Philosophy Commons^™

Exploring Moral Permissibility Of Nurse Participation In Limited Resuscitation, Felicia Stokes

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation offers a novel approach to support nurses when they face conflict between clinicians and families or alternate decision-makers over potentially inappropriate end-of-life goals of care. This dissertation will provide a normative analysis of the moral permissibility of limited resuscitation, with arguments supported by analyses of families’ and nurses’ perspectives and actions in the EoL decision-making process. Limited resuscitation is a cardiopulmonary resuscitation effort where full pharmacologic and mechanical intervention is not used, or the length of the resuscitative effort is shortened. It is typically associated with deception because it is performed without the knowledge of patients and families. …

A Tedious Oscillation Between Heartfelt Knowledge And Tears: A Metamodern Essay On Bo Burnham’S Work, Josh Denzel C. Ng

DLSU Senior High School Research Congress

Ever since the late 1900s until the early 2000s, philosophers such as Linda Hutcheon declared the death of the postmodern senses and looked ahead to a new generation of intellectuals to provide a heading and analysis for what was still a new concept. David Wallace perceived that literature had to shift away from irony and postmodern deception to recover a forgotten referentiality and essentialism. He introduced the notion of using sincerity and honesty, which conform to the beliefs of transcendentalism. Successively, this gave rise to the birth of the idea of New Sincerity commonly defined as an oscillation between irony …

Everescape: A Meta-Ethical Analysis Of The Player’S Morality Through Immersive Gameplay, Alexis Mavis S. Ferrer, Denise Keara L. Limkakeng, Belle Elizabeth S. Tan

DLSU Senior High School Research Congress

For the longest time, the concept of heroes and villains has been treated as opposites. Despite this, many actions taken by both are usually of equal morality, especially in video games, as they exist as two sides of one coin. This study attempts to find the application of game design that influences a player's perspective toward protagonists and antagonists. It also aims to find the extent to which a player can disconnect from normative morality within the world of a video game and how it may affect their perceptions of morality. Finally, it aims to find how the avatar absolves …

What It’S Like, Or Not Like, To Bee, Cheryl E. Abbate

Between the Species

In his recent work, David DeGrazia (2020) explores the possibility of insect sentience, focusing on bees as a case study. He advances a novel evolutionary approach, arguing that, from an evolutionary perspective, it’s more likely that bees are sentient than insentient., insofar as bees (allegedly) would have a selective advantage if they are motivated—in the form of feeling—to achieve their aims. His argument assumes two questionable claims: (1) if X is a selective advantage for an organism, then the organism likely has X, and (2) conscious creatures would have a selective advantage if they are sentient. I challenge both claims, …

The Future Is Not What It Used To Be: Longevity And The Curmudgeonly Attitude To Change, Kathy Behrendt

Philosophy Faculty Publications

Boredom has dominated discussions about longevity thanks to Bernard Williams’s influential “The Makropulos Case.” I reveal the presence in that paper of a neglected, additional problem for the long-lived person, namely alienation in the face of unwanted change. Williams gestures towards this problem but does not pursue it. I flesh it out on his behalf, connecting it to what I call the ‘curmudgeonly attitude to change.’ This attitude manifests itself in the tendency, amongst those getting on in years, to observe that things are getting worse. Curmudgeonliness is typically met with dismissal because it often concerns changes that don’t radically …

Adoration Above Objectification: The Promotion Of Other In Black, Mexican And Arabic Love Poetry, Joycelynn L. Baker

Honors Projects

This paper analyzes the philosophical fundamentals of sexual objectification and presents opposing literature, written in the 20th century, by Black, Mexican and Arabic male poets in contrast. In vigorous patriarchal environments that provide more opportunities to practice sexual objectification, the poets reframe male metaphysical perception and behavior in romantic or sexual contexts by promoting the autonomy and agency of women above themselves, and displaying their enjoyment of that situation. This paper will discuss how Western metaphysical philosophy impacts self-perception and belief in contemporary romantic contexts.

