Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Religion Philosophy History 20th century'
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Venema, Henry I. "Paul Ricoeur's interpretation of selfhood and its significance for philosophy of religion." Thesis, McGill University, 1996. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=34475.
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On numerous occasions Ricoeur has characterized the goal of his philosophical analyses as the "exchange of the ego, master of itself, for the self, disciple of the text." Our investigation follows the development of this theme through careful examination of Ricoeur's phenomenological-hermeneutical philosophy. By way of contrast with Husserl's phenomenology we see how Ricoeur initiates a program of self-recovery that decenters consciousness from the immediacy of self-grounding radicality. Looking instead to the polysemic world of the text, Ricoeur chooses a path of indirect imaginative mediation as the route towards self-interpretation.The imagination, correlative with the works of culture (signs, symbols and texts), forms the central core of Ricoeur's understanding of selfhood. Already operative in his early publications as the mediating structure of selfhood, the work of imagination is transformed from a transcendental third term into a linguistic process that constructs sonorous worlds in front of consciousness for the self to inhabit.
Ricoeur's analysis of metaphor and narrative shows selfhood to be a task accomplished by means of linguistic interpretation. However, such an interpretation of the self, with the textual world as its other, is a linguistic construction that is caught up in semantic self-identification. Ricoeur's program for the exchange of the self-enclosed ego, for a self discipled by the text, becomes entangled in the semantics of identity to such an extent that selfhood is equated with the objectifications of the reflective process and is never dealt with on the intimate level of the reflexive structure of the self in relation to otherness. This has significant consequences which need to be critically examined by philosophy of religion.
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Humphrey, Christopher Wainwright. "The sage of Kingston : John Watson and the ambiguity of Hegelianism." Thesis, McGill University, 1992. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=39349.
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John Watson's thought has not been well understood. A question suggested by previous scholarship, namely, how successful was he at his task of re-founding the Christian religion on a philosophical base? is answered first in terms of consistency with the theological tradition. His revision of Christian theology is found to be inadequate by traditional standards; it is then examined as a philosophy of religion which, to his mind, overcame the difficulties of classical theism. It is argued that, despite some advantages, his philosophy of religion is deficient in two respects. First, its method is vitiated by a strained and sometimes mistaken interpretation of the philosophical tradition, indicative of arbitrariness. Second, "Speculative Idealism" as the result of that method reveals conceptual ambiguities corresponding to the ambiguities of classical theism. As the method is not self-evident and is used implicitly by Watson, and the results are philosophically ambiguous, the appropriation of this thought was theologically or philosophically shallow. Though Watson's thought, as far as it was understood, provided an underpinning for the "social gospel" movement in Canada, it is argued that this shallow appropriation explains, at least in part, the brevity of its appeal as philosophy of religion.
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Baird, Catherine 1966. "The "third way" : Russia's religious philosophers in the West, 1917-1996." Thesis, McGill University, 1997. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=34695.
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In 1922, the Bolshevik government expelled some 160 prominent intellectuals from Russia. Numbered among these were many of the leaders of the Religious Renaissance which had flourished since the turn of the century. They advocated a "third way": neither for the Tsarist regime nor the Bolsheviks; neither for Capitalism nor Communism; neither for Materialism nor Idealism; rather, they promoted personalist, spiritual development (Godmanhood ), Christian economic ethics (Sobornost'), and a path to knowledge informed by reason, but guided by faith (Religious-Philosophy ). Forced to join the Russian diaspora, these religious philosophers continued to advance their movement with the help of the Young Men's Christian Association. Largely at the initiative of Nikolai Berdyaev (1874--1948), they also began to interact with the French intellectual milieu in Paris in order to develop inter-confessional and cultural understandings. Although Russian religious-philosophy suffered a certain decline following World War Two, many of their writings had returned to the USSR. As Soviet intellectuals discovered these works, they gradually began to revolt against dialectical materialism, and aspire to recover the religious-philosophical tradition. In 1988, this Return was at last made possible, and religious-philosophy has been enjoying a second renaissance which continues unabated today.
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Vimont, Michael. "The anthropological construction of Czech identity : academic and popular discourses of identity in 20th century Bohemia." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2015. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:bb316968-60a1-472c-bee4-b8de3af5ebbd.
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Through close textual analysis of 20th century Czech anthropological texts from the Revivalist and Socialist periods and contemporary social research conducted after the Velvet Revolution, I demonstrate certain prominent discourses of identity developed in early Bohemian anthropology and their continuities in present day popular discourses. In each period, identity is deeply intertwined with teleological theories of history with Czech populations at the apex of cultural evolutionary development. In the Revivalist period this apex was believed to be the democratic nation state, transitioning to a Marxist nation state in the Socialist period, and in the contemporary period is conceived of as a neoliberal nation state. A major function of anthropology in the Revivalist and Socialist periods was to legitimate either period’s respective teleological theory and Czech possession of relevant values as 'objective' and 'natural' fact, a general mode of discourse which continued in the contemporary period in numerous editorials in the 1990s on the advantages of capitalism. The contemporary manifestation has particularly noteworthy consequences for the Roma minority, which I argue has provided Czech discourses with an ethnic category 'anti-thetical' to their own identity, providing a 'repository' for negative Czech self-stereotypes emerging from collaboration in the Socialist period.
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Vanatoru, Brigitte. "Le statut de la croyance à travers les représentations mythiques et scientifiques du monde." Doctoral thesis, Universite Libre de Bruxelles, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/2013/ULB-DIPOT:oai:dipot.ulb.ac.be:2013/210443.
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Etude du statut de la croyance à travers les représentations mythiques et scientifiques des origines de l'univers. seront étudiés les mythologies issues de textes anciens qui nous sont parvenus (Théogonie d'Hésiode, Rg veda, etc aisni que les théories scientifiques les plus récentes. L'apport des neurosciences est ici déterminante et permet de mieux cerner le statut de la croyance.Doctorat en Philosophie
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Davis, Sharon. "In search of meaning : preaching within the context of a "Post-Apartheid" South African society." Thesis, Link to the online version, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/10019/600.
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Daskalakis, Konstantios. "Le concept répétition du possible: Heidegger, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche." Doctoral thesis, Universite Libre de Bruxelles, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/2013/ULB-DIPOT:oai:dipot.ulb.ac.be:2013/209715.
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A partir de 1919, Heidegger élabore plusieurs projets temporels grâce à une phénoménologie herméneutique caractérisée par la fonction méthodique de l’indication formelle, dont la dernière communication date de 1930. Dans ces projets, on trouve à plusieurs reprises la notion de répétition. Plusieurs commentateurs considèrent Kierkegaard comme source de la répétition heideggérienne tandis que d’autres se réfèrent à Nietzsche. Heidegger emploie le terme Wiederholung, Kierkegaard la notion Gjentagelse, et Nietzsche les notions Wiederkehr, Wiederkunft et Wiederholung. L’expression précise « répétition du possible » se trouve dans certaines œuvres des trois penseurs, et s’insère dans des projets temporels différents. La possibilité, en dehors de sa signification modale, décrit depuis Aristote un caractère de l’étant, en corrélation avec le phénomène fondamental qu’est le mouvement. Tant Kierkegaard que Nietzsche, et par la suite Heidegger, ont abordé la question de la mobilité comme thème fondamental dans leurs recherches, pour promouvoir la possibilité en tant que possibilité. Chez les trois penseurs, répétition n’est pas itération, ni retour de la même facticité empirique, mais répétition de la possibilité. Par l’expression « répétition du possible », il s’agit de décrire un mouvement temporel, accordant un sens spécifique au passé, et même à l’histoire. Ce mouvement temporel non objectivable, précède nécessairement le temps uniforme linéaire qui a déterminé la conception classique du temps depuis Aristote. Nécessairement mien, et à la fois continu et discontinu, ce mouvement qui, par son essence ne se manifeste que rarement, tient ensemble passé et futur autour de l’instant privilégié. L’instant, lié à la possibilité d’une décision qui ne se réfère pas à l’attente devant la réalisation des possibilités quotidiennes, a pour enjeu l’entièreté de la vie, visant la transformation de la vie et la constitution de l’homme. De cette manière dans différents projets chez les trois penseurs, la répétition et l’instant font entrer en jeu la question de la liberté. La conceptualité, ce qui revient à dire, la méthode de cette pensée temporelle, s’avèrent tellement importante, de sorte que cette pensée devient accessible grâce à une communication « indirecte » qui demande une contribution essentielle du lecteur. Le travail envisage l’affinité des trois penseurs tant à travers le caractère indirect de la communication de la temporalité que la tâche d’assumer le passé.Doctorat en Philosophie
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Missa, Jean-Noël. "Naissance de la psychiatrie biologique: enquête historico-empirique sur le traitement des maladies mentales (1920-1960)." Doctoral thesis, Universite Libre de Bruxelles, 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/2013/ULB-DIPOT:oai:dipot.ulb.ac.be:2013/211028.
