Browsing by Subject "Philosophy"
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Item A People's History of Philosophy: The Development and Ideological Segregation of Black Nationalism(2012-10-19) Bohr, Judith ColleenThe primary objective of this thesis is to advocate for Black Nationalism's full inclusion in the academic field of political philosophy. By bringing the thinkers in the Black Nationalist tradition into this discourse, the field of philosophy stands to gain important insight into the prejudices and unexamined assumptions that plague academia. I will flesh out the nature of these assumptions using the works of Black Nationalists like Angela Davis, George Jackson and Joy James. This will show that reading Black Nationalists as social theorists enables philosophers to unveil sources of knowledge about political economies by looking at the history of imperialism in a comprehensive manner. The second section is devoted to an examination of how the Black Panther Party's relationship to the state reveals the role of white violence in maintaining racial hierarchies. That the Black Panthers were targeted so systematically by the state indicates that they were perceived to be a threat to the white power structure, which gives us insight into how challenging state terror is a revolutionary act in intellectual and concrete ways. I show that the mainstream academic discourse on racism in American society assigns higher credibility to white philosophers even when Black thinkers have been producing relevant scholarship for centuries on the subject in question. The third section examines the philosophy of the Enlightenment in terms of how it relates to the domestic colonization of African Americans and to the abuse of people of color around the globe by European and American imperialists. The purpose of this section is to show how scholars' confidence in white canonized philosophers predisposes them to overlook Enlightenment philosophy's structurally racist approach to political societies. The fourth section provides a detailed overview of the key principles in Anti-Colonial and Critical Race Theory as they intersect with Black Nationalism. Important issues addressed in this section include the role of prisons in keeping African Americans in a state of neo-slavery. In order to situate Black Nationalist thought within a broader intellectual history, I will discuss how Black Nationalism represents the culmination of radical American and Anti-Colonial political theory.Item A place for moral theory in the argument from evil(2012-08) Reed, Robert P; Webb, Mark O.; Schwartz, JeremyArguments from evil intend to prove that the existence of an all-powerful and morally-perfect being would preclude the existence of evil. Such arguments hold that the absence of evil is a necessary consequence of a morally-perfect and all-powerful being existing. Yet evil does exist and so by modus tollens, God must not. Despite the presence of unmistakably moral terms in these arguments such as “evil” and “morally-perfect”, treatments of the problem of evil in the philosophical literature have avoided discussing the related normative and metaethical issues and so have hindered the progress of the debate. Whether or not the attributes of being all-powerful and being morally-perfect do in fact preclude the existence of evil is substantially (if not entirely) determined by the moral or normative structure of the world: the moral truths about good, evil, normativity, right action etc. and any properties and facts about the world needed to ground them (supposing moral truths require such grounding). So the very same truths moral philosophers seek while doing normative ethics will largely determine whether the existence of a morally-perfect and omnipotent being precludes the existence of evil. The truth about God and evil hinges upon the truth about morality. Thus, the question of whether or not God and evil can coexist cannot be answered without committing to the sorts of normative claims at issue in moral philosophy.Item A Schaefferian sociology: The social theory of Francis Schaeffer(2008-12) Henson, James; Dunham, Charlotte C.; Koch, Jerome R.This thesis seeks to explore the role of Christian philosopher Francis Schaeffer in the culture war as delineated by author James Davison Hunter through his influence on the Christian Right. After a brief examination of the history of the Christian Right and an exploration of Francis Schaeffer’s life and philosophy the culture war as conceived by Hunter will be introduced and examined. Following this will be an in-depth analysis of Schaeffer’s work A Christian Manifesto. The paper will conclude with an analysis of Schaeffer’s overall role in the culture war and an examination of the social theory implicit in his work. The findings of this paper suggest that