Alumni

SENIOR THESIS AUTHORS AND TITLES

FALL 2011

 Brown, Michael Timothy: On Obligations to Interventions: Ethical Justifications to Provide Aid

 Conly, Andrew: Criminal Cannabis: An Historical Overview of the Legality of Marijuana with Practical and  Philosophical Grounds for Reevaluation

 Haddock, Rachel: Philosophical Landscapes of Flesh and Spirit

 Montecalvo, Christina Marie Curry: Dark Optimism: Buddhism and Existentialism on Awakening and Authentic  Ethics

 Wuol, Duop Chak: The Clash of Philosophical Doctrines in Non-Democratic African States

SPRING 2011

Eslinger, Linda: My Bikeride to Nowhere

Frazier, Daniel J.: Toward the Use of Quantum Mechanics in Ethical Theory

McDavid, Patrick: Spoken Worlds: Language and Culture's Creation of Reality

Laput, Alex: The Dichotomy Between Mind and Body in Contemporary Medecine: Viewpoints, Problems, and Resolutions

Peterson, Rachel Joy: Helen of Troy: Beauty, Terrible Beauty!

Davidson, Aaron: A Study in the Effects of Name Dropping and Usage of Philosophical Jargon on Student Success. Or The Epistemologies of Kant and Nietzsche. The Insufferable Effects of Transcendental Nihilism

Foote, Spencer: Relationship Theory: From the Social Contract to Everyday Relationships

Kent, Steffani, M.: The Place of Rational Intuition in Philosophical Inquiry

Reynolds, Polina: The Precautionary Principle: A Vital Contribution to Resolving the GMO Dilemma

FALL 2010

McDonnell, Timothy R.: Virtual Reality and Social Networking: A Buddhist Approach

Salas, Noel: Language: A Social Control

Law, David: Beyond the Metanarrative: Science in Heterogeneity

Hinkenhouse, Rebecca: Abortion: An Ethical Decision 

Menkhus, Rebecca: Serious Side Effects May Occur: The Problem with Direct-To-Consumer Advertising of Prescription Drugs

Asakawa, Joann: Alleviating Religious Conflict: Rethinking Religion in a Postmodern Context

Taylor, Hannah Katharine: From Apathy to Ataraxia: How Epicurus Can Save Our World

Jeffery, George Brandon:A Thesis on the Philosophical Examination of Homosexuality

Spence, Katie: Bridging the Divide in Analytic and Continental Philosophy

SPRING 2010

Anderson, Andrew: Moral Virtue and the New Global Healthcare Environment

Avila, Jenny:  The Cycle of Immortality

Burton, Joseph: An Argument for Political Change: The Revolutionary Proletariat of Difference

Huff, Jonathan: Collision of Universals

Kramer, Brian: Free Will and Christian Theology: Redefining Omniscience

Norris, Adrian: The Worth of Data: Understanding Dignity in the Digital Paradigm

Overmann, Leee:  Epistemology and Cognitive Science: An Inquiry into Values Cognition

Perez, Augi: The Enigma of Hope, Optimism, and Non-Attachment: From the Standpoint of

Stoics and Buddhism

Perez, Vanessa: Martyrdom Operations: An Existential Analysis

Vawter,  Robb: Naming the Unnamed: Merleau-Ponty, Heidegger, and the Creation of Meaning

Wambold, Tristan: Compassion and Inherent Emptiness

Whalen, Travis:  Embodied Meditation Practices and the Analects of Confucius

Wokurka, Brian: Mirror and Image: Symbolic Imagery in the Enneads of Plotinus

FALL 2009

Curphy, Chelsea: The Will to Survive

Norris, Kumeko: An Argument for Balance

Philips, Amber: The Crisis of Modernity

Swinger, Rachel: Facing Death

SPRING 2009

Alarid, Dustin:  What Indeed Does Athens Have to Do With Jerusalem?

Guzman, Richard: Which Gospel Came First: Matthew or Mark?

Hjelmstad, Christine: Seeking the Immortal Soul

Hildgedick, Jamie:  Fundamentalist Controversy

Lidstone, John: The Relationships of Life

Serra, Nathaniel:  Mysticism: Out of Reach of Philosophy

Weidinger, Matthew: A Time for War: Ethical and Moral Concerns Within the Sphere of

Modern Warfare

FALL 2008

Anderson, Elizabeth:  Chews Wisely: An Analysis Concerning Agricultural Production and Regulation

Eavenson, April Claire:  Everydayness: Phenomenology, Language, and the Subtleties of Communication

    Owens, Cecelia: Population Eschatology

SPRING 2008

Adams, Jim: The Luminous Ocean of Knowing and the Wise Knower of Now

Bounds, Phillip: Matter of Meaning: An Investigation in Materialism, Free Will, and Meaning

