Philosophy Theses and Dissertations
Browse by
Click one of the Browse This Collection buttons at the right for a complete listing of the contents of this collection.
This collection contains some of the theses and dissertations produced by students in the University of Oregon Philosophy Graduate Program. Paper copies of these and other dissertations and theses are available through the UO Libraries.
For help submitting to this collection, please consult the Resource Page for Students.
For more Philosophy Theses and Dissertations, click here.
Recent Submissions
-
Pack, Justin (University of Oregon, February 23, 2016)[more][less]Mann, Bonnie Pack, Justin 2016-02-24T00:33:17Z 2016-02-24T00:33:17Z 2016-02-23 http://hdl.handle.net/1794/19727 In my dissertation, I argue that the neoliberalization of higher education results in the university becoming less and less a place of wonder, self-cultivation and thinking and instead more and more a place to specialize, strategize and produce. This is a result of the volatile infusion and mixing of the logic of calculative rationality at work in consumer capitalism with the logic of scientific instrumental rationality already hegemonic in academia. This adds to the demands of the academic world of production the demands of the world of consumption. Now the academic (and also the student) is interpellated not only as a producer of knowledge but also as an object of consumption (to be consumed by others). These new pressures, previously kept at a distance from academia, explosively accelerate the already rapid process of rationalization of which science is already a key part and increasingly structure higher education as a field of strategic action in which students no longer have the time to think and to develop good judgment. I worry this undermines the opportunity for students to develop into good citizens that can truly think critically and judge carefully. Thinking and judgment are, according to Arendt, the only things that can save us if the powerful machines of science or capitalism begin to work in ways they should not. Arendt saw Nazi Germany use the newest science and the best economic management to systematically kill six million Jews. She saw the disturbing inability of the populace and the intellectuals to capably resist the Nazi machine once it got rolling. I argue than unless checked, neoliberalization threatens to turn the university into a place that discourages thinking and the development of judgment in favor of hyperspecialization and strategic action. en_US University of Oregon All Rights Reserved. Hannah Arendt Neoliberalism Research University Thoughtlessness Academics No Longer Think: How the Neoliberalization of Academia Leads to Thoughtlessness Electronic Thesis or Dissertation Ph.D. doctoral Department of Philosophy University of Oregon
-
Parzuchowski, Kimberley (University of Oregon, February 23, 2016)[more][less]Johnson, Mark Parzuchowski, Kimberley 2016-02-24T00:31:27Z 2016-02-24T00:31:27Z 2016-02-23 http://hdl.handle.net/1794/19722 My dissertation explores the role of narrative in the cultivation of empathy for ethical attitudes and behaviors. I begin by exploring an uncommon view of human nature, concluding that we are not autonomously individualistic rational deciders but ultrasocial moral intuitionists. Our intuitions are developed through our social engagements and the moral imagination. Intersubjective relations run deep in our psychology and provide the basis by which we shape the meaning of our lives as individuals in communities. It is because of this that we need to reconsider and redesign our moral cultivation programs both for the child-rearing years and throughout adult life. I look at empathy, the means of our mutual understanding, care, and help, as a key site for moral cultivation. I explicate the neurophysiological bases of empathy, both conscious and unconscious. Empathy is on the continuum with very primitive, automatic mirroring systems, which through varying levels of mimicry facilitate social cognition and moral insight and action. It is thus the ideal means of cultivating a skillful morality. Empathy enables us to enter the worlds and feelings of others in rich and full-bodied ways and so can reveal others in their full subjectivity. Such experiences can incite empathic regard and compassionate action, but empathy, like all of our psycho-social capacities, requires cultivation to develop its skillfulness in practice. Narrative is an obvious means of cultivating empathy because it is humanity’s primary meaning-making structure, utilizing the empathic imagination to seduce us into the inner worlds of others. Through narrative dramatizations of experience, we learn to see and feel from another’s point of view, sensitizing us to their inner states and outward behavior. Such sensitivity can facilitate improving our moral attitudes and action by dislodging preoccupation with self-concern and instigating higher regard for others. In narratives we can imaginatively practice various moral actions, witnessing possible results. Reflective engagement can then bring the moral insights of these imaginative experiences to life in our practical worlds by attuning us to what is morally salient. Narrative engagement is thus a natural and vital part of shaping empathic moral perception for compassionate action. By reading and feeling with others reflectively, we can expand empathy for the pluralistic communities in which we live, make meaning, and grow. en_US University of Oregon All Rights Reserved. Empathy Intersubjectivity Mirror Neurons Moral Imagination Moral Perception Narrative The Enchantment of Ethics: Empathy, Character, and the Art of Moral Living Electronic Thesis or Dissertation Ph.D. doctoral Department of Philosophy University of Oregon
