Tag: Philosophy

A Rhetoric of Friendship in the Works of Aristotle and Quintilian

Presenter: Elijah Leutwyler – English, Philosophy

Faculty Mentor(s): Corbett Upton

Session: (In-Person) Oral Panel—Comics, Classics and Analysis

The philosophy of friendship has recently returned to academic conversations with scholars such as Paul W. Ludwig or Alexander Nehamas engaging the subject from any number of historical lenses. But what does it mean to speak as a friend or persuade amicably? While it is a commonly held belief that one’s friends have your best interests in mind, this paper argues that a traditionally classical view of rhetoric inherently incorporates the virtue of friendship in any communication between people by close-reading moments of Aristotle’s On Rhetoric and Quintillian’s Institutes of Oratory. Indeed, Aristotle grounds rhetorical exposition in a distinctly moral register and Quintillian enacts that idea in his pedagogical style as a Roman educator. In essence, this paper sees Aristotle and Quintilian as champions to the idea that rhetoric is grounded in an appreciation for intrapersonal intimacy, interpersonal connection, and a pedagogical structure that allows for such values to flourish. Empathizing with one’s audience and entering speaking engagements with relationship development as a top priority not only guards a person’s speech from becoming manipulative as the two classical rhetor-philophers explain, it also fosters an environment where rhetorical speech can operate in the way it was always meant to: for the good of the people.

Effect of Anthropogenic Noise on Eugene Duck Behaviors and Calls

Presenter(s): Piet Fretz — Philosophy

Co-Presenter(s): Lawren Paris, Kyle Hoekstra

Faculty Mentor(s): Lisa Munger

Session: (In-Person) Poster Presentation

This study investigated how duck species living in urban spaces have adapted their calls to account for human noise disturbances. By recording a cohort of ducks in local urban green spaces such as Alton Baker Park and the Willamette Waterfront in Eugene, Oregon, and contrasting that to recordings taken of a second cohort living in exurban natural habitats like Fern Ridge Lake, we isolated how these animals change their calls to account for anthropogenic sound masking. Using Cornell Labs Ravenlite software, we isolated the frequency, amplitude, and duration of duck calls. These field data were compared to existing published urban bioacoustic data to help develop a pattern of behavioral differences between these two cohorts of ducks. Results indicated that ducks of the same species altered their calls between the two locations. Additional research is needed to continue to develop the body of work relating to the effect human noise patterns have on existing wildlife.

A Deweyan Approach to Virtual Education

Presenter: Bennett Brown − Philosophy; Planning, Public Policy and Management; Political Science

Faculty Mentor(s): Scott Pratt

(In-Person) Poster Presentation

20th-century American philosopher John Dewey contributed extensively to the fields of political theory and education, advocating for a ‘Great Community’ of individuals to grow from the Great Society of institutional power. My study into Dewey’s thought seeks to explain the possibility of his envisioned Great Community in our age of virtual communication; a possibility that doesn’t conflict with his experiential learn-by-doing philosophy of education. The study is informed by critical analysis of Dewey’s published works alongside responses to secondary literature on the topic of his philosophy of education in virtual environments. Arguments in support of this thesis will include a foundational analysis of Dewey’s philosophy of mind and the presentation of a virtual scholastic framework that aligns with his organic educational aims. The study seeks to follow a potential thread of interaction and continuity from Dewey’s 20th century ideas to today, shedding light on different ways of thinking and opportunities within remote learning that don’t conform to the traditional institutional models of education. In other words, to show the virtues of virtual education.

Identity and the Virtual Home: Security, Privacy, and Citizen Rights

Presenter: Noelle Jones

Mentor: Naomi Zack, Philosophy

Poster: 33

Major: History and Humanities 

The purpose of this research is to propose the idea of a “virtual home” and how personal identity, privacy, law, technology and the traditional home have helped shape it. The “virtual home” is, in short, a collection of our identities and personal information on the internet, often accessed and updated via computer, smartphone, tablets, or other internet-capable devices. In an attempt to explain the social and legal complexities of technology’s effect on privacy and the home, this paper touches on many topics, including the physical home, symbolic homes, homelessness, personal identity, privacy, the public-private split, the virtual home, and modern technology. My hope is that this interdisciplinary research will inform academics across a range of fields on the importance of these issues, and incite them to tangible action in their virtual and geographic communities, using their current expertise and research interests.

