Saving morality: Why we cannot, and why we must

Philosophers and laymen alike have often used morality to invite misconceptions of human life into ethics, and also of ethics into human life. The Kant/Williams discourse provides a rich backdrop on which to consider these misconceptions. But the misconceptionsof morality involved are just as numerous and just as serious. One thing that the Kant/Williams discourse shows is this: that ethics can be neither contained by nor cultivated without morality. Though much of Williams’ critique of Kantian morality is quite astute, thephilosophical and ethical wisdoms of morality abound in spite of these. Morality understands the fundamental condition of moral loss, and the sometimes irreducible quandaries that this condition places human beings in. It understands the nature of the moral law, and theintricacies that the levels of letter and spirit invite into human life. Perhaps more importantly, it understands the uncompromising relationship between moral loss and moral law, and how the human navigation of this relationship leads into the ethical realm via giving rise to ethical conviction. Finally, for all of its pressures, morality abounds in valuable wisdoms for the one discovering that the human soul occupies a place of ethical significance in the world. It is responsible for pointing out, grounding and providing a framework for some of the most fundamental truths about the world and human beings; and these are essential to any viable ethical theory and sensible conception of human life.

Shading Silhouettes of Smaller Ones

I am truly honored to have been given the amazing opportunity to create this original piece, this powerful journey through memory and emotive exploration of the loss of childhood. How do we feel about the loss of our child-self? Could we ever get them back? How long, how deep would one have to dig in the graveyards, the playgrounds of memory, to uncover what was buried there... to un-erase what waserased? shading silhouettes of smaller ones will ultimately encourage a reconnection with the Inner Child hidden inside all of us, as well as an intimate awareness of the adult version of the self by looking back to the smaller ones. The main inspiration for this piece is then of course, Inner Child Work. Most people may not be familiar with this therapeutic exploration of childhood... It wasimportant to me then, to present this concept in an imaginative, theatrical way, as a gift to you - a comprehensive and intensely moving gift. Speaking from experience, working on my Inner Child - my little Bianca - has been the most painful, frightening, yetrewarding and powerful experience within my personal life. Some people spend their entire lives trying to love themselves, to prove themselves, or be accepted. Some are too afraid to look back to where it all began. The characters within this piece will face thatfear... in a regression from the complexities of adulthood to the confusion of adolescence, all the way back to the wonder and bliss of childhood. They will reveal memories, of both joy and pain, love and abandonment, journeying backwards through time - through memory - through a playground - back to the beginning... We will enter a world where a push of a merry-go-round spins us to games of Truth or Dare after a high school dance at 16 - or the slam of a metal fence reminds us of the door Dad slammed in our face at 9 - where the sound of chain links swings us back to scrapping our knee by the sandbox at 5 This piece will attempt to connect everyone, both cast and audience, through a universal understanding and discussion of what it means to grow up, as well as a discovery of WHY we are the way we are - how experiences or relationships from our childhood have shaped our adult lives. We will attempt to challenge your honesty and nerve by inviting you to ask questions of yourselves, your past - to remember what it's like to have the innocence and hope of a child, to engage with and discover your Inner Child, to realize when or why you left them behind, and if you want to this magical part of yourself. It is my hope that you will join us in a collective journey - gather the courage to dig up the little kid you buried so long ago...* The creation, design, choreography, and direction for shading silhouettes of smaller ones mark the culminating experience of a year-long independent study in Theatre.

Aporias of Trauma in Joyce's Ulysses and Faulkner's Light in August

In this thesis, I explore the relationships between trauma, memory, and narrative, particularly the ways in which trauma simultaneously disrupts and engenders narrative structures. I consider various trauma theories by authors such as Cathy Caruth, Judith Herman, Ruth Leys, and Dominick LaCapra. I also consider how psychoanalytic theory and criticism, specifically the writings of Sigmund Freud, inform the study of traumatic experience from both literary and personal perspectives. Furthermore, I consider theories regarding the relationship between trauma and narrative by authors such as Peter Brooks and John Pilkington. James Joyce¿s Ulysses and William Faulkner¿s Light in August serve, for my purposes, as trauma-texts and reflect the ways in which trauma might complicate the simultaneous destruction and creation of narrative strategies. Reading Ulysses and Light in August as trauma-texts that are both in mourning and melancholic gives us complementary, and contradictory, reasons for why we enjoy them. Mourning constructs a relationship between victim and witness, in which we can hear the voice of trauma and engage it in discourse. Conversely, melancholia creates a relationship between performer and spectator, in which we experience, and are fascinated by, the spectacle of another¿s trauma. Laughter, perversity, sorrow, and respite engage the reader in both texts, and raise questions about how one `remembers-to-forget¿ traumatic experiences. The narratives of each text¿s characters offer unique performances of mourning and melancholia. Thus, while this thesis engenders more questions than answers, I hope to argue that Ulysses and Light in August are significant literary works because each engages the reader in traumatic discourse, entertains the reader with the traumatic spectacle, and enlightens the reader on the complex relationship between trauma and narrative.

Why do Municipalities Recycle?

The disposal of municipal solid waste is believed to emit foul odor, threaten groundwater, and increase road congestion. As remote regional landfills have replaced local town dumps, these costs are no longer internalized by garbage-producing households or their municipalities. Instead, rural property owners located adjacent to large regional landfills and along the roadways accessing those landfills bear the external costs of garbage disposal. This paper uses a comprehensive nine-year panel data set of aggregated state data to empirically examine why 8,937 municipalities continue to operate costly recycling programs designed to reduce the external costs of garbage disposal. Results suggest that local tastes for recycling drive municipal decisions. If household preferences for recycling are short lived, then we can expect a future decrease in the number of municipal recycling programs. Recent data indicate the number of recycling programs in operation in the U.S. has indeed fallen.