-
Southall, Joel (University of Oregon, August 18, 2015)[more][less]Pratt, Scott Southall, Joel 2015-08-18T23:13:45Z 2015-08-18T23:13:45Z 2015-08-18 http://hdl.handle.net/1794/19344 This thesis provides a view of Deloria's thoughts on science and metaphysics, presenting his criticism of Western science and of his proposed alternative to what he presents as a historically evidenced epistemic attitude of exclusion. Deloria refers to Thomas Kuhn and Paul Feyerabend, suggesting that the institution of Western science operates according to a paradigm that is both very different from that of traditional Indigenous knowledge practice and fundamentally exclusionary. A potential of communication between Western science and Indigenous knowledge is possible through paradigm shifts as well as through reference to epistemic anarchy. My presentation of Deloria's description of Indigenous metaphysics includes an account of an agential ontology and place-grounded epistemology with reference to Daniel R. Wildcat, Baruch Spinoza, Scott L. Pratt, and others. Ultimately, Deloria breaks with Feyerabend's epistemological anarchy in light of our contemporary environmental predicament and advocates a more restrained, relational epistemology. en_US University of Oregon All Rights Reserved. Deloria epistemology Indigenous Native Metaphysics Spinoza Western science Situating Vine Deloria, Jr.'s Philosophy of Science Electronic Thesis or Dissertation M.A. masters Department of Philosophy University of Oregon
-
Reese, David (University of Oregon, August 18, 2015)[more][less]Mann, Bonnie Reese, David 2015-08-18T23:13:39Z 2015-08-18T23:13:39Z 2015-08-18 http://hdl.handle.net/1794/19343 Using the 2014 State of the Union Address as an example, I show that the public honoring of physically wounded veterans hides the emotional, psychological, social, and moral wounds of military service, creating a normative veteran identity based on mental toughness, and essentializes all veterans as honorable by default. Using Michel Foucault’s notion of Panopticism from <i>Discipline and Punish</i>, I argue that this unquestioned heroism of the veteran disciplines the nation, disengages the population from involvement, and enables unchecked, perpetual war. In response, I propose that we avoid thanking veterans publicly and abstractly, instead approaching each and every veteran personally in full recognition of their unique set of relations. This would improve veteran reintegration, politically engage the population in discourse regarding military conflict, and ultimately serve as a check on the use of state violence. en_US University of Oregon All Rights Reserved. Foucault Ideology Military Neoliberalism Political Philosophy Veterans Regulation of Bodies as Gendered Nationalistic Ideology: Physically Wounded Veterans as Political Props Electronic Thesis or Dissertation M.A. masters Department of Philosophy University of Oregon
-
Brewer, Benjamin (University of Oregon, August 18, 2015)[more][less]Vallega-Neu, Daniela Brewer, Benjamin 2015-08-18T23:11:22Z 2015-08-18T23:11:22Z 2015-08-18 http://hdl.handle.net/1794/19323 This essay explores the possibilities for thinking of the body as a site of exposure to and commingling with the world. I begin with Martin Heidegger’s engagement with the question of poetry as an encounter with the non-conceptual dimension of experience (earth). I then show how the disclosure of this non-conceptual dimension of experience in poetry requires an irreducibly bodily form of thought and experience. In the second chapter, I turn to the work of Georges Bataille in order to explore the bodily experiences and meditative practices he developed in the decades around and during World War II. First, I examine his writings concerning eroticism and laughter to show how these bodily experiences exceed conceptual determination and explanation. Lastly, I look at Bataille’s appropriation of medieval mystic Angela of Foligno’s practice of stigmatic meditation as a discipline of bodily exposure. en_US University of Oregon All Rights Reserved. Bataille Body Heidegger Mysticism Philosophy Poetry Poetry and Ecstasy: Thinking Bodily with Heidegger and Bataille Electronic Thesis or Dissertation M.A. masters Department of Philosophy University of Oregon
-
