11th annual Pacific University Undergraduate Philosophy Conference
April 20-21, 2007

Friday, April 20 (All Friday events in the United Church of Christ next to Pacific's campus)

• 4:00-6:00pm Registration
• 5:00-6:00pm Keynote talk; Hubert Dreyfus (UC Berkeley) "Are Men More Moral than Women: Habermas and Gilligan on Moral Maturity"
• 6:30-8:00pm Conference banquet

Saturday, April 21 (Registration and all paper sessions in Marsh Hall; meals are in the UCC church)

• 7:30-9:30am Regristration (Marsh second floor lobby)
• 7:00-8:00am Breakfast (UCC Church)
• 8:00-9:30 Paper Session #1
  • PLATO (Marsh LL5)
  • Ethan Knecht (Fordham University), "Plato and Pleasure: An argument against the hedonist calculus view"
  • Commentator: Corey Sawkins (University of British Columbia, Okanagan)
  • Paul Morrow (Miami University of Ohio), "Aporetically Ever After"
  • Commentator: Adam Westra (University of British Columbia)
  • PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE (Marsh 101)
  • Josh Dhanens (California State University, Bakersfield), "Corroboration and Its Practical Application"
  • Commentator: Erica Shumener (New York University)
  • Stephen Foster (Southwestern University), "Conceiving of Distance: Intersection of Metaphysics and Epistemology"
  • Commentator:
  • AESTHETICS (Marsh 106)
  • Amanda Chan (University of Washington), "An Account of Film Narration Through Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window"
  • Commentator: Dean Croshere (Pacific University)
  • ASIAN PHILOSOPHY (Marsh 201)
  • Daniel Brooks (Boston University), "Foundationalism as Platonism: An interpretation of Svatantrika-Madhyamaka Philosophy"
  • Commentator: DeAnn Gerlick (Washington State University)
  • Patrick Lummen (Grand Valley State University), "Social Engagement from a Buddhist Perspective: Oxymoron or compassionate development?"
  • Commentator: Timothy Johnston (Loyola University Chicago)
  • PERSONS (Marsh 206)
  • Lindsey Webb (Pacific Lutheran University), "The Capabilities Approach, Nonhuman Animals, and the Possibilites for Biomedical Research"
  • Commentator: Laura Guidry-Grimes (Florida State University)
  • Sarah Cadigan (St. Michael's College), "The Rights and Value of People with Disabilities: A look at Peter Singer's philosophy in Taking Lives and Related Ideas about the Humanness of Disabled Persons"
  • Commentator: Lindsey Webb (Pacific Lutheran University)
  • SOCIAL/POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY (Marsh 207)
  • Adam Adler (Georgia State University), "Reconcilable Differences: Interplay between religion, ethics and law"
  • Commentator: Ryan Jenkins (Florida State University)
  • Arianna Beck (University of Washington), "A Responsibilities-based Account of Family"
  • Commentator:
  • PHILOSOPHY OF MIND (Marsh 212)
  • Kendra Besanger (University of Victoria), "An Examination of Subjectivity: Why can't science find it? But if it is found, will it matter?"
  • Commentator:
  • Jonathan Knaup (California State University, Fullerton), "Theism's Causal Defense"
  • Commentator: Jean Laschever (Pacific University)
  • EPISTEMOLOGY (Marsh 213)
  • Trey Boone (Lewis & Clark College), "Justification: A post hoc evaluation?"
