Philosophy Commons^™

Fashion And Sexual Identity, Or Why Recognition Matters, Samantha Brennan

Data and Test Instruments

No abstract provided.

Social Contracts, Fair Play, And The Justification Of Punishment, Richard Dagger

Political Science Faculty Publications

In recent years, the counterintuitive claim that criminals consent to their own punishment has been revived by philosophers who attempt to ground the justification of punishment in some version of the social contract. In this paper, I examine three such attempts—“contractarian” essays by Christopher Morris and Claire Finkelstein and an essay by Corey Brettschneider from the rival “contractualist” camp—and I find all three unconvincing. Each attempt is plausible, I argue, but its plausibility derives not from the appeal to a social contract but from considerations of fair play. Rather than look to the social contract for a justification of punishment, …

Encounters With The Outcast : The Ethical Relation In Wordsworth And Lacan, Heewon Kang

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This dissertation examines the ethical importance of the moments in William Wordsworth's poetry when language verges on silence or presents experience as finally unintelligible, and explores the ethical dimension of outcast figures intimately connected with the problem of this void in signification, on the basis of Jacques Lacan's insights concerning psychoanalytic ethics. The question that orients the examination of the ethical issues embodied in Wordsworth's poetry is how one should encounter or represent the outcast figure as a rupture in meaning. And the ethics of subjectivity which Lacan explores in terms of his theories of the gaze, feminine jouissance, and …

Virtue Ethics In School Counseling: A Framework For Decision-Making, Felicia Wilczenski, Amy Cook

Counseling, School Psychology & Sport Faculty Publication Series

Virtue ethics focus on the motives that guide ethical decision making and action, and as such, are critical to the competent application of the counseling profession’s ethical codes. Knowledge of virtue ethics deepens understanding of moral responsibilities and ethical reasoning in professional practice. This paper is an overview of virtue ethics and discusses its relevance for school counselors and counselor educators.

Philosophical Hermeneutics And The Ethical Function Of Architecture, Paul Kidder

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

Karsten Harries’ book, The Ethical Function of Architecture, raises the question of how architecture can be interpretive of and for our time. Part of Harries’ pursuit of this question is done in dialogue with the philosophy of Martin Heidegger, whose evocatively expressed ontology of building and dwelling recovered, in philosophical and poetic terms, the power of buildings to symbolize and interpret the most fundamental truths of being and human existence. The present essay identifies contributions to this hermeneutic and ontological approach to architecture drawn from the philosophy of Hans-Georg Gadamer, emphasizing Gadamer’s notions of play (Spiel), symbol, and the …

Philosophy For Teenagers: Finding New Relevence In Old Concepts, Andrea Monteath

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

In 2008, the Curriculum Council of Western Australia launched a formal curriculum of philosophy and ethics education for upper secondary students. This thesis is a writing project that provides a new teaching text in support of this course. The thesis is composed of two components, a creative project and an essay. The creative project is a work of non-fiction entitled, Philosophy for Teenagers: Finding New Relevance in Old Concepts, and has been researched and designed employing the Western Australian Certificate of Education (WACE) Philosophy and Ethics course model. Philosophy for Teenagers aims to provide an innovative introduction to concepts such …

Saving Morality: Why We Cannot, And Why We Must, Jon Drake

Honors Theses

Philosophers and laymen alike have often used morality to invite misconceptions of human life into ethics, and also of ethics into human life. The Kant/Williams discourse provides a rich backdrop on which to consider these misconceptions. But the misconceptionsof morality involved are just as numerous and just as serious. One thing that the Kant/Williams discourse shows is this: that ethics can be neither contained by nor cultivated without morality. Though much of Williams’ critique of Kantian morality is quite astute, thephilosophical and ethical wisdoms of morality abound in spite of these. Morality understands the fundamental condition of moral loss, and …

Strategies For Defusing The Demandingness Objection, Justin J. Moss

Department of Philosophy: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Bernard Williams’s formulation of the Demandingness Objection holds that living a moral life, as the consequentialist understands it, is incompatible with living a life that is good for human beings. This is because the demands of consequentialist morality threaten to overwhelm the life of the person who cares about being moral, thus leaving no time for their own projects and interests. Several prominent consequentialists have responded to the Demandingness Objection by seeking a more moderate and indirect form of consequentialism that does not require as strong a duty of beneficence as classical utilitarianism. I review and criticize three prominent moderate …

Leadership Ethics, Joanne B. Ciulla, Donelson R. Forsyth

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

A CEO bankrupts the company he is supposed to be leading. A retiree donates thousands of hours to her community. A company's leadership decides not to relocate a factory overseas, for the sake of the residents of an economically challenged town. A president of a club on a college campus encourages members to cheat on their examinations so that the group's members can earn academic honors. An elected public official arranges a tryst with a lover and abandons his duties for days on end.