Heidegger On Deep Time And Being-In-Itself: Introductory Thoughts On ‘The Argument Against Need’, Ian Alexander Moore, Tobias Keiling

Philosophy Faculty Works

The article provides an introduction to Heidegger's manuscript “The Argument against Need”. It comments on the nature of the manuscript, the circumstances of its composition, and its major philosophical themes. These themes include the problem of ontological independence, the nature of time, and the question of realism.

A Parar Para Avanzar: To Stop/To Stand/To Strike To Advance, Christina N. Barrera

Theses and Dissertations

This paper presents the first fragments of a political framework outlining how I situate my work, which lives between “craft” and “art” models of making and between colonized and colonizing traditions. My writing proposes ways of making and being informed by practices, strategies, and organizing that work towards greater autonomy and liberation under these conditions.

New Animals, Alina Iakirevitch

Theses and Dissertations

To transfer the rhythms of the body into the earth, in Lippard’s language, one has to engage in a non verbal, illogical action. Art is the sphere of this action. Staying engaged with the unpredictable in us, the random, the primal, is the core of art making and encountering art.

Dust, Mist, Haze, Michael C. Tracy

Theses and Dissertations

This paper explores painting through the ideas of dust, mist, and haze as specific atmospheric metaphors that could be used to describe ontologies of space, time, memory, and history.

Juvenile Life Without Parole: Exposing The Parallels Between Juvenile Offenders And Those Who Sentence Them, Autumn Fortenberry

Honors Theses

This thesis will discuss Juvenile Life Without Parole sentencing (JLWOP) from three perspectives: (1) the evolving standard of decency as developed through relevant U.S. Supreme Court cases; (2) the cognitive and psychosocial development of adolescents that creates reduced culpability in juvenile offenders; and (3) the justifications and implications of punishment as-applied to juvenile offenders. In my fourth chapter, I argue that JLWOP sentencing disregards the humanity and transformable nature of juvenile offenders. I will then draw a parallel between the implications of a juvenile offender's underdeveloped cognitive functions on their decision-making processes and the implications of a trial judge's underdeveloped …

Rawls And Vattimo: An Argument For Congeniality Between Political Liberalism And Hermeneutical Nihilism, Tanner Cheek

Honors Theses

In this thesis, I will evaluate the relationship between the liberal political philosophy of John Rawls and the hermeneutical nihilism of the Italian philosopher and politician Gianni Vattimo. I will argue for congeniality as the best characterization of this relationship. In the first chapter, I will briefly describe the political philosophy of Rawls, highlighting those ideas which will be especially relevant to the following chapters. In the second chapter, I will detail the ideas of hermeneutical nihilism as put forth by Gianni Vattimo, consider the areas of intersection of this philosophical view with that of Rawls, and argue for congeniality …

Simple Is As Simple Does: Plantinga And Ghazālī On Divine Simplicity, Jon Mcginnis

Philosophy Faculty Works

This study considers the notion of divine simplicity, the idea that God is not a composite of more basic features, and the criticisms by al-Ghazālī (d. 1111) and Alvin Plantinga of that doctrine. What is shown is that most of the argumentation against divine simplicity frequently credited to Plantinga had been nearly perfectly anticipated by al-Ghazālī. Moreover, in responding to a stronger form of divine simplicity, which Avicenna (d. 1037) had presented, than the Thomistic version that Plantinga attacks, Ghazālī develops ‘new’ arguments and moves that are still valuable and informative to the discussion of divine simplicity today.

Charles Peirce And The Community Of Philosophical Inquiry, Maughn Rollins Gregory

Department of Educational Foundations Scholarship and Creative Works

Introduction: "We individually cannot reasonably hope to attain the ultimate philosophy which we pursue; we can only seek it, therefore, for the community of philosophers." Charles S.Peirce, 1868 (5.265).