through his status in the Christian Right Francis Schaeffer has a significant impact on the culture war and, therefore, the landscape of American culture as well.Item An analysis of Plato's Meno(2015-10-16) Duggan, Nicholas James; Stauffer, Devin, 1970-; Pangle, Thomas LThis thesis offers an analysis of Plato’s Meno, in which the Greek philosopher addresses more directly than in any other dialogue the character of human virtue. Believing that Plato has considerable guidance to offer us in respect to the question of what virtue is, I attempt to approach his writing with considerable care and attention to the details and the structure of the argument. I argue that the dialogue ultimately presents a complicated teaching about virtue’s character, and the way that virtue comes to be present, which ultimately culminates in the claim that virtue is knowledge – and in the thoughtful consideration of the alternatives to, and the nuances of, that claim.Item Buddhist philosophy in the work of David Foster Wallace(2013-05) Piekarski, Krzysztof, active 2013; Kevorkian, Martin, 1968-This dissertation is about the ways David Foster Wallace's writing expresses Buddhist philosophy. Because Buddhism is a vast subject, sometimes I conflate several traditional "Buddhisms" into a common-denominator form, while other times I investigate Wallace's work through Zen Buddhism specifically. By close-reading his work in chronological order--starting with The Broom of the System, Girl With Curious Hair, "The Empty Plenum," Infinite Jest, "Roger Federer as Religious Experience," "The Suffering Channel," and The Pale King--I analyze the ways in which Wallace's writing focused on questions of the self-awareness of linguistic expression, the contemporary causes of addiction and suffering and their implied remedy, the ethical and moral implications of living out of self-consciousness, the principles of mutual causality, "co-arising" and ecological well-being, and the discernment of multiple forms of awareness, all of which are foundational concerns shared with Buddhist philosophy.Item Can non-cognitivism account for ethical explanation?(2014-05) Simpson, Christopher Aaron; Bonevac, Daniel A., 1955-; Dancy, JonathanIn this report I argue that a popular account of the nature of ethical thought and talk -- non-cognitivism -- cannot make sense of our attempts to explain why some things are right or wrong, good or bad, just or unjust. After introducing the process by which we attempt to explain these sorts of ethical features (a process I call ethical explanation), I consider how we might test whether non-cognitivism can account for this process. We can test whether non-cognitivism can account for ethical explanation, I argue, by testing whether non-cognitivism can account for the meanings of ethical explanatory sentences, the sentences we use to express explanatory thoughts in ethics. After considering how non-cognitivism might account for ethical explanatory sentences (and so the thoughts these sentences express), I develop a series of problem cases on which, I argue, no plausible non-cognitivist account of these meanings of these sentences is possible. Because non-cognitivism cannot account for the meanings of ethical explanatory sentences, I conclude, non-cognitivism cannot account for ethical explanation.Item Eric Voegelin and Lao Tzu: the search for order(Texas Tech University, 1991-08) Kwon, Seon-Hee SuhThis is a cross-cultural study contrasting political thoughts of Eric Voegelin and Lao Tzu. Eric Voegelin argues that his political theory is based upon universal experiences. In the process of developing his theoretical arguments, Voegelin uses Chinese experiences as evidence to buttress his theory. His exposition about the Chinese case, however, focuses mainly on the Confucian interpretation of human existence and neglects the Taoist experiences, which constitute an important part of the backbone of every aspect of Chinese civilization. Accordingly, this study examines the extent to which Voegelin's theoretical concepts and categories can be applicable in explaining and understanding the thought of Lao Tzu, who represents early Taoist thinking. For this purpose, we contrast four major themes developed by Voegelin and Lao Tzu, respectively. These are "openness toward transcendence," "human nature," "knowledge," and "political society." A significant difference between Voegelin and Lao Tzu is manifested in their interpretations about human existence in relation to transcendent truth. Voegelin understands human existence as tension toward transcendence, whereas Lao Tzu regards it as a harmony with transcendence. This divergence also has important implications in their view of political society, especially the recognition process of political authority, which Voegelin visualizes as conflictual and