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Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Thought'
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Carper, Teresa. "THE EFFECTS OF PSYCHOEDUCATION ON THOUGHT-ACTION FUSION, THOUGHT SUPPRESSION, MAGICAL THINKING, AND RESPONSIBILITY." Doctoral diss., University of Central Florida, 2009. http://digital.library.ucf.edu/cdm/ref/collection/ETD/id/3718.
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Thought-action fusion (TAF) is the phenomenon whereby one has difficulty separating cognitions, particularly those that are intrusive and disturbing, from their corresponding behaviors. Recent work has suggested that TAF is malleable and amenable to change. The current study examined the effects of three different psychoeducational interventions on thought-action fusion, anxiety, thought suppression, magical thinking, and responsibility cognitions. Assessments were conducted both immediately following the interventions and after a two-week period. Results indicated that individuals who received a cognitive-based intervention that targeted irrational thoughts had significantly lower TAF scores than individuals who received an intervention that discussed thoughts from a non-evaluative framework and individuals in the control group, both immediately following the intervention and at the two-week follow-up. As hypothesized, all groups experienced a significant decrease in anxiety between the post-intervention and follow-up assessments; however, there was a trend towards significance for those who were exposed to the cognitive-based intervention to experience a greater decrease in anxiety than those in the control group. The cognitive-based intervention group was the only group that did not experience a significant increase in thought-suppression from baseline to post-intervention, and was also the only group to experience an increase in both frequency of and belief in low-responsibility thoughts from baseline to follow-up. No significant group differences were found for the construct of magical thinking. Implications are discussed.Ph.D.
Department of Psychology
Sciences
Psychology PhD
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Ie, Amanda Yen Lin. "Profiles of Everyday Thought Suppression." Thesis, Harvard University, 2014. http://dissertations.umi.com/gsas.harvard:11059.
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The present research assessed whether levels of depression, anxiety and worry, obsessive-compulsive distress, and psychopathy were differentially related to distinct thought suppression profiles. As a means to achieving this goal, the Profiles of Everyday Thought Suppression (PETS) scale was constructed to measure the frequencies with which various target thoughts are suppressed. The PETS scale demonstrated good internal consistency and test-retest reliability, and scores were positively correlated with the general tendency to experience intrusions, the general tendency to suppress thoughts, neuroticism, and health complaints. Although the proportions of time people suppress thoughts was positively associated with the frequencies with which the thoughts are experienced, the strength of the associations differed across thought contents, suggesting that not all frequently experienced thoughts are invariably subject to suppression attempts. The frequency with which thoughts are generally suppressed was positively associated with overall levels of subclinical psychopathology experienced during the past month. When comparing across the various thought categories, results from multiple analytic strategies converged to suggest that specific subclinical psychopathological states are associated with particular sets of thoughts that are frequently suppressed.Psychology
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López, Silva Pablo. "On the architecture of psychosis : thoughts and delusions of thought insertion." Thesis, University of Manchester, 2015. https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/on-the-architecture-of-psychosisthoughts-and-delusions-of-thought-insertion(d5a49b7e-1074-4fcc-bb53-7d56cd8baa87).html.
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In its many manifestations, psychosis leads to a number of clinical and philosophical debates. Despite their practical and conceptual importance, a number of these debates remain unresolved. Appealing to the connection between phenomenological descriptions, empirical evidence, and philosophical analysis, this dissertation is devoted to the careful examination of five of the main debates surrounding the occurrence of delusions of thought insertion, one of the most complex and severe symptoms of psychotic disorders. Roughly speaking, patients suffering from thought insertion report that external agents of different nature have placed certain thoughts into the patients' minds. The introduction to this compilation clarifies the main distinctions underlying the general discussions about delusions and the specific debates surrounding thought insertion. The introduction is followed by a collection of five papers. The first paper tries to explain the way in which subjects self-attribute their own conscious thoughts in terms of agency. The second paper, assuming that delusions are a type of belief, engages with the discussion about the role that experiential abnormalities have in the process of formation of the delusional belief of thought insertion. The third paper examines the role that affective impairments might have in the process of production of thought insertion, an issue that is often overlooked by current dominant approaches to thought insertion. Taken altogether, the first three papers of this collection offer a novel understanding of the aetiology and architecture of thought insertion. The fourth paper examines a much larger discussion that overlaps with the debate about the subjective features of thought insertion. It is argued that cases of thought insertion - in conjunction with other psychotic phenomena - undermine the current self-presenting theory of consciousness, a theory meant to explain the most fundamental subjective character of conscious experiences. Finally, the fifth paper of the compilation engages with a more general discussion about the nature and role that delusions might play in a subject's life. It is argued against the dominant view that there are good reasons to characterize a certain type of monothematic delusions (including some cases of thought insertion) as biologically adaptive.
