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Title: POSITIVE INDIVIDUALISM.
Creator: Perdomo, Rebecca, Jones, Donald, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: I will present and defend the notion of what I call Positive Individualism. Its purpose is to set forth a standard by which people are to treat others and themselves. I consider a common conception of individualism, its flaws, and a process of refining it. I formulate Positive Individualism, an idea in which every individual is valuable and therefore ought to be treated with respect and dignity by others. If this conception and the standards set forth were to be applied, communities would be...
Show moreI will present and defend the notion of what I call Positive Individualism. Its purpose is to set forth a standard by which people are to treat others and themselves. I consider a common conception of individualism, its flaws, and a process of refining it. I formulate Positive Individualism, an idea in which every individual is valuable and therefore ought to be treated with respect and dignity by others. If this conception and the standards set forth were to be applied, communities would be able to function successfully and without compromising the individual since, as I argue, the individual is the root of decision and action.
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Date Issued: 2014
Identifier: CFH0004642, ucf:45324
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFH0004642

Title: ALCOHOLISM, A.A., AND THE CHALLENGE OF AUTHENTICITY.
Creator: Madden, Patricia, Jones, Donald, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: This thesis examines the possibilities of living an authentic life for an alcoholic, both in and out of Alcoholics Anonymous. Authenticity is explored using the existential models put forth by Jean-Paul Sartre and Soren Kierkegaard. Alcoholics Anonymous figures prominently in this analysis. It is suggested that A.A. acts inauthentically in its claims that it is not a religious organization. A.A. creates special problems for female alcoholics because of the sexist and masculinist nature of its...
Show moreThis thesis examines the possibilities of living an authentic life for an alcoholic, both in and out of Alcoholics Anonymous. Authenticity is explored using the existential models put forth by Jean-Paul Sartre and Soren Kierkegaard. Alcoholics Anonymous figures prominently in this analysis. It is suggested that A.A. acts inauthentically in its claims that it is not a religious organization. A.A. creates special problems for female alcoholics because of the sexist and masculinist nature of its primary literature. While A.A. claims that its message is the only way by which an alcoholic can recover, other treatment methods exist. Suggestions are made that A.A. revise its main texts, and two alternative organizations to A.A. are briefly discussed.
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Date Issued: 2005
Identifier: CFE0000374, ucf:46329
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0000374

Title: DOGS IN A VILLAGE.
Creator: Porter, Karen, Jones, Donald, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: Nearly all of the histories of Shays's Rebellion point to debt as the reason why farmers in western Massachusetts rose against the courts and the state government in the fall and winter of 1786-87. Recent scholarship demonstrates a new line of reasoning based on the tax records of those involved. The following thesis, a screenplay, offers a fictional telling of this insurgency. The story is told using language pulled from contemporary letters and documents and follows a line of causation...
Show moreNearly all of the histories of Shays's Rebellion point to debt as the reason why farmers in western Massachusetts rose against the courts and the state government in the fall and winter of 1786-87. Recent scholarship demonstrates a new line of reasoning based on the tax records of those involved. The following thesis, a screenplay, offers a fictional telling of this insurgency. The story is told using language pulled from contemporary letters and documents and follows a line of causation pointing to inequitable state tax structure and poor representation as the provocation. The response that ensued was not a rebellion – it was a Regulation.
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Date Issued: 2006
Identifier: CFE0001051, ucf:46829
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0001051

Title: DIRECT REFERENCE AND EMPTY NAMES.
Creator: Cook, Benjamin, Jones, Donald, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: The purpose of my thesis is to explore and assess recent efforts by Direct Reference Theorists to explain the phenomenon of empty names. Direct Reference theory is, roughly, the theory that the meaning of a singular term (proper name, demonstrative, etc.) is simply its referent. Certain sentences, such as negative existentials ("Santa does not exist"), and sentences in contexts of fiction ("Holmes lived on Baker Street"), present the following challenge to DR Theory: Given that the semantic...
Show moreThe purpose of my thesis is to explore and assess recent efforts by Direct Reference Theorists to explain the phenomenon of empty names. Direct Reference theory is, roughly, the theory that the meaning of a singular term (proper name, demonstrative, etc.) is simply its referent. Certain sentences, such as negative existentials ("Santa does not exist"), and sentences in contexts of fiction ("Holmes lived on Baker Street"), present the following challenge to DR Theory: Given that the semantic value of a name is simply its referent, how are we to explain the significance and truth-evaluability of such sentences? There have been various approaches DR Theorists have taken to address this problem, including the Pragmatic Strategy, Pretense Theory, Abstract Object Theory, and the Metalinguistic Strategy. All of these views are analyzed and assessed according to their various strengths and weaknesses. It is concluded that, overall, a Metalinguistic Strategy, supplemented by the notion of pretense, best deals with negative existentials and normal-subject predicate occurrences of empty names, Abstract Object Theory best deals with empty names in meta-fictional contexts, and Pretense Theory best deals with empty names in object-fictional contexts.
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Date Issued: 2013
Identifier: CFH0004491, ucf:45063
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFH0004491

