Philosophy Commons^™

Educating With Empathy: Empowering Students To Build Bridges Across Difference, Sara Shady

Wednesday, February 25, 2026

This project explores the powerful role empathy can play in helping us constructively navigate the significant differences that often divide us in the 21st century (politics, race/ethnicity, religion, etc.). I define empathy as an intellectual and moral virtue, and defend its importance within the larger context of virtue ethics. I also explore practical ways to help students develop empathy in curricular and co-curricular settings.

Degendering Parents On Birth Certificates, Timothy E. Murphy, Jennifer Parks

Philosophy: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Birth certificates typically designate parents as ‘mothers’ or ‘fathers’ although some U.S. states offer non-gendered designations. We argue that gendered characterizations offer scant legal or moral value and that states should move to degender parental status on birth certificates but retain that information in registrations of birth. Registrations of birth identify the person giving birth to a child, when and where, and they report demographic and health information useful for civic and public health purposes. Birth certificates typically report a child’s name, sex, date and location of birth, and parentage so far as known. As documents establishing parents’ standing in …

Just War Theory: Foundation From Philosophical Underpinnings To Theological Integration And Its Application To The Ukrainian Conflict, Sarah G. Beddingfield

Liberty University Journal of Statesmanship & Public Policy

On February 24th, 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine with the intent to annex the neighboring country into the Russian fold. This unprovoked action took the world by surprise bringing about a whirl of questions surrounding why and how this could occur. The concept of just war theory resurfaced as the global debate ensued over whether Russia was justified in its violent actions. This research aims to analyze the origins, Biblical integration, and modern form of just war theory. Following a foundational understanding of the theory itself, the research is then applied to the case study of the Russian invasion of Ukraine …

Darkness Leaping Out Of Light: Anti-Metaphysics And The Paradoxical Negative Affix In Moby-Dick, Bryce N. Wallace

International Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities

This paper argues that the varied philosophical beliefs that are present in the discourse of Moby-Dick’s characters are met with discursive resistance at the level of the novel’s form. Though a range of metaphysical arguments are posited by the characters as they explore the unknown, Melville’s use of negative linguistic constructions refutes the entire range of metaphysical beliefs by displaying the paradoxical and impossible nature of the primary subject that metaphysicians ponder—the unknown. I propose that in trying to comprehend “the unknown” humans unavoidably create something out of nothing then deem it unknowable and therefore fail to grant it …

The Ethics Of Advance Care Planning, Ciaran Folliard Rhys

Dissertations

The COVID-19 pandemic subjected millions of Americans to alienated deaths in institutional settings. Given that the default response to health crises is to go to the Emergency Department, isolation protocol limited the care and support ill and potentially dying people could receive at the bedside. Crisis standards of care also cut off meaningful discussions of end of life care preferences. Communication barriers regarding end of life care existed well before the pandemic, however. This dissertation proposes a new approach to the concept of Advance Care Planning (ACP), or the process of deciding what kinds of care one would prefer in …

The Unhappy Specter: The Buried Remains Of Self And Other, Kirt Henry Broesche

Master's Theses

In this paper, we argue that Derrida’s account of the uncanny experience of being haunted by a specter reveals consciousness to be constitutively haunted. From Derrida’s account in Specters of Marx, we locate the cause to the possibility of haunting from the inability to complete a so-called work of mourning. We note primarily the development of Derrida’s account of specters with respect to the psychoanalytic distinction between mourning and melancholia. We go on to compare Derrida’s characterization of a haunted subject to Hegel’s conception of Unhappy Consciousness to discuss the possibility for a haunted consciousness to be assimilated into a …

Cover, Title Page, Table Of Contents, Introduction, Messay Kebede

Ethiopian Modernization: Opportunities and Derailments

This book examines and theoretically articulates the various facets and crucial phases of Ethiopia’s encounter with the modern world and the challenges its efforts to modernize faced during the course of three consecutive yet highly divergent political regimes. These phases roughly correspond to Haile Selassie’s and post-Haile Selassie’s Ethiopia, with the post-period spreading over two milestones, namely, the revolutionary shift of the Provisional Military Administrative Council (the Derg) and the no less critical reshaping of the Ethiopian political system by an ethnonationalist agenda subsequent to the Tigray People's Liberation Front’s (TPLF) seizure of state power. Despite their drastic differences, a …

Chapter I — On Theories Of Modernization, Messay Kebede

Ethiopian Modernization: Opportunities and Derailments

The vast literature pertaining to development and modernity discloses philosophical questions that instigate the controversies dividing the various theories of modernization. Of these philosophical issues, the most crucial and recurrent is the question of the prime factor or mover of modernization. The reason for the philosophical issue of primacy derives from the fact that modernization involves cultural as well as socioeconomic changes. Following the philosophical distinction between the spiritual and the material, the clash between the two basic schools of idealism and materialism frames the philosophical approach around the question of knowing whether the prime cause of modernization is cultural …

