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Nicholas Almendares
The Will to Recurrence
Amherst College
The Eternal Recurrence has the dubious distinction of being both one of the most opaque and most central ideas in Nietzsche’s writing. By reference to his own views about scientific facts, I reject the cosmological interpretation of the Eternal Recurrence that draws mainly on his unpublished notebooks to construct a metaphysical worldview. I also depart from the dominant normative analysis that sees Eternal Recurrence as a litmus test to determine whether we are viewing life as an end in itself rather than a means.In this paper I offer an alternative normative reading of Zarathustra’s “most abyssal thought.” I propose to understand Nietzsche through the means of another of his major contributions: the Will to Power. By privileging this idea we can see the Eternal Recurrence as the ultimate exercise in self-overcoming, and it is only in this way that we can see how it leads us to the Overman.
Adam Arola
Nietzsche and Socrates: 1869-1879
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Did Nietzsche despise Socrates for his alleged role in the destruction of tragedy as he claims in The Birth of Tragedy? Or did he actually view him as an intellectual forefather in a manner comparable to his relationship with Schopenhauer? Throughout Nietzsche’s early and middle periods (1869-1878) there is a great deal of ambivalence on this subject: in his earlier works he attacks him wholeheartedly; in later works such as The Wanderer and His Shadow he goes so far as to say that Socrates ought to replace the Bible “as the guide to morals and reason.” This paper is an attempt to explain Nietzsche’s relationship with Socrates in his early and middle periods and why this relationship was so complex and confused. As Alexander Nehamas suggests, it may have been an attempt to hide his true feelings of admiration for Socrates.
Kristin Benton-Guerriero
Tractatus Musicus
Belmont University
While Ludwig Wittgenstein proposes many language games, the Music Language Game is especially interesting. Some question the claim that music has the complexities of other so-called language games: however, Wittgenstein says quite plainly in defense of music that “there is a sense in which it is the most sophisticated art of all” (Culture and Value, 8e-9e). Using the works of Wittgenstein, this paper explains the ways in which music is comparable to the English language as a form of language.
Tuvshe Bold
Concepts on Mathematical Concepts
Virginia Tech
In the early 20th century, inspired by Frege and Russell’s works, contemporary philosophy of mathematics was established. The three influential views held at the time were intuitionism, formalism, and logicism. The intuitionists and the formalists maintained that there is no connection between mathematics and the world. Under this view, the explanation of certainty in mathematics seems to be adequately grounded. Further, numbers are defined as pure results of imagination of the mind and infinity is rejected. The difference between the two schools appears only in their positions towards understanding mathematical propositions, which will not be studied in this paper. The logicists’ program of reducing mathematics into a formal logical system introduced axioms about numbers and infinity which did nothing towards explaining those concepts. It is not clear what position a logicist might hold regarding certainty. Aimed at explaining mathematics, none of the three schools gave a sufficient account of the mathematical concepts of number, certainty, and infinity.Through analysis of the concept of quantity, I will demonstrate that an adequate explanation of mathematical certainty is achievable while demonstrating that numbers are connected to the world. Moreover, with a better understanding of the mathematical concept of infinity, I will show the intuitionist and formalist rejection of infinity to be poorly founded.
Cindy Budka
Yoga of Liberation
SUNY Oneonta
As the Vedic scholars discovered, everyone’s ultimate goal or desire is moksha, the total freedom and liberation from all limitations. The Bhagavad Gita offers advice, on many different layers, about how one should live. On a surface reading, the Gita offers three different yogas (paths) to help one attain liberation. However, on a deeper reading we see that the Gita can also teach us to lead a liberated life. The three paths brought forth in the book are those of Gnana Yoga, the path of knowledge, Karma Yoga, the path of action, and Bhakti Yoga, the path of devotion. Yoga literally means union; to unite one’s consciousness with the Divine spark. To understand fully all the aspects of each path, one must understand how the different parts of the Gita are inter-related. To do this, I will first give a very basic background of the story of the Gita for those who may be unfamiliar with it, outline the different parts of society and how they are determined, then conclude with a discussion of the different yogas.
