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April 15-16, 2005
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April 15-16, 2005
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Emann Allebban
Desiring the Divine: A Critical Evaluation of Aristotle’s Unmoved Mover
University of Michigan (Dearborn, MI)
Aristotle argues for the existence of an Unmoved Mover responsible for the existence of all motion, in book XII of his Metaphysics, building on his earlier two distinctions between form and matter and actuality and potentiality to present his conception of the divine. It is argued that Aristotle’s conception of the Unmoved Mover is an acknowledgeable attempt at explaining the existence of motion in the universe, but fails due to several objections, one being the vagueness of his concept of desire and the exact relation between god and us, all particular sensible things. To establish this, a discussion and original evaluation of his distinctions between form and matter and actuality and potentiality is presented to provide the framework for Aristotle’s argument for the Unmoved Mover. In so doing, it is also argued that Aristotle’s view of substance, matter, and form is successful in overcoming the problem Plato’s theory of forms posed in establishing the relation between the forms and the particulars, and as such is plausibly successful in answering the one/many problem. Also, Aristotle’s distinction between potentiality and actuality is useful in successfully overcoming the objection of Parmenides as to change.
Dave Backer
Dear Dr. Wittgenstein
The George Washington University (Washington, DC)
In his Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, Ludwig Wittgenstein claims that there is no soul due to its composite nature in logical translation. In response, I’ve created a logical proposition where certain variables have significance. When this proposition is translated, the names and relations that led Wittgenstein to conclude that there isn’t a soul become significant—which reverses his claim. Using this proposition, a recursive logical significance indicator, I’ve found that the soul exists. My paper is a letter to Wittgenstein about these ideas.
Alexis M. Blackman
Complicating Catharsis: Plato on the Body
Nazareth College of Rochester (Rochester, NY)
Plato is often thought to be the founder of modern day eating disorders. Susan Bordo, a feminist philosopher, suggests that Plato’s mind-body dualist language, such as the body is a kind of prison, found in the Phaedo , leads people to believe that it is in a sense “okay” to kill off our bodies. I would like to suggest, however, through investigating passages from the Phaedo itself, as well as from the Republic and the Theatetus, that Plato is not saying that and instead it seems he is saying that we must live in accordance with our souls, that being the highest in us, which in no way signifies that we should be killing off our bodies.
Richard Bodio
Nietzsche Reads DH Lawrence
Providence College (Providence, RI)
In this paper, I argue that Nietzsche is the foundation upon which D.H. Lawrence structured his thought. In the first quarter of the paper, I go on to show that Lawrence actively refers to Nietzsche in his letters, critical writings and his fiction. Comparing elements of Nietzsche from Will to Power and Beyond Good and Evil to Lawrence’s “Why the Novel Matters,” Sons and Lovers and Women in Love , I argue for an essential link between Nietzsche and Lawrence in Lawrence’s less formal writings and fictional works. As a result, a necessary connection is shown between the German philosopher and the early modernist writer.
Zachary C. Callaghan
It’s Just Music
University of Hawaii (Honlulu, HI)
Jazz music grew up in a time when people were oppressed, poor, hungry, and even struggling with severe substance abuse problems. These terrible facts, however, spawned a music that sought some way of communicating these troubles to people, and hopefully make them feel better about it in some way. China has had to deal with its own problems as well. In fact, they had many of the same sorts of problems that the jazz community suffered. While their response was not through sounds, but rather words, they put out just as strong a message. This paper draws a strict parallel between the historical progression of Chinese thought through the Analects , Daodejing, Zhongyong, and Chaung Tzu , and four periods in jazz history. Both work together in a concert to illustrate the other’s attitudes towards life, each answering to the question of what it means to live one’s life.
