Philosophy Commons^™

Armed Drones: An Age Old Problem Exacerbated By New Technology, Grant H. Frazier

Pomona Senior Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the history behind and the use of militarized drones in modern day conflicts, and to conclude whether the use of these machines, with special attention to the United States, is legal, ethical, and morally defensible. In achieving the aforementioned goals, shortcomings of current policy surrounding drone warfare will be highlighted, acting as the catalyst for a proposal for changes to be made to better suit legal, ethical, and moral considerations. The proposal of a policy to help us work with armed drones is due to the fact that this thesis acknowledges that …

Defending The Social Good Theory Of Punishment, Sydney R. Scott

Pomona Senior Theses

This paper attempts to justify punishment on the grounds that it is a benefit to the person being punished. I accept the basic premise of a previous theory of punishment, the Moral Good Theory (MGT), which states that we cannot harm anyone. Thus, punishment can only be justified if it is not a harm. The MGT claims that punishment is beneficial in that it provides a moral education to the offender. I reject the idea that punishment is morally educational and instead propose a new theory which revises and strengthens the MGT, accounting for its flaws. This new theory, the …

Spirited Folk, Emily J. Oldham

A with Honors Projects

For a student honors project, the author composed a one-act play providing a commentary on American folklore and the effects of the spiritualism movement of the mid-1800s on American Culture.

The Other Face Of Catharine Cockburn, Christopher Mckee

Honors Theses

This paper explores the subtle nuances between John Locke and Catharine Trotter Cockburn, with an emphasis on Cockburn's ideas on space and the Great Chain of Being. I argue that Cockburn meshes Lockean empiricism and 18th-Century Neoplatonism to create an idiosyncratic approach to the ideas of her time. I also show that Cockburn's method can offer novel insights on Locke's thinking matter.

Life Projects: Passion Versus Rationality, Robert J. Williams

Tredway Library Prize for First-Year Research

Philosophers of all ages and locales have ruminated on what it means to live a meaningful life. This particular essay seeks to tackle the same question but with more particularity. Is a meaningful life ethically good, rational, or even successful? Susan Wolf’s work The Meanings of Lives gives a nuanced but affirmative answer. This essay counters Wolf’s answer to that question. Although Wolf’s notion of having a project does make for a meaningful life, this paper argues that her objective and subjective criteria are too restricting. What makes life meaningful is not the outcome or nature of the project, but …

Editorial, Editorial Office

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

No abstract provided.

No-Media: Against The Coming Singularity, Gavin Keeney

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

A summary of the possible persistence of so-called useless humanistic research against the diktat of the Edufactory, the essay “No-media – Against the Coming Singularity” problematizes the complex field of forces and factors currently leading the life of universities toward the servicing of reduced aspirations for scholarship in an ultra-monetized society – plus neo-liberal academia’s penchant for the manufacturing of events and reputations at the expense of impersonal (confraternal) intellectual inquiry proper. An oblique critique of “vertical integration” strategies derived from corporate business models, foremost in media empires, and as applied to the production and management of knowledge, the essay …

The Groundwork For Food Criticism: How Normative Aesthetic Judgments Are Possible With Regards To Tastes, Jacob Caldwell

Senior Independent Study Theses

Issues of tastes and smells are often relegated to an ancillary or minor rank of importance in the domain of aesthetics, if recognized at all as legitimate objects of aesthetic inquiry and experience. This essay aims, firstly, to carve out a space of legitimacy for the aesthetics of tastes, and secondly, to clarify what aesthetic inquiry with regards to tastes must look like. In order for the above to be decisively established, the following positions will be argued for: (1) tastes are real, (2) our ordinary or scientific conception of what tastes are, upon which our reasons for doubting the …

Thoughts On Poetry, Alexandra B. Gustafson

Senior Independent Study Theses

The subject of this three-part project is poetry. More specifically, the project is a collection of thoughts about poetry, the language of poetry, and poetry-as-philosophy.

In its introductory section can be found a description of two competing accounts of language: referent theory, and meaning-is-use. While the latter seems a more complete picture on the whole, or so I assert, one must wonder: does it account for all the ways we use language? Specifically, can it account for the language of our main subject—poetry?

I assert not. In this vein, the second part of the project attempts to do what …

How The Validity Of The Parallel Inference Is Possible: From The Ancient Mohist Diagnose To A Modern Logical Treatment Of Its Semantic-Syntactic Structure, Bo Mou

Faculty Publications

The purpose of this paper is to explore the issue of how the validity of the parallel inference (as a type of deductive reasoning) is possible in view of its deep semantic-syntactic structure. I first present a philosophical interpretation of the ancient Mohist treatment of the parallel inference concerning its semantic-syntactic structure. Then, to formally and accurately capture the later Mohist point in this connection for the sake of giving a general condition for the validity of the parallel inference, I suggest a modern logical treatment via an expanded predicate logic account.