These behaviors raise questions about motivation, rationality, and intent, but with a difference; these actions cannot …

The Persistence Of Casuistry: A Neo-Premodernist Approach To Moral Reasoning, Richard Arthur Mercadante

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The general purpose of this dissertation is to explore casuistry--case-based reasoning--as a discredited, rehabilitated, and, most importantly, persistent form of moral reasoning. Casuistry offers a much needed corrective to principle-based approaches. I offer a defense of a "principle-modest" casuistry and explore the epistemology of casuistry, describing the prerequisite knowledge required for casuistry. I conclude by arguing that casuistry is best understood as a neo-premodernist approach to moral reasoning.

Memory And True Lies, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article discusses the concept of memory, its relation to culture, and three hypothetical phenomena associated with it.

On The Ethical Possibility Of Sustainability: A Challenge For Higher Education, Eric Bain-Selbo

Philosophy & Religion Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

On The Scope Of A Professional’S Right Of Conscience, David Lefkowitz

Philosophy Faculty Publications

Under what conditions, if any, do medical professionals enjoy a right of conscience? That is, when must a just state accommodate a physician’s, pharmacist’s, or other medical professional’s refusal to provide legally and professionally sanctioned services to which she morally objects; for example, by enacting laws that enable her to do so without fear of losing her job or her professional privileges? Recent assertions by several pharmacists of a right to conscientiously refuse to fill prescriptions for the so-called morning-after pill, and by a California fertility doctor of a right to conscientiously refuse to provide fertility treatment to a lesbian, …

Honor Code Ethics 101, Simon Feldman

Convocation Addresses

Simon Feldman, assistant professor of philosophy, addresses the college community at Convocation, the first day of classes: "My plan is to try to provoke you into doing some thinking of your own about the Honor Code and the point of a liberal arts education. If I fail, I hope at least you’ll be very confused. And because being confused is the starting point of all philosophy, I’ll be pretty happy with that."

Re-Constituting Phenomenology: Continuity In Levinas’ Accounts Of Time And Ethics, Neal Deroo

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

At the heart of Levinas’ work is an account of subjectivity that is premised on his account of temporality. In this regard, Levinas is like many other phenomenologists. However, in order to understand Levinas in this manner, we must first reconceive what Levinas means by ‘ethics’, so we can see the fundamental continuity in his accounts of subjectivity and temporality. By understanding the continuities, not just within but also between, Levinas’ ethical subject and his futural temporality, we are able to reconceive of the scope and method of phenomenology, so as to adequately assess Levinas’ influence in that discipline.

Students' Perceptions Of Coercion In Research, Azure L. Midzinski

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this study was to examine how students perceive the most common methods of recruitment for research participation, and whether these recruitment strategies are perceived by the participants to be coercive. Ethical research guidelines prohibit the use of coercion in recruiting participants. Previous studies in this area have either focused on the perceptions of the researchers, or have approached the concept of coercion in a limited way. This study treated coercion as a multidimensional construct and examined student perceptions. Additionally, participant responses indicated which recruitment practices resulted in a decision to participate in the research. Findings indicate that …

Toward A Theory Of Feminist Hospitality, Maurice Hamington

Philosophy Faculty Publications and Presentations

Immigration, international conflicts, and world debt have contributed to rising unease over the power relations created by burgeoning globalization. Absent from much of the political rhetoric surrounding global issues is a role for the social value of hospitality. Political theorists and philosophers such as the late Jacques Derrida and Emmanuel Levinas have reinvigorated interest in hospitality. This article suggests that the work of feminist theorists such as Seyla Benhabib, Margaret Urban Walker, and Iris Marion Young on issues of identity, inclusiveness, reciprocity, forgiveness, and embodiment can contribute to an alternative theory of hospitality. Consistent with feminist care ethics, the theory …

The Attestation Of The Self As A Bridge Between Hermeneutics And Ontology In The Philosophy Of Paul Ricoeur, Sebastian Kaufmann

Dissertations (1934 -)

Ricoeur defines attestation as the "assurance of being oneself acting and suffering" or as the "assurance - the credence and the trust - of existing in the mode of selfhood." In this dissertation I discuss the concept of attestation in Ricoeur's philosophy in relation to the main dimensions of the self: Capacities, personal identity, memory and otherness. I state that attestation is the key to the three dialectics of Ricoeur's hermeneutics of the self: The dialectic between reflection and analysis, the dialectic between idem-identity and ipse-identity and the dialectic between oneself and other. In these three dialectics, attestation, as the …

An Online Ethics Training Module For Public Relations Professionals: A Demonstration Project, Lee Anne Peck, Nancy J. Matchett

Philosophy Faculty Publications

Peer review of online courses can be done at a distance using a combination of asynchronous course visits and synchronous discussion with online meeting tools. This technology-mediated approach gives online faculty the opportunity to experience an unfamiliar course interface from a student's perspective, encourages a focus on design elements distinct from course content, and promotes a feeling of community. IT personnel can enhance this process by providing faculty with archived peer-review sessions and detailed "how to" instructions, while also facilitating their hands-on experience with new technologies.

