Time Travel and the Nature of Time by Eve Green
Philosophy
Backward time travel is something most people in modern society are familiar with through the presence of this form of time travel in popular culture. This paper explores the nature of backward time travel as a philosophical possibility, and investigates how this time travel functions within time different time theories. Through understanding which time theory best allows for the philosophical possibility of backward time travel, this paper also considers the impacts of this theory of time on the nature of free will, and consequently how free will functions within backward time travel. Through exploring the theories of presentism, the growing universe theory, the dropping branches theory, and eternalism, and investigating the solutions to multiple time travel paradoxes, this paper identifies the fatalistic nature of backward time travel as a philosophical possibility, and the consequent lack of free will present in a theory of time that allows for this philosophical possibility. Through exploration of time theory and the philosophical possibility of backward time travel, this paper concludes that eternalism is the time theory most compatible with this form of time travel and additionally that backward time travel does not allow for free will. This paper does not attempt to argue for the necessity of the philosophical possibility of backward time travel nor does it argue that eternalism must be true if society does not necessitate the philosophical possibility of backward time travel.
Eve Green
Senior Showcase Oral presentation
Ripon College
April 17, 2018
The author reserves all rights.
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Majors: English; Philosophy; Ancient, Medieval, and Renaissance Studies
Lane Cove, Australia
Philosophy Senior Seminar
David Hume and Adam Smith: Comparing Mentor and Mentee Publications by Jordan Braband
Economics
Both Hume and Smith are influential philosophers and economists, and wrote some of the most important historical works in the beginnings of the study of economics. Both men wrote a variety of essays and publications on the subject, and were both published and respected men in their days. Hume and Smith have different writings with different focuses: Hume primarily focused on philosophy, while much of Smith’s writings centered on economics based on philosophy. While they may not have always agreed, there is a definite link between the two writers, and they are more similar than not in their writings.
Jordan Braband
Senior Showcase Oral Presentation
Ripon College
April 18, 2017
The author reserves all rights.
Majors: Economics and Business Management
Minor: Sociology
What’s Mine is Mine, Because it’s Better if it’s Mine: A Defense of a Utilitarian Incentives-Based Account of Intellectual Property Rights by Jeffrey Grinde
Philosophy
Intellectual property (IP) rights have been codified into law ever since we have thought about intellectual property. What we want is a theory that grounds our right to intellectual property. Upon examination of historical precedents of thinking about IP rights, it becomes clear that to say we have a right to IP, what we really mean is that we have three sub-rights to IP. These three sub-rights are the right to own IP, the right to profit from one's IP, and the right to be recognized for one's own IP. There are three competing theories that ground these three sub-rights: the personality-based theory, the Lockean theory, and the rule/incentives-based theory. My argument is that whichever of the three theories best grounds the three sub-rights to IP is the theory that we ought to accept. Of the three theories, the rule/incentives-based theory best grounds the three IP right; hence, we ought to accept the rule/incentives-based theory as the justificatory account of IP rights. The following paper is a defense of the argument.
Grinde, Jeffrey
Ripon College Oral presentation
Ripon College
April 19, 2016
The author reserves all rights.
pdf
Majors: Philosophy, Chemistry-Biology
Ripon, WI
Philosophy 491 - Senior Seminar
The Difficulty in Being a Woman: Gender's Role in Complicating the Understanding of Autonomy by Alexandra Finken
Philosophy
Autonomy, as a concept, has typically been associated with the term "self-governance", but there has been many inconsistencies in a true definition among many philosophers. However, it is Thomas Hill's definitions which provides a well-rounded understanding and summarizes the different accounts of autonomy. Between descriptive and normative accounts, it's issues like gender and gendering which doesn't hold up one of those as it gets away from the true intent of autonomy. I will argue that gendering ultimately undermines autonomy and most importantly, autonomy, as a right, must be upheld in everyone and to undermine it is morally wrong.
Finken, Alexandra
Senior Showcase Oral presentation
Ripon College
April 19, 2016
The author reserves all rights.
Majors: Philosophy, German
Minor: Law and Society
Moral Responsibility of the Psychopath by Anders Goodwin
Philosophy
Psychopathy is estimated to affect approximately 1% of the population of the United States (Neumann & Hare, 2008a), yet the harms stemming from psychopaths are disproportionately large relative to their prevalence among the general populace. Recent mass shootings such as those in Sandy Hook, Aurora, and Norway have increased the visibility of psychopaths and psychopathic behavior in the media and subsequently in America’s legal conversation. Given the increased focus on those with this disorder, the need for clear articulation of standards of moral responsibility with regard to psychopathy has never been greater. The way in which we conceptualize a psychopath’s moral responsibility underpins and guides the development of legal and social policy as it applies to such persons.
In this paper, I defend the thesis that psychopaths are, in relation to non-psychopaths, either less or not at all morally responsible for their actions. I premise this claim on the fair opportunity notion of moral responsibility, and argue that psychopaths possess to a diminished or nonexistent extent both faculties needed for the fair opportunity view, namely normative competence and situational control. I begin with a brief overview of the history of psychopathy as a construct, after which I survey the state of psychological and physiological research into psychopathy. Following this, I defend the use of one particular line of argument, give a general account of moral responsibility, and argue for my thesis. After exploring potential objections to the argument, I conclude with a brief discussion of the implications of the argument.
Goodwin, Anders
Senior Showcase Oral presentation
Ripon College
April 23, 2015
The author reserves all rights.
pdf
Majors: Philosophy, Psychology, Theatre
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
PHL 492 - Senior Seminar I
Conversing with the Dynamic Nominalist: Hacking into the Social Sciences by Emelia Erickson
Philosophy
Ian Hacking posits that the looping effect is occurring within the social sciences and it is causing scientists to change their object of study as they study it. As social scientists classify humans based on behavior, they create a new reality for humans to act under which causes the behavior that defines the classification to change. Thus, changes in the classification loop back on humans in the classification. Hacking’s argument for the looping effect takes place in several stages throughout his career. This paper looks at the history of the argument for the looping effect and then lays out an argument for the implications of the looping effect that Hacking has not given. Then an argument is given toward the limitations of the looping effect.
Erickson, Emelia
Senior Showcase Oral presentation
Ripon College
April 23, 2015
The author reserves all rights.
pdf
Majors: Psychology, Philosophy
Forest Lake, Minnesota
PHL 491 - Senior Statement