Adrian SzeTien Chia
Shaping of Disposition Through Ritual
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
The fundamental tenet of Confucian philosophy revolves around the application of ritual to counter the chaotic human desires. Xunzi explores the use of ritual in cultivating the proper approvals in order to provide correct motivation for human actions. This paper considers the possibility that Xunzi intended ritual to be not just a tool for shaping approval but ultimately also for use in transforming basic human dispositions. Traditionally, Xunzi has been interpreted as only acknowledging approval as the sole means of action motivation. The natural human desires or dispositions are unchanging fundamentals that we have to control using the proper approvals. In reinterpreting Xunzi, it seems to be possible for ritual to play a role in transforming some or all human dispositions so that perhaps one day everyone can aspire to be like a sage who “follows his desires and embraces all his dispositions,” without causing disorder in society.
Michael D. Daniels
Self Respect: Contradictions in Rawls' A Theory of Justice
Trinity University
Rawls suggests that the preservation of self-respect is at the core of any theory of justice. It is precisely his conception of self-respect, however, that creates serious problems in his theory as a whole. It not only opens him up to charges of inconsistency, but it underscores his failure to deliver on the promise of equality. Rawls' problematic conception of self-respect forces him to advocate a morally repugnant invisibility argument, proving that he is not the egalitarian he is usually taken to be, and suggesting instead that he is merely a defender of a bourgeois, inegalitarian class order.
Justin K. Dimmel
Zeno, Motion and the Mathematics of Infinity
Hartwick College
This paper is an examination of the recent history of two of Zeno’s paradoxes of motion, and their relationship to contemporary analytic mathematics. The “Dichotomy” and the famous “Achilles” puzzles have equally baffled and inspired mathematicians, philosophers and physicists for two thousand years, but only in recent history have the relevant disciplines been able to engage Zeno at a non-superficial level. By recent history I refer to the past one-hundred fifty years – an era of mathematical innovation which has refined our notions of the infinite to never-before-realized levels of mathematical precision. The aim of this paper is to comment philosophically on the intuitive (naïve) plausibility of the accepted mathematical resolutions of the puzzles. That is, Zeno’s puzzles have life in them even today because they are stated simply enough for the non-mathematician to grasp their impossible implications, while, at the same time, the modern mathematical resolutions of the puzzles require familiarity with real-number analysis. Considering this diametric opposition between the simplicity of the puzzles and the complexity of their solutions, this paper asks: has modern mathematics really settled the trouble with Zeno?
Sara L. Friedemann
A Response to the Case Against Compositionality:
Universal Sufficient Applicability Conditions
University of Wisconsin, Madison
Ran Lahav in his article “Against Compositionality: the Case of Adjectives” argues that, according to traditional ideas of compositionality, adjectives are not compositional. As a result, the principle of compositionality as a whole is called into question. That paper discusses two different types of applicability conditions for adjectives that describe how and when an adjective can be correctly used to modify a noun – non-uniform specific sufficient conditions and uniform general necessary conditions -- and shows how these two conditions alone are insufficient. The present paper introduces a third type of condition – a uniform general sufficient condition – which solves the so-called problem of adjectives and offers a way to show that adjectives do behave compositionally according to traditional theories.
Jessica Gordon
Hume: A Most Successful Enquiry
Wheaton College
In An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, David Hume makes the following claims: (i) all ideas are copies of (reducible to) impressions; (ii) it is possible to have an idea of a particular shade of blue that is not derived from the corresponding impression; and (iii) the impression to which the idea of necessary connection is reducible is a feeling in the mind.Although it may at first appear that this combination of propositions is contradictory, if one examines Hume’s work more closely and carefully, it becomes clear that the contradiction is more apparent than real. His reasoning is sound and logical; the propositions contribute to his overall theory in a most successful manner.
John A. Houston
The Suffering of Innocents: A Reply to Ivan Karamazov
Binghamton University
Of all philosophical problems confronting men, most poignant are those concerning human suffering. Of problems concerning human suffering, most terrible are those pertaining to children. Questions arising from the suffering of children give birth to problems of theodicy, bringing human beings to seriously question the goodness and justice of God. Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s Ivan Karamazov, from the novel The Brothers Karamazov, articulates these questions with passion and venom. All of us at some point have either met an Ivan or taken up his role ourselves. Is it wrong or “impious” for us to do so? Can philosophical argument provide any satisfaction to the disquietiing questions arising from human suffering? What attitude ought we to take toward suffering? These are some of the questions I attempt to wrestle with in my essay.