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Manson, Neil. "Conscious thought." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1999. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.313072.
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Morris, Edwin Kent. "Crisis Thought." Diss., Virginia Tech, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/73167.
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Crisis thought is an idea that gives a name to and accounts for some of the problematics of the sign crisis in political, social, cultural, and economic discourse. Specifically, crisis thought is a discursive formation, a concept used loosely here to refer to an assemblage of signs such as anxiety or fear that evoke or invoke similar, but inaccurate connotations as crisis in political and everyday usage. The general question this study grapples with is why political, social, cultural, and economic crises are often recognized and, yet, are seemingly unrecognized, unaddressed, or accepted as a basic part of political and ordinary life. This study focuses on the mobilization of crisis thought by the 24/7 news media and throughout politics in the United States. Working outside of economic and Marxist traditions of crisis studies, this study focuses on the effects of crisis thought by way of a critical, interpretive, and interdisciplinary approach. There are two goals of this project. The first is to offer some of the linkages between crisis thought, security, and liberalism. The second goal is to examine through various examples and vignettes how, where, and why crisis thought manifests itself in US politics and in ordinary life. Some topics addressed in this study include: news media, infrastructure, police militarization, mass shootings, US electoral politics, and the alleged US politics of crisis. In the final analysis, this study suggests that 24/7 news media and political mobilizations of crisis thought paradoxically help secure the ontological security of subjectivities as linked to securing security and the logos of liberalism. This study illuminates a peculiar aspect about liberal capitalist democracies: the (re)production of a myriad of crises and, thus, crisis thought, in order to perpetuate itself.Ph. D.
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Darby, Peter Nicholas. "Bede's eschatological thought." Thesis, University of Birmingham, 2009. http://etheses.bham.ac.uk//id/eprint/416/.
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This thesis examines the eschatological thought of Bede (673-735). Relevant content is drawn from a wide range of Bede’s exegetical and non-exegetical works. The world ages analogy, crucial to Bede’s perception of time, chronology and eschatology, is discussed in the first four chapters. These chapters explain the significant changes that Bede made to the analogy following an allegation of heresy that arose in 708. Chapters five, six and seven outline Bede’s beliefs regarding key eschatological concepts such as: Antichrist, the day of judgement and the post-judgement afterlife. Bede’s ‘eschatological perspective’ is the final major theme to be considered. Bede’s perceived proximity to the end of time is shown to be a variable factor that changed according to time and circumstance. The thesis reveals that Bede was an innovative scholar who re-worked the traditional theoretical models that he inherited from earlier Christian theologians. Bede is shown to be a commanding scholarly authority who played an important role in defining the eschatological beliefs of his contemporaries. Finally, this thesis distinguishes aspects of Bede’s early eschatological thought from his beliefs in the mature stages of his authorial career. This has implications for the dating termini of several texts.
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Aasen, S. "Thought without illusion." Thesis, University College London (University of London), 2014. http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1459420/.
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This thesis targets the part of Gareth Evans’s and John McDowell’s view of singular thought which involves the claim that there can be illusions of thought. Singular thought is, according to Evans and McDowell, an object-dependent thought-content; such thought-content could not be entertained unless the object it is about exists. Nevertheless, in a case of perceptual hallucination, where a subject mistakenly takes it that there is an object in front of him or her, Evans and McDowell think that it can seem to a subject exactly as though he or she is having an object-dependent thought, although the subject is in fact not thinking at all due to the absence of any object to think about. The thesis argues for a rejection of this idea of illusions of object-dependent thought. It is further argued that the idea of illusions of thought can be eliminated from Evans’s and McDowell’s view without abandoning their fundamental insight about how singular thought-content is object-dependent. Following specifically McDowell’s development of the view, it is suggested that singular thought is about the world in virtue of how things cognitively appear to the subject. It is suggested that in an alleged case of illusion of thought, the subject has an object-dependent thought about an object whose existence in part is due to the mind’s directedness in that very episode of singular thinking. Furthermore, Evans’s and McDowell’s respective views of acquaintance are criticised, and an idea about acquaintance as awareness of a wider range of objects than just perceivable objects is put forward. In general, the thesis outlines a revised version of Evans’s and McDowell’s view, a version according to which singular thought, although externalistically individuated, is transparent to the thinker.
