Philosophy Commons^™

Witchcraft Dialogues : Anthropological And Philosophical Exchanges, George Clement Bond, Diane M. Ciekawy

Ohio University Press Open Access Books

Witchcraft Dialogues analyzes the complex manner in which human beings construct, experience, and think about the occult. It brings together anthropologists, philosophers, and sociologists, from diverse social and cultural backgrounds, to engage the metaphysical properties of witchcraft and sorcery and to explore their manifestations in people’s lived experiences.

While many Africanist scholars shun the analysis of witchcraft as an appropriate domain of investigation, the experiences, thoughts, activities, and powers that witchcraft encompasses have become increasingly the source of interest and debate. Concepts of witchcraft and the phenomena to which they are applied express something fundamental to the human condition and …

Beyond The Veil Of Modernity: René Guénon, Prophet Of The Metapolitical Imaginary, Frederic Colier

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Heralded by some as one of the greatest intellectuals of the 20th century, French metaphysician René Guénon (1886-1951) is also the controversial father of Primordial Tradition, a metaphysics designed to remedy the decline of Western civilization. Guénon viewed the West in the grip of a prolonged cycle of degeneration. He sought to implement a pseudo-authoritarian spiritual reset that required a total rejection of its Western intellectual heritage and an embrace of Eastern doctrines.

Focusing on his landmark book The Crisis of the Modern World (1927), the dissertation examines how Guénon implemented his controversial reset. After outlining the religious, cultural, and …

Man's Modern Need For God: A Literary Apologetic, Matthew G. Jones

Masters Theses

This thesis argues that modern man’s attempt to dispense with God inevitably results in psychological, moral, and existential collapse, a reality most powerfully revealed through the literary works of Friedrich Nietzsche, Fyodor Dostoevsky, and Leo Tolstoy. Before Nietzsche proclaimed the death of God and called humanity to transcend traditional morality through the rise of the Übermensch, Dostoevsky and Tolstoy had already responded, not merely with philosophical counterarguments, but with stories that exposed the devastating consequences of life divorced from the divine. Through literary apologetics, this thesis examines the broader cultural and spiritual conversation taking place between these nineteenth-century thinkers and …

The Aporia Of Divinity: Hegel's Metaphysics In Conversation With Spinoza And Schelling, Abhinav Ganesh

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis explores the intersections between the metaphysics of Spinoza, Hegel, and Schelling, as seen through their engagement with the concept of immediacy. I aim to show that this perspective offers a fruitful way of understanding the arguments of these three figures, while also complicating our understanding of the nature of immediacy and its importance to metaphysical systems.

“War Is God” And “Unguessed Kinships”: Blood Meridian And Cormac Mccarthy’S “Border Tetralogy”, Seth Reeves

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis applies the metaphysics of philosopher Gilles Deleuze to Cormac McCarthy’s novel Blood Meridian, arguing that the novel initiates a thread of immanent subjectivity that unfolds throughout the Border Trilogy that follows it. Against a hierarchical metaphysics of transcendence, specifically an inverted Platonic Idealism, Blood Meridian dramatizes an immanent world of “optical democracy,” a prose style that levels the human and nonhuman and eludes subject and object categories. The kid’s autonomy from Judge Holden’s violent domination marks the truncated beginning of a Deleuzian subjectivity of becoming-other and immanent kinship. This incomplete gesture continues in the Border Trilogy, where …

Later Wittgenstein’S Metaphysics, Jeremy Barris

Humanities Faculty Research

Introduction

Ludwig Wittgenstein, in different ways in his earlier and later work, famously denies the general meaningfulness and consequently the legitimacy of traditional philosophical questions. Accordingly, he also denies the meaningfulness and legitimacy of any metaphysics. I focus here on Wittgenstein’s later view. In that view, words and statements are given their meanings by their uses in specific contexts of everyday life. As a result, any attempt to use words to talk or think about anything outside of those contexts literally deprives those words of their meaning. But traditional philosophical questions, and metaphysical questions and statements in particular, are characterized …

Phi 243 Early Modern Philosophy, Naomi Zack Phd

Open Educational Resources

This course will introduce the student to key authors and texts in the history of modern western philosophy, from the 17^th and 18^th centuries--Descartes, Locke, Berkeley, and Hume. The focus will be on metaphysics (what exists) and epistemology (how we know, what knowledge is and what we know); universal human identity (what am I? and what makes me the same person?); what some philosophers thought the role of God is in metaphysics and epistemology. Included will be historical contexts of the philosophers studied, and their religious claims.

