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Metaphysics Supervenes On Logic: The Role Of The Logical Forms In Hegel's "Replacement" Of Metaphysics, W. Clark Wolf

Philosophy Faculty Research and Publications

In this paper, I seek to explain Hegel’s view that his “logic” replaces metaphysics. I argue that Hegel’s discussion of logical forms of judgment and syllogism in book III of The Science of Logic is meant to be the foundation of his reformation of metaphysics. Implicit in Hegel’s discussion of the logical forms is the view that the metaphysical concepts discussed in books I and II of the Logic supervene on the role of subject and predicate terms in the logical forms discussed in book III. Hegel thus has an explanation for the nature and signifcance of metaphysical concepts that …

Similarity Reimagined (With Implications For A Theory Of Concepts), Corinne L. Bloch-Mullins

Philosophy Faculty Research and Publications

Similarity‐based theories of concepts have a broad intuitive appeal and have been successful in accounting for various phenomena related to the formation and application of concepts. Their adequacy as theories of concepts has been questioned, however, as similarity is often taken as too flexible, too unconstrained, to be explanatory of categorization. In this article, I propose an account of similarity that takes the "foil" against which the target items are measured as integral to the process of comparison, making the similarity relation a fundamentally triadic one. I argue that this account delivers more internal constraints on the process of comparison …

Power Freedom And Relational Autonomy, Ericka Tucker

Philosophy Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Should Biomedical Research With Great Apes Be Restricted? A Systematic Review Of Reasons, Bernardo Aguilera, Javiera Perez Gomez, David Degrazia

Philosophy Faculty Research and Publications

Background

The use of great apes (GA) in invasive biomedical research is one of the most debated topics in animal ethics. GA are, thus far, the only animal group that has frequently been banned from invasive research; yet some believe that these bans could inaugurate a broader trend towards greater restrictions on the use of primates and other animals in research. Despite ongoing academic and policy debate on this issue, there is no comprehensive overview of the reasons advanced for or against restricting invasive research with GA. To address this gap, we conducted a systematic review of the reasons reported …

Theatre X, Curtis L. Carter

Philosophy Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Being In Centro: The Anthropology Of Schelling's Human Freedom, Michael Vater

Philosophy Faculty Research and Publications

Schelling presents the 1809 freedom essay as the idealistic flowering of a vision of system he always held. He is not disingenuous but somewhat perplexing in claiming that the system always was complete in nuce, even though not expounded completely. Tilliette captured the ambiguity nicely in designating Schelling’s oeuvre «une philosophie en devenir». This mid-career essay must be read backwards to the earliest essays republished with it—especially to their views of willing, freedom, and moral responsibility—and simultaneously forward to the late philosophy’s analysis of God’s freedom as freedom from being, even necessary being. I locate Freedom’s …

Restorative Justice And The Challenge Of Perpetrator Accountability, Margaret Walker

Philosophy Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

On “Ur-Contempt” And The Maintenance Of Racial Injustice: A Response To Monahan's “Racism And ‘Self-Love’: The Case Of White Nationalism”, Grant J. Silva

Philosophy Faculty Research and Publications

This article offers a response to Michael J. Monahan’s engagement with and criticism of Grant Silva’s article “Racism as Self-Love.” So as to demonstrate how Monahan’s idea of “ur-contempt” fits alongside the author’s project and supplements his attempt to challenge the variety of forms of moral obfuscation employed by white nationalists and other racists today, this response begins with an overview of the central critique of moral responsibility for racism that Silva’s work offers. At stake is the attempt, by unabashed white supremacist and others, to bank on historical acts of racial oppression and reap the benefits of elevated social …

Cosmic City - Cosmic Teleology: A Reading Of Metaphysics Λ 10 And Politics I 2, Brandon Henrigillis

Dissertations (1934 -)

