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Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Philosophical'
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McBain, James F. "Philosophical intuitions--philosophical analysis." Diss., Columbia, Mo. : University of Missouri-Columbia, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/10355/5560.
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Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2008.The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from title screen of research.pdf file (viewed on July 28, 2009) Includes bibliographical references.
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Ong, Ka Yin Caroline. "Philosophical robotics." Thesis, University of Sussex, 2006. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.430958.
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Juneja, Bimaljeet. "Philosophical disagreement." Thesis, Cardiff University, 1989. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.375968.
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Pelczar, Michael Walsh. "Philosophical semantics." Full text, Acrobat Reader required, 2000. http://viva.lib.virginia.edu/etd/diss/ArtsSci/Philosophy/2000/Pelczar/Pelczar.pdf.
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Grundy, W. P. "Language and world in Ludwig Wittgenstein's Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus and Philosophical Investigations." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2008. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.599765.
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The author describes the replacement of the a priori conditions of representational activity in the Tractatus by a set of everyday conditions that underlie the application of terms such as ‘language’ and ‘world’. He assesses both the later Wittgenstein’s challenge to clear distinctions between language and non-language, as well as his replacement of philosophical analysis with the new technique of philosophical grammar. While analysis depends, in the Tractatus, on clearly demarcated categories of language and world, grammar aims to describe the complex network of social, political, historical, technological, interpersonal, and material factors that constitute our particular modes of bringing order to experience. The author presents Wittgenstein’s later writing as a therapeutic response to the philosophical subliming of the language/world distinction in the Tractatus. He considers the multiple forms of therapy that Philosophical Investigations performs, involving both the substantive discussion of themes in the philosophy of language, as well as the distinctive form of philosophical writing that Wittgenstein develops. He argues that the later Wittgenstein’s awareness of instabilities in absolute distractions between language and non-language is closely connected to the constraints of human embodiment. Where the language/world distinction in the Tractatus depends on a radically disembodied conception of language, of language users, and of philosophical reflections on language, the later Wittgenstein considers embodiment as central to the everyday ways in which we apply the term ‘language’. The author concludes by arguing that Wittgenstein’s awareness of the embodiment of the language user leads him to reflect also on the embodiment of the philosopher and of philosophical practice. The formal properties of Philosophical Investigations cause the reader to consider philosophical thinking and writing as performed within a medium, and to reflect on the consequences for philosophical argument when the medium of philosophy is itself subjected to therapeutic demystification.
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Xin, Yuchen. "Wittgenstein's Tractatus logico-philosophicus and Kafka's Oktavhefte| A comparative stylistic and philosophical analysis." Thesis, University of Colorado at Boulder, 2014. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=1552100.
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In the mid 1920s, reflecting the concerns of the "Sprachkrise ", Ludwig Wittgenstein and Franz Kafka composed writings deeply concerned with language's ability to express human thought. In his Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, Wittgenstein attempted to draw the boundary of meaningful language. During the same period, Kafka developed his thoughts on language and ethics in his Oktavhefte. I compare these works, showing that they share an understanding of language as a domain bound within the physical world and incapable of expressing our spiritual being. Presenting itself as rigorous philosophical writing, Wittgenstein's Tractatus constantly reminds its reader of the limitations of its own logical and philosophical language by claiming itself to be "nonsense" and only a ladder the reader should climb and get rid of. Kafka, without constructing rigorous logical arguments, composed a critique demonstrating the unnaturalness of natural language and showing that its poetic nature lets language transcend its own boundaries.
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Abrahams, Shathley Q. "Older than language : comics as philosophical praxis and heuristic for philosophical canon." Doctoral thesis, University of Cape Town, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/9480.
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Includes bibliographical references (leaves 194-197).The central task of this dissertation is the exploration of the medium of comics, and its connections to both popular culture and philosophy as a practice conceived in the Western tradition. Comics (at times referred to as both 'graphic literature' and 'sequential art' during this dissertation) constitutes a wholly new object. One that is qualitatively distinct from prose, theater, poetry and cinema. Mimicking the structure of comics wherein two images are juxtaposed to suggest (rather than explicitly state) a coherent sequence in the mind of the reader, this dissertation offers two "images" of its central thesis: one a theoretical element, the other a work of creative fiction. Following on from each other, these "images" interrogate both in their parts and in their sequence, the politics of representation around comics and its connections to philosophy and the popular. In the first "image" a theoretical work is forwarded to examine the various connections that arise between comics, popular culture and philosophy. The central thesis of this element argues for a nuanced understanding in which the medium of comics provides for a clearer interlocutor of Western philosophy's perennial concerns. The works of Galileo, Vico, Descartes, Darwin, Marx, Freud, Einstein, Foucault and Deleuze are reinterpreted using the aesthetic mechanics of comics as philosophical concept. This dissertation thus asserts that comics functions as "heuristic" for Western philosophy, a method which encodes understanding through practice.
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Raabe, Peter Bruno. "Philosophy of philosophical counselling." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1999. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk1/tape9/PQDD_0027/NQ38962.pdf.
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Ferguson, Alexander Francis. "Creativity: A Philosophical Exploration." Thesis, University of Canterbury. Humanities, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/10092/6260.
