Philosophy Commons^™

The Experience Of Forgiving In The Marital Relationship, Kathleen M. Leo

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

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Aphorism's Destructive Capacity Towards Logocentric Text In Friedrich Nietzsche's Thus Spake Zarathustra, Joseph Van Der Naald

Anthós

The "spirit of gravity" and all of its connotations is central to the writings of Friedrich Nietzsche. In Nietzsche's Thus Spake Zarathustra, Zarathustra proclaims that the spirit of gravity is his devil and that it can only be vanquished through laughter. In this explication, I will show that Nietzsche uses intertextual allusion to place this laughter that destroys the spirit of gravity in relation to the words of the character Clytemnestra in Aeschylus' Agamemnon. I will also show that Nietzsche binds this allusion to aphoristic text, thus framing aphorism as a multivalent form of writing that destroys absolute, …

Arguments By Analogy, Matt Donner

Philosophy

This paper is an inquiry into the largely unexamined analysis of arguments by analogy (ABA). By exposing the degree of philosophical complexity, which ultimately renders evaluation of ABA subjective, we shall see that the most appropriate doxastic attitude to adopt, with respect to the conclusions drawn from these arguments, is often suspension of judgment. A critical examination of Copi’s criteria for evaluating ABA shows that while these criteria work well for simple arguments, they fail when considering more philosophically profound ABA. This paper supports these claims by using Cleanthes’ teleological argument for the existence of God from Hume’s Dialogues Concerning …

The Paradoxical Beauty Of The Cross: Theological Aesthetics And The Doctrine Of The Atonement In Athanasius’ Contra Gentes-De Incarnatio, Marcus Little

Liberty Theological Review

In his two-part treatise Contra Gentes-De Incarnatio, Athanasius offers an interesting apologetic for the Christian doctrine of the atonement by employing various aesthetic themes and forms of expression drawn from the classical notion of beauty found particularly in the Platonic and neo-Platonic traditions. Although Athanasius never mentions the term “beauty” in Contra Gentes-De Incarnatio, the concept certainly looms in the background. Writing against the Platonic, Epicurean, and Stoic systems of his day, Athanasius centers his apologetic on the philosophical tension evident in the doctrine of divine transcendence/immanence. This paper argues that Athanasius implicitly characterizes the tension of divine transcendence/ immanence …

Hans-Georg Gadamer: His Philosophical Hermeneutics And Its Importance For Evangelical Biblical Hermeneutics, Russell Meek

Liberty Theological Review

Hans-Georg Gadamer’s influence on hermeneutics can hardly be understated.  This article offers an evangelical perspective on the importance of his work and how it can be used to interpret the biblical text more faithfully.  It discusses his influences and some of the major aspects of his work and offers suggestions for applying his work to biblical hermeneutics. The article concludes that his work is vitally important and should be utilized by the biblical interpreter, though not without caution.

Scholarship And Ministry In The Life And Thought Of Augustine, Anthony C. Thornhill

Liberty Theological Review

Augustine is frequently recognized as one of the greatest Christian theologians in all of church history. His influence extends to both Protestant and Catholic circles, and his numerous theological works are still referenced by today's students of theology. The context of his theological writings are often overlooked. While he did, on occasion, seek to write weighty and intricate theological works, his primary focus was upon better equipping himself to minister to the believers he served as the bishop of Hippo. This is clearly evidenced in his sermons and his letters, which provide an important window into his historical context.

Videogames, Experiential Reality, Ethics, And Gamers, Sean Naubert

Senior Theses

“Videogames are a waste of time and rob people of a chance at a real life.” This has long been the status quo regarding videogames and gamers. Videogames, Experiential Reality, Ethics, and Gamers rallies against this by undermining the philosophical assumption that comes with the claims against gaming, namely that reality is solely and completely physically determined.

On this quest, “legends and philosophical clans” shall be called upon and united to besiege the conventional notion that there is a sole physical reality. This notion is cut down like so many orcs, leaving the Individual Champion as the lone warrior left …

Why The Greater Good Is Good: Lessons From Harry Potter, Maureen Zach

Tredway Library Prize for First-Year Research

For me, this paper was an opportunity to bring Harry Potter into academia by evaluating a serious moral and philosophical concept, the greater good, with J.K. Rowling’s beloved series. In the end, we see that society could do well to learn from Harry’s selflessness in working for the greater good.

