Philosophy Commons^™

Overcoming Inertia To Deliver Sentience Policy Commensurate With Sentience Science, Claire Bass

Animal Sentience

Rowan et al’s target article makes clear that meaningful change in policy and practice to protect animals has failed to progress in lockstep with scientific understanding of their sentience and needs. The underlying causes for inertia in political and practical progress for animals in the UK context are multi-faceted and complex, including economic forces; lack of cross-departmental accountability for animal welfare; and challenges where it suits conservation scientists to dismiss or downgrade the impacts of management decisions on individual animals. All of these influences and more must be understood and addressed if we are to deliver meaningful and timely protections …

(2022) ​​Philosophy For Children As A Form Of Spiritual Education, Olivier Michaud

Collected Papers of Maughn Rollins Gregory

In the last two decades, some authors in the philosophy for children movement have theorized that the community of philosophical inquiry can be a form of spiritual practice, of the care of the self, or a wisdom practice (De Marzio, 2009; Gregory, 2009, 2013, 2014;Gregory & Laverty, 2009). Yet, it is unclear if philosophy for children is, by itself, a form of spiritual education, or if it requires some sorts of modification to be one. And, if it is or can be a form of spiritual education, we can interrogate in what ways and to what extent is it one. …

(2022) Philosophizing With Children’S Literature: A Response To Turgeon And Wartenberg, Darren Chetty, Maughn Rollins Gregory, Megan Jane Laverty

Collected Papers of Maughn Rollins Gregory

With the maturation of a field comes the opportunity and the responsibility to reflect on its sources, its areas and directions of development, debates among its proponents, and critiques originating from inside and outside the field. While early proponents of philosophy for children supported each other in the face of misunderstanding and misapprehension, differences inevitably arose among them, not only concerning materials and methods, but also concerning the very meanings of philosophy, childhood and education. These differences remain among contemporary scholars, educators and practitioners, who continue to engage in robust debates about how to research and practice philosophy with children …

(2022) Frog And Toad At The Academy: Gareth B. Matthews On How Children’S Literature Goes Philosophical, Maughn Rollins Gregory, Megan Jane Laverty

Collected Papers of Maughn Rollins Gregory

Gareth B. Matthews (1929–2011) inaugurated the study of philosophy in children’s literature by simultaneously arguing (1) that philosophy is essentially an encounter with certain kinds of perplexities, (2) that genuine philosophical perplexities are readily found in many children’s stories, and (3) that many children are capable of appreciating and enjoying them. He wrote 58 reviews of philosophical children’s stories and co-authored a series of teacher guides for using such stories. Following Matthews’ example, others have produced resources recommending children’s stories as stimuli for intergenerational philosophical dialog. In our research, we study and systematize the different ways that Matthews understood children’s …

Facultas Marginem: Assessing Disability Data And Public Aau Universities’ Affirmative Action Plans For Systemic Barriers Facing Faculty With Disabilities, Joseph Carlton Barry

Theses and Dissertations--Education Sciences

This dissertation contributes to education equity scholarship produced by academics seeking to develop understandings of disability, Persons with Disabilities (PWD), and how both are situated amongst faculty in institutions of higher education. As such, this dissertation centers on a study of public US universities belonging to the Association of American Universities (AAU). This study looks for institutional level associations between respective rates by which college and university faculty with disabilities (FWD) are employed, certain aspects of disability policy drawn from each institution’s 2020 Affirmative Action Plans (AAP), and various other instances of empirical disability data (EDD).

While this study contributes …

Normative Ambiguity Facing Those Who Flee Death During Times Of War And Pandemic And Who Eventually Return Home, Rory Conces

Philosophy Faculty Publications

We dwell in a world of physical things. When it comes to the environments that we live in, we usually become oriented to the place, and eventually feel at home in it. Facing death during war and pandemic are times of extreme disorientation, and we sometimes exhibit an impulse to flee. It is no wonder that in those desperate times, some with means and ability consider fleeing to a safer place. But are we morally obliged to act in ways that would ask us to sacrifice our deepest personal commitments and projects for others to meet their commitments and projects? …

