Philosophy Commons^™

Education And The Epistemological Crisis In The Age Of Chatgpt, Casandra Silva Sibilin

Publications and Research

The emergence of ChatGPT and its ability to imitate student work has precipitated a crisis in education. Responses range from practical efforts to detect or prevent ChatGPT use to existential reflection about learning and assessment. However, the crisis is also epistemological, with educators struggling to determine what students know and fearing that student knowledge is diminishing. The educational philosophies of Socrates, Dewey, and Freire suggest that recognition of ignorance of different kinds (inquisitive, predictive, and practical)on the part of educators is uncomfortable but essential for improving the aims and methods of education. In this way, ChatGPT and the philosophy of …

Reading Texts And Pictures, Cynthia Freeland

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

Wartenberg’s book, Thoughtful Images, is an ambitious defense of the value of philosophical illustrations. Through examples from a vast historical sweep, he differentiates several ways that images help us understand or even enact philosophy. My critical response focuses on how viewers understand and make sense of visual images, by comparison with how we interpret texts of philosophical authors. I argue that the relevant processes of interpretation are more similar than what Wartenberg assumes, especially when issues arise about the role of narratives in both texts and pictures.

A Typology Of Illustration, Jeffrey Strayer

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

This article introduces the notions of technique-based, problem-based, and history-based illustrations as kinds of illustration relevant to art and philosophy that are intended to complement those recognized by Wartenberg. In doing so, it considers the possible illustration of different ideas within a single work, and the possibility that the complex interrelation of certain ideas may require a number of works for the success of their illustration. These different possibilities raise the issue of how illustration is related to artistic intention and understanding and to the history of art, with its settled and novel kinds of artistic production. Art as philosophy …

Further Reflections On Visual Illustrations Of Philosophy: A Response To Freeland, Schellekens, And Strayer, Thomas E. Wartenberg

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

The incisive commentaries about Thoughtful Images by Cynthia Freeland, Elisabeth Schellekens, and Jeff Strayer provide the occasion for a rethinking of some of the fundamental claims about visual illustrations of philosophy that I made in the book. The essay begins with a discussion of the “logic” of the term ‘illustration’ and then discusses the relationship between illustrations and technology. A variety of different themes are then addressed, such as the possibility of musical illustrations of philosophy; differences in the processing of written texts and visual images; additions to fidelity and felicity as norms applying to successful illustrations of philosophy; and …

Optimism About Philosophical Progress, A Historical Case Study, Daniele Bruno Garancini

Lingnan Theses (MPhil & PhD)

In this thesis I defend optimism about philosophical progress, which is a form of anti-exceptionalism about philosophy. Pessimists maintain that philosophy lacks the distinctive features that make science progressive. Optimism maintains that philosophy is like science, in this respect. My argumentative strategy is the following. I review the literature on philosophical progress to identify the feature that, according to pessimists, philosophy lacks. Then, I develop a historical case study to show that philosophy has these features. The goal is showing that philosophy makes progress by pessimistic standards.

My strategy is novel because other optimists, including Stoljar and Dellsén, Firing, and …

Gaston-Paul Effa, Moine-Pèlerin Et Flambeur Au Risque De La Forêt Camerounaise, Sylvie Kande

The Goose

Book review of Gaston-Paul Effa's 2019 novel, La vertical du Cri. The narrator finds salvation in wandering between nations and throughout the African rainforest.

Political Feasibility And A Global Climate Treaty, David Lefkowitz

Philosophy Faculty Publications

I contend that to be politically feasible a global climate treaty must satisfy the International Paretian principle (IP). I begin by defending IP as a principle of instrumental rationality that reflects the fact of extremely limited altruism vis-à-vis foreigners. I then address two objections to my thesis. One holds that an IP treaty is either economically infeasible or, contrary to its proponents’ claim, does not require side payments from poor states to rich ones. The other holds poor states will reject any climate treaty that requires such side payments because it ignores or exacerbates their unjust treatment by rich states.

