Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), University of Dayton, 2022, Theology

Widely considered the foundational document of modern papal social teaching, Leo XIII's Rerum Novarum articulates a host of principles that have informed Catholic social teaching and thought through the twentieth century and beyond. Of these principles, one of the most enduring is Leo's defense of private property as a natural right. Yet, as a host of commentators have pointed out, this defense bears a striking affinity with the property theory of John Locke. Most crucially, Leo seems to assume the Lockean principle that the natural right to property derives from the act of labor. Insofar as Locke is often referred to as the “father” of classical liberalism, it seems that Leo writes one of, if not the, primary tenets of laissez-faire liberalism into papal social teaching at its foundation. Rather than challenge the general consensus concerning Locke's influence on Rerum Novarum, this dissertation argues that the “Lockean problem” extends beyond Leo's defense of private property as a “sacred and inviolable” natural right on two interrelated fronts. First, while challenging the Lockean notion of “free consent” as the sole determinate of remunerative justice, Leo's argument for a just wage terminates in a characteristically Lockean eclipse of the laborer's natural right to property. Second, Leo situates this Lockean approach to both property and remunerative labor in the insurmountable conditions of postlapsarian exile. In concert, these factors constitute the modern economic subject, the subject of labor and property, in the conditions of supernatural necessity, the postlapsarian conditions that require supernatural mediation for consolation in and deliverance from this “vale of tears.” Ultimately, this dissertation will argue that the Lockean problem underlies a coherent, though problematic, theology of labor in Rerum Novarum. At the root of this theology sits the voluntary alienation of labor under the auspices of remunerative consent. While the sor (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Vincent Miller (Committee Chair) Subjects: Theology

BA, Oberlin College, 2019, History

This thesis is an intellectual history of dialecticism and its use in the works of the Frankfurt School members, Erich Fromm and Herbert Marcuse. Famously, these two men had a ferocious and polemical debate in the pages of Dissent Magazine in 1955-56. The Fromm-Marcuse Debate has since become almost the sole lens in which the intellectual differences and similarities between these men are analyzed. Through a comparative and historical analysis of their individual work, largely removed from the Dissent Debate, I offer a new interpretation of their conflict, their personal relationship, and a new perspective on critical theory and its relationship to political action. I argue that Erich Fromm and Herbert Marcuse's intellectual ideas are better juxtaposed through their interpretation of dialectics, rather than psychoanalysis, and that through this, they present us with starkly different prescriptions for individual and collective political engagement. Thus, both Fromm and Marcuse are outliers within the field of critical theory, and certainly within the Frankfurt School, even as their ideas remain in firm conflict with one another.

Committee: Annemarie Sammartino (Advisor) Subjects: American History; American Studies; European History; History; Modern History; Philosophy; Political Science

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2019, American Culture Studies

With 171 million active users and a market value expected to climb to almost $17 billion in the next three years, Virtual Reality (VR) would appear to be a technology on the rise. Yet despite the public fervor for VR, our media landscape has long been marked by phobic depictions of the same—from William Gibson's Neuromancer (1984), to The Matrix (1999), to Black Mirror (2011-present), VR fictions always seem to dread its presence even as their audiences anticipate these feared technologies. How, then, can we explain the durability of fiction fearing VR, and what use might we find for that phobic response? While ample previous scholarship has explored how horror and other forms of genre fiction reflect specific cultural anxieties, to this point little work has been devoted to technophobic fiction as it represents and serves to manage cultural responses to new and emerging technologies. As VR grows increasingly common, such fiction might offer a powerful tool toward anticipating its uses—good and bad—as well as to influence the ends for which these technologies are taken up. Through textual analysis of Ready Player One (2018) and “San Junipero” (2017), I explore how fears of capitalist subjugation, disembodiment, and the limitations of the humanist self come to be displaced in VR's technological systems. This work clarifies the technosocial politics of VR as they penetrate what it means to be human, and how technophobia itself might be mobilized toward the creation of a better technological future.

Committee: Clayton Rosati PhD (Advisor); Edgar Landgraf PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: American Studies

Master of Arts, University of Toledo, 2018, Philosophy

This paper is a five-chapter exploration into the relationship between a Hobbesian notion of sovereignty, and the implementation of Marxism in the Soviet Union. The political philosophy of Thomas Hobbes has been most often interpreted through a particular reading of the German Carl Schmitt, which. as a result, has rendered Hobbesian philosophy synonymous with a strict, authoritarian nationalism like the Nazi party in Germany. However, simplifying the role of sovereign authority Nazism misses the strong parallels present between the relationship of the sovereign and the commonwealth, and the implementation of Marxism under Josef Stalin's rule in the Soviet Union. This model, wherein the Soviet citizens have been removed from the political realm forms an analogous relationship to what is present under the Hobbesian social contract. This is not to say that Marxism can be read back to Hobbes, but, rather, that Stalin's leadership implemented a version of the social contract which inadvertently drew upon Hobbesian influence. Through an assembling of primary and secondary sources, this thesis aims to show that a left-leaning reading of Hobbes is not only possible, but has a real-world example to draw upon.