Title: A MARXIAN CONCEPT OF HUMAN NATURE IN DEFENSE OF ALIENATION: A REVOLUTIONARY EXEGESIS OF A REVOLUTIONARY PHILOSOPHY.
Creator: Byron, Christopher, Jones, Donald, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: Two long-standing and erroneous claims have plagued Marxism for the past century. First, Marx held no static view of human-nature. Second, Marx's theory of alienation was the naïve view of a young Marx, which was jettisoned in his wiser adult years. Both views are demonstrable false. Moreover, the validity of his theory of human nature, and alienation, are contingent upon the acceptance of each other. One cannot fully comprehend his view of alienation without understanding his view of human...
Show moreTwo long-standing and erroneous claims have plagued Marxism for the past century. First, Marx held no static view of human-nature. Second, Marx's theory of alienation was the naïve view of a young Marx, which was jettisoned in his wiser adult years. Both views are demonstrable false. Moreover, the validity of his theory of human nature, and alienation, are contingent upon the acceptance of each other. One cannot fully comprehend his view of alienation without understanding his view of human nature, and vice versa. Upon demonstrating Marx's theory of human nature, and defending it as a crucial bedrock for the theory of alienation, mainstream rejections of each will be considered, and critiqued. The constant misunderstanding of Marx's theory of human nature comes in his unique theory of essence. He is an essentialist, with a fluid conception of man's essence. One's historical essence is an ensemble of socio-historical reflections, dialectically interplaying off a historically transcending essentialism.
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Date Issued: 2012
Identifier: CFH0004149, ucf:44831
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFH0004149

Title: THE END OF U.S. MILITARY DETAINEE OPERATIONS AT ABU GHRAIB, IRAQ.
Creator: Allgood, Michael, Jones, Donald, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: Operation Iraqi Freedom launched with the backing of U.S. Coalition Forces (CF) on March 20, 2003 to remove Saddam Hussein from power. The United States occupied Iraq by bombing and cleansing Iraq of weapons (Dahabour 105-130). During the first year of occupation U.S. soldiers at the detention facility Abu Ghraib tortured detainees in their charge. This torture becomes known to the public through worldwide media coverage in May 2004. My thesis will cover my service as a Military Police...
Show moreOperation Iraqi Freedom launched with the backing of U.S. Coalition Forces (CF) on March 20, 2003 to remove Saddam Hussein from power. The United States occupied Iraq by bombing and cleansing Iraq of weapons (Dahabour 105-130). During the first year of occupation U.S. soldiers at the detention facility Abu Ghraib tortured detainees in their charge. This torture becomes known to the public through worldwide media coverage in May 2004. My thesis will cover my service as a Military Police officer (MP) at Abu Ghraib from December 2005-August 2006. During my tour of duty at Abu Ghraib I was required to complete the military goals for success which conflicted with some of my own beliefs and moral values. In this thesis I write an autobiographical description of my nine months of duty as an MP at the U.S. military Forward Operating Base (FOB) Abu Ghraib. I use my own photographs to recreate the environment as vividly as possible for my story. This thesis helps to explain some of the frustrations that U.S. military personnel experience. The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) needs to conduct, and implement research on how to prevent military personnel from torturing detainees. After the research is conducted the DOD needs to implement that research in detainee operations. That includes a need for more realistic detainee operations training that emphasizes not torturing detainees, and it should be the standard for all the U.S. military branches.
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Date Issued: 2009
Identifier: CFE0002791, ucf:48127
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0002791

