Philosophy Commons^™

Institutionalism, Rawls, And Political Development: Theorizing About The Ideal Of Institution Building, Shaomeng Li

Doctoral Dissertations

Philosophers usually seek for and justify moral and political orders by two methodologies. Rationalism claims that social organization of human beings should fit with human nature, and believes that a predefined conception of human nature, defined in terms of human capacities for the exercise of reason, can be established as the independent criterion for choosing and justifying the proper moral and political order. Institutionalism, on the other hand, believes that human nature is at least significantly shaped by the actual construction of moral and political orders by human beings, and by internalizing the social institutions in which they live, they …

The Dangers Of Detailing: How Pharmaceutical Marketing Threatens Health Care, Jason E. Hubbard

Masters Theses

This master’s thesis examines the issues that surround the practice of Direct to Physician (DTP) marketing by pharmaceutical companies. The thesis begins by looking at the normative foundations that ground objections to DTP marketing. Developments that have recently emerged in contemporary Kantian ethics are utilized in order to defend a Kantian moral framework. The first and second formulations of the categorical imperative are then utilized in order to derive four mid level principles that serve to guide the discussion through the following chapters.

Chapter 3 criticizes DTP marketing as deceptive and manipulative and argues that is strongly correlated to negative …

A Dangerous Friendship: Jewish Fundamentalists And Christian Zionists In The Battle For Israel, Jamin Christopher Carlisle

Masters Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the relationship between Jewish fundamentalists and Christian Zionists and the harm that can ultimately result from this relationship. The first chapter examines the history of Jewish religious Zionists and the ways that it attempts to influence the Israeli government. Special attention is paid to religious settlements founded in the West Bank as a tactic for expanding Israel’s borders. The second chapter discusses Christian Zionists’ use of biblical scripture to argue in favor of expanding Israel’s borders to reflect those described in the Hebrew Bible. The third chapter examines Christian Zionist rhetoric vilifying …

Law And Legitimacy: Toward A Rawlsian Solution, Walter Joram Riker

Doctoral Dissertations

John Rawls developed the most compelling normative account of liberal constitutional democracy of the 20th century. Today, however, prominent political theorists such as Jeremy Waldron and Ian Shapiro are calling for post-Rawlsian, “power friendly” approaches to democratic theory. Power friendly approaches surrender a significant historical strain of liberal democratic thought, often associated with Rawls—the hope for a politics of shared reason. Such “rationalist expectations” must be abandoned, says Shapiro. Power friendly theorists hold that disagreements over justice, and other issues, are so deep that political philosophers cannot say what justice requires even under ideal conditions. Democratic citizens can only constitute …

Recovering The Soul: Interpreting Baruch Spinoza’S Doctrine Of Mind-Body Identity In The Light Of Thomas Aquinas’S Metaphysical Theory Of Form And Matter, Guy Stephen Blakemore

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation analyzes the doctrine of mind-body identity in Baruch Spinoza to discover if there is something in his metaphysical doctrine that is analogous to the way that Thomas Aquinas views the nature of the relationship between mind and body in human beings. The argument put forth in this work is that Aquinas’s hylomorphism, in which the human soul is the form of the human person, both bodily and mentally, is echoed in Spinoza’s doctrine of the conatus. No dependence upon Aquinas is implied in this comparative study, but merely the argument that the ways that Spinoza and Aquinas …

Naturalizing Intuition: A Cognitive Science Approach To Moral Cognitions, Joseph R. Kuntz

Masters Theses

I argue for a naturalized conception of the faculty of intuition with particular interest in intuition's role in moral contexts. I examine intuition in philosophical discourse: namely, the Classic Intuitionists G.E. Moore, W.D. Ross, and H.A. Prichard. I bring to light relevant distinctions among their conceptions of intuition. The explanation of an intuitive faculty in their philosophy has come to stand for the paradigm of intuition in moral philosophy. In the section following, I will present the objections that call into question intuition. I draw from Robert Audi and Laurence BonJour since their respective projects attempt to deal with these …