Lao Tzu as harmonious. In spite of these profound differences, Voegelin and Lao Tzu share many fundamental experiences of human living. Most importantly, Voegelin and Lao Tzu acknowledge both the finitude of human existence and human efforts to search for the infinite divine ground of existence, recognizing multidimensional aspects of human life which are comprised of material and spiritual dimensions at every level of existence, individual and collective. They also arrive at the same conclusion that true knowledge concerns the wellbeing of life as a whole. We can find in their political philosophies a common ground of human experience on which we can walk as human beings.Item Francis Bacon and the philosophic method of the Americans(2014-05) Liebeskind, Jane Louise; Pangle, Thomas L.The philosophy of Francis Bacon has an important and often overlooked place in the development of American political thought. John Dewey cites Bacon as the forefather of his own highly influential philosophical school, American pragmatism. I argue that, though Dewey is in many ways correct to look to Bacon as his predecessor, he overlooks or collapses certain crucial tensions in Bacon’s philosophical project. This causes Dewey to misinterpret the political implications of the philosophic project to which he himself is an heir. By exploring the tensions that Bacon maintains, and Dewey collapses, between human knowledge and human power, science and democracy, and progress in the sciences and progress within states, I hope to shed light on the true implications of Bacon’s philosophical project for American political thought.Item How to Bridge the Culture Gap: How John Dewey?s Aesthetics May Benefit the Local Church(2012-02-14) Shockley, Paul RussellIn my personal experience, I have discovered notable aesthetic problems that face many contemporary evangelical churches. In spite of these churches? best efforts, they fail to bridge the culture gap and foster a meaningful worship service. But John Dewey?s aesthetic philosophy understands the shifting nature of our environment and the value of aesthetic experience, providing beneficial insights to assist unhealthy churches. To better understand the applicability of his philosophy, Chapter II is an exposition of John Dewey?s aesthetics that revolves around four central questions: What is Dewey?s starting point for aesthetics? What distinguishes aesthetic experiences from others? What is his criticism of the ?museum conception of art?? What is the significance for Dewey of our activities having or not having aesthetic quality? Chapter III is a Deweyan investigation of four real churches: the elite church, which promotes an aesthetic that is reserved for its members; the broken church, which is divorced from community; the humdrum church, which is preoccupied with the routine; and the sensational church, which is characterized by indulgence. Chapter IV is a description of two recent attempts to bridge the culture gap and offer meaningful worship activities: the seeker-sensitive movement which contends that the church must be ?culturally inviting? to the community, and the emerging movement(s), which seeks to dismantle traditional churches using deconstructionism and reconstructing worship services that are experiential, pluralistic, and sensory. My Deweyan argument in Chapter V is that both the ?seeker-sensitive? and the ?emerging? movements fail to adequately understand the shifting character of our environment and our relation to it. If problem churches acknowledge that discontinuity with environment is inevitable, seek to meet the needs of others, embrace adjustment as a core component, and value aesthetic experience, they will be in a better position to bridge the culture gap and offer an enriching worship experience in their services. Three Deweyan lessons are gleaned from this inquiry: value aesthetic experience and its contribution in bridging the culture gap, implement Deweyan insights drawn from our examination of traditional churches, and contribute to society by generating artproducts that will benefit the community.Item The incoherence of the intellectuals : ibn Rushd, al-Ghazali, al-Jabari, and Tarabichi in eight centuries of dialogue without dialogue(2012-05) Wright, Katharine Louise; Di-Capua, Yoav, 1970-; Brower, Benjanmin C.Scholars, philosophers, and theologians have debated the compatibility of Hellenic Philosophy with Islam since the eighth century CE. In his book Averroes et l’Averroisme (1852), Ernst Renan identified Tahāfut al-Falsifa by al-Ghazali and Tahāfut al-Tahāfut by ibn Rushd as the two key texts resolving the issue: the Islamic world accepted al-Ghazali and fell into decline, while Europe accepted ibn Rushd (Averroës) and experienced the Renaissance and Enlightenment. Renan’s argument has endured among Arab liberal