Freedom From Equality: Democratic Education And The Failure Of The Nclb, Andrew X. Fleming

Student Research Symposium

Deeply rooted societal concerns about what role democratic ideals should play within systems of education, and how much sway the federal government should hold over educational institutions, have been at the forefront of American educational policy for decades. These questions have more recently been brought into the limelight once again within the context of the implementation of charter schools and the controversial No Child Left Behind act, and its subsequent failure. The expressed goal of this paper is to provide an examination of what philosophies and ideals of so-called "democratic education" are have played major roles in developing the discourse …

Obfuscation And Strict Online Anonymity, Tony Doyle

LACUNY Institute 2015

I consider the case for genuinely anonymous web searching. Big data seems to have it in for privacy. The story is well known, particularly since the dawn of the web. Vastly more personal information, monumental and quotidian, is gathered than in the pre-digital days. Once gathered it can be aggregated and analyzed to produce rich portraits, which in turn permit unnerving prediction of our future behavior. The new information can then be shared widely, limiting prospects and threatening autonomy.

How should we respond? Following Nissenbaum (2011) and Brunton and Nissenbaum (2011 and 2013), I will argue that the proposed solutions—consent, …

The Theology And Agency Of Love As The Substance Of Kingian Non-Violent Philosophy And Activism., Matthew Quainoo

Senior Honors Projects

The theology of Love focuses on King’s understanding of God as love:

A Research Abstract (Project Summary)

Problem: Almost 50 years after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., controversy continues to swirl around the motivational forces that inspired the nonviolence approach employed by King in his fight for equality for African Americans, the economically disadvantaged and victims of injustice through peaceful protest. Some scholars argue that Kings was inspired by such advocates of nonviolence such as Mahatma Gandhi and Buddha Shakyamuni. Others believe that Dr. King’s philosophy of nonviolence was an expression of the Christian theology of God …

An Exploration Of The Societal Impact Of Neuroethics In Scientific And General Communities, Katelyn Marie Edel

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Neuroethics serves as a roadmap for maneuvering the difficult and often personal concerns that arise concurrently with advancements in neuroscience. It is important to consider these issues at present and to take a proactive, rather than reactive, approach towards assuaging fears and hesitations related to the quickening applications of neuroscience into the non-scientific community. This Capstone explores recent suggestions made by prominent scholars in the neuroethics field related to the integration of neuroscience into society. Three cogent issues in neuroscience are discussed, with a focus on the possible effects that neuroscientific advancements have on society. Using a framework of human …

Revision Of United States Drug Law, Alexander Fernandez

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

In this essay I will lay out two distinct but associated arguments that will show that United States drug policy on is both in principle and in practice unjustifiable. I will be focusing specifically on marijuana cocaine and heroin. While there are many controlled substances in the DEA schedules, I take it that showing current policy to be unjustifiable for these three substances will be sufficient to show that the policy of total prohibition and harsh punishment is wrong. The first section will normatively analyze the current policies of prohibition and punishment for use and sale of illicit substances. I …

A Qualitative Historiographical Case Study Of The Educative Properties Of Eugene V. Debs And John Dewey: 21st Century Implications For Education, Bradley Countermine

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study aimed to shed light on the current state of educational reform rhetoric through an analysis of previous attempts to shape public education for the benefit of all. Analyzing Eugene V. Debs’s and John Dewey’s views on democracy and education during the Progressive Era promotes a version and vision of education that inspires people to think critically, to navigate contemporary society, and to acknowledge current issues within public education and United States society at large. Because education both reflects society and has the power to transform it, the struggle for fair, equitable, and enlightening education is paramount to the …

In The Shadows Of Dominion: Anthropocentrism And The Continuance Of A Culture Of Oppression, Christopher A. Shields

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The oppression of nonhuman animals in Western culture observed in societal institutions and practices such as the factory farm, hunting, and vivisection, exhibits alarming linkages and parallels to some episodes of the oppression of human animals. This work traces the foundations of anthropocentrism in Western philosophy and connects them to the oppressions of racism, sexism, and ethnocentrism. In outlining a uniform theory of oppression detailed through the marginalization, isolation, and exploitation of human and nonhuman animals alike, parallels among the groups emerge as the fused oppression of each exhibits a commonality among them. The analysis conducted within this work highlights …

Kierkegaard On Truth, Caroline Moore

Undergraduate Theses and Capstone Projects

Many philosophers believe in three types of truth and all of them are considered objective: correspondence, coherence and pragmatist. Objective knowledge “can designate a knowledge-claim having, roughly, the status of being fully supported or proven.”i If asked, philosophers often say that they believe in a mixture of two or more of the objective truths because each of the truths has points of weakness. While the objective truths cover much of what is considered to be valid truth, they all leave something out, subjective truth. Subjective truth is “a judgment or belief’ “that is compelling for some rational beings (subjects) but …