Desiree Hwang
Libertarianism and Anti-discrimination Laws
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
In this paper, I attempt to evaluate the possibility of enacting an anti-discrimination law, specifically in the case of employment, in a Libertarian society, whereby discrimination occurs on the grounds of group affiliation (i.e. gender, race, ethnicity, or religion). I begin by evaluating this possibility in light of the fundamental premises of Libertarianism. I argue that from these fundamental premises, enacting such a law is unjustified. Then I consider a special case that takes into account the “Lockean Proviso,” a default that is accepted and adopted by Robert Nozick into his form of Libertarianism. Under this special case however, only a minimalist anti-discrimination law could possibly be justified but it is not satisfactory because it is insufficient to support the ethos behind enacting an anti-discrimination law to begin with. Finally, I assess the possibility of anti-discrimination laws on the basis of Libertarian ideals rather than Libertarian premises. This results in questions about the coherence of Libertarianism because of an apparent divergence between its ideals and fundamental premises.
Matthew Irwin
Unspoken: The Unification of Subjective Consciousness in Transcendental Communication
Northwestern University
Language is the primary means by which we exchange information regarding our subjective conceptions of reality. However, that same reality is necessarily constructed from within the systems we have devised to communicate it. Why is the content of our expression different from the content of our thoughts? How might we achieve parity between the two, and what effects might this have? It is possible to achieve a form of intersubjective communication that transcends the limitations of language. By purging our minds of their subjective realities which are based entirely on an initial arbitrary stimulation of self-consciousness, and extracting the existential notion of Nothingness from the complete absence of affect and perception that we find beneath our subjectivity, we are able to establish true empathetic consciousness.
Amanda Johnson
An Apparent Contradiction:
An Analysis of Education and Appropriate Behavior in Confucius' Analects
University of St. Thomas
The purpose of this paper is to examine the apparent contradiction between Confucius’ valuation of the role of education verses proper behavior in the formation of the sagely individual or shengren in the Analects. In seeking this end, I will consider the nature of this contradiction by exposing the two seemingly opposing views. Ultimately, I will show how the two contentions may be reconciled. If we share Confucius’ ambition of striving to become a great shengren, then this venture is easily justified. Understanding the relationship between the two aspects of life we wield the greatest control over, namely our accumulation of knowledge and our behavior, becomes of the utmost importance in achieving that goal.
Sarah Layne
Recognizing Female Philosophers in the Age of Rationalism:
A Look into the Contributions of Anne Viscountess Conway
Mary Baldwin College
The history of philosophy has long overlooked the writings and thoughts of women philosophers. Many women philosophers were not even acknowledged in their time and until recently have not had much recognition or exposure. The Age of Rationalism was one time period in which an important intellectual was disregarded because she was a woman – Anne Viscountess Conway. Her work, The Principles of the Most Ancient and Modern Philosophy was mistakenly attributed to a man for centuries. Her thoughts served to influence the well-known Leibniz and she had much to say on Descartes' dualism theory. Rather than trying to prove God through a philosophical proof, Conway concerns herself with the system of life and God as a substance. Just like the canon of Rationalists, Conway intertwines philosophy with religion in order to come to a conclusion about God, life, and evil in the world.
Timothy C. Nelson
Looking Out For Number One:
An Objection to Olson’s Use of Brain Fission as Support for the Parfit-Shoemaker Thesis
St. Olaf College
In his book offering arguments for a biological approach to personal identity, entitled The Human Animal, Eric T. Olson, with the help of an appeal to Derek Parfit and Sydney Shoemaker, seeks to establish the possibility that the “prudential concern” that individuals feel for themselves may be felt for people other than themselves, as well. Olson’s approach to the problem includes an appeal to intuition concerning a case of hemispheric fission, which he offers as evidence in support of his contention that one can have prudential concern for someone other than oneself. However, an alternative explanation of what takes place during consideration of his thought-experiment appears to cast doubt on his conclusion. The prospective concern that one would feel for future fission offshoots is simply a result of concern for oneself.
