There is a large philosophical literature focused on what sorts of things can be said to exist. This field is called ontology. Ontological disputes have sometimes been accused of being merely verbal disputes: that they are concerned only with language and not with facts. Some think that if this accusation is correct, philosophers should give up doing ontology. However, whether the accusation is correct and whether it is so serious depends on what is meant by verbal dispute. Eli Hirsch in particular has argued that ontological disputes are merely verbal in one specific sense. In this paper, I first argue that his accusation fails to show that ontological disputes are not substantive. Even if we admit that ontological disputes are verbal in Hirsch's sense, they may still be substantive in a variety of other senses. Second, I argue that even though ontological disputes are substantive, the reason for this will not support stronger claims about the nature and role of ontological disputes. / Master of Arts

Error theorists about race face a challenge from the occurrence of diseases and other health ailments that, appear, to be tracked by groups that are carved out by racial terms. If race does indeed allow us to make useful medical distinctions, then it would seem foolish or even a form of medical injustice to deny its reality. This paper provides a response to the stated challenge. First, by primarily using the work of Anthony Appiah, I will describe the error theorist position and its arguments for the non-reality of race. From here, I demonstrate the extent to which medical professionals grant the race is a scientifically arbitrary term and give arguments for accepting race as an alternative that may even be more medically useful. Finally, I advance an eliminativist argument to further motivate the notion that race, if it is truly not necessary, should be eliminated from use. / Master of Arts / Error theorists about race face a challenge from the occurrence of diseases and other health ailments that, appear, to be tracked by groups that are carved out by racial terms. If race does indeed allow us to make useful medical distinctions, then it would seem foolish or even a form of medical injustice to deny its reality. This paper provides a response to the stated challenge. First, by primarily using the work of Anthony Appiah, I will describe the error theorist position and its arguments for the non-reality of race. From here, I demonstrate the extent to which medical professionals grant the race is a scientifically arbitrary term and give arguments for accepting race as an alternative that may even be more medically useful. Finally, I advance an eliminativist argument to further motivate the notion that race, if it is truly not necessary, should be eliminated from use.

This thesis is primarily an attempt to reconstruct the debate between Josiah Royce and Ralph Barton Perry concerning the viability of both the realist and idealist positions. Secondarily, I will show that this debate is a crucial part of an adequate understanding of the changes that took place in American philosophy in the early part of twentieth century. Royce's arguments against the neorealist position of Perry (and others) centered on both the nature of error, and the nature of independence. Perry' response to these arguments was an elaborate effort to demonstrate a coherent and consistent neorealist system which avoided the problems that Royce claimed must beset any such system. I will not attempt to assign the label of "winner" to either participant, however, I will show that the degree of incommensurability involved in the debate played an important role in the shift in American philosophy at the time. / Master of Arts

This thesis examines William Dean Howells' two most notable novels of business, The Rise of Silas Lapham (1885) and A Hazard of New Fortunes (1890), suggesting that the business of literature, in its dissemination of success myths and its ultimate internalization of these myths, was complicit in America's industrial strife during the 1880s. Both novels operate meta-critically. In Silas Lapham, for instance, Howells dramatizes several unhealthy business behaviors that derive from prosperity tropes found in newspapers and other popular writings. In this novel, the focus is on the ways these tropes affect the individual - both the reader who consumes them and the writer who must produce them. Meanwhile, Hazard explores the effects of these myths within the industry of literary production, showing how the publishers themselves are susceptible to the same romanticized economic ideals they disseminate. These novels do not correct the problematic behaviors that popular writing likely had a role in inspiring. They certainly do not resolve the seemingly contradictory values within the publishing industry. But Silas Lapham and Hazard generate a clearer picture of the complex relationship between literature and business, in a time punctuated by literary disputes between realists and romantics, and violent strikes between the labor class and the capital class. / Master of Arts

