Senior Independent Study Theses from 2017
Environmental and Epistemic Injustice in Ironbound, Stephany M. Rivera
Department: Environmental Studies; Philosophy
What is Privacy? The Threat of Surveillance and Blackmail in the 21st Century, Harrison S. Ruprecht
Department: Philosophy
Understanding Mental Causation in the Enlightenment of Top-down Causation in the Physical Systems, Ziyi Sang
Department: Philosophy; Physics
A Theory of Concepts for a Transient Mind, Jaxen W. Werne
Department: Philosophy
Senior Independent Study Theses from 2016
Infinity & Beyond: Logicism and the Continuum Hypothesis, Tom Ames
Department: Mathematics; Philosophy
Plato, Kant, Insults and Dignity, Chloe Browne
Department: Philosophy
Authorship, Utterance, and Meaning, Warner S. Brownfield
Department: English; Philosophy
The Groundwork for Food Criticism: How Normative Aesthetic Judgments Are Possible with Regards to Tastes, Jacob Caldwell
Department: Philosophy
Placing the International Criminal Court on Trial: a Jus Cogens Theory of Procedural Due Process Peremptory Norms at the International Criminal Court, Alexander P. Downs
Department: Philosophy; Political Science
The Ineffability of Nothingness, Melissa M. Griffith
Department: Mathematics; Philosophy
Thoughts on Poetry, Alexandra B. Gustafson
Department: Philosophy
The Tension Between Immanuel Kant's Ethical & Political Philosophies, Michael J. Gyeszat
Department: Philosophy; Political Science
The Virtuous Rebel: Developing an Anarchist Ethic Informed by the American Anarchist Movement (1881-1919), Michael S. Long
Department: History; Philosophy
In Favor of An Interactionist View of Development––To Improve Our Conceptualization of Innateness, Genetic Content and The Causal Role Of Genes in Trait Determination, Oluwadamilola B. Onakomaiya
Department: Philosophy
Fair Play and Obligation: Do Citizens have a Moral Obligation to Obey the Law?, Zackary B. Pool
Department: Philosophy
Authentically Ethical: An Ethics of Being, Zachary R. Towner
Department: Philosophy
Finding The Phenomenological Region of Meditative Experience, Brendan Youngquist
Department: Philosophy
Senior Independent Study Theses from 2015
Plato and Aristotle on the Ancient Quarrel: A Search for Poetic Meaning in Vergil’s Aeneid, Danielle A. Aviles
Department: Classical Studies; Philosophy
Attachment and Emotions in Relation to Ideas and Concepts: A Psychological Study and Philosophical Inquiry, Bryce C. Benefield
Department: Philosophy; Psychology
The Changing of Just War Theory: Understanding how just war theory needs to evolve with modern warfare, changing conceptions, and various ethical systems, Christopher J. Blaikie
Department: Philosophy
The Logical Nexus: Analysis and Application of Wittgenstein's Picture Theory of Language, John T. Cancalosi
Department: Philosophy
The Thinking Machine: An Intentional Study into the Prospect of Strong AI, Nicholas L. Cullo
Department: Philosophy
My Bun In Her Oven: Ethics, Exploitation, and Dharma in India's Surrogacy Industry, Alana S. Deluty
Department: Philosophy
The Semantics of Goodness: A Study of Prudential Value, Zachary S. Diehl
Department: Philosophy; French and Francophone Studies
Beyond Etiquette: Connecting to the Value of People, Maxim V. Elrod
Department: Philosophy
Evaluating Education in Japan: Why Juku Schools May be Threatening a Child's Ability to Succeed and Increasing the Income Inequality Gap, Jake Cornelius Fisher
Department: Business Economics; Philosophy
"I Am 'Is'": Reconciling Grief, Language, and Being in William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying, Chelsea Frey
Department: English; Philosophy
Measure and Response: An Interpretation of Three Works Regarding Sovereignty, Bennett S. Hudson
Department: Philosophy
Conceptions of Political Authority: Analyzing Contemporary American Events in a Different Light, Andrew S. Johnson
Department: Philosophy
My Tattoos Are My Story: An Exploration of the Self and Body Modification, Emma J. Kahn
Department: Philosophy; Religious Studies
Realizing Social Justice, Brian A. Lock
Department: Philosophy
Animal Minds and Human Language, Sarah C. Loether
Department: Philosophy
The Virtual Community: Understanding the Impact of Technology on Human Interaction Through the Work of Albert Borgmann, James Love
Department: Philosophy
To Be or Not To Be Selfish: Ethical Egoism and Altruism, Tiffany M. Norman
Department: Philosophy
