Other Philosophy Commons^™

An Actor's Process In Bridging The Gap Between First-Generation And Multi-Generational African-American Identities., Mutiyat Ade-Salu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis reflects my process assimilating into the role of Chelle in the production of Detroit '67 at the University of Louisville. Although there have been instances of actors crossing lines of gender, nationality, race, and even sexuality, to perform roles in contemporary theatre, discussion about generational differences is almost non-existent. Through historical research, first-hand interviews, and conventional acting methods, I explore the world of my role, searching for spirituality, authenticity, and identity. Additionally, I explain my use of The WAY Method ®, a process I began creating in 2014 to help actors be clear with who they are before …

Socrates As A Philosophical Exemplar, Aria Mia Loberti

Senior Honors Projects

In Plato’s dialogues, Socrates famously denied being a teacher. Nonetheless, others took him to be a teacher, and there is no doubt that his attempts to encourage people to philosophy are pedagogical. So, we are presented with a puzzle—one that is still with interpreters today, despite important work on the issues (e.g., Nehamas 1985, 1992). In this project, I approach these issues from a different angle, asking not whether Socrates is a teacher (or whether philosophy can be taught) but considering Socrates as a philosophical exemplar. I contend that this question will help us to understand not only Socrates but …

The Conceptions Of Self-Evidence In The Finnis Reconstruction Of Natural Law, Kevin P. Lee

St. Mary's Law Journal

Finnis claims that his theory proceeds from seven basic principles of practical reason that are self-evidently true. While much has been written about the claim of self-evidence, this article considers it in relation to the rigorous claims of logic and mathematics. It argues that when considered in this light, Finnis equivocates in his use of the concept of self-evidence between the realist Thomistic conception and a purely formal, modern symbolic conception. Given his respect for the modern positivist separation of fact and value, the realism of the Thomistic conception cannot be the foundation for the natural law as Finnis would …

Academic Activism Revisited, Bas Van Der Vossen

Philosophy Faculty Articles and Research

Academics are, or ought to be, engaged in an impartial search for the truth. Many academics also are, but ought not to be, engaged in political activism. I defend a moral duty for academics to refrain from such activism. Ben Jones’ article in this journal rejects such a duty. This article responds to his objections, thereby more carefully formulating when and why political activism is morally problematic, and what burdens it may imply.

02. Humor And The Good Life, Laurie Shrage

Praxis, Poems, and Punchlines: Essays in Honor of Richard C. Richards

I don’t remember how it started, but somehow throughout my career at Cal Poly Pomona, Dick regularly asked me what colors I wanted. Then, a few days later, he would leave a bag of bearded iris rhizomes in our department office for me. Evidently, Dick was obsessed with breeding these plants, and his breeding program generated many “rejects,” which he shared with his friends and colleagues. My garden was full of his beautiful rejects, and I soon learned to appreciate these plants, which I think was Dick’s true aim. [excerpt]

07. Richard Richards Is A Gay Scientist, David Monroe

Praxis, Poems, and Punchlines: Essays in Honor of Richard C. Richards

A little recognized and under-appreciated fact about the august Richard Richards is that he is a gay scientist. I know what you may be thinking—Richard’s never shagged dudes, and if he has, it’s shitty to out him in an essay that’s meant to honor him. That’s strictly his business. Or you may be thinking that that Richard identifies as a philosopher, not a physicist, biologist, or even (egads!) a psychologist. As far as I know, you would be right in both cases—and it would be terrible to call him out--despite the fact that this will hardly rise to the level …

00. Introduction, Steven Gimbel

Praxis, Poems, and Punchlines: Essays in Honor of Richard C. Richards

One of the most wonderful aspects of the job of university professor is that one’s occupation is based on an area of personal expertise that shapes one’s Being. So it is with Richard C. “Dick” Richards, who, amongst other areas of specialization, is a philosopher of love. Richard’s Being is one deeply entrenched in love. There is, of course, the romantic love he long shared with his recently passed wife Marty, but there is also the love of many, many students and colleagues, both in and beyond the department at California State Polytechnic University at Pomona, and undeniably his love …