Chapter Ii — Survey Of Ethiopia’S Survival: Definition And Controversies, Messay Kebede

Ethiopian Modernization: Opportunities and Derailments

The last chapter has unraveled the close link between modernization and the emergence of a survival ethos among ruling elites of traditional societies in transition. To approach the case of Ethiopia’s modernization from the same angle of explanation, it is necessary first to make sure that some groups among Ethiopian ruling elites had shown a propensity that could be defined as a salvational will. Sure enough, any ruling elite wants to protect the social order that benefits it. However, the salvational will, as defined in the previous chapter, is less the desire to perpetuate the status quo than the will …

Chapter Iii — The Ethiopian Forces Of Survival, Messay Kebede

Ethiopian Modernization: Opportunities and Derailments

To account for the protracted endurance of Ethiopia, the last chapter hinted at two requisites, namely, a system of power suited for defense and the sense of shouldering a mandate. Such a successful record, in addition to presupposing a robust and effective ability for self-defense, necessitates a leadership that feels entrusted with a mission. From a cursory examination of Ethiopian history, one can confidently surmise that, at least until the overthrow of the last emperor, Ethiopia survived for so long thanks to a system of power that was protective of survival and bearer of a mission. The system rested on …

Chapter Iv — Eurocentric Versus Ethio-Centric Approaches To Ethiopia’S Modernization Lag: The Concept Of Derailment, Messay Kebede

Ethiopian Modernization: Opportunities and Derailments

After studying the link between survival and modernization, the next logical step is to provide concrete answers to the question of why Ethiopia’s impressive record of survival failed to initiate a successful process of modernization. In fact, the greater the resolution to survive, the more determined should have been the drive toward modernization. Yet, not only is Ethiopia still ranked among the poorest countries, but it is also entangled in numerous internal conflicts, the primary consequence of which is an unending political instability threatening its very existence. However, before delving into the reasons for the Ethiopian failure to modernize, we …

Chapter V — Derailed Modernization: The Imperial Phase, Messay Kebede

Ethiopian Modernization: Opportunities and Derailments

The critical review of the explanation of the failure of Ethiopian modernization from the perspective of modernization theory, that is, from the alleged contrast between tradition and modernity, has revealed that the concept of derailed modernization is more appropriate than the argument stating that inherent defects prevented Ethiopia’s modernization. The expression “derailed” puts the blame not so much on inner obstacles as on the spoiling of assets and opportunities. The change of approach speaks of engagement into a wandering path, the outcome of which was and still is the multiplication of difficulties. Indeed, obstacles hinder, but they can also be …

Chapter Vi —The Radicalization Of Ethiopian Students, Messay Kebede

Ethiopian Modernization: Opportunities and Derailments

When one analyzes the Ethiopian Revolution of 1974, the aspect that needs to be primarily explained is not so much the uprising against the imperial regime as its precipitous shift toward socialist demands and slogans. Many unsolved problems liable to provoke widespread discontents saddled the regime. None of them, however, required or invited a socialist revolution per se. The decisive impulse toward a socialist revolution came undoubtedly from the Ethiopian student movement. Accordingly, any inquiry about the revolution must begin by unraveling the reasons that brought about the radicalization of a great majority of Ethiopian students and intellectuals. A compelling …

Chapter Vii — The Overthrow Of The Imperial Regime, Messay Kebede

Ethiopian Modernization: Opportunities and Derailments

In distinction to the tendency of imputing the delay of Ethiopian modernization to the lack of social peace, which was used as a pretext to institute and justify imperial absolutism, the radicalization of students, in line with the unadulterated principle “modernity versus tradition, blamed the presence of traditional features, notably the impeding role of the “feudal” class, the anachronism of the imperial state, and the obscurantist influence of the church, for the general failure of Ethiopian modernization. The students’ standpoint assumed the ideological leadership of the social protests and spread the conviction that Marxist-Leninist socialism is the only remedy to …

Chapter Viii — Derailed Modernization: The Derg’S Phase, Messay Kebede

Ethiopian Modernization: Opportunities and Derailments

The cultural trait making higher social positions into contested temporary occupations (see Chapter III on idil) should have found, in the modernization process of evicting outdated, anti-modern occupants, an even better opportunity to vent itself. In the traditional system, power struggles opposed ambitious individuals who shared common values and a mutual understanding of social life. The struggle did not go beyond the act of changing places in a fixed social framework. However, as a result of the impact of exogenous modern ideas, the struggle shifted to a confrontation between elites with different ideologies and social programs. These elites want to …