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Parent, Marcel 1975. "Is comparative philosophy postmodern?" Thesis, McGill University, 2002. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=79800.
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This thesis examines the claims of Jeffrey Timm and James Buchanan that the field of Comparative Philosophy is moving in a postmodern direction. I examine their conception of the postmodern and compare to both the most influential views of postmodernism and with my own understanding of postmodernism. To evaluate their claims I examine the journal Philosophy East and West, which I argue is representative of the field of Comparative Philosophy. I analyze the works of the editors of the journal and also do a statistical analysis of the journal to determine whether the field is becoming more postmodern. I conclude that Timm and Buchanan may be correct.
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Reid, George. "Popes, politicians and political theory: The principle of subsidiarity in 20th century European history." Thesis, University of Ottawa (Canada), 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/27018.
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The transformation of the principle of subsidiarity from a philosophical principle in Catholic social teachings to a constitutional article in the 1992 Treaty on European Union has been a source of confusion for scholars of European integration. Political scientists have examined subsidiarity from the perspective of political philosophy to account for its transformation and to determine its impact on European integration. However, no attempt has been made to anchor the emergence of subsidiarity in a historical context. This thesis employs a historical approach to analyze the transformation of subsidiarity. It examines the political struggles surrounding the principle in the Catholic Church, in German Christian Democracy, and in the debates over European Union in the European Community. It concludes that the transformation of subsidiarity occurred during the debates over the European Union that began in the 1970s and culminated in the ratification of the 1992 Maastricht treaty on European Union.
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Ulmschneider, Jacob A. "Paul Piccone’s Providential Moment: Phenomenology, Subjectivity, and 20th Century Marxism in Telos." VCU Scholars Compass, 2018. https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/etd/5445.
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This thesis explores the intellectual history of editor, writer, and philosopher, Paul Piccone and Telos, an independent journal of contemporary critical theory, which he founded in 1968. Born in Italy, Piccone lived most of his life in the United States, earning his Ph.D. in philosophy at SUNY-Buffalo in 1970. Piccone served as Telos’ editor and a major contributor from 1968 to 2004. This thesis follows the trajectory of his thought by contextualizing his writing within the broader world of Marxist, and eventually post-Marxist, political philosophy. Telos also concerned itself with modern interpretations of historical dialectics and early 20th-century Marxist philosophy. Piccone himself predicated much of his philosophy on Husserlian phenomenology, which stresses concrete experiences, and his writing therefore stands at a unique confluence of Husserl and Marx. Piccone ultimately became a leading exponent of anti-Liberal philosophy and the theory of artificial negativity, which examines capitalist hegemony in both material and socio-historical terms.
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Costello, Paul. "The goals of the world historians : paradigms in world history in twentieth century." Thesis, McGill University, 1990. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=74629.
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Following Nietzsche, Oswald Spengler posed the central problems of the cyclical history of civilization in the twentieth century. Subsequent world historical theorists have attempted to answer Spengler's nihilistic perspective on the destined rise and fall of all cultures by rescuing a progressive movement which transcended the downfall of civilizations. World history since Spengler has been written in pursuit of an answer to the crises of modernism: to the 'Death of God,' the problem of progress, the emergent technological order with its bureaucratic management of society, and the need sensed by the metahistorians for a new 'mythical' grounding to avert the fall of the West. The "Crisis of the West" dominates the perspectives of the world historians. Their goals for the solution of 'modernism,' through the religious transformation of society or political and cultural world unity, are central to their motivation as writers and to the formulation of their paradigms.
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Feng, Dongning. "Text, politics and society : literature as political philosophy in post-Mao China." Thesis, University of Stirling, 1997. http://hdl.handle.net/1893/2216.
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The purpose of this study is to arrive at a critical overview of politics and literature in the Chinese context. The relationship has increasingly become a "field" of studies and theoretical inquiry that most scholars in either disciplines are wary to tread. This thesis tries to venture into this problematic field by a theoretical examination as well as an empirical critique of Chinese literature and politics, where the relationship seems even more paradoxical, but adds more insight into the argument. The Introduction and Chapter One set up a framework by asking some general but fundamental questions: what literature is, and how it is to be related to politics. Chapter Two examines the historical function of literature and Chinese writers in society to establish the basis of argument in the Chinese context. Chapter Three focuses the discussion on the relationship between politics and literature during the Mao era and after. Chapters Four analyses the literary works published during the post-Mao period to establish the argument that literature, as part of our perception of the world, is most concerned with human society and social amelioration and participates in the socio-political development by contributing to it through a discourse that is otherwise inaccessible. Chapter Five explores the argument further by extending it into the field of cinema, which basically comes from the same narrative tradition of prose literature, but offers a wider and different dimension to the argument pursued. Chapter Six and the Conclusion try to draw together the argument by examining literature as both form and content to argue how and why literature is related to politics and how it has functioned in a political manner in Chinese society. To summarise, Chinese literature in this period will b& shown to be involved In a process of political reform and development by way of bringing the reader to participate in a critical and philosophical dialogue with power, history and future. In the long run, it offers emancipating visions and possibilities revealed to the reader in ways that are historical, developmental, philosophical and comparative. This study focuses on the prose fiction published in this period, for it is the leading force in China's cultural development and constitutes the major trunk of the modern Chinese canon. In addition, the research also extends to drama and films, and the way they, together with prose fiction, make up the most popular perception and intellectual discovery of contemporary Chinese society and politics and best inform the argument of the study of politics and literature.
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Burns-Watson, Roger. "Co-Starring God: Religion, Film, and World War II." University of Cincinnati / OhioLINK, 2010. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1273520794.
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Botha, Estelle. "Where dance and drama meet again : aspects of the expressive body in the 20th century." Thesis, Stellenbosch : University of Stellenbosch, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/1704.
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Thesis (MDram (Drama))—University of Stellenbosch, 2006.Acknowledging theatrical styles such as physical theatre, Tanztheater and poor theatre as forms of ‘total theatre’, and recognizing that there has been a prolonged process of development to reach such a point, the first chapter investigates the historical divide between dramatic dance and drama as starting point. Subsequently, in considering the body as expressive medium, the impact of content and form on the training of the performers’ body for the theatrical context is also evaluated.
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Jozajtis, Krzysztof. "Religion and film in American culture : the birth of a nation." Thesis, University of Stirling, 2001. http://hdl.handle.net/1893/1501.
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This research addresses an emerging scholarship examining relations between media, religion, and culture in contemporary society. Whilst it acknowledges the value of this growing body of work, the study is based on a recognition that an overwhelming concern with the contemporary scene has resulted in a neglect of the history responsible for the conditions of the present. Given the prominence of America as both a source and an object of this scholarship, moreover, the particular national context in which the institutions and practices of the US media have developed has been taken for granted somewhat. Oriented towards these perceived lacunae, this thesis examines the interaction between religion and film as an influence upon the development of American culture in the twentieth-century. The dissertation is divided into two main parts. The first of these is devoted to an extended discussion of the scholarly background to the research, and argues that the historical dimension of the interrelationship between religion and film in America is worthy of more attention than it has hitherto received. In particular, it stresses the fundamental importance of religion within the discourse of national identity in the United States, and posits the notion of a non-denominational American civil religion as a useful theoretical tool with which to examine Hollywood as a distinctively 'American' form of cinema. Part Two develops this position through a case study of The Birth of a Nation, directed by D.W. Griffith, and one of the most famous films of all time. Discussing the picture as a response to a crisis in American Protestantism, the study argues that the race controversy prompted by its Southern viewpoint was, to some extent, a function of Griffith's ambitions to revive the traditional religious bases of U.S. national identity via the medium of film. Furthermore, it suggests that the impact of Birth helped enact a broader transformation of American culture, wherein the cinema became instrumental in sustaining the belief that the United States was a nation uniquely favoured by Providence.
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Davies, Christopher. "'Carrying the fire' : Cormac McCarthy's moral philosophy." Thesis, Rhodes University, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002260.