“Tikkun” Viewed From The Perspective Of Systems Philosophy, Martin Zwick

Complex Systems Faculty Publications and Presentations

Understanding the idea of tikkun, as it appears in tikkun olam and tikkun ha’yetser, can be enriched by ideas from systems philosophy. From a systems perspective, “moral evil“ – the flaws of individual human beings, which create the need for tikkun ha’yetser – is a special case of “natural evil” – the dangers to life and especially to humanity from the natural world and from societal moral evil, which create the need for tikkun olam. Natural evil is in turn a special case of “metaphysical evil” – flaws in olam (which include those of yetser) that are ubiquitous, …

Knocking On Gelenbevī’S Door: A First Exploration Of The Epistemological Overcoming Of The Aristotelian Conception Of Metaphysical Modalities In The Thought Of IsmāʿĪl Gelenbevī (D. 1790/1 C.E.), Hisham Fahmy Al-Farrash

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is a first exploration of the epistemological turn in metaphysical modalities within Arabic philosophy, particularly within its post-classical period (circa 1100 – 1900 C.E.), which is the turn that highlights the Arabic post-classical philosopher’s attempt(s) to overcome the Aristotelian conception of metaphysical modalities. I here focus on some linguistic, philosophical, and theological nuances of this turn, by synoptically comparing the conceptions of metaphysical modalities of Ismāʿīl Gelenbevī (d. 1790/91) and Aristotle (d. circa 322 B.C.) as two points of culmination in their respective tradition’s reflections on modalities, which is the comparison that presents Gelenbevī’s said conception for …

Reading, Rending, And Queering The Web Of Story With The Lenses Of “Con-Creation” And Process Theology, Cameron Bourquein, Nick Polk

Mythopoeic Society Seminar Proceedings

“Sub-creation” within Tolkien’s narrative and extra-narrative works is routinely exhibited not as monolithic but rather as (literally and figuratively) polyphonic. In this joint paper Bourquein proposes that the Legendarium can be read through the lens of “con-creation” (total, continuous, collective, creative activity) both internally (as events in the Secondary World) and externally (as both a text and a pseudohistory in the Primary World). This approach levels the playing field between all actors in—and readers of—“The Drama,” providing a queer approach to interpretive-creative activity when compared to “orthodox” doctrines of creation. Polk further argues that con-creation resonates with process theologies of …

On The Nature Of Artworks: An Argument For Artwork Universals, Emma H.B. Rosenberg

Scripps Senior Theses

What kind of a thing is an artwork? Artworks are an extensive, complex category including all manner of media and content. This makes the project of determining what artworks themselves are a significant challenge. Nevertheless, there are many things we intuitively desire to say about what artworks are like and what value they offer. One underexplored theory which I will here argue successfully accommodates many of these features is that of artworks as universals.

It is not my aim in this thesis to compare this theory with other, rival theories of artworks. Rather, I will argue that the theory supports …

Nothing Gets In The Way Of A Good Argument, Kai Fine

CMC Senior Theses

For much of Western history, the prevailing process of creating a proof for the existence of a thing (often suggested to be God) outside the causal chain was done by following that very causal chain. One of the most well known of these theories was created by Avicenna. Through following his classification of objects, one was thought to be able to “prove” the necessity for a thing that was necessary in and of itself, and separate from all other things. In this paper I outline the strongest section of Avicenna’s argument, illustrating his classifications. I then turn to Graham Priest’s …

And You Don't Seem To Understand: Disanalogies Between Artificial And Biological Consciousness, Derek Freeman

The Journal of Purdue Undergraduate Research

This paper posits a new way of attempting to formulate theories of machine consciousness. At present, inquiry revolves around formulating criteria that could be applied to machines to determine if they possess human-like consciousness. The paper demonstrates that efforts so far have not been fruitful, instead finding that present methods of inquiry are destined to result in an impasse between those who support the notion of machine consciousness and those who oppose it. Consequently, the paper questions the assumption that human and machine consciousness must resemble each other. It explores a different approach, one that rejects the idea that the …

The Universal And The Unique, Martin Zwick

Complex Systems Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper explores the abstract dyad of universality and uniqueness. It notes that the two might be complementary and even synergistic, or that they might be alternatives that oppose one another. It also explores how the unique might be an emergent from a primal universality, as well as how the universal might be an emergent from a primal uniqueness. Finally, it offers an interpretation of this dyad in which the universal and the unique are equivalent transforms of one another and thus two sides of the same coin.