10. Putting The ‘Fun’ Back In ‘Funeral’, Thomas Brommage

Praxis, Poems, and Punchlines: Essays in Honor of Richard C. Richards

The Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius writes in his notebooks: “You are a little soul carrying a corpse,” quoting the Greek stoic philosopher Epictetus. As he was likely writing these notes to himself as a form of mental discipline in the throes of a military campaign, he obviously meant that observation to be comforting. To most it is far from that, of course—but the reason why this is so is worthy of some attention. [excerpt]

06. Richard Richards, Robert Roberts, And Aristotelian Aristotelianism, Steven Gimbel

Praxis, Poems, and Punchlines: Essays in Honor of Richard C. Richards

This paper is a tribute to a philosopher and a person I have long admired, Richard C. Richards. As a clear and rigorous thinker, a thoughtful and accessible writer, and as a kind, blunt, and extremely funny person, Richard embodies virtues I hope to someday claim as well. [excerpt]

Praxis, Poems, And Punchlines: Essays In Honor Of Richard C. Richards, Steven Gimbel

Praxis, Poems, and Punchlines: Essays in Honor of Richard C. Richards

Richard C. “Dick” Richards has a 40 year history of being an influential philosopher, teacher, and colleague. This volume collects thoughts, memories, and philosophical essays that engage with and celebrate the life and career of this much beloved figure.

01. Richard C. Richards, I Hardly Knew Ye, Peter Francev

Praxis, Poems, and Punchlines: Essays in Honor of Richard C. Richards

I first met Richard Richards at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, in the fall of 1996. I was a Freshman who had a curious interest in philosophy; yet, at the time, I was a Biology major planning of a life in Hawaii where I’d be conducting research on sharks while teaching at the University of Hawaii and surfing before and after work. Little did I know that my life would be changed forever, after a chance meeting with Richard. [excerpt]

03. Humor In The Zhouyi, Bradford Hatcher

Praxis, Poems, and Punchlines: Essays in Honor of Richard C. Richards

It was the 1969-1970 school year at Cal Poly, Pomona, when I signed up to study some philosophy under Dick Richards, on the advice of my brother Byron. I was in the middle of a radical renovation of my worldview at the time, having dropped out of college. The rocket science major didn’t work out, once I realized that all the jobs were military, and the math major had suffered from an epiphany while trying to differentiate inverse hyperbolic trig functions on two hits of acid. I needed to switch to some more primitive human endeavors, where it wasn’t so …

04. Mongo Give Good E-Mail, Camille Atkinson

Praxis, Poems, and Punchlines: Essays in Honor of Richard C. Richards

The first time I met Richard C. Richards (whom I later learned was also known as Mongo) we were at the 2013 LPS conference on the west coast of Florida. He was wearing a T-shirt that said something about having attended his own funeral, so I figured that he, like me, had a penchant for gallows humor. Later, during an author-meets-critics session focusing on his at-the-time-new book (A Philosopher Looks at The Sense of Humor), I was as eager to learn more about his work as I was delighted by the friendly banter between him and the other attendees. Although …

05. Aesthetics, Humor, And Virtue: Reflections On Richards And The Good Life, Elizabeth Victor

Praxis, Poems, and Punchlines: Essays in Honor of Richard C. Richards

In A Philosopher Looks at the Sense of Humor, Richard C. Richards discusses how one's appreciation of and ability to create incongruities is a necessary condition for developing a sense of humor. One's sense of humor, according to Richards, can be a component of happiness. In this paper, I will build on Richards's concept of the sense of humor. I will argue that Richards account is consistent with an Aristotelian picture of happiness as holistic well-being. Specifically, I will suggest that the attitude underlying the aesthetic and/or the humorous is a kind of pro-attitude that must be cultivated (i.e., …

08. The Legend Of The Altweiß, Elizabeth Sills

Praxis, Poems, and Punchlines: Essays in Honor of Richard C. Richards

Once upon a time there was an Old White Man. He was very funny, but not in a “haha” kind of way. He was funny mostly in a non-threatening whimsical kind of way. Everywhere he went, people laughed merrily. He would make horrible puns and people would laugh. He would pause dramatically before saying something innocuous and people would laugh. He would make racist quips using words for Italian people that haven’t been popular since the 1920s and people would laugh. [excerpt]