  • Commentator: Ben Rohrs (Biola University)
  • Devin Chalmers (Reed College), "Coherence and Skepticism"
  • Commentator: Ben Creasy (Pacific University)
  • ARISTOTLE (Marsh 214)
  • Allison Glasscock (Western Oregon University), "The Implicit Mean: A search for an accurate account of the soul"
  • Commentator: Jason Warren (Boise State University)
  • Benjamin Hole IV (Lewis & Clark College), "Should Aristotle's Doctrine of the Mean Be Thought of in Terms of Quantity?: Reflections on Curzer's quantitative interpretation"
  • Commentator: Kristin Williams (Reed College)
• 9:45-11:15 Paper Session #2
  • PLATO (Marsh LL5)
  • Robert Reed (Baylor University), "Concerning Noble Lies and Noble Savages"
  • Commentator: Christopher Taylor (Texas A&M University)
  • Diane Steinmeyer (Willamette University), "The Puzzle of False Belief in Plato's Theaetatus"
  • Commentator: Jeffrey Breitenfeldt (Pacific University)
  • PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE (Marsh 101)
  • Phillip Torres (University of Maryland), "Darden, Kuhn, and Mendelism"
  • Commentator: Amanda Lamb (Lewis & Clark College)
  • Joshua Earlenbaugh (University of Missouri-Kansas City), "Scientific Theories are Really More Than Instruments"
  • Commentator: Roger Hunt (Montana State University)
  • AESTHETICS (Marsh 106)
  • Everett Kramer (University of Michigan), "Opaque Shadows: On the transparency of photographs and film"
  • Commentator: Amanda Chan (University of Washington)
  • Bryan Norwood (Mississippi State University) "Empiricism and Rationalism Resolved by Architecture?: Locke and Descartes reexamined through the architectural theory of Claude Perrault"
  • Commentator: Ivan Heyman (University of Washington)
  • ASIAN PHILOSOPHY (Marsh 201)
  • Timothy Johnston (Loyola University Chicago), "Dao and Difference: Understanding the Path-Making of Harmony"
  • Commentator: Brad Grenz (Willamette University)
  • Aaron Pratt (Pacific University), "'There Is No Spoon': Discovering the supreme reality within"
  • Commentator: Patrick Lummen (Grand Valley State University)
  • PERSONS (Marsh 206)
  • Waylon Bryson (Washington State University), "The Fetus is Trapped in a Metaphysical No-Man's-Land"
  • Commentator: Megan Banks (Pacific Lutheran University)
  • Luis Montes (Azusa Pacific University), "Identity Loosely Construed"
  • Commentator: Katharine Schweitzer (Miami University of Ohio)
  • SOCIAL/POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY (Marsh 207)
  • Jeffrey Ewing (Eastern Washington University), "On the Right to Welfare"
  • Commentator: Keith Hankins (Brown University)
  • Melissa Ruhl (University of Oregon), "The Child Laborer"
  • Commentator: Asia Ferrin (Westminster College)
  • PHILOSOPHY OF MIND(Marsh 212)
  • Laura Guidry-Grimes (Florida State University), "Exploring Objective and Normative Conceptions of 'Psychological Malady'"
  • Commentator: Aaron Timm (Western Oregon University)
  • Erica Shumener (New York University), "Can Non-Reductive Materialism Escape the Jaws of Epiphenomenalism?"
  • Commentator: Mike Oliver (California State University, Fresno)
  • EPISTEMOLOGY (Marsh 213)
  • Errol Lord (Arizona State University), "Common Sense, Reliability, and Luminosity in Williamson's Anti-Luminosity Argument"
  • Commentator:
  • ARISTOTLE (Marsh 214)
  • Jason Warren (Boise State University), "Catharsis and Stand-Up Comedy"
  • Commentator: Ben Hole IV (Lewis & Clark College)
  • Mat Yunker (Willamette University), "Virtue, Eudaimonia, and the Epistemic Problem in the Nicomachean Ethics"
  • Commentator: Megan Henricks (Denison University)
• 11:30-1:00 Paper Session #3
  • PLATO (Marsh LL5)
  • Adam Westra (University of British Columbia), "Man, Paradox, Myth: Plato's Philosophical Pedagogy"
  • Commentator: Beata Bujalski (California State University, Fullerton)
  • Julian Gonzalez (St. Edward's University), "Implications of Philosophical Discourse Being Mimetic: An argument of The Phaedrus and Jacques Derrida"
  • Commentator: Peter Van Elswyk (Biola University)
  • PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE (Marsh 101)
  • Liron Greenstein (Rutgers University), "Who Can't You Trust: The possibility of justifying trust between scientists"
  • Commentator: Joshua Earlenbaugh (University of Missouri - Kansas City)
  • Roger Hunt (Montana State University), "Socially Dependent Science"
  • Commentator: Mat Yunker (Willamette University)
  • AESTHETICS (Marsh 106)
  • Alec Rosekrans (University of California, Berkeley), "Not Just a Matter of Taste: 'Pure aestehtics' as mass deception"
  • Commentator: Everett Kramer (University of Michigan)
  • Chris Scott (University of Portland), "Clear Channel, The Corporate Music Industry, Marx, and Exploitation of the Musician"
  • Commentator: Melissa Ruhl (University of Oregon)
  • HEIDEGGER (Marsh 201)
  • Eli Ashe (University of Washington), "Ontology : Essay I"
  • Commentator: Justin Sanders (Central Washington University)
  • Matt Bower (Beloit College), "Heidegger on Descartes' Worldless Subject"
  • Commentator: Paul Morrow (Miami University of Ohio)
  • KIERKEGAARD (Marsh 206)
  • Nikolas Djordjevski (Humboldt State University), "A Meaningful Existence"
  • Commentator: Josh Dhanens (California State University, Bakersfield)
  • Jacob Swenson (Willamette University), "Authenticity and Commitment"
  • Commentator:
  • PHILOSOPHY OF LANGUAGE (Marsh 207)
  • Chalres Montgomery (Willamette University), "Wittgenstein on Private Language"
  • Commentator: Leonard Randall (Northwest University)
  • PHILOSOPHY OF MIND (Marsh 212)
  • Andrew Wong (Washington University), "Does Anomolous Monism Have Explanatory Force?"