The goal of my project is to provide a reading of Metaphysics Λ 10. Λ 10 states that there is an order in the cosmos, or a cosmic nature. The problem for the interpreter of Aristotle is how to make sense of this claim given Aristotle’s arguments elsewhere regarding nature/substance and the priority of substances over the parts of a substance. To explain what Aristotle means when he states that there is a cosmic nature and arrangement, I first examine the army and household analogies offered by Aristotle in Λ 10. I contend that the household analogy in particular provides …

Al-Fārābī Metaphysics, And The Construction Of Social Knowledge: Is Deception Warranted If It Leads To Happiness?, Nicholas Andrew Oschman

Dissertations (1934 -)

When questioning whether political deception can be ethically warranted, two competing intuitions jump to the fore. First, political deception is a fact of human life, used in the realpolitik of governance. Second, the ethical warrant of truth asserts itself as inexorably and indefatigably preferable to falsehood. Unfortunately, a cursory examination of the history of philosophy reveals a paucity of models to marry these basic intuitions. Some thinkers (e.g., Augustine, Aquinas, Grotius, Kant, Mill, and Rawls) privilege the truth by neglecting the realpolitik, i.e., the truth is inviolate. Others (e.g., Machiavelli, Bentham, and the often infamous caché of 20th century dictators) …

The Epistemology Of Disagreement: Hume, Kant, And The Current Debate, Robert Kyle Whitaker

Dissertations (1934 -)

The epistemological issue of disagreement comprises several related problems which arise in relation to disagreeing with another person. The central questions at issue are: (1) Can a body of evidence confer rationality on opposed propositions? (2) What is the relevance of unshareable evidence to disagreement? (3) What are one’s epistemic responsibilities in the context of disagreement? I consider several arguments from the recent disagreement literature which suggest that reasonable disagreements between people who have shared their evidence and are epistemic peers--i.e., they are equally informed about the disputed issue, and are roughly equal with respect to intelligence, thoughtfulness, carefulness, alertness, …

Remembering Sally Banes, Curtis L. Carter

Philosophy Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Fichte And Schelling, Michael Vater

Philosophy Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Pistis, Persuasion, And Logos In Aristotle, Owen Goldin

Philosophy Faculty Research and Publications

The core sense of pistis as understood in Posterior Analytics, De Anima, and the Rhetoric is not that of a logical relation in which cognitively grasped propositions stand in respect to one another, but the result of an act of socially embedded interpersonal communication, a willing acceptance of guidance offered in respect to action. Even when pistis seems to have an exclusively epistemological sense, this focal meaning of pistis is implicit; to have pistis in a proposition is to willingly accept that proposition as a basis for some kind of activity (albeit possibly theoretical) as a result of some kind …

Sacramental Shame In Black Churches: How Racism And Respectability Politics Shape The Experiences Of Black Lgbtq And Same-Gender-Loving Christians, Theresa W. Tobin, Dawne Moon

Philosophy Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

How Save Aquinas's "Intellectus Essentiae Arguement" For The Real Distinction Between Essence And Esse?, David Twetten

Philosophy Faculty Research and Publications

Aquinas’ so-called “Intellectus essentiae Argument” for the distinction between being and essence is notoriously suspect, including among defenders of Aquinas’ distinction. For the paper in this volume, I take as my starting point the recent defense of the argument by Fr. Lawrence Dewan, O.P. Fr. Dewan’s project is unsuccessful. Pointing out some shortcomings in his readings allows me to take up his call to highlight the “formal” or “quidditative side” of Aquinas’ metaphysics, in this case in regards to the proofs of the “real distinction.” Accordingly, the second half of this paper sets forth a way in which the …

W. E. B. Du Bois’S “Conservation Of Races”: A Metaphilosophical Text, Kimberly Ann Harris

Philosophy Faculty Research and Publications

Nothing was more important for W. E. B. Du Bois than to promote the upward mobility of African Americans. This essay revisits his “Conversation of Races” to demonstrate its general philosophical importance. Ultimately, Du Bois’s three motivations for giving the address reveal his view of the nature of philosophical inquiry: to critique earlier phenotypic conceptions of race, to show the essentiality of history, and to promote a reflexive practice. Commentators have been unduly invested in the hermeneutic readings and as a result have misunderstood its philosophical dimensions. Du Bois did more than introduce the concept of race into the purview …

