Past Honors Theses
Past Honors Theses
- Jadyn Malone, Magicicada and Mathematics: What the Parochiality of Our Explanations Means for the Indispensability Argument (Advisor: Professor Kenny Walden)
No Honors Students
- Jingyi (Emily) Zhang, Critical Interests and Advance Directives of People with Dementia (Advisor: Professor Ann Bumpus)
- Zachary Lang, Towards a New Theory of Ideological Epistemic Defects (Advisor: Professor David Plunkett)
- Blake Whitmer, The Univocity of Being and Expressive Power: Ontological Pluralism's Effect on Formal Languages (Advisors: Professors Amie Thomasson and Peter Lewis)
No Honors Students
No Honors Students
- Samantha Koreman, The Limits and Constitutive Obligations of Political Authority (Advisors: Professors David Plunkett and Kenny Walden)
- Jeffrey Thomas Poomkudy, Natural-Historical Judgments and the Grounds of Normativity: A Development of Michael Thompson's Metaethical Naturalism (Advisors: Professor Timothy Rosenkoetter)
- Gavriel Steinmetz-Silber, Moral-Epistemic Dilemmas (Advisors: Professor John Kulvicki)
- Jessica Anne Heine, Vagueness and Representation: A Unifying Account (Advisors: Professor Samuel Levey)
- Cynthia Shin, The Ontology of Video Games: An Ingardenian Analysis of the Polyphonic Structure of Video Games (Advisors: Professor Amie Thomasson)
- Henry Tracey, The Persistence of Fatalism Under Metaphysical Theories (Advisors: Professor Christine Thomas)
- Claire Feuille, Creating a Fated Self: Agency and Artistry in Nietzsche (Advisors: Professor Kenneth Walden)
- Matthew Goldstein, The Ethics of Engagement: Negotiating the Normative Moral Status of Combatants in War (Advisors: Professor Timothy Rosenkoetter)
- Daniel J. Widawsky, Moral Motivation Meets Metarepresentationalism: Do Patients with Ventromedial Frontal Damage Have First-Order Moral Beliefs? (Advisors: Professor Adina Roskies)
- Christian Nakazawa, To Have Other Eyes: Metaphor, Meaning, and Imagination (Advisor(s): Professor John Kulvicki)
- JP Olinski, Finding a Peer Disagreement Norm for Political Disagreement and Other Ambiguous Cases (Advisor(s): Professor Sam Levey)
- Joshua Tseng-Tham, Defending a NeoAristotelian Position in Metaethical Naturalism (Advisor(s): Professor Kenneth Walden)
- Alexander Kane, False Selves: Truth in Narrative Constitution (Advisor(s): Professor Sam Levey)
- Tierra Victoria Lynch, Akrasia, Rationality & Autonomy: Understanding the Moral Responsibilities of the Addict (Advisor(s): Professor Adina Roskies)
- Lea Aurelia Schroeder, Material Composition in Plato's Timaeus (Advisor(s): Professor Christine Thomas)
- Paul W. Frazel, Responsible Blaming: Personality Disorder and Moral Responsibility Within the Clinic and Without (Advisor(s): Professors Adina Roskies and James Moor)
- Joonsuh Jo, Foucault and the Freedom of the Modern Subject (Advisor(s): Professor Amy Allen)
- Lingxi Chenyang, Kripke's Wittgenstein: Meaning, Normativity, and Rule-Following (Advisor(s): Professor David Plunkett)
- Christopher Hauser, Grounding, Metaphysical Explanation, and the Analogy of Existing (Advisor(s): Professor Christine Thomas)
- Brendan Mooney, Etiquette and the Escapability of Morality (Advisor(s): Professor Susan Brison)
- Gabriel Redel-Traub, Value at the Intersection (Advisor(s): Professor John Kulvicki)
- Rebecca Rothfeld, Being a Bat in a Vat on Twin Earth: A Guidebook for Thought Experimenters & Other Epistemic Adventurers (Advisor(s): Professor Sam Levey)
- Bailey Pratt Hoar, Drones, Ethics, and 21st Century Warfare Understanding and Mitigating the Ethical Tensions of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Through Just War Theory (Advisor(s): Professor James Moor)
- James Craig Smyser, Metaethics, Toleration, and the Burdens of Democratic Justice in John Rawls' Political Constructivism (Advisor(s): Professor Kenny Walden)
- Nathan Gusdorf, Adornian Marxism: The Concept of Critique (Advisor(s): Professor Amy Allen)
- Benjamin H. Feintzeig, Understanding Through Causation: A Four-Factor Approach to Scientific Explanation (Advisor(s): Professor Adina Roskies)
- David B. Kinney, The Ontology of Chance (Advisor(s): Professor Christine Thomas)
- Anfin S. Erickson, Sextus Empiricus and the Unlivability of Skepticism: A Proposed Solution (Advisor(s): Professor Christine Thomas)
- Benjamin A. Gifford, Making Sense of our Modal Discourse (Advisor(s): Professor James Moor)
- Robert W. Forster, Desert, Child Rape, and Capital Punishment: Applying the Deontological Significance of Childhood (Advisor(s): Professor John L. Crocker)
