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A Venture into Internationalism: Roosevelt and the Refugee Crisis of 1938

Prompted by international ramifications of Jewish migration from Nazi Germany, President Franklin D. Roosevelt called a world conference on refugees in March 1938. The conference, held at Evian, France, in July, established the Intergovernmental Committee on Political Refugees. The committee, led by American diplomats, sought relaxation of Germany's discriminatory practices against Jews and tried, without success, to resettle German Jews abroad. World War II ended the committee's efforts to ach… more

Date: August 1978

Creator: Mannering, Lynne Michelle

Item Type: Thesis or Dissertation

Partner: UNT Libraries

open access

A shanda fur de Yehudim: Jewishness in network sitcom television.

This thesis is a cultural study of Jewishness in network sitcom television. Sources for the study included: historical film analysis, sociological studies on stereotyping and Jewish culture. The thesis studies how past forms of Jewishness impacted the current depictions of Jewishness on the television sitcom. After an introduction discussing Jewishness in general, the second chapter studies Jewishness in Vaudeville and early Hollywood film. The third chapter studies Jewishness in the first 40 y… more

Date: August 2004

Creator: Minnick, Susan L.

Item Type: Thesis or Dissertation

Partner: UNT Libraries

open access

The Literary Theory of Ayn Rand

The author believes that Ayn Rand presents a systematic approach to aesthetics and that her work presents an interesting and significant approach to aesthetic problems. The author will attempt to present Ayn Rand's basic aesthetic concepts that throw light on her literary theory. The author will also present her views on literary schools and of individual authors.

Date: January 1969

Creator: Carpenter, Thomas W.

Item Type: Thesis or Dissertation

Partner: UNT Libraries

open access

The Turn from Reactive to Responsive Environmentalism: The Wilderness Debate, Relational Metaphors, and the Eco-Phenomenology of Response

A shift is occurring in environmentalism to a post-metaphysical understanding of the human relationship to nature. Stemming from developments within the wilderness debate, ecofeminism, and eco-phenomenology, the old dichotomy between John Muir's tradition of privileging nature and Gifford Pinchot's tradition of privileging society is giving way to a relational paradigm that privileges neither. The starting point for this involves articulating the ontology of relationship anew. Insofar as the do… more

Date: December 2009

Creator: Christion, Timothy C.

Item Type: Thesis or Dissertation

Partner: UNT Libraries

open access

The Bahá'í Principle of Religious Unity and the Challenge of Radical Pluralism

The Bahá'í principle of religious unity is unique among the world's religious traditions in that its primary basis is found within its own sacred texts and not in commentaries of those texts. The Bahá'í principle affirms the existence of a common transcendent source from which the religions of the world originate and receive their inspiration. The Bahá'í writings also emphasize the process of personal transformation brought about through faith as a unifying factor in all religious traditions. T… more

Date: December 1993

Creator: May, Dann J. (Dann Joseph)

Item Type: Thesis or Dissertation

Partner: UNT Libraries

open access

The Life of Ben and Other Poems

The Life of Ben and Other Poems consists of two sections. The first, The Life of Ben, is a series of seventeen poems about the life of a first-generation American and his family's immigration. The second section, Other Poems, includes twenty-one poems on a variety of themes.

Date: May 1987

Creator: Berecka, Alan Michael

Item Type: Thesis or Dissertation

Partner: UNT Libraries

open access

Redacted Dominionism: An Evangelical, Environmentally Sympathetic Reading of the Early Genesis Narrative

Critiques of the environmental ramifications of the early Genesis narrative by environmental thinkers such as Aldo Leopold, Ian McHarg, and Lynn White underscore a longstanding tension between the environmental movement and Western Christianity. The evangelical community (EC) especially, has been at odds with the environmental movement, as the EC grounds its theology regarding human relations to nature on the Genesis narrative—and especially the Genesis 1:26-28 dominion mandate— interpreted wit… more

Date: August 2011

Creator: Cone, Christopher

Item Type: Thesis or Dissertation

Partner: UNT Libraries

open access

The Serpent Symbol in Tradition: A Study of Traditional Serpent and Dragon Symbolism, Based in Part Upon the Concepts and Observations of Rene Guenon, Mircea Eliade, and Various Other Relevant Researchers

Serpent and dragon symbolism are ubiquitous in the art and mythology of premodern cultures around the world. Over the centuries, conflicting hypotheses have been proposed to interpret this symbolism which, while illuminating, have proved insufficient to the task of revealing a singular meaning for the vast majority of examples. In this dissertation I argue that, in what the symbolist Rene Guenon and the historian of religions Mircea Eliade have called ‘traditional' or ‘archaic' societies, the… more

