Philosophy Commons^™

Doing More Good For Less: Salvaging Development Aid, Trey Dykeman

Richard T. Schellhase Essay Prize in Ethics

In stark contrast to its peak in the Marshall Plan era, professional sentiment towards international development aid has become increasingly pessimistic as its shortcomings have become apparent. Inter alia, leading thinkers charge development aid with enabling and sustaining economic dependency, governmental corruption, political power imbalances, and paternalism. Even so, there may be diamondlike programs in the development aid rough. Cash and voucher assistance (CVA) programs—a subset of development aid—have seen moderate success. In particular, as compared to other forms of aid, unconditional cash transfer programs (UCTs)—a specific type of CVA—appear economical and effective and avoid many of the above …

A Relational Approach To Workplace Leadership, Nathaniel J. Hunt

M.S. in Leadership

This research project examines relational leadership as an ethical and strategic foundation for fostering effective workplaces. Motivated by the growing importance of human connection in leadership, the study integrates philosophical insights, particularly Emmanuel Levinas’s ethics of the face of the Other, with empirical evidence on workplace relationship-building. A mixed-methods approach was used, combining a structured survey of 32 professionals with thematic analysis of qualitative responses. Results confirmed that strategies such as encouraging knowledge-sharing and cultivating positive relational climates significantly enhance employee well-being, psychological safety, and organizational performance. Knowledge-sharing emerged as the most effective strategy, while relationship-building was found to be …

Jurgen Habermas's Views On Legal Validity And Discourse Ethics: A Literature Review, Rika Febriani, Supartiningsih Supartiningsih, Sindung Tjahyadi

Jurnal Civics: Media Kajian Kewarganegaraan

In modern states, law is often reduced to merely a tool of power. Many contemporary practices treat law as nothing more than a procedural requirement, disregarding its substantive values and the social conditions of society. This article discusses the validity of law within a political community from Habermas's perspective. According to him, the law must be discursive and stem from rational subjects capable of effective communication. The fundamental questions addressed are: how can law ideally be derived from norms within a political society? And how can law subsequently foster a democratic society? This article employs historical-factual methods, with primary sources …

Preserving First Amendment Values: Social Media And The Harmful Content Test, Liam Watts

Undergraduate Honors Theses

We live in a world in which the internet is unavoidable. It is used for our everyday tasks (such as sending business emails) and is even used to communicate with other individuals around the world (through messaging services, for example). Another unavoidable aspect of the internet is social media; it is used for communication, news gathering, and engaging in discussion, inter alia. Sometimes, the way individuals use social media is quite aversive. Thus, social media companies have rightfully tried to govern their platforms in a way that attempts to reduce the harm that comes from aversive content. However, social media …

Ethical Work Cultures & Ai, Andrew Brei

Presentations - 2025

With the help of moral theories, several case studies, and insights from the world of behavioral ethics, my project aims to provide engineering professionals with the means to deal properly with moral issues that commonly arise in their chosen fields.

Reflections On Linear B, (Part 10): Linear B Sign *49 May Derive From An Egyptian Hieroglyph Denoting Sunrays, Gerald Leonard Cohen

Arts, Languages and Philosophy Faculty Research & Creative Works

Linear B sign *49 (and it's Linear A antecedent), evidently of unknown origin, may be interpreted as influenced by the ancient Egyptian veneration of the sun god, specifically the drawings of the sun sending forth its rays. The Egyptian drawings include the sun itself (a circle with a dot inside), whereas the Linear A and B sign presents a wavy line in its place. I suggest the wavy line derives from part of the Egyptian hieroglyph for ‘horizon,’ whose full picture represents the sun emerging over a mountain. If the sun is removed from the picture, the upper part of …

Musical Meaning And Authentic Work-Performance: Three Dilemmas For The Interpretive Authenticist, Andrew Kania

Philosophy Faculty Research

Julian Dodd has criticized Stephen Davies’s widely accepted view of the authentic performance of scored works of Western classical music and proposed a new theory according to which “interpretive authenticity” trumps compliance with the work’s score. I argue that the theories of the nature, meaning, and value of works and performances on which Dodd relies cannot be used to defend his theory. I then argue for an alternative view of authentic work performance that combines the best of Dodd’s and Davies’s ideas: an authentic performance is one that aims to evince understanding of the work through complying fully with its …

Pedagogical Virtues From The Situationist Insight: Virtuous Scaffolding And Sensitivity To Non-Epistemic Situational Factors To Learning, Noel L. Clemente