11. Objectively Funny Jokes: Comedy’S El Dorado Or A Simple Macguffin?, Michael Cundall

Praxis, Poems, and Punchlines: Essays in Honor of Richard C. Richards

Could there ever be an objectively funny joke or bit of humor? With the popularity of certain forms of humor, with the appearance of puns as consistent stages in the development of humor in children, this seems a reasonable query. Further, give recent developments in humor theory, and depending on what stance you take on what is essential to the funny or humorous your answer could be yes or no. [excerpt]

09. A Philosopher With A Sense Of Humor, Eugenio Zaldivar

Praxis, Poems, and Punchlines: Essays in Honor of Richard C. Richards

In this very short acknowledgment I think I’d like to accomplish two things. First, I’d like to give a sense of the affect that having seen Richard in action has had on me. Second, I’d like to point to an important development in philosophy of humor contributed by Richards in his work “A Philosopher Looks at the Sense of Humor” which I believe needs to be central to the philosophical discussion of humor and joking going forward. [excerpt]

On Minimal Morality, John Thrasher

Philosophy Faculty Articles and Research

"For many years, Michael Moehler has been one of the most original and thoughtful political and moral philosophers around. He is perhaps the most straightforward and full‐throated defender of what Gerald Gaus (2011) has called 'orthodox instrumentalism.' From this, Moehler develops two interesting results: a Kantian flavored theory of justice and a novel, multilevel contractarian theory of social morality. In these short comments, I will discuss what I take to be the core of Moehler's theory and then raise some questions and challenges to that theory."

The Problem Of Self-Ownership, Bas Van Der Vossen, David Schmidtz

Philosophy Faculty Articles and Research

"It would be strange to hear people saying 'It’s my self.' The self per se isn’t normally a contested possession. By contrast, what is normal, and so familiar that most readers can probably remember asserting such a thing themselves once upon a time, is the assertion 'It’s my life.' How we live our lives can be, and often is, contested."

Raw Veganism: The Human Diet, Carlo Alvaro

Publications and Research

In this chapter, I present some compelling evidence that points to the conclusion that the human species has a specific diet, which is a raw vegan diet of fresh fruit, tender leafy greens, and a moderate amount of nuts and seeds. Out of the hundreds of thousands of species in the world, the only one—ours—cooks food. Not surprisingly, our species is the only one that suffers from numerous maladies. In other words, the argument is that the consumption of cooked food (especially animal-based) is unhealthful and undermines our nature. I present undeniable evidence, from evolutionary science to nutrition science, showing …

African American Existential Heroes: Narrative Struggles For Authenticity, Michael Cotto

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

African American Existential Heroes: Narrative Struggles for Authenticity argues for the development of existential authenticities and their impact on African American self-identity constructions in three African American literary classics:

Richard Wright’s The Outsider, Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man, and James Baldwin’s Go Tell It on the Mountain. For that purpose, the introduction puts forward the aforementioned topic; defines the major terms, authenticity, existentialism, and African Americanness; identifies the three texts to be studied; explicates its methodology; studies the anagnorisis of each text in relation to the existential crisis; accounts for the existential philosophers used, Martin …

Objectivity, Dagfinn Føllesdal

Comparative Philosophy

No abstract provided.

The “Indirect Message” In Kierkegaard And Chán Buddhism, Zdeněk Zacpal

Comparative Philosophy

The article seeks to analyse Kierkegaard’s indirecte Meddelelse, which the author proposes to translate as ‘indirect message’. It attempts to consider and illuminate this concept and its general characteristics, types and cases in Kierkegaard's work. They are to serve as a baseline for investigations of indirect messages in Buddhism, especially the famous ‘public cases’ (gong-àn / kōan 公案) of the Chán Buddhists. The author tries to specify indirect messages on both sides of the cultural divide in terms of some Western philosophers. Kierkegaard’s theoretical rationale for his indirect message is profound, sophisticated and appropriate to the theoretical …

On What Is Real In Nāgārjuna’S “Middle Way”, Richard H. Jones

Comparative Philosophy

It has become popular to portray the Buddhist Nāgārjuna as an ontological nihilist, i.e., that he denies the reality of entities and does not postulate any further reality. A reading of his works does show that he rejects the self-existent reality of entities, but it also shows that he accepts a "that-ness" (tattva) to phenomenal reality that survives the denial of any distinct, self-contained entities. Thus, he is not a nihilist concerning what is real in the final analysis of things. How Nāgārjuna’s positions impact contemporary discussions of ontological nihilism and deflationism in Western philosophy is also discussed.