Sentience In Decapod Crustaceans: A General Framework And Review Of The Evidence, Andrew Crump, Heather Browning, Alex Schnell, Charlotte Burn, Jonathan Birch

Animal Sentience

We outline a framework for evaluating scientific evidence of sentience, focusing on pain experience. It includes eight neural and cognitive-behavioural criteria, with confidence levels for each criterion reflecting the reliability and quality of the evidence. We outline the rationale for each criterion and apply our framework to a controversial sentience candidate: decapod crustaceans. We have either high or very high confidence that true crabs (infraorder Brachyura) satisfy five criteria, amounting to strong evidence of sentience. Moreover, we have high confidence that both anomuran crabs (infraorder Anomura) and astacid lobsters/crayfish (infraorder Astacidea) meet three criteria—substantial evidence of sentience. The case is, …

Why Are They Called Real Numbers If They Aren’T Real, And Other Such Questions?, Rahmat Rashid

Honors Program Theses

This thesis studies the position of mathematical realism (the position that mathematical objects have ontological status) through history, starting with Pythagoras up until W.V.O Quine, and examining how these positions originate from each other. I hope to see how the position has changed and why, and provide an argument against the strongest of the realist positions, drawing on this extensive background. Finally, I advance my own argument against the strongest arguments for mathematical realism, and propose alternatives to a view of mathematical realism.

Defining And Assessing Sentience, Barry O. Hughes

Animal Sentience

Precisely what is meant by the term sentience and how does it overlap with being conscious? We accept that animals have feelings but how do we know what they are and can we measure them? It is important that we clarify the terminology underlying these difficult concepts. Over the last 50 years a scientific discipline has developed to tackle these questions in a systematic way. We have to avoid thoughtless anthropomorphism yet we have to try to relate sentience in animals, as appropriate, to corresponding experiences in humans.

Care Ethics, Religion, And Spiritual Traditions, Inge Van Nistelrooij, Maureen Sander-Staudt, Maurice Hamington

Philosophy Faculty Publications and Presentations

Care Ethics, Religion, and Spiritual Traditions is a collection of original essays that address the intersection between contemporary feminist care ethics and religious morality. Feminist care ethics is one of the most dynamic areas in modern theory. This relational approach to morality emphasizes context, emotion, and imagination over consequences, rules, and rights has only been around for about four decades, with its definition still being negotiated. Still, the respect for this approach is demonstrated by its widespread inclusion in moral discourse. Historically, care has been an overlooked concept in philosophy, but religion's ambivalence toward care ethics is even more pronounced. …

Post-Phenomenology, Transduction, And Speculative Fabulations, RóIsíN Lally

Leadership Studies Faculty Scholarship

This response briefly argues that post-phenomenology has always cut across the transcendental-empirical divide and is able to cultivate a deep respect for technologies in their otherness, without denying their relation to humanity. It does this by revisiting Don Ihde’s genetic phenomenological variations and tracing its relation to Gilbert Simondon’s ontogenesis. Having set up the historical nature of objects, the second part of this paper will take up Yoni Van Den Eede’s call for a more speculative approach.

Thinking, Faster And Slower: Toward A Dynamic View Of Organizational Cognition, Joseph Vukov, Charles Lassiter

Philosophy Faculty Scholarship

Our abilities as humans—i.e. our powers—aren’t always stable across contexts. In particular, sociocultural contexts can amplify or dampen manifestations of our powers. In particular, the same sociocultural intervention can catalyze a manifestation for one sort of individual and inhibit it for another. We develop these insights within the conceptual framework of causal powers realism: An ontological theory built on the idea that causal influences and processes should ultimately be understood as the manifestation of powers. Developing capacities’ dynamism in this framework enables articulation of novel insights. First, that our psychological capacities are context-sensitive and dynamic all the way down. Second, …

You Are An Explorer (2020) By Shahrzad Shahrjerdi, Farzaneh Shahrtash

Picture Books

This beautifully illustrated book, with exaggerated pictures of two unprotected children, deals with the issue of post-war displacement of children and their families. While the parents of these two explorers are absent for an unknown reason, the older brother is taking care of the younger sister by his creative thinking. He is trying to use the power of his imagination based on care, as a technique to face seemingly unendurable and oppressive situations. The children who discuss You Are an Explorer may not have experienced a real war, may not have been in any post-war situations, and may not have …

