Theses and Dissertations, Capstones, and Directed Research
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Electronic theses and dissertations, and graduate and undergraduate Capstones and Directed Research.
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Browsing Theses and Dissertations, Capstones, and Directed Research by Department "Philosophy"
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Item A Defense of Moral Responsibility(2023-12) Woodruff, McIntosh G.; Baltzly, Vaughn; Gilbertson, Eric; Warnell, KatherineNo abstract prepared.Item A Defense of the Argument from Ignorance(2006-12) Howard, Benjamin R.; Hutcheson, PeterMy thesis seeks to defend the Argument from Ignorance against Dr. Keith DeRose's contextualist critique. I will attempt to defend AI by demonstrating that the warranted assertability maneuver of invariantism provides a sufficient reason to question contextualism. Further, I will attempt to undermine DeRose's Rule of Sensitivity. I will provide background information on the development of DeRose's contextualist solution as well as briefly consider some alternate solutions to the Argument from Ignorance.Item A State Between: A Caring-Virtuosic Argument Considering Decision-Making Before Wartime(2018-05) Kirby, Ryan Patrick; Yuan, LijunThis dissertation attempts to illumine concepts used to deescalate warring measures designed to protect a nation-State, offered by traditional justice ethics, by synthesizing those ethics with the ethics of care. Because ancient, justice-based ethics were derived while moralizing the virtuosic roles that imply interdependency, and, more relatively, protection, it is imperative that we examine what war-measure contributions seem to be overshadowed in ethical decision-making affecting the community-at-large through virtue and care. In suggesting ideas for warring measures to be contemplated based on evaluating the protective human state of nature within the community-at-large, I expand on the intermediary caring state of nature existing between the extremes of Lockean-Hobbesian social contract theses. Considering views that are compatible with foremost just-war theories, I argue that our original state of nature is not absolutely cruel and not absolutely utopic, but originally engrossed in a sort of compulsive protection of community members, exhibiting traits of both care and virtue under differently-carried habits of protection. In regard to arguing a contest to a caring ontology, ideas of the caring-relational being is used to measure the question of how we ought to go about warring while simultaneously active in a society implementing a protective state of nature. The position of war being ethically unjust or ethically just ought to be evaluated by both the ethics of care and virtue ethics, producing a decision from the dialectical synthesis of compassionate conflict developing an ethical decision from both virtue and care ethics. Conclusively, this dissertation aims to present how protection-as-ontology is best understood by synthesizing virtue and care ethics, as both theses are normative and require analysis of observable character and cognitive-behavioral traits.Item A Whole Lotta Mumbo Jumbo: The Perpetuity of Vodou Misconceptions(2022-05) Ohrabka, Malarie; Laycock, JosephVodou, beyond simply a religion, is a living tradition. It is a way of life and a worldview long misunderstood. Vodou, by definition, means “spirit,” and spirit is awareness, understanding, and judgment: all things the religion has never received in good light. Vodou was birthed by slaves and is a fusion of West African Vodun influence and the religious traditions of European slave masters, including the rituals of Roman Catholicism. I propose that the religion, by consequence of both its racial association and the longstanding existence of Black prejudices, never held a chance of being understood. To consider my central argument, one must understand how various historical contexts have always influenced the way we look at—or rather, look down at—the religion. Created by slaves, a word synonymous with subhuman, animal, and property at the time the religion arose, Vodou was never to be accepted by outside observers. In the earliest documents to recount the religion, documents written by white males, Vodou is described as salacious, animalistic, and violent: all traits indicative of the racial discrimination of Black individuals at the time, and all traits which the religion is still misperceived as today. What may be the biggest misconception of the religion is that it has ever been something to fear, though centuries of mistrust and western cinematic culture made sure the world did. Due to a widespread and continued lack of understanding, made most noticeable by media misrepresentations and public and temporary public figure slander among other influences, Vodou misconceptions persist today and will until we are willing to learn from the course of history.Item Ahora Puedo Respirar Now I Can Breathe(2021-12) De La Rosa, Yvonne M.; Guajardo, Miguel A.; Brooks, Ann; Bohonos, Jeremy; Valadez, MonicaThis research explored the struggle and resiliency of a Mexican American community in Central Texas as they attempted to maintain, teach, and celebrate their Mexican American roots, customs, knowledge, and celebrations through community education. The research employed critical ethnography to explore history and its impact on self, organization, and community; it also interrogated agency within racially contentious times. Additionally, this research provides insight into public pedagogy of teaching, learning, and leading as a means to remember and record the growth and change within the local Mexican American community. The community learning exchange theory of change informed this dynamic-critical place-based