Philosophy Commons^™

Collaborative Disagreement: Coming To See The Evidence In A New Light, Erin Wiebe

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

Many disagreements regarding complex matters are essentially disagreements about how evidence ought to be assessed. After all, the way in which one assigns weight and strength to various pieces of evidence determines what one believes. These “evidential valuations” are the product of one’s previous experiences and background beliefs. One’s evidential valuations are determined by the ways of understanding the world one acquires from past evidence and the authority figures one recognizes. Accordingly, the greater the difference in two individuals’ background experiences, the greater the difference in their evidential valuations. Thus, disagreements over complex matters such as philosophy, religion, and politics …

Contemplations Of Meaning, Danny Goler

The Transdisciplinary STEAM+ Journal

Contemplation on how we construct meaning.

Killing Times [Table Of Contents], David Wills

Philosophy & Theory

Killing Times begins with the deceptively simple observation—made by Jacques Derrida in his seminars on the topic—that the death penalty mechanically interrupts mortal time by preempting the typical mortal experience of not knowing at what precise moment we will die.

Killing Times traces the logic of the death penalty across a range of sites. Starting with the struggles of American courts to articulate what methods of execution constitute “cruel and unusual punishment,” Wills goes on to show the ways that technologies of death have themselves evolved in conjunction with fraught ideas of cruelty and instantaneity, from the guillotine through today’s …

In Celebration Of Notebooks (December 2018) By Schubert M. Ogden: Avoiding The Partialist Fallacy In Theology, Especially In Liberation Theology, Theodore Walker

Perkins Faculty Research and Special Events

As an ethicist, and especially a theological ethicist, and more especially as a liberation theologian, what I most appreciate about Schubert M. Ogden’s “revisionary theology”* is his appreciation of Charles Hartshorne’s neoclassical theology, including especially panentheism (all-in-theos-ism), and his insistence that such appreciation is essential to adequately formulated theology and ethics, including liberation theology. And insofar as Ogden is contributing something essential to liberation theology, he might be called a neoclassical liberation theologian, or at least a wanna-be-helpful neoclassical theologian.

The Ontological Truth Of Film-As-Philosophy: Phenomenology Of Film: A Heideggerian Account Of The Film Experience, By Shawn Loht, James Magrini

Philosophy Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Pedagogies Of Sex Trafficking Postcolonial Fiction: Consent, Agency, And Neoliberalism In Chika Unigwe's On Black Sisters' Street, M Laura Barberan Reinares

Publications and Research

Amnesty International’s 2015-16 push for the decriminalization of sex work sparked yet another international debate on sex trafficking, with the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (CATW), together with a long list of celebrities and iconic feminists such as Gloria Steinem, claiming that such measure will only worsen sex trafficking, among other problems, and myriad pro-sex work feminists vouch-ing exactly the opposite.1 This dispute is by no means new-as of 2018, it remains at an impasse-but, interestingly, while sociologists and women’s studies scholars have been discussing sex trafficking issues for decades now, and despite its intimate relation to postcolonialism and globalization, …

Review: Melissa Anne-Marie Curley, Pure Land, Real World: Modern Buddhism, Japanese Leftists, And The Utopian Imagination, James Mark Shields

Other Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Pagan Winter, Samm Willard

Sophia and Philosophia

Isn’t this a lovely place to pick apart your lover’s face
Some say the river bank’s a sacred place
Others think that’s such a silly thing to say
But I would never try to prove them wrong on such a blissful day
The colors of the leaves will soon have changed
The yellows and the greens will fade to gray
But I will lose a quiet hour to the darkest day
A pagan winter’s on its way
I will see the death of God before it’s Christmas day
A pagan winter’s on its way
Well isn’t this some lovely clay …

Imagining Action In/Against The Anthropocene: Narrative Impasse And The Necessity Of Alternatives To Effect Resistance, Ariel Kroon

The Goose

The Anthropocene has emerged as the dominant conception of the contemporary moment, centering the human individual as both responsible for and bearing the responsibility to counteract its numerous interrelated socioeconomic, political, and environmental issues including the staggering loss of biodiversity across the globe and the reality of anthropogenic climate change. This constitutes a significant psychological impasse that disempowers and disenfranchises humans living in this epoch, discouraging any substantive individual effort. Drawing on the posthuman feminist philosophy of theorists such as Rosi Braidotti and Stacy Alaimo together with a reflection of the power of science fiction as a literature of cognitive …

