Philosophy Commons^™

Against The Ubiquity Of Fictional Narrators, Andrew Kania

Philosophy Faculty Research

In this paper I argue against the theory – popular among theorists of narrative artworks – that we must posit a fictional narrative agent in every narrative artwork in order to explain our imaginative engagement with such works. I accept that every narrative must have a narrator, but I argue that in some central literary cases the narrator is not a fictional agent, but rather the actual author of the work. My criticisms focus on the strongest argument for the ubiquity of fictional narrators, Jerrold Levinson’s ontological-gap argument. Finally, I outline an alternative “minimal theory” of narrators, and some consequences …

A Question Of Endings, Lawrence Kimmel

Philosophy Faculty Research

What is the nature and meaning of death? As a philosophical question, the answer is surely, as it is for every such question: “It depends.” On the context of the asker, among other things: social, cultural, historical, existential…whether young or old, whether under duress or at leisure, whether in harms way or secure, whether in pain or depression or in the bloom of health. We are inclined to think of death, abstractly as well as referentially, as an event, something that happens, or as a state, something that has happened.

Hints And Guesses: Discerning Value, Richard Liddy

Department of Religion Publications

No abstract provided.

Delno C. West Award Winner (2004)

Quidditas

James H. Forse

The Delno C. West Award recognizes the most distinguished paper given by a senior scholar at the annual conference.

Cardinal Martini On Bernard Lonergan: Bernard Lonergan At The Service Of The Church, Richard Liddy

Department of Religion Publications

No abstract provided.

Interpretations Of Einstein's Equation E = Mc2, Francisco Flores

Philosophy

Interpretations of Einstein’s equation differ primarily concerning whether E = mc² entails that mass and energy are the same property of physical systems, and hence whether there is any sense in which mass is ever “converted” into energy (or vice versa). In this paper, I examine six interpretations of Einstein’s equation and argue that all but one fail to satisfy a minimal set of conditions that all interpretations of physical theories ought to satisfy. I argue that we should prefer the interpretation of Einstein’s equation that holds that mass and energy are distinct properties of physical systems. This interpretation …

Continental Philosophy In Britain And America, Babette Babich

Articles and Chapters in Academic Book Collections

Continental, or as it is sometimes called, contemporary European philosophy represents a range of approaches to academic philosophy distinguished from the analytic modality dominating professional or institutional philosophy in the United Kingdom and in the United States, as in Australia, Canada, and Ireland. Where the analytic tradition itself may be said to trace its own roots to Europe, e.g., positivism may be traced to France and its originator August Comte, and logical empiricism to Germany and to Austria and the writings of Gottlob Frege and Ludwig Wittgenstein and the members of the Vienna Circle, continental philosophy expresses an ideological tradition …

“The Question Of Natural Rights In Aristotle And The “Necessary” Connection Between Rights And Responsibilities: A Response To Jeppe Von Platz.”, Audrey Anton

Philosophy & Religion Faculty Publications

While the idea of attributing a natural rights component to Aristotle's philosophy is indeed anachronistic, it is not entirely futile. Fred D. Miller has proposed ample evidence and analysis supporting the idea that Aristotle had something like natural rights in mind. Yet, several scholars object to Miller's position for various good reasons beyond the theory's anachronicity. While there may be just cause for rejecting Miller's position, it does not appear that von Platz has been successful in this endeavor. Several of von Platz's proposals are incoherent, and those that are indeed sound are rooted in a modern conception of what …

On The Relevance Of Political Philosophy To Business Ethics, Jeffrey Moriarty

Philosophy Faculty Publications

The central problems of political philosophy (e.g., legitimate authority, distributive justice) mirror the central problems of business ethics. The question naturally arises: should political theories be applied to problems in business ethics? If a version of egalitarianism is the correct theory of justice for states, for example, does it follow that it is the correct theory of justice for businesses? If states should be democratically governed by their citizens, should businesses be democratically managed by their employees? Most theorists who have considered these questions, including John Rawls in Political Liberalism, and Robert Phillips and Joshua Margolis in a 1999 article, …

Thirtieth Annual Midwest Philosophy Colloquium, 2005-2006, University Of Minnesota - Morris. Philosophy Department

Midwest Philosophy Colloquium

Programs for the thirtieth Midwest Philosophy Colloquium at the University of Minnesota Morris in 2005-2006.