conceptual framework. The study’s framework was a hybrid that included: theory of change, public pedagogy, community cultural wealth, culturally relevant pedagogy, and community education through the arts. The research design was grounded in critical ethnography, social cartography, anthropological life, and history mapping. From the research findings, five tenets of critical consciousness emerged and are presented through community voices (i.e., stories from research partners, el vestido, and visual artifacts), giving breath and description to each tenet. The five tenets were (a) critical awareness of self; (b) deficit thinking and resiliency (racism and segregation); (c) organic process of an emerging public pedagogy: teaching, learning, and leading; (d) community education; and (e) cultural pride and sustainability. Implications of the research include growing your own leaders which provides an entry point for Mexican Americans to share the ways in which community education has and can uplift a community through teaching, learning, and leading. Last, an implication for the resiliency of the Mexican American community reflected that Teatro has been able to crisscross spaces of contention, peace, and harmony. This research invites the reader to breathe together.Item An Evaluation of Saul Kripke's Argument for Property Dualism(2013-07) Chambers, Thomas H.; McKinney, Audrey M; Fischer, Robert; Carson, JoAnnThis paper concerns Saul Kripke's argument against type physicalism and for property dualism. My objection to the argument is that it relies upon a premise for which Kripke does not provide adequate support. The unsupported premise is Kripke's claim that it is possible for pain to occur in the absence of C-fiber stimulation. This premise relies upon what Crispin Wright identifies as the Counter-Conceivability Principle – the notion that if we can clearly conceive a counterexample to a claim of necessity, that serves as evidence against the claim of necessity. This principle is, however, not useful because it does not provide any guidance for what counts as a clear conception. Additionally, providing precise theories of conceivability and imaginability does not lend the support that Kripke's argument needs. Thus, I conclude that this objection to Kripke's argument stands and type physicalism can be maintained.Item An Insight into Groundwater Management and Policy in Texas(2016-07) Maleki, Shadi; Hanks, J. Craig; Lopes, Vicente; McKinney, Audrey; Sansom, AndrewNo abstract prepared.Item Applying Mill’s Utilitarian Ethic And His View On TheTyranny Of Public Opinion To The Modern Gun Control Debate(2019-12) Prunty, Kyle Scott; Luizzi, Vincent; Carson, Jo Ann; McKinney, Audrey; Hale, JanetNo abstract prepared.Item Better than Nothing: A Free Will Defense of Theism(2018-12) Hamilton, Christopher; Hutcheson, PeterThis paper is a defense of theism that addresses the arguments made by J.L. Mackie on the topic of God’s existence. Mackie and some other philosophers allege that the beliefs in both the existence of an all-good, all-powerful God and evil are contradictory. I aim to show that there is no contradiction. In this paper, I will argue that some of the evil that exists in the world may be allowed because of justifying reasons in the form of free will and feelings like sympathy and courage that come from both freedom of choice and the existence of evil. Evil in its most basic form is anything that causes suffering, injustice, or displeasure, such as famine, murder, and disease. God would need a good reason to allow any evil, and the purpose of this paper is to present the modest claim that God would be justified in allowing at least some evil to occur. I will also respond to Mackie’s intervention argument, his saint’s objection, and the argument against creation.Item By Tweet and By Speech: An Examination of Values in Donald Trump's Metaphor(2017-12) Garcia, Samantha; Benedikt, Amelie F.This Honor’s thesis examines Donald Trump’s use of metaphor and explores how he expresses his values through those metaphors. By examining examples of Trump’s political remarks, I reveal the central metaphor by which Trump operates and consider how American citizens may reestablish their political power by understanding Trump’s metaphors. The time period studied includes the start of Trump’s 2016 Presidential campaign up until the present. First, I discuss the central metaphor Trump uses in his remarks. Then, I classify Trump’s public speeches and tweets into separate categories, which include the ways in which his speech has affected public reaction. In these categories, I apply George Lakoff and Mark Johnson’s philosophy of language to Trump’s remarks, and I reveal the values expressed in Trump’s metaphors. After this, and I develop an appeal and course of action that American citizens who are opposed to Trump’s presidency must make in order to expose Trump’s non-egalitarian values. My findings will illuminate the power that metaphors have in contemporary American society and the impact they have made subsequent to the 2016 Presidential Election.Item Catholicism and Animal Ethics(2019-05) Rodriguez, Dixon; Laycock, JosephI am convinced that given the teachings of the Catholic Church, they suggest some kind of a change in our diets given our current animal agriculture system - veganism being what I have concluded as a reasonable "ideal" (not that it isn't without its faults and is, of course, subject to variation given certain contexts). This conclusion is more specific to America given our general wealth and my lack of knowledge pertaining to other countries. I am seeking to discuss the thoughts, insights, objections, etc. of Catholic priests and then analyze any recurring themes, thought processes, frameworks, etc. that are at work among the Catholic