By examining a range of sources from Gilded Age newspaper articles to architectural photographs to historical commentaries, this paper attempts to prove that the esteemed Vanderbilt family was imitating European Aristocracy. By examining first hand accounts of parties that family members threw, houses that they built, and places they traveled to, the paper develops its thesis...
American novelist Cormac McCarthy published the first installment of his Border Trilogy, a novel entitled All The Pretty Horses, only a decade before the turn of the 21st century. Within a few months, essays by Alan Cheuse and Vereen M. Bell would set the tone for scholarship on McCarthy's work for the decade to follow. However, in 2012 Jordan Savage revolutionized the...
In “The Inescapability of Gettier Problems,” Linda Zagzebski provides a specific Gettier case to Plantinga’s proper function theory of knowledge. However, her objection fails to understand Plantinga’s cognitive environment criterion. Specifically, a cognitive environment must be assessed alongside the faculties being used in the formation a belief. Zagzebski’s example is then...
The intersection of religion and politics in the form of a civil religion has been present since time immemorial. This paper looks specifically to the relationship between Turkey’s development of a secular civil religion after gaining independence and the advancing of women’s rights and democratic values. In examining the intersections of state and religion in a secular Islamic...
This study examined intimacy levels between individuals in long-distance relationships and those who are in geographically close relationships. Intimacy was broken down into three subcategories: Commitment, Togetherness and Satisfaction in the relationship. It was hypothesized that individuals in long-distance relationships would have higher intimacy levels in all three...
When analyzing Christianity, it is important to note the manifold changes in methods of worship that can be attributed to a racial demographic and its accompanying culture. Within these different methods of worship, between both denominations and cultures, adherence to the Bible should be the focal point of every church’s preaching. With the mindset of “Sola Scriptura,” this...
In the minds of Plato and Aristotle, happiness is the end goal of life, and the worth of everything else, including goodness, justice, and virtue, is based on whether or not it is beneficial as means to this end. Modern American society, though defining happiness differently, in many ways reflects the Greeks’ idea that happiness is the reason for human life. Supported by the...
In the last decade, piracy in the African waters, especially surrounding Somalia, has vastly increased. Due to a previous civil war, absence central government in the country and lack of natural resources, Somalia is presently one of the most underdeveloped countries in the world—which many say is a large stimulus in the rise and expansion of piracy. Although these attacks...
This article discusses and examines the effectiveness of the Gacaca Court System that was put in place following the Rwandan genocide in 1994. A brief history of Rwanda reveals deeply rooted ethnic divisions between the Hutu and Tutsi people--a factor that would greatly impact pre-genocide and post-genocide Rwanda. Following the genocide, the Rwandan government and international...
The past fifteen to twenty years have seen a significant shift in focus to the Middle East-North Africa (MENA) region as well as other primarily Islamic regions and countries, including Indonesia. Much of Western foreign policy has been allocated to tracking and stopping trans-national Islamic terrorist networks such as Al-Qaeda and Al-Shabaab, and working with the governments of...
This paper defends the thesis that value in a piece of music is based in its formal properties rather than its non-formal properties. Two arguments are presented to support this conclusion. The first argument shows that if value in music is to be objective, then it must be grounded in a piece's formal properties rather than its non-formal properties. In the second argument, a...
In “The Inescapability of Gettier Problems,” Linda Zagzebski provides a specific Gettier case to Plantinga’s proper function theory of knowledge. However, her objection fails to understand Plantinga’s cognitive environment criterion. Specifically, a cognitive environment must be assessed alongside the faculties being used in the formation a belief. Zagzebski’s example is then...
This paper examines baptismal imagery and themes in Herman Melville's Moby-Dick through the ancient exegetical practice of typology. This method of reading sees events, characters, and rituals as "types" or foreshadows of Christ's life, linking apparently disparate stories as an interdependent group. Melville simultaneously draws upon the typological associations of baptism and...
The recent successful ballot initiatives in Colorado and Washington to legalize recreational marijuana despite restrictive federal law continue to demonstrate the disconnect between national and state marijuana policy. In order to understand how many of these national policies were enacted, an investigation will be presented of the discriminatory history of marijuana legislation...
This study examined the relationship between music preference and extraversion on complex task performance in a sample of 34 college students from a small, Christian, liberal arts university. Separated into two groups of high and low extraversion, these 34 participants were invited to participate in the experimental phase of the study. For the experimental phase, each participant...
This study investigates undergraduate students’ partner preferences and selection at Pepperdine University by examining the traits desired of those seeking a potential partner and the expectations one has for them. Results from the survey responses support previous research in this area and indicate males’ preference for dominant feminine traits, including physical attractiveness...
Missional churches, those that bring Jesus outside the walls of the church and into the unknown, unreached, and uncomfortable areas in the United States and the world, seem to have taken center stage in the realm of popular Christian discussion over the past few decades. However, roughly thirty percent of the globe remains untargeted by “missional churches.” In his book “Planting...
Exodus 7:1-5 is the fourth reiteration of God’s commands to Moses regarding Pharaoh and the Israelites, with the others being in Exod 3, 4:21-23, and 6:1-13. With these passages and the resulting plagues, readers have raised questions regarding God’s powerfulness and good nature. For example, if God is all-powerful and good, why does he not just liberate the Israelites...
This article is a survey on the role that the guitar plays in the Spanish-speaking countries of the world. The guitar, introduced by Spaniards in Spanish America, reflects the culture of every country that has adopted the instrument as part of their culture. Such reflection can be observed by finding traces of cultures of some countries such as Spain, Mexico, Argentina, and Cuba...
This paper explores the historic role of tribalism in colonial Iraq and Libya as well as its prevalence and role in the countries today and its effects on democratic state-formation. It discusses the ideology and actions of the Ba’athist Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq and the Jamahiriya under Muahmmar Gaddafi including the regimes
Peace has been the goal of many leaders throughout history, and recent democratic movements in the Middle East have made the first steps toward a democratic peace in the region. This paper compares the European experience of Germany and France in the transition to democracy with the recent developments in the Middle East through November 2012. The impact of democratic revolution...
In this paper, I argue that Alfred Mele's account of weakness of will (externalism) is more philosophically defensible than R. M. Hare's account (internalism). I explain why the phenomenon of weakness of will is philosophically troubling, then go on to spell out Hare and Mele's respective views. I entertain Austin's psychological objection to Hare, as well as the objection that...
In this article I attack Peter Klein's argument for epistemic infinitism by showing that there is at least one foundational belief, and by rejecting his principle of avoiding arbitrariness.
Many scholars have suggested that Plato’s accounts of akrasia in the Protagoras and The Republic are incongruent, which has led to a number of attempts at reconciling the account. I defend the view that the accounts do not square up, an explicit difference in Plato’s renderings of the concept of akrasia.