Philosophy Commons^™

Desde El Fuego Que En Mí Arde: Performance, Literatura Y Cine Afro-Latinoamericano Producidos Por Mujeres Afrodescendientes En Perú, Cuba Y Brasil (1960–2000), Elena Ekatherina Chavez Goycochea

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examines different films, literary, and performance art pieces created by contemporary afro-descendant women from Peru, Cuba, and Brazil after the sixties with emphasis on the most relevant works of Conceição Evaristo, Sara Gómez, Victoria Santa Cruz, and Lucía Charún-Illescas. I focus my research on the crucial role these artists played in the cultural identity formation of Latin America when inserting ‘race’ as a category of socio-political analysis and cultural production. How did their films, performances, and texts challenge national narratives and imaginaries after 1960? Although in the sixties, women improved their civil rights in different countries, the ‘mujer …

Some Notes On Birds: Language And Attention In The Age Of Social Media, Aimee Lamoureux

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Technology, social media, and its affiliated distractions are now an ever-present part of our daily lives. Attention is a commodity, one which tech companies value because it delivers them bigger and bigger profits. Their products are intentionally designed to be additive, to demand more and more of our time and attention throughout our day. However, attention is not simply a commodity, but the way in which we connect with the external world and attend to our everyday experience. The world that we create in the mind is the world that ends up forming the reality of our everyday lives. Complex …

Further Toward Minor Literatures, Aaron Hammes

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Minor literature is literatures of the minoritarian, not simply that produced by (cultural, ethnic, racial, gender-expressive, sexual, ability, age) minorities. Further Toward Minor Literatures operates from this decisive distinction to trace the contours and potentialities of one minoritarian literature, the contemporary transgender novel in the US and Canada. This study is premised in part on putting the fiction itself on a plane with theoretical and critical sources, creating a dialogue that does not privilege one discourse over the other. Minor literature is self-theorizing, perhaps even authotheoretical, in its expressing and fulfilling the mobile orientations of its minoritarian communities. This study …

Afterlives Of Discovery: Speculative Geographies In The Colombian Political Landscape, Heidi A. Rhodes

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation considers how the temporal remains of the Age of Discovery and its doctrine persist in a racial-geographical ranking of human and non-human, terrestrial and planetary life and worth. Across this work, I interpret a series of historical moments and their objects of speculative geographic cultural production: a state mapping program, a painting, a biomedical project, a de-monumenting protest action. As repositories of codified belief and repertoires of Discovery’s political and affective modes of racialized domination, I read these materials from the Colombian archives of coloniality and liberalism to illuminate their implications for Colombia’s national becoming as a liberal …

Essays On Communication, Shawn M. Simpson

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

One of the central issues of contemporary philosophy and biology is the nature of communication. Early accounts of communication tended to focus on just one side of the communicative divide – the speaker side or the receiver side – and took as their starting point the case of human language. Animal communication, historically, was largely treated as a special case. Now things are different. Now it appears we might have a model that makes sense of sign use in both the human and animal realms and brings together both sides of the signaling divide. It’s still to be seen, however, …

A Difference In Rhythm: John Burroughs As Rhythmanalyst, Jennifer Macdonald

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Nature writer John Burroughs wrote about the rhythms of life in nature, people, and places, sharing his experiences of his surroundings for readers to learn from, get inspired by, or escape through. In this literature review, using Henri Lefebvre’s Rhythmanalysis, in which rhythm is the “interaction between a place, a time, and an expenditure of energy” (Lefebvre, 2004, p. 15), I explore some of Burroughs’ writing, asserting that Burroughs himself was a rhythmanalyst. Burroughs is typically read as a literary naturalist who hoped to relay any scene as it truly was (to perfect the “art of seeing things” or …

Perceiving The Body: On The Bodily Senses And The Nature Of Perception, Fiona C. Schick

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Visual perception dominates the philosophical study of perception. This dissertation shows that a complete understanding of the nature of perception as a general category requires a consideration of the nature of the bodily modalities such as interoception, proprioception, pain, touch, and thermoception. By understanding these modalities, we come closer to understanding the nature of perception (what it is, how it works, and what systems it encompasses). While non-visual modalities have been gaining more attention in philosophy, much of this work looks to philosophical issues particular to these modalities—not necessarily how they relate to questions about the nature of perception in …

Desire, Culture, And The Body, Zoey Lavallee

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

What is the nature of desire? In this dissertation I develop a theory of desire according to which desires are essentially enculturated states that play the role of presenting favorable outcomes that act as inputs to intention formation, and thereby intentional action. This analysis of desire debunks a common assumption shared by prominent accounts of desire in philosophy of mind, what can be called the dualist assumption: that bodily desires such as urges and appetites differ in kind from conceptual desires that are typically described as higher cognitive attitudes. I argue that the desires traditionally understood as bodily or appetitive …