Jason Ohliger
Animal Rights in a Kantian Framework
SUNY Oneonta
An attempt to show how animal rights can be defended from a Kantian perspective, this paper begins by retracing two of the most influential arguments for the rights of non-human animals – the utilitarian and rights-based arguments of Singer and Regan, respectively. Upon examination of these theories, it becomes apparent that the value which each of these systems attributes to both humans and animals is intuitively skewed. In order to resolve this problem, a Kantian moral framework is employed which is based upon a possible interpretation of elements of Kant’s Groundwork as applicable in a practical, and not merely a theoretical, context. The paper argues that this approach is conducive to an argument for animal rights that acknowledges a moderate value for each party. In doing so, this argument gives due respect to the dignity which can be argued to be possessed by both humans and non-human animals.
Mancy Pendergrass
Faith and Reason in Action: Abraham, Kierkegaard, and Incommensurability
Belmont University
When God asks Abraham to sacrifice his only child, he is thrown into disillusionment. He is unable to make sense of God’s command by use of his rationale and worldly knowledge; his is an individual experience and a solitary decision. In Fear and Trembling, Soren Kierkegaard explores the nature of faith – most importantly, Abraham’s faith. Kierkegaard is specifically concerned with Abraham’s disillusionment; it is at this point in the story that Abraham, when he lays Isaac on the altar, makes a ‘leap of faith’ into the absurd. By obeying that which is incommensurable, Abraham holds faith higher than reason. By use of Abraham and Fear and Trembling, I will explore the incommensurable nature of faith according to Kierkegaard, and how this philosopher, though enamored and drawn to Abraham, is unable to follow his example and become a knight of faith.
Jason Seay
Propositional Attribution: An Alternative View of Personal Identity
The University of Oklahoma
This paper first explores some of the problems with the advancement of an acceptable theory of personal identity by examining John Locke’s theory of the self. As well, we shall examine Hume’s critique of a singular theory of the self and present the circularity of Locke’s argument. Then, we shall see that Locke’s view fails to explain the mental illness Schizophrenia and present how it fails to assign identity that parallels our axiomatic views of the self with respect to a possible scenario of cloning. With this in mind, a view of the self as a social construct is constructed from correlating the work of Richard Rorty, David Jopling, and Krishnamurti. The propositional attribution model put forth by Lynn Stephens and George Graham further explains this view. This view is proposed as the proper path for modern philosophy to further define what the self is, for to do so is important to ourselves and society.
Charissa R. Van der Merwe
Plato's Mysticism
Wayne State University
In this paper, I shall examine the relationship Plato envisioned between mystical experience and knowledge by using textual evidence from the Dialogues. I shall compare definitions of ‘mysticism’ given by William James and Ludwig Wittgenstein and use them as standards by which Plato’s mysticism may be judged. Then, I shall analyze the similarities and dissimilarities in opinion that occur between James, Wittgenstein, and Plato in respect to the relation that exists between mystical experience and the acquisition of knowledge. Finally, I wish to bring to light how Plato’s views on the relation of mysticism and knowledge are unique.
Adrian M. Viens
Legitimacy in the Liberal State: Political, not Metaphysical
University of Toronto
The legitimate conditions under which the state is able to intervene into the lives of the citizenry are often constrained by a prohibition not to enforce a particular conception of the good in law and policy. Using the case of recent advances in genetic technology – specifically the ability to use the knowledge and technology derived from the Human Genome Project to help improve the lives of citizens through the reduction or elimination of disease and disability in the interest of justice – this paper examines whether the state’s positive obligation to use genetic technology to promote equality of opportunity comes into tension with the state’s negative obligation to remain neutral on matters of value since the state’s position regarding the funding, regulation, or prohibition of any genetic technology necessarily favours one conception of the good over another. Many liberal theorists working under, and having affinities with, the Rawlsian political framework have argued that a democratic framework that emphases the just society, as opposed to the good society, can justify the inclusion of particular genetic interventions without violating its commitment to remaining neutral between reasonable conceptions of the good. I argue that such attempts are not fully successful. I suggest that in order to succeed the best prospect lies in making the progression from a view of comprehensive liberalism presented in Rawls’ A Theory of Justice in favour of the view predicated in Political Liberalism. This transition would accommodate what Rawls calls the fact of reasonable pluralism in society and would do a great deal to reconcile the tension (as I view it) that arises between the state’s obligation to promote equality and to remain neutral on substantive moral issues.