Recent Publications, Editorial Office

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

No abstract provided.

Macabre Fascination And Moral Propriety: The Attraction Of Horror, Marius A. Pascale

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

Why does the horror genre serve as a source of pleasure, given its aim to induce fear in the audience? I examine two general solutions to this phenomenon, referred to as the paradox of horror, which differ based upon their position regarding the possibility of deriving pleasure from fear. Each of the possible solutions contains significant flaws. I argue that, by adjusting a meta-theory originally proposed by Susan Feagin, it is possible to craft a solution that addresses the paradox while preserving the idea that, at times, fear can be enjoyed. The article concludes by considering the moral status of …

Human Nature And Aesthetic Ecosystem Services: Nature In The Service Of Humankind And Humankind In The Service Of Nature, Yrjö Sepänmaa

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

The term “ecosystem services” refers to the material and spiritual benefits and goods that we receive from nature, or, in a broad sense, from all kinds of environment. The various forms of such benefits have begun to be called services. Nature serves people by producing the material and spiritual (intangible, non-material) prerequisites for life. This is also the foundation of our aesthetic well-being. Does humankind reciprocally serve nature, or only itself through nature, with the intention of exploiting it? We see when nature suffers or flourishes, and we also observe our own effect on its state. As much as our …

The Importance Of The Artist's Intent, Daniel Conrad

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

Does considering artists' aesthetic intentions enrich our experience of art and enhance art’s aggregate value for human culture? By examining non-aesthetic intent, working motivations, biographical/historical context, and cases in which an announced intent drives aesthetic transformation, I argue that, while its specific value varies from case to case, aesthetic intent is a key part of our cumulative experience of art, correlates with specific neuroanatomical loci, and raises interesting and compelling questions specific to this age of automatized thinking.

The Institutional Margins Of Aesthetics: A Study Proposal, Jozef Kovalčik, Max Ryynänen

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

A considerable number of classical texts in aesthetics and cultural philosophy were originally published outside of the framework of institutionalized academic scholarship. One can begin the modern story with two loners, Nietzsche and Kierkegaard, then continue with the Frankfurt School and end the short list with the French “wave” (Blanchot, Bataille). Contemporary aesthetics benefits also from the work of thinkers like Susan Sontag and Nicolas Bourriaud, who have a huge scholarly impact but who built their careers outside academia. We intend to 1) sketch out a short historical overview of the scholars within aesthetics who could be considered to have …

Symposium On The Cultural Promise Of The Aesthetic By Monique Roelofs: Introduction, Editorial Office

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

No abstract provided.

Positioning And Discernment: A Comment On Monique Roelofs's The Cultural Promise Of The Aesthetic, Kathleen M. Higgins

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

This essay offers replies to the critical commentaries on The Cultural Promise of the Aesthetic presented by Kathleen M. Higgins, Carolyn Korsmeyer, and Mariana Ortega. The essay shows how the probing questions and criticisms that the three commentators raise bring out details in the framework of relationality, address, and promises through which the book theorizes the aesthetic.

Address And The Lure Of The Aesthetic: Reflections On Monique Roelofs, The Cultural Promise Of The Aesthetic, Carolyn Korsmeyer

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

Monique Roelofs argues that some of the aesthetic power of art is traceable to the way that works address their audiences, promising the creation of cultural community. Such communities become exclusionary when modes of address presume and perpetuate social hierarchies. This paper explores this notion in works where moral and aesthetic precepts seem to conflict and whose address induces attitudes that one would reject in “reality” but that are required for the full appreciative grasp of a narrative.

The Aesthetic And Its Resonances: A Reply To Kathleen M. Higgins, Carolyn Korsmeyer, And Mariana Ortega, Monique Roelofs

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

This essay offers replies to the critical commentaries on The Cultural Promise of the Aesthetic presented by Kathleen M. Higgins, Carolyn Korsmeyer, and Mariana Ortega. The essay shows how the probing questions and criticisms that the three commentators raise bring out details in the framework of relationality, address, and promises through which the book theorizes the aesthetic.

Introduction, Stefan Deines, Mario Wenning

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

No abstract provided.