leaders. I approached this using a qualitative methodology. This project is very much an ethnographic study with a philosophical/theological analyzation. The aim of this project is to see, from a complete Catholic perspective, if a vegan-diet is in fact the logical conclusion of the Catholic Church in today’s animal agriculture system. I will attempt to fully explain the positions of priests in this study and the thoughts behind them, but do note that I am not a theologian or clergy member of the Catholic Church and further research will most likely be required to fully understand the positions of the priests. Topics of discussion will be as follows: Hierarchy of Being, what value animals have, what is allowed in relation to animals in Catholicism, Dominion & Stewardship, animal rights, speciesism, the Animal Food System, animal welfare, environmental impact, Pro-Life connection, the current vegan movement, Adopting a Vegan-Diet as part of an Individual’s Catholic Faith, and Veganism as a gesture. Subjects to be interviewed must be male ordained priests of the Catholic Church from any race/ethnicity & age in the Central Texas area (San Antonio, San Marcos, Austin area) - specifically in Central Texas due to practical reasons relating to travel. A total of 7 priests were interviewed in this study and were spread throughout the area specified above. Age of priests were between around 30 and 75 years old. Scheduling and place of meeting was discussed privately and agreed upon between myself and the priest. An informed consent document was given and signed by the priests prior to the interview. Priests were free to decline to answer any question, challenge a question, skip a question if they lacked knowledge of the subject, or leave the interview if they so wished. No penalty of any kind was given in reaction to any of these scenarios. It is crucial to understand that this thesis is evaluating the issue of a vegan-diet from a complete Catholic perspective. Critiques, thoughts, implications, etc. are all operating from and within the teachings of the Catholic Church. My findings were as follows: Most of the priests agreed that veganism can serve as a part of one’s faith, however, there is absolutely no obligation to do so. With that comes the responsibilities of upholding the Order of Creation and must never attempt to elevate animals to that of humans. A Catholic must also prioritize actions in response to the Order of Creation as well. Based on the responses of the priests, they do seem to suggest a change in diet, however, only one priest explicitly stated this. Essentially, a vegan-diet can work as a response to the issues surrounding factory farms, but it does not have to be the response. What I can hold as universal is that Catholicism would call for a more sustainable food system with greatly improved animal welfare conditions as well as an overall greater simplicity of life. In conclusion, while a vegan-diet is not an obligation, there is absolutely good reason to do so.Item Channeling La Charit: Towards an Intersectional Understanding of Care-Based Ethics in Public Maternity(2014-05) Rompel, Katherine E.; Yuan, Lijun; McKinney, Audrey; Lewis, HollyNo abstract prepared.Item Complicating Canonical Constructions: What Female Hell-Returners Say About Buddhist Gender Discourse(2022-05) Hauer, Genevieve; Mikles, Natasha; Laycock, JosephBased on a historical examination of the themes of transformation, filial piety, and the apparent female-focus present in Chinese female Hell-returner baojuan, this thesis argues that these narratives further complicate the already competing and contradictory discourses of gender inherent to Buddhist literature. While there has been widespread scholarship on the Hell-returner Mulian, a filial son and Buddhist monk who travels to Hell in order to save his mother, Chinese Buddhist Studies has largely overlooked three women in the realm of Hell-returner narratives: Dizang, Guanyin, and Woman Huang. In putting these lived religious texts in dialogue with canon, this not only places the traditionally-unheard voices of lay practitioners in regard with those of the religious elite, but also allow scholars to more fully grasp the complicated discourse on gender. This thesis therefore examines these three narratives in an attempt to not only gain a better understanding of Chinese Buddhist views regarding gender but also to gain insight into the historic lives of women in China.Item Condemned to Exist: Legal, Military, and Ethical Considerations of Modern Immortality(2022-08) Jordan, ElektraThis thesis explores the concepts of existence and immortality in the digital age. The first chapter of this thesis provides a brief background on Jean-Paul Sartre and his contributions to Existentialism. The second chapter of this thesis is devoted to explaining the author’s original philosophical theory of being “condemned to exist.” Lastly, the third chapter of this thesis considers the legal and military consequences of the theory.Item Cui Bono: The Looming Contradiction Between Empire and Democracy(2006-05) Forrest, Ryan JefferyDuring the last five years, America has embarked on its final trek to global domination. The anxiously anticipated final trek began with acts of terror committed on American soil that brought about drastic changes in domestic security, set precedent for preemptive, preventative, or precautionary warfare, and reinvigorated the movement to dominate space. The motif of the acts of terror was exploited to garner fear and brandish power by haughtily making vulnerable an American working population. In the dawn of the twenty-first century, America fought wars of global domination. Though officially fought for liberation and the furtherance of democracy, the wars paradoxically stunted both. The leaders of empire, after