Lab‐Grown Meat And Veganism: A Virtue‐Oriented Perspective, Carlo Alvaro

Publications and Research

The project of growing meat artificially represents for some the next best thing to humanity. If successful, it could be the solution to several problems, such as feed- ing a growing global population while reducing the environmental impact of raising animals for food and, of course, reducing the amount and degree of animal cruelty and suffering that is involved in animal farming. In this paper, I argue that the issue of the morality of such a project has been framed only in terms of the best conse- quences for the environment, animals, and humans, or in terms of deontic princi- …

The Political Psychology Of Death: Until It Do Us Part, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article describes interwoven complexities and psychologies of life and death in the lives of political actors.

A Historical Approach To Understanding Explanatory Proofs Based On Mathematical Practices, Erika Oshiro

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

My dissertation focuses on mathematical explanation found in proofs looked at from a historical point of view, while stressing the importance of mathematical practices. Current philosophical theories on explanatory proofs emphasize the structure and content of proofs without any regard to external factors that influence a proof’s explanatory power. As a result, the major philosophical views have been shown to be inadequate in capturing general aspects of explanation. I argue that, in addition to form and content, a proof’s explanatory power depends on its targeted audience. History is useful here, because from it, we are able to follow the transition …

Beauty As Art: Somaesthetic Consumption As Alternative To Docility, Talia Welsh

Atlantic Marketing Association Proceedings

No abstract provided.

“I’Ll Be Your Mirror”, The Soul, And Intelligence And Counterintelligence Applications, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article describes how the psychological trope of mirroring can explicate mass leadership and betrayals of trust.

On The Ethical Significance Of Ecological Restoration: Domination Or Collaboration?, Roger J.H. King

Between the Species

Ecological restoration is essential both to a sustainable human culture and to the well being of the more-than-human world. Yet some philosophers criticize enthusiasm for restoration as yet another manifestation of human domination and anthropocentric arrogance. The paper critiques this view as persistently presented by Eric Katz, and offers an alternative view of restoration’s ethical significance. Rather than seeing restoration as a unilateral human imposition on nature, restoration deserves defense as an expression of an interspecies etiquette, attentive to collaboration with the more-than-human world. But the full ethical significance of ecological restoration will not be realized without deep change in …

Towards Quantifiable Metrics Warranting Industry-Wide Corporate Death Penalties, Joshua M. Pearce

Department of Materials Science and Engineering Publications

In the singular search for profits, some corporations inadvertently kill humans. If this routinely occurs throughout an industry, it may no longer serve a net positive social purpose for society and should be eliminated. This article provides a path to an objective quantifiable metric for determining when an entire industry warrants the corporate death penalty. First, a theoretical foundation is developed with minimum assumptions necessary to provide evidence for corporate public purposes. This is formed into an objective quantifiable metric with publicly-available data and applied to two case studies in the U.S.: the tobacco and coal mining industries. The results …

In Defense Of Cities: On Negative Presentation Of Urban Areas In Environmental Preference Studies, Anu Besson

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

This paper critiques a common research method, image-based studies, in assessing environmental references. The method is used, in particular, in the fields of environmental psychology, landscape studies, and health studies, here called empirical environmental preference studies or EEP studies. I argue that the established view in the EEP field that nature is inherently experienced as more aesthetically appealing and restorative than urban environments may be biased because of the image-based method. This paper presents a literature review of EEP studies, discussing them in a framework of environmental and everyday aesthetics. The conclusion is that EEP studies may strip cities of …

The Case For The Green Kant: A Defense And Application Of A Kantian Approach To Environmental Ethics, Zachary T. Vereb

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Environmental philosophers have argued that Kant’s philosophy offers little for environmental issues. Furthermore, Kant scholars typically focus on humanity, ignoring the question of duties to the environment. In my dissertation, I turn to a number of underexploited texts in Kant’s work to show how both sides are misguided in neglecting the ecological potential of Kant, making the case for the green Kant at the intersection of Kant scholarship and environmental ethics. I build upon previous literature to argue that the green Kant matters for both sides. Rather than a liability, Kant is indeed a conceptual resource. Though many conceive of …

When Is Terrorism All In The Family?, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article describes putative linkages between family relationships and kinds of terrorism.