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In this thesis, I argue that the question of ethics, despite claims to the contrary, is a central concern in Cormac McCarthy’s fiction. My principal contention, in this regard, is that an approach that is not reliant on conventional systems of meaning is needed if one is to engage effectively with the moral value of this writer’s oeuvre. In devising such an approach, I draw heavily on the ‘immoralist’ writings of Friedrich Nietzsche. The first chapter of the study contends that good and evil, terms central to conventional morality, do not occupy easily definable positions in McCarthy’s work. In the second chapter, the emphasis falls on the way in which language and myth’s mediation of reality informs choice. The final chapter focuses on the post-apocalyptic setting of The Road, in which normative systems of value are completely absent. It argues that, despite this absence, McCarthy presents a compassionate ethic that is able to find purchase in the harsh world depicted in the novel. Finally, then, this study argues that McCarthy’s latest novel, The Road, requires a reconsideration of the critical claim that his work is nihilistic and that it negates moral value.
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Terakawa, Toru. "History and tradition in modern Japan : translation and commentary upon the texts of Sei'ichi Shirai." Thesis, McGill University, 2001. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=32822.
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This thesis examines the concepts of history and tradition in modern Japan, with an emphasis on the writings of Sei'ichi Shirai (1905--1983). Although Shirai has been considered as one of the most important architects of 20th century Japan, he has also been treated as an obscure figure, no doubt partly because of the enigmatic quality of his writings. A major element that contributed to his obscure status and set him apart from his contemporaries was his understanding of history and tradition.The introductory essay examines the concept of tradition prevalent around Shirai's time: how it was constructed by an a posteriori writing of history and in what ways this is complicated by Shirai's writings. The second portion of the thesis is an annotated translation of two of Shirai's texts demonstrating his attempts to disclose the a priori principles inherent in the unfolding of tradition through history.
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Kellerman, Aliza C. "Kvetching with Comics: How 20th Century American Comics Reflect the Ashkenazi Ethos of Pride and Shame." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2013. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/750.
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One of the most fundamental ways of understanding the struggles and delights of an ethnic group is to study the art the group produces. Art –visual, literary, auditory– functions as an expression of the history of the group. Often, what is considered great art in one culture is disparaged in many others. In my thesis, I will be examining how comics function as an expression of simultaneous pride and shame among Ashkenazi Jews, particularly comics created in the 20th century. Perhaps comics do not seem like an obvious expression of Eastern European Judaism. After all, there are far more renowned, and even sophisticated works to look at, such as the whimsical art of Marc Chagall and stately rabbinical paintings of Isidor Kauffman, or even the heady philosophical work of Theodor W. Adorno. “Ashkenazi expression” and “comics” do not seem intuitively connected.
This disconnect is precisely why I want to explore the relationship between comics and Ashkenazi Jewry. In addition to many of the most prominent comic creators being Jewish, I posit that there is something inherently yiddish, Jewish, about American comics.
The purpose of this essay is not to name individual comic artists in an attempt to prove the Jewishness of the the comic-book industry. Rather, I will explore why Jews of Eastern European descent gravitated toward the comic-book industry in the early to mid 20th century. I posit that American comics acted as an expression of a pride-shame tension found in American Jews of Eastern European descent. To explore this connection, I will first examine the origins of simultaneous Jewish pride and shame by tracing the roots of Eastern European Jewish self-hatred. Next, I will delve into why comics encapsulate this balance of self-deprecation and self-glorification. I will analyze both the nature of the medium itself, and the circumstances grounding the formation of American comics.
Ashkenazi Jews, or Jews of Eastern European, specifically German descent, have been at the center of much scholarly literature. Although an extremely small percentage of the world's population, the bulk of Jews are Ashkenazi, as opposed to Sefardic. Much literature has been devoted to Ashkenazi Judaism, as the ethnic division has produced an impressive body of scientific and literary accomplishment. Although the countries from which Ashkenazi Jews originate are diverse, the key words surrounding Ashkenazi discourse are reoccurring. Concepts such as “exile,” “self-hatred,” and “Jewish humor” all arise. Another central concept is Yiddishkeit.
Yiddishkeit literally translates to “Jewishness” in none other but the language of Yiddish. Yiddish has been the subject of both outward Ashkenazi expression –there is a great deal of Yiddish literature and art– and scholarly examination. Perhaps most recently, Michael Wex published a book called Born to Kvetch, an in-detail study of the history of Yiddish, and how it embodies Ashkenazi culture. Within this book, a particular theme appears: the theme of simultaneously occuring pride and shame. Jews created Yiddish as a result of the primary culture's rejection. However, after this initial dismissal, great pride emerged out of Yiddish, manifesting itself in rich Yiddish culture.
Other scholars have explored the concept of Jewish self-hatred, and the fine line this self-hatred straddles between bona fide self-hatred and isolationist pride. Sander Gilman, who writes extensively about the topic, discusses how language and literature embody this dichotomous tension of pride and shame. While conducting research for the connection between comics and class in 20th century American, I came to the understanding that many of the founders of and participants in the American comic industry were Jewish. I dug up analyses of specific comics/graphic novels (usually Maus) exploring certain Jewish themes in comics, yet I had a hard time finding extensive research asking the question as to why comics and Jews have such a strong connection. In my thesis, I hope to further this question by not only investigating the circumstances surrounding comics that made Jews turn to the industry, but why comics themselves embody Jewish pride and shame. On a much humbler scale, I hope to accomplish what Wex has in Born to Kvetch, a linguistic analysis that provides insight into the greater ethnic group engaging with it.
In chapter one, I will establish the pride-shame dichotomy found in Ashkenazi Judaism. I will first explore several biblical passages, including Lamentations, Micah, and Isaiah. By exploring these instances in the tanach, I will try to establish the uniqueness the Jews feel due to their personal and punitive relationship with God. Throughout these passages, we will see the Jews taking pride in the punishment God doles out for them, because such pain is indicative of the Jews' superiority among other nations.
Next, I will provide a brief explanation of why I am choosing to focus on the act of conversion in the Medieval time period as an indicator of Jewish pride and shame. In specific, I will focus on infamous Johannes Pfefferkorn, who converted from Judaism to Christianity. Pfefferkorn is the perfect example of a Jew who both detested his Judaism, yet used it to his advantage to speak authoritatively about Judaism to Christians, as his professed textual knowledge gave him clout.
Next, I will give an introduction on the connection between Otherness and language, explaining how Hebrew and the Talmud spurred both fascination and disgust toward Jews from their surrounding neighbors. After segueing into the origins of Yiddish as a language created out of exile, I will explain how though Yiddish originated out of spurning, the language became a source of pride of its rejected roots. I will consider the statements of various Yiddish authors, in particular American immigrant Isaac Bashevis Singer.
Through both an analysis of Singer's self-reflection of his own life and an analysis of his short story, Gimpel the Fool, I will establish the pride Ashkenazi Judaism takes in its outsider status. Singer himself remarks of the positivity of being lonely and different. His character, Gimpel, is a foolish outcast. Much like the Jews in the biblical passages explored earlier in the chapter, he suffers constant misfortune and mockery, yet his very pain is what lends him favor in God's eyes.
In chapter two, I will explore how 20th century American comics reflect the Ashkenazi dichotomy of pride and shame. Much like Yiddish is not a mainstream language, the idea of comics as mainstream art or literature has been greatly contested. I will try to determine which circumstances surrounding 20th century comics, and the comics themselves, connect with this pride-shame tension. I will use Paul Buhle's Jews and American Comics as a frame of reference, since the book often links comics and Yiddish.
I will first give a brief history of the American comic-book, starting with the Hogan's Alley comics strip, and exploring up until the mid 20th century. By understanding the working-class origins of comics, we can better understand the low-brow perception of them from the standpoint of both their readers and their critics.
I will then explain how American comics in the 20th century contained Jewish themes of pride and shame, despite their characters not being explicitly Jewish. I will more closely explore this idea through an analysis of the character Superman, drawing on both the commentary from the character's creators and the content clues of the character himself. A true foreigner, Superman masks his real identity, his superhuman powers. While his alias is what makes him exceptional, it is also the thing he abhors the most. Will Eisner, a giant in the world of comics, denies inserting Jewish identity in his own characters. However, his assistant, Jules Feiffer, half-jokingly claimed that his character, Denny Colt, featured in Eisner's The Spirit series, is in actuality a secret Jew.
Instead of focusing on Colt and The Spirit, I will do a close reading of one of Eisner's other works, A Contract with God, which is an exemplary work of Jewish pride and shame. Contract contains a motif that is similar to that of the biblical passages analyzed in chapter one. The protagonist, Russian-American immigrant Frimme Hershe, has a personal relationship with God that leaves him demoralized and punished.
I will then explore the use of visual stereotype in Contract, comparing it to that of Art Spiegelman's Maus, and contrasting it with that of the film Inglorious Basterds. I will argue that through engaging with Jewish visual stereotypes, the first two reveal them as falsehoods. Thus, through an admittance of these shamed images, the comics mock them. The latter film chooses to ignore stereotypes, thus leaving them extant.