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Starchenko, E. "POWER OF THOUGHT." Thesis, Національний авіаційний університет, 2015. http://er.nau.edu.ua/handle/NAU/15344.
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Chikara, Sasaki. "Descarte's mathematical thought /." Dordrecht : Kluwer Academic, 2003. http://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb39088689f.
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Peterson, Rachel. "FOOD FOR THOUGHT: THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THOUGHT SUPPRESSION AND WEIGHT CONTROL." Doctoral diss., University of Central Florida, 2008. http://digital.library.ucf.edu/cdm/ref/collection/ETD/id/3123.
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The current study assessed the relationship between individuals' tendency to suppress thoughts, particularly related to food and body weight/shape, and outcomes such as weight loss maintenance and diet sabotaging experiences (e.g., binge eating). Community and university individuals (N = 347) who are or previously were overweight completed self-report measures of thought suppression, weight history, and eating behaviors. Suppression of specific thoughts about food/weight/shape was related to weight cycling, binge eating, and food cravings. Participants who believed thoughts of food lead to eating were more likely to attempt suppression of food-related thoughts. Results have implications for improving weight loss maintenance and support further exploration of third wave interventions, such as Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Mindfulness, in the treatment of obesity.Ph.D.
Department of Psychology
Sciences
Psychology PhD
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Smallwood, Jonathan M. "Task unrelated thought : an investigation into the processes of thought production." Thesis, University of Strathclyde, 2003. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.269966.
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Peterson, Rachel D. "Food for thought the relationship between thought suppression and weight control /." Orlando, Fla. : University of Central Florida, 2008. http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/etd/CFE0002231.
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Cranston, Saryn M. "Effects of Mood Induction, Thought-Action Fusion Beliefs, and Coping Strategies on Intrusive Thoughts." Ohio University / OhioLINK, 2013. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1384430819.
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Häggqvist, Sören. "Thought experiments in philosophy." Doctoral thesis, Stockholms universitet, Filosofiska institutionen, 1996. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-81418.
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García, Moreno Beatriz. "Contextualist thought and architecture." Diss., Georgia Institute of Technology, 1992. http://hdl.handle.net/1853/22370.
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Husin, Muhammad Said. "Ibn Jamāʻah's educational thought." Thesis, McGill University, 1995. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=23217.
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This thesis is an attempt to study Ibn Jama'ah's approach to educational reform as illustrated in his Tadhkirat al-Sami' wa al-Mutakallim fi Adab al-'Alim wa al Muta'allim. Ibn Jama'ah (639-733 A.H. / 1241-1333 A.D.) was a distinguished Shafi'i Chief Judge and prominent scholar of Islamic studies during the Bahri Mamluk's Sultanate in Egypt and Syria. Ibn Jama'ah's theory of education reflects an emphasis on the Qur'an and hadith as primary sources of knowledge. Specifically, his suggestions for curriculum composition are designed to facilitate the evolution of a pious, religiously oriented generation of scholars. Ibn Jama'ah emphasizes the need for the teacher to foster motivation among his student body. Furthermore, he recommends that the teacher carefully gauge his students' abilities and limits. Another critical component of Ibn Jama'ah's educational program is the need for the teacher to realize the influence he has on his students; consequently, he must carry himself in a respectable and pious manner. He also addresses the various duties needed for a student to excell in his studies. In his evaluation of the teacher and student relationship, one can detect his affiliation with the Sufi khanqah tradition.
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Lambourn, David Malcolm. "Metaphor in social thought." Thesis, University of Warwick, 2001. http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/57727/.