Chapter Ix — Derailed Modernization: The Ethnonationalist Phase, Messay Kebede

Ethiopian Modernization: Opportunities and Derailments

The last chapter concluded with the generalized expectation that the fall of the Derg would set in motion some form of democratization dismantling the wide-ranging restrictions of the existing socialist system, even if there was uncertainty about the real political program of the victorious Tigrean insurgents. Despite promises of democratization, it did not take long for people to realize that Ethiopia was heading for yet another version of hegemonic rule, this one replacing the class ideology of the previous regime with ethnonationalism. As though a curse were on it, Ethiopia’s modernization will once more stumble over an ideology and a …

Making Decisions "In The Dark": Learning Through Uncertainty In Clinical Practice During Covid-19, Urvashi Vaid, Henriette Lundgren, Karen E. Watkins, Deborah Ziring, Grace A. Alcid, Victoria J. Marsick, Dimitrios Papanagnou

Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care Medicine Faculty Papers

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to explore how decision making and informal and incidental learning (IIL) emerged in the clinical learning environment (CLE) during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. The authors' specific interest was to better understand the IIL that took place among frontline physicians who had to navigate a CLE replete with uncertainty and complexity with the future goal of creating experiences for medical students that would simulate IIL and use uncertainty as a catalyst for learning.

METHOD: Using a modified constructivist, grounded theory approach, we describe physicians' IIL while working during times of heightened uncertainty. …

Japanese-English Translation: Nishida Kitarō––“Self-Determination Of The Eternal Now” 「永遠の今の自己限定」、西田幾多郎著（昭和六年七月） (July 1931) §1 Of 4; Complete Draft (Supersedes Draft Of 2 Jan 19); Translated By Christopher Southward; Revision And Expansion Underway, Christopher Southward

Comparative Literature Faculty and Student Scholarship

Japanese-English Translation: Nishida Kitarō––“Self-Determination of the Eternal Now” (July 1931) 「永遠の今の自己限定」、西田幾多郎著（昭和六年七月）

§1 of 4; Complete Draft (Supersedes Draft of 2 Jan 2019)

Translated from the Japanese by Christopher Southward; Revision and Expansion Underway, October 2023

Chapter X — Where To, Ethiopia?, Messay Kebede

Ethiopian Modernization: Opportunities and Derailments

In the wake of the dethronement of the TPLF, Ethiopia was presented with four options arising from the implementation of ethnonationalist ideology and policies for 27 years. The options have generated politico-ideological movements that compete for the seizure of power in Ethiopia. Broadly speaking, these movements can be viewed as different stands in relation to Article 39 of the constitution granting ethnic groups an unconditional right to self-determination, including secession (see previous chapter). Let us briefly examine the four positions with the view of clearly demarcating the lines separating them.

The Social Identity Affordance View: A Theory Of Social Identities, Alejandro Arango, Adam Burgos

Philosophy Faculty Scholarship

This article proposes that social identities are best understood as a kind of affordance, a “social identity affordance.” Social identity affordances are possibilities for action and interaction between persons, within a social niche, based on perceived and self-perceived social group identification. First, the view presented captures and articulates the basic structure of social identities. Second, it explains the multifaceted interplay of such an item in the social field, including not only the complexity of the interpersonal dimensions, but also the multiplicity of registers in which social identities vibrate (ethical, political, psychological, geographical, affective, epistemic). Third, by doing good on (i) …

From Patriarchal Stereotypes To Matriarchal Pleasures Of Hybridity: Representation Of A Muslim Family In Berlin, Rahime Özgün Kehya Dr

Journal of Religion & Film

Sinan Çetin’s blockbuster Berlin in Berlin (1993) is a Turkish-German co-production. In contrast to certain representational tendencies with German orientalism or Turkish occidentalism, it deconstructs the intersectional structures of migration, religion, and gender. The portrayal of religion in films about Turkish-German labour migration is a kind of cultural narcissism often projected into national cinema by denigrating the faith of the other and glorifying one’s own religion. However, perspectives at such intersections are critical and require sensitivity in filmmaking, as films can create prejudice or help build peaceful relationships around these sensitive issues. The paper employs discourse analysis in linking Derrida’s …

Viewing Terrence Malick’S A Hidden Life As Political Theology: Toward Theocinematics, Joel Mayward

Journal of Religion & Film

In this article, I bring Terrence Malick’s 2019 film, A Hidden Life, into conversation with two of philosopher Paul Ricoeur’s concepts: (1) the “social imaginary” as the interplay of ideals, images, ideologies and utopias, and (2) Ricoeur’s description of the genre of “parable” as a narrative-metaphor which provokes a “re-orientation by disorientation” within an audience’s imagination. Drawing from Ricoeur’s thought, I apply a theological film criticism I call “theocinematics” to A Hidden Life in order to call attention to the ways in which the cinematic form itself engenders sociopolitical and theological thought. Through emphasizing film aesthetics in my analysis, …

