Philosophy Commons^™

Logos-Sophia, Elliott Norman, Donald Wayne Viney, Keith Elliott Perkins, Addyson Kay Campbell, Hunter Hinds, Scott Squires

LOGOS-SOPHIA: The Journal of the PSU Philosophical Society

Logos-Sophia, Volume 17, Spring 2024. The Journal of the Pittsburg State University Philosophical Society has largely been a student publication with occasional faculty contribution

A Conflict Of Disinterest: The Problem Of Party In The Early American Republic, Darren Morgan

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

This study examines the lost classical republican virtue of disinterestedness—its early role in the nation’s founding, its eventual subordination to partisanship, and its enduring legacy in the realm of politics. Two seminal documents shaped Americans’ early ideas regarding disinterestedness, namely James Madison’s Federalist, No. 10 and George Washington’s “Farewell Address;” however, these cornerstones of impartial politics built upon a long history of classical republican thought from both ancient Rome and mother England. The eventual impracticality of such a virtue quickly gave way to a more enticing and interested form of politics in the early republic—one where lines were rapidly …

Logos-Sophia, Pittsburg State University Philosophical Society

LOGOS-SOPHIA: The Journal of the PSU Philosophical Society

Logos-Sophia, Volume 16, Spring 2021. The Journal of the Pittsburg State University Philosophical Society has largely been a student publication with occasional faculty contributions.

The Skeptical Dismissal Of Religion And The Skepticism Of The Religious: Emanuel Haldeman-Julius And Religion, Donald W. Viney

Faculty Submissions

No abstract provided.

Logos-Sophia, Pittsburg State University Philosophical Society

LOGOS-SOPHIA: The Journal of the PSU Philosophical Society

Logos-Sophia, Volume 15, Spring 2019. The Journal of the Pittsburg State University Philosophical Society has largely been a student publication with occasional faculty contributions.

A Philosopher Looks At The Bible, Donald Wayne Viney

Faculty Submissions

If there is a single argument of my booklet that is original it is the refutation of the doctrine of biblical inerrancy, which is stated on page 12 and formalized in footnote 3, page 41. This is not the typical argument against inerrancy, for my claim is that the doctrine of inerrancy itself, in conjunction with a well-known fact about the Bible, commits the inerrantist to an inconsistent triad of positions. Instead of insisting that the Bible itself is inconsistent, this argument establishes that the doctrine of inerrancy is complicit in establishing its own falsity. The most reasonable way I …

Monkey Business In Southeast Kansas: The Case Of Professor Scott, The 'Scopes Of Kansas', Donald W. Viney

Faculty Submissions

As the drama of the Scopes trial made headlines in July 1925, a little drama was unfolding in southeast Kansas at the Kansas State Teachers College in Pittsburg. A history professor, John G. Scott, was relieved of his teaching duties after his students made plans to hold a “mock monkey trial” in the courthouse downtown. The trial, much anticipated in the local press, never occurred thanks to the intervention of the school president, W. A. Brandenburg. An ardent Christian and creationist, Brandenburg had earlier invited Harry Rimmer, a popular lecturer and debunker of evolution, to lecture at the KSTC and …

Philosophy In A Different Key: My Philosophy In Song, Donald W. Viney

Faculty Submissions

I composed my first song in the early 1970s, but all but one of the songs listed here were written after my fifty-fifth birthday in 2008—indeed, the vast majority of what I have composed was written since then. What follows are the lyrics to some of my songs. For each song, I’ve made comments that provide context, an explanation of the sources that I’ve used for inspiration, and what I was thinking in composing the piece. All of the recordings of the songs were made at Phil Ward’s Woodland Studios in Pittsburg, Kansas.

Logos-Sophia, Pittsburg State University Philosophical Society

LOGOS-SOPHIA: The Journal of the PSU Philosophical Society

Logos-Sophia, Volume 14, Spring 2017. The Journal of the Pittsburg State University Philosophical Society has largely been a student publication with occasional faculty contributions.

A Slice Of Immortality: Remembering Charles Hartshorne, Donald W. Viney

Faculty Submissions

"A Slice of Immortality: Remembering Charles Hartshorne" is an illustrated record of the author's encounters with Hartshorne during the last two decades of Hartshorne's life and of the denouement of these encounters as the author saw to the publication of some of Hartshorne's works, including the last of his books, Creative Experiencing. The document includes an addendum with a list of Hartshorne's unpublished articles.

Talks And Meetings With Charles Hartshorne, Donald W. Viney

Faculty Submissions

These are the annotated and illustrated notes that the author took down during and after his talks and meetings with Charles Hartshorne from April 1976 until October 1997. The manuscript includes a bibliography of the author's published writings on Hartshorne.