The Federalist Papers' Account Of Human Nature, Jeffrey P. Smith

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This paper is an analysis of the account of human nature found in The Federalist Papers. This interpretation assumes The Federalist is a work of political rhetoric and advocacy, but also one of genuine significance as political science and philosophy. As a book, The Federalist is a coherent whole, which offers a coherent account of human nature, despite the collective nature of its authorship, the time pressures of its publication, and the piecemeal nature of its workmanship. This understanding of human nature is the thread which runs through all its analysis and numbers. Its arguments asserting the inadequacies of …

Must Consent Be Informed? Patient Rights, State Authority, And The Moral Basis Of The Physician's Duties Of Disclosure, D. Robert Macdougall

Publications and Research

Legal standards of disclosure in a variety of jurisdictions require physicians to inform patients about the likely consequences of treatment, as a condition for obtaining the patient’s consent. Such a duty to inform is special insofar as extensive disclosure of risks and potential benefits is not usually a condition for obtaining consent in non-medical transactions.

What could morally justify the physician’s special legal duty to inform? I argue that existing justifications have tried but failed to ground such special duties directly in basic and general rights, such as autonomy rights. As an alternative to such direct justifications, I develop an …

Informed Consent: Foundations And Applications, Joanna Smolenski

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Since its advent in the 20th century, informed consent has become a cornerstone of ethical healthcare, and obtaining it a core obligation in medical contexts. In my dissertation, I aim to examine the theoretical underpinnings of informed consent and identify what values it is taken to protect. I will suggest that the fundamental motivation behind informed consent rests in something I’ll call bodily self-sovereignty, which I argue involves a coupling of two groups of values: autonomy and non-domination on the one hand, and self-ownership and personal integrity on the other. I will then go on to consider two 'case …

Climbing The Mountain When There Is No Mountain To Climb: Pragmatism And The Reconstruction Of Moral Philosophy, Ryan Marshall Felder

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The aim of this dissertation is to leverage philosophical resources given to us by Richard Rorty which can show that various diverse and seemingly-incompatible strands in moral theory can be reconciled to show that the differences between moral theories are illusory. The strategy is to show that Rorty’s approach to philosophy allows a pragmatist reconstruction of several prominent positions in normative ethics (Chapters 1 and 2) and metaethics (Chapter 3 and 4), and that a Rorty-style pragmatism, with its emphasis on liberal ironism and a relaxed approach to semantics and truth, facilitates the moderation of normative theories and metaethical theories, …

Recognition And Positive Freedom, David Ingram

Philosophy: Faculty Publications and Other Works

This chapter explores what, if any, contributions a Hegelian ethics of recognition makes towards enriching our understanding of the intersubjective foundations of freedom. Against Berlin, I argue that recognition is wrongly construed as a form of solidarity with society that threatens individual freedom. Drawing from recent work by Honneth, I submit that distinct recognition regimes correspond to distinct social action spheres in a way that that facilitates critical reflection and freedom to resist over-reaching action spheres. I conclude that reconciling these action spheres on both individual and social levels by means of a meta-level form of social recognition in the …

Book Review: The Forum And The Tower, Drew Lemay

Liberty University Journal of Statesmanship & Public Policy

Mary Ann Glendon’s, The Forum and the Tower: How Scholars and Politicians have Imagined the World, from Plato to Eleanor Roosevelt, is a thought-provoking work on the contrast between philosophers and statesman. The purpose of this book review is to provide a readers' perspective to Glendon's work by summarizing the structure of the book, giving a fair critique, and providing a personal response to the views displayed by the author.

Penguatan Masyarakat Konsumen Abad Ke-21: Studi Kasus Konsumerisme Fast Fashion Di Inggris, Humaira Humaira, Evi Fitriani

Paradigma: Jurnal Kajian Budaya

This article aims to understand the development of fashion consumerism in the United Kingdom (UK) with the focus: why fast fashion consumerism in the last two decades was very high? This study applied a post-structuralism paradigm, namely the Libidinal Economy concept from Jean-Francois Lyotard and a post-modernism paradigm on the Consumer Society from Jean Baudrillard. The method employed in the article is a case study in the UK in the last two decades. Data were collected from scientific writings, documents, news, and advertisements in media. The results show that fashion consumerism in the UK dated back to the 18th century; …

Konstruksi Identitas Nasionalisme Dalam Pikukuh Dan Buyut Masyarakat Adat Baduy, Armaidy Armawi, Desy Susilawati