Cinempathy: Phenomenology, Cognitivism, And Moving Images, Robert Sinnerbrink

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

Some of the most innovative philosophical engagement with cinema and ethics in recent years has come from phenomenological and cognitivist perspectives. This trend reflects a welcome re-engagement with cinema as a medium with the potential for ethical transformation, that is, with the idea of cinema as a medium of ethical experience. This paper explores the phenomenological turn in film theory, emphasizing the ethical implications of phenomenological approaches to affect and empathy, emotion, and evaluation. I argue that the oft-criticized subjectivism of phenomenological theories can be supplemented by cognitivist approaches that highlight the complex forms of affective response, emotional engagement, and …

Edward Yang's Confusion, Law Nga-Chun, Lo Chun-Cheong

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

Edward Yang (in Chinese 楊德昌, 1947-2007) is one of the most renowned Taiwanese directors, whose works raise criticisms of modernity. Since the New Culture Movement in the 1910s and 1920s, Chinese literati have queried the place of traditional Chinese culture, especially Confucianism, on the road to modernization. This paper gives an account of Yang’s understanding of modernization and the Confucian tradition as illustrated in his work, A Confucian Confusion (1994). We argue that, though he despised politically endorsed Confucianism as ideology, without sufficient justification Yang nonetheless reserves the possibility of taking Confucianism as a supplement to modernity.

"Can The Audience Want?" On The Artistic Status Of Contemporary Tv-Series, Angela Keppler

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

This paper takes up a question that Theodor W. Adorno posed in 1963 relating to television. The aim is to situate the new TV series, which are part of so-called Quality TV, against the backdrop of the tradition, and to analyze the forms in which the medium is being used. An inspection of pertinent sequences leads to the conclusion that the enjoyment we experience when watching these series stems from the very type of active-passive involvement that Adorno described as being essential only for objects of high culture.

Pain In Parallel, Peter Godfrey-Smith

Animal Sentience

Key's (2016) arguments against the view that fish feel pain can be shown to be fallacious by considering some damage-related behaviors in invertebrates. Pain may have different neural bases in different organisms, so the absence in fish of the cortical structures that might underlie pain in mammals does not settle the question of fish pain.

Nonverbal Indicators Of Pain, Simon Van Rysewyk

Animal Sentience

In discussing fish pain, Key (2016) privileges pain in humans — “the only species able to directly report on its feelings.” Human experience of pain is not necessarily best reflected by verbal self-report, however. Neural responses to noxious stimuli are influenced by individual differences and by context. Nonverbal pain displays such as facial expressions reflect part of the neural response to noxious stimuli. Most mammals have a specific facial grimace reflecting pain. If fish have a somatic expression of pain, the development of a reliable and accurate somatic pain scale specific to fish could make a contribution to the debate …

Black And White Multiracial Adult Womens' Experience Of Their Physical Appearance: A Qualitative Descriptive Phenomenological Analysis, Vanessa Geissler

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

According to the 2010 United States Census 1.8 million people self-identified as multiracial Black, and of that 1.8 million, 45% self-identified as Black and White. Multiracial individuals are a growing population in the United States, and by year 2050 an estimated 21% of the entire population will be multiracial. Irrespective of these statistics, research among this population is limited. Further research is warranted because existing literature has identified an increased emphasis on multiracial individual’s physical appearance. Questions such as, “What are you?” or labels such as exotic, beautiful, fascinating, or other, are a few examples of how this population is …

Why Human Pain Can’T Tell Us Whether Fish Feel Pain, Victoria A. Braithwaite, Paula Droege

Animal Sentience

In his target article, Key (2016) reviews the neuroanatomy of human pain and uses what is known about human pain to argue that fish cannot experience pain. We provide three reasons why the conclusions reached by Key are unsupported. They consider (i) why it is not sufficient to conclude that only human neural structures can process conscious pain, (ii) why an understanding of pain in humans and non-human animals needs to be based within a framework of consciousness, and (iii) evidence already exists that fish treated with noxious stimuli lose the ability to perform normal behaviours: This was a behavioral …

Fish Sentience And The Precautionary Principle, Robert C. Jones

Animal Sentience

Key (2016) argues that fish do not feel pain based on neuroanatomical evidence. I argue that Key makes a number of conceptual, philosophical, and empirical errors that undermine his claim.

An Invertebrate Perspective On Pain, Jennifer A. Mather

Animal Sentience

Although Key (2016) argues that mammals feel pain and fish do not, from an invertebrate perspective, it is obvious that the pain experience is shared by animals from a number of different animal groups.

Pain In Fish: Weighing The Evidence, James D. Rose

Animal Sentience

The target article by Key (2016) examines whether fish have brain structures capable of mediating pain perception and consciousness, functions known to depend on the neocortex in humans. He concludes, as others have concluded (Rose 2002, 2007; Rose et al. 2014), that such functions are impossible for fish brains. This conclusion has been met with hypothetical assertions by others to the effect that functions of pain and consciousness may well be possible through unknown alternate neural processes. Key's argument would be bolstered by consideration of other neurological as well as behavioral evidence, which shows that sharks and ray are fishes …