Becoming Harmonious: What Can Confucius Contribute To Our Theory Of Rights, Edgar J. Vasquez

Acta Cogitata: An Undergraduate Journal in Philosophy

In the West, the core value that informs how we create and think about rights is autonomy, especially for the individual. For the ancient Chinese philosopher, Confucius, the core value to be pursued is harmony or the well-being of society as a whole. In this paper I argue that the West should also make harmony our core value. To make my case, I take influence from Confucius to look at how his theory differs from typical Western political theory. I discuss Confucius’ emphasis on duties rather than rights, the idea of citizenship as a privilege rather than a right, and …

Resentment, Will, And Moral Identity, Nicole Reid

Acta Cogitata: An Undergraduate Journal in Philosophy

Our everyday personal interactions with others are nothing if not complex. Accidents happen, mistakes are made, and the seamless understanding of the attitudes and actions of others doesn’t always occur. At some point an apology will need to be offered. In this essay I intend to examine the work done by an apology after an accidental transgression in mitigating unfavorable reactive attitudes like anger and resentment. This important work, I’ll argue, is more than just a societal norm. The work of an apology not only helps others to hold us in our identity as morally responsible agents, but has the …

Hope, Contentment, And Shame: The Formulation Of Agency In Children, Niamh Quinnan

Acta Cogitata: An Undergraduate Journal in Philosophy

In this paper, I examine how agency develops in children and I evaluate where parents and guardians are responsible for facilitating this development. I explain how parental scaffolding allows children to be supported by their parents to learn to hope, both as it is relevant to their growth and development, and as they begin to acquire particular skills relevant to their agency. Through what I call collaborative agency, I express the importance of parental facilitation and nurturing of the moral agency of their child so that they may better develop complete agency by adulthood. I explain the roles that hope, …

"The Algorithm Decides": Unintentional Agency Laundering & Explanation, Carson Johnston

Acta Cogitata: An Undergraduate Journal in Philosophy

In this paper I explore a situation under-explored by AI researchers where those who deploy decision-making algorithms unintentionally launder their moral agency to algorithms through anthropomorphic ascriptions of their underlying architecture. Often, this kind of agency laundering occurs rather innocently, by attempting to render an otherwise opaque system transparent through simplified and analogous explanations intended to enhance the decision subject’s understanding. Consequently, when unintentional agency laundering happens, the decision subject’s agency to seek recourse for adverse outcomes is undermined in the process of laundering the data controller’s moral agency to a non-agent. This paper explores this situation as it pertains …

On Radical Moral Encroachment: Distancing Epistemology From Truth, Roshan Dahale

Acta Cogitata: An Undergraduate Journal in Philosophy

Rima Basu has described radical moral encroachment as a theory that detaches wronging from action and attaches it to the belief instead. Furthermore, the stakes are associated with the wrongness of the belief rather than the risk of being false. Basu believes that this form of encroachment accurately captures our modern intuition on how racism functions. However, this paper lays out objections to this form of thinking. The rebuttal includes making the distinction between assumptions, probabilities, and outright beliefs. Probabilities and assumptions cannot be equated with an outright belief. Next, there is the issue of making the wronging of another …

Letter From The Editors, Edgar J. Vasquez, John Milkovich

Acta Cogitata: An Undergraduate Journal in Philosophy

No abstract provided.

Becoming What One Is: Nietzsche And Buddhism - A Transcultural Perspective, Sarah Linda Jacob

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) prophetically called himself an untimely philosopher. But what inspired this untimely genius? In what follows, I argue that Nietzsche’s philosophical departure from the Western metaphysical and epistemological tradition marks a paradigm shift enabled by the European encounter with the East. My thought is that the “untimely” philosopher was very timely—timelier than his educators and philosophical compadres—because he recognized that the Western religious and philosophical system would be, and had to be, forever altered due to the confrontation with new ontological horizons enabled by new, wholly foreign, perspectives. My argument is founded upon the historical significance of India …