Paradigma: Jurnal Kajian Budaya

This research is entitled “Construction of Nationalism Identity in Baduy Society Based on Pikukuh and Buyut.” This is a library research on the philosophical life of the Baduy, a traditional community in Indonesia. Analysis was conducted using interpretation, inductive and deductive, internal coherence, and holistica approaches. This research resulted is some conclusions. First, the Baduy community was found to uphold a form of ethno- nationalism which is based on Pikukuh and Buyut with a strong focus on the meaning of leadership, communal life, and observance of laws. However, this ethno-nationalism does not conflict with the state nationalism upheld by the …

Telaah Filosofis Terhadap Tapa Brata: Praktik Spiritual Menanggulangi Kecemasan Dalam Pandemi Covid-19, John Abraham Ziswan Suryosumunar

Paradigma: Jurnal Kajian Budaya

The COVID-19 pandemic, which is a global disaster, has an impact on all aspects of human life. Indonesia is one of the countries that have a high rate of COVID-19 incidences, which naturally has led to various policies intended to suppress further transmission by limiting social mobility. During this pandemic, people are faced with uncertain conditions that result in an increasing level of boredom, fear, and even public anxiety. The author was interested in exploring the realities of the COVID-19 pandemic by examining the possible relationship between public anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic and an awareness of the need for …

Pu Sapi Dan Lembu Agra: Kajian Antroponimi Berdasarkan Isi Prasasti Jawa Kuno (Abad Ke-9–16 M), Chacuk Tri Sasongko, Ninie Susanti

Paradigma: Jurnal Kajian Budaya

Javanese literary works, especially the Panji tales, often feature human characters with animal names, such as Kuda Narawangsa, Kebo Kanigara, and Kidangwalangka. This naming phenomenon can also be found in old Javanese inscriptions. Recent studies generally concluded that such naming tradition occurred during the Kadiri-Majapahit era, and this was closely related to the banner of the army and the identity of makasirkasir. This study aims to reveal the motivation behind the naming tradition and the relationship between personal name, social status, and occupation of the person so named throughout the ancient Javanese era. This study uses Nyström’s onomastical approach, especially …

Ondel-Ondel: Looking For A Theoretical Explanation, Desti Yuwastina, Kyrychenko Volodymyr

Paradigma: Jurnal Kajian Budaya

Ondel-ondel, initially believed to have fearsome characteristics and magical ability to ward evil spirits off, is still performed in various areas in Jakarta on particular occasions. Ondel- ondel was originally an ancient artwork named barongan. This research aims to seek a theoretical explanation of the ondel-ondel phenomenon by examining the relationship between the media and local culture. Several defining features of postmodernism are incorporated to reframe ondel-ondel as a form of entertainment, along with the interplay between the tradition and technology-assisted media. This paper seeks to reveal the actual meaning of ondel-ondel for locals and non-locals during their encounters with …

Stereotipe Gender Dalam Serial Drama Daughter Of Lupin (2019), Nabila Vina Fairuzzahra

Paradigma: Jurnal Kajian Budaya

Stereotypes shown by the media have influenced how society constructs their perspective on gender. Japanese television program that contained gender stereotypes is Daughter of Lupin (2019) drama series. This research aims to identify and explain gender stereotypes shown in Daughter of Lupin through the characterization of Mikumo Hana. This research is qualitative descriptive and it uses semiotic approach by Roland Barthes to analyze data. The result shows that Daughter of Lupin drama series has two types of gender stereotypes, which are traditional gender stereotypes and shifted gender stereotypes. It indicates that Daughter of Lupin is not fully breaking down the …

Skizofrenia Dalam Film Joker (2019): Skizoanalisis Perspektif Deleuze Dan Guattari, Rino Andreas

Paradigma: Jurnal Kajian Budaya

In medical-psychology, schizophrenia is defined as a severe psychotic disorder that causes its sufferers to experience hallucinations and chaotic behaviors. However, the paradigm of schizoanalysis considers schizophrenia as a system of thought that opposes the existence of established discourses (i.e. the Oedipus System). One form of schizophrenia can be seen in the Joker movie (2019). This research aims to identify the schizophrenia suffered by Arthur Fleck, the movie’s main character, from the schizoanalysis perspective as proposed by Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari. This qualitative research applied the interpretative description method based on the schizoanalysis perspective. This research found that the …

‘Damn Deleuze’: The Unexpected Artefacts Of Reading Together, Maureen A. Flint, Carlson H. Coogler