Reynolds, Alan (University of Oregon, August 18, 2015)[more][less]Koopman, Colin Reynolds, Alan 2015-08-18T23:09:01Z 2015-08-18T23:09:01Z 2015-08-18 http://hdl.handle.net/1794/19303 Much of contemporary mainstream political philosophy operates under the assumption that if reasonable people deliberate about matters of basic justice in the right conditions, agreement will emerge. This assumption implies that although reasonable people will likely disagree about private matters concerning the nature of the good life, they will nonetheless agree about public matters of justice. I reject this assumption, and in this dissertation I argue that reasonable people are likely to experience deep and persistent disagreements about matters of basic justice. I concede that there are some domains of justice where broad agreement has been achieved in modern democratic societies, namely those concerning the scope and content of civil and political liberties. However, when it comes to the scope and content of economic liberties, there is little agreement to be had. This is because reasonable people can be committed to radically different premises about matters of basic justice as well as the fact that basic agreed-upon concepts can be interpreted and interconnected in significantly different ways. Even in ideal theory, then, where we restrict ourselves to idealized reasonable people, rational consensus is not a feasible goal on certain core matters of justice. From here, I turn to the realm of non-ideal deliberation about justice and explore the difficult problem of rational political ignorance. I further discuss the effects of the Internet on non-ideal political deliberation, and I look at the ways in which online deliberation can fuel normal cognitive biases and deepen political polarization. I argue that matters of economic justice are characterized by both moral pluralism and epistemic complexity, both of which tend to be downplayed within the deliberative enclaves that proliferate on the Internet. How are we to deal with these problems of political disagreement and polarization? To help answer this question, I turn to the tradition of American pragmatism, and especially the writings of William James, to suggest a re-orientation of political philosophy away from the assumption of rational consensus and toward a more humble, but more constructive, vision in which the philosopher attempts to fashion new ideals that might help overcome currently entrenched disagreements. en_US University of Oregon All Rights Reserved. capitalism justice liberalism pluralism pragmatism The Perils of Pluralism: An Exploration of the Nature of Political Disagreements about Economic Justice Electronic Thesis or Dissertation Ph.D. doctoral Department of Philosophy University of Oregon
-
Burke, Megan (University of Oregon, August 18, 2015)[more][less]Mann, Bonnie Burke, Megan 2015-08-18T23:03:38Z 2015-08-18 http://hdl.handle.net/1794/19262 This dissertation examines how gender and temporality are co-constitutive of one another and what temporalities underlie the actuality of gendered life. I weave together the insights of feminist phenomenology and feminist poststructuralism in order to argue that temporality produces and constrains the actuality of lived gender as racialized, heterosexist, and cissexist. More specifically, I argue that this is done through sexual violence. Ultimately, I suggest that the temporality of sexual violence is encrusted into the dominant configurations of gender and into the bodily life of gendered subjects solidifying what gendered subjectivity can become. en_US University of Oregon All Rights Reserved. Embodiment Feminist Philosophy Phenomenology Queer Theory Sexual Violence Temporality Gender and Time Electronic Thesis or Dissertation 10000-01-01 Ph.D. doctoral Department of Philosophy University of Oregon
-
Fourlas, George (University of Oregon, October 17, 2014)[more][less]Zack, Naomi Fourlas, George 2014-10-17T16:13:17Z 2014-10-17T16:13:17Z 2014-10-17 http://hdl.handle.net/1794/18506 Divisiveness routinely turns violent, thus making research into alternative means of dealing with conflict an urgent necessity. This dissertation focuses on the politics of divisiveness and the techniques of conflict transformation. In this, I offer a robust and operable theory of reconciliation. I argue that reconciliation is the first principle of justice. In this sense, the ideal of justice is enacted through the improvement and coordination of social-political relations, which requires the development of trust and institutions that facilitate the ever emergent demos. This is not to suggest that alternative approaches to justice, such as distributive models, are useless or wrong. Rather, justice requires a consensus which cannot be realized when persons see their neighbors as enemies. In conflicts, activities that benefit the enemy Other, such as the redistribution of wealth, will be taken as an injustice by other embattled social groups. As I demonstrate through various cases, interpersonal and institutional responses, like redistribution, often escalate discord and rarely create a shared sense of justice. Thus, conflict becomes a cyclical and multilevel problem. I explore how we can better respond to the cycle of conflict at individual, social, and systemic levels, in order to realize a legitimate notion of justice. I use an interdisciplinary approach to defend my