On Virtue Ethics Theory And Elementary Music Education, Joshua Burgos

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation uses virtue ethics theory, teacher research method, and self-study to examine how I perceive myself as contributing to cultivating virtuous persons. Virtue ethics theory, teacher research method, and self-study are empirical, using concrete methods of data generation and analysis, and conceptual, relating to studying philosophical research, ideas, and interpretations (Annas, 2007; Check & Schutt, 2012; Kemmis & McTaggart, 1988). The study aimed to discover how virtue is cultivated through music education and improve teaching practice using virtue ethics theory and empirical research to offer insight into how virtue is cultivated. The study was conducted in an elementary school …

Self-Inflicted Frankfurt-Style Cases And Flickers Of Freedom, Michael Robinson

Philosophy Faculty Articles and Research

According to the most popular versions of the flicker defense, Frankfurt-style cases fail to undermine the Principle of Alternative Possibilities (PAP) because agents in these cases are (directly) morally responsible not for making the decisions they make but for making these decisions on their own, which is something they could have avoided doing. Frankfurt defenders have primarily focused on trying to show that the alternative possibility of refraining from making the relevant decisions on their own is not a robust alternative, while generally granting that this alternative cannot easily be eliminated from successful cases of this sort. In a …

The Basic Dualism In The World, 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.” This paper supports Harman’s assertion from a systems theoretic perspective and illustrates it with some examples, including conceptions about truth, ethics, value, and intelligence. But dualism implies irreconcilable difference; what Harman points to is better expressed as a dyad, where the two components not only imply one another but are related, and where this spatial dyad is usefully augmented with a temporal dimension, expressed in a third component or an additional orthogonal dyad.

Bloody Rationality: The Dialectic Of Modern Reason And Sacrifice In Hegel, Adorno, And Horkheimer, Cara S. Greene

Philosophy ETDs

In my dissertation, I argue that Hegel, Adorno, and Horkheimer develop theories of modern sacrifice grounded in their critiques of modern reason—what Hegel calls “the Understanding” and Adorno and Horkheimer call “instrumental reason.” I contend that these thinkers recognize the process of rational cognition, which abstracts conceptual data from empirical reality and establishes the dominance of the universal over particular phenomena, as a sacrificial process—a view supported by their routine description of this process using the language of violence and death. However, this sacrificial conception of modern reason isn’t metaphorical: when read alongside their analyses of discursive cunning, an instrumental …

Encounter-Oriented Subjectivity In Levinas And Barth: Conditioned Freedom In Resistance To Ethnonationalism, Michael Laminack

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines philosophical and political subjectivity, or how an individual knows the world and relates to society, through a comparative analysis of the phenomenologist Emmanuel Levinas and the Christian theologian Karl Barth. Levinas and Barth share a deep structure of “encounter-oriented subjectivity,” meaning subjectivity oriented by encounter with the Other that calls into question the subject’s freedom and, in this same moment, calls the subject to concrete response. Encounter-oriented subjectivity is critical of the “unconditioned freedom” that orients liberal subjectivity and offers an alternative sense of a “passively conditioned” freedom, or a freedom always already called into question by …

Pseudo-Dionysius’S Response To Neoplatonism: An Exploration Of Pseudo-Dionysius’ Historical Context And His Source Utilization In “The Mystical Theology”, Mhanna Joseph Kallas

Theses

This research delves into the writings of Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, particularly his blending of Neoplatonic ideas with Christian theology in his work "The Mystical Theology." Pseudo-Dionysius, a significant figure in Christian mysticism, draws upon a diverse array of sources to articulate his theological vision. An in-depth analysis of "The Mystical Theology" and its foundational texts reveals Pseudo-Dionysius's aim to align Neoplatonic apophatic strategies with Christian thought, suggesting that the essence of many Neoplatonic theological concepts is either inherent in or can be extrapolated from Christian doctrine. By shedding light on Pseudo-Dionysius's strategic selection and adaptation of various sources, this study …

How To Save Pascal (And Ourselves) From The Mugger, Avram Hiller, Ali Hasan

Philosophy Faculty Publications and Presentations

In this article, we re-examine Pascal's Mugging, and argue that it is a deeper problem than the St. Petersburg paradox. We offer a way out that is consistent with classical decision theory. Specifically, we propose a “many muggers” response analogous to the “many gods” objection to Pascal's Wager. When a very tiny probability of a great reward becomes a salient outcome of a choice, such as in the offer of the mugger, it can be discounted on the condition that there are many other symmetric, non-salient rewards that one may receive if one chooses otherwise.