Taboo: The Journal of Culture and Education

What does reading together produce? As we read A Thousand Plateaus together, Deleuze and Guattari butted into our dreams, our art-making, and our everyday lives. We found that their concepts were active, blurring the lines between theory, method and art. In this paper, we follow these invasions and interruptions of our thinking and living, collecting and discussing them as artefacts that help us make sense of reading and writing together as methodological, theoretical, artful inquiry. By taking up and sharing artefacts -- fragments of encounters, snapshots of artmaking, quotes from novels or poetry that embedded in our conversations about haecceity …

Smithian Sympathy And The Emergence Of Norms, Keith Hankins

Philosophy Faculty Articles and Research

Adam Smith's impartial spectator and David Hume's general point of view have much in common, as do their moral theories more generally. However, this paper argues that a distinctive feature of Smith's theory—the pleasure of mutual sympathy—allows Smith to better explain a number of important features of norms. In particular, it provides Smith with a more plausible mechanism for explaining how norms emerge, and offers him a richer set of resources for explaining both why we are attracted to norms and why norms are often characterized by local similarity and global diversity. Rather than merely being a matter of historical …

Transcendentalism, Art, And Social Change: An Overview For A New Generation, Nidra Kilmer

Theses - ALL

The purpose of this study is to investigate the philosophy, art, methods, and outcomes of the Transcendentalist movement in 19th century America, with the aim of identifying strategies for creative practice that may inspire artists and educators in the 21st century. In the introductory section, the need for such an inquiry is established. Correlations are drawn between transcendental art from China, India, and America, in order to enrich the conversation by examining how ideas of transcendentalism, art, and social change are approached from different cultural perspectives. The historical context and philosophical roots of the American Transcendentalists is summarized, followed by …

Aung San Suu Kyi’S Defensive Denial Of The Rohingya Massacre: A Rhetorical Analysis Of Denial And Positive-Image Construction, Idhamsyah Eka Putra, Hema Preya Selvanathan, Ali Mashuri, Cristina Jayme Montiel

Psychology Department Faculty Publications

In December 2019, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) accused the Myanmar government of genocide against Rohingya Muslims. Represented by Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar authorities denied such accusations. To understand how a political leader can deny ingroup wrongdoings, we unpacked Suu Kyi’s ICJ speech and analyzed her defensive rhetorical style through critical narrative analysis. We aimed to identify and describe the denial strategies Suu Kyi used as well as how she maintained a positive ingroup image to support her position. Our findings showed that Suu Kyi engaged in interpretative denial of genocide by arguing that …

Lessons From Horror: The Rejection And Failures Of Arête, Renato Econa

Virginia English Journal

Lessons from Horror explores the rhetorical term of arête in the context of horror and horror literature. Arête, the concept of excellence as used in ancient Greece, is defined and then applied to two horror novels in order to better understand how the path to moral excellence can be corrupted. The first novel, Carrie by Stephen King, warns of the influence and pressure of others to both accept and reject the path to excellence. The second novel, Sour Candy by Kealan Patrick Burke, explores the idea of fear of failure in arête, and the possibility of turning oneself into a …

Ethical Issues In Data Journalism, Bastiaan Vanacker

School of Communication: Faculty Publications and Other Works

This chapter starts out by situating data journalism in relation to computer-assisted reporting and computational journalism and argues that data journalism has ballooned in recent decades as a result of the great availability of databases, increased training, and lower costs of computers. It then analyzes the main issues that can spring up at each phase of the data journalism process. During the collection process, journalists can be manipulated by flawed data or ethically compromised by using illegally obtained data. When they obtain data through surreptitiously scraping the web or paying for datasets, they might be violating notions of transparency and …

Logical Reasoning, Soo-Jin Lee

Open Educational Resources

Syllabus for Logical Reasoning

Assessing Risk At The National Strategic Level: Visualization Tools For Military Planners, Wade A. Germann, Heather S. Gregg

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

The reemergence of great power competition, conflict with near-peer competitor states below the level of armed conflict, and persisting threats from nonstate actors with transnational ambitions and global reach pose challenges for strategists planning, executing, and assessing military operations and strategy. Building on current visualization tools, two proposed models—the National Strategic Risk Abacus and the National Strategic Risk Radar Chart—address these challenges and better depict how the US military may inadvertently contribute to risk at the national strategic level.

Crisis Management Lessons From The Clinton Administration's Implementation Of Presidential Decision Directive 56, Leonard R. Hawley

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

Drawing on personal experience, the author asks what the current administration can learn from the Clinton administration’s implementation of Presidential Decision Directive 56, examines the real-world application of the directive during the Clinton administration and the pitfalls of its agency-centric successor during the Bush administration, and identifies recurring problems and best practices for successfully responding to current global crises.