The Fantastic Structure Of Freedom: Sartre, Freud, And Lacan, Gregory A. Trotter

Dissertations (1934 -)

This dissertation reassesses the complex philosophical relationship between Sartre and psychoanalysis. Most scholarship on this topic focuses on Sartre’s criticisms of the unconscious as anathema both to his conception of the human psyche as devoid of any hidden depths or mental compartments and, correlatively, his account of human freedom. Many philosophers conclude that there is little common ground between Sartrean existentialism and psychoanalytic theory. I argue, on the contrary, that by shifting the emphasis from concerns about the nature of the unconscious to questions about the role of imagination in psychical life, we can see that Sartre and Freudian-Lacanian psychoanalytic …

Introduction: Cities As Ways Of World Making, Curtis Carter

Philosophy Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Kath' Hauta Predicates And The 'Commensurate Universals', Owen Goldin

Philosophy Faculty Research and Publications

What lies behind Aristotle’s declarations that an attribute or feature that is demonstrated to belong to a scientific subject is proper to that subject? The answer is found in APo. 2.8-10, if we understand these chapters as bearing not only on Aristotle theory of definition but also as clarifying the logical structure of demonstration in general. If we identify the basic subjects with what has no different cause, and demonstrable attributes (the kath’ hauta sumbebēkota) with what do have ‘a different cause’, the definitions of demonstrable attributes necessarily have the minor terms of the appropriate demonstrations in their …

Art And The Ecology Of Leisure, Curtis Carter

Philosophy Faculty Research and Publications

Philosophers, scientists, and artists alike are prone to explore important questions concerning ecology as it relates to the impact of human actions for the future of nature and human civilizations. The main focus in this essay is to consider ecological implications of art understood as a form of leisure. Art is of course more than leisure for the artists and other arts professionals, but its personal and societal roles also serve as leisure activities. Both the production of art and its consumption have important ecological implications. Select philosophical (Hegel) and scientific (Escobar) concerning art and nature provide a context for …

Comparative Philosophy And Decolonial Struggle: The Epistemic Injustice Of Colonization And Liberation Of Human Reason, Grant J. Silva

Philosophy Faculty Research and Publications

This essay explores the extent to which comparative philosophy can assist decolonial struggle. In order to accomplish this task, I offer not only a description of philosophy's colonization but also an account of how this discipline remains subject to the coloniality of knowledge. In short, insofar as race, gender, class, and sexuality are considered irrelevant or accidental to the production of philosophical knowledge, professional philosophy replicates, if not continues, what Rajeev Bhargava terms the epistemic injustice of colonialism. One response to the colonization of philosophy is “diversification” by means of putting into conversation philosophers, systems, and ideas from differing cultures …

The Torture Debate And The Toleration Of Torture, Jessica Wolfendale

Philosophy Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

The Province Of Conceptual Reason: Hegel's Post-Kantian Rationalism, William Clark Wolf

Dissertations (1934 -)

In this dissertation, I seek to explain G.W.F. Hegel’s view that human accessible conceptual content can provide knowledge about the nature or essence of things. I call this view “Conceptual Transparency.” It finds its historical antecedent in the views of eighteenth century German rationalists, which were strongly criticized by Immanuel Kant. I argue that Hegel explains Conceptual Transparency in such a way that preserves many implications of German rationalism, but in a form that is largely compatible with Kant’s criticisms of the original rationalist version. After providing background on Hegel’s relationship to the traditional rationalist theory of concepts and Kant’s …

Re-Evaluating Augustinian Fatalism Through The Eastern And Western Distinction Between God's Essence And Energies, Stephen John Plecnik

Dissertations (1934 -)

