Philosophy Commons^™

Evidence Of Sexism And Male Privilege In The Animal Liberation/Rights Movement, Lisa Kemmerer

Between the Species

No abstract provided.

An Allegorical Reading Of Cormac Mccarthy's Outer Dark, Renee Williams

Undergraduate Research Conference

Though Cormac McCarthy deals with aspects of religion in each of his works, Outer Dark stands apart as a complete theodicy presented through complex allegory. Through his casting of the novel's characters as analogues for Christ, humanity, and Satan, McCarthy comments on the nature and consequences of the cosmic struggle between the forces of good and evil. McCarthy constructs his theodicy with the incorporation of Nietzschean philosophy and a deistic perspective.

Past, Present And Future: The New Museum Of Wisconsin Art, Curtis L. Carter

Philosophy Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Academic Integrity: Values, Responsibilities, And Policies In Postsecondary Education, Sara Scully '13

Honor Scholar Theses

No abstract provided.

Seeing Candidates Through A Gendered Lens: How Differential Media Coverage Serves As A Barrier To Women's Political Participation, Shelby Bremer '10

Honor Scholar Theses

1992 was a banner year for women in politics, even earning the moniker “Year of the Woman,” thanks to the election of four women to the United States Senate at one time, an unprecedented feat in the realm of female political representation (‘Year of the Woman’). Twenty years later, in November 2012, that record was shattered, when more women ran for, and were elected to Congress than ever before. “Not since the so‐called Year of the Woman in 1992 have we seen such a leap in the number of women stepping forward to contend for Congressional seats, “ said Debbie …

Philosophical Counseling And Moral Injury: An Inquiry Into The Prospects Of Treating War Veterans Diagnosed With Moral Injury And Ptsd, Andy Sanford

Research and Creative Activities Poster Day

No abstract provided.

Under The Watchful Eye: The Highly Intrusive Nature Of Facial Recognition Technology, Rocco Carzo

The Review: A Journal of Undergraduate Student Research

In lieu of an abstract, below is the first paragraph of the paper.

Facial recognition technology, or FRT, has the potential to provide numerous benefits, both to individual persons and to society as a whole. Among these benefits, convenience for everyday tasks and increased safety/security are possible. However, the likely benefits that FRT can provide are overshadowed by one major weakness of the technology: the invasion of one's privacy. FRT intrudes on the lives of all people. This can potentially lead to false accusations and/or people altering their lifestyles. Because people never know when or where they are being watched, …

An Examination Of Artificial Reproduction Versus Adoption: Taking On The Test-Tube, Marie Heberger

The Review: A Journal of Undergraduate Student Research

In lieu of an abstract, below is the first paragraph of the paper.

Human self-knowledge continues to increase monumentally, as well as the accompanying consequences. One aspect of human life that is being conquered is reproduction. While it doesn't take a genius to procreate naturally, technologies to make artificial reproduction possible are becoming more popular. Men and women who cannot conceive children naturally are getting help, and this help is leading to many ethical dilemmas and scientific questions and dilemmas. By being swept away with the abilities to make children in a lab, there are forgotten children born into unfortunate …

Shinto And Buddhist Metaphors In Departures, Yoshiko Okuyama

Journal of Religion & Film

Cinematic language is rich in examples of religious metaphors. One Japanese film that contains religious “tropes” (figurative language) is the 2008 human drama, Departures. This paper focuses on the analysis of religious metaphors encoded in select film shots, using semiotics as the theoretical framework for film analysis. The specific metaphors discussed in the paper are the Shinto view of death as defilement and Buddhist practices associated with the metaphor of the journey to the afterlife. The purpose of this paper is to augment the previous reviews of Departures by explicating these religious signs hidden in the film.

The Problem Of Evil And Humans’ Relationship With God In Terrence Malick’S The Tree Of Life, Bertha Alvarez Manninen Ph.D.

Journal of Religion & Film

Terrence Malick’s 2011 film The Tree of Life defies any attempt to be summarized in a few pat sentences. The movie tackles significant theological issues as it tells the story of one man’s journey to regain his faith after the loss of his beloved brother and a difficult relationship with his father. At the same time, it is also a film about humankind’s relationship to God, and about the kind of life human beings should strive to lead. In this paper, I will discuss two of the film’s main themes: Malick’s response to the problem of evil (or, as it …

Facing Forward, Looking Back: Religion And Film Studies In The Last Decade, Joseph Kickasola, John C. Lyden, S. Brent Plate, Antonio Sison, Sheila J. Nayar, Stefanie Knauss, Rachel Wagner, Jolyon Thomas

Journal of Religion & Film

On November 17, 2012, at the American Academy of Religion’s National Meeting, the Religion, Film, and Visual Culture Group sponsored a session entitled, “Facing Forward, Looking Back: Religion and Film Studies in the Last Decade.” The session focused on four recent books in the field of Religion and Film: John Lyden’s Film as Religion: Myths, Morals and Rituals (NYU, 2003); S. Brent Plate’s Religion and Film: Cinema and the Re-Creation of the World (Wallflower Press, 2009); Antonio Sison’s World Cinema, Theology, and the Human: Humanity in Deep Focus (Routledge, 2012); and Sheila Nayar’s The Sacred and the Cinema: Reconfiguring the …