Peele’S Black, Extraterrestrial, Naturalistic Critique Of Religion, Jonathan D. Lyonhart

Journal of Religion & Film

While Jordan Peele’s films have always held their mysteries close to the chest, they eventually granted their viewers some climactic clarity. Get Out (2017) used an 1980s style orientation video to clear up its neuroscientific twist, while Us (2019) had Lupita Nyongo’s underworld twin narratively spell out the details of the plot. Yet Nope (2022) refuses to show its hand even after the game is over, never illuminating the connection between its opening scene and the broader film, nor a myriad of other questions. As such, critics complained that it stitched together two seemingly incongruent plots without explanation; one where …

Issue 2: Sátya, Michela Rawson, Joe Sweeney, Harry Honig, Hebe Guo, Abby Murphy, Clara Kim, Ilan Liebmann, Laila Al Ghandi

Sátya

The Smith College Philosophy Journal, formerly Eudaimonia, was founded in the Fall of 2019 by You Jeen Ha. Due to the coronavirus, publication was suspended, and the original members of the Journal have since graduated. Finally, in Fall 2023, we are reviving the Journal under a new name, Sátya–a Sanskrit word meaning truth. We feel Sátya is representative of our cross-cultural approach to philosophy at Smith.

This edition of Sàtya is made up of the essays presented by students at Smith’s inaugural Five College Philosophy Conference in the Spring of 2023. The selection pool was full of quality submissions …

Medieval Manuscripts At Loyola University Chicago, Ian Cornelius, Kathy Young

English: Faculty Publications and Other Works

This article provides a summary overview of the collection of pre-1600 western European manuscripts in Loyola University Chicago Archives and Special Collections. The collection presently comprises four manuscript codices, at least 38 fragments, and four documents. The codices are a thirteenth-century Book of Hours from German-speaking lands; a fifteenth-century Dutch prayerbook; a preacher’s compilation written probably in southern Germany in the 1440s; and two fifteenth-century Italian humanist booklets, bound together since the nineteenth century, transmitting Donatus’s commentary on the Eunuchus (incomplete) and an anthology of theological excerpts, respectively. The fragments consist of thirteen leaves from books dismembered by modern booksellers …

Zero Textbook Cost Syllabus For Phi 1500 (Major Issues In Philosophy), Amy Trautwein

Open Educational Resources

What does one do in philosophy? Philosophers look for questions on issues, even where you may not have thought that questions could meaningfully be asked. We look for evidence for what are the most plausible answers even for questions that you may not have believed have answers at all. We all do philosophy sometimes, even if you may not have called it that.

Nigel Warburton describes philosophy as “any human enterprise that involves critical thought about basic questions, like how we should live, what is the nature of reality and so on.” This course will introduce a few of those …

Table Of Contents, Rory J. Conces Prof.

International Dialogue

NOTES FROM THE EDITOR

REVIEW ESSAY

Enjoyment and Ideology: Surplus-Enjoyment-A Guide for the Non-Perplexed Edward Sankowski and Betty Harris

BOOK REVIEW

Mette Lebech European Sources of Human Dignity: A Commented Anthology and On the Problem of Human Dignity: A Hermeneutical and Phenomenological Investigation Robert McNamara

DISCUSSION

Kosovo-Serbia Dialogue: Development Fund for Municipalities in the North of Kosovo Seb Bytyci

Objects Supporting/Resisting a Democracy and Resisting an Occupation: Two Sides of the Same Coin—Kosovo and The Occupied Territories Rory J. Conces

Notes From The Editor: Volume 13, Rory J. Conces Prof.

International Dialogue

No abstract provided.

Review Essay: Enjoyment And Ideology Surplus-Enjoyment: A Guide For The Non-Perplexed Slavoj Žižek. London: Bloomsbury Academic. 2022. Pp. 400., Edward Sankowski, Betty J. Harris

International Dialogue

Slavoj Žižek’s Surplus-Enjoyment-A Guide for the Non-Perplexed is a difficult book. Reading it requires a different approach from what is usual with what seems to us more standardized philosophical or social scientific prose. Our approach initially at least no doubt assumes as our starting point a deploying of our shared norms, shaped by our backgrounds as U.S. based scholars aiming to advance dialogue with Žižek and some of the wide variety of authors with whom Žižek himself engages.

Kosovo-Serbia Dialogue: Development Fund For Municipalities In The North Of Kosovo, Seb Bytyci

International Dialogue

This article deals with the Development Fund for the northern municipalities, as a product of the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue. The existence of the Fund is largely ignored both by the parties and by the mediators, and there is little knowledge of it even by the citizens, although it is one of the pillars of the autonomy arrangements of the Kosovo Serbs.