arguments, drawing on iv philosophy and conflict resolution (CR). CR is an emerging field that emphasizes practical responses to conflict, often with advocacy for reconciliation. However, more theoretical work needs to be done to explain the ideal of reconciliation that directs CR practices. Within philosophy, little work has been done on the topic of reconciliation. A vast literature exists on the topic of justice, but this literature offers few practical descriptions of how persons come to agree upon the terms of justice. Thus, theories of justice are often labeled as 'ideal' simply because they are disconnected from the fragmented and conflict-ridden reality most people experience. This dissertation, as a project in non-ideal political theory that is empirically informed by cases and concerns in CR, fills these gaps in both philosophy and CR. en_US University of Oregon All Rights Reserved. Conflict Transformation Critical Theory Ethics Justice Political Theory Reconciliation Justice As Reconciliation: Political Theory in a World of Difference Electronic Thesis or Dissertation Ph.D. doctoral Department of Philosophy University of Oregon
-
Grosz, Elizabeth (University of Oregon, September 29, 2014)[more][less]Stawarska, Beata Grosz, Elizabeth 2014-09-29T17:53:15Z 2014-09-29T17:53:15Z 2014-09-29 http://hdl.handle.net/1794/18428 This dissertation examines relational models of selfhood cross-culturally through the work of G. W. F. Hegel, Simone de Beauvoir, and Nishida Kitarō. In the master-slave section of the Phenomenology of Spirit, Hegel states that the self becomes aware of itself only through the presence of the Other. In this encounter, consciousness discovers that the Other can be a source of recognition (Anerkennung). I turn to the work of Beauvoir and Nishida because they further develop Hegel's notion of recognition through their insistence that the face-to-face relationship that incites self-knowledge is mediated by social-historical events and discourses. Fundamentally, they make Hegel's notion of recognition more concrete, thus giving the reader of the master-slave dialectic an idea of the broader implications of Hegel's view. While Nishida uses few examples to illustrate the determinacy of the historical field of relations, Beauvoir's The Second Sex is full of such descriptions, thus offering the reader of Nishida an illustration of the "historical world" that includes dimensions of constituted and constituting forces. Nishida's metaphor of the self as a place of interaction, or basho, in turn, is useful to the reader of Beauvoir who attempts to picture a self that is a project "toward the other." Moreover, their discussions of agency are weighted toward the perspective of the self in the case of Beauvoir and toward the side of the world for Nishida. Ultimately, this difference can be viewed as grounding the distinct ways in which the authors conceive of ethics. Lastly, both authors attribute ethical action to self-surpassing. However, for Beauvoir, the surpassing of one's individuality leads to the transformation of self-other relations through the mutual recognition of freedom, while Nishida's self-surpassing entails seeking a new locus of ethical action, i.e. absolute nothingness. en_US University of Oregon All Rights Reserved. G. W. F. Hegel intersubjectivity Nishida Kitaro relation self Simone de Beauvoir The Vulnerability of the Relational Self: G. W. F. Hegel, Simone de Beauvoir, and Nishida Kitarō Meet Patty Hearst Electronic Thesis or Dissertation Ph.D. doctoral Department of Philosophy University of Oregon
-
Schultz, Lucy (University of Oregon, September 29, 2014)[more][less]Toadvine, Ted Schultz, Lucy 2014-09-29T17:46:40Z 2014-09-29T17:46:40Z 2014-09-29 http://hdl.handle.net/1794/18371 This dissertation defends the need for a renewed conception of nature as seen through the lens of an artist. By exploring how the relationship between art and nature has been conceived by 19th and 20th century European and Japanese philosophers (including Kant, Hegel, Schelling, Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, Nishida, and Watsuji), I offer a way of thinking about artistic expression that recognizes the active, expressive character of artistic media and, more broadly, nature itself. Through an analysis of the embodied foundations of artistic creation, I develop a non-subjectivist account of expression that incorporates the climatic milieu. I maintain that the continuity between the embodied self and its life-world implies that the origin of creativity exceeds the will of the individual. This, in turn, implies that nature and the material on which art draws are expressive. According to this view, nature is not an indifferent realm of "mere" material and chemical processes distinct from the domain of culture and meaning. Rather, it is a creative climate from which the artist draws and to which the artist contributes. In conclusion, I maintain that this view has the potential to inform a more sustainable and ethically sound attitude towards the natural world. en_US University of Oregon All Rights Reserved. Aesthetics Creativity Nature Creative Climate: East-West Perspectives on Art, Nature, and the Expressive Body Electronic Thesis or Dissertation Ph.D. doctoral Department of Philosophy University of Oregon
