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Articles 481 - 510 of 1012

Full-Text Articles in Philosophy

The Problem Of Epistemically Irrelevant Causal Factors, Derek L. Mcallister Jul 2015

The Problem Of Epistemically Irrelevant Causal Factors, Derek L. Mcallister

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The problem of epistemically irrelevant causal factors is an epistemological phenomenon that occurs when a person becomes aware of some non-epistemic, causal factor that threatens to adversely influence her present belief, yet this factor is irrelevant to her deliberation concerning that belief. While the problem itself is apparently relatively widespread, very few have given it a detailed analysis. This thesis is one attempt to improve that. The first part, and the bulk, of this thesis is an analysis and explanation of what exactly the problem is and how it differs from nearby, related epistemological phenomena. The second part is my …

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The Technological Singularity: An Ideological Critique, Phillip Stephens Jul 2015

The Technological Singularity: An Ideological Critique, Phillip Stephens

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Technological Singularity represents a confluence of techno-cultural narratives of progress in which the projected exponential growth of artificial intelligence and nanotechnology will usher in a moment of irrevocable change for the human race – a change that many claim is scant decades away. Although the concept saw its modern clarification by science fiction author Vernor Vinge, the Singularity sits astride both fictional and nonfictional narratives of the future. It is the aim of this study to explore the ideological discourses that emerge from texts on the Singularity and the unfathomable posthuman future it ushers in. Doing so reveals how …

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Willful Understanding: Avicenna’S Philosophy Of Action And Theory Of The Will, Jon Mcginnis, Anthony Ruffus Jun 2015

Willful Understanding: Avicenna’S Philosophy Of Action And Theory Of The Will, Jon Mcginnis, Anthony Ruffus

Philosophy Faculty Works

In this study, we look at two interpretive puzzles associated with the thought of Avicenna that are still of intrinsic philosophical interest today. The first concerns to what extent, if at all, Avicenna’s deity can be said to act freely. The second concerns to what extent, if at all, humans within Avicenna’s philosophical system can be said to act freely. It is our contention that only through a careful analysis of Avicenna’s theory of action can one begin to assess his position concerning the status of the will and so provide a satisfactory response to these two interpretative issues. We …

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Women In Philosophy: A Qualitative Assessment Of Experiences At The Undergraduate Level, Crystal Nicole Lilith Aymelek Jun 2015

Women In Philosophy: A Qualitative Assessment Of Experiences At The Undergraduate Level, Crystal Nicole Lilith Aymelek

PSU McNair Scholars Online Journal

The underrepresentation of women in the field of philosophy has been a major concern for women in the discipline for at least the past ten years, and is increasingly gaining attention within academia. Current research at the undergraduate level suggests male and female enrollment occurs in relatively proportionate numbers in introductory philosophy courses but women’s enrollment dramatically decreases with the progression to upper division courses (Paxton, Figdor & Tiberius, 2012). To date, very little research has focused on the experiences of women philosophy majors at the undergraduate level. The present study conducted in-depth interviews with women who were either senior …

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A Teleological Exploration Of The Plausibility Of Moral Knowledge, Kevin Lebel King Jr. Jun 2015

A Teleological Exploration Of The Plausibility Of Moral Knowledge, Kevin Lebel King Jr.

Masters Theses

Natural selection seems to offer a compelling case for the development of evaluative judgments independent of evaluative facts. If such a case can be made, then how do moral judgments correlate to moral facts? It seems that there would be no tight connection from judgments to truth and moral judgments would be unwarranted. Gilbert Harman realized the implications of a probable non-moral genealogy. Richard Joyce goes on to provide a probable non-moral genealogy that would epistemically undermine moral judgments as Harman thought. Joyce argues that in a naturalistic world natural selection can account for moral judgments, but that the truth …

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The Problem Of Nomological Impossibility For Epistemic Structural Realism, Patrick Manzanares May 2015

The Problem Of Nomological Impossibility For Epistemic Structural Realism, Patrick Manzanares

The Hilltop Review

The philosophical view known as Epistemic Structural Realism appeals to the concept of ‘structure’ in order to defend a version of Scientific Realism that nevertheless respects historical considerations of ontological discontinuity between successive scientific theories. It seems that the structures of some scientific theories are only continuous with the structures of successor theories when the former are characterized as nomologically impossible idealizations of the latter, since this continuity involves allowing some quantity in the formal structure of the successor theory to tend towards some physically unrealizable limit. But if this is the case, then the earlier theory cannot be physically …

