Philosophy Commons^™

Medical Expertise, Patient Expertise, And Surrogate Decision Making: The Importance Of Co-Deliberation In Medical Decision-Making, Lindsey Grossheim

Theses

In biomedicine, there are many cases where a patient is incapacitated and unable to make their medical decisions. Often, these patients have no declared decision-maker. This thesis explores solutions which promote these patients’ ability to receive beneficent care and have a respect for their autonomy by proposing a requirement for co-deliberation between a medical professional (medical expert) and someone who knows the patient well (patient expert). This thesis studies a case and applies three solutions: one where each expert has full authority and a final solution where the two experts co-deliberate. Co-deliberation is a conversation between the two experts to …

Warrant And Non-Function: A Critique Of The Sensus Divinitatis In Plantinga's Reformed Epistemology, Lukas Merrell

Theses

In recent years, there has been a surge in attempting to demonstrate how a theistic belief can be held rationality apart from classical proofs. Championed by philosophers such as Alvin Plantinga and Nicholas Wolterstorff. Reformed Epistemology attempts to defend a God-belief as properly basic, which is therefore justified and warranted apart from traditional argumentation. With this in view, he put forward a position of religious epistemology that attempts to show how a GB can be on par with other beliefs we have on a daily basis that are considered rational, even if devoid of argumentation. In this paper I focus …

Honor: A Philosophically Parsed Assessment Of Honor And Arguments Concerning Its Moral Functions, Rianna S. Ramsey

Classical Conversations

Honor is a concept familiar to many, yet it can be difficult to articulate. In this thesis, the topic of honor is first explored as a philosophical and social structure. Then, using this structure, an ideal conception of honor is argued. For the formation and support of a functional honor theory, major components of honor are defined by examining and integrating the opinions of philosophers past and present. Terms defined include Individual and Group, as well as Internal behavior and External behavior. These establish honor as a mechanism for social motivation, because moral values that are idealized in a code …

Makeshift Memory: Nostalgia As Collective Solidarity In The Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood And Post-Imperial England, Catherine White

Senior Theses

It is a deeply human experience to long for times, people, and places of the past, even pasts we ourselves did not experience. This feeling, which we most often call nostalgia (but has earned many names throughout history) has profound influence especially in how we perceive our collective histories and use these histories to guide us forward. This experience of nostalgia is the underpinning for many of our sources of solidarity (or who we feel loyal or obligated to). However, when we feel these profound connections to the distant past, we often lose the reality of that past in the …

Community Based Inquiry - An Exercise To Develop Student-Led Philosophical Inquiry, Andrew Lambert

Open Educational Resources

This exercise provides opportunity for open philosophical discussion in the classroom, and promotes collaborative inquiry among students. It gives students direct experience of using the basic intellectual tools of philosophical inquiry. These include: clarifying what is at issue, seeking definitions, questioning definitions, spotting assumptions, evaluating inferential reasoning or moral judgments, presenting and examining evidence or explicit arguments.

Classical Education, Mythos, And Philosophy, Luke Hancock

Senior Honors Theses

Classical education offers a superior education K-12 because it is uniquely equipped to incorporate mythos and philosophy, two important parts of an education that are not included as well in other systems of education. Mythos, which has to do with narratives, story, and myth, has significant uses and benefits in many contexts, including religious, cultural, and academic. Philosophy is important in order for one to live the good life, and is lacking in today’s culture of education. These two concepts are emphasized in classical education. They fit into the classical canon and are best taught in a classical context. For …

Quasi-Dogwhistles: A Case Study Of Creating Meaning, Clyde Lemoine

Senior Theses

In 2017, a group of users on the website 4chan attempted to establish a new meaning of the common “OK” hand gesture. Claiming the sign meant “white power” the intention of this act was to trick left-leaning internet users and the media that an innocuous sign was racist, hence turning everyone unaware against them. A common narrative surrounding the situation was that the new meaning for the gesture as established by this group was a “hoax”. This situation serves as an interesting case study into understanding how we mean things by the use of signs. I will argue that the …

American Absurdity: Reconciling Conceptions Of The Absurd In European And American Literature, Benjamin Spencer

Senior Theses

This thesis aims to examine the development of the concept of the absurd in literature across different time periods and cultural contexts. The absurd, as defined by Camus, is the gap between humanity’s desire to understand the world and the impossibility of doing so.