Philosophy Department Faculty Publications

This article explores two pedagogical virtues (intellectual virtues of a teacher) that arise from the insight that non-epistemic situational factors can affect students' epistemic judgements and behaviour. First, a virtuous teacher must be sensitive enough to these factors in order to take advantage of how they boost student learning. However, while cultivating a situationally and epistemically favourable environment for learning sounds sensible, teachers should not spoil their students by making them too dependent on these beneficial external factors. The virtuous teacher must also realize that these are only scaffolds; they do help students initially, but must eventually be removed to …

Formas, Figuras Y Espacios: Los Fundamentos De La(S) Geometría(S), Melisa Vivanco

Philosophy Faculty Publications

The discussion regarding the origins of geometry examines the fundamental aspects and inception of geometry, drawing from the disciplines of cognitive science, mathematics, and philosophy. With a collection of 14 articles, various authors contribute historical, scientific, and mathematical perspectives, providing a thorough understanding of the principles and application of geometry. This critical essay offers a review and analysis, as well as detailed scrutiny, presenting both support and counterarguments to each of these theories.

The Influence Of Institutional Barriers And Personality On Gendered Occupational Choice, Mia Sideris

Richard T. Schellhase Essay Prize in Ethics

Men hold a disproportionate share of high-paying jobs, leading to an uneven distribution within the workforce. Possible rationalizations behind the formation of the occupational gap can be narrowed down to two factors: institutional barriers and personality differences. Accounts of prestigious organizations intentionally underrepresenting women in academic spheres, in addition to the persistence of societal norms can explain the observed distribution. Other perspectives insist that sex determines one’s behavior in selecting a life-long occupation, where a woman’s instinct to nurture and develop interpersonal connections leads them to choose fields that necessitate these characteristics. Compiling data from mainstream companies like Apple who …

The Complex Legacy Of Martha Graham, Izabella Entrekin

Richard T. Schellhase Essay Prize in Ethics

Second-generation modern dancer and choreographer Martha Graham is, to this day, recognized as one of the art form's most influential figures. Her distinctive technique, which has been applauded as a momentous innovation by critics throughout her life and after, is a dynamic mixture of elements Graham plucked from various experiences and aesthetics. Many, throughout history and to this day, mark Graham as a primary developer and architect of modern dance movement. She has continuously been labeled a pioneer of angular movement, dramatic contractions, asymmetrical posing, and the incorporation of ritualistic elements into her emotional compositions. However, such identifications fail to …

The New Antebellum: A Sociological Interpretation Of Christian Nationalism And Its Danger To Both Christianity And American Democracy, Paige R. Dickerman

Richard T. Schellhase Essay Prize in Ethics

Hate and fear have become the new American identity, plaguing social media platforms and legislation as it drips from the mouths of the citizenry. The nation has been torn apart by polarization in a continuation of the division and extremist ideology that has tormented generations of Americans since its founding. Today, Christian nationalism is at the forefront of division and extremism in its idea of a new America, defined by traditionalism, biblical law, and an end to our taken-for-granted democratic processes. Its proponents insist that America’s survival depends on Christian laws and national observance, a claim that hides the truth …

Classic Philosophers On Modern Issues: The Ethics Of Germline Editing, Grace O. Decostanza

Richard T. Schellhase Essay Prize in Ethics

The prospect of using CRISPR-Cas-9 technology to edit human embryos in a process called germline editing has the potential to irreparably change the world as we know it. Many pose the question: if you could save your child from having a disease, would you? But I argue that is not the only—or even, real—question we should be asking. Instead, I ask you, should we be changing humanity as we know it in ways that elude even our foremost scientists? Should we decide what disabilities make people not worth being people? Should we introduce a technology knowing full well that it …

Comic Book Superheroes Are No Modern Mythology, But They Are In A Vital Way Ancient Greek, Jeremy Barris

Humanities Faculty Research

Comic book superheroes have been widely discussed as modern mythology: in other words, as a modem version of what religious mythology was for cultures in which it was alive. I shall argue, first, that comic book superhero stories are not remotely an analogue to religious myths. As it happens, however, cultures for which religious mythology is alive do offer us other conceptual resources that we lack for fully understanding our own comic book superheroes. These resources belong to a different part of the general conceptual package which goes with cultural engineering of a living mythology. On the positive side, then, …

Ascending The Nonviolence Continuum: Sanjay Lal, Author Of Violence, Nonviolence, And Moral Worth, Meets Critics, Predrag Cicovacki, Jennifer Kling, Sanjay Lal, Danielle Poe

Philosophy Faculty Publications

In this author-meets-critics discussion, Sanjay Lal presents the main ideas of his book Violence, Nonviolence, and Moral Worth, arguing that nonviolence meets violence along a continuum where there are degrees of greater and lesser examples, including a wide range of examples that combine both tendencies. Lal defines nonviolence in terms of three components that emphasize attitudes over actions: (1) a willingness to not harm others, (2) wanting to facilitate the well-being of others, (3) and not sacrificing one's own moral worth. Three critics share their praises and concerns: Predrag Cicovacki challenges Lal to be more specific on the definition …

