Philosophy Commons^™

Archival Enactment, Retelling 'The Big Book': Alison Knowles, Something Else Press And Fluxus, Meghan A. Dellacrosse

Theses and Dissertations

"Archival Enactment, Retelling 'The Big Book': Alison Knowles, Something Else Press and Fluxus," positions Knowles’ Big Book (1966) as a case study of historical methodology and interdisciplinary artistic practice in the post-war period. This comprehensive analysis of Big Book, a work of art no longer extant, contextualizes its publisher, Something Else Press through Dick Higgins’ concept of “intermedia,” and important lesser-known junctures relevant to Fluxus and the group’s leader George Maciunas are illuminated. Knowles' early and lesser-known silkscreen paintings are also examined.

Situationism And The Promise Of Virtue Ethics, Richard Barclay Holmes

Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation, I argue that it is possible to develop an empirically adequate form of virtue ethics even if one grants that situationism is true. I define situationism as a skeptical thesis about globalism, or the thesis that temporally stable and trans-situationally consistent character and personality traits are widely instantiated. Situationists such as John Doris and Gilbert Harman argue that globalism is an empirically inadequate thesis. While I accept Doris and Harman’s situationist thesis, they also make a further argument which is the subject of this dissertation. They argue that since globalism is empirically inadequate and Aristotelian virtue ethics …

Speed And Resolution In The Age Of Technological Reproducibility, Shawn Taylor

Theses and Dissertations

The rate of acceleration of the biologic and synthetic world has for a while now, been in the process of exponentially speeding up, maxing out servers and landfills, merging with each other, destroying each other. The last prehistoric relics on Earth are absorbing the same oxygen, carbon dioxide and electronic waves in our biosphere as us. A degraded .jpeg enlarged to full screen on a Samsung 4K UHD HU8550 Series Smart TV - 85” Class (84.5” diag.). Within this composite ecology, the ancient limestone of the grand canyon competes with the iMax movie of itself, the production of Mac pros, …

Dispersal: A Multidisciplinary Investigation Of Plant Life, Alexandra E. Arzt

Theses and Dissertations

Using plants as a basis for exploring the interstices between the human and nonhuman, this thesis investigates ideas of awareness, intelligence, deep time, animism, and the fluctuating human perception of the agency of Nature. It outlines environmental art practices since the 1950s involving vegetal life. In addition, the paper provides a critical analysis of plant perception of Jakob von Uexküll’s work and theories of vital materialism and “critical plant studies” while noting recent studies in plant neurobiology. In my work, plants become active participants via their movement, seeding, and smell. This study takes the form of imitation, purposeful symbiosis, anthropomorphism, …

Postcession, Evan D. Pomerantz

Theses and Dissertations

This is a series of daily writings. Each day consists of a new topic and is closed at the end of the day. The ideas presented are philosophical, humorous, rambling, lamentations, incantations, doubt-ridden, aesthetic pep talks which combine into an affective representation of my studio practice’s becoming. There will be little congruency, some stories, and a lot of parallels because that is who I am.

School-Based Sexuality Education, Gender, And Relationship Self-Efficacy: A Moderated-Mediation Analysis Of Sexual Behavior In First-Year College Students, Sara C. Schmidt

Theses and Dissertations

While the effectiveness at abstinence-only versus comprehensive sexuality education in preventing adolescent risky sexual behavior is widely researched, little is known about whether material learned in secondary school sexuality education classes impacts emerging adult sexual behavior in the college environment. Furthermore, research suggests that self-efficacy – or beliefs in one’s abilities to organize and execute actions – may be more critical than knowledge or skills in terms of how individuals enact behavior. We hypothesized a moderated-mediation effect by which the causal impact of type of sexuality education on four different sexual behaviors during the first year in college is transmitted …

Psychometrics And Test-Enhanced Learning In A Patient-Centered Learning Curriculum, Syed Haris Ali

Theses and Dissertations

Validity and reliability of scores obtained on Multiple-choice questions (MCQs), as well as the benefits of test-enhanced learning, have been of interest to medical educator scholars. Presented in this dissertation are four composite studies on these themes. The following hypotheses were tested:

1. Increased MCQ distractor functioning increases the validity and reliability of obtained scores.

2. Correction of item writing flaws (along with enhancement of tested cognitive level) and replacement or removal of non-functioning distractors equally improves psychometric characteristics of MCQs.