Kevin R. Collen
Actions and Possessions: A Critique of Heidegger’s Letter on Humanism/the Consequences of Ek-sistence
Syracuse University (Syracuse, NY)
Martin Heidegger’s Letter On Humanism represents the most succinct summation of his philosophy after the Kehre. In it, he deals with several issues, among them being the question of man’s “true” essence (if there should be such a thing). He feels that the long standing determination that man can and should be viewed as animal rationale does not do justice to man’s humanitas. He argues at length for Ek-sistence: man’s active, standing in the clearing of Being. By this he means ontological Being as differentiated from ontic beings. With painstaking accuracy and sensitivity to the issues, Heidegger discusses what is pertinent to his exposition, touching upon a virtual gallimaufry of topics. In this paper though, I will treat his arguments for the actual nature of animal rationale, the concept of humanitas, and lastly for his idea of Ek-sistence. I will do this in three ways so as to conclude that while his account ultimately seems accurate, there are grounds for some interesting hypotheses, contained within said account, regarding the possibility of “communicating” the prominence of thought of Being.
Robert Farley
Language, Representation, and Different Kinds of Minds
Ursinus College (Collegeville, PA)
There are those that would deny that any nonhuman, nonlinguistic creature can have a thought or engage in thinking behavior via representation. I am not convinced of this fact and rather than conceiving of the mere notion of animal thought as disposable, I think there is a way in which trying to understand how animals think will help us to better understand animals as a whole. But why should we be convinced that this denial of thought is incorrect? And if this is the case how ought we conceive of what is being described as “animal thought”? I think it is the case that many animal behaviors rely upon representation but also that the need for representation seems to vary among different kinds of behaviors while the cognitive abilities necessary for certain levels of representation seem to vary among species. This suggests a rather complicated picture of animal thought because there are countless species with countless different behaviors which might be examined. Therefore, I have broken up animal behavior into four basic categories set up in a hierarchal fashion beginning with those behaviors which require no intermediating thought (stimulus-response behaviors), moving on to those behaviors which to require only a limited representational capacity (instinctual behaviors) and those behaviors which seem to require a kind of elasticity and adaptability that seems to necessitate advanced thinking abilities (flexible behavior), and finally the most complex kind of behavior (language-using behavior) which depends upon the ability to reason or think about thoughts in a way that appears to be available only to creatures with a fully developed syntactical language.
After explaining each of these categories in depth, I give natural examples of each behavior and contrast these examples with other behavioral types in an attempt to show how they differ in kind. My view then is that with different behavioral abilities come different kinds of minds entirely. For example I think there is something about the mind of a language-user that is prima facie different than that of languageless creatures. Specifically I think this mental quality that is unique to “language-using behavior” as a general category is syntax. I argue that it is syntactical abilities which enable creatures with a natural language to eventually progress into thinking about their own thoughts and ratiocination. But although I wish to show that syntax provides for a profound difference between the human mind and the mind of even the most thoughtful flexible creatures, I think there is a sound argument for the description of many complex animal behaviors in terms of thought and representation, and than some clever, flexible animal behaviors are not so distant from the behavior of reasonable human beings.
Maureen Foster
Popular Art: An Evaluation of an Art Form
Cazenovia College (Cazenovia, NY)
As popular culture joins the ranks in the evolutionary definition of art, which criterion is it to be evaluated by in order to identify the qualities determinate in its identification and distinction as a high or low art form? Using Richard Schusterman’s “Form and Funk: The Aesthetic challenge of Popular Art” in summary as the opposing viewpoint, and contrasting the traits of popular art with the theories of Immanuel Kant on creativity and genius, and David Hume’s theory of taste I support three main arguments in opposition of popular art as high art. This examination and contrast with the theories demonstrate how the shortcomings of popular art lie within its failings to measure up to the standards of Kant’s theory of greatness achieved through creativity and originality, due to the generalization of popular art and its fate to be a resulting product of mass production and dissemination. This combined with a lack of time allotment for aesthetic appreciation that is determinate in evaluation of actual quality confines popular art into the class of low art. Only through grounding in the standards of individual creativity and experimentation, combined with attention to display and freedom from commercial motivation, will popular art ascend to the level of recognition and classification within the traditions of a high art form.
Malcolm Hardy
The Endless Possibilities of a Life Consumed by Dreaming
SUNY Oneonta (Oneonta, NY)
This paper is a quest, a quest to decide how one passing moment can define a life, a quest to decide if we have free will, a quest to decide if philosophy is worth it, and largely, a quest to decide if quests are still possible in our world.
