Philosophy Commons^™

Allen D. Breck Award Winner (2005)

Quidditas

Bradley Greenburg

The Allen D. Breck Award recognizes the most distinguished paper given by a junior scholar at the annual conference.

School Counselors And Character Education, Jacob M. Mueller

Graduate Research Papers

Character Education can be an essential aspect of creating a respectful climate in the school setting. Tragic incidents in schools across the country have heightened the awareness of how to create positive situations for all students who attend public schools. Too often, this awareness is not followed up with action. Character Education is an opportunity for educators to step up and put actions behind their lip service. Legislation surrounding education in America today sometimes creates difficult obstacles in implementing programs to foster a positive school environment. It can be done however, and is being done.

Against Realist Instruction: Superficial Success Masking Catastrophic Failure And An Alternative, Dewey I. Dykstra

Physics Faculty Publications and Presentations

Purpose: Often radical constructivists are confronted with arguments why radical constructivism is wrong. The present work presents a radical constructivist alternative to such arguments: a comparison of the results of two instructional practices, the standard, realistbased instruction and a radical constructivist-based instruction, both in physics courses. Design: Evidence from many studies of student conceptions in standard instruction (Duit 2004) is taken into account. In addition, diagnostic data, pre and post instruction, were collected from over 1,000 students in multiple institutions across the U. S. over a period of about 15 years via an established diagnostic of conceptual understanding of motion …

Stateless National Groups, International Justice And Asymmetrical Warfare, Anna Moltchanova

Philosophy Faculty Work

No abstract provided.

"I Knew There Was Something Wrong With That Paper": Scientific Rhetorical Styles And Scientific Misunderstandings, Carol Reeves

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

This selection unpacks scientific prose and claim substantiation for Nobel Prize winner, Stan Prusiner, in the transmissible spongiform encephlopathies field (i.e., mad cow disease). Applying linguistic strategies such as M. A. K. Halliday's "favorite clause type," the author examines argumentative strategies in dense scientific prose both in bold and cautious rhetorical styles and invented lexical changes in new scientific development.

Modeling Mechanisms, Stuart Glennan

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

Philosophers of science increasingly believe that much of science is concerned with understanding the mechanisms responsible for the production of natural phenomena. An adequate understanding of scientific research requires an account of how scientists develop and test models of mechanisms. This paper offers a general account of the nature of mechanical models, discussing the representational relationship that holds between mechanisms and their models as well as the techniques that can be used to test and refine such models. The analysis is supported by study of two competing models of a mechanism of speech perception.

Economic Migration And Justice, Harry Van Der Linden

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

Our main thesis is that the U.S. has a duty of justice to adopt an open border policy with regard to economic migrants because it is significantly responsible for the unjust social and economic conditions that bring such migrants to its borders. From this perspective, President Bush’s recent “guest worker” proposal is morally objectionable because it is designed more to serve U.S. business interests than the interests of the migrants. We address three objections to opening borders: it will worsen the economic condition especially of low-skilled native workers; it will harm developing countries by increasing the so-called “brain drain”; and …

Questioning Just War Theory, Harry Van Der Linden

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

Review of: "Michael Walzer, Arguing About War. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004. Pp. 208. Cloth, $25.00. ISBN: 0-300-10365-4."

Values And Objectivity In Science: The Current Controversy About Transgenic Crops, Hugh Lacey

Philosophy Faculty Works

Values and Objectivity in Science illustrates many of the ethical issues that arise concerning scientific practices and applications, offering an account of how social and ethical values play important roles in science. Hugh Lacey develops and clarifies his previous analysis by arguing for the importance of research being conducted under a plurality of strategies, contrasting materialist strategies with agro-ecological strategies. By displaying the structure of current ethical controversies about the legitimacy of planting transgenic crops, this book illustrates that sound thinking on such issues must be grounded on an adequate philosophy of science, one that can clearly distinguish between the …

Herbert Spiegelberg, Sebastian Luft

Philosophy Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

The Non-Modularity Of Moral Knowledge: Implications For The Universality Of Human Rights, Theresa W. Tobin