I will conclude the chapter by positing that Jews have coped with their constant exile through through the self-deprecation of comics. Buhle mentions that comics about Jewish-American gangsters turned into a source of pride, presumably for Ashkenazi American Jews. The trope, hated by others, was lauded by those it was forced upon. Much like Yiddish, comics may have been born out of exclusion, but they came to be a source of pride among Ashkenazi Jews.
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Pinkoski, Nathan. "Postmodern Aristotles : Arendt, Strauss, and MacIntyre, and the recovery of political philosophy." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2017. https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:b4d728b9-8bb4-47e6-ac01-16dcc9f6f314.
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What is political philosophy? Aristotle pursues that question by asking what the good is. If Nietzsche's postmodern diagnosis that modern philosophical rationalism has exhausted itself is true, it is unclear if an answer to that question is possible. Yet given the prevalence of extremist ideologies in 20th century politics, and the politically irresponsible support of philosophers for these ideologies, there is an urgent need for an answer. This thesis examines how, in these philosophical circumstances, Hannah Arendt, Leo Strauss, and Alasdair MacIntyre conclude that a key resource in the recovery of political philosophy, and in showing its contemporary relevance, lies in the recovery of Aristotle's political philosophy. This thesis contends that how and why Arendt, Strauss, and MacIntyre turn to Aristotle, and what they find in Aristotle, depends on their varying critiques of modernity. Convinced that the philosophical tradition is shattered irreversibly after the events of totalitarianism, Arendt argues for a retrieval of Aristotle and his understanding of politics from the fragments of that tradition. Strauss is impelled to turn to the political philosophy of Aristotle because of the crisis of radical historicism, to recover classical rationalismâs answer to what the good is. MacIntyre turns to Aristotle to find the moral justification for rejecting Stalinism that contemporary philosophical traditions fail to provide; he reconstructs an Aristotelian tradition that can answer the question of what the good is better than his contemporary rivals. Although these thinkers may appear disparate, this thesis argues that each addresses the question of what the good is by offering a vision of political philosophy as a way of life, which Aristotle helps form. This way of life probes the relationship between philosophy and politics as permanent problem for human existence. In recovering this tradition of thinking with Aristotle about the character of political philosophy, this thesis aims to contribute to the understanding of each of these thinkers, as well as to the practice of political philosophy in modern, post-Nietzschean times.
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Dowthwaite, James. "Ezra Pound's theory of language." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2016. https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:b7fdc3da-8442-478f-8dbf-4a401cf29e27.
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This thesis examines Ezra Pound's linguistic theory in relation to literary, philosophical and academic treatments of language in the modernist period. Pound is a central figure in the history of twentieth century literature, and his poetic career marks a sustained engagement with questions of how language can register thought, how it can transmit and communicate images, and, ultimately, how language is able to mediate between artists (or, indeed, language speakers as a whole) and the world. I read Pound's statements on language against the disciplinary history of linguistics, assessing the extent to which his positions are representative of his period, or, conversely, the ways in which they form part of an idiosyncratic worldview. My approach is broadly historical. I begin with Pound's educational background, and move chronologically through his career to the concluding passages of his Cantos. I investigate the extent to which Pound's critical writing engages with new departures taking place in linguistics in the late nineteenth century and the early part of the twentieth century. The scope of my investigation ranges from the legacy of nineteenth century philology to the approaches taken by William Dwight Whitney, Michel Bréal, and Ferdinand de Saussure, to name but a few, in focusing linguistic scholarship on synchronic study of language as function in the early twentieth century, to Franz Boas's and Edward Sapir's studies in the relationship between language and culture between 1910 and 1939. In situating Pound in relation to the history of linguistics as a discipline, I argue that his work asks some of the period's most apposite questions about language and culture, even if his conclusions differ from the dominant academic positions of the time.
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Steele, Jeffrey W. "John Duns Scotus’s Metaphysics of Goodness: Adventures in 13th-Century Metaethics." Scholar Commons, 2015. http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/6029.
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At the center of all medieval Christian accounts of both metaphysics and ethics stands the claim that being and goodness are necessarily connected, and that grasping the nature of this connection is fundamental to explaining the nature of goodness itself. In that vein, medievals offered two distinct ways of conceiving this necessary connection: the nature approach and the creation approach. The nature approach explains the goodness of an entity by an appeal to the entity’s nature as the type of thing it is, and the extent to which it fulfills or perfects the potentialities in its nature. In contrast, the creation approach explains both the being and goodness of an entity by an appeal to God’s creative activity: on this view, both a thing’s being and its goodness are derived from, and explained in terms of, God’s being and goodness. Studies on being and goodness in medieval philosophy often culminate in the synthesizing work of Thomas Aquinas, the leading Dominican theologian at Paris in the 13th century, who brought together these two rival theories about the nature of goodness. Unfortunately, few have paid attention to a distinctively Franciscan approach to the topic around this same time period. My dissertation provides a remedy to this oversight by means of a thorough examination of John Duns Scotus’s approach to being and goodness—an approach that takes into account the shifting tide toward voluntarism (both ethical and theological) at the University of Paris in the late 13th century. I argue that Scotus is also a synthesizer of sorts, harmonizing the two distinct nature approaches of Augustine and Aristotle with his own unique ideas in ways that have profound implications for the future of medieval ethical theorizing, most notably, in his rejection of both the natural law and ethical eudaimonism of Thomas Aquinas.
After the introduction, I analyze the nature of primary goodness—the goodness that Scotus thinks is convertible with being and thus a transcendental attribute of everything that exists. There, I compare the notion of convertibility of being and goodness among Scotus and his contemporaries. While Scotus agrees with the mainstream tradition that being and goodness are necessarily coextensive properties of everything that exists, he argues that being and good are formally rather than conceptually distinct. I argue that when the referents of being and good are considered, both views amount to the same thing. But when the concepts of being and good are considered, positing a formal distinction does make a good deal of difference: good does not simply add something to being conceptually, but formally: it is a quasi-attribute of being that exists in the world independently of our conception of it. Thus Scotus’s formal distinction provides a novel justification for the necessary connection between being and goodness.
Furthermore, I argue that Scotus holds an Augustinian hierarchy of being. This hierarchical ranking of being is based upon the magnitude or perfection of the thing’s nature. But since goodness is a necessarily coextensive perfection of being, it too comes in degrees dependent upon the type of being, arranged in terms of the same hierarchy. This account, while inspired by Augustine’s hierarchical nature approach, is expressed in terms of Aristotelian metaphysics.
But this necessary connection between being and goodness in medieval philosophy faced a problem: Following Augustine, medievals claimed that “everything that exists is good insofar as it exists.”’ But how is that compatible with the existence of sinful acts: if every being, in so far as it has being, is good, then every act, insofar as it has being, is good. But if sinful acts are bad, then we seem to be committed to saying either that bad acts are good, or that not every act, in so far as it has being, is good. This first option seems infelicitous; the second denies Augustine’s claims that “everything that exists is good.” Lombard and his followers solve this problem by distinguishing ontological goodness from moral goodness and claiming that moral goodness is an accident of some acts and does not convert with being. So the sinful act, qua act, is (ontologically) good. But the sinful act, qua disorder is (morally) bad. Eventually, three distinctive grades of accidental or moral goodness will be applied to human acts: generic, circumstantial, and meritorious. I argue that Scotus follows the traditional account of Peter Lombard, Philip the Chancellor, Albert the Great, and Bonaventure in distinguishing ontological goodness from moral goodness, and claiming that only the former converts with being, while the latter is an accident of the act.
Aquinas, in contrast, writing in the heyday of the Aristotelian renaissance, focuses instead on the role of the act in the agent’s perfection and posits his convertibility thesis of being and goodness in the moral as well as the metaphysical realm. Thus, when one begins a late medieval discussion with Aquinas, and then considers what Scotus says, it seems as though Scotus is the radical who departs from the conservative teachings of Aquinas. And this is just false: we need to situate both Aquinas and Scotus within the larger Sentence Commentary tradition extending back to Peter Lombard and his followers in order to understand their agreement and divergence from the tradition.