The Quantum Dialectic, Logan Kelley

Pitzer Senior Theses

A philosophic account of quantum physics. The thesis is divided into two parts. Part I is dedicated to laying the groundwork of quantum physics, and explaining some of the primary difficulties. Subjects of interest will include the principle of locality, the quantum uncertainty principle, and Einstein's criterion for reality. Quantum dilemmas discussed include the double-slit experiment, observations of spin and polarization, EPR, and Bell's theorem. The first part will argue that mathematical-physical descriptions of the world fall short of explaining the experimental observations of quantum phenomenon. The problem, as will be argued, is framework of the physical descriptive schema. Part …

"We'll Make Our History": Israeli And Palestinian Youth As Poetic Agents, Caleb Hamman

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

This paper, in short, analyzes and argue for recognition of a particular form of political action as exercised by a particular type of political agent in the spatial and 3 symbolic context of "Israel-Palestine."

Entering The Forbidden City: Milwaukee Art Museum Offers Rare Glimpse Of Treasures From China, Curtis Carter

Philosophy Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Holism And Non-Separability Applied To Quantum Mechanics, Catherine E. Nisson

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

Einstein was never satisfied with quantum mechanics. He argued that quantum mechanics was incomplete for two main reasons; it violated the locality principle and the separability principle. The violation of separability is an unavoidable consequence of quantum interactions. Non-separability can be seen in quantum entanglement. Non-locality, however, is more controversial. Einstein and his associates published the EPR paper in order to argue for the incompleteness of quantum mechanics. Years later, John Bell formulated what became known as the Bell Inequalities in response to the EPR paper. The Bell Inequalities are seen as a major obstacle for quantum locality. I will …

Opposites Attract: The Fusion Of Confucianism And The Qin Dynasty’S Legalism In The People’S Republic Of China Today, Elyse Tompkins

Honors Senior Capstones and Theses

The aim of this research is to examine the seemingly opposite Legalist outlook of the Qin dynasty against the philosophy of Confucianism, and determine the extent to which they have impacted the government and society of the People’s Republic of China today. It is common in Eastern cultures to blend two seemingly opposite ideas, which is partially how this mixture of Legalism and Confucianism works in the current government. The Qin dynasty employed the legalist governmental philosophy, which allowed one ruler to effectively control all of China. This set up the principle of a concentrated government over the vast Chinese …

Scandinavian Dream: A Region’S Common Philosophical Principles Resulting In Equality, Prosperity, And Social Justice, Remy Christopher Ansiello

Master of Liberal Studies Theses

Common philosophical principles formed by the three Scandinavian nations of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden developed through a shared past. Over the centuries this region’s historical, social, economic, and religious ties paved the way for a belief-system based on egalitarian ideals. By the beginning of the 20th century these egalitarian ideals formed the unique social welfare system Scandinavia has in place, benefiting citizens from the day they are born throughout their entire lives. This welfare system centers on the principle that both men and women are fully equal; furthermore society has a moral and legal obligation to remove all barriers preventing …

Towards A Philosophy Of Woodworking: Re-Embracing Community And Quality Craftsmanship In Contemporary America, Patrick J. Szymanski

Master of Liberal Studies Theses

Since the Scientific Revolution of the seventeenth-century, humanity has appropriated the natural world for its uses, and only recently have we begun to understand the consequences of our actions. This misuse of the natural world has manifested itself thoroughly in all industries, including the woodworking field. To counteract this problem, I investigate its Cartesian philosophical underpinnings and propose a solution based upon the interconnected philosophy of the German Existentialist Martin Heidegger. Equipped with both the philosophy of Heidegger and concepts from the Deep Ecology movement (which insists upon the intrinsic value of all life on earth), I work to reformulate …