the deaths of three thousand people in New York City, glutted their public with liberty-defying legislation and smothered disruptive protectorate states with carpet and saturation bombing, realizing imperial objectives without achieving the publicly pronounced aims of the wars. The trek to global domination was not an inevitable consequence of democratic pluralism, but rather the product of two and a quarter centuries of imperial ambition. This brief text will give a between-the-lines historical analysis of double-standard imperial policy coupled with shrewd North American statesmanship from the early seventeenth century to the present-day.Item Demonic Sídhe: The Fabrication of Christian Hell in Medieval Pagan Irish Texts(2022-12) Connelly, Kaitlin; Mikles, Natasha; Boucher, TriciaAll extant records of Irish pagan beliefs pre-Catholicism were written by Catholic monks, which has led to unreliable and conflicting tales that paint a fuzzy picture of what was believed. This paper aims to clarify this confusion on the topic of hell and the demonization of the sídhe (Irish fae) within several original texts including Lebor Gábala Érenn, Lebor na hUidre, and the Book of Leinster. Through a combination of cultural, textual, and linguistic analysis, I argue these tales were altered, presenting the sídhe as demonic, the Otherworld as hellish, and rewriting the sídhe as the Tuatha Dé Danann, a race of magical humans. The intention behind these alterations was to bring Irish beliefs within the sacred canopy of Catholicism, fitting them into contemporary Catholic history and theology to encourage conversion.Item Education for Hire: A Critique of the Business/Corporate Model of Higher Education(2013-08) Chumbley, Cody KeithNo abstract prepared.Item Emotional Intelligence for the Culinary Industry: Perspectives of Community College Instructors Participating in a Collaborative Inquiry Project(2024-05) Ortiz, Richard; Larrotta, Clarena; Bohonos, Jeremy W.; Coryell, Joellen E.; Guajardo, Miguel A.This qualitative descriptive case study documents the experiences of culinary instructors furthering their learning of emotional intelligence fundamentals. Research participants included a total of 6 participants. The study was implemented as a collaborative inquiry project and was guided by the experiential learning cycle. The research questions guiding the study were: (1) What can culinary instructors gain from participating in a collaborative inquiry project focusing on emotional intelligence fundamentals? (2) How do they describe their learning experiences and understanding of emotional intelligence? (3) How does participation in this project impact curriculum planning and instructor’s views to promote change? Data collection sources included an online questionnaire, a 3-hour emotional intelligence workshop, three collaborative sessions, a group interview, participant written reflections, field notes, and the research journal. Creswell and Poth’s (2018) data analysis spiral served as the method for data analysis. Study findings are presented in three chapters under participant profiles, participant’s learning experiences and understanding of emotional intelligence, and impact on curriculum planning. This study highlights the important role that EI fundamentals play in the professional lives of culinary educators as they train and build relationships with their students, the next generation of food service professionals.Item Encouraging Change: Transformative Learning, Holarchy, Epiphany, and the Shepherd(2011-12) Hill, J. DeVere; Hanks, J. Craig; Lopes, Vicente; Luizzi, Vincent; McKinney, Audrey; Reardon, Robert F.No abstract prepared.Item Environmental Ethics and Urban Permaculture in Central Texas(2013-11) Samples, Katelyn M.; McKinney, Audrey; Smith, Chad; Benedikt, AmelieHuman activities are causing vast environmental degradation around the globe at unsustainable rates. It is more imperative now than ever that we create sustainable societies that can coincide harmoniously with the natural environment. The dominant social paradigm views nature as resources for human consumption, but this paper argues that there are ethical human activities that challenge the mainstream ways of interacting with the natural environment. Environmental ethics is a subject advancing different ethical human-nature relationships. This thesis explores environmental ethics held by permaculture practitioners. Permaculture is a specific type of sustainable agriculture that focuses on using a system’s thinking approach to designing gardens that emphasize biodiversity and locally-adapted, edible perennial plants, as well as maximizing energy efficiency. Permaculture also contains embedded ethics of Earth Care, People Care, and Fair Share. Since permaculture is ‘site- specific,' this paper examines the environmental ethics held by permaculture practitioners. It also explores the potential of urban permaculture in Central Texas. Through interviewing permaculture practitioners of Central Texas, four main environmental ethics emerged, which are: social ecology, deep ecology, Aldo Leopold’s land ethic, and sustainability ethics. Many permaculture practitioners blurred the distinction between these ethics, while some aligned more closely with one ethic over another. Permaculture in and of itself embodies environmental ethics, and for the interviewees in this study, their ethical practice of permaculture influenced other aspects of their lives, not just gardening techniques. Practitioners also exemplified great hope for urban permaculture and felt that with the right amount of support, permaculture could become a more widespread practice. This paper also proposes some policy implications for implementing permaculture on a wider scale.
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