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This dissertation explores new frontiers of creativity. Currently, the concept of creativity is limited, restricting us to a narrow view of the phenomenon. To remedy this, I investigate new cases of behaviour, entities and systems. To do so, I construct a definition of creativity that can be applies outside the domain of human activity, and examine a broad array of examples that are entirely new to studies of creativity. In doing so, limitations owing to our ability to recognize creativity are made apparent. I argue that a new way of approaching creativity is required to overcome these limitations, and propose a diachronic definition of creativity based on a general systems law. Using the diachronic definition of creative behaviour. I discover a number of creative systems at different organizational scales, including prion adaptation and biogenesis. I argue that these newfound examples of creativity and the definition that exploses them, have significant implications for how we understand creativity.
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Litland, Jon. "Topics in Philosophical Logic." Thesis, Harvard University, 2012. http://dissertations.umi.com/gsas.harvard:10221.
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In “Proof-Theoretic Justification of Logic”, building on work by Dummett and Prawitz, I show how to construct use-based meaning-theories for the logical constants. The assertability-conditional meaning-theory takes the meaning of the logical constants to be given by their introduction rules; the consequence-conditional meaning-theory takes the meaning of the logical constants to be given by their elimination rules. I then consider the question: given a set of introduction (elimination) rules \(\mathcal{R}\), what are the strongest elimination (introduction) rules that are validated by an assertability (consequence) conditional meaning-theory based on \(\mathcal{R}\)? I prove that the intuitionistic introduction (elimination) rules are the strongest rules that are validated by the intuitionistic elimination (introduction) rules. I then prove that intuitionistic logic is the strongest logic that can be given either an assertability-conditional or consequence-conditional meaning-theory. In “Grounding Grounding” I discuss the notion of grounding. My discussion revolves around the problem of iterated grounding-claims. Suppose that \(\Delta\) grounds \(\phi\); what grounds that \(\Delta\) grounds that \(\phi\)? I argue that unless we can get a satisfactory answer to this question the notion of grounding will be useless. I discuss and reject some proposed accounts of iterated grounding claims. I then develop a new way of expressing grounding, propose an account of iterated grounding-claims and show how we can develop logics for grounding. In “Is the Vagueness Argument Valid?” I argue that the Vagueness Argument in favor of unrestricted composition isn’t valid. However, if the premisses of the argument are true and the conclusion false, mereological facts fail to supervene on non-mereological facts. I argue that this failure of supervenience is an artifact of the interplay between the necessity and determinacy operators and that it does not mean that mereological facts fail to depend on non-mereological facts. I sketch a deflationary view of ontology to establish this.Philosophy
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Evans, Richard Neil. "Philosophical exploration of transsexuality." Thesis, University of Birmingham, 2009. http://etheses.bham.ac.uk//id/eprint/335/.
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This thesis has two aims: First, to demonstrate that there is in the current medical model of transsexuality conceptual incoherence. Second, to establish an alternative model for understanding transsexuality: the model of authenticity. The current medical model is based on an assumption that the sexed body and gender identity are distinct, so that gender is different to sex, which forms the basis of transsexuality. The tension in transsexuality between sex and gender gives rise to suffering. Surgery unifies sex and gender and is offered as the humane response. It is this move from separation to unification of sex and gender that constitutes the conceptual incoherence in the current medical model. Suffering is then explored as a potential justification for surgery. It is argued that it is not obvious that suffering must be alleviated. Indeed, suffering may be valuable, and where this is the case there is no moral imperative to remove it. So, whilst there is a serious moral duty to respond to suffering there is no absolute duty to alleviate it. An alternative model is then explored. A model of authenticity, which can replace the medical model, better enables the freely chosen identity and goals of the transsexual to be respected, without compromising the ends of medicine.
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Padilla, Jesús. "Reflecting on Philosophical Grammar." Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú - Departamento de Humanidades, 2012. http://repositorio.pucp.edu.pe/index/handle/123456789/113193.
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The aim of this paper is to analyze Wittgenstein’s philosophical grammar in the Middle Period. The paper examines the thesis that grammar is not responsible for reality. It investigates the role that rules play in this context and how they determine meaning. Special focus shall be put on arbitrary rules. Therefore, we shall develop a thesis of vagueness with special emphasis on perspicuous representation.Este trabajo analiza la propuesta wittgensteiniana acerca de la gramática filosófica en el período intermedio. Se estudia la tesis general de que la gramática no es responsable de la realidad. Seguidamente, se analiza el papel que juegan las reglas y cómo determinan el significado. Se indaga acerca del papel arbitrario de las reglas. Para ello se desarrolla la tesis de la vaguedad y el papel que juega la representación perspicua.
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Tarasenko, Yu. "Philosophical analysis of loneliness." Thesis, National Aviation University, 2012. http://er.nau.edu.ua/handle/NAU/10279.
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Loneliness is one of the major philosophical problems of society. This feeling has
been and remains an object of study of philosophers, psychologists and psychiatrists,
sociologists, anthropologists, educators, representatives of other scientific disciplines.
The concept “loneliness” is actually a state of mind, which causes people to feel empty,
alone and unwanted. Loneliness is the perception of being alone and isolated
Theoretical understanding of this problem can be already found in ancient times.
The Book of Ecclesiastes tells us that people were sensitive to loneliness in those
distant ages and perceived it like a drama that led to a profound depletion of the
individual.
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Matar, Anat. "From Dummett's philosophical perspective /." Berlin : W. de Gruyter, 1997. http://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb370750856.
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Springett, Benjamin Alan. "Dreaming : a philosophical exploration." Thesis, University of Bristol, 2017. https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.743011.