Next, I turn the discussion to Scotus’s analysis of rightness and wrongness. I first explore the relationship between rightness and God’s will, and situate Scotus’s account within contemporary discussions of theological voluntarism. I argue Scotus holds a restricted-causal-will-theory —whereby only contingent deontological propositions depend upon God’s will for their moral status. In contrast to Aquinas, Scotus denies that contingent moral laws—the Second Table of the 10 Commandments (such do not steal, do not murder, etc.)—are grounded in human nature, and thus he limits the extent to which moral reasoning can move from natural law to the moral obligations we have toward one another. In conjunction with these claims, I argue that Scotus distinguishes goodness from rightness: An act’s rightness will depend on its conformity to either (1) a necessary moral truth or (2) God’s commanding some contingent moral truth. The moral goodness of an act, in contrast, involves right reason’s determination of the suitability or harmony of all factors pertaining to the act. In establishing this, also argue that much of the disparity among contemporary Scotus scholarship on the question of whether Scotus was a divine command theorist or natural law theorist should be directly attributed to a failure to recognize Scotus’s separation of the goodness of an act from the rightness of an act.
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Pearse, Harry John. "Natural philosophy and theology in seventeenth-century England." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2016. https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/263362.
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This thesis explores the disciplinary relationship between natural philosophy (the study of nature or body) and theology (the study of the divine) in seventeenth-century England. Early modern disciplines had two essential functions. First, they set the rules and boundaries of argument – knowledge was therefore legitimised and made intelligible within disciplinary contexts. And second, disciplines structured pedagogy, parcelling knowledge so it could be studied and taught. This dual role meant disciplines were epistemic and social structures. They were composed of various elements, and consequently, they related to one another in a variety of complex ways. As such, the contestability of early modern knowledge was reflected in contestability of disciplines – their content and boundaries. Francis Bacon, Thomas White, Henry More and John Locke are the focus of the four chapters respectively, with Joseph Glanvill, Thomas Hobbes, other Cambridge divines, and a variety of medieval scholastic authors providing context, comparison and reinforcement. These case studies offer a cross-section of seventeenth-century thought and belief; they embody different professional and institutional interests, and represent an array of philosophical, theological and religious positions. Nevertheless, each of them, in different ways, and to different effect, put the relationship between natural philosophy and theology at the heart of their intellectual endeavours. Together, they demonstrate that, in seventeenth-century England, natural philosophy and theology were in flux, and that their disciplinary relationship was complex, entailing degrees of overlap and alienation. Primarily, natural philosophy and theology investigated the nature and constitution of the world, and, together, determined the relationship between its constituent parts – natural and divine. However, they also reflected the scope of man’s cognitive faculties, establishing which bits of the world were knowable, and outlining the grounds for, and appropriate degrees of, certainty and belief. Thus, both disciplines, and their relationship with one another, contributed to broad discussions about, truth, certainty and opinion. This, in turn, established normative guidelines. To some extent, the rightness or wrongness of belief and behaviour was determined by particular definitions of, and relationship between, natural philosophy and theology. Consequently, man’s place in the world – his relationship with nature, God and his fellow man – was triangulated through these disciplines.
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Stokes, Thomas Hubert Jr. "Audience, intention, and rhetoric in Pascal and Simone Weil." Diss., The University of Arizona, 1990. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/185120.
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This dissertation examines audience, intention, and rhetoric in the writings of Blaise Pascal and Simone Weil. Despite the differences in historical period, ethnic heritage, sex, and milieux, which separate them, these two writers are astonishingly similar with regard to those for whom they wrote--audience--the subject matter of their writings--intention--and their skilled and self-conscious use of language in addressing their audiences and themes--rhetoric. Each of them wrote scientific or philosophical works, and polemical works, intended for a certain public; each of them then wrote, in the final years of their short lives, long notebook or journal entries, a record of spiritual experience which has since been edifying to others besides themselves. The guiding principle here is the function of language. This means how it works (rhetoric), but also, for what purpose (intention) and for whom (audience). We find many metaphors of function in Pascal and Simone Weil. The motivating concern of this dissertation is how Pascal and Simone Weil articulate, through language, God's response to man's yearnings toward God.
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Berner, Ashley Rogers. "Metaphysics in educational theory : educational philosophy and teacher training in England (1839-1944)." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2007. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:f604b518-5ea3-4e29-98b9-cecbe3c78843.
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In 1839 the English Parliament first disbursed funds for the formal education of teachers. Between 1839 and the McNair Report in 1944 the institutional shape and the intellectual resources upon which teacher training rested changed profoundly. The centre of teacher training moved from theologically-based colleges to university departments of education; the primary source for understanding education shifted from theology to psychology. These changes altered the ways in which educators contemplated the nature of the child, the role of the teacher and the aim of education itself. This thesis probes such shifts within a variety of elite educational resources, but its major sources of material are ten training colleges of diverse types: Anglican, Nonconformist, Roman Catholic, and University. The period covered by this thesis is divided into three broad blocks of time. During the first period (1839-1885) formal training occurred in religious colleges, and educators relied upon Biblical narratives to understand education. This first period also saw the birth of modern psychology, whose tools educators often deployed within a religious framework. The second period (1886-1920) witnessed the growth of university-based training colleges which were secular in nature and whose status surpassed that of the religious colleges. During this period, teacher training emphasized intellectual attainment over spiritual development. During the third period (1920-1944), teachers were taught to view education from the standpoint of psychological health. The teacher's goal was the well-developed personality of each child, and academic content served primarily not to impart knowledge but rather to inform the child's own creative drives. This educational project was construed in scientific and anti-metaphysical terms. The replacement of a theological and metaphysical discourse by a psychological one amounts to a secular turn. However, this occurred neither mechanically nor inevitably. Colleges and theorists often seem to have been unaware of the implications of their emphases. This thesis contemplates explanatory models other than the secularisation thesis and raises important historical questions about institutional identity and the processes of secularisation.
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Roush, Edward W. (Edward Wesley). "The Emergence of Christian Television: the First Decade, 1949-1959." Thesis, University of North Texas, 1990. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc504286/.
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The purpose of this research was to describe the relationship and to compare the programming of major Christian ministries during the first decade of Christian television. A historical perspective was the method used in identifying and explaining the events and activities that constituted Christian television from 1949 to 1959. The results of the research concluded that Christian television began at a time of social trauma, unrest, and confusion in America. Competition for a viewing audience was not a factor. Leading personalities presented themselves as independent thinkers who also saw themselves as "preachers" with a strong desire to succeed. Motivation was provided by a sense of "dominion" that emerged from the Great Awakenings within the churches of America that became a driving force in the first three decades of this century.
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Jackson, Allison L. "The Character Education Work of Milton Fairchild| A Prism for Exploring the Debate between Liberal Progressives and Conservative Progressives in the Early 20th Century." Thesis, Notre Dame of Maryland University, 2018. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10813434.
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The development of character is one of the objectives of the American educational system. This historical study examined the debate over character education in the 1920s, a decade in which Americans were especially committed to creating moral youth. Specifically, this study investigated the character education work of Edwin Milton Fairchild from 1893 to 1939 and how his work reflects the tension between conservative progressives and liberal progressives in the early twentieth century. Primary source and archived documents such as journal articles, personal correspondences, ephemera, and photographs were used to conduct this study. As a result of this study, it was determined that Edwin Milton Fairchild was a pioneer of secular moral education in America and that the current controversy surrounding how character education should be taught in schools has roots that were established a century ago. The work of Edwin Milton Fairchild during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries played an important role in the secularization of moral education and is a prism through which the debate over character education among progressives can be better understood.
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Athanasiadis, Harris. "George Grant and the theology of the cross : the Christian foundations of his thought." Thesis, McGill University, 1997. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=34910.
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Until his untimely death in 1988, George Grant was considered the foremost political philosopher Canada had produced. He was a critic of technological globalization who perceived early on its destructive potentialities on all facets of life, public and private. His writing focused on how the development of technological globalization endangered national sovereignty, undermined indigenous cultures and traditions, and threatened individual and communal rights. What is less known about Grant is the importance of faith in his life and how it informed his thought. Indeed, even though Grant did not write about his faith to any great extent, he claimed that it was the inspirational centre of everything he thought and wrote. This thesis will attempt to uncover the substance of Grant's faith and how it informs his thought. Grant was a Christian and a Protestant whose faith is best expressed in the words of Martin Luther: "A theologian of glory calls evil good and good evil. A theologian of the cross calls the thing what it actually is." (Luther's Works, vol. 31, p. 40) This quote is not incidental. Grant found in Luther's words and the theological orientation Luther named a "Theology of the Cross," the basis of his critical and constructive critique of the contemporary realities that concerned him. But even though Luther gave the words for this theological orientation, its significance in shaping Grant's thought was developed through his struggle with other theologians and philosophers, the most influential of whom was Simone Weil. This thesis will be an attempt to define this theological orientation as expressed by Luther, how Grant came upon it through formative influences and experiences along with formal studies in theology and philosophy, how Simone Weil gave intellectual and existential voice to this orientation in him, and how it informed Grant's perspective on all the thinkers he struggled with and all the issues that preoccupied his thought. Finally, this thesis
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Scott, Sean A. "Alcohol and agriculture : the political philosophy of Calvin Coolidge demonstrated in two domestic policies." Virtual Press, 2000. http://liblink.bsu.edu/uhtbin/catkey/1164850.
