RSS 1.0Philosophy electronic theses and dissertations (MU)
The items in this collection are the theses and Department of Philosophy. Some items may be viewed only by members of the University of Missouri System and/or University of Missouri-Columbia. Click on one of the browse buttons above for a complete listing of the works.
Items in MOspace are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.
Recent Submissions
-
A revised Hobbesian argument for conflict among humans
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2023)Thomas Hobbes believed that a state of nature (that is, a state without a society) is a miserable condition for humans because human individuals have a natural inclination to fight each other. In addition, Hobbes argued ... -
Standing and status : a dissertation on the necessary and sufficient conditions for moral standing and an analysis of moral status
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2023)Moral standing is the property by which an entity is considered to be capable of being wronged or is morally considerable. For example, when I kick a rock, I do not do anything wrong, nor is the rock wronged. On the other ... -
Obligations and indeterminism: a challenge for dominance act utilitarianism
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2020)[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI-COLUMBIA AT REQUEST OF AUTHOR.] This paper is an investigation into an area of philosophical logic called deontic logic. More specifically, this paper is a critical evaluation ... -
Evident yet opaque: a defense of the evaluative normativity of logic
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2022)[EMBARGOED UNTIL 8/1/2023] 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 ... -
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 ... -
An investigation of aesthetic appreciation
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2022)[EMBARGOED UNTIL 5/31/2023] 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 ... -
Gold star motherhood: spectacle, emotion, and identity construction
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2022)This dissertation analyzes experiences of gold star mothers, spectacles of grief, grief politics, organizational embeddedness, and the use of discourses in sense making and social identity mapping of valor revolving around ... -
Authoritatively speaking : a speech pragmatic analysis of authority and power
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2021)A speaker needs authority to perform some speech acts, such as giving orders. A paradigm example of this is when a manager orders their employee to take out the trash; ordinarily, these words will give the employee a ... -
Naturalizing epistemology : reconsidering quine and nietzsche
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2019)[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT REQUEST OF AUTHOR.] This dissertation argues for ways to construct a more viable normative epistemology--the part of epistemology that focuses on normative notions such ... -
Why preferences can be optional
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2020)[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT REQUEST OF AUTHOR.] In practical deliberation, your aim should not always only be to promote objective goodness. Rather, I argue, you should use your own practical ... -
Citizenship goes to the dogs
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2020)The conclusion I defend is that "domestic animals" have a moral claim to what I refer to as "basic citizenship rights," and that they do so for the same reason that "non-autonomous humans" do. I define each of these key ... -
Defending an indirect normativity of belief
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2019)In this dissertation, I seek to answer the following questions: is there such a thing as deontic epistemic normativity -- obligations, permissions, and prohibitions to act in a certain way based on epistemic grounds -- and ... -
The consciousness of visual experience
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2018)[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT AUTHOR'S REQUEST.] "This monograph mainly concerns two distinctive features of visual experience. First, visual experience has its own phenomenal dimension. Following the ... -
Preventing unjust wars, and lesser aggresson
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2018)[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT AUTHOR'S REQUEST.] This dissertation addresses two issues in the philosophy of war: the prevention of unjust wars, and the moral justification of lethal defense against ... -
Preventing unjust wars, and lesser aggresson
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2018)[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT AUTHOR'S REQUEST.] This dissertation addresses two issues in the philosophy of war: the prevention of unjust wars, and the moral justification of lethal defense against ... -
Clarifying relational egalitarianism
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2018)[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT AUTHOR'S REQUEST.] I clarify the nature of relational egalitarianism, a theory in political philosophy that concerns equality. Relational egalitarians understand equality ... -
Skill-based reliabilism
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2014) -
Examining the nature of epistemic value
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2018) -
Resisting the nudge
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2018)"Behavioral scientists have discovered that people predictably behave in ways unlike perfectly rational agents or utility maximizers. For example, it has been found that when people make choices, the degree to which they ... -
Three studies in the philosophy of jazz
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2018)[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT AUTHOR'S REQUEST.] This dissertation comprises three studies which in turn discuss jazz ontology, jazz improvisation, and the question of whether jazz has ended as an ...