  • Commentator: Trey Boone (Lewis & Clark College)
  • EPISTEMOLOGY (Marsh 213)
  • Ben Rohrs (Biola University), "Skeptical Theism Without Moral Skepticism: A comment on the exchange between Almeida-Oppy and Bergmann-Rae"
  • Commentator: Arianna Beck (University of Washington)
  • Kate Ritchie (Lewis & Clark College), "Saliency, Closure, and Contextualism"
  • Commentator: Errol Lord (Arizona State University)
  • PHILOSOPHY OF TECHNOLOGY (Marsh 214)
  • Nick Fortier (Northeastern University), "The Question Concerning Technology, Revisited"
  • Commentator: Brian Rochel (Hamline University)
  • Brian Rochel (Hamline University), "No End in Sight: Dewey and Heidegger on Science and Technology"
  • Commentator: Daniel Brooks (Boston University)
• 1:00-2:15 Lunch (UCC Church)
• 2:15-3:45 Paper Session #4
  • FREE WILL (Marsh LL5)
  • Daniel Moak (Willamette University), "Libertarian Freedom and the Problem of Ownership"
  • Commentator: Billl Campbell (Pacific University)
  • Leonard Randall (Northwest University), "Intentional Decision-Making: Addressing Problems Raised in John Searle's Account of Physical Determinism and the Experience of Freedom"
  • Commentator: Bryon Norwood (Mississippi State University)
  • HEGEL (Marsh 101)
  • Chelsea Egbert (University of Portland), "Feminist Critiques of Hegel and Marx: Difference and Humanity"
  • Commentator: Jessica Bowen (Thompson Rivers University)
  • Megan Henricks (Denison University), "Explaining Change: An Analysis of the Hegelian Dialectic"
  • Commentator: Ted Pennings III (University of California, Santa Cruz)
  • HUME (Marsh 106)
  • Melissa Schumacher (North Carolina State University), "Saints and Sensibility: Hume on the Irrationality of Religious Belief"
  • Commentator: Saurabh Varma (Amherst College)
  • HEIDEGGER (Marsh 201)
  • Justin Sanders (Central Washington University), "Forgetful Metaphysics"
  • Commentator: Dan Briggs (Bennington College)
  • Wendy Salkin (New York University), "A Discussion of the Relationship Between Spatiality and Angst in Being and Time"
  • Commentator: Dan Briggs (Bennington College)
  • NIETZSCHE (Marsh 206)
  • Christopher Paul Graves (University of Houston), "Beyond Consciousness: Sigmund Freud and Friedrich Nietzsche on Unconscious Psychic Life"
  • Commentator: Ronald Baumiller (Duquesne University)
  • Warren Hynson (North Carolina State University), "Nietzsche: Overman and the Christian"
  • Commentator: Eli Ashe (University of Washington)
  • PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY (Marsh 207)
  • Lindita Çiko (Boston University), "The Suprahistorical in Nietzsche's "On the Uses and Disadvantages of History for Life"
  • Commentator: Waylon Bryson (Washington State University)
  • Michael Hannon (York University), "History and Conjecture: Humboldt and the 'Correspondence -Coherence Theory of History'"
  • Commentator: Frank Capeta (George Fox University)
  • MORAL RESPONSIBILITY (Marsh 212)
  • Jessica Bowen (Thompson Rivers University), "Jones' Theory of Moral Responsibility: An assessment of duty, responsibility, and character"
  • Commentator: Asia Ferrin (Westminster College)
  • EPISTEMOLOGY (Marsh 213)
  • Saurubh Varma (Amherst College), "Defending Descartes and Attacking Moore"
  • Commentator: Matt Bower (Beloit College)
  • Daniel Catlin (Kalamazoo College), "Living the Meliorative Project"
  • Commentator: Diane Steinmeyer (Willamette University)
  • ETHICS (Marsh 214)
  • Jeffrey Bilbro (George Fox University), "Answers in Community"
  • Commentator: Matt Trotter (Pacific University)
  • Noah Fonosch (University of California, Riverside), "The Meaning of Life: An introspective look between subjective and objective views"
  • Commentator: Elliot Smith (Lewis & Clark College)
• 4:00-6:15 Paper Session #5
  • BAUDRILLARD/DERRIDA (Marsh LL5)
  • Ronald Baumiller (Duquesne University), "Similacra and Eidola: A comparative essay on the metaphysical ramifications of images"
  • Commentator: Kendra Besanger (University of Victoria)