Date: May 2020

Creator: Dailey, Charles William

Item Type: Thesis or Dissertation

Partner: UNT Libraries

open access

An Interpretation of Archaic Medical Treatises

Ancient peoples did not distinguish between philosophy, religion, and science. Scientific truth did not exist apart from divine truth. Any new idea, finding, or theory was assimilated into a monolithic mythological structure. This is one of the causes of the underestimation of ancient science: it is always packaged in a myth - the method of preserving information in an oral culture. The mythological medium allowed the preservation and dissemination of hard-won, empirical, scientific knowledge t… more

Date: May 1993

Creator: Wagers, William D. (William Delbert)

Item Type: Thesis or Dissertation

Partner: UNT Libraries

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The Political Philosophy of Rabelais’s Pantagruel: Reconciling Thought and Action

Political thinkers of the Renaissance, foremost among them Niccolò Machiavelli and Desiderius Erasmus, authored works commonly referred to as “mirrors of princes.” These writings described how princes should rule, and also often recommended a certain arrangement or relationship between the intellectual class and the political powers. François Rabelais’s five books of Pantagruel also depict and recommend a new relationship between these elements of society. For Rabelais, the tenets of a philosop… more

Date: August 2015

Creator: Haglund, Timothy

Item Type: Thesis or Dissertation

Partner: UNT Libraries

open access

A History of Overcoming: Nietzsche on the Moral Antecedents and Successors of Modern Liberalism

This work aims to understand human moral psychology under modern liberalism by analyzing the mature work of philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. I seek to understand and evaluate Nietzsche's claim that liberalism, rather than being an overturning of slave morality, is an extension of the slave morality present in both Judaism and Christianity. To ground Nietzsche's critique of liberalism theoretically, I begin by analyzing his "master" and "slave" concepts. With these concepts clarified, I then app… more

Date: December 2016

Creator: Gill, Rodney W.

Item Type: Thesis or Dissertation

Partner: UNT Libraries

open access

Friendship, Politics, and the Good in Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics

In Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, Books VIII and IX provide A philosophic examination of friendship. While these Books initially appear to be non sequiturs in the inquiry, a closer examination of the questions raised by the preceding Books and consideration of the discussion of friendship's position between two accounts of pleasure in Books VII and X indicate friendship's central role in the Ethics. In friendship, Aristotle finds a uniquely human capacity that helps readers understand the good… more

Date: May 2015

Creator: Pascarella, John Antonio

Item Type: Thesis or Dissertation

Partner: UNT Libraries

open access

New Wine in Old Wineskins: Hobbes’s Use and Abuse of Religious Rhetoric

Thomas Hobbes’s knowledge of religious doctrine, typology, and use religious rhetoric in his writings is often glossed over in an over-eager attempt to establish his preeminence as a founder of modern political theory and the social contract tradition. Such action, however is an injustice to Hobbes himself, who recognized that in order to establish a new, and arguably radical, political position founded upon reason and nominalist materialism he had to reform people’s understanding of religious … more

Date: December 2014

Creator: Higgins, Nicholas J.

Item Type: Thesis or Dissertation

Partner: UNT Libraries

open access

Environmental Virtue Education: Ancient Wisdom Applied

The focus of environmental philosophy has thus far heavily depended on the extension of rights to nonhuman nature. Due to inherent difficulties with this approach to environmental problems, I propose a shift from the contemporary language of rights and duties to the concept of character development. I claim that a theory of environmental virtue ethics can circumvent many of the difficulties arising from the language of rights, duties, and moral claims by emphasizing the cultivation of certain d… more

Date: August 2005

Creator: Lindemann, Monica A.

Item Type: Thesis or Dissertation

Partner: UNT Libraries

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Hobbes’s Deceiving God: the Correspondence Between Thomas Hobbes and Rene Descartes

In presenting their correspondence, I highlight the means in which Hobbes is able to divorce nature and politics in his philosophy. This is done by bringing to light Hobbes’s agreement with Descartes’s deceiving God argument. First, I demonstrate Hobbes’s hidden agreement with it by analyzing his objection to Descartes’s first Meditation. Second, I show that Hobbes and Descartes both retreat into consciousness in order to deal with the possibility of deception on the behalf of God. Third, I tra… more

Date: August 2015

Creator: Gorescu, Gabriela

Item Type: Thesis or Dissertation

Partner: UNT Libraries

open access

Letters, Liberty, and the Democratic Age in the Thought of Alexis de Tocqueville

When Alexis de Tocqueville observed the spread of modern democracy across France, England, and the United States, he saw that democracy would give rise to a new state of letters, and that this new state of letters would influence how democratic citizens and statesmen would understand the new political world. As he reflected on this new intellectual sphere, Tocqueville became concerned that democracy would foster changes in language and thought that would stifle concepts and ideas essential to t… more

Date: December 2009

Creator: Elliot, Natalie J.