Committee: Benjamin Grazzini PhD. (Committee Chair); Ammon Allred PhD (Committee Member); Roberto Padilla PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Philosophy

Bachelor of Arts (BA), Ohio University, 2018, Philosophy

In his polemic novel 'Demons' Fyodor Dostoevsky noted the destructive power of political actors 'possessed' by the righteousness of ideas over concern for actually existing people. The ideologies of the 20th century, Liberalism, Fascism and Socialism contain within them absolute statements of ontology, teleology and broad human purpose that allow them to incorporate any and all aspects of human social existence into their state projects. The absolute and universal nature of the claims made by these ideologies causes a state of incommensurability in dialougue with other systems that can lead to violent action as political disagreement is translated into ontological incompatibility leading to demonization and dehumanization. This project aims to propose a system based on a modified form of Burkean conservatism that allows for a recognizes the importance of universal beliefs in the context of humility. A humility rooted in the knowledge of the historical contingency of political situations and the inevitability of philosophical change leading to an epistemological skepticism as to the absolute validity of ideological claims. Instead of locating the need for community on shared convictions, political action is rooted in a shared sense of suffering and responsibility interpreted through the Russian Orthodox concept of Sobornost- where each person is responsible for the suffering of others and has an obligation to relieve the suffering of the world in shared humility.

Committee: Julie White PhD (Advisor) Subjects: Philosophy

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 1984, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects: Philosophy

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 1980, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects: Sociology

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2014, English/Literature

This thesis examines the way post-industrial capital manifests itself and attempts to define how it functions. Zizek's theorization of capital's fantasy dimension and its simultaneous role as the Lacanian Real is evaluated. Zizek's concept of the ideological fantasy is deemed helpful as it aids in explaining how capital perpetuates itself in a world that appears aware of its failures. His conceptualization of capital as the Real is considered to be counter-productive as it reduces the phenomenon in question to an impermeable abstraction that cannot be schematized or analyzed in any detail. In an effort to address this problem, Franco Berardi's notion of semio-capital is discussed. Berardi's work is determined to be a vital supplement to Zizek's analysis as it enables us to perceive the way in which capital functions as a master-signifier that operates according to the logic of recombination. The benefit of theorizing capital in this way is that it permits us to appreciate one of capital's chief antagonisms—the production of the experience of attentional disorders as a series of symptoms that are averse to capital's functioning and the simultaneous construction of Attention-Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder as a discursive regime aimed at policing these symptoms.

Committee: Erin Labbie (Advisor); Becca Cragin (Committee Member) Subjects: Literature; Philosophy

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2014, Cross-Cultural, International Education

This research examines the lived experiences of nine women healers in South-central Indiana in terms of their journeys towards becoming healers. As a phenomenological case study, the goal is to discern the essence of participants' experiences becoming a healer. The study examines interview data using an inductive approach in order to answer the following research question: what is the essence of these specific participants' experiences of becoming a healer? Additionally, the study explores the following sub-questions; 1.) What can be understood about becoming a healer, in a general sense, by interpreting these specific women's experiences and life stories from a phenomenological perspective? 2.) How do participants make meaning of their lived experiences, their chosen path, and their identities as healers? In answering these questions, this study employs feminist, critical, and social theory frameworks. Nine women consented to participate in open-ended, semi-structured interviews and discuss their life histories, current paths as alternative healers, and worldviews. Additionally, one participant-observation and one observation were conducted to supplement interview data and immerse the researcher into the experience of healing and the lives of healers. The results of data collection are organized into four thematic areas that shed light on the nature of participants' experiences of the phenomenon under investigation. The major themes represent aspects of a cyclical, ongoing process or journey towards becoming and being a healer, from these participants' perspectives and experiences. These themes are; 1.) "Awakening," or the importance of inner transformation to facilitating healing work, 2.) "Open-mindedness," or the importance of developing a critical awareness of the self and society at large to the process of becoming a healer, 3.) "Grounding," or the importance of building connections to sustained empowerment as a healer and as a woman in order to reach a (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Christopher Frey PhD (Advisor); Sherri Horner PhD (Committee Member); Ellen Berry PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Adult Education; Alternative Medicine; American Studies; Cultural Anthropology; Education; Gender; Gender Studies; Native Americans; Religion; Spirituality

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2012, Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services: Educational Studies