Karl Popper's philosophy of science includes both falsificationism and realism. I explore the relationship between these two positions in his philosophy and find a strong tension between them. Drawing upon this tension in Popper's philosophy, I explore the general relationship between falsificationism and realism in an effort to determine whether or not the two positions can be successfully combined. Rather than criticizing falsificationism, I focus instead on the realist side of the tension and seek to resolve the tension through the introduction of an alternative form of scientific realism. I examine three alternatives in detail: Hilary Putnam's internal realism, Richard Boyd's realism, and Ian Hacking's entity realism. Internal realism is shown to be an unsatisfactory solution because of its failure to incorporate a notion of approximate truth. Boyd's version of realism is also shown to be unsatisfactory due to its ascription of absolute approximate truth to scientific theories. Hacking's entity realism, while consistent with falsificationism in many respects, is also shown to be problematic due to its apparent reliance upon induction. Finally, I propose a solution to the problem, which consists in the elaboration of an alternative version of scientific realism based primarily on a reinterpretation of Hacking's entity realism that stresses non-inferential knowledge of causes. I also argue that the reinterpreted form of Hacking's realism can be used to support Boyd's notion of a theoretical tradition, although one of entities and their causal properties rather than one of approximately true theories. / Master of Arts

Many bodies of modern scientific theory (such as both Newtonian and relativistic physics) have proven to be remarkably successful at predicting future observable phenomena. Some philosophers have seen this success as calling for deeper explanation: what is it about these theories that makes them so predictively reliable, when, presumably, not just any theory would enjoy such success? This question has often motivated philosophers (such as Richard Boyd) to adopt a realist stance towards scientific theories, wherein the entities and mechanisms postulated by a successful theory are understood as referring to real entities and mechanisms in the world. However, as Nicholas Rescher has argued, a close look at the concepts employed in scientific theorizing reveals that they are not of the right kind for such a realist explanation to work. His arguments show that at the root of the meaning of each key element of our standard scientific framework is a reference to mental functionings. This being so, an explanation such a Boyd's ceases to be viable, as an approximately accurate picture of the external world would presumably be free of reference to mental functioning. I thus attempt to provide a plausible explanation for the success of science bearing in mind that a straightforward correspondence between the world described by our theories and the world itself does not obtain. Such an explanation relies not only on the features of the external world that our theories might approximate, but also on the ability of mental processes to enrich this world, both in theorizing and in experience. / Master of Arts

This is a fiction novel about grief, isolation, and loss that takes place in an unnamed rural whaling village in Arctic Alaska. There is also a time-traveling dragon in it. / Master of Fine Arts

In the past decade, North Dakota has experienced a substantial shift in economic and political activity due to oil. In addition to jobs and revenue, corporate interests have surged into the state with a dominating force. As players in a highly valued industry, oil companies have worked hard to protect and uphold viable markets in the state. These interests are observed in relationships with key politicians, especially among those regulating the oil industry as members of the North Dakota Industrial Commission (NDIC). Critics label this development as misguided, as an example of big business manipulating government. This thesis, on the other hand, contends that such arguments are predicated on prevailing, yet unhelpful standards, and offers an understanding of how ND's government operates in the real world through the use of qualitative and quantitative methods. By testing the relationship between political contributions and oil spills in North Dakota and interpreting the results using three political theories—tliberalism, realism, and elite theory—tthe case study shows the allegations against key politicians and the oil industry are not substantiated. Instead of a case of political corruption, the thesis shows that the case of the NDIC is in fact a paradigmatic example of how liberal-democracy really works. / Master of Arts / In the past decade, North Dakota has experienced a substantial shift in economic and political activity due to oil. In addition to jobs and revenue, corporate interests have surged into the state with a dominating force. As players in a highly valued industry, oil companies have worked hard to protect and uphold viable markets in the state. In particular, by developing relationships with key politicians, especially among those regulating the oil industry as members of the North Dakota Industrial Commission (NDIC). Critics view these strong relationships between oil companies and politicians as imbalanced and corrupt. In response, this thesis questions the criticisms at hand and offers an understanding of how ND’s government operates in the real world. By testing the relationship between political contributions and oil spills in North Dakota and interpreting the results using three political theories, the thesis shows that the case of the NDIC is not a case of corruption but how liberal-democracy really works.