Legal Positivism: An Analysis, Jonathan Brett Chambers

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Having taken some constitution and government courses during my undergraduate studies, I was comfortable with my understanding of justice and morality. An independent research seminar into the philosophy of law with Dr. Huenemann changed that. Taking Brian Leiter's book Naluralizing Jurilprudence as our guide, we dived into the vast question of "what is the law?" This seemingly simple question has shaped western society in too many ways to account. for instance, Legal Realists - one group that believes all rights "are the creations of government and the legal rules it lays down,,1 - dramatically changed labor laws in the early …

Un/Composing (Visual) Rhetorics: A (Strange) Comic(S) View Of Writing In The Age Of New Media, Sergio Figueiredo

All Dissertations

This dissertation finds its exigency in 'The 9/11 Commission Report,' and specifically its claim that 'a failure of imagination' that dismisses possibilities relates to the work currently in focus within rhetoric and composition studies as it relates to writing (with) new media. My argument relies on the underdeveloped concept of `imagination' in composition as a way to argue for an alternate theoretical framework for addressing what writing (with) new media entails as a growing form of art. As such, I take up Geoff Sirc's invitation to `remake' his English Composition as a Happening with all of its references to avant-garde …

Aristotle On Mind, Rachel R. Adams

HIM 1990-2015

The mind as it is found in Aristotle's great work De Anima is a special capacity of the soul. It has both active and passive properties that work together to allow discursive thinking and moral ethical behavior to emerge. This work will look at Aristotle's philosophy of mind, and I will forward a new interpretation of the mind as he understood it: what I call the active and passive mind property dualism. Aristotle's four causes allow for a unique application of a form of dualism that accounts for the ontological status of the mind and the emergence of rational thinking. …

Solving The Helmholtz Equation For The Neumann Boundary Condition For The Pseudosphere By The Galerkin Method, Jane Pleskunas

Mathematics Theses

In this paper, the Helmholtz equation for the exterior Neumann boundary condition for the pseudosphere in three dimensions using the global Galerkin method is studied. The Galerkin method will be used to solve Jones’ modified integral equation approach (modified as a series of radiating waves will be added to the fundamental solution) for the Neumann problem for the Helmholtz equation, which uses a series of double sums to approximate the integral. A Fortran 77 program is used and some required subroutines from the Naval Warfare Center are called to help increase ouraccuracy since these boundary integrals are difficult to solve. …

Physician-Assisted Suicide Within A Kantian Framework, Daksha Bhatia

Philosophy

The highly polarized debate over the practice of physician-assisted suicide is relatively new to the realm of ethical issues. Physician-assisted suicide was first explicitly legalized in the United States in 1994, when Oregon passed its Death with Dignity Act. Although the Act stipulates that a doctor “may prescribe a lethal dose of medication to terminally ill people under certain conditions,” the term physician-assisted suicide also encompasses giving a patient information on how to commit suicide, or giving them the means to do so in a form other than a prescription. Physician-assisted suicide is different from euthanasia in that the patient, …

Elements Of A Self-Deconstructive Ethic, Cameron R. Waldman

Philosophy

No abstract provided.

In Defense Of Existence Monism, Peter Finocchiaro

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

The objective of this paper is a defense of a particular answer to van Inwagen’s Special Composition Question: when is it the case that some objects together compose some additional object? The answer is the conjunction of two claims. The first claim, compositional nihilism says that, necessarily, there is never an instance of material composition, and therefore all material objects that do exist are simple, or without proper parts. The second claim, existence monism, says that there exists a material object, and that all other material objects are identical with this object. In other words, there is just one …

Grassroots Poverty And Grassroots Human Rights: Grounding Theory In Practice, Scott Collison

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Philosophical discourse on human rights is broad and contested, and not all of it agrees with human rights practice. None of the common philosophical problems, such as the reconciliation between theory and human rights law, the debate between civil-political and socio-economic rights, or even what sort of thing human rights are, has been answered definitively. What is uncontested, however, is the fact that human rights are far from fulfilled in the world today, as world poverty and inequality persist into the 21^st century.