Keywords: Universality, uniqueness, general and particular, similarity and difference, fundamental dyad, dualism

The Basic Dualism In The World: Object-Oriented Ontology And Systems Theory, Martin Zwick

Complex Systems Faculty Publications and Presentations

Graham Harman writes that the “basic dualism in the world lies…between things in their intimate reality and things as confronted by other things.” However, dualism implies irreconcilable difference; what Harman points to is better expressed as a dyad, where the two components imply one another and interact. This article shows that systems theory has long asserted the fundamental character of Harman’s dyad, expressing it as the union of internal structure and external function, which correspond exactly to what Levi Bryant, characterizing Harman’s views, refers to as the intra-ontic and the inter-ontic, respectively. After interpreting Harman’s dyad in terms of the …

Being And Sacrifice: An Essay On Hegelian Logic, Mitch Thiessen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A study of Hegelian logic in relation to postmodern thought, this essay investigates the limits and contemporary significance of Hegel’s concept of knowledge, both on its own terms and from the perspective of three of its most polemical critics: Søren Kierkegaard, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Georges Bataille. Of especial consequence in this study are the themes of individuality, desire, history, and death, insofar as Hegel’s critics judge him to have inadequately come to terms with—and to have even suppressed—the truth or fact of these realities, all of which are potentially fatal for his theory of the subject.

Consciousness And Physicalism, Brian Mcgowan

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Physicalism is a philosophy of mind which attempts to explain consciousness as resulting from physical causes. The lack of a complete and consistent mathematical theory to explain physical causation has led other philosophers of mind to propose that consciousness is a nonphysical essence, property, or substance. However, the idea that physics can be defined atomically and/or deterministically leads to explanatory problems for consciousness, as well as for the dualisms which explain consciousness under these assumptions. This thesis advances a position called “continuous physicalism” which takes all material to result from deformations in the physical medium of space, and any changes …

Analyzing Substance Dualism From A Christian Perspective, Samuel J. Fulbright

Philosophy Senior Capstone

This paper seeks to analyze the Substance Dualist position from a Christian perspective. After looking briefly at the way in which the Christian Scriptures present the relationship between the body and the soul, the paper then turns to looking at the way in which the Substance Dualist position presents the relationship between the body and the soul. It ends by offering a Christian response to some of the most common and most popular objections raised against Substance Dualism.

Logos-Sophia, Elliott Norman, Donald Wayne Viney, Keith Elliott Perkins, Addyson Kay Campbell, Hunter Hinds, Scott Squires

LOGOS-SOPHIA: The Journal of the PSU Philosophical Society

Logos-Sophia, Volume 17, Spring 2024. The Journal of the Pittsburg State University Philosophical Society has largely been a student publication with occasional faculty contribution

An Ideal Science, Kyle Singh

Dartmouth College Master’s Theses

Many contemporary debates and distinctions in the philosophy of science stem from a methodological view that takes the project of metaphysics to be descriptive in nature. I argue that if one adopts an approach that looks at how we use and change our concepts instead several key implications follow. The first is that non-trivial conceptual continuity between theories is unavoidable. The second is that Identifying these continuities can help us determine how we ought to develop successive theories. My prime example for a candidate that merits this kind of continuous status are ghost fields in Quantum Field Theory (QFT). In …

Ernst Jünger’S Epistemology And Metaphysics, Angus Baird

Theses

Jünger is typically interpreted in the philosophical literature according to a Heideggerian reading to be a metaphysical Nietzschean who took the will to power to be the essence of reality. This is especially so for Jünger's “Gestalt of the worker.” Yet Jünger likened his Gestalt to Goethe’s “Urpflanze,” a phenomenological, not metaphysical, conception. And Jünger's uses of "will to power" and "eternal return" are inconsistent with cosmological readings of Nietzsche.

This thesis will argue that the core of Jünger’s epistemology is an account of “intuitive perceptions.” Through these intuitive perceptions Jünger thought he grasped metaphysical reality. Through this grasping Jünger …

Readings In Western Philosophy For Louisiana Learners, Jeff Mclaughlin, Marco Altamarino (Editor), Ryland Johnson (Editor), Peter Klubek (Editor), Michael Martin (Editor)

Open Educational Resources

It is important for students not only to get an appreciation and understanding of philosophy but also to be exposed to the very words and ideas of those who have shaped our thinking over the centuries. Accordingly, the title of this collection hints at the facts that these readings are from the original sources and that these philosophers were the originators of many of the issues we still discuss today.

Major areas of philosophy covered here are Ethics, Epistemology, Metaphysics, Philosophy of Religion, Ethics, Sociopolitical Philosophy, and finally, Aesthetics.