3. Repeated testing via free-response items enhances the retention of knowledge of human anatomy, compared with repeated or once-testing …

Evaluating Inquiry-Based Learning As A Means To Advance Individual Student Achievement, Cherilyn Gwen Ziemer

Theses and Dissertations

Although inquiry-based learning has been debated throughout the greater educational community and demonstrated with some effect in modern classrooms, little quantitative analysis has been performed to empirically validate sustained benefits. This quantitative study focused on whether inquiry-based pedagogy actually brought about sustained and measurable improved learning and higher levels of student engagement, satisfaction, and understanding. The present study employed classic stratified random sampling to form two sample groups. Sixth-grade student subjects in two middle school science classes completed a four step process: all students completed a 40-question objective pretest, students completed a unit of study in either an inquiry-based learning …

Political Perfectionism And Aesthetic Experience, Michael R. Spicher

Theses and Dissertations

Many people share the belief that the state can lend support to the arts and the natural environment for their cultural and aesthetic qualities. However, the question remains open as to what justifies this support. This question hinges on whether the state must be neutral in reference to judgment of values. The political anti-perfectionist positions of Rawls and Dworkin are inadequate to justify this kind of state support because the funding of art necessarily involves a judgment of value in two ways. First, the fact that the state funds any art requires that, in general, art is valuable. Second, determining …

John Pecham On Life And Mind, Caleb G. Colley

Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Eagerly Patient, Erin Elizabeth

Theses and Dissertations

Are banal and routine experiences in life less important or memory-worthy than celebratory moments that require preparation and planning, the anticipation of which is akin to emotional foreplay? What is the purpose of celebration? Is it empty, bound to disappoint, or is it ritualistic punctuation of the mundane, providing balance for the sublimity of suffering? These questions are addressed in the thesis exhibition, Eagerly Patient. The exhibition includes carriers of celebration such as cake, confetti, banners, and gifts in an attempt to understand the paradoxical hierarchy of experiential value.

Homophonic Translation, Appositional Writing, And The Monster, Ryan Landry Clark

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation features a combination of critical and creative work

exploring the ethics of appropriative writing and the reparative potential of homophonic translation. The opening essay examines the ethics of appropriation- based poetry and introduces the concept of what I call "appositional writing," a term to describe ethically-minded works of poetry that make use of appropriative writing methods. The next three parts of this dissertation are each appositional writing projects that make use of homophonic translation as the primary method of composition. "Arizona State Bill 1070: An Act" is a homophonic translation of the anti-immigration bill of the same name. …

A Critique Of Charles Peirce's Account Of The Necessary Conditions For The Possibility Of Experience, Daniel Edward Kruidenier

Theses and Dissertations

Herein is investigated the effort to establish the necessary conditions for the possibility of experience begun by Immanuel Kant and carried further by Charles Peirce. I focus my attention on Peirce's development of a Kantian strategy for discovering and proving such conditions. The conclusion that I argue for is that such an effort requires the use of a rational intuitive faculty. Both Kant and even more vociferously Peirce overtly reject the existence of such a faculty, yet, I argue, it is difficult to make sense of certain crucial discoveries in its absence.

Evaluating Transformative Spirituality In An Organizational Leadership Program At A Christian University, Elizabeth D. Rios

Theses and Dissertations

In the field of Christian higher education, some educators are more concerned with marketing their programs to nontraditional students, the fastest growing segment of new enrollments. Although many view that as a blessing, the issues of mission and specifically spirituality are of concern to educators and administrators who want to avoid the secularization already impacting many fine schools in the country. At satellite locations, some educators perceive that the lack of structured practices and intentional procedures and the marketing of convenience-based structural models have watered down the offerings of Christian higher education. This applied dissertation evaluated whether spiritual development and …

Classroom Modifications For Learning Disabled Adolescents: The Effects Of Inservice And Follow-Up Consultation On Four Regular Classroom Teachers, Lynne Chalmers

Theses and Dissertations

This study asked the question: What are the effects of an inservice on classroom modifications for secondary learning disabled students on the teaching practice of four highly able teachers? A secondary question asked was: To what extent are teachers‘ behavior and attitudes affected by follow-up consultation? The participants were four secondary regular classroom teachers representing four curricula areas (English, social studies, health, and biology). All four had been recognized as having the ability to work well with learning disabled students. The procedure used for the study was a form of naturalistic inquiry, specifically participant observation. All four teachers participated in …

Agentive Theory As Therapy: An Outcome Study, Daniel K. Judd

Theses and Dissertations

The present study evaluated the efficacy of a four-week seminar which emphasized the principles of Agentive Theory. This theory, which is compatible with theories of a phenomenological/ existential perspective, was first developed by C. T. Warner, an American philosopher. Agentive Theorists/Therapists emphasize that our negative emotions, ie., depression, anger, etc. , are assertions or judgments we make and not merely feelings we are responsible for controlling or expressing. Forty-eight outpatients who sought help with personal/emotional problems from a department of behavioral medicine were assigned to either a treatment or waiting-list control Group. Following a four-week treatment phase, the treatment group …

Brigham Young's Philosophy Of History, H. Carleton Marlow

Theses and Dissertations

"Brigham Young's Philosophy of History" attempts to describe how Brigham Young gave order and unity to the hubbub and confusion in which man lived. The laws which gave form and pattern to the baffling, diverse phenomena of and around man receive major attention. This thesis is an expository type of writing rather than an evaluation of Brigham Young's ideas and principles or laws in reference to other philosophies of history, Latter-day Saint theology, the modern natural exact sciences, or in reference to the current views of his times. This thesis is limited to a digestion of Brigham Young's works in …