The Thesis Of Norm Transformation In The Theory Of Mass Atrocity, Paul Morrow

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

Theoretical accounts of genocide and mass atrocity commonly embrace the thesis of norm transformation. This thesis holds, first, that individual and institutional participation in such crimes is at least partially explained by transformations in basic norms that structure social and political life. It holds, second, that preventing future occurrences of such crimes requires changing norms that currently govern the actions of particular individual and institutional actors. This paper clarifies, defends, and extends the thesis of norm transformation. It clarifies this thesis by providing a general account of the nature and dynamics of norms. It defends this thesis against charges of …

Globalization And The Sex Trafficking Industry: Examination Of Effects On Regional Value Chain Operations, Mary R. Gilbertson

Honors Theses, 1963-2015

The purpose of this paper is to examine sex trafficking as a profitable, international, and illegal industry. One goal of this paper is to explain what sex trafficking is and how it differs from other industries. Sex trafficking is an underground activity and its growth worldwide since the 1980s has had a destructive impact on global societies and economies. Beyond this, the study wants to show that, aside from moral and socio-cultural implications, that sex trafficking is indeed an industry, with a structure not so different from other industries. Understanding sex trafficking as an industry is critical to understanding how …

Blame Within Reason, Adam R. Thompson

Department of Philosophy: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

My dissertation develops a novel response to global skepticism about responsibility—the view that no one is fit to be held responsible for anything. Though P.F. Strawson offered a highly influential account of holding and being responsible, his argument is widely considered to fail as a response to global skepticism. The primary worry is that he only describes our practice of holding responsible but does not justify it. I propose an unorthodox Strawson-style account of holding and being responsible and employ that account to offer an argument against global skepticism which not only describes but also justifies our practice of holding …

Is It Ethical To Hold A Person Culpable For His Actions If He Cannot Recognize Right And Wrong, Tabitha E.H. Moses

Student Works

The field of neuroscience has opened up a proverbial can of worms when it comes to questions of free will and culpability. The more we know about the mind the more it appears that no one has any real choice in their actions. The ethical implications of this assumption are astronomical. Guilt and culpability come into question; it would seem unjust to punish a person for a crime if he had no choice but to commit it. While these are interesting questions for an ethicist they are impractical for society as they might affect how society functions. As such, the …

The Ethics Of Legislative Vote Trading, John Thrasher

Philosophy Faculty Articles and Research

It is argued in this article that legislative vote trading by representatives is both ethically permissible and may be ethically required in many cases. This conclusion is an implication of a thin, general account of representation that requires representatives to vote on the basis of the perceived preferences or interests of their constituents. These special duties arise from a thin account of representation and create a weak, defeasible duty for representatives to engage in what they believe will be beneficial vote trades. After establishing this claim, the article considers two objections to this duty. One is based on equating legislative …

Second Treatise Of The Social Contract: A Comparative Analysis Of Locke And Rousseau, Benjamin B. Taylor

Black & Gold

Locke and Rousseau both emphasize the importance of consent with respect to government and use state of nature arguments to determine what principles would constitute a just society, but each of them comes to a radically different conclusion as to what such a society would look like. Much of this difference is rooted in their differing conceptions of what the purpose of government (and political society generally) is. This paper analyzes the differences between their justifications of government and between the political societies in which those differences result.

The Stakes Of Spinoza’S Language: A Moderate Necessitarian Understanding Of 'Ethics' And Spinoza’S Conception Of Freedom As Both Positive And Negative Liberty, Jeffrey J. Horvath

Student Publications

This paper explores different readings of Spinoza's "Ethics" with a specific focus on Spinoza's understanding of the relationship between infinite and finite modes in his constructed universe. These different readings suggest that Spinoza's conception of human freedom can be read both as examples of positive liberty and negative liberty.

Re(Public)An Reasons: A Republican Theory Of Legitimacy And Justification, Christopher Mccammon

Department of Philosophy: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

There is a kind of power no one should have over anyone else, even if they don’t do anything with this power, or even if they only use this power for good. The republican tradition of political philosophy calls this kind of power domination. Here, I develop a theory of domination, and use this theory to advance our understanding of political legitimacy and justification.

My account of domination refines recent neo-republican attempts to identify dominating social power with the capacity to interfere arbitrarily with the choices of others. I argue that this capacity is not sufficient for domination. Instead, …

Who’S The ‘We’ In ‘Our Whole Society', Justin Kh Tse

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

No abstract provided.