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Tasdelen, Iskender. "Resemblance: A Logico-philosophical Analysis." Phd thesis, METU, 2005. http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/2/12606719/index.pdf.
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Indiscernibility, interchangeability and resemblance relations may be named as weak-identity relations or identity-like relations. Indeed,identical objects can be thought to
satisfy all these three relations. According to realist view, these relations are defined on the basis of properties of objects. While indiscernibility is a context-independent relation, since indiscernibility is defined in terms of all properties of objects, interchangeability and resemblance relations are defined in terms of some significant
properties of objects and thus they should be regarded as context-dependent.
We should consider the following points while comparing rivalling theories of resemblance:
1. The theory explaining resemblance relations between objects should cover as many domains as possible. Instead of simply admitting that objects of a given type may resemble each other, the theory should explain how these relations are possible.
2. Objects do not just resemble or they do notresemblance is a relation that admits degrees. Thus the theory providing a finer analysis of close and weak resemblances should be preferred. In comparison to resemblance nominalism, realist theory of resemblance is strongerwith respect to both points. The criticism that realist view may not explain degrees of resemblance can be rejoined by removing the indeterminacy as to the nature of this notion.Among knowledge representation systems, property and attribute systems provide a simple but strong models for analytic ontology. Weak identity relations can easily be defined in these systems and the results following from these definitions can be seen to conform to our intuitions about weak identity relations.
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Tengland, Per-Anders. "Mental health : a philosophical analysis /." Linköping : Tema, Univ, 1998. http://www.bibl.liu.se/liupubl/disp/disp98/arts177s.htm.
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Pates, Rebecca. "A philosophical investigation of punishment /." Thesis, McGill University, 2002. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=82943.
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Neither currently prevalent justifications of punishment, nor a modified, contractarian version of a justification that I develop here, can be used to justify actual state punishment, even if some forms of punishment may remain legitimate. I argue in this thesis that alternative punitive practices such as developed by some Canadian aboriginal communities are more likely to conform to the criteria of punitive justice developed by standard justifications, as well as being more likely to conform to criteria developed in feminist ethics.
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容樂 and Lock Betty Yung. "Moral education: a philosophical investigation." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 1993. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B31211112.
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Lovell, Steven Jon James. "Philosophical themes from C.S. Lewis." Thesis, University of Sheffield, 2003. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/6054/.
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C. S. Lewis was perhaps the most popular and influential Christian apologist of the 20th Century, and his work is full of philosophical themes and arguments. Despite this, the main body of Lewis' work has received only scant attention from academic philosophers. Although countless books and articles have been written about C.S. Lewis and his writings, we are without a balanced and sustained evaluation of the philosophical themes and arguments to be found in his works. This is unfortunate for, in the words of James Patrick, the philosophical aspects of Lewis' work "constitute the very texture of his apologetic". It is hoped that this dissertation goes some way towards changing the situation. The dissertation contains five mam chapters, addressing four issues in the philosophy of religion through the writings of C.S. Lewis. Those issues are: the Euthyphro dilemma, the philosophical status of miracles, the Freudian critique of religious belief, and an argument from Lewis that has been dubbed 'the argument from desire'. While disagreeing with Lewis in some of the details, the dissertation defends a broadly Lewisian (and therefore broadly Christian) approach to each of these issues. Indeed, these Lewisian positions are defended with refurbished versions of Lewis' own arguments. In addition to a summary of some of the philosophical themes and arguments from C.S. Lewis that are not addressed in this dissertation, the work also includes two appendices. Appendix A is a short biography of C.S. Lewis. Appendix B offers a few thoughts on Lewis' general stance on the relation between faith and reason.
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Leeson, Miles Richard John. "The early Murdoch : philosophical novelist ?" Thesis, University of Sussex, 2007. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.444021.
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Dowling, Dolina Sylvia. "A philosophical investigation of marriage." Thesis, University of Glasgow, 1997. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.274780.
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Burroughs, Lucy. "Relevant alternatives and philosophical scepticism." Thesis, University of Sheffield, 2001. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.366151.
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Huang, Yuanfan. "Conceptual tuning : a philosophical method." Thesis, Lyon, 2017. http://www.theses.fr/2017LYSEN100/document.