-
Rodriguez, Aaron (University of Oregon, September 29, 2014)[more][less]Johnson, Mark Rodriguez, Aaron 2014-09-29T17:43:43Z 2014-09-29T17:43:43Z 2014-09-29 http://hdl.handle.net/1794/18345 Immanuel Kant's claim that morality is a matter of rational judgment is perhaps the apotheosis of a tradition within ethical philosophy that sought certainty with regards to how one ought to live or what one should to do in any given situation. Although this strand still lingers in various guises in contemporary moral philosophy, pragmatism has set itself up as a response to this quest for ethical certainty. Yet, with its anti-absolutist commitments, pragmatist approaches to ethics struggle with the articulation of a prescriptive moral philosophy. Virtue ethics, however, with its focus on the general dispositions of agents, suggests itself as a viable model for a normative pragmatist moral theory. Moreover, in moving away from the view that moral progress is a form of knowledge-acquisition, pragmatist ethics opens the door for a host of possible influences for our ethical development. In this dissertation, I argue that aesthetic experience, as elicited by the work of art, can significantly inform our ethical lives by cultivating in us what I consider to be the cardinal pragmatist virtue, openness. For, not only does this disposition, which John Dewey describes as a “hospitality towards the new” and a “willingness to be affected by experience,” prove salutary in regards to the pursuits of individual flourishing and social melioration, but one can also construct a system of norms and values upon it while not contradicting pragmatism's anti-absolutist commitments. Engagements with art can help foster this virtue, I argue, because the work of art helps unsettle the conceptual systems of interpretation we often over-rely on in moral inquiry, and thus expands our horizons of possibility for human meaning and action. en_US University of Oregon All Rights Reserved. The Echo of God's Laughter: Aesthetic Experience and the Virtue of Openness within a Pragmatist Ethics Electronic Thesis or Dissertation Ph.D. doctoral Department of Philosophy University of Oregon
-
Temam, Edgar (University of Oregon, September 29, 2014)[more][less]Zack, Naomi Temam, Edgar 2014-09-29T17:38:43Z 2014-09-29T17:38:43Z 2014-09-29 http://hdl.handle.net/1794/18310 "Might makes right," so the saying goes. What does this mean? What does it mean to say that humans live by this saying? How can this saying that is considered by almost all as an expression of injustice play a justificatory role practically universally and ubiquitously? How can it be repulsive and yet, nonetheless, attractive as an explanation of the ways of the world? Why its long history? I offer a non-cynical explanation, one based on a re-interpretation of the saying and of both recognized and unrecognized related phenomena. This re-interpretation relies on the notion of a tacit justification for violence. This non-cynical, re-interpretive explanation exposes the ambiguity of the saying and the consequential unwitting, self-deceptive, fallacious equivocations that the ambiguity makes possible under common conditions. While this explanation, furthermore, focuses on thinking factors--specifically on fallacious thinking, on humans' unwittingly and self-deceptively committing the fallacy of equivocation--it does not deny the possible role of non-thinking factors; it only tries to show that the thinking factors are significantly explanatory. What is the ambiguity? "Might makes right" expresses two principles. The first principle is the common meaning, namely, that the dominance of the mightier over the weaker is right. This principle is generally considered to be not a definition of justice but an expression of injustice. The second principle, which is almost universally shared in a tacit and unreflective way, is a principle of life, namely, that it is right for any living being to actualize its potential. This second principle is originary and thus primary, while the first principle is derivative and thus secondary. The use of all powers, natural or social, can be ultimately derived legitimately or illegitimately from this primary principle. A common manifestation of "might makes right" is the unwitting abuse of power, an abuse that is not recognized as such by the so-called abuser, but that is rather suffered by this latter, who misapplies the second principle in situations that fall under the first principle, thereby unwittingly living by the saying, tacitly justifying abusive ways by it. This unwittingness calls for critical control and forgiveness. en_US University of Oregon All Rights Reserved. critical thinking endoxa fallacy of equivocation justice non-cynical explanation nonviolence The "MIght Makes Right" Fallacy: On a Tacit Justification for Violence Electronic Thesis or Dissertation Ph.D. doctoral Department of Philosophy University of Oregon
-