Divine Illusions, Alphonso Lingis

Research Resources

David Allison says to his readers that Nietzsche writes for you — you and him and me. In his book he tells of what of Nietzsche’s thoughts he has, with long years of research and penetrating and generous reflection, made his own. The lucidity of this book enables us to see if these thoughts can also become ours. Nietzsche’s thoughts are not only extremely complex but hard thoughts which we cannot make our own without a struggle. The finest virtue of a philosophical book on Nietzsche is that it provokes this struggle. Here I am only going to recount a …

The Inexplicability Of Kant’S Naturzweck: Kant On Teleology, Explanation And Biology, James Kreines

CMC Faculty Publications and Research

Kant’s position on teleology and biology is neither inconsistent nor obsolete; his arguments have some surprising and enduring philosophical strengths. But Kant’s account will appear weak if we muddy the waters by reading him as aiming to defend teleology by appealing to considerations popular in contemporary philosophy. Kant argues for very different conclusions: we can neither know teleological judgments of living beings to be true, nor legitimately explain living beings in teleological terms; such teleological judgment is justified only as a “problematic” guideline in our search for mechanistic explanations. These conclusions are well supported by Kant’s defense of his demanding …

Review: There Shall Be No Poor Among You: Poverty In The Bible, Donald L. Fowler

SOR Faculty Publications and Presentations

No abstract provided.

Questioning The Philosophical Influence Of Beauty And Perception In Bramante's Fist Scheme For St Peter's, Gretta Tritch

Inquiry: The University of Arkansas Undergraduate Research Journal

The association between the architects of the Renaissance and the philosophy of Plato has long been upheld and reiterated. However recent authors such as Alina Payne and Christine Smith have shown this scholarship to be somewhat limited and reactionary. A closer examination of Donato Bramante’s early scheme for the design of the new St. Peter’s basilica demonstrates such limitations of the singular Platonic associations that have been previously made. By studying the philosophical influences that Bramante may have been exposed to throughout his education and early career, a decidedly Aristotelian influence emerges. The design for St. Peter’s, as presented on …

Plato. Spider-Man And The Meaning Of Life, Jeremy Barris

Humanities Faculty Research

Some versions of mysticism have taught that the ordinary world around us is sacred and wonderful, that the meaning of life is to be found not through some extraordinary knowledge or awareness, but in appreciating what already surrounds us. I believe that both Spider-Man comics and Plato’s dialogues offer exactly this deep vision, and that they introduce us to it in some remarkably similar ways. I cannot do any kind of justice here to the richness of either set of works, or to the variations of style and meaning within each of them. Instead I shall focus only on four …

The Promise And Threat Of Nanotechnology: Can Environmental Ethics Guide Us?, Christopher J. Preston

Philosophy Faculty Publications

The growing presence of the products of nanotechnology in the public domain raises a number of ethical questions. This paper considers whether existing environmental ethics can provide some guidance on these questions. After a brief discussion of the appropriateness of an environmental ethics framework for the task at hand, the paper identifies a representative environmental ethic and uses it to evaluate four salient issues that emerge from nanotechnology. The discussion is intended both to give an initial theoretical take on nanotechnology from the perspective of environmental ethics and to provide a clear indication of the direction from which environmental resistance …

In Defense Of Non-Sentential Assertion, Robert Stainton

Philosophy Publications

A defense of non-sentential assertion against Jason Stanley and Peter Ludlow

Metaphysics, Substitution Salva Veritate And The Slingshot Argument, Robert Stainton

Philosophy Publications

An introduction to the "slingshot" argument in philosophy of language and metaphysics

Null Complements: Licensed By Syntax Or By Semantics-Pragmatics?, Corinne Iten, M.-O. Junker, Aryn Pyke, Robert Stainton, Catherine Wearking

Philosophy Publications

No abstract provided.

