In this thesis, I will argue that the individual can resist the status quo, that is the existing state of affairs. A resistance through art. I do not interpret art as just a painting, but I use a...Show moreIn this thesis, I will argue that the individual can resist the status quo, that is the existing state of affairs. A resistance through art. I do not interpret art as just a painting, but I use a broader conceptualization in which all aspects of human life guided by aesthetics, that is guided by a demand for a creative and beautiful sensual existence, can be seen as art. I will explore resistance as an aesthetic practice by reading the twentieth-century philosophers Herbert Marcuse and Michel Foucault alongside one another. Both authors analysed how individuals are constituted within systems of power and how dominant structures of power can be resisted. I will argue that their theories are not only compatible with each other, but that they also complement one another. Taken together, both theories present the individual with the opportunity to resist the status quo through a form of aesthetic practices.Show less
The primacy of morality in guiding real-world politics has been highly debated due to the failure of normative prescriptions to adequately address the nuances of politics and political values. The...Show moreThe primacy of morality in guiding real-world politics has been highly debated due to the failure of normative prescriptions to adequately address the nuances of politics and political values. The capability approach has become increasingly influential in its contributions to policy challenges. This thesis will look at Martha Nussbaum’s partial theory of justice within capability literature as an example of a pre-political, normative prescription to discuss the issues idealism and political moralism face, as presented by Bernard Williams. The idealism vs realism debate will be used to question the theoretical grounds of moral philosophers and political moralism, emphasising the importance of political realism in support of Amartya Sen’s political approach. This paper will provide an alternative to political moralism in thinking about justice in the capability space, highlighting the merits of social choice theory as a form of political realism.Show less
Moral enhancement is the improvement of our motivation to do the morally right thing. This paper tries to give a clearer view on moral enhancement and its possible connection to duties. This is...Show moreMoral enhancement is the improvement of our motivation to do the morally right thing. This paper tries to give a clearer view on moral enhancement and its possible connection to duties. This is done by researching the claim of Persson and Savulescu who say that moral enhancement should be a duty. Three important aspects will be analyzed to understand, criticize and expand on their argument. The first important aspect that will be covered is the justification that Persson and Savulescu give for moral enhancement to be a duty. It will be argued that this connection is weak and underdeveloped. I shall try to connect their argument to the Kantian duties of a duty to others and a duty to oneself to make this connection stronger and more clear. The second aspect is the defensibility of moral enhancement. Arguments from freedom of choice and mental freedom will be applied to the definition of moral enhancement of Persson and Savulescu. It will become clear that the main argument of the authors is less defendable against the arguments from mental freedom. The third aspect that will be analyzed is the content of moral enhancement. The moral attitudes of altruism and a sense of justice that the authors determine will be criticized. A possible alternative Kantian attitude will be proposed and criticized. This paper concludes that main argument of Persson and Savulescu can successfully be connected to Kantian duties. This connection is, however, not without problems.Show less
The political problem of dirty hands refers to a situation where a politician must act immorally in order to achieve moral outcomes — doing wrong to do right (Wizje 2007). The philosophy of this...Show moreThe political problem of dirty hands refers to a situation where a politician must act immorally in order to achieve moral outcomes — doing wrong to do right (Wizje 2007). The philosophy of this problem debates the exact criteria that a moral conflict has to meet in order to be a case of dirty hands, and what we ought to do in such a scenario. By following the footsteps of Walzer’s seminal article I will argue his approach to normative moral absolutist is philosophically dissatisfactory. Reconstruction of Tillyris’ dynamic narrative telos-based virtue ethical approach mimics moral absolutist normativity without problematizing the overall thesis of DH. I will then argue for an agent-inwardness problem that Tillyris' theory faces, and introduce an alternative “virtuous political” approach, namely, virtue politics, which solves the problem by incorporating both the political action and the moral agent. Virtue politics is constructed from a comparative study of dirty hands in Confucian thought articulated by Kim Sungmoon (2016), with a particular focus on Mencius’ writings.Show less
In this paper I bring the vocabulary of disability studies in conversation with queer philosophical reflection to re-read the violent “enabling” educational practices that are applied unto autistic...Show moreIn this paper I bring the vocabulary of disability studies in conversation with queer philosophical reflection to re-read the violent “enabling” educational practices that are applied unto autistic subjects. By using the term violence I am not only referring to the usage of physical force, but mainly to the simplification and realisation of bodies to a core pre-supposed essence. In doing so I am in conversation with queer studies (Kafer, Federici) and critical race theory (Hall, Spivak). Yet, I will expand their thinking by reading the diagnosis of autism within an educational context exists as an interpretation of epistemic dis-ability. The term dis-ability highlighting the fact that a diagnosis is an interventions into a momentary state of disability with the explicit expectations that it should be overcome through the enabling intervention of education. I will further demonstrate that this demarcation of dis-ability is applied beyond the obvious cases of “disabled” bodies and can be traced to the epistemically violent treatment of othered bodies. Thus, the reading of autism functions as a litmus-test that reveals the underlying framing of normalising education to be the rhetoric of caring, which functions as a justification for the employment of violent epistemic stereotyping as a tool to make disabled bodies abled. The target this work can thus claim to have is not violent educational practices in themselves, but the attempt to fixate a simplifying meaning through claims to nature, common sense and othering practices. This is because they end the types of discourse we can have, reading every bit of noise and silence as a justification of itself. Leaving us unable to ask if the dream of a mature society justifies the violent means it attempts to realise itself through.Show less
Theories of grounding about material objects often take either (1) the small to ground the large, or (2) the large to ground the small. For the first theory, called priority atomism, the smallest...Show moreTheories of grounding about material objects often take either (1) the small to ground the large, or (2) the large to ground the small. For the first theory, called priority atomism, the smallest things – primitives, elementary particles, etcetera – are fundamental. For the second theory, called priority monism, the biggest thing – the universal object, the cosmos, etcetera – is fundamental. I contend, however, that a third option is left largely unexamined. What if the objects in the middle are fundamental? This third theory, a kind of priority midlingism, takes the middle to ground both the large and the small. In this paper, I will argue that priority midlingism is at least plausible, and should be taken seriously.Show less