A Moral Objection to Capitalism Regarding the Treatment of Labor and What an Alternative System Should Aim to Resolve, Matthew Robert Osolinski
Department: Philosophy
Rawls L.E.A.D.S. the Way: Justice in the City from a Philosophical Perspective, Thomas Pera
Department: Urban Studies; Philosophy
How to Run a Successful and Ethical Intervention into Genocide, Benjamin M. Peters
Department: International Relations; Philosophy
Relativistic Perturbations and Ontological Implications: Exploring the Zitterbewegung and Laying the Groundwork for a Quantum Ontology, Saul B. Propp
Department: Philosophy; Physics
Was the Great War Just?: A Re-examination of Just War Theory in Light of Events During 1900-1920, Oliver S. Raker
Department: History; Philosophy
TOMSfoolery: A Neocolonial Deconstruction of the One For One Ideology of Giving, Ainslee Robson
Department: Philosophy; French and Francophone Studies
Ought-Thenticity: A Restructuring of Understanding Why One Should Strive Towards Being An Authentic Human Being, Adam P. Seligson
Department: Philosophy
Can Pure Music Be Meaningful?, Nicholas P. Solem
Department: Philosophy
Is Belief in Progress Delusional?: An Investigation of the Notion of Human Progress, James M. Thomas
Department: Philosophy
Ain't It The Truth?: Considering the Search for ‘Truth’ of Moral Knowledge as presented in Plato’s “Meno”, Janelle Young
Department: Philosophy
Armed with an Easel: Understanding Artistic Political Praxis Through the Works of Theodor Adorno and Chantal Mouffe, Evelyn Yu Yu Swe
Department: Philosophy; Political Science
Senior Independent Study Theses from 2014
The Unjust Society, Richard A. Barnes II
Department: Philosophy
“Have you Heard about the Word 'Word'”: A Philosophical and Classical-Historical Analysis of Logos in The Gospel of John, Sarah E. Buntin
Department: Classical Studies; Philosophy
A Scientific Paradigm Shift from Reductionism to Holism: The Potential Relationship between Nicotinate Degradation and Virulence Modulation in Bordetella pertussis, Pailin Chiaranunt
Department: Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; Philosophy
The Ambiguity of Perception: An Examination and Critique of an Empiricist Perceptual Theory in the Defense of a Realist Theory of Perception, Austin Paul Fullerton
Department: Philosophy
Because I Said So: Justifying the Right to Punish as Subsequent to the Right to Threaten, Patrick T. Gaudet
Department: Philosophy
Just War Theory and Syria: The Ethical Dimensions of Military Intervention, Justyn R. Gostlin
Department: Philosophy
Consummation of the 'Good Life' through Aesthetics, Christina M. Haupt
Department: Art and Art History; Philosophy
Philosophy and its Relationship with the Sciences, and Other Academic Disciplines, William H. Hertel
Department: Philosophy
Must We Pass Over Them in Silence? An Examination of Mystical Experience and Ineffability, Elise Hudock
Department: Philosophy
The Steady Mind: An Investigation into Stoic and Hindu Notions of Liberation, Dev Dharm S. Khalsa
Department: Philosophy
Valuing the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge: A Defense of Countercultural Environmentalism, Mae Manupipatpong
Department: Philosophy; Political Science
Understanding Others: Integrating Phenomenology and Psychiatry, Ben D. Mattson
Department: Philosophy
The Threshold of Justice: An Examination of Income Inequality in the United States, Ryan J. McCormack
Department: Economics; Philosophy
Machines and Moral Status: Understanding Obligations to Possible Machines, Keenan J. McDonald
Department: Philosophy
To the Morning Star and Back: An Investigation of Word Meaning, Shannon McKnight
Department: Neuroscience; Philosophy
Can Terrorism Be Morally Justified? And If So, When?: Rethinking The Moral Status of Terrorist Violence, Gareth McNamara
Department: Philosophy
Meaning Without Proof or Evidence: Vindicating the Language of Religious Belief, Jordan A. McNickle
Department: Philosophy
The Tyrant and the Savant: An Examination of Political Legitimacy and Morality, Peter Mehlich
Department: Philosophy
How to Account for and Measure Human Well-Being, Anders K. Møller
Department: Philosophy; Business Economics
Beauty is Experienced: Beautiful Objects and the Promise of Happiness, Phu Nguyen Thien
Department: Philosophy; Psychology
Dexter a Virtuous Vigilante, or Immoral Psychopath: A Deontological and Virtue Ethic Assessment of Showtime’s Series Dexter, Brendon H. Taylor
Department: Philosophy