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This thesis demonstrates that Calvin Coolidge applied a philosophy of limited government to his executive decisions concerning two domestic issues, Prohibition and agricultural policy. In both matters, various groups attempted to pressure Coolidge into permanently increasing the scope of the federal government's activities. Coolidge refused to comply with their demands and maintained his belief in the benefits of a federal government that limited itself to minimal activism by mediating the disputes of conflicting interest groups. Through both Prohibition and the agricultural problem, Coolidge exhibited his effectiveness in handling divisive political issues while maintaining his philosophy of limited government. Overall, this thesis contributes to the scholarly revisionism of Coolidge.Department of History
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Premdas, Ralph R. "Religion and reconciliation in the multi-ethnic states of the Third World Fiji, Trinidad, and Guyana /." Thesis, McGill University, 1991. http://catalog.hathitrust.org/api/volumes/oclc/26969958.html.
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Temelini, Michael. "Seeing things differently : Wittgenstein and social and political philosophy." Thesis, McGill University, 1999. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=35950.
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This thesis calls into question a currently orthodox view of Ludwig Wittgenstein's post-Tractarian philosophy. This view is that the social and political implications of Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations are conservative and relativist. That is, Wittgenstein's concepts such as 'forms of life', 'language-games' and 'rule-following' defend and promote: a rule-determined and context-determined rationality; or an incomparable community-determined human understanding; or a neutralist, nonrevisionary, private or uncritical social and political philosophy.In order to challenge and correct this conventional understanding the thesis sets up as 'objects of comparison' a variety of very different examples of the use of Wittgenstein in social and political philosophy. These uses are neither relativist nor conservative and they situate understanding and critical reflection in the practices of comparison and dialogue. The examples of this 'comparative-dialogical' Wittgensteinian approach are found in the works of three contemporary philosophers: Thomas L. Kuhn, Quentin Skinner and Charles Taylor.
This study employs the technique of a survey rather than undertaking a uniquely textual analysis because it is less convincing to suggest that Wittgenstein's concepts might be used in these unfamiliar ways than to show that they have been put to these unfamiliar uses. Therefore I turn not to a Wittgensteinian ideal but to examples of the 'comparative-dialogical' uses of Wittgenstein. In so doing I am following Wittgenstein's insight in section 208 of the Philosophical Investigations: "I shall teach him to use the words by means of examples and by practice. And when I do this, I do not communicate less to him than I know myself." Thus it will be in a survey of various uses and applications of Wittgenstein's concepts and techniques that I will show that I and others understand them.
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Kashirin, Alexander Urievich 1963. "Protestant minorities in the Soviet Ukraine, 1945--1991." Thesis, University of Oregon, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/1794/10956.
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xiv, 934 p. A print copy of this thesis is available through the UO Libraries. Search the library catalog for the location and call number.The dissertation focuses on Protestants in the Soviet Ukraine from the end of the Second World War to the collapse of the USSR. It has two major aims. The first is to elucidate the evolution of Soviet policy toward Protestant denominations, using archival evidence that was not available to previous students of this subject. The second is to reconstruct the internal life of Protestant congregations as marginalized social groups. The dissertation is thus a case study both of religious persecution under state-sponsored atheism and of the efforts of individual believers and their communities to survive without compromising their religious principles. The opportunity to function legally came at a cost to Protestant communities in Ukraine and elsewhere in the USSR. In the 1940s-1980s, Protestant communities lived within a tight encirclement of numerous governmental restrictions designed to contain and, ultimately, reduce all manifestations of religiosity in the republic both quantitatively and qualitatively. The Soviet state specifically focused on interrupting the generational continuity of religious tradition by driving a wedge between believing parents and their children. Aware of these technologies of containment and their purpose, Protestants devised a variety of survival strategies that allowed them, when possible, to circumvent the stifling effects of containment and ensure the preservation and transmission of religious traditions to the next generation. The dissertation investigates how the Soviet government exploited the state institutions and ecclesiastic structures in its effort to transform communities of believers into malleable societies of timid and nominal Christians and how the diverse Protestant communities responded to this challenge. Faced with serious ethical choices--to collaborate with the government or resist its persistent interference in the internal affairs of their communities-- many Ukrainian Evangelicals joined the vocal opposition movement that contributed to an increased international pressure on the Soviet government and subsequent evolution of the Soviet policy from confrontation to co-existence with religion. The dissertation examines both theoretical and practical aspects of the Soviet secularization project and advances a number of arguments that help account for religion's survival in the Soviet Union during the 1940-1980s.
Committee in charge: Julie Hessler, Chairperson, History; R Alan Kimball, Member, History; Jack Maddex, Member, History; William Husband, Member, Not from U of O Caleb Southworth, Outside Member, Sociology
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Tshilumba, Kalombo Muadiamvita Gilbert. "Les idéologies politiques africaines: mythe du pouvoir ou instance du développement ?réflexion épistémologique sur le nationalisme congolais à la lumière de la théorie rawlsienne de la justice." Doctoral thesis, Universite Libre de Bruxelles, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/2013/ULB-DIPOT:oai:dipot.ulb.ac.be:2013/210475.
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Les idéologies politiques africaines :mythe du pouvoir ou instance du développement ?Réflexion épistémologique sur le nationalisme congolais à la lumière de la théorie rawlsienne de la justice.
Panafricanisme, négritude, consciencisme, socialisme et nationalisme ont eu en gros sur le sol africain, une double mission :-délivrer les pays du joug colonial
sortir ces pays du sous-développement par un travail d’une
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Doctorat en Philosophie
info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished
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Kyme, Brian. "Six Archbishops and their ordinands: A study of the leadership provided by successive Archbishops of Perth in the recruitment and formation of clergy in Western Australia 1914-2005." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2005. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/631.
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This thesis seeks to tell the story of the evolution of ordained ministry in the Christian Church, with an emphasis on the work of the ministry in the Anglican Church of Western Australia since the arrival of the first settlers in 1829. After a brief look at the early days, the focus is on the efforts to recruit ordination candidates in Western Australia during the terms of each of the six Archbishops of Perth from 1914 up to the present time. An integral part of the narrative is the histories of the Perth Clergy Training College, later renamed St John's College, from 1899 to 1929 and John Wollaston Theological College, which has served varying roles from 1957 to the present time. Particular attention is given to the period 1972 to 1981, when Wollaston was home to the Interim Course for candidates who, in those years, were sent interstate for their primary theological education. They returned to Perth for a year's training and reflection in pastoral ministry before being ordained and appointed to parishes. The narrative relates how, with the exception of Archbishop Le Fanu, the Archbishops believed that there should be an ordination training programme in Western Australia. The first and third Archbishops believed that the priority was for ordinands to have a liberal education at University, so they could hold their own, as it were, with the leaders of other professions in the community. Archbishop Carnley, in particular, believed that the teaching of theology snould be university based, because it was a fundamental discipline. And so we follow the story to the present time when theological education is based at Murdoch University and is taught in an ecumenical setting with each participating church conducting its own programmes in the areas of pastoral care and ministry formation. The total process for the training of clergy presently in vogue is one in which the Church in Western Australia should have justifiable pride, yet the study does suggest that there are some areas that Church leaders might well consider ripe for further development.
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Weddikkara, Lalani. "The role of Buddhism in the changing life of rural women in Sri Lanka since independence." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2002. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/746.
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This research focuses on the role of Buddhism in the changing lives of rural women in Sri Lanka since Independence from the British in 1948 up to the present time. In this thesis I pose two questions: firstly, how important is Buddhism in the everyday lives of rural women and secondly, what impact has changes in Buddhism since Independence had upon laywomen and renunciants. I have chosen the rural village Athale, in the dry zone of southeast Sri Lanka as my area of investigation. The history of the village dates back to the times of the great hero King Dutugemunu (I61-137BCE) and it is part of a complex of villages that form a socioeconomic unit. This research investigates the lives of the rural women who belong to this village and whose religious background is Sinhalese Theravada Buddhism, a way of life embedded in their culture. The thesis examines cultural, political, educational and religious changes since Independence, especially changes in Buddhism. The socioeconomic problems of contemporary Sri Lanka resulted in the changes adapted to the spirit religion. The meditative tradition of Buddhism still flourishes under lay as well as the renunciants, in Sri Lanka. Fieldwork in Sri Lanka took place in December 1997- February 1998 and in July 2000- September 2000. The Non Government Organisations have been active in the village since 1988. The data collection method used for this research was qualitative: personal interviews, participant observation, direct observation, informal conversations and surveys were used to gather personal and demographic details and how women practise Buddhism. The findings indicate that women have incorporated different methods of practising Buddhism to suit their needs at a particular time of their lives.
