Philosophy Commons^™

A Defense Of Kantian Ethics Against Rigorism, Leyna Hong

CMC Senior Theses

Kantian ethics has prevailed as one of the most popular ethical theories due to its appeal to our moral intuitions. The good will is the good with the most intrinsic value, and respect for others as rational beings is at the core of the moral principles. Despite its appeal, Kantian Ethics faces some difficult challenges. One challenge with great force is that of rigorism. The charge is that the moral principles outlined by Kant should allow for exceptions; if they don't, Kantian ethics is too rigorous and inflexible to fit our moral intuitions.

One particular essay of Kant that has …

The Controversies Of (Immersion) Piss Christ And The Perfect Moment: An Argument For State Funding Of The Arts As An Extension Of Free Speech Protections, Olivia Fish

CMC Senior Theses

In 1989, artists Robert Mapplethorpe and Andres Serrano received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). A short few months after the two artists became grant recipients, the funding for each of them was pulled as a result of escalating controversy and anger over the art created by both artists being funded by a federal organization. Those angered by the art and their respective grants tied the messaging of the art to the beliefs and values of the state—Serrano’s photograph being tied to a commentary on the overcommercialization of religion and Mapplethorpe’s exhibition being unabashedly queer and, at …

The Gay Science: Power On The Body, Population, And Psyche, Nicola Augustyn

CMC Senior Theses

Michel Foucault is a philosopher of power who left behind a legacy of ideas that continue to inspire scholars today. His conceptualization of power is not limited to the figures of kings, monarchs, or the sovereign state. Rather, he regards power as a productive force that shapes subjectivity, manufactures knowledge, and engenders the truth in a particular historical context. In this thesis, I aim to provide a comprehensive account of Foucault’s analysis of power, starting with his refutation of the “repressive hypothesis” that challenges the predominant view of centralized top-down power. Then, I present Foucault’s proposal for redefining power as …

More On The Demons Of Thermodynamics, Daniel P. Sheehan, Garret Moddel, James W. Lee

Chemistry & Biochemistry Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Review Of Rene Van Woudenberg’S "The Epistemology Of Reading And Interpretation.”, Jeffrey C. Goodman

Faculty Scholarship

I here review Rene van Woudenberg’s monograph, The Epistemology of Reading and Interpretation

Language Matters, Teya Brooks Pribac

Animal Sentience

The term sentience tends to be associated with affective valence along with affectively neutral sensory states. In the absence of evidence for affectively laden states in plants, the use of the term sentience in the exploration of plant sensory and behavioral complexity is misleading and ethically problematic for its potential to trivialize animal sentience.

The Routes Of Introspection, Adriana Renero

Publications and Research

In “What forms could introspective systems take? A research programme”, François Kammerer and Keith Frankish aim to map the space of “possible forms of introspection” while lending themselves to questions about how different kinds of minds represent themselves. This paper aligns with Kammerer and Frankish’s research programme in embracing other possible forms of introspection; it provides an outline of how, in representing its mental states, an introspective system could take a selective, cumulative, and/or predictive route while underscoring the importance of considering routes of introspection. Although this work only explores human minds, it contributes to Kammerer and Frankish’s research programme …

Logic As Applied Mathematics — With Particular Application To The Notion Of Logical Form, Graham Priest

Publications and Research

The word ‘logic’ has many senses. Here we will understand it as meaning an account of what follows from what and why. With contemporary methodology, logic in this sense – though it may not always have been thought of in this way – is a branch of applied mathematics. This has various implications for how one understands a number of issues concerning validity. In this paper I will explain this perspective of logic, and explore some of its consequences with respect to the notion of logical form.