- Emily E. Smith, Just War Theory and Terrorism: A Case for the Just and Exceptional Use of Torture (Advisor(s): Professor Eugene Marshall)
- Jane V. Tucker, The Self-Concept Notion of Self-Deception: A Non-Deflationary, Non-Intentionalist Account (Advisor(s):Professor Amy Allen)
- Haley A. Bolin, Justice After Genocide: The Expressive Theory of Punishment in Defense of Truth Commissions (Advisor(s): Professor John L. Crocker)
- Kevin J. Decker, The Rebirth of Critique: Michel Foucault's Archaeological Method and Project (Advisor(s): Professor Amy Allen)
- David M. Lamb, A Response to Theism and Nihilism: The Basis and Truth of Moral Claims (Advisor(s): Professor Walter Sinnott-Armstrong)
- Katharine M. McIntyre, Genealogy and Practices of Self-Overcoming (Advisor(s): Professor Amy Allen)
- Michael P. Milne, Reasons, Rationality, and Motivation: A Second Look at Michael Smith's The Moral Problem (Advisor(s): Professor Julia Driver)
- Jared S. Westheim, Dialectics Beyond Destruction: Adorno, Deleuze, and the Search for a New Subjectivity (Advisor(s): Professor Amy Allen)
- Peter D. Anderson, jr., Freedom and Inter-Subjectivity: Ethical Implications of Jean-Paul Sartre's Being and Nothingness (Advisor(s): Professor Amy Allen)
- Kirsten E. Grauer, Plato on Punishment (Advisor(s): Professors Christine Thomas and John L. Crocker)
- Mark F. Hoipkemier, Rights, Flourishing, Freedom: Good Work and the Ethics of International Development (Advisor(s): Professor Julia Driver)
- Christopher E. Biermann, The Absence of a Meaningful Meaning to Life (Advisor(s): Professor Roy Sorenson)
- Haley Bolin, Justice After Genocide: The Expressive Theory of Punishment in Defense of Truth Commissions (Professor John L. Crocker)
- Brian Burgess, Moral Responsibility and Conscious Will: The Impact of Contemporary Research in Neuro-Physiology and Weak-Reason Responsiveness (Advisor(s): Professor Amy Allen)
- Eva Vivalt, What People Minimally Require: A Capabilities Approach With Applications in Development (Advisor(s): Professor Susan Brison)
- Andrew Verstein, Begging the Question and the Burden of Proof (Advisor(s): Professor Walter Sinnott-Armstrong)
- Claire Chandler, The Future of Idaho Wilderness: Applying John Broome's Ethical Theory to the Boulder and White Cloud Mountains Land Use Debate (Advisor(s): Professor Julia Driver)
- Noah Flower, Understanding Character: Virtue Ethics and the Situationist Challenge (Advisor(s): Professor Walter Sinnott-Armstrong)
- Ognian Kassabov, Poetry in Plato's Republic (Advisor(s): Professor Christine Thomas)
- Sam Valverde, Interests and Desires in Peter Singer's Ethics (Advisor(s): Professor Bernard Gert)
- Kristen A. Johnson, Morality: Not Just a Myth (Advisor(s): Professor Walter Sinnott-Armstrong)
- Sam Means, Defining Art Intentionally: Complex Intentionalism as a Definition of Artworks (Advisor(s): Professor Julia Driver)
- Michael Shaw Perry, Wittgenstein on Foundational Propositions (Advisor(s): Professor Sally Sedgwick)
- Esther Warshauer-Baker, Patient Competence for Medical Decision Making: A Critique of Buchanan and Brock (Advisor(s): Professor Bernard Gert)
- J. Jordyne Wu, Functionalism vs. Dynamical Systems Theory: A Theoretical and Empirical Examination into Dueling Philosophies of the Mind (Advisor(s):Professor James Moor)
- Christopher R. Moore, The Emotion of Awe: An Evolutionary Psychology Account (Advisor(s): Professor Roy Sorenson)
- William Whitney, Stich's Eliminative Materialism and Theories of Reference (Advisor(s): Professor James Moor)
- Jay Bregman, Code and Other Flaws of Cyberspace: A Philosophical Critique of Lawrence Lessig's Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace
- Jackson Childs, I Am, I Am, I Am: David Hume's Theory of Personal Identity (Advisor(s): Professor Sally Sedgwick)
- Taylor Clark, Facing Time's Scythe: Why Death is an Evil We Ought Not Fear (Advisor(s): Professor Julia Driver)
- Elizabeth D. Keller, Realism and the Consistent Histories Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics (Advisor(s): Professor Christine Thomas)
- Christopher La Barbera, Same-Sex Marriage and the Right to Equal Protection (Advisor(s): Professor Susan Brison)
- David W. Sparrow, The Unreality of Color in Objects (Advisor(s): Professor Walter Sinnott-Armstrong)
- Andrew B. Warren, The Force of Thought, the Fold of the Outside: Aesthetic Existence in Foucault and Deleuze (Advisor(s): Professor Amy Allen)