Bear Outside (2021) By Jane Yolen, Maughn Gregory

Picture Books

“Some folks have a lion inside, or a tiger. Not me. I wear my bear on the outside.” The young protagonist of Jane Yolen’s 400^th book for children is able to take risks and ignore bullies, not by putting on a ferocious countenance, but by summoning the persona of a giant, friendly bear, that might be an imaginary playmate or a representation of her inner courage. If I wore a bear outside today, what would I do differently? But this story also shows that even young children experience disagreement among their inner selves with different, sometimes conflicting tendencies, needs, …

Enemy: A Book About Peace (2007) By Davide Cali;, Maria Zbroy

Picture Books

Every person, society, and ethnic community builds its worldview on the basis of comparing in-group and out-group, the boundaries of which are variable. The one who seems closest to us may be a complete stranger. And someone who comes from afar, who belongs to a completely different community or nation, can become the closest person. Only we determine who is our friend and who is our enemy. In Davide Cali’s allegory about modern warfare and other kinds of conflict, two soldiers who have never seen each other shoot at each other from inside their trenches until one decides to take …

Lack Of Imagination Can Bias Our View Of Animal Sentience, Brian Key, Deborah Brown

Animal Sentience

How an animal reacts to a sensory stimulus is often used to assess whether that animal can experience feelings such as pain and pleasure. This behavioural path is typically complemented with reference to how a human would normally respond to and experience an analogous stimulus. Together, these approaches can lead to a “hard to imagine otherwise” argument for feelings. It is time to go beyond these qualitative assessments and to now determine whether a nervous system can execute the neural functions necessary for sentience.

X Marks Nothing: Chiasmus And Kenosis In Kaija Saariaho's La Passion De Simone, Desiree Scarambone

Theses and Dissertations--Music

Composer Kaija Saariaho’s 2006 work La Passion de Simone often leaves audiences and critics at a loss to understand what they have witnessed. The title, subject, and sparse libretto only complicate this confusion. The genre of the work is ambiguous to many; some critics call it an opera, some an oratorio. Because the subject of the work, French philosopher Simone Weil, is widely unknown to the public, her placement within the framework of a Passion is often met with confusion if not criticism.

By fusing Weil’s life and philosophical ideas in this work, Saariaho explores how the awareness of the …

Procurement Fraud Prevention Strategies In Ghanaian Gold Mining Companies, Alfred Ekow Taylor

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Procurement fraud occurs at various stages of the procurement lifecycle and can be very costly to organizations. Business managers are concerned with the enormous impact of procurement fraud on business revenue. Grounded in Cressey’s fraud triangle theory, the purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore strategies business managers use to detect, control, and prevent procurement fraud successfully. The participants were six procurement managers in Ghanaian gold mining companies who successfully detected, controlled, and prevented procurement fraud. Data were collected using semistructured interviews and a review of company documents. Through thematic analysis, three themes emerged: (a) internal control …

Latino Pastors’ Perceptions Of Referring Intimate Partner Violence Victims To Secular, Esther M. Rios

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Information about intimate partner violence (IPV) perceptions within the Latino clergy population is scarce. This research study investigated perceptions, experiences, and biases, precluding Latino clergy in referring church members to outside resources. The research question focused on Latino pastors’ perceptions about referring church members victims of IPV to secular organizations. Understanding clergy’s IPV perceptions provided an opportunity for scholars to explore ways for clergy to discover other organizations contributions to IPV. Historical oppression was used as the framework for the study because Latino women victims of IPV experience severe victimization and are afraid to report the abuse. Previous research does …

Developmental Comparative Philosophy: Identifying Common Trends Between American Libertarian And Chinese Thoughts, Jacob Rich

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

East/west comparative philosophy often focuses on the differences between philosophies as finished states which, though effective at showing differences in thought, emphasizes the otherness of foreign traditions. In order to establish meaningful similarities between the development on eastern and western traditions, I compared the development of American liberalism (1651-1776 CE) and Chinese Confucianism and Daoism (772-221 BCE), focusing on the similarities between social contract to enlightenment philosophers and the early to late Hundred Schools of Thought Confucian and Daoist philosophers. Three principals were derived from this process: a shift from external to internal justifications for the state causes increased secularism …