However, the ways in which the absurd is recognized as an aspect of existence depends heavily on the sociological contexts in which an individual lives. By analyzing the works of absurdist authors, filmmakers, and artists across time, we can track the development of these absurdist conceptions in both Europe and American literary movements.

Looking at these …

Searching: Waves, Spencer Molnar

Theses and Dissertations

This supportive statement examines a philosophical conception of the self and how it can be identified through experience, consciousness, and perception by focusing on a human inclination to rationalize, or concretize, that which is everchanging. The methods of exploring this concept were achieved by examining the formal structure of composition and materials through the process of visual art. By pushing against historical traditions of creating spatial illusions in visual art, we can conclude that the legibility of an artwork is equally dependent on the experiential world as it is the social construction of image making. The question that is left …

Take Your Time, Terry A. Ratzlaff

School of Art, Art History, and Design: Theses and Student Creative Work

I see the world not as one seamless world but as a world composed of other worlds, built on top and within one another. They exist harmoniously, bound not by space but by time. In an instant I can move from one world into another where I can exist in two worlds simultaneously—in space, I am here. In time, I am there.

Worldmaking is a conceptual process of seeing connections and making distinctions within our lived reality.1 It is a process of dividing and organizing parts into collections that represent different narratives. Only through suitable arrangements can we handle vast …

I'M A Philosopher. We Can't Think Our Way Out Of This Mess. (The Intelligence Of Love), James K.A. Smith

University Faculty Publications and Creative Works

No abstract provided.

Avoiding The Basilisk: An Evaluation Of Top-Down, Bottom-Up, And Hybrid Ethical Approaches To Artificial Intelligence, Cole Shardelow

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

This thesis focuses on three specific approaches to implementing morality into artificial superintelligence (ASI) systems: top-down, bottom-up, and hybrid approaches. Each approach defines both the mechanical and moral functions an AI would attain if implemented. While research on machine ethics is already scarce, even less attention has been directed to which of these three prominent approaches would be most optimal in producing a moral ASI and avoiding a malevolent AI. Thus, this paper argues of the three machine ethics approaches, a hybrid model would best avoid the problems of superintelligent AI because it minimizes the problems of bottom-up and top-down …

Speciesism, Prejudice, And Epistemic Peer Disagreement, Samuel Director

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

Peter Singer famously argues that speciesism, like racism and sexism, is based on a prejudice. As Singer argues, since we reject racism and sexism, we must also reject speciesism. Since Singer articulated this line of reasoning, it has become a wide- spread argument against speciesism. Shelly Kagan has recently critiqued this argument, claiming that one can endorse speciesism without doing so on the basis of a prejudice. In this paper, I defend Kagan’s conclusion (that one can endorse speciesism without being prejudiced). However, many philosophers have found Kagan’s argument deeply unsatisfactory; so, I advance an alternative argument, different from Kagan’s, …

The Relevance Of Modern Stoicism, Maximillian V. Kutch

Journal of Wellness

No abstract provided.

Motivation And The Primacy Of Perception : Merleau-Ponty's Phenomenology Of Knowledge, Peter Antich

Ohio University Press Open Access Books

Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenological notion of motivation advances a compelling alternative to the empiricist and rationalist assumptions that underpin modern epistemology.

Arguing that knowledge is ultimately founded in perceptual experience, Peter Antich interprets and defends Merleau-Ponty’s thinking on motivation as the key to establishing a new form of epistemic grounding. Upending the classical dichotomy between reason and natural causality, justification and explanation, Antich shows how this epistemic ground enables Merleau-Ponty to offer a radically new account of knowledge and its relation to perception. In so doing, Antich demonstrates how and why Merleau-Ponty remains a vital resource for today’s epistemologists.