Germs Know No Color: Racial Segregation In Baltimore During The Influenza Pandemic Of 1918-1919, Victoria L. Michalski

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

The influenza pandemic in 1918-1919 killed more people worldwide in a shorter period than any other known historical epidemic. Wartime conditions and gatherings of large groups of people aided disease transmission. Racial segregation in Baltimore and other cities created overcrowding, and poor living and economic conditions for black citizens. These conditions affected black health and proved conducive to increased viral transmission and subsequent influenza infection. Higher influenza infection rates coupled with lower resistance led to higher mortality rates from secondary complications like pneumonia.

In my work, I examine the pandemic flu in Baltimore and especially racial segregation policies that ultimately …

The New Woman In Fiction And History: From Literature To Working Woman, Vicente Edward Clemons

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine who the New Woman was, a figure of British feminism at the end of the Victorian Era. The New Woman presented Victorian Britain with an alternative model of womanhood that differed greatly from the ideal Victorian Woman. The New Woman was conceived in the pages of fiction by women writers who each had their own ideas on feminism. The New Woman triggered a panic over Victorian gender roles that in turn led to the creation by the Victorian media of another New Woman. However, the New Woman in practice did not entirely …

Monkey Business At The K.S.T.C., Donald W. Viney

Faculty Submissions

In 1925 students at the Kansas State Teachers College in Pittsburg, Kansas, inspired by the Scopes trial in Dayton, Tennessee and encouraged by their Civics professor John Scott, planned to hold a "mock monkey trial" in the downtown courthouse in Pittsburg. This PowerPoint tells the story.

Stephen Fry And Charles Hartshorne: God And Unjustified Suffering, Donald W. Viney

Faculty Submissions

No abstract provided.

Review Of "Truly Human Enhancement: A Philosophical Defense Of Limits ", James Mcbain

Faculty Submissions

Review of "Truly Human Enhancement: A Philosophical Defense of Limits" by Nicholas Agar.

Jules Lequyer: Prophet Of Open Theism (Powerpoint), Donald W. Viney

Faculty Submissions

This PowerPoint makes the case for considering Jules Lequyer as the "Prophet of Open Theism" because of his view of God as creating other creators, as affected by creaturely decisions, and therefore as facing a relatively open future. The PowerPoint was first presented in Dallas, Texas on October 24, 2014 at the Randomness and Foreknowledge Conference sponsored by the Templeton Foundation.

Remembering And Misremembering Hypatia: The Lessons Of Agora, Donald W. Viney

Faculty Submissions

The film Agora tells a somewhat fictionalized version of the story of Hypatia of Alexandria (d. 415). I raise and attempt to answer the question whether it is good historical fiction. After summarizing what is known from the historical record about Hypatia, my answer to the question is a qualified affirmative. I note the various historical details that the film preserves. The liberties that the film takes with her story are, by turns, problematic (e.g. reinforcing the view of a fundamental conflict between reason and faith), enlightening (e.g. in the introduction of the fictional character of Davus), unfair (e.g. in …

How Not To Be An Atheist: A Neoclassical Response To The New Atheism, Donald W. Viney

Faculty Submissions

The New Atheists (e.g. Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Daniel Dennett, Christopher Hitchens, and Victor Stenger) claim that a commitment to science, reason, and morality is inconsistent with theism. Using as my point of departure neoclassical theism as expounded in the works of A. N. Whitehead, Charles Hartshorne, and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, I argue that the New Atheism is intellectually anemic, interesting though it is as political activism. The New Atheists criticize a caricature of faith, offer inferior versions of old arguments, commit the mistake of construing theism as a scientific hypothesis, and ignore sophisticated forms of belief in God.

God As The Most And Best Moved Mover: Charles Hartshorne's Importance For Philosophical Theology, Donald W. Viney

Faculty Submissions

The work of Charles Hartshorne (1897-2000) may be the single most important factor in dissolving the consensus among philosophers that an entirely absolute deity should be considered normative for theology. What Hartshorne calls classical theism holds that God creates the universe ex nihilo, that God alone has the power to create, thereby entailing that the creatures are wholly uncreative. Classical theism is an anomaly in the sense that the Bible portrays God and the creatures in dynamic interaction with each other. Classical theism also presents various antinomies of how a God with no contingent properties could know a contingent …

Logos-Sophia, Pittsburg State University Philosophical Society

LOGOS-SOPHIA: The Journal of the PSU Philosophical Society

Logos-Sophia, Volume 13, Fall 2005. The Journal of the Pittsburg State University Philosophical Society has largely been a student publication with occasional faculty contributions.