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Chaque activité humaine nécessite d’avoir sa propre méthode pour obtenir un résultat concret et satisfaisant. C’est ainsi le cas pour la philosophie, une discipline qui compte 2500 d’histoire et dont la méthode est alors délimitée par les philosophes et les autres personnes. Quelle est donc cette méthode philosophique? Il existe plusieurs réponses. Cette thèse va donc tenter de répondre à cette question en introduisant un projet de méthode philosophique dénommée « Conceptual Tuning » [l’accord conceptuel]. Les boxeurs ne se préoccupent généralement pas de la question conceptuelle « Qu’est-ce que la boxe? ». De même les biologistes se posent à peine la question de savoir « Qu’est-ce que la biologie ». Pour eux, ce genre de questions sont extérieures à leur discipline. Cependant pour la philosophie, la question de la nature de la philosophie est une question bien interne à cette discipline. La conscience de soi est une condition sine quo non pour « faire de la philosophie ».Puisque la philosophie possède une si longue histoire et tant de traditions diverses et variées, on présuppose donc qu’il existe de très nombreuses méthodes pour « faire de la philosophie ». Ma thèse tentera donc de contribuer à cette discussion portant sur la méthodologie philosophique en proposant une méthode que j’appellerai « Conceptual Tuning ». Cet accord conceptuel sera principalement développé à partir de la méthode « Conceptual Engineering » déjà utilisée dans la philosophie depuis, dont les défenseurs s’efforcent d’améliorer nos concepts tels que « personne », « libéral », « science ». Cette thèse présentera ainsi six versions de « Conceptual Engineering », à savoir le « Conceptual Engineering » de Cappelen, la Méthode d’Explication de Carnap, le Révisionnisme Moral de Zagzebski, la Guerre Lexique de Ludlow, la Négociation Métalinguistique de Plunkett et l’Approche d’Amélioration de Haslanger. Ces six approches estiment déjà que nos concepts pourraient être défectueux, et c’est la tâche du philosophe de les « réparer ». Alors que la plupart des approches de « Conceptual Engineering » ne font que se concentrer étroitement sur la perspective de « réparation », cette thèse soutiendra que l’accord conceptuel exige que l’attention soit plutôt portée sur une perspective « expressive ». En d’autres termes, il faudrait employer cette méthode dans un cadre général de la pratique consistant à demander et à donner des raisons. Cette thèse soutiendra également que d’autres méthodes philosophiques importantes telles que la méthode de Brandomian, la philosophie du langage ordinaire et l’analyse conceptuelle traditionnelle peuvent être bien incorporées dans le projet d’accord conceptuel. Ainsi, au lieu d’être en opposition, ces méthodes sont en fait conformes à l’accord conceptuel ces méthodes s’intègrent parfaitement à l’accord conceptuelDifferent human practices require various methods to carry them out successfully. Philosophy, an activity with 2500 years of history, must also have its own method, which demarcates a philosopher from a lay person. This thesis embarks on a project of philosophical method—conceptual tuning. How to do philosophy belongs to the category of metaphilosophy or philosophy of philosophy. Boxers usually do not care about the conceptual question ‘What is boxing?’ and biologists barely ask ‘What is Biology?’. For them, this kind of question is a higher order question which concerns the nature of the thing in itself. It is an external question for most disciplines. But for philosophy, the question concerning the nature of philosophy is an internal question. Self-awareness is a sine qua non of doing philosophy.With such a long history and so many traditions, the method of doing philosophy must be miscellaneous. My thesis attempts to contribute to the discussion of philosophical methodology by proposing a method I shall call conceptual tuning. Conceptual tuning is grounded in the philosophical method of conceptual engineering, advocates of which endeavor to improve our concepts. According to the method of conceptual engineering, philosophical problems stem from defects in our understanding of concepts, and it is the philosopher’s task to fix them. While most conceptual engineering approaches only narrowly focus on the perspective of ‘repairing’ or ‘fixing’, conceptual tuning calls for attention to the ‘expressive’ perspective. In other words, we should put this method in the broad framework of the practice of asking for and giving reasons. In this thesis, I also attempt to explain some previous conceptual methods under the title of conceptual tuning, such as Brandomian method, ordinary language philosophy, and the traditional conceptual analyses
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McConnell, Sean Lachlan. "Philosophical life in Cicero's letters." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2010. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.609113.
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Birch, Jonathan George. "Kin selection : a philosophical analysis." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2013. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.648149.
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Farris, Jeremy Daniel. "Authority, philosophical anarchism, and legitimacy." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2009. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:75985fea-1102-4cf1-a05a-a13e3a14f9b1.
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One way to prompt people to act is to claim that one’s commands impose duties upon some persons to act and subsequently to command those persons. This is the approach of practical authority. The claim of practical authority is ingredient to a predominant conception of the state. This thesis argues that the state’s claim to practical authority is both unjustified and morally wrong; it defends philosophical anarchism. The philosophical anarchist argument advanced here begins with a defence of a presumption against practical authority. It then argues that no argument for the practical authority of the state overcomes that presumption. Thus the state’s claim to practical authority is unjustified. The philosophical anarchist’s position suggests that we rethink both the normative claim ingredient to the concept of the state and the relationship between states and persons. This thesis suggests that states claim legitimacy – that is, states claim that the potentially coercive legal directives that they enact are all-things-considered morally permissible. The thesis outlines the ideal of legitimacy in political philosophy, an ideal distinct from authority. An analysis of legitimacy requires an analysis of coercion. The thesis develops a specific account of the pro tanto wrongfulness of coercion that locates the wrongfulness of coercion not with the badness of the outcomes that the coercee faces but rather with the beliefs and intentions of the coercer. Two upshots emerge from that account. The first is that legal directives are not necessarily coercive. The second is that the conditions which render coercion pro tanto wrongful also render the state’s claim to practical authority wrongful. However, whereas coercion is justifiable by an appeal to reasons that defeat its pro tanto wrongfulness, the philosophical anarchist shows that the state’s claim to practical authority is not so justifiable. Therefore, the state’s claim to practical authority is decisively wrongful.
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Alexandre, Cesar da S. "Diversity management : a philosophical deliberation." Thesis, Cape Technikon, 2004. http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11838/1007.