Philosophy Faculty Research and Publications

Many contemporary human rights theorists argue that we can establish the normative universality of human rights despite extensive cultural and moral diversity by appealing to the notion of overlapping consensus. In this paper I argue that proposals to ground the universality of human rights in overlapping consensus on the list of rights are unsuccessful. I consider an example from Islamic comprehensive doctrine in order to demonstrate that apparent consensus on the list of rights may not in fact constitute meaningful agreement and may not be sufficient to ground the universality of human rights. I conclude with some general suggestions for …

Zabarella, Prime Matter, And The Theory Of Regressus, James B. South

Philosophy Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Faktizität Und Geschichtlichkeit Als Konstituentien Der Lebenswelt In Husserls Spätphilosophie, Sebastian Luft

Philosophy Faculty Research and Publications

In this paper I shall present two elements of Husserl’s theory of the life-world, facticity and historicity, which are of exemplary importance for his late phenomenology as a whole. I compare these two notions to two axes upon which Husserl’s phenomenology of the life-world becomes inscribed. Reconsidering and reconstructing Husserl’s late thought under this viewpoint sheds new light on a notoriously enigmatic problem, i.e., the concept of the transcendental and its relation to the „mundane“ – to the world as constituted by transcendental consciousness. Drawing on unpublished manuscript material I claim, specifically, that the transcendental subject, in its „self-enworlding“ activity, …

Risk And Ethics In Biological Control, Ernest S. Delfosse

United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

All introduced natural enemies present a degree of risk to nontarget species. Since most biological control programs use relatively host-specific natural enemies, the risk to nontarget species is generally very low, particularly from biological control of weeds, which uses extensively tested and validated host-specificity testing procedures to predict risk. However, many of the published comments about risks of biological control are superficial or misleading, often inappropriately lumping risk from all taxa of agents as “the risk of biological control,” and ignore the potential benefits, rather than dealing with species-by-species risk and benefits. Particularly confounding accurate predictions is the common mixing …

The Disintegration Of Modern Culture. Nietzsche And The Information Age, Edgar Landgraf

German Faculty Publications

The article revisits Nietzsche’s provocative claim that the Enlightenment’s emphasis on education and open exchange of information promotes rather than prevents the “loss of meaning” from a media studies and systems theoretical perspective. Nietzsche in fact ties what he understands as modern culture’s disintegration to information-processing modes of modern society, that is, as effects of the modern educational system and the mass media (at his time, the printing press). The article argues that while Nietzsche is an astute observer of modernity, his call for a return to a more authentic culture (with its daunting political implications) is indicative of Nietzsche’s …

A Comparison Of The Canons Of Science Used In Positivistic Research And Constructivist/Naturalistic Research, Ipek Bozkurt, Andres Sousa-Poza

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

In this paper, the canons of science which are crucial for positivistic, empirical research and constructivist/naturalistic research will be identified, described, compared and discussed. Although there are common canons which are often used in papers throughout literature, it would be beneficial to set a common ground for the identification and use of the canons. The canons used in positivistic research will differ from the canons used in constructivist/ naturalistic research. This paper will analyze major publications (papers, books, etc.) exploring the canons either directly or indirectly, and will provide a link between major characteristics of two different research philosophies and …

Why Does The Universe Exist? An Advaita Vedantic Perspective, Adam J. Rock

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

Debates concerning causal explanations of the universe tend to be based on a priori propositions (e.g., Edwards, 1973; Smith, 1995; Swinburne, 1978). The present paper, however, addresses the metaphysical question, “Why does the universe exist?” from the perspective of a school of Hindu philosophy referred to as advaita vedanta and two of its a posteriori derived creation theories: the theory of simultaneous creation (drishti-srishti vada) and the theory of non-causality (ajata vada). Objections to advaita vedanta are also discussed. It is concluded that advaita vedanta has the potential to make a significant contribution to contemporary metaphysical debate in general and …

Russian Soul: A Report From The European Transpersonal Association 2005 Conference In Moscow, Glenn Hartelius

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

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The Arguments Of Their Lives: A Role For Lives In Moral Reflection And Moral Teaching (2005), Peter Shea

Collected Papers of Peter Shea

Moral philosophers and teachers of ethics generally make episodes, cases, and stories the focus of their practical reflection. In this dissertation, I investigate the possible roles of richer accounts or investigations of lives in the research and teaching of practical ethics. By giving a close reading of passages from three central philosophic texts, Mill’s On Liberty, Plato’s Crito, and Descartes’ Discourse on Method, I show how attention to richly described lives is grounded in the tradition of Western philosophic inquiry. These readings also serve as the starting points for arguments about the importance of consideration of lives …

The Bible And Public Schools: Report On The National Council On Bible Curriculum In Public Schools (Ncbcps), Mark A. Chancey

Occasional Papers

No abstract provided.

