ARCHIVES
The 20th Annual Undergraduate Philosophy & Religion Conference
Saturday, November 14, 2009 9:00 AM – 5:15 PM Alumni Room, Student Union Building
Hosted by the Truman State University Department of Philosophy and Religion
| Conference Schedule | |
| 9:00 a.m. | Welcome Dr. Mike Ashcraft |
| 9:05 a.m. | William Franks Truman State University The Case for Perfectionist Happiness Happiness. Perhaps no other goal is so commonly sought, but so nebulously defined. With so many conceptions about that ephemeral ideal, we need to get down to asking what it is and what it does. More than any other question, we wonder how to achieve happiness. This discussion covers several connotations of happiness: Aristotelian perfectionism, preference-satisfactionism, and hedonism. Ultimately, the limitations and costs of each will become apparent, allowing for a modified, personalized version of perfectionism to arise as our preferred model. This perfectionism’s “thicker” sense of happiness offers the breadth of modern pluralism and the drive of modern progressivism. |
| 9.35 a.m. | Joseph M. Kinzer Illinois State University An Examination of Possible Contradictions in Bodhisattva Compassion In Mahayana Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is one who is able to achieve nirvana, but postpones it in order to help others do the same. In this ideal, there is absolute and ultimate compassion, or what Western philosophers might deem perfect consequentialism, where there is no distinction between beings with regard to the administering of such compassion. The question is whether or not this is actually possible given the limits of a single “person.” I will argue that if we take the goal of nirvana qua cessation of suffering as the basis for moral decisions, that there are situations where acting in “selfish” ways, sparing one’s own suffering over others’ may actually contribute to the highest consequential reduction in suffering, while not compromising the ultimacy of the Bodhisattva’s compassion. |
| 10:05 a.m. | Nikolaus Briener Columbia International University Responding to Hume’s Argument against Belief in Miracles: Plausibility, Context, and Background Beliefs More than 250 years ago, David Hume, according to some, definitively demonstrated that reports of miracles were beyond the reach of rational belief. In this essay, I give an account of Hume’s argument and offer a response to it. I argue that, contra Hume, experience does not render miracles implausible when they are properly characterized. Instead, their plausibility is determined by one’s background beliefs and the historical context of the event. In conclusion, I claim that given particular background beliefs about divine action, the rationality of those beliefs, and the appropriate historical context of a miracle, it can be rational to believe the evidenced report of a miracle. |
| 10:35 a.m. | Break |
| 10:45 a.m. | Robert Whitaker Murray State University CORNEA and Inductive Evidence: A Response For the theist, particularly the Christian theist who holds God to be omniscient, omnipotent, and omnibenevolent, the problem of evil and suffering has long been one of the greatest objections to faith, and one of the most potent weapons in the hands of the thoughtful atheist. Recently, the so-called ‘logical’ version of this problem has been largely abandoned in favor of an ‘evidential’ form of the argument. Rather than logical contradiction, the evidential argument establishes the probability, or as William Rowe has argued, the rational belief, that God does not exist. In response to such arguments, Stephen Wykstra has persuasively argued for an epistemic principle known as CORNEA, which blocks the evidential argument by restricting our ability to have knowledge of certain kinds of things. This paper is a defense and reformulation of that principle. |
| 11:15 a.m. | Ruth Babb Truman State University Norse Gods, Folk Songs, and Nazis: Understanding Neo-Heathen Trends in Modern Society Norse mythology has returned to the realm of legitimate theology. This return, when examined, is much more complex than it first appears. The history of the tradition in ancient times and at the turn of the 19th century provided a fertile ground for growth. Motivated by romanticism and reacting to the pressure of globalization, Neo-Heathenism has become a vibrant and varied tradition in its own right. It is split into racist Odinism, ethnic heathenism, and syncretic Asatrú, each of which has its own form of music. By studying these traditions and that of Neo-Paganism, a better understanding of religious music and its relationship to dogma can be attained. |
| 11:45 a.m. | Adam Rowlett Truman State University Writing the Other, Writing the I This paper is an imagination of how, through the lens of the post-modern feminist Hélène Cixous, one might undertake the responsibilities endowed by Heidegger’s notion of Dasein, with specific focus on the possibilities of human existence and interpersonal relations. To be more precise, it is a furthering of the old philosophical question, “I know that I am a Self, but how do I know that you are?” It is extended to include the significant problems that follow when one says, “And if you are a Self, I’d sure like to get to know you.” |
| 12:15 p.m. | Lunch Keynote Speaker: Dr. Adam Potthast Animals, Angels, and Us: Kantian Ethics and the Meaning of Life There has been a great deal of debate about whether a meaningful life needs to be an ethical life. But this debate tends to assume that living a meaningful life is consistent with living an ethical life. For ethical theories that stress living by reasonable principles, like Kant’s, the emphasis on emotions and personal commitments in a meaningful life can seem problematic. In this talk I try to clarify how deep this tension runs and attempt to show how Kantian insights about human nature might shed some light on how ethics and emotions can be integrated in a meaningful life. |