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Wittgenstein And The Problem Of Abusive Language, Alexander S. Coppins May 2015

Wittgenstein And The Problem Of Abusive Language, Alexander S. Coppins

Philosophy Honors Projects

These days, more and more social movements are focusing on changing the ways we speak. As a result of these movements, words that were once commonplace until quite recently are being pushed out of our language because of their power to hurt people. This tells us that political groups recognize the power of words to greatly damage us. In this paper, I explore Wittgenstein’s philosophy of language in order to shed light on how we can use language to insult each other. Both the early and the later Wittgenstein are able to account, in some respects, for how we understand …

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Examining The Role Of Consciousness And The Absurd In Suicide, Alexandra R. Azevedo May 2015

Examining The Role Of Consciousness And The Absurd In Suicide, Alexandra R. Azevedo

Senior Honors Projects

In order to emphasize the significance of suicide as a subjective experience, this research project explores suicide through a philosophical lens, primarily focusing on the absurdist school of thought that gained prominence with the twentieth century French philosopher and writer Albert Camus. Despite recent advances in the scientific study of suicide, I argue that many of the historically divisive questions surrounding suicide are rooted in philosophy. My original work attempts to rectify the current disconnect between suicidality and philosophy through the analysis and application of Camus’ chief work on the subjects, The Myth of Sisyphus. Recognizing the efficacy of …

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Explaining Consciousness: An Argument Against Physicalism And An Argument For Theism, Benjamin Dobler Apr 2015

Explaining Consciousness: An Argument Against Physicalism And An Argument For Theism, Benjamin Dobler

Honors Projects

Consciousness, the mental phenomenon of our subjective experience of the world, has long been the subject of philosophical debate. The world we experience is full of sights, sounds, taste, smells, and feelings--phenomenal experiences. As the vehicle of phenomenal experience, consciousness is one of the most familiar and readily accessible features of our world, and perhaps the hardest to deny. Yet science tells us that our world is entirely composed of matter and energy, and physical phenomena can be explained as just that. In Part I, I argue that consciousness stands wholly at odds with this scientistic worldview, providing evidence against …

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The Effect Of God On The Cogito: An Examination Of Descartes' Meditations On First Philosophy, Alex Valin Apr 2015

The Effect Of God On The Cogito: An Examination Of Descartes' Meditations On First Philosophy, Alex Valin

Oglethorpe Journal of Undergraduate Research

In Descartes’ Meditations on First Philosophy, he claims on of his most enduring arguments, the Cogito: I think, I am. Following his argument for the Cogito, however, Descartes argues for the existence of an infinite, all powerful, all knowing God. Critiques of this argument fall into several different camps. First, that God remains a fundamental principle for Descartes’ epistemology and metaphysics. Secondly, that the inclusion of the argument for God was put in to please Church officials. Finally, that what Descartes’ terms God actually represents his own mind. In this essay, I examine Descartes’ argument for God as a fundamental …

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Prudence And Executive Control: An Analysis Of The Decision-Making Processes Of The Christian And The Modern Man, Ryan Frazier Apr 2015

Prudence And Executive Control: An Analysis Of The Decision-Making Processes Of The Christian And The Modern Man, Ryan Frazier

Spring 2015, Faith and Science

Scientific research and Christian philosophy often appear to be at odds. These different perspectives sometimes offer different answers to the same question. In the light of these perspectives, however, we can gain a greater understanding of the human experience. Executive control, or how a person decides to do something, is unable to account for the greater question of why. St. Thomas Aquinas¹ explanation of prudence provides reasonable evidence in favor of this perspective. In order to understand the Christian intellectual virtue of prudence, a mastery of the classical, Thomistic account is required. Despite the gaps between science and religious thought, …

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“In Pursuit Of Purified Persuasions”: Making (Some) Sense Of The Modern Mind, John Emmet Clarke Apr 2015

“In Pursuit Of Purified Persuasions”: Making (Some) Sense Of The Modern Mind, John Emmet Clarke

Spring 2015, Faith and Science

What is more essential to the philosophical act, what we study or how we study? Taking its cue from a line by Thomas Aquinas on the corruptibility of the natural law, this essay seeks to make some sense of the ways in which our way of knowing and, consequently, of being, is affected by the sins of our philosophical forefathers. The essay advises against putting faith in any particular school of thought, be it the pensee d'jour or philosophia perennis, since our ability to comprehend and converse in their varying tenets is compromised by the very state of the post-modern …

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The Curse Of Fortune; Responding To Luck Objections In An Uncooperative World, Kyle Morgan Apr 2015