A recent trend across the board—from philosophy to development studies to human rights practice—is to view …

A Critical Phenomenology Of Civilization, J. C. Brinson

HIM 1990-2015

Civilized culture is killing the planet. At present, we are facing the largest extinction event in 65 million years and the cause, according to most scholars, is "patently" human. My question, however, is not whether the mass destruction of the biosphere is the result of an unfortunate and misguided particularity within civilization (e.g., over consumption, driving too much, etc.), but rather: Is it the case that civilization, by its very nature, entails the destruction of the natural world and of both human and non-human communities? In the vein of a fairly recent movement in scholarship, my answer is a resounding …

Critical White Feminism Interrogating Privilege, Whiteness, And Antiracism In Feminist Theory, Caroline Mcfadden

HIM 1990-2015

It is vital that feminist theory and critical white studies be combined in order to form what I call critical white feminism. Both critical white studies and feminist studies are often limited in their ability to adequately address the complex interconnectivity of racial and gender privilege and oppression. In general, feminist scholarship produced by white feminists excludes and oppresses women of color and is therefore inadequate. I refer to this problem as white feminist racism and argue that white feminists are ignorant of the ways in which whiteness and privilege facilitate problematic theorizing. Unlike white feminist theories, the emerging field …

Commentary On Ward’S Interpretation Of 'De Anima' Iii 3, Myrna Gabbe

Philosophy Faculty Publications

Any interpretation of Aristotle’s phantasia should aim to account for the unusual

presentation he gives of it in De Anima III 3. The procedure of this chapter is not typical to his investigations into the soul’s faculties. His accounts usually proceed from an examination of its objects, since they determine the nature and character of its activities. But Aristotle does not clearly state what the objects of fantasiva are, leading some scholars to conclude that it has no objects of its own and, hence, is not a genuine or full faculty. Instead of detailing its objects, he begins the chapter …

What Is A Human Person? An Exploration & Critique Of Contemporary Perspectives, Emmanuel Cumplido

Senior Honors Projects

What is a Human Person? An Exploration and Critique of Physicalist Perspectives

Emmanuel Cumplido

Faculty Sponsor: Donald Zeyl, Philosophy

Answers to the question “What is a human person?” that have garnered the allegiance of people throughout millennia fall under two broad categories: “physicalism” and “dualism”. One of the earliest renditions of physicalism was the philosophy of the ancient Greek atomists. In their view, all of reality could be explained through two principles: atoms and empty space. As a consequence, people were thought to be nothing but assemblages of atoms in space. Plato’s Phaedo presents one of the earliest philosophical endorsements …

The Perpetual Creation And Provocation Of The Self, Krista Damico

Senior Honors Projects

The Perpetual Creation and Provocation of the Self

Krista D’Amico

Faculty Sponsor: Stephen Barber, English

This project consists of four related parts. The first part is a critical and creative work of prose in which I converse with the thought of two philosophers, namely Spinoza and Gilles Deleuze. This conversation enables me to present my own thought and subjectivity in relationship to a very important aspect of my life: music-making. The second part of my project is a critical essay in which I contemplate the work of another artist, Virginia Woolf, and the way that her credo Three Guineas (1938) …

The Implications Of Merleau-Ponty For The Human Sciences, Ryan Marcotte

Senior Honors Projects

The Implications of Merleau-Ponty for the Human Sciences Ryan Marcotte Cobb Faculty Sponsor: Galen Johnson, Philosophy The American Anthropology Association (AAA) made headlines in November 2010 due to a controversial change in their 'Long-Range Plan.' The revised AAA mission statement omits all mention of the word 'science' and this omission has sparked a fierce debate within the anthropology community. The debate reveals that the study of social phenomena can be approached from two competing points of view – a scientific and a non-scientific perspective.  This project is concerned with the historical and intellectual developments that led to this competition between …

Wrench Yourself, Luca W. Cintolo

Senior Honors Projects

Wrench Yourself

Luca Cintolo

Faculty Sponsor: Cheryl Foster, Philosophy

Wrench Yourself was originally conceived as a three part project. Part one, learning about the writing life, came to fruition through reading books on the craft. Part two involved producing a body of original, creative, non-fiction. Part three culminated in binding the polished pieces of writing in limited production, hand made, leather bound books.

At the completion of this project I have created a hand-made book containing two essays. The first essay, Driven to Distraction, focuses on inattention behind the wheel and the pervasiveness of multi-tasking as a societal norm. …