From Cells To Cell Theory: What Would Kuhn Say?, Laura Kurjanowicz

Spring 2013, Kuhn's Philosophy of Science

Cells as we know them today were discovered in the 1600s by Robert Hooke. A couple hundred years later, scientists came to a final conclusion about how cells arose. The theory of spontaneous generation of life was abandoned in favor of cell theory, the idea that all cells come from preexisting cells. Louis Pasteur was an important thinker and experimentalist in this transition. Furthermore, the implications of this transition were far reaching and can even be seen today with the constant use of HeLa cells in scientific research. But what would Thomas Kuhn, philosopher of science, have to say about …

Bearing Likeness, Christine M. Salama

CGU MFA Theses

The world is saturated with images and things. I have chosen to put more images and things into the world. In doing so, I complicate and further saturate these connections, but I also find clarity and answers through the mark, the gesture, the image, and material. I make marks with materials that are closely related to the meanings of the things I depict. The images and objects I make are ones that I know and understand because they are close to me, but the process of making leaves room for inquiry and unfamiliarity with these same objects.

I am guided …

When Praxis Breaks Down: What Heidegger's Phenomenology Contributes To Understanding Miscues And Learning In Reading, James Magrini

Philosophy Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Degeneration Of The Human Mind: An Analysis Of Alzheimer’S Disease, A Kuhnian Perspective, Genevieve Ilg

Spring 2013, Kuhn's Philosophy of Science

In 1906, a German physician, Dr. Alois Alzheimer, specifically identified a collection of brain cell abnormalities (and the formation of plaque in the brain) as a disease, which forever changed the way scientists view degenerative cognitive disorders. Today, this brain disease bears his name, and is one of the most common diseases among the aging population. The discovery of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) can be seen as a revolutionary, paradigmatic shift in regards to scientific discovery from a Kuhnian perspective. In that vein, the discovery presents philosophical implications for the notion of personhood and how those suffering from AD are treated …

A Kuhnian Analysis Of Willis, Katie Meloro

Spring 2013, Kuhn's Philosophy of Science

Seventeenth century scientist Thomas Willis dedicated his research to understanding the complexities of the human brain. He made several crucial discoveries about the brain's functional organization and in the process contradicted Rene Descartes' pineal theory regarding the location of the soul. Willis' writings were analyzed and modified by renowned students like John Locke, but his emphasis on empirical research and his creation of the four pillars of neurology has led to Willis' continuing influence on the practices of modern science. This paper analyzes the work of Willis from a Kuhnian perspective of scientific history.

A Grammatical Paradigm, Alexia Polacheck

Spring 2013, Kuhn's Philosophy of Science

Avram Noam Chomsky is known for his work at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, for his political pursuits, and most importantly, for his theories in the discipline of linguistics. Chomsky linguistic pursuits aimed to answer the following linguistic studies: how a person learns and develops a language, how a person structures and understands a sentence, and what the purpose of linguistics is as a whole. His theories dramatically changed the linguistic paradigm. Due to this change, this paper also attempts to illustrate the correlation between scientific philosopher Thomas Kuhn’s belief in ‘paradigm shifts’ and the subsequent change in linguistic thought spurred …

The Ever Changing Shape Of The Universe: A Kuhnian Analysis Of Edwin Hubble's Discoveries, John Bugnacki

Spring 2013, Kuhn's Philosophy of Science

Thomas Kuhn, author of The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, sought to explain how science changes, functions, and advances. According to Kuhn, science periodically undergoes a paradigm-shift during which time the prevailing methodologies, theories, and commitments of normal-science are all thrown into question until a new dominant paradigm takes hold. However, as his career progressed and his critics railed against his new conception of scientific progress, Kuhn would emphasize the role of linguistic incommensurability in paradigm shifts over normal-science. In 1923, astronomer Edwin Hubble took the first steps toward the discovery of galaxies. In doing so, Hubble simultaneously drew upon …

How Can We Explain Altruism?, Teresa Levasseur

Spring 2013, Science and Religion

This paper looks at the topic of Altruism, or more specifically altruistic behaviors. The paper explores the explanations offered from a scientific perspective as well as those from a theological perspective to determine which view offers a deeper understanding of altruism.