The Curse Of Fortune; Responding To Luck Objections In An Uncooperative World, Kyle Morgan

Featured Research

The consensus scientific view holds that our world is indeterministic at the micro level, but practically deterministic at all other levels. In an indeterministic world, live alternative possibilities at the moment of decision render it impossible for agents to guarantee what they will choose; regardless of their personality and deliberative processes. Critics of indeterminist free will argue that this lack of a necessary connection between mental state and choice makes the ultimate decision fundamentally a matter of luck. As such, indeterminism opens free will up to potential problems of present luck. Additionally, large-scale determinism opens up free will to a …

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A Morally Consistent Character Or Absolute Free Will: Which Should We Choose?, Sarah Woods Apr 2015

A Morally Consistent Character Or Absolute Free Will: Which Should We Choose?, Sarah Woods

Featured Research

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” This Aristotelian notion of how to lead a virtuous life is one that philosophers and scholars alike have respected and praised for centuries. Consistency in choosing the right path is the key to leading a fulfilling life, which is a notion many agree upon. While one person may hold Aristotelian notions of consistent excellence in character on a pedestal, this same person may also believe that in order for one to have free will and moral responsibility, one must have the ability at all times …

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A Necessity Of Morals, Austin Mcelrath Apr 2015

A Necessity Of Morals, Austin Mcelrath

Featured Research

John Martin Fischer has stated that his initial motivation for his work The Metaphysics of Free Will was “to defend moral culpability from the threats of causal determinism and divine omniscience” while also asserting semi-compatibilism. Taking that a step further, the goal for my own work is to defend our need for moral culpability from a metaphysical standpoint. In this essay I will argue that ultimately there are only two possibilities when it comes to a moral-metaphysical framework, only one of which involves human culpability: either human existence has intrinsic meaning and worth, therefore giving weight to our moral decision …

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Just Desert, Onur Sahin Apr 2015

Just Desert, Onur Sahin

Featured Research

In this paper I examine the relevance of moral desert with regards to compatibilist accounts of moral responsibility. I look at two types of moral desert: (1) desert with relation to an agent and a moral community and (2) desert with relation to the moral worth of an agent or action. I begin by discussing Pereboom’s four cases and the problem that might arise for compatibilists given which view of moral desert they affirm. From there I explicate these two opposing conceptions of desert relevant to moral responsibility. I look at one example of the latter kind of desert: desert-as-merit. …

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A Framework Of Responsibility And Absolution, Tobin Wilson Apr 2015

A Framework Of Responsibility And Absolution, Tobin Wilson

Featured Research

Suppose we have a choice between A and B, and that both options are morally reprehensible. If we were forced or tricked into making a decision, would we still be responsible? The answer is usually quite easy to find, but the question of why we are responsible seems much harder to discern. In any discussion about moral responsibility, is seems there needs to be a system of necessary and sufficient conditions. However such requirements tend to exist in a hazy philosophical space, so it is not surprising that we often confuse them. Thus, my paper will attempt to create …

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Auctor In Fabula: Umberto Eco And The Intentio Of Foucault's Pendulum, Douglas Stephens Iv Apr 2015

Auctor In Fabula: Umberto Eco And The Intentio Of Foucault's Pendulum, Douglas Stephens Iv

Senior Honors Theses

Umberto Eco’s 1988 novel Foucault’s Pendulum weaves together a wide range of philosophical and literary threads. Many of these threads find their other ends in Eco’s nonfiction works, which focus primarily on the question of interpretation and the source of meaning. The novel, which follows three distinctly overinterpretive characters as they descend into ruin, has been read by some as a retraction or parody of Eco’s own position. However, if Foucault’s Pendulum is indeed polemical, it must be taken as an argument against the mindset which Eco has termed the “hermetic”. Through an examination of his larger theoretical body, including …

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Resistance To Unjust Immigration Restrictions, Javier S. Hidalgo Jan 2015

Resistance To Unjust Immigration Restrictions, Javier S. Hidalgo

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

State employees use force or the threat of force to restrict immigration.Border guards forcibly detain and incarcerate foreigners who immigrate without state approval. When migrants evade or resist immigration restrictions, border agents sometimes deploy tasers to incapacitate migrants, pepper spray them, shoot them with rubber bullets, and, less frequently, beat migrants with batons, and even fire live ammunition at them. Thousands of migrants perish annually in attempts to evade border agents. 2 State officials also capture and deport migrants who reside in their borders without official authorization. Affluent states have deported millions of unauthorized migrants in recent decades.

