Thesis (M.A.)--Trinity International University, 2004. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 139-148).

Thesis (M.A.)--Abilene Christian University, 2002. / Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 95-102).

This thesis encompasses the design and production process for Southern Illinois University Carbondale Department of Theater’s production, Evil Dead: The Musical. The writing focuses on the scene designer’s process of analyzing a script to putting it on stage. Through the document the reader will gain insight into the process of a live production from the pre-design phase to post production.

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The problem of evil arises from the argument that the existence of suffering is incompatible with (or else renders improbable) the existence of an omnipotent, omniscient and omnibenevolent God (and that, since the former surely exists, the latter must not). Philosophers working on the problem, however, rarely make profitable use of the distinction between mental and physical suffering. Accordingly, in this thesis I develop a version of the problem that focuses specifically on the phenomenal experience of physical pain. After providing (in the first chapter) a detailed analysis of (i) both logical and evidential (or probabilistic) formulations of the problem, and (ii) the usefulness of this logical/evidential distinction, I discuss some of the most promising theistic responses to the problem, and conclude that these theistic responses fail. In the second chapter I lay out my argument, and I attempt to show that there is no plausible way for the theist to respond when the problem is formulated in this manner. I conclude the chapter by arguing that my argument demonstrates the incompatibility of theism with both epiphenomenalism and zombies-informed dualism. In the third chapter I begin with a discussion of mental supervenience in order to defend a commonsense modal intuition necessary for the success of my argument. I then proceed to address possible objections, including most notably the effort to cast doubt on the reliability of the inference from conceivability to possibility. Finally, I consider empirical findings that substantiate my argument's most contentious premise. / Master of Arts

In The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Boromir refers to the lands of Mordor as the place where evil never sleeps. Cinematic evil itself never sleeps, always arising in new forms, to the extent that there exist as many types of evil as there are films. This thesis examines this constantly shifting construction of evil in American popular cinema between 1989 and 2002 - roughly, the period between the fall of the Berlin Wall and the attack on the World Trade Center - and how this cinema engaged with representations of enemies and of evil per se. The thesis uses content and thematic analysis on a sample of the 201 most successful films at the U.S. box office during the period. In these films, cinematic evil is constructed according to a visual aesthetic that attempts to engage with societal values, but fails to do so due to the emphasis on its visual construction and its commodification. As Baudrillard argues, evil has become a hollow concept devoid of meaning, and this is especially so for cinematic evil. It is recognised, and is recognisable, by the visual excessiveness of its violence (or potentiality for violence), and by certain codes that are created in reference to intertextual patterns and in relationship to discourses of paranoia and malaise. But cinema in this period failed to engage with the concept of evil itself in any meaningful way. Cinematic evil mirrors the descent into the chaos and disorder of a postmodern society. All cinematic evil can do is to connect with this sense of unease in which the 'reality of evil' cannot be represented. Instead, it draws on earlier icons and narratives of evil in a conflation of narrative and spectacle that produces a cinema of nostalgia. Moreover, stripped of narrative causality, these films express a belief, unproved and unprovable, that evil things and evil people may arise in any form, in any place and at any time: a cinema of paranoia. Together, these factors produce a cinema of malaise, perpetually confronting an evil it is unable to define or locate.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--McMaster University, 2003. / Advisor: Zdravko Planinc. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 347-362). Also available via World Wide Web.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-07-29T15:06:26Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Eden_Farias.pdf: 507724 bytes, checksum: 9b523cf2a27a82cf9797fbb4fa4709fa (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-08-18 / This work explores the meaning of the expression Banality of Evil, coined by Hannah Arendt in her investigation about Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem. It intends to question its meaning to the logistics of extermination in the Holocaust. Investigates on the one hand, aspects of a moral collapse about our common understandings about the problem of evil, and by the other, the context of bureaucracy that propitiated the novelty of this new form of evil by its singular lack of roots as well as political and moral implications in relation to individual responsibility. Through the conceptual analysis of the problem of evil, along with a series of mismatches in the reasons for doing evil, we propose an interpretation of the meaning of the Banality of Evil. / Este trabalho investiga o significado da expressão Banalidade do Mal cunhada por Hannah Arendt em suas investigações sobre Adolf Eichmann em Jerusalém. Preza-se pelo questionamento do seu significado frente à logística de extermínio do Holocausto. Investiga-se, por um lado, aspectos de um colapso moral a respeito de nossas usuais compreensões acerca do problema do mal e, por outro, o contexto de burocratização do extermínio que propiciou o ineditismo dessa nova forma de mal por sua singular ausência de raízes, bem como as implicações políticas e morais em relação à responsabilidade individual. Através da análise conceitual do problema do mal, juntamente a uma série de descompassos presentes nas razões para se fazer o mal, propomos uma interpretação do significado da Banalidade do Mal.

abstract: In this thesis, I discuss the philosophical problem of evil and, as a response, John Hick's soul making theodicy. First, I discuss the transformation of the problem. I examine how the problem has shifted from logical to evidential in recent history. Next, I offer a faithful rendition of Hick's position - one which states the existence of evil does not provide evidence against the existence of God. After reconstructing his argument, I go on to exposes its logical faults. I present four main contentions to Hick's theodicy. First, I analyze the psychology of dehumanization to question whether we have any evidence that soul making is happening in response to the suffering in the world. Second, I argue that Hick's theodicy is self-defeating if accepted because it undermines the central point on which his argument depends. Third, I claim that Hick's theodicy is self-defeating given his eschatological views. Finally, I discuss how Hick's theodicy does not account for the animal suffering that widely exists in the world now, and that exists in our evolutionary history. My hope is to show that Hick's theodicy fails to solve the problem of evil. I claim that the amount of gratuitous suffering in the world does provide evidence against the existence of God. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Philosophy 2018