Title: The Sacrament of Violence: Myth and War in C.S. Lewis's Ransom Trilogy.
Creator: Engelhardt, Tanya, Campbell, James, Dandrow, Edward, Jones, Donald, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: My primary aim for this study is to illuminate the Ransom trilogy's inherent psychological and spiritual themes, as well as demonstrate how these themes clarify Lewis's philosophical and political goals for the text. Specifically, by investigating Lewis's mythic imagery and suffering motifs in light of psychoanalytic and theological literary criticisms, I elucidate the reasoning behind Lewis's unique(-)and at times, horrific(-)portrayal of fear, violence, and death. I also investigate how...
Show moreMy primary aim for this study is to illuminate the Ransom trilogy's inherent psychological and spiritual themes, as well as demonstrate how these themes clarify Lewis's philosophical and political goals for the text. Specifically, by investigating Lewis's mythic imagery and suffering motifs in light of psychoanalytic and theological literary criticisms, I elucidate the reasoning behind Lewis's unique(-)and at times, horrific(-)portrayal of fear, violence, and death. I also investigate how Lewis integrates his theology with the horrors of personal and intrapersonal suffering, as well as how he utilizes imagination and myth to explicate the practical (or political) implications of his theodicy. As a whole, I present a systematic study of the relationship between the Great War, myth, and the three Ransom novels, one which reveals how Lewis manipulates his personal traumatic experiences to fashion a romantic Christian understanding of evil and violence in the modern world.
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Date Issued: 2012
Identifier: CFE0004279, ucf:49503
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0004279

Title: Physiological Reactions to Uncanny Stimuli: Substantiation of Self-Assessment and Individual Perception in User Enjoyment and Comfort.
Creator: Ballion, Tatiana, Sims, Valerie, Chin, Matthew, Jones, Donald, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: There is abundant anecdotal evidence substantiating Mori's initial observation of the "uncanny valley", a point at which human response to non-human entities drops sharply with respect to comfort (Mori, 1970), and the construct itself has a long-standing history in both Robotics and Psychology. Currently, many fields such as design, training, entertainment, and education make use of heuristic approaches to accommodate the anticipated needs of the user/consumer/audience in certain important...
Show moreThere is abundant anecdotal evidence substantiating Mori's initial observation of the "uncanny valley", a point at which human response to non-human entities drops sharply with respect to comfort (Mori, 1970), and the construct itself has a long-standing history in both Robotics and Psychology. Currently, many fields such as design, training, entertainment, and education make use of heuristic approaches to accommodate the anticipated needs of the user/consumer/audience in certain important aspects. This is due to the lack of empirical substantiation or, in some cases, the impossibility of rigorous quantification; one such area is with respect to the user's experience of uncanniness, a feeling of "eeriness" or "wrongness" when interacting with artefacts or environments. Uncanniness, however, continues to be defined and measured in a largely subjective way, and often after the fact; an experience or product's uncanny features are pointed out after the item has been markedly avoided or complained about by the general public. These studies are among the first seeking to determine a constellation of personality traits and physiological responses that incline the user to have a more frequent or profound (")uncanny" reaction when presented with stimuli meeting the criteria for a level of "eeriness". In study 1, 395 adults were asked to categorize 200 images as uncanny, neutral, pleasant, or other. In Study 2, physiological and eye-tracking data was collected from twenty two adults as they viewed uncanny, neutral and pleasant images culled from study 1. This research identifies components of the uncanny valley related to subjective assessment, personality factors (using the HEXACO and Anthropomorphic Tendencies Scale), and biophysical measures, and found that traits unique to Emotionality on the HEXACO inventory, compounded with a form of anthropomorphism demonstrates a level of relationship to the subjective experience of uncanny stimuli. There is evidence that HEXACO type and forms of anthropomorphic perception mediates the biophysical expression and the subjective perception of the stimuli. In keeping with psychological hypotheses, stimuli to which the participants had greatest response centered on death, the threat of death, or mismatched/absent facial features.
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Date Issued: 2012
Identifier: CFE0004354, ucf:49454
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0004354