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Thesis (MTech(Business Administration)--Cape Technikon, Cape Town, 2004My central thesis is, that certain social systems and cultures have supported modern economic growth and human progress, whereas others have not. Countries and, winning organizations that have been able to jump ahead out of the laggard have done so, because they developed a conquering culture of rigor and work, removed from the influences of invisible forces. The world at the beginning of the twenty first century is still, divided between the few who are rich and powerful and the many who are poor and powerless, between the free and the oppressed. Traditional'explanations like imperialism, dependency, colonialism and racism are no longer adequate after so many decades. Increasingly researchers are reasoning that the principal reason why some countries and ethnic groups are better off than others lies in cultural values and beliefs and attitudes, which powerfully shape political, economic and social performance, and share the view that value and attitude change is indispensable to progress for those who are lagging. There is a methodological difference between myself and some people who are consistently uncritical of the values and attitudes of a culture, and think people ought to resign themselves to economic and social values that condemn them to poverty and subservience, in the name of cultural purity. The power of cultural values, beliefs and attitudes to promote or resist progress has been largely ignored. Culture is a significant determinant of a nation's ability to prosper, because it shapes individual's thoughts and behaviours, and the way individuals think about progress.
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Nash, Calypso. "Philosophical readings in Virgil's Aeneid." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2017. https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:0a5a33f4-fe6b-4e7e-a712-41731a7ac42c.
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This study examines how and why Virgil makes reference to philosophy and engages with contemporary philosophical debate in the Aeneid. Each of the six chapters has a different philosophical focus, and offers literary analyses of the poem that are supported and enriched by situating it within its philosophical context. Cicero and Lucretius are our principal sources for Roman philosophy during the 1st c. BC, and Stoics, Epicureans and Academics were the most influential philosophical schools. The topics I explore include: the relationship between words, especially names, and their referents; the characterization of fate in the Aeneid as Stoic, and the meaning of F/fortuna; Virgil's engagement with Lucretius' explanation of visual perception, which I argue embodies a refutation of the materialism integral to Epicurean philosophy; and, given that Cicero and Lucretius provide the first extant references to 'free will' (libera ... voluntas Lucr. 2.256-7; voluntate libera Cic. Fat. 20) in Western literature, the articulation of this concept in the Aeneid. I conclude that Virgil's use of philosophy is both politically and poetically motivated: he shows that poetry and literature are valuable philosophical and political tools by demonstrating that our experience of reality is fundamentally mediated through language and texts.
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Walsh, Paddy. "Education as a philosophical practice." Thesis, University College London (University of London), 1992. http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/10019085/.
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1. Linguistic analysis is a revelatory philosophical strategy on the conditions of (i) a presumption of interdependence among the uses of a term being substituted for the usual presumption of the dependence on some single 'paradigmatic' use of all other uses, (ii) recognition of the adaptability of important terms to denominational and individual points of view, and (iii) treating usages, and the habits of thought embodied in them, as open to crWic!ism (1.1). Applied to 'education' and cognates, the reformed strategy reveals a complex unitary concept of education and a manifold of uses structured on three key correlativities: between '(formal) education' and 'education (in the widest sense)' - which underwrites the educational aspiration to a coherent view of life as a whole; and between descriptive and normative uses, and open and loaded uses - which, together, foreshadow the complex logic of educational theory and debate (1.2 - 1.4). 2. The new paradigm of educational theory as emergent in practice provokes an overdue analysis of the distinctive profile of this practice which reveals it to be (inter alia) 'philosophical' by virtue of its integral quest for a coherent view of life (2.1). A theory that is adequate to this practice will be a 'cluster' of four 'discourses', utopian, deliberative, evaluative and scientific (each already in use within mature practice itself) (2.2). The inclusion of science can be defended on the basis of the dialectic between detachment and human interest that is characteristic of proper human science considering its basis in communication between researcher and researched (2.3). In the discourses generally a tough objectivity, properly construed, accommodates a sensitivity to the circumstantial, a large freedom, a decent humility and scepticism, an acknowedgement of the role of vision in paradigm choice, and an acknowledgement that disagreement is inevitable over important values (2.4). 3. The manifold connections between ordinary curriculum practices do not necessarily amount to a true curriculum coherence in which the elements would combine into a quest for a general view of life. This latter is an ideal whose feasibility is not to be presumed in our fragmented culture, and for which the idea of 'the academic' is an insnff9nt substitute (3.1). However, we can work towards it, first, by an ordering of general educational values, and, second, by an analysis, broadly related to that ordering, of our cultural capital (i) We may identify 'possessive', 'experiential', 'ethical', and 'ecstatic' values. While acknowledging the real claims of the first three of these categories, and the services to them of philosophers like Dewey and Peters, the fourth category - which is encapsulated in the idea of 'love of the world' - can be argued to be primordial and presumed by the other categories (3.2). (ii) In analysing cultural aims, levels of being, and aspects of personality, preserves the link with the previous value-ordering, and is to be preferred to attempts - among which Hirst's is particularly worth engaging with philosophically - to enoompass everything of significance on a single map (3.3). 4. The proposed substanUve 'scheme of things' needs to be articulated and tested in the ntext, also, of particular curriculum areas recx)gnzed as having an importance in their own iight The current upgrading of technology education may be understood, defended, and pointed in terms of the earlier value-distinctions and value-ordering (4.1). Debates on literacy education often turn on whether literacy is a set of highly useful techniques or, as may be argued, is better oonstrued as a form of mental development in which fundamental goals (relating esperlly to experiential values) are themselves transformed (4.2). Finally, a strong case may be made for a broad-minded 'piety', a love of past human beings and worlds, as the most fundamental of the reasons for historical education. This case paraflels the earlier more general arguments about human science and about love of the world.
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Crosilla, Maria Laura. "Constructivity and predicativity : philosophical foundations." Thesis, University of Leeds, 2016. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/16627/.