Buddhism And Transpersonal Psychology, Elías Capriles

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

In the debate between Freud and Romain Rolland the latter asserted the infants’ oceanic feeling to be saner than the adults’ limited sense of self, and that mystics recover the oceanic feeling without losing the learning achieved during socialization. Freud retorted that the oceanic feeling involved a sense of shelterlessness, and whoever went through derealization was psychotic and needed to be cured. However, the feeling of shelterlessness comes from the fledging sense of separation, and although derealization is a dangerous process, when it develops unhindered the result is greater sanity. So, Buddhism and TP agree in valuing transpersonal and holotropic …

Reducing Workplace Conflict: A Reasonable Expectation?, Stephen Mark Kominek

Department of Conflict Resolution Studies Theses and Dissertations

Workplace conflict is a part of everyday work life for many employees, from educationalinstitutions to businesses, and can occur for multiple different reasons. Research has shown that employees spend a significant amount of their life in the workplace and that addressing unresolved conflict is one of the costliest aspects of running an organization. The literature suggests that providing employees with the opportunity to experience greater job satisfaction may reduce the occurrence of workplace conflict. This quantitative study explored the experience of workers employed in various organizations and institutions. The theoretical frameworks applied in the study were Systems Theory and Maslow’s …

Reply To Tannenbaum Et Al.: Constructive Dialogue Advancing Research On Civic Honesty, Weiwei Zhang, Yacheng Sun, Shiyong Liu, Xinyue Zhou, Qian Yang, Qi Zhang

Community & Environmental Health Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Internal Colonialism And Democracy, Adam Burgos

Faculty Journal Articles

This essay examines the relationship between African American internal colonialism and democracy, highlighting the complexities of democracy that make it both susceptible to oppressive violence at home and abroad, as well as a potential resource for emancipation and equality. I understand “internal colonialism” here to encompass various terms used by African Americans beginning in the 1830s, including semi-colonialism, domestic colonialism, and a nation within a nation. Much political philosophy assumes that society is “nearly just” or “generally just,” or that oppression and injustice are found in societies that we nonetheless deem legitimate. Centering the complexities and possibilities of democracy instead …

Should Pharma Companies Waive Their Covid-19 Vaccine Patents? A Legal And Ethical Appraisal, Tammy W. Cowart, Gregory L. Bock

Accounting, Finance, Information Systems, and Business-Law Faculty Publications and Presentations

Pharmaceutical companies, like many other types of companies, are incentivized to create, manufacture, and distribute new products, in part due to the legal protections of patent law. However, the tension between patent rights and the public good has been heightened as pharma companies developed new vaccines to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. Wealthy governments paid well for vaccines and received ample supplies, while low- and middle-income countries struggled to obtain access to any vaccines. Some countries called for pharmaceutical companies to waive their patent protections for vaccines in order to facilitate the worldwide manufacture and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines. This paper …

From Building To Dwelling: Unfolding Infinity Through Bioregional Fulfillment, Sanjana Bhatnagar

Pitzer Senior Theses

The causes of anthropogenic climate change touch every feature of our modern-day existences. Approaches to sustainability tend to focus on material actions, but unsustainable practices are guided by an ontological orientation of individuality and human exceptionalism. This thesis provides an alternate account of being that decenters individuality through weaving the metaphysics of Fazang of the Huayan School of Mahayana Buddhism with the metaphysics of Martin Heidegger. To encompass the whole of the relational network that constitutes and conditionally defines our existence, I expand Heidegger’s account of locales as relational sites which are put forth solely by humans to an account …

Spinoza's Cosmopsychism: The Multifaceted Mind Of Nature, Audrey N. Perryman

Honors Undergraduate Theses

In my thesis, I will argue that while at first glance Spinoza's system seems to conflict with itself and provide an explanation of the mind that can be more confusing than helpful, its aspect of panpsychism provides a sort of lifeline for understanding. Not only does Spinoza's cosmopsychism make his system cohesive, but it can also be independently motivated by ideas that are compatible with the more contemporary intuitions in philosophy of mind. I will explore the specific nature of this universal mentality, how Spinoza's particular genre of panpsychism relates to other theories of panpsychism, and how his conception of …

The Ethical Basis For Student-To-Student Training In Dentistry, Larry E. Jenson Dds, Ma, Joel M. White Dds, Ms

Journal of the American College of Dentists

This article will focus on the most ethically contentious student-to student training practice: local anesthesia administration. We will examine the factors that contribute to a broader understanding of the ethical issues involved and introduce a framework that will help to clarify these issues. We have identified six stakeholders in this issue: the student-as-patient, the student-as-student, the university, the faculty, the general public and the profession.