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Whereas a number of influences have directed the attention of sociologists and others towards language as a feature of social phenomena, these same influences have served to reveal wide discrepancies in the place accorded to figurative language, and to metaphor in particular. This has proved to be the case both in respect of the phenomena studied and of the subsequent writing. These influences have included, inter alia, 'the linguistic turn' in philosophy, the rise and fall of structuralism both as philosophy and as a model for anthropology, and also in the development of ethnomethodology from phenomenology. The thesis specifically locates the enquiry within the writer's biography and is not sited within anyone traditional discipline, but has rather been a reading 'between literature and science' and one 'privileging' metaphor over concept. The attempt to explore the 'privileging' of metaphor over concept renders problematic an understanding of language as langue, and prefers parole. Rendering language problematic has consequences for how knowledge and science are understood. In parallel with the reading, an ethnomethodological study of a school was undertaken in order to provide a context in which the outcomes of the reading could be sited and compared, leading to a consideration of metaphor within ethnography. With these starting assumptions, a report is made of a limited number of authors who have been widely acknowledged as influential in considerations of metaphor. Aristotle is read, through and against recent interpreters, as if an ontology of metaphor were considered undesirable. This leads to an understanding of metaphor as a tool. Hobbes is seen through the work of Quentin Skinner as one who, influenced by his contemporary Descartes, is critical of the use of metaphor in spite of his articulate use of it. Vico, not widely influential until the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, reveals a diachronic picture of the primacy of metaphor in relation to the development of concepts, later supported by Herder who offered a complementary, though synchronic, version. Nietzsche, writing in a post-Darwin context, sees the formation of metaphor as the fundamental human drive and links it with truth as a value. Work on metaphor during the latter parts of the twentieth century is described beginning with I. A. Richards, leading to brief considerations, inter alia, of Max Black, W. V. O. Quine, Mary Hesse, Rom Harre and Hayden White. Writers in the social sciences who have been explicit about the part played by metaphor, Victor Turner, R. H. Brown, R. A. Nisbet and D. McCloskey are acknowledged. Donald Davidson is seen as particularly influential, denying the possibility of a separate notion of metaphorical meaning and confirming a denial of langue. Richard Rorty is seen as a writer who has treated metaphor positively in his Contingency, Irony and Solidarity and his use of metaphor there is examined in its variety. Throughout, the Nietzschean view of the formation of metaphor as the fundamental human drive is connected with Cohen's view that metaphor cultivates intimacy. It is on this basis that the above writers, some of whom would otherwise be seen as belonging to different genres, most prominently philosophy, have contributed to social thought, and to the place of metaphor within it. The insight into metaphor as a fundamental human drive and as cultivating intimacy is then linked with the view that metaphor becomes valued as concept by virtue of the work done in linking past action to new circumstances. This combination, one linking metaphor with pragmatism, is used as a pattern by which to inspect others' writings. The widespread rejection or devaluation of metaphor in social theory could then be related to its role having been undermined by the rhetoric of natural science, though freed somewhat by T. S. Kuhn, an undermining which threatens creativity and the cultivation of intimacy with its implications for the formation and sustaining of communities. The supposition, for reasons of the production of social science, that once the analogies contained in or suggested by a metaphor may thereafter be discarded, is resisted on the grounds that history is overlooked, persons are no longer seen in relation, knowing and certainty work to bring play to an end, learning is transformed from personal engagement to instruction, community is replaced by rules for rational conduct, and obedience replaces discovery and growth. Metaphor explicitly identified offers hope.
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Powell, George Fam. "Language, thought and reference." Thesis, University College London (University of London), 2003. http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1382926/.
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How should we best analyse the meaning of proper names, indexicals, demonstratives, both simple and complex, and definite descriptions? In what relation do such expressions stand to the objects they designate? In what relation do they stand to mental representations of those objects? Do these expressions form a semantic class, or must we distinguish between those that arc referential and those that are quantificational? Such questions have constituted one of the core research areas in the philosophy of language for much of the last century, yet consensus remains elusive: the field is still divided, for instance, between those who hold that all such expressions are semantically descriptive and those who would analyse most as the natural language counterparts of logical individual constants. The aim of this thesis is to cast new light on such questions by approaching them from within the cognitive framework of Sperber and Wilson's Relevance Theory. Relevance Theory offers not just an articulated pragmatics but also a broad conception of the functioning of natural language which differs radically from that presupposed within (most of) the philosophy of language. The function of linguistic expressions, on this conception, is not to determine propositional content, but rather to provide inferential premises which, in parallel with context and general pragmatic principles, will enable a bearer to reach the speaker's intended interpretation. Working within this framework, I shall argue that the semantics of the expressions discussed should best be analysed not in terms of their relation to those objects which, on occasions of use, they may designate, but rather in terms of the indications they offer a hearer concerning the mental representation which constitutes the content of a speaker's informative intention. Such an analysis can, I shall claim, capture certain key data on reference which have proved notoriously problematic, while respecting a broad range of apparently conflicting intuitions.