Travis Wade Holloway
Heidegger/Asian Thought
Belmont University (Nashville, TN)
Abstract: This paper explores recent attempts to compare Heidegger and Asian thought. I begin with a summary of Heidegger’s historical involvement with Eastern texts and figures. Before proceeding to ideological comparisons, I critique the leading methodology for comparison presented in the introduction of Graham Parkes’ Heidegger and Asian Thought and his journal article, “Intimations of Taoist Themes in Early Heidegger.” Using Heidegger’s “Hegel and the Greeks” and Holderlin’s Hymn “The Ister,” I dismiss Parkes’ quasi-Hegelian model for comparison in favor of a way that will better accommodate the respective philosophies. This way of comparison is employed to juxtapose the philosophies of Heidegger and Asian thought in search of commonalities that lead to a single source. I show that as Heidegger advised, these findings fuel the search for new possibilities within the Western ontological tradition.
Jen-you Hwang
Form of Life: Wittgenstein, Conway, Nussbaum
Bryn Mawr College (Bryn Mawr, PA)
This paper explores the notion of Form of Life(FoL) as introduced by Wittgenstein in his works Philosophical Investigations and On Certainty. In conversation with Wittgenstein, Gertrude Conway’s Wittgenstein on Foundations develops this notion of FoL into what she calls human form of life (HFoL). She argues that her discussion is a secondary reading of FoL, a HFoL, that challenges aspects of Martha Nussbaum’s work on the shape of the HFoL; yet another interpretative version of HFoL. This too will be looked at in contrast to Wittgenstein’s use of FoL, and Conway’s use of HFoL will be considered briefly as a possible alternative to both. I argue that Wittgenstein’s remarks describing FoL should not be read as indicating a HFoL; rather, they describe forms of human life, such as language-games, manifestations of ‘world-pictures’, ‘foundations’, and ‘systems of belief’. Finally, if the idea of 'foundational features' is found acceptable in terms of 'secondary understanding', notions of mobility, movement and change will then become widely important..
Matthew Jasilli
The Inherent Potential of Truth: A Look at Heidegger’s Expression of his Views on Truth
Trinity College (Hartford, CT)
My paper discusses Heidegger’s theory of Truth in Being and Time and The Origin of the Work of Art. It is an attempt to explore the role that potential plays in Heidegger’s thinking and expressing his ideas about truth. The paper spends some time laying out his theory of truth from both works, and then explores the possibility that the theory presented in The Origin is always already contained, though not explicitly presented, in the theory from Being and Time . More concretely, it seems to me that truth as discussed in The Origin does not present a change in direction, or a new stage in Heidegger’s thinking, but the expression of the natural continuation or extrapolation of the way Heidegger discusses truth in Being and Time. This leads to a more general discussion of how to discuss and “deal with” thinking, such as Heidegger’s, that has inherent potential far beyond what is expressed in any given work.
Nick Kasatkin
On Moral Permissibility of Cloning
Georgia State University (Atlanta, GA)
The issue of human is a hotly debated issue in modern and Biomedical Ethics. The procedure most commonly known and questioned on moral grounds is the procedure known as somatic cell procedure which creates a mere genetic replicate and possess no capacity to replicate the mental states of the donor. It is precisely this procedure’s moral permissibility which has been questioned by numerous philosophers, one of which is George Annas. The aim of this project is to demonstrate the falsity of Annas’ arguments which include populist arguments such as the ‘human uniqueness’ argument, and then to ultimately urge that somatic cell cloning is morally permissible.
Antti Kasko
The Logos of the Dao : Exploring the Shared Philosophy of Heraclitus and Xunzi
Loyola Marymount University (Los Angeles, CA)
Heraclitus of Ephesus and Xunzi were philosophers at the opposite ends of the world, yet their philosophy is essentially identical. The central element of their shared philosophy is the changing nature of the universe, a quality which Heraclitus referred to as the Logos , while Xunzi called it the Dao. From this foundation, their attitudes toward moral character, ethics and social customs also share great similarities, suggesting parallel ways for personal growth and closer understanding and harmony with the world that we live in. It is impossible to distinguish between the two philosophers’ ideas at times. This suggests both philosophers have touched upon universal truth.