Lipkind, Hanna (University of Oregon, June 17, 2014)[more][less]Mann, Bonnie Lipkind, Hanna 2014-06-17T19:41:39Z 2014-06-17T19:41:39Z 2014-06-17 http://hdl.handle.net/1794/17910 This thesis takes up the debate between the agonal and deliberative interpretations of Hannah Arendt's conception of political action. In it, I redeem the model of action as performance found in her descriptions of agonal politics and pull emphasis away from the deliberative model of communicative action on the basis of Arendt's ontology of temporality and her account of the witnessing and judging spectatorship that preserves the meaningfulness of human events against oblivion. I find the danger of this loss of meaning accounted for by the agonal model in the syncopated relationship between spectator and actor. The deliberative model of communicative action, however, collapses the roles of actor and spectator into the uniform role of participant and replaces experiential grounds of legitimacy with atemporal rational grounds. Communicative action is unable to account for the public realm as a space of endurance and skirts the ontological stakes of Arendt's agonal politics. en_US University of Oregon All Rights Reserved. Between Performance and Participation: The Time of Action in Hannah Arendt Electronic Thesis or Dissertation M.A. masters Department of Philosophy University of Oregon
-
Luttrell, Johanna (University of Oregon, October 10, 2013)[more][less]Zack, Naomi Luttrell, Johanna 2013-10-10T23:19:21Z 2013-10-10T23:19:21Z 2013-10-10 http://hdl.handle.net/1794/13425 This dissertation is a philosophical inquiry into the problem of the slums that develop in and around large cities in the Global South, considered in the context of globalization. I argue first that theories of global justice must consider this new human condition engendered by the global slums; second, that the language of alienation and dignity is crucial to conceptions of global poverty; third, that this alienation is in large part predicated on the exploitation of women's labor; and finally, that this dignitarian response to alienation is a critical addition to the Capabilities Approach. en_US University of Oregon All Rights Reserved. Dignity Gender Global Justice Poverty Gender, Alienation, and Dignity in Global Slums Electronic Thesis or Dissertation Ph.D. doctoral Department of Philosophy University of Oregon
-
Lundquist, Caroline (University of Oregon, October 3, 2013)[more][less]Johnson, Mark Lundquist, Caroline 2013-10-03T23:38:16Z 2013-10-03T23:38:16Z 2013-10-03 http://hdl.handle.net/1794/13341 My dissertation explores the promise of kindness as a response to the problem of luck which confronts both ancient and modern visions of the moral life. A rich articulation of kindness in the light of historical moral theory reveals that, far from being a trifling, merely and purely sentimental phenomenon, kindness involves many of the key ethical commitments that distinguish both Aristotelian ethics and Kantian morality. More importantly, at the level of individuals kindness has the power to mitigate the toll of bad luck on agents and to yield the types of judgments that dissolve the problem of moral luck. Where it finds expression at the institutional level kindness has tremendous ameliorative potential. I therefore contend that kindness is to be esteemed above all other modes of comportment; in a world that is not up to us, our greatest hope for flourishing lies in being kind and in remaining graciously open to the kindness of others. en_US University of Oregon All Rights Reserved. fragility kindness moral luck Impossible and Necessary: The Problem of Luck and the Promise of Kindness Electronic Thesis or Dissertation Ph.D. doctoral Department of Philosophy University of Oregon
-
Parks, Daniel (University of Oregon, October 3, 2013)[more][less]Raymer, Michael Parks, Daniel 2013-10-03T23:30:11Z 2013-10-03T23:30:11Z 2013-10-03 http://hdl.handle.net/1794/13221 The advent of highly-coherent x-ray light sources, such as those now available world-wide in modern third-generation synchrotrons and increasingly available in free-electron lasers, is driving the need for improved analytical and experimental techniques which exploit the coherency of the generated light. As the light illuminating a sample approaches full coherence, a simple Fourier transform describes the diffraction pattern generated by the scattered light in the far field; because the Fourier transform of an object is unique, coherent scattering can directly probe local structure in the scattering object instead of bulk properties. In this dissertation, we exploit the coherence of Advanced Light Source beamline 12.0.2 to build three types of novel coherent scattering microscopes. First, we extend the techniques of coherent diffractive imaging and Fourier transform holography, which uses iterative computational methods to invert oversampled coherent speckle patterns, into reflection geometry. This proof-of-principle experiment demonstrates a method by which reflection Bragg peaks, such as those from the orbitally-ordered phase of complex metal oxides, might eventually be imaged. Second, we apply a similar imaging method to the x-ray beam itself to directly image the mutual coherence function with