Philosophy Commons^™

Liberal Democratic Civic Education And Rampage School Gun Violence: Why We Need An Alternative Theory Of Democracy To Guide Contemporary Civic Education, Samantha Deane

Dissertations

In this dissertation, which relies on philosophical inquiry, I use the case of rampage school gun violence to explore democratic education. Drawing a distinction between liberal-foundational democratic education, which aims to educate the individual on how to become an autonomous rational agent and pragmatic-antifoundational democratic education, which looks to help individuals to understand agency as shared, I argue antifoundational democratic education teaches individuals how to affect their environment and take responsibility for the renewal of their democratic society. Rather than allocating blame in the singular individual, antifoundational democracy teaches citizens how to share the blame, take responsibility for unacceptable violence, …

Collective Responsibility By Agreement, David Atenasio

Dissertations

It is often challenging to fairly distribute responsibility for harms that result from collective wrongdoing. Few object to blaming an agent for making a contribution to wrongdoing, but it is far more controversial to attribute fault to one agent for the contributions made by other participants in collective wrongdoing. I argue that we ought to distribute co-responsibility for collective wrongdoing only to those who authorize the offending actions, whether expressly or tacitly. By authorizing another to carry out wrongdoing on one's behalf, one becomes to blame for the unjustified harm caused by one's agent or agents. In this dissertation, I …

Retrieving And Reimagining Sanctuary And Solidarity: Racial Disparities In Infant Mortality, Alyson Capp

Dissertations

In Milwaukee, Black babies die before their first birthday nearly three times as often as White and Hispanic babies. Prematurity is the major cause of infant mortality, and social determinants of health play a large role. Commitments from within Christian bioethical traditions can critique ethical frameworks commonly in use in US bioethics by calling for the incorporation of analysis of social power dynamics that is necessary for addressing this issue. Original ethnographic fieldwork that listens closely to Black mothers and health professionals uncovers key themes related to women's and infant health at the intersection of race, class, and gender. By …

Review Of The Oxford Handbook Of Philosophy And Race, Julie Ward

Philosophy: Faculty Publications and Other Works

No abstract provided.

The Hidden Power Of The New Economic Sanctions, Joy Gordon

Philosophy: Faculty Publications and Other Works

No abstract provided.

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 …

Contesting The Public Sphere: Within And Against Critical Theory, David Ingram

Philosophy: Faculty Publications and Other Works

This chapter examines how European thinkers working from within and without the Frankfurt School of critical theory have understood the public sphere as a distinctive political category. First-generation members of the school rejected institutional democracy and mass politics as ideologies that mask domination. The succeeding generation, whose most important representative is Jürgen Habermas, rejected that diagnosis. Habermas’s more optimistic assessment of the emancipatory potential of the public sphere as a medium of rational learning sought a middle ground between critics and defenders of liberal democracy. This ambivalence provoked strong counter-reactions from systems theorists, such as Niklas Luhmann, and from adherents …

Sartre, Camus And A Marxism For The 21st Century, David Schweickart

Philosophy: Faculty Publications and Other Works

In 1952 Albert Camus wrote a caustic letter to Les Temps Modernes in response to the journal’s negative review of The Rebel, addressed, not to the author of the review, but to “M. Le Directeur,” i.e. to Sartre. Sartre’s response published in the journal ended their friendship. This article examines the deep cause of this rupture, Camus’s political views moving rightward, Sartre’s moving left. I examine Camus’s critique of Marx and Marxism, then ask the question, “What is Marxism, Anyway?” I defend a version of Sartrean “existential Marxism” as appropriate for our time.

Lying And History, Thomas Carson

Philosophy: Faculty Publications and Other Works

I begin by discussing views about the permissibility of lying by political leaders. Sections II and III address historically important lies and lies about history and the historical record. These two categories overlap - some lies about the historical record were historically important events. In section IV, I discuss the related notion of half-truths and give examples of misleading/deceptive half-truths about history. In the final section of this chapter, I briefly discuss the obligations of historians to give truthful accounts of historical events.