Jeff McClain
Kierkegaard’s Concluding Unscientific Postscript and the Bhagavad-Gita:
Ontology and God’s Existence
The University of Oregon (Eugene, OR)
This paper examines the relationship between Kierkegaard’s Concluding Unscientific Postscript to Philosophical Fragments and the Bhagavad-Gita . A common ontology of the individual, conception of deity, and result of faith is demonstrated, and the subsequent modes of life argued for are examined. The content of both works is shown to be markedly similar, and the differences examined between one are given due course as potential strengths, if adopted, in the other.
Ian Mevorach
Christianity and Confucianism: Aquinas and Mencius
Middlebury College (Middlebury, VT)
According to Emerson, Within and Above are synonyms. In the Confucian conception, as represented in my paper by Mencius, goodness, courage, and the like spring forth from within a person. I contrast this conception of virtue with that of St. Thomas Aquinas, who argues that these virtues are dependent on an external source; namely, God. This comparative study sheds light, I think, on these apparently divergent world-views. Despite their theological and cosmological differences, Mencius and Aquinas, in many respects, compliment each other. Without first deconstructing or debasing the Christian outlook of Aquinas or the Confucian perspective of Mencius; but simply by juxtaposing both conceptions, it becomes clear that they share the same essence.
Heather Mills
Tautologies of Time: An Ayer-type Critique of Shoemaker's Temporal Vacuums
Wheaton College (Norton, MA)
In Language, Truth and Logic , Alfred Jules Ayer argues that it is not possible for analytical statements to convey factual information. Any correlation they have to truth in the world is a mere coincidence. His claim concerning the tautological nature of mathematical statements undermines Sydney Shoemaker’s theory of the possibility of temporal vacuums. Shoemaker describes a universe in which three sections go through periods of what he terms “local freezes” that coincide every sixty years for a total planet-wide freeze. He asserts that the inhabitants are justified in believing that a total freeze occurs based solely on mathematical computation. In this paper I argue that mathematical calculations are not sufficient justification because they are true regardless of the state of the world. I conclude that the only way to express a legitimate claim concerning the universe is to do so by use of empirical statements.
Anthony Mohen
Zoroaster: Prophet or Philosopher?
Bard College (Annandale-on-Hudson, NY)
Recently, the study of ancient philosophy has been extended to include cultures other than Greek to enrich our understanding of the ideas under discussion. Such works as the extensive treatment in Thomas McEvilley’s The Shape of Ancient Thought of the transmission of ideas between India and Greece have suggested new ways of reading the classics as not the independent source of entirely novel ways of thinking, but the highlights in a tradition and dialogue that preceded them by centuries and encompassed much of the ancient world. In spite of this, Zoroaster has remained marginalized, as have certain other figures, as a merely religious thinker with little or no philosophical significance. Early Vedic doctrine suggests a longer tradition dating back to the common Indo-Iranian culture from which both the Upanishadic and the Iranian—specifically the Zoroastrian—traditions ultimately originate. One might expect a stronger Zoroastrian influence in Greek works, but the lack of any concrete similarities has lead scholars to conclude that there is not enough evidence to support the idea of Persian influence. In the context of Greece and India together, there is some hope—if not for unraveling the mysteries of the Magian teachings, then at least for a deeper understanding of both the texts and their formative environment. I suggest that, through a comparative examination of Zoroaster, the Vedas, and certain pre-Socratics, our understanding of both Zoroaster and the philosophers of India and Greece is enriched. In this paper, I conduct a preliminary exposition on matters of the afterlife and ethical choice, exposing a thread of ethical thought previously ignored, and make the case for further study in this area.