A Smithy to Myself: The Narratival Structure of Selfhood and James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Aaron D. Winston
Department: English; Philosophy
Senior Independent Study Theses from 2013
The Unique Value of Autonomy, Daniel Copfer
Department: English; Philosophy
Action, Normativity, and Desire: Reflections on Reasons Internalism, Quentin Andrew Fisher
Department: Philosophy
One Size Does Not Fit All: Spirituality and Academic Experiences Among African Americans, Veronique Jones
Department: Philosophy; Sociology and Anthropology
Accounts of Brain Disease: Exploring the Cellular Mechanisms of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and Its Implications in the Framework of Anomalous Monism As a Semantic Theory of Mind, Matthew Kirchner
Department: Neuroscience; Philosophy
By the Earth's Weight: Land Ownership and Understanding Nature Through Virtue Theory, Joshua Lewis
Department: Philosophy
Rhetoric, Art, Poetry, Music, and Philosophy: Philosophical Investigations of a Philosorapper, Bryan Matyi
Department: Philosophy
A Moral Justification For Humanitarian Military Intervention, Alec Muller
Department: Philosophy
Moral Duty As An Escape From Synthetic Inequality, Peter Parisi
Department: Philosophy
Spacetime: Engineering and Metaphysics, Syne Salem
Department: Philosophy; Physics
Forgiveness and Resentment: A Study in Philosophy and Psychology, Katherine Kay Schiller
Department: Philosophy; Psychology
Electrons Aligned and Felines Undefined: Interpretations of Quantum Mechanics and Perturbing the Spin-Orbit Interaction in Electrons, Karl Smith
Department: Philosophy; Physics
The Triumph Over the Unreasonable: a Theory of Political Justice For the New Age, Chad Elliot Trownson
Department: Philosophy
Senior Independent Study Theses from 2012
Will to Be Oneself: Does Kierkegaard's Subjective Faith Triumph Over Despair?, Brandon Andrew
Department: Philosophy
Agrarianism: Red Barns, Happy Cows, and Ignorant Farmers? Or is there More to it?, Mary Helen Brickhouse
Department: Philosophy
Radical Absurdity: Reinterpreting Camus For a Better Absurdism, Michael Lee Cohen
Department: Philosophy
My Child, Your Child, Our Child? the Nature of Children, Elders, and the Obligation to Educate, Molly Davis
Department: Philosophy
Absurdity with God: Faith in Walker Percy's Novels, Emily DeTar
Department: English; Philosophy
Caring About Stories: A Conceptual Investigation of Narrative Art and Moral Understanding, Nicholas Alexander Ehrhardt
Department: Philosophy
Authenticity and Art: Towards a New Conception of Authenticity and its Application to Art, Jared Fink
Department: Philosophy
Educational Value of Sport at a Liberal Arts School, Justin Barclay Hallowell
Department: Philosophy
Wildness As Reform of Technology, Christopher Townsend Howe
Department: Philosophy
Perils of Postmodernity: a Philosophical Investigation of Meaning and Narrative, Gregg Hunter
Department: Philosophy
Necessary Criteria to Save a Dying Practice: An Attempt to Morally Justify Capital Punishment, Remington Jackson
Department: Philosophy
How Can Theatre Enhance An Understanding of Ethics Perfected By Unconditional Love?, James Lance
Department: Philosophy; Theatre and Dance
Buddhist 'Emptiness' and the Practice of Nonconceptual Content, Maria Millan
Department: Philosophy
Generation of Thioredoxin 1 and Thioredoxin 2 Mutants in S. Cerevisiae and a Philosophical Investigation of the Ethical Implications of Human Genetic Engineering, Logan D. Pry
Department: Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; Philosophy
Foucault's Genealogist: A Comparative Analysis of the Hermeneutic Approaches of Martin Heidegger and Michel Foucault, Ethan Wayne Rudawsky
School's Out: Now What? Investigating the Purpose of Modern Education, Andrew Smiles
Department: Philosophy
Tough Pill to Swallow: Evaluating Ethical Concerns Regarding 'Cosmetic Psychopharmacology', Aaron Smith
Department: Philosophy
The Question of the Subject: Diving Headfirst into the Philosophy of Paul Ricoeur, Michael Stevens
Department: Philosophy
Young, Black, Male, & Poor = Bad? : Exploring Our Society's Concept of Moral Universals Regarding Good and Bad Human Beings, Kinsey Walker
Department: Philosophy
Senior Independent Study Theses from 2011
Good Medicine: a Response to Libertarian Concerns Regarding Universal Health Care, Jennifer Barnes
Department: Philosophy
Conditional Foreign Aid: the Morality and Success of Its Use For Democratization, Ian Carlin
Department: Political Science; Philosophy