Philosophy Commons^™

Frozen: A Grounded Theory Of Transgenerational Trauma Cycles In The Evangelical Slavic Diaspora Of Former Soviet Union Refugees, Yulia Shtareva

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This dissertation builds on historical and scientific assertions that Former Soviet Union immigrants survived distinct political traumas, resulting in unique, culturally adaptive behaviors and beliefs. Using constructivist grounded theory, it examined how these behaviors manifest in the evangelical Slavic community (ESC) of former Soviet Union Refugees (FSURs) in the U.S. The researcher asserts that (a) adaptations are generationally preserved in the ESC through a “cycle of authoritarianism,” and (b) survival strategies became maladaptive in new social environments. Narratives from eight young adults raised in the ESC were analyzed alongside a literature review and lived experience. Findings show that coping strategies …

Mirrors Of The Reel: Black Women's Identity In American Cinema (2009-2024), Melanie-Penny Harrison

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This study investigates whether white supremacy structures, embodied in Hollywood’s predominantly white leadership, drive negative portrayals of Black women in 31 mainstream American films from 2009 to 2024. Employing a mixed-methods approach—quantitative content analysis, qualitative content analysis (QCA), and narrative methodology—I code portrayals for racism, patriarchy, heterosexism, colorism, and internalized racism, classifying them as progressive (e.g., empowered roles), regressive (e.g., subservient stereotypes), or hybrid. Guided by Critical Race Theory and intersectionality, the analysis examines narrative structures, character agency, symbolism, and dialogue to uncover intersectional patterns (e.g., race, gender, class) across three periods: 2009–2013, 2014–2018, and 2019–2024. Across these periods, cultural …

Understanding Sociability Through Mandevillean Pride: Comments On Robin Douglass's Mandeville's Fable, Antong Liu

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

There is ‘a tendency to evaluate philosophical theories of human nature as more accurate or adequate when they are more attractive or flattering, not when they are more truthful,’ claim two contemporary moral psychologists (Flanagan and Hu 2011: 312). While this tendency may not be as widely shared as these scholars expect, the flip side of their claim indeed captures a factual truth: philosophers seldom avoid attacks on their theories and even their personalities when they insiston exposing the dark side of human nature. Indeed, not all philosophers attacked for this reasonlose their popularity, as numerous readers of Machiavelli and …

Let's Talk About Sex: Investigating Radical Feminist Theories On Prostitution In The United States, Anna E. Peterson

Scripps Senior Theses

This paper explores the feminist debates surrounding prostitution through an analysis of Catharine MacKinnon and Andrea Dworkin’s abolitionist theories, juxtaposed with critiques from Wendy Brown, Janet Halley, Susie Bright, and Marxist feminist abolitionist Esperanza Fonseca. The text examines the systemic forces of patriarchy and capitalism that commodify women’s bodies and the challenges of legislative approaches to the sex trade. While MacKinnon and Dworkin identify the structural inequalities underpinning prostitution, their legislative proposals often fail to address the stigma and systemic conditions that perpetuate the marginalization of prostituted people. Critics like Brown and Halley highlight the limitations of punitive measures, calling …

Debating Justice, Tom Rozinski

Open Touro Created

2025

This book introduces students to a modified form of Lincoln-Douglas debate that is suitable for use in college philosophy or political science courses. Students will learn how to make good arguments and identify bad ones. They will learn how to structure the affirmative and negative cases in debate and the specific duties of each speech in the debate. There is also a section on preparing for, conducting, and defending against cross-examination. Students learn about four value systems to use in their debates: utilitarianism, libertarianism, Kantian justice, and Rawlsian justice. The text includes two full debates to illustrate how students …

Not Exactly "Perfect," But Pretty Darn Good: A Review Of Michael Schur's Book- How To Be Perfect: The Correct Answer To Every Moral Question, Justin Pepe

Management Faculty Publications

How to Be Perfect: The Correct Answer to Every Moral Question provides a quick-start guide to addressing ethical challenges by using humor to make complex philosophical concepts accessible. Based on the premise that traditional ethics pedagogy is often stodgy, esoteric, and depressing, the book appeals to students and professionals who find conventional texts unapproachable. By blending humor with moral philosophy, it offers a fresh way to develop ethical reasoning in students and employees. This book can help address the urgent need for managers and professionals to build the ethical capabilities necessary to tackle grand challenges.

Evaluating Corporate Advertising: How Deception Leads To Downfall, Madison Duong

Honors Program Theses

No abstract provided.

The Forms Of Representation: How To Be A Kantian Realist, Willem A. Devries

Faculty Publications

Sellars argued that Kant did not make certain distinctions concerning space and time, and because of this adopted his transcendental idealism. Once these distinctions are made, the path to realism remains open. Sellars' argument is not entirely clear. This essay attempts to clarify the argument, showing why Sellars believed he could remain a scientific realist while also adopting a Kantian style epistemology.

Multiplicity, Belonging, And Free Speech In Us Higher Education: Thriving Through Current Crises, Naomi Zack

Publications and Research

New realities in U.S. higher education present a multifaceted crisis for students, faculty, administrators, and society at large. This book provides incisive diagnoses of pressing problems and prescriptions to reinstate and support U.S. higher education as an intellectually and ethically valuable institution.