On The Metaphysical Necessity Of Suffering From Natural Evil, Ryan Edward Sullivan

Spring 2013, Science and Religion

Why does God permit suffering in the world? If God is wholly good, omnipotent, and omniscient, why would He not intervene to prevent us from suffering? These are questions that pertain to the problem of evil: how to reconcile the existence of God with the evil occurrences of this world, without sacrificing any of His divine attributes. The most potent version of the problem of evil is a recent formulation known as the evidential argument from evil. The evidential argument states that while the existence of God is not logically incompatible with the fact that there are evil occurrences, there …

Transubstantiation And Quantum Physics: The Parallels Of Mystery In Religion And Science, Zachary Sexton

Spring 2013, Science and Religion

As the study of physics has progressed into the abstract realm of quanta, some have argued that the notion of transubstantiation is an unreasonable understanding of the Eucharist. However, when confronted with the uncertainty that modern physics presents, sharp parallels between this uncertainty and the metaphysical mysteries of transubstantiation. If it is reasonable to accept uncertainty in quantum physics, then it should be reasonable to accept the mysteries within the metaphysical world.

Heisenberg’S Uncertainty Principle, Matthew Santos

Spring 2013, Kuhn's Philosophy of Science

In 1926 Werner Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle set the field of quantum mechanics on a trajectory riddled with indeterminacy, a trajectory which stood in stark contrast with the classical Newtonian world causality and origin. In doing so, Heisenberg effectively created a new standard by which physicists conducted their science, broadened the scope of that science, and altered the very worldview of those physicists. Such paradigmatic upheaval fits the philosophical model of scientific progress posited by Thomas Kuhn. However, in the ever-changing and still-evolving world of quantum mechanics, Heisenberg’s revolutionary work uniquely strays from Kuhn’s model in its further implications.

Syllabus: Kuhn's Philosophy Of Science, Joseph Torchia

Spring 2013, Kuhn's Philosophy of Science

A critical investigation of the philosophy of science of Thomas Kuhn (1922-1996), with a special focus upon his critique of the classical model of the development of science in terms of a cumulative acquisition of knowledge, and by implication, a gradual progression toward truth. In broader terms, the course assesses the metaphysical and epistemological implications of Kuhn’s understanding of scientific change and the possibility of scientific progress.

The Antibiotic Revolution, Alyssa Olsen

Spring 2013, Kuhn's Philosophy of Science

In 1928, Alexander Fleming discovered Penicillin, which revolutionized the way infections were treated. This discovery was revolutionary because it impacted the scientific field, the medical field, the pharmaceutical industry, and all of humanity. Alexander Fleming’s discovery of Penicillin sparked the development of antibiotics, which has continued to save people’s lives since the revolution. Thomas Kuhn would qualify the discovery of Penicillin by Alexander Fleming as a revolution because it led to a paradigm shift. Prior to the discovery of Penicillin, patients died from trivial injuries and infections. Fleming’s discovery of Penicillin is revolutionary because it changed the worldview of the …

Nietzsche’S Zarathustra And Parodic Style: On Lucian’S Hyperanthropos And Nietzsche’S Übermensch, Babette Babich

Articles and Chapters in Academic Book Collections

It is well-known that as a term, Nietzsche’s Übermensch derives from Lucian of Samosata’s hyperanthropos. I argue that Zarathustra’s teaching of the overman acquires new resonances by reflecting on the context of that origination from Lucian’s Kataplous – literally, “sailing into port” – referring to the soul’s journey (ferried by Charon, guided by Hermes) into the afterlife. The Kataplous he tyrannos, usually translated Downward Journey or The Tyrant, is a Menippean satire of the “overman” who is imagined to be superior to others of “lesser” station in this-worldly life and the same tyrant after his (comically unwilling) …

Review Of Getting Causes From Powers By Stephen Mumford And Rani Lill Anjum, Jennifer Mckitrick

Department of Philosophy: Faculty Publications

Some philosophers have suggested that having powers in one’s ontology has the advantage of providing resources for an account of causation (see Cartwright 1999; Harré 1970; Mill 1843; Whitehead 1929). But what would a theory of causation look like if we assume that powers are real? In Getting Causes from Powers, Mumford and Anjum make what is perhaps the first sustained attempt to answer that question. The basic idea is that, if there are powers, understood as property-like entities that have manifestations which can be merely possible, then causation is a matter of powers manifesting. According to the authors, …

Learning To Look: Lessons From Iris Murdoch, Nancy E. Snow

Philosophy Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

An Epilogue For The Disappointed, Howard P. Kainz

Philosophy Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

A Response To Clark Pinnock's Hope For The Unevangelized As Seen In A Wideness In God's Mercy, Joshua Covert

Masters Theses

This paper will offer a response to Clark H. Pinnock's hope for the unevangelized as seen in A Wideness in God's Mercy. Pinnock argues that God saves individuals based upon their faith not primarily their knowledge. Pinnock develops a concept called the faith principle which he uses to support his claims. Pinnock provides five examples of unevangelized persons who are saved through faith without knowledge of Christ. Through Pinnock's faith principle and these five examples he argues that the unevangelized do not need special revelation - knowledge of Christ. It will be argued that the five examples provided by Pinnock …

Schemas, Core Beliefs, Worldviews, And Clinical Practice, Chad A. Houchin, Rodger K. Bufford

Faculty Publications - Doctor of Psychology (PsyD) Program

No abstract provided.