• The Continuity of Explanation: Peircean Pragmatism, Reason, and Developing Reasonable Behavior 

  Haydon, Nathan (University of Waterloo, 2017-09-27)

  Charles Peirce, the founder of Pragmatism, is not known for having developed a normative and ethical theory. His remarks on ethics and normativity are scattered and sparse. There is nonetheless increasing interest in ...

• Ethical Pluralism and Informed Consent in Canadian Health Care: Exploring Accommodations and Limitations 

  Hershey, Samantha (University of Waterloo, 2017-09-26)

  Vibrant and evolving diversity has become an integral part of Canadian identity. Communities are experiencing an enrichment of new ideas, and unique opportunities to learn about those with whom we share the world. At the ...

• The Emergence of a New Human Superorganism After Organ Transplantation 

  Prasad, G V Ramesh (University of Waterloo, 2017-08-30)

  The biological human being is an emergent human superorganism consisting of the human organism physiologically integrated with other organisms. The persistence of a superorganism in space and time requires communication ...

• How Prejudice Affects the Study of Animal Minds 

  Keefner, Ashley (University of Waterloo, 2017-08-24)

  Humans share the planet with many wonderfully diverse animal species and human-animal interactions are part of our daily lives. An important part of understanding how humans do and should interact with other animals is ...

• Inferential Role Semantics for Natural Language 

  Blouw, Peter (University of Waterloo, 2017-08-22)

  The most general goal of semantic theory is to explain facts about language use. In keeping with this goal, I introduce a framework for thinking about linguistic expressions in terms of (a) the inferences they license, (b) ...

• A Defense of the Public Health-Quarantine Model of Punishment in Light of Obligations of the State to the Wrongdoer 

  Bohner, Eric Nicholas (University of Waterloo, 2017-02-22)

  Punishment is traditionally justified retributively or consequentially; that is, with respect to the desert of the wrongdoer or the positive consequences of the punishment. State-sanctioned punishment (the kind of punishment ...

• Psychological and Phenomenological Perspectives on the Hard Problem of Consciousness 

  Simard, Jonathan (University of Waterloo, 2017-01-19)

  In reexamining the hard problem of consciousness through the history of the concept of mind, I argue that psychologists, cognitive scientists, and analytic philosophers of mind should return to the first-person perspective ...

• The Evolution of Reason 

  Abdallah, Sajad (University of Waterloo, 2017-01-17)

  Aristotle’s metaphysics bridges the gap between mind and nature explaining how their relationship constitutes development in life. Charles Sanders Peirce’s objective idealism similarly aims to investigate how the principles ...

• The Depiction of Unwritten Law 

  Nelson, Benjamin (University of Waterloo, 2016-12-14)

  Even though tacit legal norms are deeply important to our past, present, and future, the very idea of unwritten law has been difficult to pin down, and problematic in a range of ways. Existing discussions of the phenomenon ...

• Authenticity and Enhancement 

  Gee, Catherine (University of Waterloo, 2016-10-31)

  Wanting to change ourselves is nothing new; the means with which we are able to do so are. With our ever-advancing technology, the physical and mental aspects of ourselves that we can target and change are continually ...

• Ethical Leadership for Machiavellians in Business 

  Lam, Vanessa (University of Waterloo, 2016-10-13)

  Despite some progress in instilling ethics into business practice, businesses continue to make decisions that result in incredible harms to people and the environment around the world. Academics, the public, and the media ...

• White Paper: Measuring Research Outputs Through Bibliometrics 

  University of Waterloo Working Group on Bibliometrics; Byl, Lauren; Carson, Jana; Feltracco, Annamaria; Gooch, Susie; Gordon, Shannon; Kenyon, Tim; Muirhead, Bruce; Seskar-Hencic, Daniela; MacDonald, Kathy; Özsu, M. Tamer; Stirling, Peter (University of Waterloo, 2016)

  This White Paper provides a high-level review of issues relevant to understanding bibliometrics, and practical recommendations for how to appropriately use these measures. This is not a policy paper; instead, it defines ...

• THE PHILOSOPHICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF QUINE'S D-THESIS 

  Munro, Bradley (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 ...

• The Role of Concrete Models in the Revolution in Superconductivity 

  Chattoraj, Ananya (University of Waterloo, 2015-10-13)

  The distinction between the abstract and the concrete is useful in understanding the way in which theories relate to phenomenon, respectively, or vice versa. The connection between theory and the actual workings of ...

• Autonomy and Moral Obligation: People with Intellectual or Developmental Disabilities 

  Klausen, Catherine (University of Waterloo, 2015-10-05)

  In this project I seek to evaluate how social structures and attitudinal norms impact the autonomy of people who live with intellectual or developmental disabilities, and what implications arise from that evaluation. I ...

• Disciplinary Inequality, Collective Agency, and Interprofessional Collaboration in Health Care 

  Morrison, Kathryn (University of Waterloo, 2015-10-05)

  In this thesis, I apply collective responsibility theory to the problem of health care inequality between physicians and nurses. This analysis is conducted in the context of physician-nurse interprofessional collaboration ...

• In Defense of Moral Responsibility Skepticism 

  Tomchishen, Jody (University of Waterloo, 2015-10-02)

  Moral responsibility skeptics have often focused on problems involving determinism in order to defend their position. I argue that this defense of moral responsibility skepticism is misplaced given that what really matters ...

• The Nature of Pluralism in Economics: A Case Study of the Gender Wage Gap 

  Kraushaar, Alexandra (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 ...

• Existence Assumptions and Logical Principles: Choice Operators in Intuitionistic Logic 

  Mulvihill, Corey Edward (University of Waterloo, 2015-09-02)

  Hilbert’s choice operators τ and ε, when added to intuitionistic logic, strengthen it. In the presence of certain extensionality axioms they produce classical logic, while in the presence of weaker decidability conditions ...

• Crime Prevention in a World without Free Will: Derk Pereboom’s Quarantine Analogy 

  Metcalfe, Emily (University of Waterloo, 2015-09-01)

  The purpose of this paper is to evaluate Pereboom’s attempt to use his quarantine analogy to justify his theory of crime prevention and the use of preventative detainment in place of punishment. Specifically, I will examine ...

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