Epistemological Practice And The Internalism/Externalism Debate, James Mcbain

Faculty Submissions

The dialogue between internalists who maintain a belief is a case of knowledge when that which justifies the belief is within the agent’s first-person perspective and externalists who maintain epistemic justification can be in part, or entirely, outside the agent’s first-person perspective has been part of the epistemological literature for some time with one side usually attempting to show how the other side is mistaken. Edward Craig argues the internalist/externalist debate is flawed from the outset. Specifically, both internalism and externalism should be incorporated into the correct analysis of knowledge once we revamp that project. The epistemological project, according to …

Epistemic Analysis And The Possibility Of Good Informants, James Mcbain

Faculty Submissions

Edward Craig has proposed that epistemology should eschew traditional

conceptual analysis in favor of what he calls “conceptual synthesis.” He

proposes we start not from the finding of necessary and sufficient conditions

that match our intuitions; rather we start from considerations on what the

concept of knowledge does for us. In this paper I will explore one aspect of

Craig’s proposal – the good informant. It is this aspect that is central to

Craig’s epistemic method and perhaps most problematic. I will evaluate this

concept by first articulating three initial worries that some have had about

the concept and then …

On Skepticism About Case-Specific Intuitions, James Mcbain

Faculty Submissions

Moral theorizing is often characterized as beginning from our intuitions about ethical cases. Yet, while many applaud, and even demand, this methodology, there are those who reject such a methodology on the grounds that we cannot treat people’s intuitions about ethical cases as evidence for or against moral theories. Recently, Shelly Kagan has argued that the reliance upon case-specific intuitions in moral theorizing is problematic. Specifically, he maintains that the practice of using intuitions about cases lacks justification and, hence, we ought to be skeptical about the evidential weight of moral intuitions. This leads Kagan to conclude that we ought …

Moral Callings And The Duty To Have Children: A Response To Jeff Mitchell, James Mcbain

Faculty Submissions

Jeff Mitchell argues that the good reason for having children is that parenthood is a “moral calling” and that one should heed the call out of a sense of duty and responsibility for the good of society. I argue such a “moral calling” account is mistaken, first, in that Mitchell problematically assumes the “basic intuition” is mistaken and, second, it fails to provide the epistemic conditions for the warranted belief that one would probably make a good parent (a central consideration of Mitchell’s). Thus, such a “moral calling” rationale for the having of children is not superior to rationales that …

Logos-Sophia, Pittsburg State University Philosophical Society

LOGOS-SOPHIA: The Journal of the PSU Philosophical Society

Logos-Sophia, Volume 12, Fall 2004. The Journal of the Pittsburg State University Philosophical Society has largely been a student publication with occasional faculty contributions.

The Moral Poker Face: Games, Deception, And The Morality Of Bluffing, James Mcbain

Faculty Submissions

Bluffing is essentially nothing more than a type of deception. But, despite its morally questionable foundation, it is not only permissible in certain contexts, but sometimes encouraged and/or required (e.g., playing poker). Yet, the question remains as to whether it is permissible to bluff in other contexts – particularly everyday situations. In this paper, I will look at László Mérő’s argument – one based in game theory and Kantian ethics – to the end that bluffing is morally permissible in everyday contexts. I will argue that Mérő’s argument is mistaken on two grounds. First, it includes an epistemic feature (i.e., …

Charles Hartshorne's Letters To A Young Philosopher: 1979-1995, Donald W. Viney

Faculty Submissions

This book brings together all of the letters exchanged between Charles Hartshorne and Donald W. Viney between 1979 and 1995

Logos-Sophia: Charles Hartshorne's Letters To A Young Philosopher, 1979-1995, Pittsburg State University Philosophical Society

LOGOS-SOPHIA: The Journal of the PSU Philosophical Society

Logos-Sophia, Volume 11, Fall 2001. The Journal of the Pittsburg State University Philosophical Society has largely been a student publication with occasional faculty contributions.

The Effective Variable On Beliefs About Organ Donation, Sarah M. Brunhoeber

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

Limited research has been conducted over the beliefs affecting organ donation. The current literature that does exist offer conflicting results, especially concerning race and religion. A study at a university in the Midwest reported that there was a difference in support of organ donation between different races. This is the case throughout the literature. These factors leave organ procurement centers and society, in general, with little definitive information from which to draw conclusions. Without this valuable information, it may prove difficult to determine how to increase both awareness and donation rates. This study found that the major factors affecting a …