  • Jeffrey Breitenfeldt (Pacific University), "(Re)constructing Derrida and Baudrillard through Platonic Epistemology"
  • Commentator: Joe Balay (Seattle University)
  • Dan Briggs (Bennington College), "Indebtedness and the Possibility of the Gift"
  • Commentator: Gina Altamura (Lewis & Clark College)
  • KANT (Marsh 101)
  • Ginamarie Lopez (University of California, Berkeley), "Reading Kant in Light of Hegel: Reading Beyond the Particulars"
  • Commentator: Jacob Swenson (Willamette University)
  • Mike Oliver (University of California, Fresno), "Kantian Notions and Inferentialist Semantics"
  • Commentator: Eli Ashe (University of Washington)
  • Christopher Taylor (Texas A&M University), "A Critique of Judgment in Electronic Aesthetics"
  • Commentator: Corey Sawkins (University of British Columbia, Okanagan)
  • PHILOSOPHY OF EXPERIENCE (Marsh 106)
  • Beata Bujalska (California State University, Fullerton), "Mindreading and Autism"
  • Commentator: KathyMae Dickinson (Central Washington University)
  • Justine Calcagno (University of Oregon), "The Primacy of Relation"
  • Commentator: Rebecca Basham-Sanchez (Pacific University)
  • Ryan Jenkins (Florida State University), "The Experience Machine: Pickup Sticks and Poetry"
  • Commentator: Michael Russo (Pacific University)
  • METAPHILOSOPHY (Marsh 201)
  • Keith Hankins (Brown University), "Restoring Faith in the Enlightenment Project: Defending Liberalism and the Enlightenment Moral Project from MacIntyre's Critique"
  • Commentator: Jeffrey Ewing (Eastern Washington University)
  • Ted Pennings III (University of California, Santa Cruz), "Reading Frege/Hegel in Analytic/ Continental"
  • Commentator: Matt Braich (Lewis & Clark College)
  • Rommel Wells (Miami University of Ohio), "Lebenswelt and Lebensformen: The diasporic connection to home in Husserl and Wittgenstein"
  • Commentator:
  • ETHICS (Marsh 206)
  • Adrienne Carpenter (St. Edward's University), "The Worlds of Medical Science, Morbid Phenomenon, and Clinical Interactions: How the bio-statistical theory precludes nuanced understanding and pragmatic treatment"
  • Commentator: Liz Loiselle (Pacific University)
  • Kristin Williams (Reed College), "Moving Away from Bad Examples"
  • Commentator: Wendy Salkin (New York University)
  • GöDEL (Marsh 207)
  • Corey Sawkins (University of British Columbia, Okanagan), "Gödel's Theorems: The philosophical implications"
  • Commentator: Melissa Schumacher (North Carolina State University)
  • MORAL RESPONSIBILITY (Marsh 212)
  • Asia Ferrin (Westminster College), "T-shirts and Hamburgers: Our moral obligation to stop affluent consumption"
  • Commentator: Mike Reynolds (Ball State University)
  • Daniel Moose (University of Arkansas), "A Theory of Moral Responsibility: An exploration of guidance control and the principle of alternate possibilities"
  • Commentator: Ethan Knecht (Fordham University)
  • Mike Reynolds (Ball State University), "Responsibility"
  • Commentator: Jeffrey Bilbro (George Fox University)
  • EPISTEMOLOGY (Marsh 213)
  • Amanda Lamb (Lewis & Clark College), "To Infinity and Beyond: The problems with Klein's infinitism"
  • Commentator:
  • Nic Koziolek (Colgate University), "Justification and Objectivity: An essay on the sources of skepticism"
  • Commentator: Devin Chalmers (Reed College)
  • Matt Harte (Kalamazoo College), "Alternate Deontological Theories of Justification and Epistemic Self-Improvment"
  • Commentator: Robert Reed (Baylor University)
  • PHENOMENOLOGY (Marsh 214)
  • Katharine Schweitzer (Miami University of Ohio), "A Place for Hope in Husserl's Phenomenology of Wishing and Willing"
  • Commentator: David Corse (Portland State University)
  • Sarah Morales (University of Michigan, Dearborn), "Sartre on 'Bad Faith'"
  • Commentator: Lindita Çiko (Boston University)
  • KathyMae Dickinson (Central Washington University), "What Kind of Being Am I?"
  • Commentator: Nick Fortier (Northeastern University)