- Daniel Bush, Abortion and Dworkin's Argument from Religion: Why is it Worth a Look and How it Stands Up (Advisor(s): Professor Walter Sinnott-Armstrong)
- Matthew H. Slater, On the Possibility of Worldly Vague Identity (Advisor(s): Professor Sam Levey)
- Karen Marie Soares, Speaking Silence: Women's Voices in the Novels of William Faulkner
- Ryan Calo (Advisor(s): Professor Christine Thomas)
- Dan Epstein, A Philosophical Investigation into Intellectual Property (Advisor(s): Professor James Moor)
- Seth Graham, The Panoptic "Con": Foucault's Genealogy of Power and Critique of Bentham's Justification for Punishment (Advisor(s): Professor Amy Allen)
- Jennifer Parkinson, Punishment (Advisor(s): Professors Walter Sinnott-Armstrong and Bernard Gert)
- Josh Zemel, Would Plato Like the Beatles? An Essay on the Philosophy of Music (Advisor(s): Professor Sam Levey)
- Deidre d'Entremont, Feminist Obscenities: Pornography, Choice, and Free Speech (Advisor(s): Professor Robert Fogelin)
- Jesse Sweet, Cutting Hume's Mind in Half: A Bundle Approach to Split-Brain Patients (Advisor(s): Professor Ann Bumpus)
- Alexaner Vogel, Philosophical Interpretations: Nietzsche and Derrida, Trouble with Truth (Advisor(s): Professor Amy Allen)
- Penn Dodson, Paternalistic Interference: Perspectives Based on the Philosophy of J. S. Mill and Applied to the 92-96 American Intervention in Haiti (Advisor(s): Professor Walter Sinnott-Armstrong)
- Ted Jones, Descriptions and Norms in Coherence Theories and Contextualism (Advisor(s): Professor Robert Fogelin)
- Matthew Weiss, To Be or Not to Be: An Examination of the Views of Jonathan Glover and David Heyd Concerning When it Might be Better Not to Continue to Live, Not to be Born, or Not to Exist (Advisor(s): Professor Bernard Gert)
- Lynda Ann Cowin, A New Approach to Coherentism (Advisor(s): Professor Walter Sinnott-Armstrong)
- Ethan Sawyer, The Morality of the Lawyer (Advisor(s): Professor Bernard Gert)
- John Beery, Intuitionism: The Mathematics or a Fool's Errand?
- Jennifer Heyong Kim, Affirmative Action for Speech: An Alternative Response to Hate Speech (Advisor(s): Professor Susan Brison)
- Lai Heng Foong, Contrary-To-Fact Conditionals: From Metalinguists to Possible Worlds (Advisor(s): Professor Robert Fogelin)
- Shelley Branam, The "Doctrine" of Double Effect: A Comparative Study of a Complex but Credible Statement (Advisor(s): Professor Bernard Gert)
- Carl J. Nichols, Bad Semaritanism: An Inquiry Into the Causal and Moral Status of Omissions to Save (Advisor(s):Professor Bernard Gert)
- Matthew Henken, The Conclusion of This Thesis Is "Not True" : The Liar's Paradox, Analysis and Resolution
- Jason Cillo, McTaggart and the Refutation of Presentism (Advisor(s): Professor John Konkle)
- Laura Donohue, Hume's Conception of Free Will: Necessity, Compulsion, Liberty and Chance (Advisor(s):Professor Robert Fogelin)
- Lindsey Goldberg, Impartiality Through Neutrality: An Examination of Robert Bork's Theory of Adjudication (1-term thesis)
- William Keane, Pain (1-term thesis) (Advisor(s): Professor Bernard Gert)
- Patrick Shin, The Abortion Controversy: Disagreement About the Scope of the Moral Rule Against Killing (Advisor(s): Professor Bernard Gert)
- Joan Pepin, Resolving the Paradox of Nuclear Deterrence
- Robert Victor, Moral Luck! So, Where's the Paradox?
- George Strander, Donald Davidson's "Anomalous Monism"
- Marc Koehler, The Ethical Theory of John Leslie Mackie
- John Alger, Sherlock Holmes Meets Philip Marlowe : An Investigation of Fictional Objects
- Jeffrey Silberman, A Definition of Punishment
- David Silbersweig, A Critique of Fodor's Arguments for the Irreducibility of Psychology to Neurobiology
- Mark Cormier, Problems With Popper's Falsifiability and A Solution
- Jeffrey Levine, Suicide: A Defense
- Joan Danziger, Dostoevsky and the Meaning of Life: A Study in the Brothers Karamazov
- Daniel Wyner, The Generalization Argument : What Would Happen If Everyone Were To Use It To Make Moral Judgements?
- Barbara Moses, Dream On
- Kenneth Wright, Some Ethical Considerations on Killing Animals
- Robert Spitzfaden, Freud's Pleasure Principle
- John Raymond Sharp, Dr. Szasz's Argument Against the Incompetence Plea
- James Behnke, Dreaming
- John Hinderaker, An Interpretation and Defense of the Private Language Argument
- John Perry, Pleasure
- Richard Gass, On Punishment
- Hugh Boss, William James on Truth
- Steven Caldwell, An Introduction to the Study of Models