Browsing College of Arts and Sciences (MU) by Thesis Department "Philosophy (MU)"
Now showing items 21-40 of 81
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Determinism : as the ground of moral faith
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 1911)Determinism is a theory about the occurring of events, or the existing of Phenomena: and I interpret the theory to mean that all events, all phenomena, occur or exist in a state of necessary dependence on other Phenomena. ... -
The division of moral labor : prospects, problems and progress in examining the moral status/social category relationship
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2015)[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT REQUEST OF AUTHOR.] This thesis outlines a theoretical framework that yields testable predictions concerning how social categorization impacts moral regard. According to ... -
Enlarging the possibility space for scientific model-based explanation
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2022)Two prominent views in the scientific explanation literature are: (1) that scientific explanations should be ontic or track causal or constitutive relations between the explanans and explanandum; (2) Idealizations in ... -
Epistemic democracy and political legitimacy
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2015)My dissertation aims to answer two questions: (1) Is democracy epistemically valuable? (2) Is the epistemic value of democracy, if it has any, necessary for justifying its legitimacy? I argue that democracy in certain form ... -
Epistemic duties and blameworthiness for belief
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2014)People sometimes believe things they shouldn't. Tommy believes in Santa Claus, Rev. Jones believes that the world is ending, and Adolf believes that some ethnic groups are superior to others. But are they somehow at fault ... -
Epistemic virtue and knowledge attribution
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2015)[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT REQUEST OF AUTHOR.] What factors influence whether we may rightly attribute knowledge to a subject? It is uncontroversial that factors like whether a subject has a given ... -
The epistemology of group agents
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2018)[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT AUTHOR'S REQUEST.] "The ultimate foci of this dissertation are group belief and justified group belief. As we will see, many models of both concepts have been proposed, ... -
An essay on the burden of proof
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2017)This essay answers two questions: what is a burden of proof, and when is it reasonable to assign a burden of proof? After showing the importance of how we answer these questions, it uses the Western legal tradition as the ... -
Etiological teleosemantics and theories of nonconceptual content
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2014)[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT AUTHOR'S REQUEST.] Within the philosophy of mind, discourse regarding the relation between human thought and its objects refers to ‘intentional content’, the information ... -
Evaluation of swat-terrace performance for simulating the benefits of terraces on runoff and erosion
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2016)[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT AUTHOR'S REQUEST.] Terracing is a conservation practice to reduce erosion and intercept runoff from steep lands. Terraces control erosion and runoff by dividing long ... -
Evident yet opaque: a defense of the evaluative normativity of logic
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2022)The research in this dissertation concerns the philosophy of logic. More specifically, it concerns the normative status of deductive logic. Many philosophers and logicians have thought that logic tells us how we ought to ... -
Examining the nature of epistemic value
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2018) -
Explanation for the cognitively bounded : psychology and the pragmatics of explanation /
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2016)[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT AUTHOR'S REQUEST.] People consume, construct, and desire explanations. When our cars break down, hear strange noises in our homes, or a machine won't work, we want to ... -
Home aestheticus : species being and the struggle for existence
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2007)[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT REQUEST OF AUTHOR.] In this paper, I argue for the homo aestheticus thesis - the claim that our species nature is that of artistic producer and consumer; that this nature ... -
The idealism of Kant
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 1912)The philosophy of Kant is undoubtedly one of the most stubborn and daring attempts of the mundane mind to furnish a true account of its own knowledge. This philosophy, both on account of its teachings and through its ... -
If matter matters : navigating the moral implications of panpsychism
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2015)When you gaze at a sunset or taste a peach, there is a subjective feel to be had. This subjective "feel" is referred to as the qualitative character of experience. My goal is to argue that a certain ontological theory of ... -
Intuitions and adequate philosophical solutions
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2008)Philosophical investigation relies on intuition; among other things, intuitions are used to discover problems and intuitions are used to provide solutions to those problems. I provide an analysis of three kinds of philosophical ... -
An investigation of aesthetic appreciation
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2022)This dissertation comprises three papers in investigating the essential topics around aesthetic appreciation. The first paper examines George Dickie's Institutional theory on defining artworks and challenges his theory by ... -
A justified system of intellectual property rights
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2007)I argue that weak type-protection is the form our legal intellectual property rights should take. Other intellectual property regimes - specifically, strong type-protection (like that of our current American patent system) ... -
Justifying war : an account of just and merely justifying causes for war
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2012)[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT AUTHOR'S REQUEST.] My project is to offer a new answer to the traditional question: What can justify the resort to war? I defend substantive accounts of the Just Cause ...