only a single diffraction pattern. This technique supersedes the double-slit experiments commonly seen in the scattering literature to measure the mutual intensity function by using a set of apertures which effectively contains all possible double slit geometries. Third, we show how to evaluate the speckle patterns taken from a labyrinthine domain pattern for "hidden" rotational symmetries. For this measurement, we modify the iterative algorithms used to invert speckle patterns to generate a large number of domain configurations with the same incoherent scattering profile as the candidate pattern and then use these simulations as the basis for a statistical inference of the degree of ordering in the domain configuration. We propose extending this measurement to position-resolved speckle patterns, creating a symmetry-sensitive microscope. The three new techniques described herein may be employed at current and future light sources. en_US University of Oregon All Rights Reserved. coherent scattering fourier optics lensless imaging X-ray Scattering Techniques for Coherent Imaging in Reflection Geometry, Measurement of Mutual Intensity, and Symmetry Determination in Disordered Materials Electronic Thesis or Dissertation Ph.D. doctoral Department of Philosophy University of Oregon
-
Taylor, Patrick (University of Oregon, July 11, 2013)[more][less]Johnson, Mark Taylor, Patrick 2013-07-11T20:12:30Z 2013-07-11T20:12:30Z 2013-07-11 http://hdl.handle.net/1794/12993 The early twentieth century witnessed the emergence of "objective relativism," a distinctly American school of metaphysical realism inspired by the works of John Dewey and A.N. Whitehead. Largely forgotten, objective relativism provided a metaphysical framework, based upon an ontology of events and relations rather than substances and discrete properties, that has continued relevance for contemporary metaphysical discussions. In this thesis, I attempt to chart the boundaries and pathways of this ontology, outlining what Dewey calls the "ground-map of the province of criticism." In particular, the ground-map of objective relativism is invoked to situate and analyze the model of psycho-physical emergence outlined in Dewey's Experience and Nature. Because it is a relational ontology, objective relativism avoids problems with emergence common to substantival models. Additional analyses of its ontological premises, both in Dewey's writings and elsewhere, demonstrate how compelling accounts of causation, consciousness, and meaning may be formulated within this model. en_US University of Oregon All Rights Reserved. American Philosophy John Dewey Objective Relativism Pragmatism Process Philosophy Realism A Pragmatic Realism: Events, Powers, and Relations in the Metaphysics of Objective Relativism Electronic Thesis or Dissertation M.A. masters Department of Philosophy University of Oregon
-
Nail, Thomas (University of Oregon, March , 2011)[more][less]Nail, Thomas 2013-01-08T22:15:11Z 2013-01-08T22:15:11Z 2011-03 http://hdl.handle.net/1794/12569 249 pages We are witnessing today the beginning of a return to and renewal of the theory and practice of political revolution. This return to revolution, however, takes none of the traditional forms: the capture of the state, the political representation of the party, the centrality of the proletariat, or the leadership of the vanguard. Rather, given the failure of such tactics over the last century, coupled with the socio-economic changes brought by neoliberalism in the 1980s, revolutionary strategy has developed in a more heterogenous and non-representational direction. The aim of this dissertation is to map an outline of this new direction by drawing on the theory and practice of two of its main inspirations: French political philosophers Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari and, what the New York Times has called “the first post-modern revolution,” the 1994 Zapatista Uprising in Chiapas, Mexico. The aim of this dissertation is thus threefold. First, I provide a philosophical clarification and outline of a revolutionary strategy that both describes and advances the process of constructing real alternatives to state-capitalism. Second, I focus on three influential and emblematic figures of revolutionary history, mutually disclosive of one another, as well as this larger revolutionary return: Deleuze, Guattari, and the Zapatistas. Third, and more specifically, I propose four novel theoretical practices that characterize this return to revolution: (1) a multi-centered diagnostic of political power; (2) a prefigurative theory of political transformation; (3) a participatory theory of the body politic; and (4) a theory of political belonging based on mutual global solidarity. en_US University of Oregon rights_reserved Deleuze Guattari Political Philosophy Post-structuralism Revolution Zapatista Returning to Revolution: Deleuze, Guattari, and Zapatismo Thesis
-