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The thesis examines two dimensions of constructivity that manifest themselves within foundational systems for Bishop constructive mathematics: intuitionistic logic and predicativity. The latter, in particular, is the main focus of the thesis. The use of intuitionistic logic affects the notion of proof : constructive proofs may be seen as very general algorithms. Predicativity relates instead to the notion of set: predicative sets are viewed as if they were constructed from within and step by step. The first part of the thesis clarifes the algorithmic nature of intuitionistic proofs, and explores the consequences of developing mathematics according to a constructive notion of proof. It also emphasizes intra-mathematical and pragmatic reasons for doing mathematics constructively. The second part of the thesis discusses predicativity. Predicativity expresses a kind of constructivity that has been appealed to both in the classical and in the constructive tradition. The thesis therefore addresses both classical and constructive variants of predicativity. It examines the origins of predicativity, its motives and some of the fundamental logical advances that were induced by the philosophical re ection on predicativity. It also investigates the relation between a number of distinct proposals for predicativity that appeared in the literature: strict predicativity, predicativity given the natural numbers and constructive predicativity. It advances a predicative concept of set as unifying theme that runs across both the classical and the constructive tradition, and identifies it as a forefather of a computational notion of set that is to be found in constructive type theories. Finally, it turns to the question of which portions of scientifically applicable mathematics can be carried out predicatively, invoking recent technical work in mathematical logic.
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Välitalo, R. (Riku). "The Philosophical Classroom:balancing educational purposes." Doctoral thesis, Oulun yliopisto, 2018. http://urn.fi/urn:isbn:9789526219936.
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Abstract The practice of teaching links long-standing philosophical questions about the building blocks of a good life to daily judgments in the classroom; in the journey to becoming a person who teaches, we must seek different ways of understanding what “good” means in the context of different social practices and communities. This doctoral thesis examines the educational innovation known as Philosophy for Children (PFC) as a platform for teachers and students to address such questions within a community of philosophical inquiry (CPI). Advocates of PFC seek to promote radical change in our understanding of growth, teaching and the relationships formed in educational contexts. In addressing these issues, this thesis contributes to the ongoing conversation about the teacher’s role within the PFC movement. The thesis comprises four interrelated studies that examine the possibilities and limits of PFC ideas by considering them in the light of general educational theorising about pedagogical action. In addition to the PFC literature, the study’s main sources are 1) the Continental tradition of European educational discourse, especially in German-speaking regions, and 2) the writings of the contemporary educational thinker Gert Biesta. The former offers an opposing view to the idea of a symmetrical, communal emergent system that seems to inform second-generation understandings of philosophical dialogue in an educational context. Gert Biesta’s ideas, especially in relation to the purpose and aims of education, help in envisioning CPI as a structuring element in teaching as a whole and all aspects of classroom life. The four studies focus on pedagogical action, the nature and role of authority in CPI and teacher agency. The thesis contends that teaching and, in particular, building a community of classroom inquiry, requires a vision of teaching as a reflective practice, informed by subject-specific and educational judgments as key dimensions of teacher reflection and wisdomTiivistelmä Opettajan ammatissa filosofiset kysymykset hyvästä elämästä ja sen etsimisestä yhdistyvät opettajan päivittäisiin ratkaisuihin luokkahuoneessa. Tämä väitöskirja käsittelee kasvatuksellisia edellytyksiä ja mahdollisuuksia Filosofiaa lapsille -ohjelmassa, joka on pyrkinyt luomaan alustaa kysymyksille hyvästä elämästä osana lasten kasvua ja kasvatusta. Väitöskirja keskittyy tarkastelemaan tämän ohjelman piirissä käytyä keskustelua kasvusta, opetuksesta ja kouluopetuksessa muodostuvista kasvatussuhteista. Erityisesti väitöskirja tarkastelee edellä mainittuja käsitteitä hahmotellakseen filosofisen pedagogiikan erityispiirteitä kasvatuksellisena käytäntönä. Samalla väitöskirja kiinnittyy myös yleisemmin kasvatuksen ja opetuksen luonnetta ja tavoitteita koskevaan keskusteluun. Väitöskirja sisältää neljä toisiinsa liittyvää tutkimusta, jotka tarkastelevat pedagogisen filosofian mahdollisuuksia ja ongelmakohtia yleisen kasvatustieteen piirissä tehtyjen teoreettisten hahmottelujen valossa. Filosofiaa lapsille -liikkeen edustajien lisäksi päälähteinä toimivat 1) mannermainen pedagogisen toiminnan teorian traditio (erityisesti saksan kielialueella käyty keskustelu) ja 2) Gert Biestan viimeaikaiset kirjoitukset. Ensimmäinen tarjoaa vastakkaisen näkemyksen symmetriselle, itseään luovalle systeemille, joka vaikuttaa olevan varsinkin liikkeen toisen sukupolven edustajien filosofisen pedagogiikan kehittelyiden ytimessä. Gert Biestan ajatukset, erityisesti hänen ideansa kasvatuksen päämääristä ja tavoitteista, antavat eväitä muodostaa filosofisesta pedagogiikasta opetusta strukturoiva kokonaisuus, joka toimii oppiainerajat ylittävänä, luokan elämää ohjaavana periaatteena. Väitöskirja keskittyy erityisesti pedagogisen toiminnan, auktoriteetin luonteen ja roolin sekä opettajan toimijuuden käsitteisiin. Väitöstutkimuksen keskeinen tulos on, että filosofisesti orientoituneen kasvatuksellisen käytännön muodostuminen luokkaan vaatii opettajalta moniulotteista omien pedagogisten ratkaisujen reflektointia, ja suuntaa häntä kohti kasvatuksellista viisautta
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Chopyk, V. "WAR AS A PHILOSOPHICAL PROBLEM." Thesis, Національний авіаційний університет, 2015. http://er.nau.edu.ua/handle/NAU/15339.
