Studied philosophy at Grinnell College from 2012-2016. In my senior project I compared Hadot's work on ancient philosophy with the work of Deleuze and Guattari. Also researched H.D. Thoreau's writings, especially the spiritual dimensions, and his thoughts on historiography. Supervisors: Joshua Ramey and Stephen Andrews
This paper makes the claim that our experience of a consensus reality is constructed through kno... more This paper makes the claim that our experience of a consensus reality is constructed through knowledge-formations that behave like "molar aggregates," themselves depending upon linguistic practices that conform to herd mentality and the direction of attentional flows into common channels. I draw especially on the work of Nietzsche (concept of "imaginary causes"), Deleuze and Guattari ("Anti-Oedipus," and their metaphysics), and Philip Goodchild (concept of "apocalyptic piety").
A comparative study of the concept of "philosophy as a way of life" in the works of DG and Hadot.... more A comparative study of the concept of "philosophy as a way of life" in the works of DG and Hadot. Attention is given to the "image of thought" and "image of life" that is derived from DG and the ancient schools (represented by Hadot) and how these impact ways of thinking and living.
Much of this paper weaves together secondary literature on Anzaldua's writings in an attempt to s... more Much of this paper weaves together secondary literature on Anzaldua's writings in an attempt to show how her political, spiritual, and linguistic themes interrelate. I take the view that they are really inseparable, all of them implicated in each other. However Anzaldua's spirituality significantly shapes her political thought / activism, and this is not given proportionately enough attention by scholars. This paper tries to counteract that.
I bring the theoretical work of JJ Gibson to bear on the McDowell-Dreyfus debate, and end up sidi... more I bring the theoretical work of JJ Gibson to bear on the McDowell-Dreyfus debate, and end up siding with Taylor's and Dreyfus' point of view in "Retrieving Realism." McDowell's thesis that the conceptual is unbounded doesn't hold up when we set a criteria of identity for determining if our experiential intake of the world is conceptual, and factor in our perception of affordances.
This paper was the basis for a talk given at the Thoreau Society Annual Gathering in 2015. What m... more This paper was the basis for a talk given at the Thoreau Society Annual Gathering in 2015. What may interest Thoreau scholars is the image of a phoenix, found in Walden's "Conclusion" (at the very end), which I unpack in the opening pages. The rest of the paper discusses how we can read Thoreau as a "mythistorian" calling for a revolutionary historical consciousness. Our historical narratives are sometimes written with a point of view and agenda that distort the facts, whereas our mythologies, understood in allegorical way, give a more accurate picture of the history of human suffering and even the way to transcend it.
This paper makes the claim that our experience of a consensus reality is constructed through kno... more This paper makes the claim that our experience of a consensus reality is constructed through knowledge-formations that behave like "molar aggregates," themselves depending upon linguistic practices that conform to herd mentality and the direction of attentional flows into common channels. I draw especially on the work of Nietzsche (concept of "imaginary causes"), Deleuze and Guattari ("Anti-Oedipus," and their metaphysics), and Philip Goodchild (concept of "apocalyptic piety").
A comparative study of the concept of "philosophy as a way of life" in the works of DG and Hadot.... more A comparative study of the concept of "philosophy as a way of life" in the works of DG and Hadot. Attention is given to the "image of thought" and "image of life" that is derived from DG and the ancient schools (represented by Hadot) and how these impact ways of thinking and living.
Much of this paper weaves together secondary literature on Anzaldua's writings in an attempt to s... more Much of this paper weaves together secondary literature on Anzaldua's writings in an attempt to show how her political, spiritual, and linguistic themes interrelate. I take the view that they are really inseparable, all of them implicated in each other. However Anzaldua's spirituality significantly shapes her political thought / activism, and this is not given proportionately enough attention by scholars. This paper tries to counteract that.
I bring the theoretical work of JJ Gibson to bear on the McDowell-Dreyfus debate, and end up sidi... more I bring the theoretical work of JJ Gibson to bear on the McDowell-Dreyfus debate, and end up siding with Taylor's and Dreyfus' point of view in "Retrieving Realism." McDowell's thesis that the conceptual is unbounded doesn't hold up when we set a criteria of identity for determining if our experiential intake of the world is conceptual, and factor in our perception of affordances.
This paper was the basis for a talk given at the Thoreau Society Annual Gathering in 2015. What m... more This paper was the basis for a talk given at the Thoreau Society Annual Gathering in 2015. What may interest Thoreau scholars is the image of a phoenix, found in Walden's "Conclusion" (at the very end), which I unpack in the opening pages. The rest of the paper discusses how we can read Thoreau as a "mythistorian" calling for a revolutionary historical consciousness. Our historical narratives are sometimes written with a point of view and agenda that distort the facts, whereas our mythologies, understood in allegorical way, give a more accurate picture of the history of human suffering and even the way to transcend it.
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