Are We Living In A Simulation?, Michell-Lee Graham

Student Research

If we are living inside of a simulation, what’s wrong with that? Nick Bostrom, a swedish philosopher has proposed the question of whether we are living in a simulation. Philosophers in the past have grappled with this concept, from Plato to George Berkeley. In this thesis, I intend to argue or prove that we may be living inside of a simulation or to my best ability find some approximation to the truth of the matter.

Is There Really Anything Wrong With That? An Aristotelian Analysis Of Duty, Luke J. Mcgrath

Honors College Theses

In the iconic Seinfeld series finale, Jerry, George, Elaine, and Kramer find themselves in a peculiar legal predicament when they mock a crime rather than intervene to help the victim. The show’s commitment to portraying reality, even in its finale, vividly demonstrates the potential consequences of a society lacking the legal obligation to aid others. This comical incident raises a thought-provoking question about the legitimacy of duty-to-act laws in the United States. This thesis examines the application of Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics to the concept of duty-to-act laws and argues for the necessity and benefits of such laws in promoting a …

Review Of Bénédicte Boisseron's Afro-Dog: Blackness And The Animal Question, Thomas Aiello

Between the Species

This review evaluates Bénédicte Boisseron's Afro-Dog: Blackness and the Animal Question. In the process, it tracks the development of the academic relation between Blackness and animality.

Inklusivitas Pemerintah Jerman Melalui Penggunaan Leichte Sprache Pada Laman Resmi Bundesregierung, Yulius Henry Purwanto, Sonya Puspasari Suganda

Multikultura

Diskriminasi terhadap kaum disabilitas masih sering ditemukan di dalam masyarakat, sehingga mendorong pemerintahan di seluruh dunia untuk mengambil langkah dalam mengatasinya. Penelitian ini membahas penggunaan bahasa yang disederhanakan (Leichte Sprache) dalam media sebagai upaya pemerintah Jerman untuk mendorong terciptanya inklusivitas. Data penelitian ini adalah informasi seputar wabah COVID-19 yang tertera di laman resmi pemerintah Jerman yaitu www.bundesregierung.de. Data dianalisis menggunakan teori analisis wacana kritis oleh Norman Fairclough. Dengan menggunakan metode kualitatif, penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menunjukkan upaya pemerintah Jerman dalam bersikap inklusif melalui bahasa, yaitu bagaimana bahasa yang digunakan di dalam laman itu juga dapat dipahami oleh para penyandang disabilitas …

Peran Gerakan Sosial Dalam Pengesahan Mariage Pour Tous Di Prancis, Melpa Tresia, Airin Miranda

Multikultura

Mariage Pour Tous (MPT) merupakan undang-undang pernikahan yang memperbolehkan semua orang tanpa memandang gender untuk menikah dan berkeluarga. Pada masa kampanye kepresidenan François Hollande, rencana untuk melegalkan pernikahan sesama jenis adalah salah satu janji yang memicu gerakan sosial baru untuk melakukan aksi kolektif. Gerakan sosial pendukung pernikahan sesama jenis merupakan contoh dari gerakan sosial baru. Hal tersebut dapat dilihat dari motif dan isu yang disuarakan berkaitan dengan hak-hak sipil di dalam lingkup sosial. Usaha yang dilakukan oleh gerakan sosial untuk menuntut persamaan hak sipil sudah dilakukan sejak Pacte Civil de Solidarité (PACS) dikeluarkan pada tahun 1999, tetapi janji kampanye Hollande …

Melacak Pengetahuan Yang Terpinggirkan: Analisis Teori Standpoint Dalam Kebijakan Food Estate Di Kalimantan, Fajar Yudha Sentana, Fristian Hadinata