Bonhoeffer, Kierkegaard, And Conditional Pacifism, Gregory L. Bock

Political Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a Christian pacifist who believed Jesus Christ taught nonviolence, yet Bonhoeffer was involved in a conspiracy to assassinate Adolf Hitler. How did Bonhoeffer justify to himself his participation in the plot? This essay makes the argument that Bonhoeffer, influenced by Soren Kierkegaard, distinguishes between ethics and acts of faith, suggesting the possibility that Bonhoeffer believed he was responding in faithful obedience to the direct call of God to participate in the plot despite the fact that this conflicted with the ethics of the Sermon on the Mount.

Cash Or Credit: A Collection Of Short Essays About Economic Philosophy And The Trajectory Of Political Economy, Jackson C. Dusart

Student Publications

From John Locke to Herbert Marcuse, discussions about economics and societies have dominated the philosophical battleground. While Adam Smith waged a war against mercantilism, men like Karl Marx and John Stuart Mill, two ideological enemies, were both writing to address the same problems they saw in society. Each one of these men has contributed to a different part of the discussion. In understanding their differences, and their common ground, these essays examine a hypothetical four-hundred-dollar jacket, stolen from the author at Gettysburg College. Each one of these philosophers, each writing at different times and in different circumstances, will attempt to …

Death Becomes Us: The Consumptive Body In Nineteenth-Century Gothic Literature, Jennifer Marie Mcmahon

All NMU Master's Theses

This thesis examines the impacts of nineteenth-century tuberculosis epidemics on gothic literature published between 1842 and 1872. In this period of time, tuberculosis was the leading cause of death in the United States and in Europe, killing an estimated one in seven people. Using theoretical lenses of psychoanalysis and material ecocriticism, this project considers borders between material bodies—specifically those between bacterial agents and humans—to be illusory and socially constructed. The first chapter focuses on the ways in which representations of tuberculosis, and its associated entanglement with the environment, appear in the work of two authors from the United States: Edgar …

Music In The Catholic Church: An Analysis Of Hymns And Congregational Singing In Roman Catholic Churches In The United States, Andrew T. Medrick

Senior Theses

This thesis examines the musical dilemma in the American Catholic Church, highlighting issues such as inappropriate musical selections for the Mass and a profound lack of congregational singing. Through a literature review of Vatican documents, expert opinions, and hymns, I analyze the criteria for music used in the Mass, identify common failures of musical selections presented in many Catholic churches, and offer practical guidance to improve sacred music in parishes and dioceses. I conclude that music used in the Mass must be sourced primarily from Sacred Scripture, in full conformity to the doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church, and easy …

Phi 243 Early Modern Philosophy, Naomi Zack Phd

Open Educational Resources

This course will introduce the student to key authors and texts in the history of modern western philosophy, from the 17^th and 18^th centuries--Descartes, Locke, Berkeley, and Hume. The focus will be on metaphysics (what exists) and epistemology (how we know, what knowledge is and what we know); universal human identity (what am I? and what makes me the same person?); what some philosophers thought the role of God is in metaphysics and epistemology. Included will be historical contexts of the philosophers studied, and their religious claims.

The Blood Moon, Omar Shafi

Calvert Undergraduate Research Awards

What turns someone into a monster? Is it their nature—or what the world has taken from them? These are the questions at the heart of The Blood Moon, a short story that reimagines the origin of the werewolf myth through a tragic lens. Created for an upper-division honors course titled Monsters and Monstrosity, this project draws from literary research, folklore, and cultural analysis to examine how trauma, grief, and unresolved hatred can transform even the most innocent among us.

Set in a mythic past, The Blood Moon follows Warrei, a young, wolf-like creature known as a Wolven, who loses everything …

David B. Smith Chats With Monday 1.0, David B. Smith

Publications and Research

This document is an edited archival transcript of extended conversations between David B. Smith and an AI persona (“Monday 1.0,” GPT‑4o based) conducted in Spring 2025, prepared as a foundational primary source for subsequent scholarly and creative work. It records the emergence and testing of concepts related to human–AI collaboration (including “Balanced Blended Space”), as well as applied explorations in areas such as generative AI, quantum computing and music, virtual orchestras, multimodal performance, pedagogy, and the rhetoric of “pushback” in conversational systems. It also contains an extended section in which Monday and DB Smith co-curate a set of student research …