Sammandrag Kurder är idag världens största befolkning, som beräknas vara mellan 40-45 miljoner i hela världen, som är utan en erkänd stat. Dock finns det ett geografiskt område, i sydvästra Asien, som kallas för Kurdistan av alla kurder och är moderlandet för kurderna. I dagens läge är södra Kurdistan, norra Irak, den enda delen av Kurdistan som har en självständig region och är känd som KRG, Kurdistans regionala regering, och som den här studien kommer att fokusera på. Politiken i Mellanöstern ökar i snabb takt runt KRG, där under större delen av nittonhundratalet har setts som ett helt destabiliserande kraft i regionen, men i det senaste tio åren har denna uppfattning förändras. Idag är KRG en tillgång vad det gäller politiskt säkerhet i mellanöstern, där KRG bidrar till främjande av stabiliteten och utvecklingen i regionen. Syftet med denna uppsats är att förstå mekanismerna bakom stabiliteten och instabiliteten i konfliktfyllda regioner där KRG som aktör, i mellanöstern, ligger i fokus. Detta framställs genom att upplysa de problem som finns och förtydliggöra de regionala staternas ställningstagande gentemot KRG och vice versa. Genom de förändringar som har skett i regionen ska ett svar hittas till den övergripande frågan. Min strategi för att kunna besvara forskningsfrågan i uppsatsen är att analysera USA- och Turkiets säkerhetspolitiska hållning mot KRG. Detta tillämpades genom att göra en litteraturstudie av de dokument som tydliggör sammanställningen av geopolitiska processer och skeenden som omformat KRG:s ställning i regionen, i ett internationellt säkerhetsperspektiv. I detta används indikatorer från det teoretiska perspektivet realism för att på så sätt operationalisera och undersöka uppsatsens forskningsfråga. Slutsatsen visar att det finns många faktorer som påverkar KRG:s roll vad det gäller säkerhetsnivån både regionalt och internationell där mycket lutar åt samarbetet mellan KRG och Turkiet regionalt samt KRG och USA internationellt. Dessa kopplingar mellan KRG, Turkiet och USA ger ett kompletterande politik i regionen. / Abstract Kurds are now one of the world's largest population, estimated to be between 40-45 million worldwide, which is not a recognized state. However, there is a geographic area in southwestern Asia, known as Kurdistan by the Kurds and is the motherland. Nowadays, southern Kurdistan and northern Iraq is the only part of Kurdistan which has an autonomous region and is known as the KRG, the Kurdistan Regional Government, which this study will focus on. The politics in the Middle East is growing rapidly around the KRG, where during most of the twentieth century has been seen as a totally destabilizing force in the region, but in the last ten years this perception is changing. Today, the KRG is an asset in terms of political security in the Middle East, where the KRG contributes to the promotion of stability and development in the region. The purpose of this paper is to understand the mechanisms behind the stability and instability in conflict-ridden regions where the KRG as an actor in the Middle East is in focus. This is generated by informing the problems and clarifying the Regional States approach towards the KRG and vice versa. Through the changes that have taken place in the region an answer should be found to the overall question. My strategy to answer the research question in this paper is to analyze the US and Turkey's geopolitical posture toward the KRG. This was applied by making a literature review of the documents that clarify the compilation of geopolitical processes and events that transformed the KRG's position in the region, in an international security perspective. Indicators are used from the theoretical perspective realism to thereby operationalize and examine the essay research question. The conclusion shows that there are many factors that affect the KRG's role, in terms of security, both regional and international, where a lot leans towards cooperation between the KRG and Turkey regionally, as well as the KRG and the United States internationally. These connections between the KRG, Turkey and the United States provides a complementary policy in the region.

The US-Cuba relations have been problematic for half a century; however, in December 2014, both countries announced the restoration of their bilateral ties. Over the decades, these relations have also had reciprocal effects on other countries like Russia, Canada and the Vatican. First of all, the thesis provides a brief historical background of the US-Cuba relations from 1898 to 1959 to understand their context before the Cuban Revolution. It then examines the main happenings of the US-Cuba relationship and its reciprocal effects on Moscow, Ottawa and the Holy See during three distinct time periods: the early sixties, the nineties and from 2008 to the present. In order to do this, the study is divided in three case studies, one for each interval, and analyses through the help of the realist, defensive realist and liberal theories the actions taken by these five countries to face the developments of the US-Cuba relations. It finds that Havana’s foreign policy has always been driven by the same wish for the survival of its revolution, the US still aims at changing the Cuban government although it is gradually reducing the sanctions against it, while Russia, Canada and the Vatican have basically kept unchanged their approach toward Cuba throughout the decades. Finally, the recent US-Cuba thaw is not completed yet because these two countries still have to tackle some crucial issues.