| 2:00 p.m. | Kevin Haar Truman State University The Shaman as Natural Phenomenon: How Evolutionary Biology Can Explain Early Religious Development The first tribal people of the world practiced religion, at least in an animistic sense, as evident by various drawings and ceremonial artifacts that have been recovered. Evidence also shows that throughout history and pre-history, shamanic cultures have interpreted events, such as rain clouds and earthquakes, to an animistic extreme. This study examines how evolutionary biology can help explain the rise of shamanic religions. By examining the biological basis of the human tendency towards animism, this study argues that shamanic religions prospered and new religions evolved from archaic ones, partly due to the biology of evolution. Although many scholars of religion ignore or criticize the attempt to look at religion from a biological viewpoint, this study also argues for the benefits of such a perspective to the study of religion. |
| 2:30 p.m. | Sean J. Cooksey Truman State University Concepts of Well-Being in Existential Thought How can an existentialist live a desirable life and achieve a state of well-being? It would seem with a chaotic universe, the inevitability of death, and a lack of intrinsic meaning in human existence that this is no easy task. However, through the writings of Jean-Paul Sartre, Martin Heidegger, and Albert Camus, I will argue that well-being is in fact possible through existentialism if a person embraces his existential freedom. This requires living authentically, a proper response to the Absurd, and the creation of individual meaning. In this way, the good life does not depend on what you do, but rather how you do it. |
| 3:00 p.m. | Mark Lambert Truman State University Baldwin IV, a Curious Case of Leprosy in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem Baldwin IV was the sixth king of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. During his rule, Baldwin languished from leprosy, a debilitating disease that would claim his life before he was twenty-four. The historical lineage of the “Leper King” unfortunately became one wherein Baldwin was regarded as a sickly, jejune marionette. In truth, Baldwin commanded great respect from his subjects and was one of the most formidable Crusader kings. His curious case is enlightened by an inspection of the religious and social milieu of leprosy; it becomes probable that the Leper King was viewed as a contemporary “suffering servant” or Christ figure. |
| 3:30 p.m. | Break |
| 3:40 p.m. | Seth Lloyd Norris Thomas Lincoln Christian University I and the Other: The Relation of Self-Love and Neighbor-Love in Søren Kierkegaard’s Works of Love In this paper I will be engaging the ethics explicated by the 19th century Danish philosopher and theologian Søren Kierkegaard in his Works of Love. My goal is threefold: First, I will demonstrate that Kierkegaard’s articulation of self-love’s proper form and function is the backbone of a full understanding of his project – that self-love, rightly understood, is the issue upon which the rest of the work depends. Secondly, I will provide an analysis of what Kierkegaard actually asserts this looks like — how he thinks self-love is to be properly understood and actualized. Lastly, I will explore and the way Kierkegaard believes that the self, God, and the other are related, and offer some closing comments as to the implications this fuller understanding has for the common critiques of this work. |
| 4:10 p.m. | Andrew McCall Truman State University Against Supervenience Michael Tooley’s perdurantist theory of persistence includes the claim that facts about persisting objects supervene on instantaneous states of affairs. While this Supervenience Claim is necessary to explain commonsense metaphysical notions of persisting objects, I argue that support for it comes only from these commonsense notions themselves, and so its acceptance should be reexamined. In doing so I scrutinize the least perceptually-biased access we have to an allegedly persisting object, our own personal identity, and consider evidence for or against belief in persisting identity. I conclude that experience alone offers no strong evidence for such belief, and since preserving notions of identity was the main purpose of the Supervenience Claim, it should be dropped from Tooley’s metaphysical theory. |
| 4:40 p.m. | Heidi Geisbuhler Truman State University Prepare to Meet Your God: Amos and Social Justice Eighth-century B.C.E. prophet Amos incited the anger of the Israelites when he prophesied the impending demise of their nation. Because of the social injustices being committed by upper-class Israelites against the poorer and weaker classes, God had doomed the nation of Israel to destruction. Though the Israelites claimed that the opulence of their culture was a sign of God’s blessing, Amos saw clearly that the extravagance and social ills of the Israelites would actually be their downfall at the hands of the God of justice whom they claimed to follow. |
| 5:10 p.m. | Closing Remarks |
The Truman State University Philosophy and Religion Department wishes to thank the following individuals and organizations:
Dr. Mike Ashcraft Dr. Dereck Daschke Dr. Adam Potthast
The SUB Staff ITS Sodexo
Center for Student Involvement
Brenna Hale Mike Bova Conti Christian Johns