A Moral Investigation Of Torture In The Post 9.11 World, Joe Moloney

Undergraduate Review

The field of philosophy is unique, as it allows one to logically examine issues in all disciplines, from science to politics to art. One further important discipline that philosophy examines is criminal justice. In this respect, one approach philosophy can take when examining criminal justice is to assess each issue by questioning its morality—that is, whether an action within the issue is right or wrong based upon a system of ethics. This approach concerns the subfield of philosophy known as ethics, a subfield that includes questions concerning what is morally good and morally bad. When one is faced with an …

Morally Justifying Oncofertility Science, Carolyn Mcleod

Philosophy Publications

Is research aimed at preserving the fertility of cancer patients morally justified? A satisfying answer to this question is missing from the literature on oncofertility. Rather than provide an answer, which is impossible to do in a short space, this paper explains what it would take to provide such justification.

Just Military Preparedness And Irregular Warfare, Harry Van Der Linden

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

This presentation explores the significance of just military preparedness (JMP), or jus ante bellum as a new category of just war theory, for just war thinking, especially with regard to irregular warfare. It articulates six just military preparedness (JMP) principles. It further discusses how America’s military preparation fails the JMP principles and how this negatively impacts its capability to justly initiate, execute, and conclude (irregular) war. This critical analysis takes as its point of departure (former) Defense Secretary Robert Gates’s view that the Pentagon needs to be “reprogrammed” toward a “balanced strategy” of preparing for both conventional and irregular warfare.

Rightly Or For Ill: The Ethics Of Remembering And Forgetting, Alison Nicole Reiheld '93

Doctoral Dissertations

Forgetting a birthday, a wedding anniversary, a beloved child's school play or a dear colleague's important accomplishments is often met with blame, whereas remembering them can engender praise. Are we in fact blameworthy or praiseworthy for such remembering and forgetting? When ought we to remember, in the ethical sense of 'ought'? And ought we in some cases to allow ourselves to forget?

These are the questions that ground this philosophical work. In fact, we so often unreflectively assign moral blame and praise to ourselves and others for memory behaviors that this faculty, and moral responsibility for it, deserve careful philosophical …

Aristotle And The Importance Of Virtue In The Context Of The Politics And The Nicomachean Ethics And Its Relation To Today, Kyle Brandon Anthony

Honors Theses

While much of Aristotle's works are preserved in various volumes, two of his famous works are the Nichmachean Ethics and the Politics, both of which contain a rich compilation of ethical and political thought. In the Ethics, Aristotle describes a thorough understanding of ethical and intellectual virtue. By pursuing these virtues, Aristotle argues that a person can achieve a life of fulfilling happiness. The ideal polis as described in the Politics serves as a place where the virtuous life is attained in the best manner.Citizens who pursue virtue make the polis better, and the rulers that guide the polis ensure …

Susan Wolf On The Meaning Of Life: A Review, Joseph Raz

Faculty Scholarship

The book comprises the two Tanner Lectures given by Susan Wolf at Princeton in 2007; helpful comments by John Koethe, Robert M. Adams, Nomy Arpaly, and Jonathan Haidt;Wolf ’s replies; and a brief introduction by Stephen Macedo. Wolf writes elegantly and thoughtfully, and the book, which seems to preserve in length and style its origins as two lectures, is full of sensible, suggestive ideas. The Tanner Lectures are meant to reach a nonspecialist audience, and some specialist readers may wish to have more on less, a desire likely to affect especially those who, like myself, share Wolf ’s basic approach …

An Experiential Approach To Kant's Moral Philosophy: A Reply To Dogmatism, Formalism And Rigorism, Chris Mctavish

Dissertations

Many of Kant's commentators and critics interpret his moral philosophy solely in terms of the cognitive dimension of his categorical imperative. Such a predominant manner of reading Kant gives rise to the criticism that his moral philosophy is too far removed from the actual way in which human beings orient themselves as moral persons in the world. In response to this general tendency in Kant interpretation, my dissertation proposes to offer an experiential approach to Kant's ethics. By the expression experiential I mean an approach to Kant's thinking that attends to the living sense in which we experience the phenomena …

Animal Cognition, Kristin Andrews, Ljiljana Radenovic

Sentience Collection

Debates in applied ethics about the proper treatment of animals often refer to empirical data about animal cognition, emotion, and behavior. In addition, there is increasing interest in the question of whether any nonhuman animal could be something like a moral agent.

Partiality And Weighing Harm To Non-Combatants, David Lefkowitz

Philosophy Faculty Publications

The author contests the claim made independently by F.M. Kamm and Thomas Hurka that combatants ought to assign greater weight to collateral harm done to their compatriot noncombatants then they assign to collateral harm done to enemy non-combatants. Two arguments by analogy offered in support of such partiality, one of which appeals to permissible self/other asymmetry in cases of harming the few to save the many, and the second of which appeals to parents' justifiable partiality to their children, are found wanting. The author also rebuts Kamm's argument that combatants should assign greater weight to collateral harm done to neutrals …

Incorporating Ethics Into Rcr Classrooms, Sara Vollmer, Nancy J. Matchett

Philosophy Faculty Publications

From the article: Philosophy departments have been expanding their offerings in applied ethics and ethical decision making for a number of years, yet relatively little attention has been paid to incorporating ethical thinking in the context of Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) instruction.

Sacrifice In A Post-Moral Society, Eric Bain-Selbo

Philosophy & Religion Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.