Vol 6, No 2, Spring 2009

 

For the full PDF version of the Spring 2009 Edition, click here.

 

 

 

"Defining the Center and Periphery in Ancient Near Eastern Cultures"
by Rachel Beil

 

Most ancient Near Eastern civilizations held a worldview characterized by a spatial and symbolic dichotomy between the life-preserving urban center and the life-threatening peripheral wilderness. Though the ancient Israelites' understanding of the center and periphery is similar to that of their neighbors in many ways, the Hebrew emphasis on the supreme sovereignty of Yahweh in all places enabled them to view the wilderness as a site of God's provision and revelation.

 

 

"'Believing lies against his Maker':
Competing Accounts of Origin in Paradise Lost"
by Sarah Casey

 

Throughout the story of creation and disobedience in Paradise Lost, Milton emphasizes the importance of knowledge of one's origins. This paper investigates connection between obedience and awareness of one's createdness, showing how the differences between Satan's fall and Adam and Eve's fall allow for humanity's redemption.

 

 

"Hippocampal Reactivation During Slow Wave Sleep Enhances Declarative Memory"
by Stephanie Frazon

 

Different sleep stages are selectively beneficial for the consolidation of different types of memory. This article first reviews experimental evidence for the beneficial relationship between slow wave sleep (SWS) and declarative memory. Researchers have further investigated the nature of this advantageous relationship, finding that hippocampal reactivation during SWS, most prevalent in the early night, consolidates declarative memory and improves retention. Current research examines physiological states of the brain that may help explain the enhancing effect.

 

 

"David Lewis, Infallible Knowledge, and Epistemic Satisfaction"
by Eric Headstream

 

The philosopher David Lewis gives an account of how knowledge might be grounded in ignorance: we have knowledge only when we are unaware of those skeptical scenarios that improperly cause us to doubt. Though fascinating, this account cannot be proven. If it is correct, any attempt to examine our knowledge will only lead us into skepticism. This account lacks the anti-skeptical power which we would expect from a satisfactory theory of knowledge. The possibility that it may be correct, however, calls into question the value of knowledge.

 

 

"Chopin and the Sublime: The Sonata in B-flat minor, Op. 35"
by Ariana Phillips

 

Frederic Chopin's music is well-known as popular parlor music; however, when examined more carefully, some of his pieces are shown to be more serious works of art than they may first appear. Using the nineteenth-century philosophical definition of the sublime, this paper argues that Chopin's Sonata in B-flat minor, Op. 35, is itself a work of sublimity.