The Virtue Of Sōphrosunē In Plato’S Gorgias And Phaedrus, Kristian Sheeley

Theses and Dissertations--Philosophy

This dissertation argues that the substantial differences in Plato’s accounts of virtue in the Gorgias and Phaedrus are best understood as adjustments that Socrates makes in order to have the most pedagogically and ethically valuable impact on the different interlocutors (each of which represents universal type of person) with whom he speaks. While Plato has Socrates give arguments about virtue, love, happiness, and so on that are strong when taken on their own, he also depicts Socrates tailoring these arguments with the aim of persuading his interlocutors to pursue a more virtuous life. The central example I focus on is …

Pacifism And The Science Of War: Jane Addams And Bertrand Russell On World War I, Marilyn Fischer

Philosophy Faculty Publications

In July 1915, after hearing Jane Addams speak in London on her efforts for peace during wartime, Bertrand Russell wrote to an American friend, “You can gather what I think and feel by talking to Miss Addams. She seemed to me to have exactly the same outlook as I have.” In this paper I compare how Russell and Addams used the era’s scientific theories in formulating their pacifism. After recounting Addams’s and Russell’s experiences during the war, I show how Addams and Russell accounted for civilization’s “descent into barbarism” in parallel ways. I then contrast their conceptions of what counts …

Dead Bird (1965/2016) By Margaret Wise Brown, Peter Shea

Picture Books

Children come upon a bird that has just died. It is still warm. They bury it, sing a song they have made up, and plant flowers. They visit the grave every day to put fresh flowers on it and to sing to the bird, until they forget. Margaret Wise Brown’s The Dead Bird is a story about how a new ritual happens, spontaneously, out of a shared experience of grief, expressing a shared reverence for one kind of life. The children are thinking, in a way: they are keeping something in mind for a long time, in a beautiful form. …

Alexander Von Humboldt: Explorer, Naturalist, And Environmental Pioneer (2019) By Danica Novgorodoff, Peter Shea

Picture Books

As a young boy, Alexander Von Humboldt came up with divergent questions about the birds and mountains and animals he saw, and brought all those questions together under two big questions that stayed important for him over a long life: “How are these things different?” and “How are they nevertheless connected?” As the reader watches Humboldt looking at a hawk and a mouse, volcanoes and farmland, palm trees and pine trees, Europe and Ecuador, Europeans and Indigenous people, one comes to expect what he will say: “They are different, and yet they are connected.” This idea is much bigger than …

Deconstruction Of A Dialogue: Creative Interpretation In Comparative Philosophy, Steven Burik

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

It is common knowledge that Martin Heidegger’s attempts at engaging non-Western philosophy are very much a construct of his own making. This article in no way seeks to disagree with those observations, but argues two things: first, that Heidegger’s “dialogue” with his two main other sources of inspiration, the ancient Greek thinkers and the German poets, is not different in kind or in principle from his engagement with East Asia. One can of course quite easily argue that Heidegger’s main interest was the ancient Greek thinkers, and then the poets, and only lastly Asia. But this hierarchy in preference does …

“Wilfrid Sellars And Pragmatism”, Willem A. Devries

Faculty Publications

A brief survey of Wilfrid Sellars' relation to Pragmatism, focusing on the priority of the practical in the constitution of meaning, the critique of the given, and sociality of thought and inquiry.

Her Story, Her Right: Narrative As A Basic Human Right, Karlee M. Colby

Honors Program Theses

When I began this project, I wanted to ask the question of whether or not our narratives are a basic human right. Looking back, I realize how naive it was of me to ponder on such a thought, for I have now realized that we have many rights just simply by being humans, and it is undeniable that having an accurate version of our narratives without fear of manipulation or silencing is a right. How can one argue not? The question is not and cannot be about whether or not something is a right, but instead whether or not we …

Hopeful Oscillation: Metamodernism, Barbenheimer, And Our New Cultural Undercurrent, Jewel T. Miller

Capstone Showcase

Recent societal changes have pushed artwork and media away from postmodernism as a dominant cultural philosophy. In its place has risen a new theoretical approach, titled Metamodernism, which attempts to discover the meaning behind present day art and media’s strengthening affective qualities, and provide a possible label for this new post-postmodernist state. This is not only an important attempt at understanding the society we live in today but also its broader impact on how we communicate through media. This paper explores the rise of Metamodernism as a theoretical approach within media studies and philosophy, including the term’s inception and growing …