Title: Synchronous Communication System for SAW Sensors Interrogation.
Creator: Troshin, Maxim, Malocha, Donald, Jones, W, Gong, Xun, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: During past two decades a variety of SAW based wireless sensors were invented and research is still in progress. As different frequencies, varied bandwidths, coding techniques and constantly changing post processing algorithms are being implemented, there is a constant need for a universal and adjustable synchronous communication system able to interrogate new generations of SAW sensors. This thesis presents the design of a multiple FPGA based communication system with an operational...
Show moreDuring past two decades a variety of SAW based wireless sensors were invented and research is still in progress. As different frequencies, varied bandwidths, coding techniques and constantly changing post processing algorithms are being implemented, there is a constant need for a universal and adjustable synchronous communication system able to interrogate new generations of SAW sensors. This thesis presents the design of a multiple FPGA based communication system with an operational frequency range of 450MHz-2.2GHz capable of producing user programmed modulated signal. The synchronous receiver is designed to have interchangeable chip, replacement of which would allow adjustment of the receiver's bandwidth. Within this paper the performance of the system is only evaluated at 915MHz centered 20MHz bandwidth region. An OFC temperature sensor was interrogated. Post-processing algorithms, measurement results, and proposals for the future use of the system are presented. Detailed overview of the structure and performance of every functional block along with design considerations are analyzed. Previously designed Matlab based software was adapted for post processing of the received signal. New software with simplified GUI was designed for programming of the desired signal.
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Date Issued: 2012
Identifier: CFE0004270, ucf:49543
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0004270

Title: Bluegrass, Blueprints, and Bildung: The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come as an Appalachian Bildungsroman.
Creator: Shoemaker, Leona, Meehan, Kevin, Campbell, James, Jones, Donald, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come takes as its backdrop the American Civil War, as the author, John Fox, Jr., champions Kentucky's social development during the Progressive Era. Although often criticized for capitalizing on his propagation of regional stereotypes, I argue that the structure of The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come is much more problematic than that. Recognizing the Bildungsroman as a vehicle for cultural and social critique in late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century...
Show moreThe Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come takes as its backdrop the American Civil War, as the author, John Fox, Jr., champions Kentucky's social development during the Progressive Era. Although often criticized for capitalizing on his propagation of regional stereotypes, I argue that the structure of The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come is much more problematic than that. Recognizing the Bildungsroman as a vehicle for cultural and social critique in late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century writing, this project offers an in-depth literary analysis of John Fox, Jr.'s novel, The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come, in which I contend the story itself is, in fact, an impassioned account of human progress that juxtaposes civilized Bluegrass society and the degraded culture of the southern mountaineer. Indicative of the Progressive Era scientific attitude toward social and cultural evolution, Fox creates a narrative that advances his theory of southern evolution in which southern mountaineers are directed away from their own culturally inferior notions of development and towards a sense of duty to adapt to the civility of Bluegrass culture.This study focuses briefly on defining the Bildungsroman as a genre, from its eighteenth-century German origins to its influence on the American literary tradition. Beginning with Goethe's Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre, the Bildungsroman, in its most traditional form, narrates the development of the protagonist's mind and character from childhood to adulthood. Focus will be placed on how the Bildungsroman engages with literature's ability to facilitate the relationship between an individual and social development, as well as how easily the Bildungsroman lends itself to being appropriated and reconfigured. This study will then demonstrate how The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come, Fox's local-color narrative, in its focus on the growth of the protagonist, Chad, as an allegory of the development of an Appalachian identity during the Progressive Era, might usefully be understood as an Appalachian Bildungsroman. While Chad, ultimately acquires the polished savoir faire of a skilled Bluegrass gentleman, the tensions between the southern mountaineers and the Bluegrass bourgeois makes his socialization into any one culture impossible, a situation illustrative of the disparity between Appalachia and the rest of America during the Progressive Era. By adapting the Bildungsroman to represent this historical situation, Fox's novel demonstrates the kind of conflict that furthered Appalachian difference as point of contention for the problematic ideals of social and cultural evolution, thus, indicating the need for reconciling Appalachia's marginal position.
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Date Issued: 2015
Identifier: CFE0006002, ucf:51021
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0006002

Title: Scientific transformations: a philosophical and historical analysis of cosmology from Copernicus to Newton.
Creator: Castillo, Manuel-Albert, Jones, Donald, Dandrow, Edward, Garbayo, Luciana, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: The purpose of this thesis is to show a transformation around the scientific revolution from the sixteenth to seventeenth centuries against a Whig approach in which it still lingers in the history of science. I find the transformations of modern science through the cosmological models of Nicholas Copernicus, Johannes Kepler, Galileo Galilei and Isaac Newton. Since of the enormous content, I shall only pay particular attention to Copernicus and Newton in which the emerging sciences transformed...
Show moreThe purpose of this thesis is to show a transformation around the scientific revolution from the sixteenth to seventeenth centuries against a Whig approach in which it still lingers in the history of science. I find the transformations of modern science through the cosmological models of Nicholas Copernicus, Johannes Kepler, Galileo Galilei and Isaac Newton. Since of the enormous content, I shall only pay particular attention to Copernicus and Newton in which the emerging sciences transformed the cosmos on what Alexandre Koyr(&)#233; calls from a (")closed world to infinite universe(").As an interdisciplinary approach, I used the methods and inquiries from philosophy and history to explain the cosmological transformation in the sciences. The first part deals on the philosophic content of Michel Foucault and Thomas Kuhn which help to provide insight though their systematic thoughts are incompatible. The second part deals in the historic contents from Copernicus' doctrine, De revolutionibus, to Newton's mechanics, Principia. My ultimate outcome is to demonstrate the multi-perspective dimension of knowledge in which interdisciplinary studies shows transformation of the sciences and its effects on history
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Date Issued: 2017
Identifier: CFE0006862, ucf:51738
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0006862