In this dissertation, I will examine the problem of theological fatalism in St. Augustine and, specifically, whether or not Augustine was philosophically justified in his belief that his views on divine grace and human freedom could be harmonized. As is well-known, beginning with his second response To Simplician (ca. 396) and continuing through his works against the semi-Pelagians (ca. 426-429), Augustine espoused the Pauline doctrine of all-inclusive grace: that the fallen will’s ability to accomplish the good is totally a function of God’s elective grace. What, then, does the fallen will do to work out its own salvation? There is …

'Our Feet Are Mired In The Same Soil': Deepening Democracy With The Political Virtue Of Sympathetic Inquiry, Jennifer Lynn Kiefer Fenton

Dissertations (1934 -)

This dissertation puts American philosophers and social reformers, Jane Addams (1860-1935) and John Dewey (1859-1952), in conversation with contemporary social and political philosopher, Iris Marion Young (1949-2006), to argue that an account of deliberative equality must make conceptual space to name the problem of ‘communicatively structured deliberative inequality’. I argue that in order for participatory democracy theory to imagine and construct genuinely inclusive deliberative spaces, it must be grounded in a relational ontology and pragmatist feminist social epistemology. The literature has largely developed deliberative inequality in terms of access (e.g., participation costs) and ‘impoverished capacities’ for political participation (e.g., political-process …

Humor, Power And Culture: A New Theory On The Experience And Ethics Of Humor, Jennifer Marra

Dissertations (1934 -)

The aim of this dissertation is to offer a new theory of humor that takes seriously both the universality and power of humor in culture. In the first chapter, I summarize historical and contemporary theories, and show how each either 1) fails to give any definition of humor, 2) fails as a theory of humor, and/or 3) underappreciates, dismisses, or does not consider the power of humor in experience. The second chapter explains the failures of prior theories by understanding the problem in terms of Ernst Cassirer’s philosophy of symbolic forms. These forms of culture are perspectives through which we …

Towards A Philosophy Of The Musical Experience: Phenomenology, Culture, And Ethnomusicology In Conversation, J. Tyler Friedman

Dissertations (1934 -)

This dissertation engages the questions and methodologies of phenomenology, the philosophy of culture, the philosophy of music and ethnomusicology in order to investigate the significance of music in human life. The systematic orientation of Ernst Cassirer’s philosophy of symbolic forms provides the overarching framework that positions the approach in chapter one. Following Cassirer, art in general and music in particular are not regarded as enjoyable yet dispensable pastimes, but rather as fundamental ways of experiencing the world as intuitive forms and sensations. Establishing the ontological significance of music entails unpacking the sui generis experience of time, space and subjectivity that …

Faith And Disbelief, Robert K. Whitaker

Philosophy Faculty Research and Publications

Is faith that p compatible with disbelief that p? I argue that it is. After surveying some recent literature on the compatibility of propositional (so-called faith-that) and non-propositional (faith-in) forms of faith with the lack of belief, I take the next step and offer several arguments for the thesis that both these forms of faith are also compatible, in certain cases, with outright disbelief. This is contrary to the views of some significant recent commentators on propositional faith, including Robert Audi and Daniel Howard-Snyder. The primary argument revolves around the possibility of maintaining a single faith through drastic changes in …

What Does It Mean To Move For Black Lives?, Kimberly Ann Harris

Philosophy Faculty Research and Publications

I argue that the key ideas of the movement for Black lives have resonances with Frantz Fanon's ideas particularly in Black Skin, White Masks. I first demonstrate how the mission to repudiate Black demise and affirm Black humanity captures Fanon's critique of universal humanism. The fear of the Black body was central to the testimonies of Darren Wilson, Jeronimo Yanez, and George Zimmerman (the individuals that shot and killed Mike Brown, Philando Castile, and Trayvon Martin respectively). Fanon prioritized the role of the body in his account of racism. It is difficult to not see the relevance of Fanon's analysis …