Since the American philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce (1839-1914) originated the idea of a ‘community of inquiry’ to describe and promote the norms of scientific inquiry, that idea has been used to characterize a wide variety of educational programs, academic disciplines, and institutional, governmental, and political practices. The first purpose of this essay is to establish that the precise phrase ‘community of inquiry’—which does not occur in Peirce’s writings—was coined in 1978 …

Philosophizing With Children’S Literature: A Response To Turgeon And Wartenberg, Darren Chetty, Maughn Rollins Gregory, Megan Jane Laverty

Department of Educational Foundations Scholarship and Creative Works

Introduction: With the maturation of a field comes the opportunity and the responsibility to reflect on its sources, its areas and directions of development, debates among its proponents, and critiques originating from inside and outside the field. While early proponents of philosophy for children supported each other in the face of misunderstanding and misapprehension, differences inevitably arose among them, not only concerning materials and methods, but also concerning the very meanings of philosophy, childhood and education. These differences remain among contemporary scholars, educators and practitioners, who continue to engage in robust debates about how to research and practice philosophy with …

Assembling Ideal Actualization In Viennese Social Housing, Jack Day

Honors Theses

The central aims of this paper are to create a potential concept for what an ideal social housing program could look like and then to determine the extent to which the social housing program in Vienna, Austria has brought this ideal to reality. The social housing program in Vienna was chosen due to its popularity as a program and its generally positive reputation. The paper proceeds by first offering potential definitions for social housing, its ideals, and potential indicators for ideal fulfillment. Then, I take influence from the frameworks of assemblage theory and path-dependency theory to analyze the material, temporal, …

Marcello Musto, The Last Years Of Karl Marx, 1881-1883: An Intellectual Biography. Translated By Patrick Camiller. Stanford, Ca: Stanford University Press, 2020. Isbn 9781503612525., Sean Sayers

Emancipations: A Journal of Critical Social Analysis

In the final years of his life, Marx suffered repeated attacks of bronchitis and other illnesses. On doctor’s orders, he spent weeks on end convalescing by the sea, forbidden to exert himself. In the past, most biographers have passed over this period of Marx’s life very briefly, treating it as barren and unproductive. They can be forgiven for doing so, they had little to go on. Marx published very little in these years, and only a few of his letters were known. This situation has changed dramatically in recent years.

Expecting Blows: Sylvia Wynter, Sociogeny, And Exceeding Marxist Social Form, Sara-Maria Sorentino

Emancipations: A Journal of Critical Social Analysis

This article examines the relationship between Sylvia Wynter’s sociogenic principle and the question of “social form” in the critique of political economy. Despite their diverging emphases (the symbolic over the material, the slave over the laborer, sociogeny over social form), both Wynter and Marx pursue theoretical modes of inquiry that account for how empty reality principles reside over the reproduction of historical content and consciousness. In turning to the disavowed terms that heterodox Marxism, from value-form to world-systems theory, seeks to resuscitate, Wynter retains elements of Marxism’s interest in social forms reimagines the terms through which Marx’s critique can be …

Slavery, Work, And History: Du Bois’S Black Marxism, Amy Allen

Emancipations: A Journal of Critical Social Analysis

No abstract provided.

​​​​From Repression To Appropriation: Soviet Religious Policy And Reform, 1917-1943, Andriy Dyachenko

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis analyses the dynamics of religious reform in the USSR from 1917 to 1943. It argues that the early Bolshevik policy of persecution was increasingly substituted by state co-optation. This dynamic was shaped primarily by Stalinist concerns with state security and problems of ideology.

The Dream Of The Common Good: Not A Nightmare, Jackson Gregory Dellinger

Honors Theses

This paper examines an emerging position in the philosophy of law, common-good constitutionalism. In the first two parts of the paper, I explain the position and constitutionalism more generally, examining how common-good constitutionalism fits within the definition of constitutionalism providing by a neutral scholar. In the next five parts, I attempt to show that common-good constitutionalism’s preference for explicit adherence to the common good does not violate constitutionalism. In doing so, I provide an examination of common-good constitutionalism’s relationship with three important constitutional principles and the separability of common-good constitutionalism as a whole and the infamous views of its most …

“Paint What You Hate”: Philip Guston’S Hooded Figures And The Postponement Of The Exhibition Philip Guston Now, Thomas Baldwin

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis interrogates the postponement of the Philip Guston Now exhibition, examining the justification for the postponement, the actions taken by the National Gallery of Art, and the effects of the postponement. My research examines the museum’s choice to cite social justice as the main context for understanding Philip Guston.