Title: A Thomistic Critique of the Ethics of Alasdair MacIntyre.
Creator: Otte, Marcus, Jones, Donald, Marien, Daniel, Strawser, Michael, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: Alasdair MacIntyre argues in favor of a historicist Thomism in ethics and political philosophy. In his theory, sociological categories take up much of the space traditionally occupied by metaphysics. This peculiar feature of MacIntyre's Thomism, and its merits and demerits, is already a subject that has been taken up by many critics. In this thesis, these criticisms are supplemented and unified by identifying what is perhaps the most fundamental difficulty with MacIntyre's ethics: his version...
Show moreAlasdair MacIntyre argues in favor of a historicist Thomism in ethics and political philosophy. In his theory, sociological categories take up much of the space traditionally occupied by metaphysics. This peculiar feature of MacIntyre's Thomism, and its merits and demerits, is already a subject that has been taken up by many critics. In this thesis, these criticisms are supplemented and unified by identifying what is perhaps the most fundamental difficulty with MacIntyre's ethics: his version of Thomism is problematic because it treats epistemology as first philosophy. This misstep compromises MacIntyre's ability to provide a defense of moral objectivity, while also undermining his theory's usefulness in deriving moral rules. The result is an ethics of doubtful coherence. If Thomism is to offer a viable alternative to Enlightenment morality and Nietzschean genealogy, it must defend the priority of metaphysics with respect to epistemology.
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Date Issued: 2014
Identifier: CFE0005537, ucf:50322
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0005537

Alasdair MacIntyre (1)	+ -
Alcoholics Anonymous (1)	+ -
Alcoholism (1)	+ -
Alienation (1)	+ -
Althusser (1)	+ -

American Civil War (1)	+ -
Appalachia (1)	+ -
Appalachian literature (1)	+ -
Authenticity (1)	+ -
C.S. Lewis (1)	+ -
CGI (1)	+ -
Cognition (1)	+ -
Contemporary Philosophy (1)	+ -
Copernican doctrine (1)	+ -
Daniel Shays (1)	+ -
Emotionality (1)	+ -
Ethics (1)	+ -
FPGA Control System (1)	+ -
Gareth Evans (1)	+ -
HEXACO (1)	+ -
Human Nature (1)	+ -
Humane essence (1)	+ -
IRAQ (1)	+ -
Interrogation System (1)	+ -
John Fox Jr. (1)	+ -
Keith Donnellan (1)	+ -
Kentucky (1)	+ -
Marx (1)	+ -
Marxism (1)	+ -
Medieval Philosophy (1)	+ -

ETD Collection (9)	+ -
Honors Collection (3)	+ -

University of Central Florida (12)	+ -
Jones, Donald (11)	+ -
Campbell, James (2)	+ -
Dandrow, Edward (2)	+ -
Allgood, Michael (1)	+ -

Ballion, Tatiana (1)	+ -
Byron, Christopher (1)	+ -
Castillo, Manuel-Albert (1)	+ -
Chin, Matthew (1)	+ -
Cook, Benjamin (1)	+ -
Engelhardt, Tanya (1)	+ -
Garbayo, Luciana (1)	+ -
Gong, Xun (1)	+ -
Jones, W (1)	+ -
Madden, Patricia (1)	+ -
Malocha, Donald (1)	+ -
Marien, Daniel (1)	+ -
Meehan, Kevin (1)	+ -
Otte, Marcus (1)	+ -
Perdomo, Rebecca (1)	+ -
Porter, Karen (1)	+ -
Shoemaker, Leona (1)	+ -
Sims, Valerie (1)	+ -
Strawser, Michael (1)	+ -
Troshin, Maxim (1)	+ -

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