The Irreducibility Of Consciousness, Amy Kind

CMC Faculty Publications and Research

In this paper, by analyzing the Chalmers-Searle debate about Chalmers’ zombie thought experiment, I attempt to determine the implications that the irreducibility of consciousness has for the truth of materialism. While Chalmers claims that the irreducibility of consciousness forces us to embrace dualism, Searle claims that it has no deep metaphysical im- port and, in particular, that it is fully consistent with his materialist the- ory of mind. I argue that this disagreement hinges on the notion of physi- cal identity in play in the discussion. Clarifying this notion in turn helps to clarify what it means to claim that …

Do Ceos Get Paid Too Much?, Jeffrey Moriarty

Philosophy Faculty Publications

In 2003, CEOs of the 365 largest U.S. corporations were paid on average $8 million, 301 times as much as factory workers. This paper asks whether CEOs get paid too much. Appealing to widely recognized moral values, I distinguish three views of justice in wages: the agreement view, the desert view, and the utility view. I argue that, no matter which view is correct, CEOs get paid too much. I conclude by offering two ways CEO pay might be reduced.

Introduction To Ellipsis And Non-Sentential Speech, Ray Elugardo, Robert Stainton

Philosophy Publications

No abstract provided.

Grice, Herbert Paul (1913-88), Robert Stainton

Philosophy Publications

No abstract provided.

Delno C. West Award Winner (2005)

Quidditas

Susan Stakel

The Delno C. West Award recognizes the most distinguished paper given by a senior scholar at the annual conference.

Monasteries As Financial Patrons And Promoters Of Local Performance In Late Medieval And Early Tudor England, Christine Sustek Williams

Quidditas

The elaborate cycle plays produced in the larger, wealthy municipalities of York, Chester, Wakefield and Coventry receive the lion’s share of attention among scholars of medieval theatre. Until recently, performance activities in smaller communities have received little or no attention, except perhaps as something of antiquarian interest. And one area of theatre history that has been largely overlooked is the involvement of monasteries in local performance activities. Yet the precious few, fragmentary, monastic records that survived the dissolutions of the monasteries under Henry VIII and Edward VI, suggest that several monasteries gave active financial support to local theatre in England …

Everyman In Production: A Dance Of Death A Staging At California State University, Chico (2004), Jan Hawkley

Quidditas

Medieval dramatic works, while historically significant and intellectually interesting, may seem irrelevant and even incomprehensible in our day. The language is problematic in pronunciation, phrasing and word meaning. Allegory today often is considered didactic and overly simplistic, yielding only one- dimensional characters. Medieval society appears obtuse to modern students, functioning with a totally different worldview and social hierarchy; medieval concepts of comedy and religion are difficult for us to grasp today. Additionally, we obviously have no recordings of actual performances, so we do not know how a given play was staged; we must surmise medieval staging from descriptions of performances …

Entertaining Yet Erudite Social History, Ginger L. Guardiola

Quidditas

Barbara A. Hanawalt. Growing Up in Medieval London: The Experience of Childhood in History. New York and Oxford: Oxford UP, 1993. 300 pages. $18.95.

Foucault And Habermas, David Ingram

Philosophy: Faculty Publications and Other Works

The article is a comprehensive comparison of Foucault and Habermas which focuses on their distinctive styles of critical theory. The article maintains that Foucault's virtue ethical understanding of aesthetic self-realization as a form of resistance to normalizing practices provides counterpoint to Habermas's more juridical approach to institutional justice and the critique of ideology. The article contains an extensive discussion of their respective treatments of speech action, both strategic and communicative, and concludes by addressing Foucault's understanding of parrhesia as a non-discursive form of truth-telling.

Kant On Duties To Animals, Nelson T. Potter Jr.

Department of Philosophy: Faculty Publications

According to Kant we human beings are finite rational beings, who also have an animal nature. Kant occasionally speculates that perhaps on other planets there may be quite different sorts of finite rational animals. But of course we have no specific knowledge of any such. Given that fact, all of our duties are duties to other human beings. We can have no duties to God because he is not an object of possible experience. There are no human beings such that they have only duties and no rights--they would be slaves or serfs. And the apparent duties that we have …

Becoming A Better Me : An Examination Of Character Education At The Elementary Level, Lori D. Dobbin

Graduate Research Papers

The first day of school can be a difficult adjustment for many students. Some . students struggle with new settings and new rules. Each student enters the classroom with personal morals and values. These morals and character traits greatly influence the student's academic and social progress. This paper reviews character building and its unique ability to alter the perception of the student's world. The paper looks at the deficits of character and introduces possible solutions to restoring character in elementary-aged children. A closer look at the history of character education lays the foundation for a better understanding of character.