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PASLARU, VIOREL. "ECOLOGICAL MECHANISMS IN PHILOSOPHICAL FOCUS." University of Cincinnati / OhioLINK, 2007. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1195862599.
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Yacek, Douglas W. "Transformative Education: A Philosophical Inquiry." The Ohio State University, 2017. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1500072204487494.
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Schwarz, Gretchen E. (Gretchen Ellen). "Philosophical approaches to teacher evaluation." Thesis, University of North Texas, 1991. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc332540/.
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The problem of this study is to educe and examine philosophical ideas embedded in major models of teacher evaluation. This study is qualitative, involving the presentation and analysis of ideas which affect educational practice.
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Mithamo, Nyagah Andrew. "Philosophical perspektives on Christian leadership." Berlin Viademica-Verl, 2009. http://d-nb.info/992825083/04.
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Alexander, Joshua. "Philosophical intuitions and experimental philosophy." [Bloomington, Ind.] : Indiana University, 2008. http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:3330813.
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Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of Philosophy, 2008.Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on Jul 22, 2009). Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 69-10, Section: A, page: 3975. Adviser: Joan Weiner.
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Haugen, Christopher Allen. "Intuitions and adequate philosophical solutions." Diss., Columbia, Mo. : University of Missouri-Columbia, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/10355/5554.
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Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2008.The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from title screen of research.pdf file (viewed on July 27, 2009) Includes bibliographical references.
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Wahlström, Bertel. "Religious action, a philosophical analysis /." Åbo : Åbo akademis förlag = Åbo academy press, 1987. http://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb36694139c.
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Yung, Lock Betty. "Moral education : a philosophical investigation /." [Hong Kong] : University of Hong Kong, 1993. http://sunzi.lib.hku.hk/hkuto/record.jsp?B13309481.
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De, Bolt Darian Clarke. "Probable cause : a philosophical inquiry /." Full-text version available from OU Domain via ProQuest Digital Dissertations, 1993.
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Smith, Lucy. "Philosophical Andreia in Plato’s Republic." Thesis, The University of Sydney, 2022. https://hdl.handle.net/2123/28075.
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In the most famous image in Plato’s Republic, Socrates peoples an underground cave with prisoners who believe that the shadows they see on the walls of the cave represent reality. He asks: what would it take for one of these prisoners to escape from his shackles and attempt the ascent to the light of the sun? There is one virtue in particular without which no prisoner can hope to escape the cave, and that is the virtue that I will call: philosophical andreia. This thesis is an inquiry into Plato’s treatment of philosophical andreia in the Republic. As we will see by way of detailed analysis of the dramatic and argumentative levels of the dialogue, philosophical andreia consists in the unity of what I will call “spiritedness” and “perseverance” in facing the many obstacles to the acquisition of wisdom. I will take the image of the cave as scaffolding for my inquiry, locating each of Socrates’ interlocutors within the cave according to their possession of the spiritedness and perseverance needed to escape from it. And I will take Socrates as performing the philosopher’s heroic katabasis to the cave in his attempt to liberate his interlocutors from its shadows. In the Socrates of the Republic, Plato presents us with a new kind of hero – the philosopher hero – and paradigm of a new kind of courage: philosophical andreia.
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Cioffi, Angelo Emanuele. "Political cinema : a philosophical investigation." Thesis, University of Kent, 2017. https://kar.kent.ac.uk/62055/.
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In this thesis I develop a theory of political cinema. I use philosophical tools in order to build up a framework for the classification, analysis, and assessment of political cinema. I define the category of political cinema and, to do that, I also tackle the problem of what it means to be 'political'; then I analyze the relation between the value of a film as a political film and its value qua art. I move from two hypotheses: 1) the purpose of a political film can differentiate it from other kinds of films; 2) this very purpose can affect our aesthetic appraisal of political films. Hence, my aim is twofold. I aim to map the category of political cinema, and to identify analytical tools that could be used to assess the value of political films. This means that, through philosophical enquiry, I aim to construct a framework that could be of use in art-critical practice and that can help with the classification and assessment of political films. I argue that a political film's epistemic value is crucial for its own assessment, as it determines the value of a film as a political film (capable of affecting the audience's system of beliefs concerning a specific, political, issue) and the value of a film qua art. To proceed in my investigation, I use tools of analytic philosophy of art and cognitivist film theory, but I also import insights from cognate disciplines that can help us develop a more accurate analysis of the relation between films and the 'political'. In particular, I import tools from political science, political philosophy, epistemology, and cognitive science. Moreover, I take it that the theoretical effort needs to be tested with specific case studies, so I also use specific films as examples of the applicability and explanatory power of the theoretical framework I propose.
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Westerhoff, Jan Christoph. "Nāgārjuna's Madhyamaka : a philosophical investigation." Thesis, SOAS, University of London, 2007. http://eprints.soas.ac.uk/29362/.