Item Type: Thesis or Dissertation

Partner: UNT Libraries

open access

Mapping Overlapping Constellations: Nature and Technology in Research in Philosophy and Technology/Techné and Environmental Ethics

The overlap between the separate fields of philosophy of technology and environmental philosophy can be investigated using the two longest running flagship journals for each field, Environmental Ethics (EE) and Research in Philosophy and Technology, which is now published as Techné: Research in Philosophy and Technology (RPT/Techné). By looking at the theoretical and conceptual ideas on nature and the environment expressed in RPT/Techné, at those on technology and artifacts expressed in EE, an… more

Date: May 2015

Creator: Miller, Glen, 1975-

Item Type: Thesis or Dissertation

Partner: UNT Libraries

Scripture for America: Scriptural Interpretation in John Locke's Paraphrase

Is John Locke a philosopher or theologian? When considering Locke's religious thought, scholars seldom point to his Paraphrase and Notes on the Epistles of St. Paul. This is puzzling since the Paraphrase is his most extensive treatment of Christian theology. Since this is the final work of his life, did Locke undergo a deathbed conversion? The scholarship that has considered the Paraphrase often finds Locke contradicting himself on various theological doctrines. In this dissertation, I find tha… more

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Date: August 2016

Creator: Kearns, Kevin M.

Item Type: Thesis or Dissertation

Partner: UNT Libraries

open access

Knowing What is Useful: Rousseau's Education Concerning Being, Science, and Happiness

Is there a relationship between science and happiness and, if so, what is it? Clearly, since the Enlightenment, science has increased life expectancy and bodily comfort. Is this happiness, or do humans long for something more? To examine these questions, I investigate the works of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Specifically, I focus on the Discourses and the Emile, as he states in the Confessions that these works form a whole statement concerning the natural goodness of man. I agree with the literature… more

Date: August 2017

Creator: Gross, Benjamin Isaak

Item Type: Thesis or Dissertation

Partner: UNT Libraries

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Thucydides’ Sparta: Law, Piety, and the Regime

My dissertation investigates Thucydides’ presentation of Sparta. By viewing the war through Sparta, one is confronted with debates on the moral dimensions of war. Sparta decries the imperialism of Athens as unjust and while the Athenians imply that such claims are merely Spartan ‘hypocrisy’ and therefore that Sparta does not truly take justice seriously, my study contends that the Spartan concern with justice and piety is genuine. While the Athenians present a sophisticated and enlightened view… more

Date: August 2014

Creator: Hadley, Travis Stuart

Item Type: Thesis or Dissertation

Partner: UNT Libraries

Wisdom and Law: Political Thought in Shakespeare's Comedies

In this study of A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Merchant of Venice, and Measure for Measure I argue that the surface plots of these comedies point us to a philosophic understanding seldom discussed in either contemporary public discourse or in Shakespearean scholarship. The comedies usually involve questions arising from the conflict between the enforcement of law (whether just or not) and the private longings (whether noble or base) of citizens whose yearnings for happiness tend to be sub- or … more

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Date: December 2002

Creator: Major, Rafael M.

Item Type: Thesis or Dissertation

Partner: UNT Libraries

Francis Bacon's New Atlantis: The Quiet Revolution of Science, Religion, and Politics

Francis Bacon (1561-1626) is recognized as a founder of the modern scientific project and a forerunner of the modern era of political thought. He advocated the development of an active science that would enable human beings to control nature in order to relieve man's estate. To accomplish this, Bacon argues that we must reconstruct all arts and sciences upon a more solid foundation. In reconstructing the arts and sciences, Bacon subtly changes the meaning of foundational religious, political, a… more

Date: May 2021

Creator: Lowe, Evan M.

Item Type: Thesis or Dissertation

Partner: UNT Libraries

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David Lefkowitz of Dallas: A Rabbi for all Seasons

This dissertation discusses the impact David Lefkowitz and his ministry had on Dallas during the years of his ministry (1920-1949) at Temple Emanu-El in Dallas Texas, and the years following his death in 1955. The focus is on his involvement in civic activities, although his pastoral activities are also discussed. Sources include interviews with family members, friends and acquaintances, newspaper articles, journals, internet sources, unpublished theses and dissertations about Dallas and relate… more

Date: August 2000

Creator: Guzman, Jane Bock

Item Type: Thesis or Dissertation

Partner: UNT Libraries