intellectuals over the past one-hundred sixty years, but using ibn Rushd as the mascot for Arab Rationalism has failed to inspire anything resembling asecond Nahda. Two contemporary Arab intellectuals, Mohammad ʿAbed al-Jabari and George Tarabichi, have engaged in their own dialogue about the works of al-Ghazali’s and ibn Rushd’s and whether or not Averroism can effect real change in the modern Arab world. This paper examines the works of al-Ghazali, ibn Rushd, Renan, al-Jabari, and Tarabichi in their historical, cultural, and geographical contexts to conclude that the solution to the problems of the modern Arab world, if one exists, does not lie solely within the works of ibn Rushd.Item The intellectual given(2010-05) Bengson, John Thomas Steele; Sosa, David, 1966-; Bealer, George; Dancy, Jonathan; Pautz, Adam; Sainsbury, Mark; Tye, MichaelSome things we know just by thinking about them: for example, that identity is transitive, that three are more than two, that wantonly torturing innocents is wrong, and other propositions which simply strike us as true when we consider them. But how? This essay articulates and defends a rationalist answer which critically develops a significant analogy between intuition and perception. The central thesis is that intuition and perception, though different, are at a certain level of abstraction the same kind of state, and states of this kind are, by their very nature, poised to play a distinctive epistemic role. Specifically, in the case of intuition, we encounter an intellectual state that is so structured as to provide justified and even knowledgeable belief without requiring justification in turn—something which may, thus, be thought of as given. The essay proceeds in three stages. Stage one advances a fully general and psychologically realistic account of the nature of intuition, namely, as an intellectual presentation of an apparent truth. Stage two provides a modest treatment of the epistemic status of intuition, in particular, how intuition serves as a source of immediate prima facie justification. Stage three outlines a response to Benacerraf-style worries about intuitive knowledge regarding abstract objects (e.g., numbers, sets, and values); the proposal is a constitutive, rather than causal, explanation of the means by which a given intuition connects a thinker to the fact intuited.Item Letters from the Goodwill Brothers of Basra : a medieval Islamic message of tolerance and pluralism(2012-05) Fares, Michael James; Ali, Samer M.; Spellberg, Denise“We would never accept the Japanese putting up a site next to Pearl Harbor. There's no reason for us to accept a mosque next to the World Trade Center.”Newt Gingrich said the above words in reference to the recent “ground-zero mosque debate”, a heated media controversy which surrounded plans for the Park 51 Islamic Community Center to open in downtown Manhattan on the 10th anniversary of the September 11th attacks. Assuming a necessary enmity between America and Islam, Gingrich’s claims seem rooted in the theory of a “Clash of Civilizations”. This theory envisions “the West” and “Islam” as diametrically opposed entities with no common values, and has become widely pervasive in informing much of post-9/11 America’s political and academic discourse. When chalked up against the social, cultural, and literary history of Islam, however, the Clash of Civilizations theory is a poor fit. For medieval Arabo-Islamic culture saw a vast rise of humanistic literature bearing a clear multi-civilizational influence. The Letters of the Goodwill Brothers of Basra constitute one of the most overlooked of these works. Composed by a group of 10th century Abbasid Muslim littérateurs, the 52 Letters draw parallels between the teachings of Islam and those of prior great wisdom traditions, including Indian and Ancient Greek wisdom, Judaism, and Christianity. Focusing on the way the Letters frame Islam in the context of perennial human wisdom, I show how this text is ultimately an irenic text aimed at promoting religious tolerance and cooperation in the tumultuous sectarian atmosphere of 10th century Abbasid Iraq. I argue ultimately that the irenic message of the Letters presents an alternative narrative to the Clash of Civilizations theory, a narrative of tolerance from the Islamic past by which our own society may benefit when it comes to the relationships between American Muslims and non-Muslims.Item Lucretius, Pietas, and the Foedera Naturae(2013-05) Takakjy, Laura Chason; Dean-Jones, LesleyThe presentation of pietas in Lucretius has often been overlooked since he dismisses all religious practice, but when we consider the poem’s overall theme of growth and decay, a definition for pietas emerges. For humans, pietas is the commitment to maintaining the foedera naturae, “nature’s treaties.” Humans display