Caldwell, Elizabeth (University of Oregon, 2012)[more][less]Pratt, Scott Caldwell, Elizabeth Caldwell, Elizabeth 2012-12-07T23:14:51Z 2012-12-07T23:14:51Z 2012 http://hdl.handle.net/1794/12554 This project takes up recent literature exploring intersections between embodiment theory and education research. I bring these literatures together around an interpretation of the concept of growth from John Dewey's work on education, as I argue that this widely debated idea represents a particularly rich concept with respect to this intersection of theory. I interpret his concept of growth as a concept regarding human agency, which I claim is a thoroughly embodied and felt phenomenon (as opposed to a purely rational capacity). In this interpretation, I follow Dewey in claiming that growth is a valuable educational goal, arguing that when read as embodied agency, the concept of growth can be a helpful focus for encouraging the cultivation of students' felt experiences of agency. The project begins by taking up Dewey and his work in the philosophy of education, emphasizing his definition of education as the reconstruction of experience and the ideal of growth as it relates to this reconstruction. I outline Dewey's conceptions of experience as well as his ideas regarding the self, the body-mind, and the relationship between habit and self-constitution. While I claim that Dewey's work offers a rich framework in which to think about growth, agency, and education, I then look to two alternate philosophical perspectives in supplementing his conception of the embodied self. First, I take up the work of Maurice Merleau-Ponty in describing how his phenomenological perspective articulates a method for careful, first-person testimony regarding embodied experience, as this supplements Dewey's view by focusing thematically on how embodied agency is felt and experienced. Second, I take up the work of Michel Foucault in describing how his postmodern perspective articulates a method for deconstructing the social conditions that create contemporary, disciplinary body-subjects, as well as how his later work emphasizes care of the self, projects of self-transformation, and practices of freedom. These thinkers, I argue, can further Dewey's emphasis on growth by providing resources regarding transformation as the unending process of self-creation, exploration, and the expansion of possibilities, which buttress Dewey's idea of growth when interpreted as embodied agency. en_US University of Oregon All Rights Reserved. Embodiment and Agency: The Concept of Growth in John Dewey's Philosophy of Education Electronic Thesis or Dissertation
-
Mendoza, Jose (University of Oregon, 2012)[more][less]Zack, Naomi Mendoza, Jose Mendoza, Jose 2012-12-07T23:13:24Z 2012-12-07T23:13:24Z 2012 http://hdl.handle.net/1794/12538 Recently, Christopher Heath Wellman has proposed an innovative argument that appears to resolve, at least with respect to immigration, the tension between democratic autonomy (i.e. a people's right to self-determination) and human rights (i.e. respect for individual freedom and universal equality). Wellman argues, from a traditionally liberal point of view, that a legitimate state (i.e. a state that respects human rights) is entitled to self-determination and that part of the definition of being self-determined is having the presumptive right to unilaterally control immigration. In other words, Wellman claims that a state's unilateral right to control immigration can be made compatible with liberal commitments to individual freedom and universal equality. I aim to raise a novel objection against Wellman's argument, which I hope will also challenge philosophers to think differently about the immigration issue as a whole. My position is that even if Wellman's conclusion is correct, that a state's right to self-determination can be made compatible with human rights, the presumptive right that this generates for a legitimate state to unilaterally control immigration is, at best, limited only to admission and exclusion policies (i.e. to questions about who can be let in and who can be kept out). Wellman's conclusion, however, does not hold for strategies of immigration enforcement and expulsion (i.e. to the questions about how these policies may be enforced or what sort of deportation procedures a state is justified in using). And, in fact, I argue that under Wellman's account, a legitimate state would be restricted in deploying certain strategies of immigration enforcement and expulsion. My conclusion is that with respect to immigration enforcement and expulsion strategies, the presumptive right is on the side of the immigrant and not the state. This means that if a legitimate state wishes to control immigration, it is the state who holds the burden of proof to show that not only its immigration policies but also its enforcement and expulsion strategies do not violate prior commitments to individual liberty and universal equality. This, I contend, provides a moral and political baseline justification for immigrant rights, which I refer to as a minimalist defense of immigrant rights. en_US University of Oregon All Rights Reserved. Border Enforcement Deportation Immigrant Rights Immigration Moral Philosophy Political Philosophy On Immigration Enforcement and Expulsion Strategies: A Moral and Political Defense of Immigrant Rights Electronic Thesis or Dissertation