The Ethics Of Human-Animal Relationships And Public Discourse: A Case Study Of Lions Bred For Their Bones, Peter Coals, Dawn Burnham, Andrew Loveridge, David W. Macdonald, Michael 'T Sas-Rolfes, Vivvienne Williams, John A. Vucetich

College of Forest Resources and Environmental Science Publications

Conservation and natural resource management are increasingly attending the ethical elements of public decisions. Ethical considerations are challenging, in part, because they typically require accounting for the moral consideration of various human and nonhuman forms of life, whose interests sometimes conflict (or seem to conflict). A valuable tool for such evaluations is the formal analysis of ethical arguments. An ethical argument is a collection of premises, logically interrelated, to yield a conclusion that can be expressed in the form, “We ought to…” According to the rules of logic, a conclusion is supported by an argument if all its …

Connecting Ethics To Fys Class Participation, Emily Shreve

UNLV Best Teaching Practices Expo

One goal of UNLV’s First-Year Seminars is that students are introduced to, and understand the purpose of, the University Undergraduate Learning Outcomes (UULOs). This activity introduces students to Citizenship and Ethics, focusing especially on applying ethics in situations directly relevant to students’ daily lives.

Charting New Territory: The Aesthetic Value Of Artistic Visions That Emanate In The Aftermath Of Severe Trauma, Tania Love Abramson, Paul R. Abramson

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

No abstract provided.

Duchamp And The Science Of Art, Miklos Legrady

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

No abstract provided.

A (Not So) Secular Saint, James K.A. Smith

University Faculty Publications and Creative Works

Review of John Stuart Mill: A Secular Life by Timothy Larsen

Deeper Into Superficiality, Donald H. Wacome

Northwestern Review

Science profoundly undermines our traditional self-conception, portraying humans not as categorically different than and superior to the rest of creation, but material things, the contingent product of vastly improbable natural processes. We are superficial features of the universe, not among its basic or necessitated constituents. For some, this threatens the conviction that we are made in God’s Image. However, the author argues that God chose to create us but not to design us. The Christian faith, looking to God’s nature and revealed purposes in creation, finds resources not merely to cope with the scientific erosion of the human self-image, but …

Psychologies Of Going Nuclear, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article identifies multiple psychologies affecting joining and withdrawing from nuclear weapons agreements.

You’Ve Never Read Aristotle And Probably Never Will, Philosophical Discussion Group

The Philosopher's Stone

You’ve Never Read Aristotle And Probably Never Will

Haunted By A Memory I Never Lived, Carlos Hiraldo

Sophia and Philosophia

I am haunted by a memory I never lived. My mother and father are sitting in their house in Brooklyn with my baby sister watching the 1969 moon landing. Born in 1971, I wasn’t there. But I spent my toddler years in the waning residue of excitement about the landing and listening to adults talk about where they had watched it. As a child, I was baffled by how vivid this event that occurred without me was to people of my parents’ age. Except for some surviving pictures of the living room, I never knew the house in which they …

A Politics Of Peripheries: Deleuze And Guattari As Dependency Theorists, Samuel Weeks

College of Humanities and Sciences Faculty Papers

Given that Deleuze and Guattari came to prominence after May 1968, many readers attempt to determine the political significance of their work. The difficulty that some encounter finding its political implications contrasts with Deleuze and Guattari's commitment to radical causes. In response, Patton and Thoburn elaborate on the Marxist elements in the pair's oeuvre, a line of analysis I continue. Focusing on A Thousand Plateaus, I discuss their references to the theorisation of the ‘dependency theorists’, a group of Marxist-inspired scholars who became influential during the 1960s. Does their engagement with dependency theory provide the basis for a political …

Why The Duty To Self-Censor Requires Social-Media Users To Maintain Their Own Privacy, Earl W. Spurgin

2019 Faculty Bibliography

Revelations of personal matters often have negative consequences for social-media users. These consequences trigger frequent warnings, practical rather than moral in nature, that social-media users should consider carefully what they reveal about themselves since their revelations might cause them various difficulties in the future. I set aside such practical considerations and argue that social-media users have a moral obligation to maintain their own privacy that is rooted in the duty to self-censor. Although Anita L. Allen provides a paternalist justification of the duty that supports my position that social-media users are obligated to self-censor what they reveal about themselves, I …