Theses and Dissertations
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Browsing Theses and Dissertations by Author "Archie, Andre, committee member"
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Item Open Access David Hume's theory of justice: an examination of the possibility of an instinctual concept of property and natural virtue of justice(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2015) Maimone, Charles L., author; Rollin, Bernard, advisor; Archie, Andre, committee member; Hickey, Matthew, committee memberIn this work I argue that David Hume's classification of the virtue of justice as artificial is mistaken, and propose that the possibility of the existence of a natural virtue of justice should be taken seriously within Hume's moral framework. In the first chapter of this work, I present Hume's moral theory, with a focus on Hume's distinction between natural and artificial virtues. In the second chapter, I argue that Hume's certainty concerning the classification of justice as an artificial virtue is mistaken, and offer a positive account of the possibility of a natural origin, and ultimately a natural virtue of justice. In the third chapter I will entertain possible objections Hume might offer to my argumentation, and offer responses accordingly.Item Open Access How to prioritize as a citizen of the universe(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2024) Colter, Jackson T., author; Kasser, Jeff, advisor; Archie, Andre, committee member; Heineman, Kristin, committee memberStoicism has gained a bit of popularity in certain circles recently, and much of this popularity revolves around the way that Stoicism enables and guides moral progress on an individual level, regardless of the circumstances. However, Stoic ethics also features an element of cosmopolitanism - essentially, other-oriented ethical principles that an ideal Stoic would follow. These principles tell us that we are all members of a common rational community, with every agent in the rationally organized universe being a member of this community. Naturally, the human lifespan is not long enough to equally address every rational being in the universe, so some sort of prioritization is required. However, Stoics place two requirements on our actions. We must ground our actions in knowledge, and both Marcus Aurelius and Epictetus directly advise us to avoid unnecessary actions. These requirements combined with the other-oriented moral principles lead Stoics to a state of moral paralysis - where the actions that seem to be morally required of them are epistemically unjustified. This paralysis needs to be solved if Stoicism is to serve as a meaningful system of other-oriented ethics. Fortunately, an account of expertise is given in a piece of secondary literature by Simon Shogry which, combined with later Stoic insights, serves to alleviate this paralysis.Item Embargo Legalism reconsidered: Weberian problems and Confucian solutions in the Han Feizi(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2024) Smith, Jackson T., author; Harris, Eirik Lang, advisor; Archie, Andre, committee member; Blanchard, Nathaniel, committee memberAfter a thorough analysis of the political-philosophical climate of Warring States era China, I argue that Han Feizian Legalism is ultimately untenable on account of its necessarily sprawling bureaucratic apparatus which precludes adaptability and rapid response in the face of both internal and external crises. I show further that while Han Fei's criticisms of Confucianism are serious problems for the Confucian theorist, they are not vicious to generally cultivationist political theory. I go on to offer, through a synthesis of Confucian and Legalist doctrines, a solution which manages to patch the holes in both accounts and ultimately forge a broadly neo-classical approach to political organization, Legalism+, which relies on an epistemic naturalism à la Plato as the synthetic ground for Confucian and Legalist theory.