Constructing A Well-Being: Exploring Knowledge Construction In Dbt Skills Training Using Art And Activity Theory, Elizabeth Bailey

Wayne State University Dissertations

Through Arts-based Research, constructed within the theoretical basis of the Activity System, participants engaged with dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) program content to develop a cohesive and meaningful project. Participants are conceptualized as reliable experts in their own experience, and as active agents of knowledge construction. Participants generate profound and relevant insights into their experiences – insights that can enhance DBT practice, expand research methodology, and build conceptual connections across theories. The Arts-based Activity System offers a theoretically-backed methodology that can disrupt the harmful parallels between the development of the disorders DBT is intended to treat and the dominant research paradigm …

Animal Sentience In Indian Culture: Colonial And Post-Colonial Changes, Nanditha Krishna

Animal Sentience

The Indian tradition has respected animal sentience and non-injury toward all life. It is repeated consistently in Sanskrit literature and the later literature of the Jains and the Buddhists. Change came with the advent of Islamic rule followed by the British, who built slaughterhouses. The hunting of wildlife increased and several wild predator species were wiped out. The result was the series of legislations for animals which were initially proposed by the SPCAs and later by NGOs. In 1976, the Constitution of India was amended to make the protection of wildlife and compassion for living creatures a fundamental duty. However, …

Friendship In The Confucian Tradition, Andrew Lambert

Publications and Research

An overview of how friendship has been represented and assessed in the Confucian tradition, and particularly in classical Confucian texts such as the Analects and the Mencius. Themes covered include the relationship between the family and friendship, the ambivalence towards friendship in imperial China, and the connection between friendship and the Confucian ideal of personal cultivation. The chapter finishes by exploring novel conceptions of friendship and human relatedness suggested by the Confucian tradition.

Ethical Leadership And Leadership In Ethics, Robert Audi

Interdisciplinary Journal of Leadership Studies

This paper offers a conceptual portrait of leadership and a framework for exercising it in the realm of ethics. The paper provides an account of what constitutes leadership, a set of moral standards for its ethical exercise, and a distinction between leadership that meets these standards and leadership that not only meets them, but positively engages them. This engagement is central for leadership in ethics. The main context for analysis in the paper is organizational. Leadership is essential for the success of organizations and morally important in their daily operations. The paper also describes its nature and role in less …

Pain Is Beyng Itself: Heidegger’S Algontology, Ian Alexander Moore

Philosophy Faculty Works

Among the many words Heidegger explores in order to elucidate his primary matter for thought, one would not likely expect Schmerz (“pain”) to play a prominent role. And yet, in a selection of notes recently published in a limited German edition under the title Über den Schmerz (On Pain), Heidegger goes so far as to claim that pain is beyng itself. In this paper I analyze Heidegger’s ontological treatment of pain and his etymology of its Greek counterpart, asking whether he does not ultimately anesthetize his readers to pain’s most rending effects.

Translating Gadamer And Heidegger Translating Aristotle: Über'setzen' And 'Über'setzen, Ian Alexander Moore

Philosophy Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

Philosophy And Theology: Gender Ideology, Christopher Kaczor

Philosophy Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

Philosophy And Theology: Lethal Organ Donation, Christopher Kaczor

Philosophy Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

Philosophy And Theology: Conscientious Objection, Christopher Kaczor

Philosophy Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

Thomas Aquinas On Gratitude To God, Christopher Kaczor

Philosophy Faculty Works

Discussions of gratitude to God characteristically presuppose some philosophical or theological framework. This philosophical and theological exploration of gratitude to God examines the topic in light of the thought of Thomas Aquinas. Unlike some treatments of Aquinas’ account of gratitude, I draw extensively on Aquinas’ commentaries on Scripture as well as lesser known works, such as his sermons, to illuminate these topics rather than exclusively relying on the Summa theologiae. In the first part of this article, I focus on how Aquinas understands the virtue of gratitude to God. In the second part, I examine his account of ingratitude to …