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Gouran, Roger David. "A study of two attempts by President Plutarco Elías Calles to establish a national church in Mexico." PDXScholar, 1995. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/3561.
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In the one-hundred years between 1810 and 1926 there were many civil wars in Mexico. The last of these wars. La Cristiada, was not fought, as were the previous civil wars, by groups seeking political control of Mexico. Rather, the genesis of this war was a question of who would control the Church in Mexico. The war began when President Plutarco Elias Calles attempted to enforce rigorously certain articles of the Constitution of 1917 as well as two laws which he promulgated. If Calles had succeeded, he would, in fact, have created a church in Mexico controlled by the federal government.
The material to support this thesis was taken largely from the Mexican legal documents, the writing of Calles, other sources contemporary with the events described and some secondary sources. This thesis stresses the religious reasons for the La Cristiada and discusses the war itself not at all.
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Ravi, Vidya. "From virgin land to hinterland : place and dwelling in American fiction, 1951-1995." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2013. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.648366.
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Millier, Callie Anne. "Russian Peasant Women's Resistance Against the State during the Antireligious Campaigns of 1928-1932." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2016. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc849654/.
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This study seeks to explore the role of peasant women in resistance to the antireligious campaigns during collectivization and analyze how the interplay of the state and resistors formed a new culture of religion in the countryside. I argue that while the state’s succeeded in controlling most of the public sphere, peasant women, engaging in subversive activities and exploiting the state’s ideology, succeeded in preserving a strong peasant adherence to religion prior to World War II. It was peasant women’s determination and adaptation that thwarted the party’s goal of nation-wide atheism.
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Billinge, Richard. "Nature, grace and religious liberty in Restoration England." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2015. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:18c8815b-4e57-45f5-b2c1-e31314a09d4f.
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This thesis demonstrates the importance of scholastic philosophy and natural law to the theory of religious uniformity and toleration in Seventeenth-Century England. Some of the most influential apologetic tracts produced by the Church of England, including Richard Hooker's Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, Robert Sanderson's Ten lectures on humane conscience and Samuel Parker A discourse of ecclesiastical politie are examined and are shown to belong to a common Anglican tradition which emphasized aspects of scholastic natural law theory in order to refute pleas for ceremonial diversity and liberty of conscience. The relationship of these ideas to those of Hobbes and Locke are also explored. Studies of Seventeenth-Century ideas about conformity and toleration have often stressed the reverence people showed the individual conscience, and the weight they attributed to the examples of the magistrates of Israel and Judah. Yet arguments for and against uniformity and toleration might instead resolve themselves into disputes about the role of natural law within society, or the power of human laws over the conscience. In this the debate about religious uniformity could acquire a very philosophical and sometimes theological tone. Important but technical questions about moral obligation, metaphysics and theology are demonstrated to have played an important role in shaping perceptions of magisterial power over religion. These ideas are traced back to their roots in scholastic philosophy and the Summa of Aquinas. Scholastic theories about conscience, law, the virtues, human action and the distinction between nature and grace are shown to have animated certain of the Church's more influential apologists and their dissenting opponents. The kind of discourse surrounding toleration and liberty of conscience is thus shown to be very different than sometimes supposed. Perceptions of civil and ecclesiastical power were governed by a set of ideas and concerns that have hitherto not featured prominently in the literature about the development of religious toleration.
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Mueller, Marieke. "Subjectivity in Sartre's 'L'idiot de la famille' : biography as a space for the development of theory." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2015. https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:54f60363-e148-4481-b710-c7e68a908bd5.
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In the context of a renascent interest in the thought of Jean-Paul Sartre, this thesis proposes a close examination of one of his less studied texts, the study of Gustave Flaubert, L'Idiot de la famille (1971-72). The analysis focuses on theoretical developments that emerge from Sartre's biographical enquiry, pursuing an interdisciplinary approach combining a consideration of literary theory and literary history with the perspective of Sartre's philosophy of subjectivity. L'Idiot is situated amongst a wide variety of texts by Sartre, from Qu'est-ce que la littérature? (1948) to the Critique de la raison dialectique (1960), identifying theoretical innovations within Sartre's understanding of the subject (ch. 1), his social theory (ch. 2), his theory of the imaginary (ch. 3), of literary production (ch. 4) and of reading (ch. 5). Additionally, hitherto largely unexplored passages highlight Sartre's reflections on the situation of the late 1960s. Previous analyses of the philosophical innovations presented in L'Idiot have often focused on the strictly theoretical passages in the biography. The present thesis also concentrates on the 'imagined' scenes presented throughout the text. Read as an integral part of Sartre's method, it is suggested that the dramatization facilitated by the biographical format is an integral part of the theoretical enquiry. Despite the lack of explicit referencing provided by Sartre, the biography is explored in its open character, identifying a series of resonances and similarities with a diverse range of authors. The different chapters consider thinkers whose relationship with Sartre has received little or no attention (such as Pierre Bourdieu and Walter Benjamin), or whose work resonates with Sartre in ways that have so far gone unnoticed (Roland Barthes, Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Maurice Blanchot).
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Jolly, Edouard. "Les ombres du monde: Anders et le refus du nihilisme." Doctoral thesis, Universite Libre de Bruxelles, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/2013/ULB-DIPOT:oai:dipot.ulb.ac.be:2013/209306.
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Pierce, April Elisabeth. "Of poems and propositions : T.S. Eliot and the linguistic turn." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2015. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:6c67504e-2158-48a9-ac4a-3ee1c792efcf.
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This thesis describes how Eliot's concern for language and form finds roots in early twentieth century language philosophy. It also explores the way Eliot's early philosophical themes concerning language and meaning reemerge in his literary criticism and philosophical poetry during the 1920s and 1930s, and in his more explicitly philosophical Four Quartets. More significantly, this thesis historically elucidates Eliot's debt to the philosophies of Edmund Husserl and Bertrand Russell, reframing his philosophy within the two poles of the "Linguistic Turn". By closely examining Eliot's unpublished and only recently published essays and notes, the thesis unearths probable connections between Eliot's own philosophical interests and his later poetics, redefining his legacy as a prototypical modernist poet, and suggesting a new framework of study for scholars and students of literary modernism.
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Daled, Pierre-Frédéric. "L'Université libre de Bruxelles et la religion: spiritualisme et matérialisme au XIXème siècle." Doctoral thesis, Universite Libre de Bruxelles, 1996. http://hdl.handle.net/2013/ULB-DIPOT:oai:dipot.ulb.ac.be:2013/212275.
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Morrison, Benedict. "Complicating articulation in narrative film : tracing the relationship between inarticulate form and character." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2016. https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:4c58ecf8-e330-4206-82ea-62451b8d2e84.
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This thesis explores the relationship between film form and character expression, both of which are seen as articulated structures, that is utterances in which separable parts operate cooperatively to create meaning. The specific films examined present characters who struggle to express themselves. These inexpressive characters are combined in each case with a disrupted form which displays its own many-jointed structure. The thesis argues that the dynamic relationship between inarticulacies of character, narrative, and form generates an indeterminate dialectic. The unresolved relationship between parts and whole (reminiscent of a complex mosaic structure) complicates the process of reading for univocal meaning. The operation of this dual inarticulacy is discussed in Chapter One. Each subsequent chapter is devoted to a single film and a particular example of formal disjuncture: contrapuntal narrative levels, clashing styles, discontinuous editing, bricolage, the dislocation of genre signifiers from conventional meanings, and intermedia. The films discussed at length in connection with these theories are: 'Journal d'un curé de campagne' (1951); 'Germania anno zero' (1948); 'Belle de Jour' (1967); 'Distant Voices, Still Lives' (1988) and 'The Long Day Closes' (1992); 'Meek's Cutoff' (2010); 'The Pillow Book' (1996).
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Foehn, Salomé. "Les philosophes de l'exil républicain espagnol de 1939 : autour de José Bergamín, Juan David García Bacca et María Zambrano (1939-1965)." Thesis, University of St Andrews, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/10023/2551.