Translating The Work Of Carl Sagan Into Song

Presenter(s): Guthrie Stafford − Philosophy

Faculty Mentor(s): Barbra Mossberg

Creative Work Session 3

Research Area: Science, Philosophy, Performing Arts

Our tiny blue-green jewel of a planet may not be much in the unimaginable vastness of space, but if it matters to us then we’d better show it. At least that’s what Carl Sagan had in mind when he petitioned for the Voyager space probe to turn around and take one final photo of our planet before it left the solar system, traveling on into the dark, never to return. This picture shows the Earth, the totality of our history and the history of life itself, as a single, pale blue pixel suspended like a mote of dust in a sunbeam. For Sagan, this image underscored the painful absurdity of our treatment of each other and of our only home. In translating his words on the subject into song, my hope is to bring this message to my own generation. Our parents set out to save the world and somewhere along the way got distracted by mortgage payments. It now falls on us to sidestep tribalism and partisan myopia, and we are already struggling under the weight of this responsibility. We must step back, way back, and see the world as it really is. No one is coming to save us from ourselves. There’s nowhere we can run to if things don’t work out. We have only one chance, one planet, one home. It is a herculean task. That is why I’ve tried to convey its urgency in one of the most powerful ways I know how: song.

Peirce’s phenomenological grounding of Science and Matters therein

Presenter(s): Timothy Schatz—Philosophy, Math

Faculty Mentor(s): Scott Pratt, Erin McKenna

Session 1: It’s a Science Thing

Any survey of C .S . Peirce’s philosophy will reveal a vast but shattered continent . Hence, any reader who ventures beyond a single text will have to ask themselves how they are to regard the relation of these texts . I am aligned with the unitary interpretation, espoused by the late Dr . Joseph M . Ransdell, and so affirm the Peircean system as essentially phenomenological . The divisions of science, or systems of science, maintains three divisions: mathematics, philosophy, and special science . Phenomenology finds its home in philosophy, and it is here where knowing first encounters being . As such, following Peirce’s underlying gestures towards positive philosophy, post-Kantian empiricism, realism, and christen mysticism, phenomenology naturally arises as ground and loci of his philosophy, insofar as it places the subject in a living world . In the first division of this work, the general system of phenomenological reflection reveals a form of knowing which is inherently human in which beings are known as a world and not disparate things . This reflection is threefold in which reflection folds back onto itself to reveal the triadic structure of Being . Thus the second division shall take up the triadic structure, the categories, in phenomenological detail qua their expression in being . Lastly, this paper culminates in the general architecture of phenomenology, which serves as the ground for Peirce’s Weltanschauung, that is, his conception of the cosmos .

A Critical Examination of Abstraction in John Dewey’s Reflective Thought

Presenter(s): William O’Brien—Philosophy

Faculty Mentor(s): Steven Brence

Session 3: Beyond a Melody

In this paper, I critically examine our human capacity for abstraction . I examine this tool in the pragmatic terms of John Dewey, wherein abstraction is understood as our human capacity used to successfully engage in our environment and achieve our interests and purposes . Specifically in the context of John Dewey’s reflective thought, I critically examine abstraction’s process and purpose . From this examination, the essential role that the tool of abstraction plays comes to light . It is seen that abstraction is necessary for reflective thought to function, and without it, this personally familiar process would cease to be . After showing abstraction’s essential role in this familiar context, I get into explaining problematic aspects of reflective thought’s logical understanding of abstraction . This understanding of abstraction has been the basis upon which reflective thought may produce logical results that are problematically ‘out of touch’ and biased . I take up the ‘reasonable woman standard’ in law to illustrate a concrete example of this . Ultimately, I conclude that for reflective thought we still need the same logical understanding of abstraction, but only insofar as it serves as a basis for a new logical understanding, wherein we must always ask and consider the question of who, in order to avoid logical results that are problematically exclusive and biased .

Antihaitianismo in the Dominican Republic

Presenter(s): Catherine Morse—Psychology and Philosophy

Faculty Mentor(s): Matthias Vogel

Session: Prerecorded Poster Presentation

The Caribbean island of Hispaniola, home to the Dominican Republic and Haiti, has long been known for its agriculture and tourism industry . Its beaches and attractions are known around the world but the images of tropical paradise are deceptive . In the Dominican Republic, there is great oppression against Haitians often called “Antihaitionismo .” Starting during the age of colonialism, racism especially against people of darker skin color has been a prominent issue which is continuing to circulate inhumane discrimination today . Currently, almost all Haitians living on the island are facing prosecution, poverty, elements of human insecurity, and racial/sexual violence leading to a narrative of a racist, misogynistic culture . In analyzing recent opinions and events, the central questions I address deal with the effects of dissolved Haitian birthright citizenship and the extent of racial and sexual violence against Haitian women . Combining case study interviews and in-depth research, I will highlight the extent of this oppression and its historical importance . With my research project I hope to provide insight into the workings of racism and unravel “Antihaitianismo” and its continuing influence today .