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This dissertation constitutes a discussion of Nagarjuna's Madhyamaka as contained in his six main philosophical works. It presents a synoptic presentation of the main topics Nagarjuna investigates. Particular emphasis is put on an analysis of the philosophical content of Nagarjuna's Madhyamaka. Apart from discussing the soundness of Nagarjuna's arguments for particular conclusions I also want to examine to which extent Nagarjuna's philosophy forms a coherent philosophical system rather than a collection of individual ideas. The dissertation consists of four parts. In the first part (chapter 2) I discuss the central concept of Madhyamaka philosophy, the notion of svabhadva. This is a notion of considerable complexity; for the purposes of understanding Nagarjuna's arguments I argue that it is particularly important to distinguish two of its conceptual dimensions: an ontological and a cognitive one. The second part (chapters 3 and 4) discusses some properties of the form of Nagarjuna's arguments, properties which are, however, also intricately connected with their contents attempting to establish the Madhyamaka theory of emptiness. The two topics investigated are the place of negation in Nagarjuna's philosophical assertions and his use of the argumentative framework known as the catuskoti or tetralemma. An analysis of the background of these formal aspects is indispensable for an understanding of Nagarjuna's arguments presented in the following chapters. The third part (chapters 5 to 9) discusses Nagarjuna's arguments dealing with particular topics, such as causation, motion, the self, epistemology, and language. Here Nagarjuna sets out to establish the absence of svabhava in areas which are particularly central to our cognitive interaction with the world. He investigates both the world around us (for the examples of causation and motion), the subjective world (the self) as well as the way in which the two are connected (by our epistemic faculties and by language). The final fourth part (chapter 10) attempts to present a concise synoptic overview of Nagarjuna's conclusions described in the preceding chapters and sets out to evaluate them from a systematic point of view. I also discuss how these various conclusions form a coherent philosophical whole and attempt to evaluate some of them in the light of the contemporary philosophical discussion.
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Kramer, Eli Orner. "The Principles of Philosophical Community." OpenSIUC, 2018. https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/dissertations/1552.
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There are three central orientations, or modes, forming a “tripod” as it were, that grounds philosophy as a cultural activity. The two commonly known modes are, first philosophical geniuses who make models of reality in their “solitary burrows” (such as a Kant and Peirce); and, second, philosophical wanderers who have an embodied praxis, performing wisdom wherever they travel (such as Diogenes of Sinope and Takuan Soho). There is however another primary and largely neglected mode of philosophy which is mutually reinforced ethical praxis rooting in a shared cosmopolitan place. In this dissertation, I characterize and defend the neglected mode of philosophy, that I call “philosophical community,” by describing the constellation of metaethical principles — general, axiological, cultural, and dialectical — that articulate and promote its values. My philosophical methodology is radically empirical philosophy of culture. The principles will be drawn from an interpretation of the whole of philosophical communal experience, considered diachronically, or globally and historically. These principles are then organized as a synchronic (present focused) coordinate whole. By “principle,” at the very least, I mean a hypothetical ground presupposed in successful inquiry. I take “community” in the broad, Roycean spirit of those relationships that build an increasing determinacy of meaning in the universe, (i.e. a community of interpretation). A philosophical community, then, is not reducible to a collection of people but can be thought of as made of a special kind of community of interpretation, as it shares some sort of place. Taken together, this constellation of principles can help us refine for ourselves a vision of the best of philosophical community life, which should also help us frame a new “brocard” for this mode of philosophy in the twenty-first century.
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Basu, Saheli. "Samkhya metaphysics : some philosophical problems." Thesis, University of North Bengal, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/123456789/1266.
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Saha, Roy Subhash Chandra. "Perceptual cognition (a philosophical study)." Thesis, University of North Bengal, 1990. http://hdl.handle.net/123456789/65.
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Das, Kantilal. "The Philosophical relevance of language." Thesis, University of North Bengal, 1998. http://hdl.handle.net/123456789/56.
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Phillips, Dawn Melissa. "What can be shown, cannot be said : Wittgenstein's conception of philosophy in the Tractatus and the Investigations." Thesis, Durham University, 2002. http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/4614/.
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My thesis is that the say-show distinction is the basis of Ludwig Wittgenstein’s conception of philosophy in both the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1921) and the Philosophical Investigations (1953).Wittgenstein said that the Investigations should be read in conjunction with the Tractatus. To understand the Tractatus we must understand the say-show distinction: the principle that "what can be shown, cannot be said". A correct interpretation of Wittgenstein's philosophy will explain the significance of the say-show distinction for the Investigations. I evaluate three available readings of the say-show distinction which fail to meet this challenge. I argue that Wittgenstein's main purpose throughout his career was to replace traditional philosophy with an alternative conception of philosophy, which can only be understood through the say-show distinction. The Tractatus and the Investigations are different attempts to present the same conception of philosophy. I describe how, in both cases, they present a distinctive account of the nature of philosophical problems, the appropriate methods of philosophy, the end result of a philosophical task and the overall aim of philosophy. I argue that my interpretation provides a correct view of the significant continuities and discontinuities between the Tractatus and the Investigations. The failure of the Tractatus was not a flaw in the conception of philosophy presented in it, nor a flaw in the say-show distinction, hi the Tractatus, Wittgenstein failed properly to implement his proposed conception of philosophy, as he remained in the grip of traditional philosophical presuppositions. The Investigations presents the same conception of philosophy, but freed from the presuppositions of the Tractatus. The say-show distinction remains the basis of Wittgenstein’s conception of philosophy in the Investigations.