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Spanish Republican philosophers in exile defended the Second Republic, legally proclaimed on April 14, 1931. They embraced the anti-fascist cause rising in the 1920s and the 1930s in Europe. During the Civil War, which lasted three years, they stood among the people. 1939 saw the victory of General Francisco Franco, supported by Nazi Germany and the Italy of Mussolini. Threatened with death, they had no choice but to escape from Spain. Some intellectuals experienced French concentration camps but, for the most part, they found refuge in Latin America, especially in Mexico and Venezuela. In exile, they swore to remain loyal to the Second Republic and to the spirit of the Spanish people. Moved by liberal views and humane ideals, these philosophers belonged to the vanquished, as those everywhere in Europe who rose against Fascist barbarity. As a result, their respective works are still widely unknown today – despite relentless efforts made to promote their thought to a larger audience for over half a century. In addition to the historical context of crisis during the interwar period, the situation of Spanish philosophy itself is suggestive. Indeed, Spanish philosophy was institutionalised at the beginning of the twentieth century only: the Schools of Madrid and Barcelona were created. These politics of cultural and intellectual renovation are first bestowed upon the generation of philosophers I study, born in the 1900s. When the Spanish War erupts, they had become professionals of international recognition. This shows the actual limits of academic philosophy, incapable of acknowledging unorthodox ways of philosophising. The experience of exile itself serves in my opinion as a catalyst: Spanish Republican philosophers in exile seek emancipation from academic conventions to philosophise freely; that is, in Spanish and according to the spirit of the people. No doubt “poetic reason” – the true invention of Spanish Republican exile – stems from this ideal of autonomous thinking.
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Methot, Pierre-Olivier. "Historical epistemology of the concept of virulence : molecular, ecological, and evolutionary perspectives on emerging infectious diseases in the 19th and 20th century." Thesis, University of Exeter, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/10036/3494.
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This thesis focuses on the trajectory of the biomedical concept of virulence from 1880 until the present. Following the concept across disciplinary boundaries, from a longue durée history perspective, it explores how virulence was shaped through two distinct, although sometimes overlapping, “styles of reasoning”. Located at the intersection of several distinct research domains in biology and medicine, the concept of virulence provides, in addition, a window into the complex and changing relations between evolutionary biology and the health sciences (broadly construed) over the past two centuries. Moving back and forth between field experiments and the laboratory, this work examines, through the lens of historical epistemology, the emergence of what I call the molecular and the ecological styles, and their respective conceptual practices. It focuses on the ways in which these styles operationalize the distinction between virulent or avirulent organisms in sometimes opposite sense: Whereas in the molecular (or endogenous) style the expression of virulence is explained by properties of internal structures of the infectious agent (e.g. polysaccharide capsule, virulence gene, or pathogenicity island), the concept of virulence in the ecological (or exogenous) style reflects, in contrast, either a lack of adaptation between two species (avirulence hypothesis) or the existence of one or more ecological compromises between, say, the mode of transmission of a pathogen and its host’s recovery rate (trade-off model). Both styles can be said to originate in the medical bacteriology of the late-nineteenth century, but while the former grew mostly out of the work of Louis Pasteur and Robert Koch in Europe, the latter was primarily shaped by Theobald Smith in the United States. Nearly a century later, the introduction of the category of emerging infectious disease within public health discourses in the mid-1990s facilitated a rapprochement between the two styles that had, so far, remained apart. Employing the 1918–1919 influenza pandemic as an example in which to illustrate the trajectory of the molecular and the ecological approaches, the diversity of explanatory schemes developed to account for the pandemic’s exceptional virulence points toward an unresolved, and yet productive, epistemic tension between the two styles, on the one hand, and the intrinsic polarity of the concept of virulence itself, on the other.
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Sanchez, Michelle Chaplin. "Providence: from pronoia to immanent affirmation in John Calvin's Institutes of 1559." Thesis, Harvard University, 2014. http://dissertations.umi.com/gsas.harvard:11672.
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Over the twentieth century and into the present, theorists of secularization and political theology have explored ways that theological arguments have shaped the social, ethical, economic, and political imaginaries of the modern West. In many of these studies, the doctrine of providence has come under scrutiny alongside related theological debates over of the nature of divine sovereignty, glory, the will, and the significance of immanent life in relation to divine transcendence. While it is often taken for granted that the Calvinist branch of Protestant reform likewise had a decisive impact on the shape of the modern West, there has been no extended treatment of Calvin's writing on providence, or related doctrines, which engages these arguments about secularization.
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Andrus, Brenda Olsen. "Utopian Marriage in Nineteenth-Century America: Public and Private Discourse." Diss., CLICK HERE for online access, 1998. http://patriot.lib.byu.edu/u?/MTAF,4596.
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Berge, Ian Alan. "Catholic Action in Twentieth-Century Oregon: The Divergent Political and Social Philosophies of Hall S. Lusk and Francis J. Murnane." PDXScholar, 2015. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/2104.
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Catholic Action was an international movement that encouraged active promotion of the Catholic faith by ordinary believers. While the idea gained force at a local level in Italy in the early twentieth century, Pope Pius XI gave the philosophy official Church approval in 1931. Catholic Action served as a major intellectual and religious force among American Catholics from the Great Depression until the transformations in Catholicism caused by the Second Vatican Council from 1962 to 1965. The program encouraged American Catholics both to promote the practice of the faith among fellow Church members and to express Catholic teachings in the public realm in order to influence political and economic policy.
Because the Church's social teaching articulated strong reservations regarding free-market capitalism, Catholic Action proved compelling to progressives and leftists among the faithful. American Catholic leftists during this era continued a long tradition of social justice activism among Catholic immigrant workers and their descendants. Yet Catholic political mobilization could also serve conservative ends, as when believers gathered in rallies against Hollywood movies or communism. Regardless of whether they engaged in progressive or conservative activism, however, Catholics' organized efforts in the mid-twentieth century fortified their already strong sense of religious identity.
This thesis examines two Catholic public figures in Portland, Oregon during the era of Catholic Action: Hall S. Lusk, a lawyer who held many public offices including that of Oregon Supreme Court Justice, and Francis J. Murnane, a leader in the International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union. Biographies of the two men demonstrate that the two served as important spokesmen for Catholic principles in mostly non-Catholic Portland. While Lusk viewed Catholic Action as an opportunity to strengthen American Catholics' devotion to the nation, Murnane's version authorized radical dissent against the nation's social and economic structure. An analytical chapter examines how the same Catholic Action philosophy drove the two men in different directions politically but imbued each with a strong sense of Catholic identity. The Conclusion discusses the continued relevance of the study of the Catholic Action period by pointing to the surprising durability of Catholic cultural cohesion throughout American history and to the powerful force that religious faith possesses to inspire activists on both the left and the right.
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Waghid, Yusef. "Community and democracy in South Africa : liberal versus communitarian perspectives." Thesis, Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2002. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/52736.
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Thesis (PhD)--University of Stellenbosch, 2002.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The tradition of liberalism in South Africa has played a significant role in shaping the country's multi-party democracy. Yet, there are several gaps within the tradition of liberalism which can be associated with an aversion towards majority rule, equalising opportunities through affirmative action measures, and a focus on securing political rights as opposed to substantive rights for all citizens. It is my contention that weaknesses within the liberal tradition could be minimised if a more credible conception of liberalism is constructed within the parameters of a deliberative framework of democracy. In this dissertation I make an argument for a defensible form of liberalism which can be achieved through a rational, reflexive discourse-oriented procedure of deliberative democracy. Deliberative democracy in turn can engender a form of citizenship which recognises the need for citizens to care, reason and engage justly in political conversation with others. KEYWORDS: Liberalism, communitarianism, deliberative democracy and South Africa.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die tradisie van liberalisme in Suid-Afrika het 'n noemenswaardige bydrae gelewer tot die totstandkoming van die land se veelparty demokratiese bestel. Afgesien hiervan, verskyn daar vele gapings binne die liberale tradisie wat hoogstens vereenselwig kan word met 'n teenkanting teen meerderheidsregering, skepping van gelyke geleenthede deur regstellende aksies en 'n fokus eerder om politieke regte liewer as ook substantiewe regte vir alle burgers te bekom. Ek redeneer dat tekortkominge binne die liberale tradisie geminimaliseer kan word indien 'n meer vededigbare begrip van liberalisme gekonstrueer word binne die perke van 'n beredeneerde demokratiese raamwerk. Ek voer aan dat 'n verdedigbare vorm van liberalisme bewerkstellig kan word deur 'n rasionele, refleksiewe diskoersgeoriënteerde prosedure van beredeneerde demokrasie. Op die beurt kan beredeneerde demokrasie 'n vorm van burgerskap teweegbring wat die belangrikheid van omgee en redenering erken, en ook terselfdertyd burgers betrek op 'n geregverdige wyse in gesprekvoeing met ander persone. SLEUTELWOORDE: Liberalisme, gemeenskapsgerigte liberalisme, beredeneerde demokrasie en Suid-Afrika.