Jeryn Rae Warren
A Socratic Dilemma: Moralist vs. Soldier
Belmont University
In the Crito, Socrates makes a strong moral claim when he states: “So he [any man] should not do wrong to anyone or injure them, in retaliation, no matter how he has been treated by them... it is never legitimate to do wrong to people, by harming them in return.” This was not just an objective ideas that Socrates voiced, he later says that “Personally, I have held this view for a long time, and I still hold it now” (49e). However, there is an obvious contradiction with this philosophy and claim. Socrates was a hoplite soldier, an active member of the Athenians’ retreat, and fought on the forefront of many bloody battles. Was Socrates simply a hypocrite? I will explore the various possible explanations for this inconsistency and show how these two stands may be reconciled.
Litsa E. Williams
Nagarjuna and Derrida: East Meets West With Deconstruction?
St. Mary’s College of Maryland
This paper is an examination of the projects of the post-modern thinker Jacques Derrida and the Buddhist philosopher, Nagarjuna. The paper is an evaluation of each thinker’s deconstruction in relation to their individual goals. The paper compares the methods and logic of each thinker as well as the similarities and differences in aspects of their work: method as well as function. The main theme is that of Derrida’s concept of differance and its relationship with and possible connection to Nagarjuna’s concept of emptiness. It considers how these concepts are similar, at odds, and how the two could, if considered in conjunction, further each other. This paper is not an attempt to synthesize these two thinkers, nor an attempt to claim some “sameness” in their works. It is a consideration of the value of examining these two thinkers in conjunction to get an better understanding of what deconstruction, eastern and western, is about.
J. Jordyne Wu
Originality and Art
Dartmouth College
What role does the notion of originality play in our thinking about art? This question has plagued aesthetic appreciation since human beings began creating and interpreting works of art. Citing that the aesthetic experience has only to do with perceived or perceptible qualities, some deny that originality plays any role at all in aesthetic appreciation. Others think originality is the most fundamental quality when judging works of art. In exploring the role originality plays in art, I examine both these extremes. I find that aesthetic judgment does not confine itself merely to those qualities that are perceived or perceptible and in considering the role that originality plays in art, I present the various senses of originality. Finally, I appeal to Kant’s concept of genius to conclude that originality is to be admired insofar as it is part of, or creates a new link from, the already present connections in the sequence of art history and development. Otherwise, a work of art could simply be ‘original nonsense’.
Nate Zuckerman
Nishida’s Essential Tension: The Paradox of Experience
Haverford College
This essay addresses Nishida Kitaro’s dense philosophical work, “Nothingness and the Religious Worldview.” I will show how Nishida builds his conception of experience – both philosophical and religious – upon an opposition of two chief insights, gleaned from a reading of Aristotle and Kant. These insights play out an essential tension characterizing our experience, generally – viz., that we are simultaneously passive and active with respect to our engagement with ourselves, each other, and the world. I will explain how the notion of the ‘place of nothingness,’ or ‘logic of basho,’ serves to ground these two insights in Nishida’s account of experience. Then I will follow translator David Dilworth in a brief, hermeneutic critique of this ‘paradoxical logic,’ addressing the way it operates in the text, as a mode of philosophical argumentation. My conclusion is that such an inquiry into Nishida’s grounding premises – ‘absolute contradictory identity’ and ‘dynamic, reciprocal expression’ – helps cast a fresh, fruitful light on the way philosophy has been done by the more ‘conventional,’ less ‘paradoxical’ writers whose texts and insights he engages polemically.
Website constructed and maintained by Douglas Shrader / Department Chair Philosc@Oneonta.edu April 11, 2002
