Theses and Dissertations from UMD
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New submissions to the thesis/dissertation collections are added automatically as they are received from the Graduate School. Currently, the Graduate School deposits all theses and dissertations from a given semester after the official graduation date. This means that there may be up to a 4 month delay in the appearance of a give thesis/dissertation in DRUM
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Item The Politics of Disaster: The Philosophical Production of Risk and Responsibility(2017) Newton, Summer Dawn; Butterworth, Charles; Government and Politics; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Failed government responses to severe disasters, including Hurricane Katrina, have led to political repercussions for public institutions tasked with preventing, mitigating, and recovering from disasters. This dissertation investigates the emergence of the public expectation that governments have an obligation to manage their disordered effects. I look to early modern philosophers Hobbes and Machiavelli to explicate the philosophical production of risk and responsibility inherent in this political interpretation of disaster. A careful reading of Machiavelli and Hobbes articulates the reconfiguration of humanity’s relationship with nature, the state, and misfortune. Individuals were no longer to live in accordance with a harmonious nature, but transform it to better suit bodily interests. Machiavelli describes this capacity for transformation as virtue while Hobbes points to human artifice. Machiavellian virtue tamed variable fortune while Hobbesian artifice imposed predictability on disordered nature through the institution of the Leviathan. The resulting social contract arrangements of political authority established citizens’ duty of obedience and the sovereign’s responsibility for the welfare of its citizens, including during periods of disaster. Philosophy transitioned from the cultivation of the soul among the few to the universal provision of self-preservation. These philosophical developments coincided with shifts in explanatory models communities used to attribute causality in disasters. I present four models that assign causality to divine will, random chance or accident, nature, and human agency. In the twenty-first century, the human agency model predominates as human intervention into nature poses challenges in disentangling human activity from natural processes. Earlier historical periods deployed different explanatory models that necessitated non-political remedies, obligation, and blame. The 1755 Lisbon earthquake serves as a waypoint between the early modern and contemporary interpretations of disaster where authorities, victims, and observers debated its cause. In disaster research, human agency is examined in vulnerability analysis which views disasters as the intersection between hazards and ongoing political, economic, and social processes that produce patterns of vulnerability such as those apparent in the “man-made” catastrophe Hurricane Katrina. The very technologies and development strategies intended to increase predictability and control over nature increase the disordered effects inherent in disasters.Item Philosopher Kings, Then and Now: The Political Philosophy of IQ(2015) Smith, Brannon Wilson; Glass, James M; Government and Politics; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The most fundamental question of political philosophy is “who should rule?” Socrates famously argued in the Republic that philosophers were the most precise guardians of the best city. The question of intelligence is not a theoretical one; it is relevant far beyond the building of cities in speech. The importance we ascribe to measures of intelligence informs a broad range of policy questions and could challenge our democratic processes. This dissertation seeks to understand the relationship of the modern concept of IQ to Western political philosophy by investigating the role of intelligence for Plato, Aristotle, Machiavelli, and contemporary psychometricians. Whereas intelligence has a moral dimension for the classical philosophers, Machiavelli emphasized the use of prudence in the service of ambition. Contemporary psychometrics presents intelligence as a distinct, amoral property. I argue that Freud and group psychology provide insight into the way democracy could relate to a hypothetical cognitive elite. I further suggest ways in which we could make use of the modern IQ test to improve the quality of our political leadership and make use of an important Platonic theory without abandoning representative democracy as we know it.