Marie Montesano
The Moral Dilemma of the Professional Dilemma of Military Professionals
Hobart and William Smith Colleges (Geneva NY)
This paper explores the responsibility of military professionals in human rights violations such as genocide and torture. Present measures to prevent human rights violations have thus far failed, as historical examples prove. Average citizens remain unaware of the evils that human beings are capable of fulfilling and still more have little understanding of the complexity of such events. The prevention of human rights violations will never be achieved without adequate education. Only through the answering of difficult questions can an understanding of human rights violations come about. For this reason, I propose that one of the difficult questions that must be asked entails the role of the military in human rights violations. Are military professionals personally to blame for their actions and should they be punished? It is human nature to blame individuals for wrongs committed and to seek retaliation or a form of justice. Unfortunately, the position of the military professionals is often dismissed. While societies recognize that the military professionals are responsible for the human rights actions, they automatically assume that with responsibility comes blame. If we universally punish military professionals without considering the reasons for their actions, we create more victims of human rights atrocities.
I intend to illustrate that in order to stop the involvement of military professionals in human rights violations, the international community must eliminate the chaotic environment in which human rights violations occur, instead of punishing military professionals after the fact. It is time to try to prevent human rights violations in a manner other than the threat of punishment. We must extricate confusion over linguistic terms such as “justice,” “excuse,” “responsibility” and “blame” if we are to fully evaluate human rights violations. In addition, the international community must be adequately educated about human rights violations, which includes a perspective of such violations from the eyes of military professionals.
Jacob Paine
Confucian Roles in the Zhuangzi
Belmont University (Nashville, TN)
I will use passages from the Zhuangzi to show how it manipulates the Confucian philosophical system by adding extensive modifications while trying to appeal to the Confucians. I want to show that Zhuangzi uses the character of Confucius to further its own philosophy. I will also show that although Zhuangzi disagrees on a fundamental level with Confucius, he still respects, and occasionally follows the same stream of thought as Confucianism.
The structure of the paper is straightforward. First, I will show Confucius's importance in the Zhuangzi as compared to other philosophers known at the time. Second, I will discuss what I identify as the Confucius character's four main roles in the Zhuangzi . Third, I will show how these roles show how Zhuangzi wants to interact with Confucians and persuade the people in the Confucian range of influence.
Mary Katherine Price
Plato, Imitation, and Truth: The Danger of Standing at a Distance
Nazareth College (Rochester, NY)
Using the Republic Book X and the Sophist, Plato explains that there are three types of things: those that exist in nature, those that are the work of a craftsman, and those that are the work of a painter. While those that exist in nature are the truth of a thing, the thing made by a craftsman is one step away from that truth, and again the work of a painter would be a second step away, making it three steps removed from the truth of a thing. If one is standing at a distance, however, it would seem that the truth becomes distorted and it is difficult to tell the truth from imitation. This paper focuses on the nature of imitation as it is portrayed in these two works and how it relates to the truth.
John Conrad Robinson
The Resurgence of Mind: Active Epiphenomenalism and the Will
Centre College (Danville, KY)
With few exceptions, the past two hundred years has seen compatibilism become a virtual truism in Anglophone philosophy. In the mind-brain dispute, while Materialists and Epiphenomenalists fight like mad over qualia and consciousness both almost universally acknowledge the truth of determinism. This acknowledgement is extremely problematic -- especially for Materialists. Expanding upon the linguistic argument of Norman Malcolm, this paper shows that neither Materialism nor Epiphenomenalism can adopt a completely deterministic position and remain intelligible. As a solution, a new form of Epiphenomenalism, called Active Epiphenomenalism for lack of a better term, is proposed. Active Epiphenomenalism proposes that the epiphenomena produced by the brain are not wholly causal impotent; mental states have the causal power to affect and produce other mental states though they cannot affect the physical in any way. Not only does this allow for some problems of traditional Epiphenomenalism to be solved, it provides a solution to the paradox of determinism by allowing for the existence of psychological Libertarianism while simultaneously preserving the complete determinism of the physical domain. The paper closes by looking at what systems of ethics could be open to Active Epiphenomenalism and concludes that Stoicism is ideally suited.