It's Funny 'Cause It's True: The Lighthearted Philosophers’ Society’S Introduction To Philosophy Through Humor, Jennifer Marra Henrigillis, Steven Gimbel

Open Educational Resources

It's Funny 'Cause It's True is an introductory text in philosophy exploring logic, metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, and aesthetics through questions in the philosophy of humor. Subfields receive a substantive introduction with interactive essays written to be accessible to undergraduates.

Three Roles Of Narratives In The Treatment Of Chronic Pain, Nina Atanasova

Philosophy and Religious Studies Department Faculty Publications

In this paper, I discuss the roles narratives play in the diagnostics, treatment, and recovery of chronic pain patients. I show that the successes of this narrative approach to the treatment of chronic pain support the biopsychosocial model of disease. The central example of narrative interventions discussed in the paper is pain neuroscience education. This is an intervention which aims at helping chronic pain patients reconceptualize their pain experiences so as to align them with neuroscientific knowledge of pain. Multiple clinical trials have established the success of these interventions in pain reduction. This shows that neuroscience pain education is in …

Logos-Sophia, Pittsburg State University Philosophical Society

LOGOS-SOPHIA: The Journal of the PSU Philosophical Society

Logos-Sophia, Volume 16, Spring 2021. The Journal of the Pittsburg State University Philosophical Society has largely been a student publication with occasional faculty contributions.

Bloomsbury Philosophy Library, Rob Tench

Libraries Faculty & Staff Publications

The article reviews the Web site Bloomsbury Philosophy Library, located at bloomsburyphilosophylibrary.com, from publisher Bloomsbury.

Socrates And The Divine Mission Of Political Friendship, Ronahn I. Clarke

Honors Theses

Plato is widely regarded as an authoritarian political thinker on account of Socrates’ endorsement of rule by philosopher kings in the Republic. Yet the Republic should not be mistaken for a political treatise or the entirety of Socrates’ political theorizing. Each of the Socratic dialogues is concerned with the political endeavour of reorienting souls within communities of souls toward virtue via philosophical discussion. This project examines the Lysis, the Gorgias, the Symposium, the Republic, and other dialogues in the context of the philosophical mission Socrates establishes in the Apology. Socrates’ philosophical work expresses a …

Does The Anthropocene Require Us To Be Saints?, Bennett B. Gilbert

University Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

This presentation is one of several salients for thinking through the place of moral life and thought in human temporality and historicity, including that of future history, such as the Anthropocene, and in particular questions about personhood in a milieu in which non-human species might have moral claims upon us. I hope to launch your further consideration of these matters in your work on the Anthropocene and anti-anthropocentrism.

The Evolutionary Global Vision Of Chinese Political Philosophy; China's Socio-Economic Transformation In The 21st Century, Meryem Gurel

Master's Projects and Capstones

Evolving relations of East Asia due to trade liberalization raised the search for financial stability for institutional development. It also increased the importance of China integrating the global economy into renewing its political philosophy in the new century. This capstone project aims to examine why China has transformed its socio-economic structure by generating outward investments and how it has affected international political relations in terms of the role of the economic institution Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). Quantitative methodology aims to examine the impact of China’s export trade on income distribution and economic growth through linear regression analysis for the …

An Understanding Of Prisons, Race, And Class In The United States, Seth Ketchum

Honors Projects

After a summer of protests sparked by police brutality, the United States remains divided on this most important issue. This paper will seek to contextualize this country’s situation to explain that these protests stem from a history of inequality, in order to argue against claims that the protests are unjustified. With a multidisciplinary approach, we can begin to observe just how unequal this country is and understand what drives so many people to protest during the middle of a global pandemic.