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Srinivasan, Lakshminarayan 1981. "From thought to action." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/38318.
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Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2006.Includes bibliographical references.
Systems engineering is rapidly assuming a prominent role in neuroscience that could unify scientific theories, experimental evidence, and medical development. In this three-part work, I study the neural representation of targets before reaching movements and the generation of prosthetic control signals through stochastic modeling and estimation. In the first part, I show that temporal and history dependence contributes to the representation of targets in the ensemble spiking activity of neurons in primate dorsal premotor cortex (PMd). Point process modeling of target representation suggests that local and possibly also distant neural interactions influence the spiking patterns observed in PMd. In the second part, I draw on results from surveillance theory to reconstruct reaching movements from neural activity related to the desired target and the path to that target. This approach combines movement planning and execution to surpass estimation with either target or path related neural activity alone. In the third part, I describe the principled design of brain-driven neural prosthetic devices as a filtering problem on interacting discrete and continuous random processes. This framework subsumes four canonical Bayesian approaches and supports emerging applications to neural prosthetic devices.
(cont.) Results of a simulated reaching task predict that the method outperforms previous approaches in the control of arm position and velocity based on trajectory and endpoint mean squared error. These results form the starting point for a systems engineering approach to the design and interpretation of neuroscience experiments that can guide the development of technology for human-computer interaction and medical treatment.
by Lakshminarayan Srinivasan.
Ph.D.
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Wallace, Stuart. "Between thought and object." Thesis, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1988. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/53196.
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Ibrahim, Muhammad Tahir Muhammad. "The Ibāḍī constitutional thought." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2000. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/22336.
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Zappa, Marco. "Japan as „Thought Leader“." Doctoral thesis, Universitätsbibliothek Humbodlt Universität zu Berlin, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/10278/3707038.
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The study sheds light on contemporary Japan-Vietnam relations from the point of view of a specific cooperation program : the “Japanese Grant A id for Human Development Scholarship” (JDS), a scholars hip program included in the vast range of Japanese foreign aid initiatives in developing Asia. The JDS programme, started in 2000, offers training in areas like law, economics and public administration to young state officials and future leaders from developing countries in Central, South and Southeast Asia and Africa, in public and private universities in Japan. It is argued that also through the JDS, Japan has reshaped its regional relations, in particular with a number of Southeast Asian nations. The present study aid relations between the Southeast Asian country and Japan from 2000 to 2015 are presented. The study aims to shed light on an apparent discursive ambiguity of today’s Japanese foreign policy. It is assumed that aid initiatives in human resource development, have been discursively conceptualised by the different actors participating in Japanese official development assistance (ODA). Instead of looking at the concept of development as a single discursive apparatus, this research looks at how different discourses and “styles of thought” interact between donor/recipient country, donor/other donors and even among different donor’s agencies. These styles of thought have been assessed through qualitative interviews and documentary analysis. It is argued, in sum, that an interplay of considerations such as Japan’s “national interest”, Japan's affiliation to the international society and humanitarianism have shaped Japanese knowledge-based aid since 2000. National interest, however, still appears to be the strongest drive in aid disbursement.
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Zappa, Marco. "Japan as „Thought Leader“." Doctoral thesis, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, 2018. http://dx.doi.org/10.18452/19424.
