Isaiah Berlin’s famous description of positive freedom, takes its bearings from a theory of social recognition rather than a theory of moral self-determination. Berlin himself argued that recognition-based theories of freedom are really not about freedom at all (negatively or positively construed) but about solidarity, More strongly, he argued that recognition-based theories of freedom, like most accounts of solidarity, oppose what Kant originally understood to be the essence of positive freedom, namely the setting of volitional ends in accordance …

Making Moral Judgment More Responsive Via Constraints On Moral Beliefs, Principles, And Convictions, David Bukenhofer

Dissertations

A moral judgment is the conclusion of a psychological process, and a moral belief is thecognitive content resulting from it. Some experiences constrain the moral beliefs, principles, and convictions from which moral judgments are causally formed. If these experiences are associated with an underlying belief, principle, or conviction, they add context to it. Acquiring new contextual information through experience prompts reflection, which leads to the development of new morally relevant reasons. I hold that moral beliefs, principles, and convictions typically are involved in the formation of moral judgments, and that moral judgments typically are formed on the basis of moral …

Introduction, David Ingram

Philosophy: Faculty Publications and Other Works

No abstract provided.

Response To My Commentators, David Ingram

Philosophy: Faculty Publications and Other Works

No abstract provided.

The Relation-Theory Of Mental Acts: Durand Of St.-Pourcain On The Ontological Status Of Mental Acts, Peter Hartman

Philosophy: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Oxford Studies in Medieval Philosophy showcases the best scholarly research in this flourishing field. The series covers all aspects of medieval philosophy, including the Latin, Arabic, and Hebrew traditions, and runs from the end of antiquity into the Renaissance. It publishes new work by leading scholars in the field, and combines historical scholarship with philosophical acuteness. The papers will address a wide range of topics, from political philosophy to ethics, and logic to metaphysics. OSMP is an essential resource for anyone working in the area.

Rethinking Constitutional Interpretation To Affirm Human Rights And Dignity, Vincent Samar

Philosophy: Faculty Publications and Other Works

No abstract provided.

Daoism, Flourishing, And Gene Editing, Richard Kim

Philosophy: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Given the potentially powerful effects of gene editing for human lives, it seems reasonable to reflect on the issue from a variety of scientific, moral, cultural, and religious perspectives to help us deploy this technology with a clear eye to all its possible implications. Given the global impact genetic modification will likely have, an inquiry seriously engaging with the values and ideals of non-Western cultures and societies will be helpful to achieve the sort of balanced understanding that will enable a proper evaluation. This chapter examines the account of well-being found in the Daoist classic, the Zhuangzi, and highlights some …

Noncombatant Immunity And The Ethics Of Blockade, Robert Mayer

Political Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

This paper counters Michael Walzer’s argument against tight blockades. It shows that the interdiction of food shipments need not violate the principle of noncombatant immunity. Whether it is morally permissible to impose a strict blockade depends on the circumstances of the target state. The more self-sufficient a country is, the more acceptable it should be for a belligerent to cut the enemy’s external lines of supply. The Allied blockade of Germany during the First World War illustrates the argument. Fault in this case should be assigned to the German government for the loss of civilian lives.

At The Intersection Of Due Process And Equal Protection: Expanding The Range Of Protected Interests, Vincent J. Samar

Philosophy: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Are the Due Process and Equal Protection clauses interconnected? Justice Kennedy in Obergefell v. Hodges, the Supreme Court case holding the fundamental right to marry includes the right to a same-sex marriage, stated that they are profoundly connected in that each clause “may be instructive as to the meaning and reach of the other.” But exactly what instruction each doctrine might afford the other, Justice Kennedy did not say. An earlier Supreme Court decision, Plyler v. Doe, also suggested a connection, when the Court held unconstitutional a Texas statute baring funding for the education of undocumented children. But …

Reply To Beata Stawarska, Johanna K. Oksala

Philosophy: Faculty Publications and Other Works

No abstract provided.