An Uber Ethical Dilemma: Examining The Social Issues At Stake, Florence Chee

School of Communication: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Purpose

This paper aims to engage with the social issues emerging from the increasing reliance upon app-driven services, as they pertain to precarious labor and ethical standpoints in a digital era. Popular ride services such as Uber have been lauded for bringing much needed transportation services that are superior to expensive taxis or unpleasant or inaccessible public transit.

Design/methodology/approach

As a result of over three years of ongoing research and analysis, this paper is a comprehensive assessment of a number of social issues facing the integration of practices both signified and enacted in an economy driven by apps such as …

So Not Mothers: Responsibility For Surrogate Orphans, Jennifer Parks, Timothy F. Murphy

Philosophy: Faculty Publications and Other Works

The law ordinarily recognizes the woman who gives birth as the mother of a child, but in certain jurisdictions, it will recognize the commissioning couple as the legal parents of a child born to a commercial surrogate. Some commissioning parents have, however, effectively abandoned the children they commission, and in such cases commercial surrogates may find themselves facing unexpected maternal responsibility for children they had fully intended to give up. Any assumption that commercial surrogates ought to assume maternal responsibility for abandoned children runs contrary to the moral suppositions that typically govern contract surrogacy, in particular assumptions that gestational carriers …

An Unfinished Project: John Courtney Murray, Religious Freedom, And Unresolved Tensions In Contemporary American Society, Miguel H. Diaz

Philosophy: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Religious freedom has re-emerged as a controversial issue in the courts, in the Church, and in the public square in the United States. This essay examines the groundbreaking contribution that John Courtney Murray, SJ made to bring about a paradigm shift in Roman Catholic teaching on religious freedom. This shift can be traced to the Church’s transitioning from the view that “error has no rights” to only people—not ideas—have rights. The essay underscores Murray’s focus on human conscience and addresses tensions that have emerged in the United States between voices that affirm the right to religious freedom and those that …

Theoria As Practice And As Activity, Julie Ward

Philosophy: Faculty Publications and Other Works

In Book X chapter 7 of Nicomachean Ethics (henceforth, EN), Aristotle reaches two decisive conclusions: frst, the activity of our intellect which he terms θεωρία is the highest kind and comprises “complete happiness” (ἡ τελεῖα εὐδαίμονια, EN 1177a19); second, a theoretical life, being divine, counts as the highest, and is the one to aim at (EN 1178a5-7). These are compelling claims, rightly generating much scholarly comment, particularly about the balance of excellent theoretical and moral activity in the best human life.2 Yet the present paper proposes to follow a diferent standard, one with a broader, thematic approach to θεωρία. My …

The Art Of Morals: A Study Of The Influence Of Musicopoetic Arts On Moral Development In Plato's Laws, Daniele Manni

Dissertations

This dissertation's primary goal is to give a detailed account of the employment of musicopoetic arts in the process of moral development in Plato's Laws. Its secondary objective is to propose an explanation for the different evaluations of musicopoetic arts at the end of the Republic and in the Laws.

To achieve the first goal I analyze the elements of the soul involved in the moral psychology of the Laws, as sketched in the famous image of the marionette; I maintain that the process of habit formation is the pivotal aspect of this moral psychology; I indicate that Plato restricts …

Homonymy And The Comparability Of Goods In Aristotle, Robert Duncan

Dissertations

My dissertation will draw attention to an underexplored problem in Aristotle's theory of the good and advance two alternative proposals about how it can be solved. Aristotle endorses an inconsistent triad of premises concerning homonymy, comparability, and goodness. First, he argues that the good is homonymous: there is no single characteristic, goodness, which is shared by all good things. Rather, he argues that different kinds of good things require different accounts specifying what it is for them to be good. Second, he holds that homonyms are incomparable. If two things are homonymously F, then we are not entitled to claim …