Ellison, Stacie: A Third Treatise: Re-evaluating Locke’s Theory of Property

Martin, Sarah: Get the Balance Right: Dismantling the Conscious Mind to Create Unity

Mauss, Melanie: Anorexic Nation: How Dualism Has Exploited Feminism to Result in Anorexia

Nervosa in the United States

Parrish, Meagan: A Reflection on Aesthetic Thought

Plush, James: Existentialism and Utilitarianism: The Foundations of a New Ethical System

Schultz, Raymond: Refuting Traditions: Applications of Dialectics to the Gene

FALL 2007

Foster, Jesse: When Harry Met Sally: A Cognitive Exploration Indexing Their Beliefs—and Yours

McLean, Traci: Environmental Aesthetics

Rush, Michael: Mindful Materialization: A Bridge Back to the Self

SPRING 2007

Bernal, Jose:  Calvin’s Baby Talk

Cook, Chase:  Putting the “Me” Back in Treatment: Philosophically Validating a Holistic

Approach to Psychology Using Epicurus and Augustine

Dagg, Jason:  Ethics in Dreaming

Davis, Johanna Campanaro:  Pre-Employment Testing: Unethical and Unnecessary

DiFiore, Laura:  Busting the Myth: The Use and Misuse of Myth in Historical Philosophy

Evans, Joseph:  A Theory of Emotion in the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius

Fonley, Heidi-Jo:  Gods of the Rational and Empirical: An Investigation of Descartes and Hume

Garcia, Lana:  Contemporary Art: The Manifestation of the Link Between Emotion and Reason

Held, Andrea:  Paralyzed Souls of the Righteous

Higashi, Aaron:  Of Roses and Rebellions: A Critical Examination of the Viability and Composition of

Postmodern Atheism’s Arguments Against Established Religious Traditions of the Western World

Luttrell, Aaron J.P.:  The Imaginary in the Realm of Philosophy

Matheson, Alexander:  Rehabilitation in the Modern Prison System

Mueller, Johanna:  Finding Love: A Simple Theory in a Complex World

Palmer, Eva:  Society Mediation: From One Extreme to the Other

Parkhurst, Travis:  Tearing Down the Illusion of the Non-Self: Arguments Against Buddhist Non-Self Theory

Paul, Tabitha:  Closed Into Religion: Individual Preference in a Rural System

Reed IV, George “Giff”:  Let’s Hug This Out: Reconciling Derrida’s Deconstuction with Evangelical Christianity

Sharkey, Alex B.:  The Philosopher’s Guide of Poker: Existing Outside the Modern Paradigm

Siebert, M. Nate:  The Question of Reference

Sparks, Jonathan:  I Feel, Therefore I Intuit

Van Gorder, Amanda:  The Moral Question

Worden, Jennifer:  Militant Islam V. the World

FALL 2006

Detwiler, James: Plato's Soul: Redefining the Attributes

Marshall, Cassandra:  Analysis of the Contemporary Human-Equine Relationship

Myers, Paul:  Assumptions of Just-War Theory and Its Failure at Global Application

Ngugen, Jennifer:  Philosophy for Children: Kids and Their Capacities Towards Moral Thought

and Philosophical Ideas

Raymond, Mary:  Disabled Perception in Special Education

Taylor, Corinne:  The End of the World …As We Know It

Tyler, Janeal:  Identity

SPRING 2006

Beckmann, Kathryn:  Reality and the Limitations Imposed by perception and Subjectivity

Bibler, Jason:  The Church of the Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints: An Analysis of Infallibility,

Immutability, and Truth

Brewer, Charita:  Standardization: Moving Away from Practical Learning and Philosophy

Cowles, Jordan:  The Positive Limitations of the Role of Solitude in Literature

Hagan, Catherine:  Liberation Theology: A Critique of Marxist Catholicism as  Prescription for

Revolution

Kiper, Jordan: Defining Peace

Kulpinski, Benjamin:  The Transmission of Truth with Formal Systems and Language

Lyke, Ariana:  The Myth of Reason

Sprung, Melissa:  Memorials: Abstract Versus Realistic Depictions

Takahashi, Troy:  Teachers Conforming to School Needs

FALL 2005

Ellis-Frischmann, Nina:  Gregory of Nyssa: Why His Trinitarian Doctrine Is Incomplete

Hudgens, Julia Marie:  The Misogynist Myth: Friedrich Nietzsche Revisited

Lotz, Valerie:  Feminist Fusion

Poole, Sabrina:  Faith and Feminism--Finding a Feminist Judaism

SPRING 2005

Best, Jonathan:  A Hobo in a Monk’s Robe: A Philosophical Analysis of the Beat

Generation

Carranza, Genevieve:  Secular Morality Reexamined

Cordova, Zach:  Can One Know the Existence of God?