pietas by procreating and thereby promoting their own atomic movements into the future. In the “Hymn to Venus,” Lucretius uses animals as role models for this aspect of human behavior because they automatically reproduce come spring. In the “Attack on Love,” Lucretius criticizes romantic love because it fails to promote the foedera naturae of the family. Lucretius departs from Epicurus by expressing a concern for the family’s endurance into the future, or for however long natura will allow. It becomes clear that Lucretius sees humans as bound to their communities since they must live together to perpetuate the foedera naturae of the family.Item Marginal nature: urban wastelands and the geography of nature(2009-12) Anderson, Kevin Michael; Doughty, Robin W.; Parmenter, Barbara; Manners, Ian; Young, Kenneth; Richardson, Richard H.In the United States, the foundational myths of Nature are wilderness and pastoral arcadia. This dissertation examines a different kind of nature that emerges as habitats in urban wastelands and margins. This cosmopolitan community is a hybrid nature that is the unintended product of human activity and nature's unflagging opportunism, which I call marginal nature. Marginal nature is neither pristine nor pastoral, but rather a nature whose ecological and cultural significance requires a reassessment of our narratives of nature. The wastelands are unique sounding boards for measuring perceptions of nature, since these places provoke ambiguous responses of attraction and repulsion. I explore perceptions of wasteland habitat from the perspectives of urban space, urban ecology, and literature about urban nature. The primary methodology of this dissertation is hermeneutical inquiry which reveals the layers of environmental discourse concealing marginal nature beneath language that asks it to be something that it is not. This environmental hermeneutics focuses on key issues of the geography of nature: nonhuman agency, place, and nature/society hybrids. I argue that comprehending the lifeworld of the wastelands requires a reassessment of the concept of place as a coproduction of humans and nonhumans, that is, an ecology of place.Item Models of scientific explanation(Texas A&M University, 2005-08-29) Sutton, Peter AndrewEver since Hempel and Oppenheim's development of the Deductive Nomological model of scientific explanation in 1948, a great deal of philosophical energy has been dedicated to constructing a viable model of explanation that concurs both with our intuitions and with the general project of science. Here I critically examine the developments in this field of study over the last half century, and conclude that Humphreys' aleatory model is superior to its competitors. There are, however, some problems with Humphreys' account of the relative quality of an explanation, so in the end I develop and defend a modified version of the aleatory account.Item Plato's mythological project in the Timaeus(2011-05) Zawislanski, Andrew Peter; White, Stephen A. (Stephen Augustus); Mourelatos, Alexander P.In the Timaeus Plato sets forth his cosmological system, and near the beginning of the dialogue he carefully qualifies his claims by saying that his account of the cosmos is not absolutely true, but only no less likely than any other account. Rather than being an offhand remark, this statement is key to understanding Plato's aim in constructing his cosmological myth. Plato's epistemological position prevents him from making strong assertions about physical objects and phenomena, but does allow him to make assertions of truth in morality and metaphysics. Thus while the Timaeus is ostensibly an account of the physical universe, for Plato its true value is in using the physical universe as a mythological symbol for moral and metaphysical truth. Plato's account is no less likely than those of other ancient cosmologists because multiple accounts can fit with the observed phenomena. However, his account, while no more likely, is superior to those of others in that it avoids impiety and, by qualifying its claims about the physical universe, is not threatened by future observations.Item Politics, religion, and philosophy in Al-Farabi's Book of Religion(2014-08) Siddiqi, Ahmed Ali; Pangle, Thomas L.This thesis offers an interpretation of Al-Farabi’s Book of Religion, in which the tenth- century philosopher addresses more directly than in any of his other works the relationship between human and divine wisdom. Believing Farabi to be a philosopher in the full sense of the term, I attempt to approach his writing in the spirit of his own approach to the writings of Plato and Aristotle. I argue that the discussions of religion, philosophy, and political science found in the text constitute a single teaching, through which Farabi addresses some of the most fundamental