Winner of the Outstanding Graduate Paper Award at the 58th Annual Meeting of the Florida Philosophical Association Jeff Steele, University of South Florida Introduction Moral and evaluative properties – like goodness – are odd sorts of things, especially on a naturalistic worldview. What do we make of such a moral realm? Given the truth of […]

Edward Perez, Santa Fe College “But on the present view, prior to the existence of language there were no propositions, which are the objects of attitudes like intending and believing.” Jeffrey King, The Nature and Structure of Content Introduction According to Jeffrey King, language is temporally prior to thought. More specifically, language must exist in […]

Winner of the Gerritt and Edith Schipper Undergraduate Award for Outstanding Undergraduate Paper at the 58th Annual Meeting of the Florida Philosophical Association Ryan Simonelli, New College of Florida In Evidence and Inquiry, Susan Haack presents a dual-aspect account of justification in which casual states and relations, as well as logical propositions and relations, play […]

John Valentine, Savannah College of Art and Design In The Art Instinct: Beauty, Pleasure, and Human Evolution, Denis Dutton articulates a cluster criteria concept of art that is comprised of twelve parts. His approach is rooted in evolutionary aesthetics and focuses on the idea that, in cross-cultural terms, the concept of art is best understood […]

Recently, Anglo-American philosophy has become something of a scandal. The disturbing lack of women and minorities in the field, combined with revelations of institutional discrimination and sexual harassment in several departments of Philosophy, have placed philosophy in the national and international spotlight. Women, racial and ethnic minorities, and other under-represented groups in the discipline have […]

Camilla Flodin, Uppsala University and Södertörn University From the early essay “The Idea of Natural-History” (1932) to his uncompleted magnum opus on art and aesthetics, Aesthetic Theory (posthumously published 1970), Theodor W. Adorno engaged the complicated relationship between humanity and nature. This central theme in Adorno’s philosophy and aesthetics has not received adequate attention, even […]

Chris A. Kramer, Rock Valley College In humor studies, the following quotation from Arthur Schopenhauer is well known: “Laughter always arises from nothing other than a suddenly perceived lack of congruence between a concept and the real objects that are in some respect or other thought through it, and it is itself just the expression […]

Camille Atkinson, Southern Maine Community College Jokes are funniest when played upon oneself. Comedy can help us make it past something very painful, like death. Laughter gives us distance. It allows us to step back from an event over which we have no control, deal with it, and then move on with our lives. Humor, […]

Liz Sills, Louisiana State University The 2012 presidential election season emphasized a prominent presence of comedy and humor within the spectacle of federal politics. One oft-cited example is a humorous anecdote repeatedly told by Barack Obama, running for re-election, of a four-year-old boy being shown a photo of Obama, and then being asked what Obama’s […]

Al Gini, Loyola University Chicago There once was a man from Nantucket Who kept all his cash in a bucket. But his daughter, named Nan, Ran away with a man And as for the bucket, Nantucket! Let’s start with a few basics. Jokes are a story or a short narrative based on fiction or fact […]