Deemer, Robert:  Are Business Organizations Relinquishing Control?

Freers, Kraig:  Freers’ Precipice

Lick, Chris:  An Antirealist Analysis of Truth: Progress Notwithstanding

Miller, Benjamin:  Perpetual Revolution

Trotter, Chris:  The Illogical Nature of God

Wagner, Rebecca:  Renewing Civil Society: Solving the Disintegration of Political Space

FALL 2004

Bain, Jackson Jacob:  unfinished

Hutchison, Andrew:  A Discussion Around Searle’s Chinese Room Argument: Thought and

Understanding in Real-World Computation

Kuzma, Joseph:  Model Velocity on the Autopoetic Place: An Interpretation of Spinozist

Ontology

Mann, Brian”  Existentialism and the Theatre of the Absurd: How the Existential Drama of Jean-

Paul Sartre and Albert Camus is Less Existential than the Theatre of the Absurd

March, Robert:  Transformation of Consciousness Using Buddhist Principles to Alleviate

Affliction States of Mind

Sparks, Ryan Andrew:  Hegel on the Value of Art

Szczepanski, Danielle Marie:  Only God Can Judge Me: The Use of Religion for Violence

Weller, II, Richard Thomas:  Polyamory and the Weed of Patriarchy

2003-2004

Burkart, Andy:  Time: An Introduction and Philosophical Critique of Special Relativity

Butcher, Matthew Paul:  Karl Jaspers and Nondualism: Transcendence, Existence, Cipher, and  Foundering in

Jaspers’ Existenphilosophie

Cummings, Zach Scott:  On Libertarianism: A Critical Analysis of the Modern Political

Philosophy

Gaffney, Meghan Suzanne:  The Problem of Evil and Its Relation to the Holocaust of World War II

Garland, Dayna Yvonne:  Patriarchical Assumptions: The Problem of Hierarchy in Monastic

Buddhism and the Need for Feminist Reconceptualization

Holden, Mari Kim:  Fairness in Competition

Kapustyan, Dimitry:  On the Adaptability of Social Orders

Kragel, Amy Louise:  Literary Analysis of Biblical Marriage Metaphors and the Effects They

Have on 21st Century Society

Kunimoto, Katherine:  Ua Mau Ke O Ka ‘Aina Ka Pono: The Philosophy of Ancient Hawaii

McBrayer, Landon Marc:  An Examination of the Evidential Argument from Evil with a

Consideration of the Doctrine of Hell as an Example of Pointless Evil

Odell, Jacob William:  Is Emergent Mind Theory Enough to Build Artificial Intelligence

Peterson, Heather:  Justifying Just War Theory

Wagner, Naomi:  Synthetic Emotion: An Exploration of Consumer Culture and the Feeling of

Lack

2002-2003

Dunn, Joshua:  Film and Time

Frum, Matthew Christopher: On Buddhism

Getchey, Kyle:  In God We Trust…Man’s Solitary Quest for Freedom and Peace Within a

Representative System or an Honest Debate Over the Merits of Holding Another   Constitutional Convention

Griffin, IV, Thomas:  A Revisitation of Non-Empiricism: Political Philosophy Through the Lens

of Phenomenology

Ivey, Courtney:  The Concept of Solitude: The Philosophical and Psychological Theories of

Solitude and the Relationship to Human Knowledge

Kendall, Jason Robert:  Fire on the Mountain: The Nyaya Pentapod as Non-Syllogistic

2001-2002

Alvarez-Hansen, Darla:  I Am Not My Life: An Existential Analysis of the Objective Life vs. the

Subjective Life Through Being, Nothingness, and Immortality

Boeninger, Brian Paul:  The Explanatory Gap: Limits to Objectivity

Hodges, Linda J.:  Callicott’s Land Ethic: Biotic or Biased?

Johnson, Amy:  The Role of Government Regulation in Scientific Research: The Case of Stem-

Cell Research

Johnson, Sarah Sawn:  unknown

Lucas, Jr., Tommy:  unknown

Munger, Jason Ruarke:  An Inquiry Into Epistemology

Poore, Justin E.:  Liberal Political Philosophy: A Historical Analysis and Comparison of Welfare

and Neo-Classical Liberalism

2000-2001

Alvarez, Teri Louise:  The Problem of Consciousness

Auld, Beverly:  The Strict Lines of Ethics vs. the Transcendent Lines of Business: AN

Examination of Business Ethics

Busby, Luke A.:  A Rose By Any Other Name

Hane, Jennifer Lynn:  The Role of Women in Hasidism

Hume, Joyce Maynard:  The Difference Principle: Blueprint for Indifference?

Hollister, Bethany:  Perspectives of Women’s Oppression

Kasel, Rich:  Scarcity: The Hedonistic Assumption in Science and Technology