Simple Goodness And Ethical Theory, Sarah Marie Babbitt

Dissertations

This work is an examination of the concept of simple goodness and its role in ethicaltheory. I argue on pragmatic and epistemic grounds that simple goodness (SG), commonly referred to as "good simpliciter," is problematic for ethical theory and for ethical discourse generally. I begin by defining SG, focusing on the original account developed by G.E. Moore, and I argue that it is an intrinsic value in several senses. I review the arguments of prominent critics of SG, namely Peter Geach, Judith Jarvis Thomson, and Richard Kraut, who focus on the logical and metaphysical puzzles inherent to the concept of …

Hannah Arendt's Political Action: A Dialectic Of Expression And Deliberation, Paul Richard Leisen

Dissertations

Commentators disagree about what Hannah Arendt means by political action. One interpretation emphasizes that political action is rational deliberation, another interpretation identifies political action with expressiveness or the performative expression of personal virtuosity and greatness. Both interpretations fall short. The deliberative model captures the aspect of constituting political power through collective agreement based on reason-giving (combining a plurality into a polity). The expressive model captures the aspect of natality, originality, spontaneity, and freedom from conventional ways of reasoning. The deliberative and expressive models of Hannah Arendt's political action can be reconciled contrary to a claim that her theory is incoherent. …

Hic Rhodus, Hic Salta! Three Conceptions Of The Modern Inequality Paradox, Nicoletta Christina Montaner

Dissertations

The modern epoch is characterized by a paradoxical form of social inequality in which poverty expands alongside the unprecedented growth in socially-produced wealth. Any one conception of this dynamic stakes a claim within the classical liberal problematic, in which the central political challenge is the negotiation of individual interests with those of the social whole. Part one of this work analyzes three influential conceptions of the inequality paradox in the history of social thought, those of G.W.F. Hegel, Karl Marx, and John Maynard Keynes, each encompassing a perspective on the nation-state and its relationship to the institutions of economic intercourse. …

The Concept Of Matter In Kant's Transcendental Idealism, Kyoungnam Park

Dissertations

I argue that in addition to having a constitutive conception of matter which can be determinately represented in terms of our spatiotemporal intuitions, Kant has a regulative conception of matter which cannot be perceived as having a spatiotemporal magnitude. Although Kant restricts the scope of our knowledge to empirical objects which can be determinately represented in terms of spatiotemporal magnitudes, he also implicitly introduces a regulative conception of matter as a metaphysical principle which grounds the material features of the empirical world. I investigate this metaphysical conception of matter which is operating in Kant's transcendental idealism in terms of how …

Critical Theory And The Struggle For Recognition, David Ingram

Philosophy: Faculty Publications and Other Works

I focus on the recent attempt by Habermas to provide a formal criterion for testing the legitimacy of group rights. Habermas argues that group-rights are legitimate only when they protect groups from discrimination by other groups. Group rights that aim to preserve groups against their own members, by contrast, are illegitimate. In my opinion, this way of drawing the distinction overlooks the link between anti-discrimination and preservation. Furthermore, I argue that preservation of a group identity can be legitimate so long as the group in question allows freedom of exit from the group.

Mediating The Theory And Practice Of Human Rights In Morality And Law, David Ingram

Philosophy: Faculty Publications and Other Works

No abstract provided.

Shakespeare The Renaissance Humanist: Moral Philosophy And His Plays. Anthony Raspa. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016. X + 196 Pp. $95., Andrew Cutrofello

Philosophy: Faculty Publications and Other Works

A review of Anthony Raspa's book, Shakespeare the Renaissance Humanist: Moral Philosophy and His Plays.

Contemporary Jesuit Epistemological Interests, James G. Murphy

Philosophy: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Apart from an orientation to and interest in the discernment of spirits as laid out in St Ignatius’s Spiritual Exercises, there does not exist a Jesuit epistemology as such. Compared to the numbers of Jesuit systematic theologians, scripture scholars, metaphysicians, and ethicists, there have been few Jesuit epistemologists.2 In metaphysics, Jesuits have been Thomist or Suarezian, even Platonist. In ethics, they have ranged from proportionalist through deontologist to virtue ethicist. No similar distinctive Jesuit presence is to be found in epistemology....