The Myth Of Instrumental Rationality, Joseph Raz

Faculty Scholarship

My main aim is to explain the normative character of the phenomena that are commonly discussed when theoretical writers discuss instrumental rationality and instrumental reasons. The discussion will assume that there are forms of practical normativity, of practical reasons, which are not instrumental in nature. The question central to the inquiry is what, if any, normative difference does adopting or having an end make? For example, are there instrumental reasons and, if there are, how do they relate to having ends? Are instrumental reasons distinctive kinds of reasons, whose normativity differs in its underlying rationale from that of, say, moral …

Full Issue

Quidditas

No abstract provided.

Representing A Bigger Middle Ages, Carol Neel

Quidditas

Barbara H. Rosenwein. A Short History of the Middle Ages. Orchard Park, NY: Broadview Press, 2002. 362 pages. $42.95.

Colin McEvedy. The New Penguin Atlas of Medieval History. London: Penguin Books, 1992. 112 pages. $13.95.

Patrick J. Geary. The Myth of Nations: The Medieval Origins of Europe. Princeton: Princeton UP, 2002. 261 pages. $19.95.

The Limits Of The Senses In The Zhongyong, Jane Geaney

Religious Studies Faculty Publications

The Zhongyong ends with an odd statement about de 德 (charisma or virtue).² It cites a line from the Book of Songs that appears to say that de resembles a piece of hair—perhaps in being equally light—but the Zhongyong rejects this analogy, noticing that de is without smell or sound.³ This seems to be a strange comment since, while it might be plausible to think of hair as smelling, there seems to be no way around the incongruity of speaking of hair in terms of whether or not it makes sound. Perhaps the passage is attempting to say, …

Introduction To John Stuart Mill's Utilitarianism, G. Scott Davis

Religious Studies Faculty Publications

John Stuart Mill's Utilitarianism, which first appeared in three installments of Fraser's Magazine in 1861, was intended as a defense of the notorious doctrine identified with the liberal reformer Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) and with the author's father, James Mill (1773-1836). The defense was successful. While "the principle of utility, or as Bentham has latterly called it, the greatest happiness principle," may have scandalized Victorian England, Mill's Utilitarianism became one of the defining documents of modern British and American liberalism. It is impossible to appreciate contemporary social and political life without coming to grips with utilitarianism.

Introduction To G.E. Moore's Principia Ethica, G. Scott Davis

Religious Studies Faculty Publications

When Principia Ethica appeared, in 1903, it became something of a sacred text for the Cambridge-educated elites-Lytton Strachey, Leonard Woolf, John Maynard Keynes-who, along with Virginia Woolf, would form the core of the Bloomsbury Group. In a letter of October 11, 1903, Strachey confesses to Moore that he is "carried away" by Principia, which inaugurates, for him, "the beginning of the Age of Reason." Moore's critique of convention, his caustic dismissal of his philosophical predecessors, and the relentless rigor of his method promised a revolution in morality commensurate with the modernist transformation of art and literature. Principia Ethica shifted …

Front Matter

1650-1850: Ideas, Aesthetics, and Inquiries in the Early Modern Era

No abstract provided.

Steering Toward Sanity The Compass Points Of Madness In Eighteenth-Century Britain, Allan Ingram

1650-1850: Ideas, Aesthetics, and Inquiries in the Early Modern Era

No abstract provided.

Forgery As Performance Art The Strange Case Of George Psalmanazar, Jack Lynch

1650-1850: Ideas, Aesthetics, and Inquiries in the Early Modern Era

No abstract provided.

Some Aspects Of Jonathan Swift's Perspective On Language, W. K. Percival

1650-1850: Ideas, Aesthetics, and Inquiries in the Early Modern Era

No abstract provided.