Strong Linguistic Relativity: A Continental Sense Of Language And Being, Ava Totah, Brian Treanor

Honors Thesis

The theory of linguistic relativity can be divided into two hypotheses: the strong argument and the weak argument. The strong argument, often called linguistic determinism, posits that one’s native language determines one’s thought in an inescapable manner. The so-called “Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis” demonstrates this, though many modern linguists now believe this principle – and linguistic determinism in general – to be implausible. The weak argument for linguistic relativity states that one’s native language merely influences their worldview, such that it struggles to maintain a connection that is more than trivial. In this work, I seek a “third option” that is both …

Constructing Consciouness: Reverse Engineering The Architecture Of The Mind, Scott K. Clarke

Honors Capstone Projects and Theses

No abstract provided.

Property, Bas Van Der Vossen

Philosophy Faculty Books and Book Chapters

"This chapter discusses the nature and value of property rights. It will explain (1) what property rights are, (2) the relationship between private property and economic development, and (3) some objections to structuring societies around such rights. This discussion throughout focuses on the decentralizing nature of private property rights, asking what implications it has from a philosophical, but also social and political, point of view."

Counter-Archival Surplus: Remembering The Partisan Rupture In Post-Socialist Times, Gal Kirn

Artl@s Bulletin

The article departs critically from the postsocialist condition in Yugoslavia marked by conservative revisionism that transformed the memorial landscape. The nation-building process took a clearly negative attitude towards the Yugoslav, socialist and partisan/antifascist past. The first part of the text will shortly present the notion of »counter-archive« and the central features of the method. The second part of the text will offer a short analysis of four case studies: A short partisan poem written by Iztok, a drawing by Dore Klemenčič, a partisan dance by Marta Paulin and a partisan film by Rudi Omota.

Narrative Inquiry Of Opt Workers In Manufacturing Engineering Fields, Marietta Joleen Watson

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Optional Practical Training (OPT) is a highly valued and highly underutilized program designed to offer international students an opportunity to work in the U.S. and train in their field of study. This qualitative study collected and analyzed the narratives of three alumni of a Midwest university who completed OPT in the manufacturing engineering field. Four themes were identified in the narratives. These themes were inextricable to the premise that OPT is a deeply appreciated opportunity for F-1 students. The first theme is viewing the OPT experience as a system which includes the university, USCIS, and the employer and moreover a …

..., Claire Alfonso

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Words are fickle, easily misunderstood, and often put us at a loss... but we all have so much we feel we need to express. This begs the question: Is there any safe way of communication? Can anything ever really be communicated how you mean it? Will you ever see the reflection of what you feel, think, and dream outside of yourself? In response to this existential dilemma, I imagine an alternative language of images, sounds, color, feelings, and non-identification. My thesis is a meditation on the issues with standard language and the idea of alternative language. In my argument I …

Creativity And Spirituality: The Undeniable Connection Between The Two, Elizabeth A. Vesneske

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

Exploring the Spiritual Nature of Creativity

As a deeply spiritual person I began to notice that as I developed my spiritual practices and grew deeper in my spirituality my creativity started to flourish. Ironically enough, I had chosen a master’s program that focused solely on creativity. This is something I would later call a synchronicity, where things in your life magically happen to align. My spirituality, something I am so passionate about started to work its way into my graduate studies. Finding the Center for Applied Imagination through Buffalo State College has not only allowed me to strengthen my creativity …

Genres, Communities, And Practices, Evan Malone

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

In this dissertation, I defend a communitarian, practice-based, theory of genre and aesthetic value. I argue that theories of aesthetic value and art ontology within analytic philosophy have been too focused on the intentions of individual artists, the features of individual works, and the aesthetic experience of individual audience members. Accordingly, philosophical accounts of genre also follow this model. However, taking genre seriously means recognizing that they are social categories. If this is right, then philosophy of art ought to pay closer attention to the ways in which genres (as social categories) mediate aesthetic practices, values, and concepts. By thinking …