From the key role that socialist feminists (who use some Marxist theoretical concepts) played in organizing many of the first academic women's studies programs (Kennedy 2008) to the central explorations of questions both with and against Marx in feminist theory, Marxist and Marxist feminist theory historically held a visible and vital place in the field. However since the introduction of post-theories to the humanities and social sciences in the late twentieth century, Marxist feminists charge that women's studies has abandoned Marx completely (Ebert 1995, Kelly 2002, Cotter 2007, Gimenez 2010) while some socialist feminists charge that Marxist theory is built into contemporary feminist theory in concepts such as “globalization” and “anti-racism” even if we don't call it “Marxist” (Gardiner 2008). So, who is correct? What is the place of Marxist theory in academic women's studies today? Within the social and cultural foundations of education, one way to explore these questions is to analyze which theories and concepts are core to the field's undergraduate curriculum—to determine what women's studies is teaching in its core courses. Since introduction to women's studies and feminist theory comprise the field's core courses (Salley, Winkler, Celeen, & Meck 2004), a representative sample of current in-use syllabi from these courses was collected from across the US. The most frequently assigned core course authors and titles are established. A descriptive and deductive content analysis is performed as each of the most frequently assigned course readings is run through the Marxist Theory Filter, comprised of the theory's key components, in order to determine which, if any, of these core course readings are Marxist. The study supports the assertions of Marxist feminists and finds that Marxist theory is not only marginalized, but is nearly invisible in the core curriculum; and post-theories, particularly multicultural, global and postcolonial feminist theories that utiliz (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Marvin Berlowitz PhD (Committee Chair); Vanessa Allen-brown PhD (Committee Member); Sandra Browning PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Educational Sociology

Doctor of Philosophy, University of Toledo, 2008, History

In 1966 the Japanese New Left thinker Yoshimoto Taka'aki published his seminal book on Karl Marx. The originality of this overview of Marx's ideas and life lay in Yoshimoto's stress on the young Marx's theory of alienation as an outgrowth of a unique philosophy of nature, whose roots went back to the latter's doctoral dissertation. It echoed Yoshimoto's own reformulation of “alienation” (and Marx's labor theory of value) as key concept in his theory of literary language (What is Beauty in Language), which he had just completed in 1965, and extended his argument – ongoing from the mid-1950s – with Japanese Marxism over questions of literature, politics, and culture. His extraction of the theme of “communal illusion” from the early Marx foregrounds his second major theoretical work of the decade, Communal Illusion, which he started to serialize in 1966 and completed in 1968, and outlines an important theoretical closure to the existential, political, and intellectual struggles he had waged since the end of the Pacific War. Karl Marx thus offers a powerful microcosmic glimpse of Yoshimoto's achievements at the height of his seminal influence on the Japanese New Left.Presented here are the complete translation of Karl Marx and a selection of related materials relevant to Yoshimoto's reading of Marx, along with a commentary that situates this text in the context of his life, with some suggestions as to its significance within the comparative context of contemporary Western Marxism. What emerges is Yoshimoto's existentially committed, conceptually bold rereading of Karl Marx that refuses trucking with all Marxist traditions and that is firmly grounded in the actuality of popular experience that Yoshimoto learned viscerally from the three major defeats of his life: Japanese defeat in World War II in 1945, defeat of labor union struggle on the shop floor in 1953-54, and defeat of the anti-Anpo (U.S.-Japan Mutual Security Treaty) movement in 1960.

Committee: Peter Linebaugh PhD (Advisor); Alfred Cave PhD (Committee Member); Harry Cleaver PhD (Committee Member); Michael Jakobson PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: History

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2005, Individual Interdisciplinary Program (Fine Arts)

Comedy is a mode of discourse that operates across many different genres, media, and styles. Just as there are comic films, there are comic plays, music, paintings, sculptures, and photographs. Comedy has its own aesthetic that is distinct from, but invariably related to, tragedy. It is as central to the human condition as any other aspect of human life, yet the amount of serious academic study it has received is relatively small. One of the advantages of using semiotics as a methodology for studying comedy is that it is versatile and interdisciplinary enough to explain how comedic meaning is created in a variety of art forms. This dissertation attempts to develop a semiotic theory of comedy by reconciling existing comedic theories with semiotic theory and to explore the nature of comedic meaning as a corruption, reversal, or undermining of conventional semiotic meaning. This theory is used to analyze various artworks to show how a semiotic analysis of the comedy in those works can be used to understand not only how the works produce comedy, but to provide insight into the nature of comedy itself. While this dissertation addresses comedy in a variety of art forms that have typically been under-represented in semiotic scholarship, it also pays specific attention to film, which is ideally suited to an interdisciplinary study of comedy. Comic film is inherently interdisciplinary, often includes verbal or linguistic humor, frequently has a comedic narrative structure, can include comedic music, and is a visual medium that has the most highly-developed forms of visual comedy. It is fertile ground for examining how comedy can function on a variety of levels and in a variety of formats. Because a semiotic approach to comedy has received limited attention in English-language discourse and a semiotic approach to comedy has not been fully integrated as a theoretical approach, this work opens a new avenue of study. It expands not only the field of semiotics, but also provides (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Keith Harris (Advisor) Subjects: Fine Arts

