Browsing Theses/Dissertations - Philosophy by Title
Now showing items 16-35 of 38
-
Iris Murdoch's genealogy of the modern self : retrieving consciousness beyond the linguistic turn.
(2008-10-15)In this dissertation I argue that Murdoch’s philosophical-ethical project is best understood as an anti-Enlightenment genealogical narrative. I maintain that her work consistently displays four fundamental features that ... -
Kierkegaard and modern moral philosophy : conceptual unintelligibility, moral obligations and divine commands.
(2009-04-03)We moderns have lost a grasp on some of our most commonly used moral concepts. Or rather, the moral concepts that we use everyday have, in our grasp, lost the intelligibility they once enjoyed. Contemporary moral judgments ... -
Kierkegaard’s practice of edification: indirect communication, the virtues, and Christianity.
(2006-12-05)The ultimate aim of Kierkegaard's authorship is to build up his reader's character. Kierkegaard's signed, religious works suggest this reading, but some interpreters say that the more indirect, pseudonymous character of ... -
Knowledge revealed to the heart : an articulation and defense of Pascal's epistemology.
(, 2011-09-14)It is the focus of this dissertation to articulate Pascal’s position, which may be viewed as a middle ground between skepticism and dogmatism; a position that induces the reader to seek. The second and third chapters ... -
Kongzi, Rawls, and the sense of justice in the Analects.
(2006-07-31)This dissertation is a comparative study of the philosophy of John Rawls and the Confucian Analects regarding the idea of a sense of justice. The first aim of this work is to correct a view that has been advanced by several ... -
The meaning of illness : a phenomenological approach to the physician/patient relationship.
(, 2011-12-19)It is my purpose in this thesis to explore the "reality" of illness, using philosophical phenomenology as a guide. In particular, I am concerned to show that the experience of illness, rather than representing a shared ... -
Modeling divine deliberation.
(, 2011-09-14)Under the assumption that God deliberates when he decides which world he will create, I set out to build a model for God’s deliberation. The first chapter will lay the ground and outline each chapter. From Chapter Two ... -
Neo-Kantian wickedness : constructivist and realist responses to moral skepticism.
(, 2013-09-16)Neo-Kantian constructivism aspires to respond to moral skepticism by compelling agents to act morally on pain of irrationality. According to Christine Korsgaard, a leading proponent of constructivism, we construct all ... -
Resistance : its nature, virtues, and application to matters of faith.
(2019-04-01)There are many cries to resist particular objects (e.g. inequality in the workplace) but very little is said concerning the nature of resistance. As such, this project begins by mapping the concept of resistance. Next, I ... -
Roles and the ethical life.
(2018-06-06)Role ethics, broadly speaking, is a normative ethical theory that has a prominent emphasis on roles. Although it was prominent in ancient cultures, such as in China and Greece, role ethics waned during the Enlightenment ... -
Saints and moral philosophy.
(, 2011-12-19)Starting with William James’s lectures on saintliness in The Varieties of Religious Experience, twentieth and twenty-first century moral philosophers have attempted to understand the relationship between moral philosophy ... -
Taking responsibility for ourselves : a Kiekergaardian account of the freedom of the freedom-relevant conditions necessary for the cultivation of character.
(2011-05-12)What are the freedom-relevant conditions necessary for someone to be a morally responsible person? I examine several key authors beginning with Harry Frankfurt that have contributed to this debate in recent years, and ... -
Teleological moral realism : an explication and defense.
(2008-10-14)Contemporary moral realists assume that goodness is a property susceptible to Kripkean/Putnamian developments in philosophy of language and metaphysics. However, close attention to the actual use of the term ‘good’ reveals ... -
The virtue of taking ownership.
(2018-02-07)This dissertation argues that the capacity to “take ownership” is a fundamental feature of human life to which people may be well or poorly disposed. Although we commonly exhort others to “take ownership” in their work, ... -
Theism and the justification of first principles in Thomas Reid’s epistemology.
(, 2013-09-24)The role of theism in Thomas Reid’s epistemology remains an unresolved question. Opinions range from outright denials that theism has any relevance to Reid’s epistemology to claims that Reid’s epistemology depends upon ... -
Thomas Aquinas's psychology of fear.
(2018-07-10)Thomas Aquinas develops a strikingly expansive psychology of fear (timor) within his masterwork, the Summa theologiae. Whereas many classify fear under a single category (e.g., emotion, passion, or sentiment), Aquinas ... -
Thomas Reid and the problem of secondary qualities.
(, 2013-09-16)Direct Realism is the view that human perception takes physical entities and their mind-independent properties as immediate objects. Although this thesis is supported by common sense, many argue that it can be dismissed ... -
Toward a richer account of human rights in Christian moral theory : from Wolterstorff and Hauerwas to Wojtyla.
(, 2012-08-08)The role of human rights is disputed in Christian moral theory. When human rights are discussed, it is common to find that a problematic understanding of the human agent is assumed in those discussions, one that understands ... -
Tragic philosophy and human desire : bringing Nietzsche and Plato into conversation with contemporary ethics.
(, 2013-05-15)In his Retrieval of Ethics, Talbot Brewer complains of a fundamentally inadequate moral psychology within contemporary ethics, most importantly the limitation of human desire to the instrumental. In response, Brewer, ... -
Transcending the garden : the role of the sign of the garden in Augustine's Confessions.
(2008-10-02)Augustine’s Confessions is a complete and unified document. Augustine utilizes sign to bridge apparent textual gaps and to establish an intimate relationship with his reader. Specifically, I assert that Augustine establishes ...