Politics For Angels, William Kanwischer

Honors Projects

How many idealizing assumptions may we make when doing political philosophy? May we assume our citizens more rational than they are, or our governments more efficient than in reality? These questions lie at the center of the debate between ideal and non-ideal theorists. Ideal theorists believe it permissible to engage in counterfactual assumptions about citizens and states when doing political philosophy, and non-ideal theorists think the opposite. In this paper, I will argue against a particular defense of ideal theory given by David Estlund, who argues that the low probability that a standard of justice will be met does not …

Country Report: The Teaching Of Philosophy In Singapore Schools, Steven Burik, Matthew Hammerton, Sovan Patra

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Singapore’s education system is widely regarded as one of the best in the world. In this report, we will focus on education at the primary, secondary, and junior college levels, and will not discuss the education offered in polytechnics (vocational colleges) and universities. We will also focus exclusively on Singapore’s public school system, which Singapore citizens are required to attend unless they are granted a special exemption. In addition to public schools, there are also international schools, which cater to the relatively large expatriate population in Singapore and typically offer a curriculum leading to the IB diploma. All public schools …

Descartes And Our Philosophies, Juan Carlos Moreno Romo

Western Ontario Early Modern Philosophy (WOEMP) Online Events

We propose to show that, although we think of Descartes as a "modern Parmenides" or as the "father of Modernity", otherwise for excellent reasons, this condition is at least as ambiguous as different are the cultures or societies that arose from the breakdown of Christianity. Where the Protestant Reformation triumphed, the dominant conception of philosophy is manifestly anticartesian, although they recognize, curiously, a debt to Cartesian philosophy; for example, we recognize this due in Wittgenstein and Heidegger. Neither empiricist nor rationalist, neither analytical nor continental, nor national or identitarian either, more than a "French", "European" or "Western" philosopher, Descartes would …

Verification And Utility In The Arabic Commentaries On The Canon Of Medicine: Examples From The Works Of Fakhr Al-Dīn Al-Rāzī (D. 1210) And Ibn Al-Nafīs (D. 1288), Nahyan Fancy

History Faculty publications

Although over two dozen Arabic commentaries on the Canon of Medicine were composed between the twelfth and fourteenth centuries, historians of medicine have paid scant attention to them. Instead, these commentaries have often been dismissed as being uncritical expositions that further entrenched the dogma of Galenic/Avicennan medical theory. In this article, I shall show that in fact the opposite was the case for at least a subset of the Canon commentaries from this period. Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī developed a new style of verification commentary across his philosophical corpus that he also deployed in his Canon commentary. Even though Fakhr al-Dīn …

How True Is Causal Closure?, Paul Ravelli

Philosophy and Religious Studies Presentations

Within the study of philosophy of mind, a principle known as causal closure has been a well-accepted topic for many years. Causal closure is used to describe the nature of causality within our universe and the principle goes as follows: “all physical things can have only physical causes.” What this means is that our universe exists as a closed system where things of the physical nature such as atoms can only be influenced by other physical things. If this principle is to be believed, then any type of explanation that is not based in scientific law cannot be used when …

Philosophy 21: Moral Problems - Oer Course Syllabus, Lou Matz

Pacific Open Texts

Course Syllabus for an OER / Open Access version of PHIL 21: Moral Problems at University of the Pacific during Summer 2020.

The Existential Philosophy Of David Foster Wallace, Shoshana Primak

Honors Program Theses and Projects

It is no secret that philosophy and literature are often closely intertwined: beginning with works as old as Plato’s dialogues, philosophers have always seen the merit in utilizing fiction to share philosophy with both their contemporaries and with the general public. The most prominent existentialists are perhaps the most famous for using literature as a vehicle for their philosophical ideas: Friedrich Nietzsche, Søren Kierkegaard, Albert Camus, Simone de Beauvoir, and Jean-Paul Sartre all published some kind of fiction, through parables, novels, plays, and so forth. Likewise, I will argue in this thesis that renowned writer David Foster Wallace was not …