Craig Roxborough
Cognition and the Environment
University of Toronto (Toronto, CANADA)
What is the relation between the environment and cognition? Is the role of the environment essential to understanding how one might create artificial intelligence? This essay will examine the role of the environment in human cognition through an investigation into the way human cognition is extended into the environment alongside the argument that details the evolution of cognition, whereby it is in constant relation to the environment. As the role of the environment becomes clear in our pursuit for creating artificial intelligence, it is essential that we take steps to create the correct philosophical foundation for this scientific endeavour. Rodney Brooks argues for a method designed to create artificial intelligence founded in the theories of embodiment and emergence. This essay will echo these arguments in an attempt to show that machines can no longer be given an internal representation of the environment; rather, the environment, itself, must act as the world with which the machine interacts.
Anthony C. Russo
Clarifying the Reason/Emotion Question
Salisbury University (Salisbury, MD)
Traditional attempts to reconcile reason and emotion assume that both faculties are at work when we make a judgment. Although this notion is intuitive it has so far proved inadequate for explaining how experience shapes our judgment. In this paper I review some general arguments about the relationship between emotion and reason as a context for suggesting that the reason/emotion problem, like many philosophical problems, stems from misunderstanding the realities of imagination.
Tyler M Schuenemann
Paneloux and the Plague
University of Wisconsin: La Crosse (La Crosse, WI)
Albert Camus wrote The Plague in 1946, eleven years before receiving the Nobel Prize for literature. In this novel, Camus tells the story of a town stricken by the bubonic plague, which inflicts massive amounts of suffering on the innocent citizens. As the story moves on, we see multiple philosophical questions unfold in the novel; one question is that of how to understand or explain human suffering. In this paper I will explore the multiple stances taken toward the plague, and thus towards human suffering, by the character Paneloux, a Jesuit Priest. By exploring the unfolding of Father Paneloux’s attitudes towards human suffering, I will show how we can gain insight, through the lens of Camus’ thought, into some of the philosophical and theological movements in the past and present that have attempted to address what has come to be known as “the problem of evil.” These approaches to the problem of evil are divided into two categories by Camus, the subjective and the objective.
Karl J. Southgate
Nietzsche’s Conception of Seriousness
St. Mary’s College of Maryland (St. Mary’s City, MD)
Due to the rambling, aphoristic style of Thus Spoke Zarathustra , it sometimes seems impossible to pin down exactly what Zarathustra is fighting for and against. One can easily glean from the text that among Zarathustra’s main targets are false virtues, dogmatism, and self-hatred. However, the poetic, often-times fragmented nature of the text makes it difficult to systematize these ideas. I believe that by meticulously analyzing certain passages from Zarathustra in the context of The Genealogy of Morals (a more “concrete” philosophical work), one can discover parallels that help to illuminate both works.
Elizabeth Thompson
A Comparison of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein with the Ethical Theories of Immanuel Kant’s Deontology, Right’s Ethics, and Contemporary Buddhism
Pennsylvania State University
Writers and philosophers present us with a picture of our inner thoughts, emotions, fears, obsessions, and a plethora of other feelings. Through the written word, great thinkers share their insights with the word; this is why literature and philosophy are ultimately linked. In my paper, I examine this observation by comparing an example of classic literature, Frankenstein, with the ethical theories of Immanuel Kant’s deontology, rights ethics, and contemporary Buddhist ethics. The three theories bring to focus reason, humanity, and compassion for one’s fellow beings, all important observations to make when examining Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein . Understanding different ethical theories makes readers more aware of the significance of the lessons writers are attempting to teach them. Ultimately, this paper proves how philosophy and literature are linked by their ability to challenge societal norms and the overall mindset of society.
Jacob Tuttle
Kierkegaard’s Pragmatic Epistemology
St. Thomas University (St. Paul, MN)
There are three significant paradoxes in epistemology. These are Socrates’ Paradox of Learning, the Problem of the Criterion, and the KK Paradox. This paper will briefly describe each of the paradoxes and will show how the categories that Kierkegaard develops in Philosophical Fragments might be helpful for solving them.
Website constructed and maintained by Douglas Shrader / Department Chair Philosc@Oneonta.edu 
March 3, 2005
Updated April 7, 2005