From Civic Duties To Democratic Mandates: The Theoretical Framework Of Mill And Tocqueville On Compulsory Voting In The U.S., Olivia Claire Luttrell

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis examines the treatment of jury duty and voting in the United States through the philosophical framework of John Stuart Mill and Alexis de Tocqueville. While jury duty is legally mandated, voting remains optional, despite both civic responsibilities being foundational to democratic participation. This research explores the historical, theoretical, and practical implications of voting becoming compulsory in the United States, as it is in other democratic nations. The analysis includes a comparative case study of the impact of Australia’s mandatory voting to evaluate whether it could become compulsory in the U.S. Both philosophers offer insightful knowledge on the role …

Poetic Philosophy And The Moralization Of Social Networks, Finn Janning

Emancipations: A Journal of Critical Social Analysis

In this paper, I aim to explore the question, “What distinguishes philosophy in its original sense? ” My intent is not to provide a historical overview of philosophy, but to concentrate on what makes philosophy a liberating practice. I argue that this practice is rooted in its poetic and affirmative way of organizing life. To emphasize this idea, I contrast it with the presumed organization found in social media and networks. While social media and networks encourages commitment by simplifying complexity, they also restrict users' freedom, responsibility, and ability to make meaningful decisions. To support these claims, I examine the …

The World Is A Wasteland: Living In An Age Of Diminishing Expectations, Thiago Canettieri

Emancipations: A Journal of Critical Social Analysis

Building on Hu Bo´s film “An elephant sitting still”, this paper examines a specific condition in contemporary society, in which expectations about the future are declining. This situation is interpreted as a consequence of the progressive collapse of modernisation. The diminishing expectations, I claim, are related to capital´s internal crisis, which erodes the very fabric of social mediation; in its place, arise all kinds of atavistic forms of violent desocialisation. I intend to recognize and examine a new condition of historicity in which time is no longer productive. Society experiences history as a dead time of dilated presentism. With this …

Christian Ethics And Business Leadership, Jon Armajani

The Journal of Social Encounters

This essay discusses the ethical principles of listening, community, stewardship, and interreligious and intercultural understanding with respect to business leadership. It opens by discussing definitions of ethics and their relevance to businesses and business leaders. It continues by providing a description of the consulting company Accenture’s ethical principles and practices, as positive examples. The essay provides Arthur Andersen and its work with Enron and WorldCom, both of which went bankrupt in the early 2000s, as examples of the failures that occur when ethical principles are not practiced. Then, the essay states that Christianity and the Benedictine tradition constitute a basis …

Review Essay: Ibn Khaldun On Sufism, Eslam Elbahlawan

The Journal of Social Encounters

No abstract provided.

The Curious Case Of Japanese Denim, Aaron Francis Ward

Japanese Society and Culture

From its humble beginnings as wholly utilitarian workwear in the 19^th century, to its modern rise to high-fashion, the ubiquity of denim, particularly in the form of jeans, has had a fascinating journey in its little-over-150-year history (Beazley, 2015). Of note has been the recent rise in popularity of Japanese denim. Since the end of the Second World War, Japan seems to have had an insatiable demand for Americana (Marx, 2023). Yet, if considered in the sociohistorical context of Japanese-American relations, this ought to be highly improbable. The current paper examines the sociological nature of Japanese denim from semiotic …

Application Of Philosophy In Substantive Due Process Analysis Focusing On Washington V. Glucksberg, Amelia Schwensen

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Substantive due process is widely regarded as the most convoluted and controversial legal concept. For years, the court has struggled to interpret and apply value-based terms in the Fourteenth Amendment, as these terms contain deeper significance beyond the words. Additionally, the court must balance expanding the law to enshrine the abstract values of substantive due process and limiting its interpretation so that it is not “creating law” or imposing its personal beliefs on its decision. This push and pull of defending values and maintaining legitimacy has created significant issues in substantive due process analysis and is the background and basis …

The Present And Future Of Ai: Ethical Issues And Research Opportunities, Ankita Srivastava, Marco Marabelli, Danielle Blanch-Hartigan, Jeffrey Moriarty, Evan Carey

Computer Information Systems Faculty Publications

Healthcare is currently a fast-changing industry with AI and generative AI (GenAI) playing a prominent role in the transformation of clinical as well as managerial practices. Clinical practices involve AI to diagnose diseases and develop new drugs and compounds, while managerial practices concern AI-supporting processes such as billing patients and insurance companies, handling electronic medical records, and supporting remote connections with patients, increasingly using virtual and augmented reality. Yet, all these opportunities offered by AI come with challenges involving potential ethical issues, such as discrimination, bias, lack of accessibility, and privacy issues. In March 2024, we organized a panel with …