Multikultura

Krisis pangan dunia merupakan persoalan dunia yang belum terselesaikan oleh berbagai organisasi yang menaruh perhatian terhadap isu tersebut. Ditambah lagi, pandemi Covid-19 menjadi variabel yang memperburuk krisis pangan dunia. Hal itu direspon oleh pemerintah Indonesia melalui kebijakan food estate di Kalimantan sebagai bagian dari Proyek Strategis Nasional 2020-2024 sebagai solusi dari krisis pangan dunia dan mengurangi kebergantungan impor pangan serta sebagai upaya untuk mencapai kedaulatan pangan. Food estate memiliki catatan sejarah kegagalan yang panjang dan menimbulkan banyak persoalan di Indonesia. Tentunya hal ini menjadi fenomena yang menarik untuk dianalisa menggunakan gagasan standpoint dari Sandra Harding. Gagasan ini mencoba membongkar praktik …

Penerapan Konsep Environment, Social And Governance Di Perusahaan Di Asia Timur, Chintya Hanindhitakirana Wirawan, Filia Filia

Multikultura

Studi ini melakukan penelitian mengenai konsep ESG (Environment, Social and Governance) yang diterapkan oleh perusahaan-perusahaan di wilayah Asia Timur dalam pengembangan teknologi berkelanjutan. Tujuan dari penelitian ini adalah untuk menganalisis penerapan konsep ESG dalam perusahaan di negara-negara Asia Timur serta menganalisis dampak penerapan konsep ESG dalam perusahaan di negara-negara Asia Timur. Studi ini menggunakan data kualitatif yang diperoleh melalui sumber-sumber kajian pustaka dari buku, jurnal, dan artikel dalam situs web. Hasil penelitian ini adalah negara-negara di Asia Timur memiliki perusahaan dengan penerapan konsep ESG yang baik. Hal ini dapat dibuktikan dengan dampak positif yang mereka berikan bagi dunia internasional. Hal …

Kosakata Bahasa Arab Laras Permainan Daring Dalam Gim Mobile Legends Bang Bang Sebuah Analisis Morfo-Semantik, Ibrahim M. Akadji, Basuni Imamuddin

Multikultura

Permainan daring saat ini sangat digemari oleh semua kalangan usia, salah satunya adalah gim Mobile Legends: Bang Bang. Gim ini telah dimainkan oleh jutaan pemain dari seluruh dunia. Oleh karena itu gim Mobile Legends: telah diterjemahkan ke dalam berbagai bahasa di dunia, salah satunya adalah bahasa Arab. Penelitian ini akan menjelaskan kosakata bahasa Arab laras permainan daring yang digunakan dalam gim Mobile Legends: Bang Bang dengan analisis morfologi dan semantiknya. Penelitian ini menggunakan metode kualitatif deskriptif dengan data dikumpulkan berupa kosakata bahasa Arab laras permainan daring yang digunakan dalam gim Mobile Legends: Bang Bang. Tujuan penelitian ini adalah untuk menganalisis …

Aksesori Sebagai Identitas Etnik Suku Berber Di Maroko, Muhammad Khairul Febriyanto, Suranta Suranta

Multikultura

Artikel ini membahas mengenai aksesori sebagai identitas etnik. Suku Berber mempunyai berbagai macam jenis akseoris yang menjadi identitas etnik mereka yakni permadani, perhiasan, pakaian, dan tato. Artikel ini hanya membahas tentang permadani dan perhiasan suku Berber. Suku Berber mempunyai permadani yang khas. Permadani suku Berber memiliki banyak kegunaan yaitu sebagai selimut, alas untuk berkuda, alas untuk shalat dan berbagai hal lainnya. Selain itu, permadani dapat dijadikan sebagai hadiah karena permadani dianggap sebagai identitas etnik yang mampu menunjukkan jati diri suku Berber. Suku Berber mempunyai berbagai macam perhiasan yang mereka pakai. Macam-macam perhiasan penting suku Berber terdiri dari kalung, ikat kepala, …