Critical Theory And Global Development, David Ingram

Philosophy: Faculty Publications and Other Works

This chapter explores recent research by critical theorists concerning theories of (under)development. Drawing from the research of Thomas McCarthy, Axel Honneth, Jurgen Habermas, Amy Allen, Nancy Fraser, and others, the author explores some of the divergent responses critical theorists have given toward the theory and practice of global developmental assistance. Some theorists defending a strong modernist approach to development (e.g., McCarthy, Habermas and Honneth) appear to endorse a logic of development that works within a domesticated model of capitalist markets and lending practices; others (Allen and Fraser) reject this approach. The chapter raises questions about how development that fits within …

Critical Theory And Global Development, David Ingram

Philosophy: Faculty Publications and Other Works

This chapter explores recent research by critical theorists concerning theories of (under)development. Drawing from the research of Thomas McCarthy, Axel Honneth, Jurgen Habermas, Amy Allen, Nancy Fraser, and others, the author explores some of the divergent responses critical theorists have given toward the theory and practice of global developmental assistance. Some theorists defending a strong modernist approach to development (e.g., McCarthy, Habermas and Honneth) appear to endorse a logic of development that works within a domesticated model of capitalist markets and lending practices; others (Allen and Fraser) reject this approach. The chapter raises questions about how development that fits within …

Just War Thought And The Notion Of Peace, James G. Murphy

Philosophy: Faculty Publications and Other Works

The goal of this chapter is to explore the notion of peace appropriate to just war thought. Some just war principles generate a number of inferences about peace.

Human Rights And Global Justice: A Normative Critique Of Some Rawlsian Approaches., Ndidi Victoria Nwaneri

Dissertations

HUMAN RIGHTS AND GLOBAL JUSTICE: A NORMATIVE CRITIQUE OF

SOME RAWLSIAN APPROACHES

I hold the position that all forms of social injustice (including global injustice), result

from the intentions and actions of persons. Therefore, irrespective of intervening layers of

causation, such injustice must be understood as intersubjective violations. In this project, I

attempt to develop a global justice theory that takes the level of analysis beyond global

institutions and practices to the level of intersubjective relations between moral agents. My

project opens up the following question: How would a global justice theory look if we took the

expression of human …

Husserl And Community, Sean Stephen Petranovich

Dissertations

This dissertation is on Edmund Husserl's concept of personal community. I argue that Husserl's concept of community is based on his formal theory of parts and wholes. More specifically, it is argued that the terms Husserl uses to describe features of community in his later writings are already established early in his philosophical career. The first three chapters of the dissertation focus on Husserl's unique conception of community in general. The final two chapters turn to political communities from a Husserlian standpoint.

In the first chapter, I investigate how Husserl's account of the ontological structure of community is tied to …

Character Luck And Moral Responsibility: The Character Of The Ordinary Person In Aristotle's Rhetoric And Politics, Marcella Linn

Dissertations

There are many significant factors, such as one’s natural temperaments and upbringing, that are outside of one’s control and affect one’s character. This calls into question one’s responsibility for one’s character, and if we are not responsible for our characters, then it seems we cannot be held responsible for the many actions that stem from them. I will show how a person can be responsible for her character and actions stemming from it despite the pervasiveness of character luck. To do this, I develop an account of character and responsibility from various passages in Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, Rhetoric, and Politics. …

Aging Well In 21st Century America: Towards A Theological Ethics Of Aging, Chrisitan Cintron

Dissertations

As Third Agers transition into life after work they are faced with a renewed challenge, living the good life. The normative images emanating from the social and cultural landscape allow Third Agers to either envision and live their new life, or adopt a course set out for them. These new lives require a re-discovery and re-defining of the self, a reinterpretation of one's role in society, and relationship to others. As with other phases of life, individuals need guidance when confronted with images of living well that are contradictory or perhaps antithetical to what they imagined for themselves. Various social …