Alejandro Napolitano Jawerbaum's Portfolio, Alejandro Jorge Napolitano Jawerbaum

Honors College Portfolios

This portfolio is a journey through my process in these first two years at Duquesne. I decided to do this now rather than later because I'm finishing my philosophy Honors Thesis and my computer science senior project, which is also a thesis, and in the following semesters I will be focusing on mathematics and computer science.

The writings are varied, reflecting the fact that I am pursuing three majors and two minors. The order will reflect my progression, but will generally correspond to topics. First will be my 'simpler' writings as I began my studies here, and are mostly composed …

Where “Philosophy” And “Literature” Converge: Exploring Tibetan Buddhist Writings About Reality, Yaroslav Komarovski

Department of Classics and Religious Studies: Faculty Publications

It is well known that the Buddha presented his teachings not just as a philosophical system, but as a raft to cross the ocean of saṃsāra and reach the other shore of nirvāṇa; that he did not answer certain philosophical questions because they were not essential for achieving that goal; and that he likened musings about some philosophical issues to inquiries about the origins and nature of the poison by a person shot with a poisonous arrow. On the other hand, we also know that all such statements about what the Buddha said or said not and why are liable …

In Defense Of Non-Anthropocentrism—A Relational Account Of Value And How It Can Be Integrated, Ian I. Weckler

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Climate change has been show to be caused by humans. Human-centric behaviors have affected the world to the extent that many believe we have entered a new geologic epoch. This epoch— the Anthropocene—has prompted exploration into the ethical relationship between humans and the rest of the world. We know that a purely anthropocentric ethical system of values has lead ecological imbalance and environmental destruction, and that a non-anthropocentric (or humancentric) ethical system of value would be better suited for maintaining and regaining a habitable environment. However, past conceptions of non anthropocentrism have relied on abstract conceptions of value that fail …

Complicity And Climate Change, Shalomita Kristanugraha

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

As individuals, how should we understand our personal complicity in climate change related harms? In this thesis, I argue that the predominant way we think of complicity within the Western moral paradigm—that is, as a distribution problem—is inadequate in helping us understand the nature of our complicity in climate change related harms. This inadequacy, in turn, psychologically hampers individual citizens residing in high-emitting nations of the Global North from effective and sustainable social and political engagement with climate change. To address the inadequacy and obstructions that result from it, I follow the discussion between Christopher Kutz and Iris Marion Young …

Collaborative Conservation: A Philosophical Analysis Of The Efficacy And Commensurability Of Tek And Western Science, Anne M. Belldina

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This thesis seeks to explore the similarities and differences between traditional ecological knowledge and Western science as a way to address long-held misconceptions about the efficacy of traditional ecological knowledge, or TEK. The motivation for this project arose from a deep desire to investigate the historical injustices toward Indigenous peoples in the name of conservation. The goal of this analysis is to illustrate that effective collaboration between Indigenous knowledge holders and Western scientists is not only possible, but desirable. I outline three major barriers from which I draw out three minimum criteria which much be met if collaborative conservation efforts …

Living With Moral Schizophrenia, Rachel Hecke

Augustana Center for the Study of Ethics Essay Contest

A response to Michael Stocker's essay titled "The Schizophrenia of Modern Ethical Theories". When attempting to follow an ethical theory, a dilemma is created between one’s justifications for action according to their chosen moral theory such as duties and obligations, and the motivations or desires behind the action. Although this dilemma can lead to a divide in one's psyche, especially in regards to personal relationships, this schizophrenia isn't all that bad to endure.