questions facing man as both a political and spiritual animal.Item Rational belief in classical India : Nyaya's epistemology and defense of theism(2010-05) Dasti, Matthew Roe; Phillips, Stephen H., 1950-; Sosa, Ernest D.; Koons, Robert C.; Bonevac, Daniel; Juhl, Cory; Bryant, Edwin F.Nyāya is the premier realist school of philosophy in classical India. It is also the home of a sophisticated epistemology and natural theology. This dissertation presents a distinctive interpretation of Nyāya’s epistemology and considers how it may be developed in response to various classical and contemporary challenges. I argue that it is best understood as a type of reliabilism, provided relevant qualifications. Moreover, I show that a number of apparently distinct features of Nyāya’s approach to knowledge tightly cohere when seen as components of a thoroughgoing epistemological disjunctivism. I defend Nyāya epistemology as a viable contemporary option, illustrating how it avoids problems faced by generic reliabilism. In the second portion of the dissertation, I examine the way in which Nyāya’s knowledge sources (perception, inference, and testimony) are deployed in support of a theistic metaphysics, highlighting Nyāya’s principled extension of its views of knowledge acquisition. In an appendix, I provide a full translation and commentary on an argument for God’s existence by Vācaspati Miśra (a 10th century philosopher who is unique in having shaped several distinct schools), found in his commentary on Nyāya-sūtra 4.1.21.Item Refraining, agents, and causation(2013-05) Harrington, Chelsea-Anne Linzee; Dancy, JonathanI consider two versions of an argument against (so-called) negative action, both of which take it that causation is a defining feature of actions. The first asserts that when an agent refrains, her mental states do not cause the absence of an event; as such, the refraining does not qualify as an action. The second asserts that when an agent refrains, she does not cause the apparent results of her refraining, and so again, the refraining does not qualify as an action. The idea motivating the second argument appears to improve on the first, insofar as it allows for the agent to play a role in her actions. I argue that both accounts rely on a narrow conception of causation, framed in terms of a physical connection between cause and effect. This narrow conception does not appear to be justified, and the focus on physical connection causation leads both accounts to misconceive agency. Fortunately, there is available a broader conception of causation, which is both intuitively plausible and better able to capture the phenomenon.Item Revision Theory of Truth, Contextualism, and the Liar Paradox(2013-05) Eaken, Vanessa; Tucker, Dustin; Hom, ChristopherMost philosophers agree that Contextualism and Revision Theory of Truth are incompatible. My suggestion, however, is that what many people take to be important differences between these theories are merely the result of a verbal, and non-substantial, disagreement between writers like C. Parsons and M. Glanzberg, on the side of Contextualism, and A. Gupta and N. Belnap, on the side of Revision Theory of Truth. By carefully analyzing these theories, we will three things: (1) Though Contextualists openly reject the Tarski-biconditional and Revision Theorists claim to accept all the principles of classical logic, careful analysis shows that both manipulate the Tarski-biconditional so as to demonstrate the same feature of ideal reasoning – a recognition of the fact that the Liar sentence is true at some steps in reasoning, or hierarchical levels, but false on others. (2) The Contextualist solution involves a step that the Revision Theorist of Truth solution does not – a step which is the result of an assumption Contextualists make about the semantic status of L when it is analyzed from the same hierarchical level that it is interpreted in. And, (3) Contextualists suggest that shifts from one hierarchical level to another are the result of a change in the domain of the truth predicate, while Revision Theorists of Truth suggest that this change is the result of our changing our interpretation of the truth predicate – a difference that is merely the result of Revision Theorists of Truth assuming that the ideal reasoner will begin with hypotheses regarding each and every sentence in his language. The only substantive differences between Contextualism and Revision Theory of Truth, then, are these two background assumptions regarding the semantic status of L and what things the ideal person makes hypotheses about. But, even with these differences in mind, we are able to conceive of a theory that both Contextualists and Revision Theorists of Truth would approve of – one that brings to light the theory of the Liar Paradox buried within both theories.