Dementia And The Fragility Of Self: Navigating Ethical Considerations In Medical Decision-Making, Grace Sauers

Scripps Senior Theses

As the global population ages, the incidence of degenerative memory disorders such as Alzheimer's and dementia is expected to rise. The frequency of complex medical decision-making challenges for these patients will subsequently increase. It is now common practice for patients to provide advance directives outlining the care they wish to receive; in the case they are deemed incompetent to perform adequate decision making. However, patients with dementia occasionally express wishes contrary to those stated in their advance directives. This divergence creates ambiguity about which wishes should be honored and for who those wishes are being honored for. I aim to …

The Narrative Composer: Hector Berlioz’S Impact On The Evolution Of Film Scoring In The Twenty-First Century, Enrique Alberti

Honors Program Theses

Hector Berlioz was a French Romantic composer, whose literary and musical works have an undeniable effect on the history of Western music. Specifically, Berlioz’s most famous orchestral work, the Symphonie Fantastique, transformed how music could be utilized in an orchestral setting because it was the first programmatic symphony, which is a symphony with music set to a written narrative. The Symphonie would inspire German composer Richard Wagner to create what is now recognized as the leitmotif, a musical phrase used to identify an idea. In modern Hollywood film music, Wagner is credited with establishing the techniques that have become staples …

Re-Imagining Rehearsals: A Survey Of Improvisational Principles And Practices That Foster Ethical Caring, Michael Mcnamara

Honors Program Theses

Theatre has the potential to champion important ideas and compel audiences to reject mistreatment or injustice. Unfortunately, the history of theatre illustrates an industry that has struggled to embody the values it espouses onstage in its offstage practices. While theatre brings together all types of artists from a diversity of backgrounds, it sometimes fails to guarantee those artists a healthy space to collaborate within. Specifically, I analyze the relationship between a director and their actors during the rehearsal process, and how the power disparity of that relationship has led to actors’ safety being disregarded, their boundaries being violated, and their …

Criticizing Paywall Publishing, Or Integrating Open Access Into The Feminist Movement, Meggie Mapes, Teri Terigele

Journal of Feminist Scholarship

Dominant scholarly publishing models, reliant on expensive paywalls, remain preferential throughout higher education’s landscape. This essay engages paywall publishing from a feminist communicative perspective by asking, how can publishing extend or prohibit feminist movements? Or, as Nancy Fraser (2013) asks, “which modes of feminist theorizing should be incorporated into the new political imaginaries now being invented by new generations” (2)? With these questions in mind, we integrate feminist epistemologies into publishing practices to argue that open access is integral to the feminist movement. The argument unfolds in three parts: first, we conduct a feminist criticism of paywall publishing by arguing …

Swerf Necropolitics: Three Sites Of Feminist Mistranslation And The Politics Of Feminist Exclusion, Aaron Hammes

Journal of Feminist Scholarship

The acronym SWERF, or Sex Work(er) Exclusive Radical Feminism, and its attendant ideologies brings up a number of questions and potential schisms for the enterprise of feminist thought more broadly. This inquiry examines what it means for feminism to exclude, what the excluders believe is gained by protecting certain boundaries around which identities and practices are included, and the ideological foundations and consequences of this thinking. SWERF logics are understood as mistranslations of the radical potentialities of feminism, clustered around three sites: exclusion (against bodily autonomy) , equivocation (between sex work and labor trafficking), and misrepresentation (of the sex worker …

What Difference Does It Make? Early Reception Stories About Luce Irigaray's Writing On Divine Women, Elsa Kunz

Journal of Feminist Scholarship

This paper examines numerous pre-texts in Anglo-American feminist theology and critical theory seminal to the establishment of feminist philosophy of religion as a distinct academic discipline. Specifically, I trace early reception of philosopher Luce Irigaray’s writing on becoming divine women in Anglo-American feminist circles, arguing that critical attention to the “horizons of expectations” around Irigaray’s person is a necessary step to the myriad readings of her work. I begin by situating my own initial expectations and encounters with Irigaray’s writing on divine women as a graduate student in theological studies cross-registered in a course on ‘French Feminism’ in the neighboring …