The Tender Flesh: Dwelling In Soft Wounds And Visceral Bodies, Madelyn Irene Turner-Havens

Theses and Dissertations

Within my painting process, I explore bodily interiority and exteriority in relation to the surface of painting, evoking a discomforting sense of corporeal (dis)embodiment, where haunted flesh becomes palpable. Indexing conversations with the body into the painting is a way to understand my body and create an experience of what happens when language fails to capture the complexity of sensation. Painting becomes a mediation with the canvas, a constant discovery of what can give shape to the intangible: how it feels when my skin folds into itself, bodily urges, and the soft texture of fatty tissue.

I let the parts …

Learning To Teach For Inclusion: A Professional Learning Community Of Elementary And Middle School Educators Collaborate For Inclusion, Laurie Summer

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

This qualitative research study examines how eighteen elementary and middle school educators within a feminist professional learning community, grounded in a book study, developed inclusive understandings, practices, and actions. My first research question was: How do elementary and middle school educators, working within a feminist PLC, make sense of and enact inclusive teaching practices?, and the sub question was: How did using a shared text act as a catalyst for exploring inclusive practices? My second research question was: How do I enact feminist pedagogy in my facilitation of a professional learning community for inclusive teaching? I constructed and collected data …

Eros And The Sublime: Tools For Reaching Toward An Altered Ecological Consciousness, Aineka Carlson

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This thesis explores connections between the Kantian sublime and Anne Carson’s ideas regarding “eros.” Since Kant’s Critique of Judgement was published in 1790, the Kantian sublime has grown in popularity and been utilized by theorists and creative writers alike. While the Kantian sublime is often associated with nature in popular culture, there are certain egocentric and phallocentric elements of this mode of thinking that might inhibit a biocentric mindset. Through a character study of Oryx from Margaret Atwood’s novel Oryx and Crake, this thesis draws relations between the subjugation of women, nature, and the ways in which the popularized …

"A Changed Understanding Of Our Present": Moby-Dick As Prophetic Ecological Activism, Katie Ann Schini

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Moby-Dick: Or, The Whale is a classic of American literature, spanning multiple genres and remaining culturally relevant nearly 175 years after its original publication. Though on the surface Moby-Dick reads as an adventure story of a man who experiences the whaling industry firsthand, Herman Melville’s text continues to invite new generations of readership through the framework of the twenty-first century climate crisis.

In this thesis, I position Moby-Dick as a text that can be used to understand our modern society’s current dispositions of ecological grief. My thesis operates at the intersection of three main literary critical theories: ecocriticism, affect, and …

Grieving In Doorways: A Critical Autoethnographic Exploration Of Embodied Knowledge Amid Shifting Reality And Radical Possibility, Holly Rae

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

This thesis is a critical autoethnographic exploration of embodied knowledge amid shifting reality and radical possibility. Beginning and ending with my own body, I explore how grief, as an embodied companion, offers wisdom and power in moments of profound change. Rooted in a methodology of slowness, rest, walking, and active listening, this work resists the extractive pace of modernity and instead invites building a relationship with grief and discomfort. This research is an experiment in co-creating knowledge with bodies and their intersectionality within systems that would keep us separate from knowing our embodied knowledge. As a location of research for …

Précis Of The Edge Of Sentience: Risk And Precaution In Humans, Other Animals, And Ai, Jonathan Birch

Animal Sentience

We often face grave practical decisions that seem to hinge on whether a system is sentient. This family of cases includes invertebrate animals, people who are unresponsive after brain injury, fetuses, neural organoids, and now AI technologies. We must decide what to do despite ongoing disagreement about the nature of sentience. In our state of uncertainty, we should pragmatically transform the question from “Is it sentient?” to “Is it a sentience candidate, an investigation priority, or neither?”. When a system is a sentience candidate, it is negligent to fail to consider precautions. We should instead evaluate precautions for their proportionality …

Polynomial Invariants For Classical Invariant Groups, John Diller

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The classical invariant theory of matrix groups plays a fundamental role in modern algebra and geometry, with origins in Hilbert’s Fourteenth Problem concerning the finite generation of rings of invariants. In this thesis, we study polynomial functions on spaces of matrices and investigate their invariants under natural actions of classical groups. After recalling the geometric and algebraic motivations behind Hilbert’s question, we focus on invariants for several complex Lie groups, including the general linear group GL(V), the symplectic group Sp(V), the orthogonal group O(V), and the special orthogonal group SO(V). Building on foundational work of Hermann Weyl and a modern …

High Tech Touts, Sherman J. Clark

Articles

This essay has three interrelated aims. First, it articulates a set of capacities I call virtues of attention—capacities for intuitive discernment, good judgment about what is worth sustained focus, and the ability to engage deeply with worthwhile things. These are eudaimonist virtues in that they help us live well, not merely act rightly. Second, the essay explores what I call poisonous persuasion: the idea that rhetorical appeals, especially those used in marketing, may not only succeed by appealing to certain desires or habits of mind but may also deepen and entrench them. Third, I bring these insights together to examine …