Alternative Ontology For Ante Rem Structuralism Based On Huayan Buddhist Metaphysics, Chul Soon Hwang

CMC Senior Theses

Ante rem structuralism is a version of mathematical structuralism presented by Shapiro (1997) that asserts the existence of mathematical objects. It stands out amongst other structuralist views in that it secures a face value semantics for mathematical statements. In this paper, I propose an alternative ontology where structures are fully explained by relations. I argue that this alternative ontology avoids arguments against ante rem structuralism’s endorsement of indiscernible entities while retaining the convenience of a face value semantics for mathematical expressions.

This ontology is based on mereological nihilism and the Huayan Buddhist argument that an object can be fully described …

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 …

On Neo-Humean Accounts For Natural Laws, Tori Helen Cotton

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Humeanism about laws is a metaphysical doctrine that claims that the complete scope of the world is comprised of the mosaic—a vast collection of particular, localized facts about the world, and everything else supervenes on this arrangement of facts. Reductionism about laws, the claim that laws of nature reduce to, and thereby supervene on, the Humean mosaic, follows from this view. The first part of the thesis explores Humeanism about laws and the evolving landscape of pragmatic approaches within this domain. Building upon the insights gained from this analysis, the second part of the thesis proposes a novel response to …

Bergson On Poetics: Philosophy, Literature And Science, Michel Dalissier

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In this paper, I analyze Henri Bergson’s insightful and contrasted vision of poetry. First, I show in what sense Bergson sympathizes with the idea that the poet must be credited to surpass the novelist in offering to us an unparalleled emotional apprehension of the world. Second, I nonetheless underline how Bergson grants the product of the poet, i.e., the poem itself, a problematic linguistic status, inasmuch as the focus of his analysis shifts from an intersubjective poetical apprehension of feelings to their individual poetic appreciation, or from the spiritual dimension of poetry to its material dimension. Third, I further suggest …

Filling The Vacant Space: A Close Reading Of Kant’S Dialectic Of Pure Practical Reason, Mae Ashraf Ali Saafan

Theses and Dissertations

The main aim of this thesis is to explore Kant’s central notion of rational belief. Kant’s account of rational belief could be viewed as the ground on which rational moral agents assent to propositions that enable them to avoid any practical incoherence as they engage in their moral duty.

The paper will offer a close reading of the dialectic of pure practical reason, particularly the doctrine of the postulates of practical reason. In this doctrine, Kant argues that although there is no theoretical proof for or against freedom, God, and the immortality of the soul, rational moral agents ought to …

African Metaphysics Or African Existentialism?: Some Critical Remarks On Aribiah David Attoe’S “Groundwork For A New Kind Of African Metaphysics”, Björn Freter

Philosophy Faculty Publications

Aribiah David Attoe’s Groundwork for a New Kind of African Metaphysics is a bold, courageous, passionate, and controversial book. It is erudite, well-informed, well-written, and at times even poetic. It combines the scholarship of Western and African philosophers in elegantly yet naturally flowing language. The book is bold because it aspires, as the title states, to be a groundwork for a new (African) metaphysics, thus claiming to solve those problems which previous metaphysicians of both African and Western origin have been unable to resolve. This is where the book becomes somewhat controversial, which is hardly a surprise. [excerpt]

Caducitas And Śūnyatā: A Neoplatonist Reading Of Nāgārjuna, Fabien Muller

Comparative Philosophy

In this paper I am addressing the question whether Nāgārjuna’s doctrine should be understood as a theory that describes reality itself (ontology) or as a theory of our relation to reality (epistemological, logical, psychological, etc.). To answer this question, I propose to compare Nāgārjuna’s concept of emptiness to that of ‘caducity’, a key element in the ontology of Renaissance Neoplatonist philosopher Francisco Patrizi. By showing that these concepts are similar, I argue that Nāgārjuna’s standpoint can be considered as that of ontology.

Mexica Monism And Daoist Ethics In The Philosophy Of Gloria Anzaldúa, Saraliza Anzaldúa

Comparative Philosophy

Critical scholarship regarding the philosophy of Gloria Anzaldúa has proliferated in recent decades, especially in the fields of feminist theory, phenomenology, and epistemology. However, there is little analysis of the metaphysics which undergird their work and make possible their views on identity, experience, and community politics. First, this article will explore the significance of Anzaldúa’s ‘nos/otras’ and its relation to Mexica (Aztec) monistic metaphysics. Such a concept resists an us/them construction of the world because it situates the other as us: the Spanish word for ‘we’ is ‘nosotros’ and holds the ‘other/otros’ as its …