Can One Love The Distant Other? Empathy, Affiliation, And Cosmopolitanism, Gregory R. Peterson

School of American and Global Studies Faculty Publications with a Focus on History, Philosophy, Political Science, and Religion

An ongoing debate in political and moral philosophy concerns the nature of international obligations. While cosmopolitans argue that duties of justice are independent of national borders, statists argue otherwise, sometimes basing their account on the limitations of our empathic concern, a line of argument found much earlier in Adam Smith. Although critics argue that empathy is neither necessary nor sufficient for morality, and although statists imply that psychological limitations of the kind that would be based in empathy prevent the realization of commitments to distant others beyond humanitarian aid, I argue that both these views are incorrect. While the possession …

Embodying A "New" Color Line: Racism, Anti-Immigrant Sentiment And Racial Identities In The "Postracial" Era, Grant J. Silva

Philosophy Faculty Research and Publications

This essay explores the intersection of racism, racial embodiment theory and the recent hostility aimed at immigrants and foreigners in the United States, especially the targeting of people of Latin American descent and Latino/as. Anti-immigrant and anti-foreigner sentiment is racist. It is the embodiment of racial privilege for those who wield it and the materiality of racial difference for those it is used against. This manifestation of racial privilege and difference rests upon a redrawing of the color line that is meant towards preserving exclusive categories of political membership. The charge of racism, however, is elided by the fact that …

An Assessment Of The Therapeutic Fib: The Ethical And Emotional Role Of Therapeutic Lying In The Caregiving Of Alzheimer's Disease Patients By Non-Medical Caregivers, Dina Green

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study qualitatively assesses the various aspects of the use of the therapeutic lie in care giving for Alzheimer's Disease patients while examining the ethics of lying associated in and out of the medical setting. The objectives of this study are to: gain an understanding of the role therapeutic lying plays in the care given by non-medical caregivers through a series of focus groups and interviews; examine the moral and emotional issues related to the use of this practice with a focus on non-medical caregivers; gather knowledge of the use of therapeutic lying in order to improve care for Alzheimer's …

Moral Disagreement And Audi's Account Of Moral Intuitionism, Dustin Michael Sigsbee

The Hilltop Review

In Moral Perception Robert Audi advocates for an intuitionist account of moral perception in which a moral agent of the proper disposition can use emotion and intuition as a means of supporting or justifying knowledge claims concerning certain moral truths or propositions. Since emotion and intuition can vary from agent to agent and neither agent would be better disposed to claim priority for their emotion or intuition over that of the other agent this opens Audi’s account up to possible instances of problematic disagreement. For this reason, I argue that agents in this intuitionist picture ought to remain epistemically agnostic …

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 …

Snark Wars, Kerry S. Walters

Philosophy Faculty Publications

The latest volley in the war of words waged by cultured despisers of Christianity was fired on Christmas Day. Celebrity astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, host of the television series "Cosmos," bushwhacked Christians with this tweeted broadside: "On this day long ago, a child was born who, by age 30, would transform the world. Happy Birthday Isaac Newton b. Dec 25, 1642."

Not content with just one shot, Tyson let fly again. "Merry Christmas to all," he tweeted. "A Pagan holiday (BC) becomes a Religious holiday (AD). Which then becomes a Shopping holiday (USA)."

Then, the coup de grace. "QUESTION: This …

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 …

What Is Moral Reasoning?, Leland F. Saunders

SPU Works

No abstract provided.

Ethics In Exhibitions: Considering Indigenous Art, Rachel Bonner

Richard T. Schellhase Essay Prize in Ethics

No abstract provided.

Killing Kindly: Applying Jens Timmermann's Kantian Ethics Of Animal Welfare To The Modern System Of Livestock Farming, Alexander Lowe

Richard T. Schellhase Essay Prize in Ethics

This essay seeks to contribute to this conversation in an ethically applicable way, addressing specifically the Kantian vein of animal welfare discussed by Dr. Jens Timmermann in his essay When the Tail Wags the Dog: Animal Welfare and Indirect Duty in Kantian Ethics. In Part I, I will examine the work Timmermann undertakes to extend greater protection to animals under Kantian ethics. I will also raise a critical question concerning Timmermann’s unwillingness to apply his advancements to the animal welfare problems in our modern world. In Part II, I will attempt to apply Timmermann’s conclusions to the question of …

Of Drones And Justice: A Just War Theory Analysis Of The United States' Drone Campaigns, Ethan A. Wright

Richard T. Schellhase Essay Prize in Ethics

No abstract provided.

When Justice Demands Inequality, John Thrasher, Keith Hankins

Philosophy Faculty Articles and Research

In Rescuing Justice and Equality G.A. Cohen argues that justice requires an uncompromising commitment to equality. Cohen also argues, however, that justice must be sensitive to other values, including a robust commitment to individual freedom and to the welfare of the community. We ask whether a commitment to these other values means that, despite Cohen’s commitment to equality, his view requires that we make room for inequality in the name of justice? We argue that even on Cohen’s version of egalitarianism equality, freedom, and welfare are not always compatible. Justice will require trade-offs between these values. Sometimes, equality will need …

Ethics In The U. S. Navy, Walter E. Carter Jr.

United States Navy: Publications

First paragraph:

The U. S. military is among the most trusted of American institutions. The trust accorded to the U. S. Navy by the American people derives from our status as members of the military profession. Only to the degree that the Navy is, and is perceived to be, trustworthy can we maintain our status as the naval profession in American society.

Last paragraph:

Our official Navy ethos charges that:

We are patriots, forged by the Navy's core values of Honor, Courage and Commitment. In times of war and peace, our actions reflect our proud heritage and tradition.

Our goal, …