MA, Kent State University, 2012, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of English

Human beings possess a stable human nature that has been formed over millions of years of evolutionary history. Through the mechanism of natural selection, phenotypic traits and behaviors have evolved for the sole purpose of ensuring the survival of the organism that carries genetic information. This means that there is interspecific, genetic continuity across evolutionary history. Two types of continuity that will be discussed are aggression and sexual dimorphism, both of which can be understood as stable aspects of human nature that influence how humans behave. The thesis then discusses the Marxist-humanist appropriation of the term “human nature” as a semantic mystification intended to reconcile Marx with the biological sciences. Marx is much less clear on human nature, and even in his early humanist writings, his conception of human nature is thoroughly social and incompatible with evolutionary theory. The Marxist-humanists attempt to find human nature in biological limitation and human needs, but these conceptions are far too meager to be considered a robust account of human nature. The thesis then discusses the anti-humanism of the Marxist philosopher Louis Althusser. In opposition to the Marxist-humanists, Althusser believes that the writings of Marx post-1845 are his definitive statement on human nature. Althusser argues that Marx established the science of historical materialism by removing humans from the center of the historical process and instead focusing on the non-human elements of the historical process itself. Althusser is concerned with the universal applicability of historical materialism, just as the Marxist-humanists are concerned with the universalism of human emancipation. The thesis argues that their universalism, although limited, is an accurate way of perceiving commonalities across the human species, but true universalism can only be understood when applied to human nature in the context of evolutionary history.

Committee: Kevin Floyd (Committee Chair); Tammy Clewell (Committee Member); Mark Bracher (Committee Member) Subjects: Literature

Master of Arts, University of Akron, 2009, English-Literature

George Bernard Shaw and George Orwell were each vocal socialists who often drew scorn and vehement opposition for their unique political views. This study traces the origins of their socialist convictions, and demonstrates how a distinctly literary aesthetic undergirding their political viewpoints rendered their political writings both highly controversial and uniquely insightful.

Committee: Alan Ambrisco (Advisor) Subjects: Literature; Political Science

BA, Oberlin College, 2013, Politics

From Marx to Friedman, most theorists of capitalism claim that capitalist development promotes free labor and diminishes the productive use of "pre-capitalist" forms of unfree labor such as slavery or serfdom. Such theories have trouble explaining both the persistence of different types of unfree labor throughout the capitalist era of American history and the resurgence of prison labor in the contemporary neoliberal period. Applying works by Connor and Habermas, this paper argues that the American history of unfree labor under capitalism has been shaped by the "contradiction" between private, concentrated capital accumulation and generalized public legitimation of the capitalist state. Both slavery in the antebellum south and convict leasing in the postbellum south were examples of accumulation by unfree labor. Then, under Fordism, unfree labor declined as Marx would expect. However, in the neoliberal period, unfree labor returns in the form of prison labor under racialized institutions of mass incarceration; the racial disproportionality of U.S. prisons are heir to past racializing institutions such as slavery and Jim Crow. However, contemporary prison labor differs from past examples of unfree labor in that today it is generally unproductive materially, but it persists because political elites use it as a legitimating spectacle that reinforces ideological-cultural values at the core of neoliberal capitalism: that everyone, especially the African American "underclass" must work. The ongoing insertion of capitalist institutions into U.S. prisons through prison labor and privatization are the results of ideological attempts to reconcile contradictory elements of the neoliberal-penal state: the ideology of free markets and limited government conflicts with the "big government," coercive reality of mass incarceration, and the cost of maintaining the massive carceral apparatus conflicts with the neoliberal obsession with governmental and economic efficiency. The neolibe (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Marc Blecher (Advisor); Chris Howell (Advisor) Subjects: Political Science

BA, Kent State University, 2013, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of English

This thesis examines Fredric Jameson's theory of cognitive mapping in three different postmodern novels, Philip K. Dick's,Ubik, Kim Stanley Robinson's, The Gold Coast, and Don DeLillo's, White Noise. Among the topics discussed are the ways in which the technological suppression of nature affects the postmodern subject's ability to map cognitively his social and cultural environment, as well as how a fixation on images in the postmodern world creates a dissociation between subject and cultural environment.

Committee: Kevin Floyd (Advisor); Dan Berardinelli (Committee Member); Elizabeth Howard (Committee Member); Ken Bindas (Committee Member) Subjects: Literature