Browsing Philosophy by Title
Now showing items 72-91 of 134
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Learning More and Knowing Less: Big Data, Spurious Correlations, and the Problem of Ignorance
(University of Waterloo, 2022-09-28)There are few things we can name that surpass big data’s boon for our empirical endeavours. Big data promises an ever-growing source of data that could be readily accessed by researchers in virtually any field of study. ... -
Logic In Context: An essay on the contextual foundations of logical pluralism
(University of Waterloo, 2013-10-02)The core pluralist thesis about logic, broadly construed, is the claim that two or more logics are correct. In this thesis I discuss a uniquely interesting variant of logical pluralism that I call logical contextualism. ... -
Logic in Pictures: An Examination of Diagrammatic Representations, Graph Theory and Logic
(University of Waterloo, 1994)This thesis explores the various forms of reasoning that are associated with diagrams. It does this by a logical analysis of diagrammatic symbols. The thesis is divided into three sections dealing with different aspects ... -
Mathematical Actualism: An Alternative Realist Philosophy of Mathematics
(University of Waterloo, 2022-09-23)The present thesis argues for a philosophy of mathematics, herein dubbed Actualism, which is contrasted with several existing views on the philosophy of mathematics. It begins with a brief introduction to the classical ... -
Mature Minor Eligibility for Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD): An Ethical Analysis
(University of Waterloo, 2021-08-24)Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) was legalized in Canada on June 17, 2016, following a landmark Supreme Court of Canada decision, Carter v. Canada (2015). Currently, the law controversially denies three groups access to ... -
The Measure Of Meaning
(University of Waterloo, 2007-09-27)There exists a broad inclination among those who theorize about mental representation to assume that the meanings of linguistic units, like words, are going to be identical to, and work exactly like, mental representations, ... -
Merleau-Ponty and the Preconceptions of Objective Thinking
(University of Waterloo, 2007-01-18)Maurice Merleau-Ponty thinks that many classical theories of perception, especially reductionism, are influenced by the objective and the scientific form of thinking. Such influence is expressed in two preconceptions. The ... -
Miracle Reports, Moral Philosophy, and Contemporary Science
(University of Waterloo, 2008-10-22)In the case of miracle reports, David Hume famously argued that there is something about "the very nature of the fact" to which the testimony testifies which contains the seeds of the testimony's destruction as credible ... -
A Misleading Tendency
(University of Waterloo, 2023-08-28)Communication is a powerful tool. We use it to share information, express how we feel, coordinate in cooperative endeavors, and so much more. However, we regularly use standard communicative devices like speech and gesture ... -
Moral Encroachment
(University of Waterloo, 2011-10-28)Can practical factors influence a subject's position to know? Traditionally this question has been answered in the negative. A subject's position to know proposition p is not thought to improve merely because the subject ... -
Moral Fictionalism and Moral Reasons
(University of Waterloo, 2008-08-28)One major problem with moral discourse is that we tend treat moral utterances as if they represent propositions. But complex metaphysical problems arise when we try to describe the nature of the moral facts that correspond ... -
Moral Responsibility and the Self
(University of Waterloo, 2011-08-31)Moral responsibility is an issue at the heart of the free-will debate. The question of how we can have moral responsibility in a deterministic world is an interesting and puzzling one. Compatibilists arguments have left ... -
A Multidimensional Model of Biological Sex
(University of Waterloo, 2012-01-10)This dissertation is about biological sex and how we ought to make sense of it. By biological sex I mean those elements of an individual’s body that are involved in reproduction of the individual’s species; by make sense ... -
Naturalizing Moral Judgment
(University of Waterloo, 2006-12-18)Philosophers have traditionally attempted to solve metaethical disputes about the nature of moral judgment through reasoned argument alone. Empirical evidence about how we do make moral judgments is often overlooked in ... -
The Nature of Pluralism in Economics: A Case Study of the Gender Wage Gap
(University of Waterloo, 2015-10-02)Understanding and measuring a socially relevant and complex phenomenon like the gender wage gap requires a thorough understanding of the causal factors arising in the real world. This thesis investigates the Marxist and ... -
Occurrent Contractarianism: A Preference-Based Ethical Theory
(University of Waterloo, 1995)There is a problem within contractarian ethics that I wish to resolve. It concerns individualpreferences. Contractarianism holds that morality, properly conceived, can satisfy individualpreferences and interests better ... -
ON BRANDS | An Investigation into the Nature of Consumer Brands | Are they real or constructed?
(University of Waterloo, 2014-10-08)This thesis investigates the nature of consumer brands in the context of the contemporary realism debate. It comprises three chapters. The first chapter introduces the what, the why and the how of brands, to wit: I describe ... -
Pathways of Influence: Understanding the Impacts of Philosophy of Science in Scientific Domains
(Springer, 2021-03-22)Philosophy of science has the potential to improve scientific practice, science policy, and science education; moreover, recent research indicates that many philosophers of science think we ought to increase the broader ... -
The Phenomenological Origins of Property
(University of Waterloo, 2018-09-26)This thesis delineates the phenomenological basis of ownership and property. The phenomenological theory of property has three main elements: the minimal self, the relationship between the sense of agency and the sense of ... -
THE PHILOSOPHICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF QUINE'S D-THESIS
(University of Waterloo, 2016-02-02)The philosophical significance of Quine's D-thesis is considered. The D-thesis - "Any statement can be held true come what may, if we make drastic enough adjustments elsewhere in the system? (W.V.0. Quine, From a Logical ...