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Needs, Desires, Fears, And Freedom, George Cain Jan 2015

Needs, Desires, Fears, And Freedom, George Cain

The Downtown Review: An Interdisciplinary Journal Written and Peer-Reviewed by Mandel Honors College Students at Cleveland State University

No abstract provided.

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Buddhism, Confucianism, And Western Conceptions Of Personal Autonomy, Joshua Sias Jan 2015

Buddhism, Confucianism, And Western Conceptions Of Personal Autonomy, Joshua Sias

The Downtown Review: An Interdisciplinary Journal Written and Peer-Reviewed by Mandel Honors College Students at Cleveland State University

The contemporary conversation surrounding personal autonomy theory is primarily concerned with discussing autonomy in relation to western liberal conceptions of individualism, society, and other elements surrounding modern understandings of personal autonomy. An outsider reviewing the modern discourse over personal autonomy theory may be led to believe that either those within the conversation are simply indifferent to the exclusion of eastern philosophical notions relevant to self-government (and self-determination), or that eastern classical models are incapable of offering much to the discussion of personal autonomy. The following paper is aimed at addressing common components of the modern discussion over personal autonomy theory …

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Trust, Trustworthiness, And The Moral Consequence Of Consistency, Jason R. D'Cruz Jan 2015

Trust, Trustworthiness, And The Moral Consequence Of Consistency, Jason R. D'Cruz

Philosophy Faculty Scholarship

Situationists such as John Doris, Gilbert Harman, and Maria Merritt suppose that appeal to reliable behavioral dispositions can be dispensed with without radical revision to morality as we know it. This paper challenges this supposition, arguing that abandoning hope in reliable dispositions rules out genuine trust and forces us to suspend core reactive attitudes of gratitude and resentment, esteem and indignation. By examining situationism through the lens of trust we learn something about situationism (in particular, the radically revisionary moral implications of its adoption) as well as something about trust (in particular, that the conditions necessary for genuine trust include …

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Review Of Bioethics And The Human Goods: An Introduction To Natrual Law By Alfonso Gómez-Lobo And John Keown, William Simkulet Jan 2015

Review Of Bioethics And The Human Goods: An Introduction To Natrual Law By Alfonso Gómez-Lobo And John Keown, William Simkulet

Philosophy and Religious Studies Department Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

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Review Of Happiness And Goodness By Steven M. Cahn And Christine Vitrano, William Simkulet Jan 2015

Review Of Happiness And Goodness By Steven M. Cahn And Christine Vitrano, William Simkulet

Philosophy and Religious Studies Department Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

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Review Of Radio Benjamin By Walter Benjamin And Edited By Lecia Rosenthal, William Simkulet Jan 2015

Review Of Radio Benjamin By Walter Benjamin And Edited By Lecia Rosenthal, William Simkulet

Philosophy and Religious Studies Department Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

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Review Of The Soul Of The Marionette By John Gray, William Simkulet Jan 2015

Review Of The Soul Of The Marionette By John Gray, William Simkulet

Philosophy and Religious Studies Department Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

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Review Of The Quest For A Moral Compass: A Global History Of Ethics By Kenan Malik, William Simkulet Jan 2015

Review Of The Quest For A Moral Compass: A Global History Of Ethics By Kenan Malik, William Simkulet

Philosophy and Religious Studies Department Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

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Review Of The Power Of Tolerance: A Debate By Wendy Brown And Rainer Forst, William Simkulet Jan 2015

Review Of The Power Of Tolerance: A Debate By Wendy Brown And Rainer Forst, William Simkulet

Philosophy and Religious Studies Department Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

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Review Of Walter Benjamin: A Critical Life By Howard Eiland And Michael W. Jennings, William Simkulet Jan 2015

Review Of Walter Benjamin: A Critical Life By Howard Eiland And Michael W. Jennings, William Simkulet

Philosophy and Religious Studies Department Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

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Religion As Philosophy And Art In The Work Of Lucian Blaga, Michael Jones Jan 2015

Religion As Philosophy And Art In The Work Of Lucian Blaga, Michael Jones

Faculty Publications and Presentations

This article introduces the thought of the Romanian philosopher Lucian Blaga on religion as a cultural creation that has value apart from questions of the truthfulness of religious doctrines. According to Blaga, religion has considerable aesthetic and philosophical significance. The article places this insight within the context of Blaga’s metaphysical vision and his analysis of epistemology and illustrates it with a new translation of one of his most famous poems.

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