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Die vorliegende Arbeit behandelt die Beziehungen zwischen Japan und Vietnam unter dem Gesichtspunkt eines spezifischen Kooperationsprogramms: des "Japanese Grant Aid for Human Development Scholarship" (JDS); ein Stipendienprogramm, das in den zahlreichen japanischen Entwicklungshilfe-Initiativen in Entwicklungsländern Asiens enthalten ist. Das JDS-Programm, das im Jahr 2000 gestartet wurde, bietet jungen Staatsbeamten und zukünftigen Führungskräften aus Entwicklungsländern in Zentral-, Süd- und Südostasien sowie Afrika Weiterbildungsmöglichkeiten in Bereichen wie Recht, Wirtschaft und Staatsverwaltung an öffentlichen und privaten Universitäten in Japan. Es wird argumentiert, dass Japan auch durch die JDS seine regionalen Beziehungen, insbesondere mit einigen Nationen Südostasiens, neugestaltet hat. Aus diesem Grund werden in der vorliegenden Studie die Hilfsbeziehungen zwischen dem südostasiatischen Land und Japan von 2000 bis 2015 dargestellt.
Die ausgewählte Fallstudie zeigt eine diskursive Ambiguität der heutigen japanischen Außenpolitik auf. Es wird argumentiert, dass Hilfsinitiativen Japans für die Humanressourcenentwicklung von den verschiedenen Akteuren der öffentlichen Entwicklungshilfe diskursiv konzipiert wurden. Anstatt das Konzept der Entwicklung als einen einzigen diskursiven Apparat zu analysieren, untersucht diese Forschungsarbeit, wie unterschiedliche Diskurse und "Denkstile" zwischen Geber- und Empfängerland, Geber und anderen Gebern und sogar zwischen verschiedenen Geberorganisationen interagieren. Diese Denkstile wurden durch qualitative Interviews und dokumentarische Analysen ausgewertet. Zusammenfassend wird argumentiert, dass ein Zusammenspiel von Überlegungen, wie Japans "nationalem Interesse", Japans Zugehörigkeit zur internationalen Gesellschaft und Humanität die japanische wissensbasierte Hilfe seit 2000 geprägt habe. Das nationale Interesse scheint jedoch immer noch der stärkste Antrieb bei der Auszahlung von Beihilfen zu sein.The study sheds light on contemporary Japan-Vietnam relations from the point of view of a specific cooperation program : the “Japanese Grant A id for Human Development Scholarship” (JDS), a scholars hip program included in the vast range of Japanese foreign aid initiatives in developing Asia. The JDS programme, started in 2000, offers training in areas like law, economics and public administration to young state officials and future leaders from developing countries in Central, South and Southeast Asia and Africa, in public and private universities in Japan. It is argued that also through the JDS, Japan has reshaped its regional relations, in particular with a number of Southeast Asian nations. The present study aid relations between the Southeast Asian country and Japan from 2000 to 2015 are presented. The study aims to shed light on an apparent discursive ambiguity of today’s Japanese foreign policy. It is assumed that aid initiatives in human resource development, have been discursively conceptualised by the different actors participating in Japanese official development assistance (ODA). Instead of looking at the concept of development as a single discursive apparatus, this research looks at how different discourses and “styles of thought” interact between donor/recipient country, donor/other donors and even among different donor’s agencies. These styles of thought have been assessed through qualitative interviews and documentary analysis. It is argued, in sum, that an interplay of considerations such as Japan’s “national interest”, Japan's affiliation to the international society and humanitarianism have shaped Japanese knowledge-based aid since 2000. National interest, however, still appears to be the strongest drive in aid disbursement.
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Mazzaro, Marco <1996>. "The Green Political Thought." Master's Degree Thesis, Università Ca' Foscari Venezia, 2021. http://hdl.handle.net/10579/19198.
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La crisi ecologica che il nostro pianeta sta vivendo, di cui il cambiamento climatico è l'aspetto più visibile e probabilmente più grave, è una delle sfide più complesse ed impegnative del ventunesimo secolo. A partire dagli anni Sessanta del Novecento, la presa di coscienza da parte dell’opinione pubblica dell’esistenza di una complessa crisi ecologica di estensione globale generata dall’attività umana ha causato l’ingresso dell’ambientalismo nel dibattito pubblico e nella politica. La crescente consapevolezza del devastante impatto ambientale dell’umanità ha portato allo sviluppo di una riflessione filosofica sul rapporto tra uomo e natura e alla formazione di movimenti ambientalisti e partiti verdi, i quali hanno posto la difesa dell’ambiente al centro dei loro programmi. Questo ha spinto le ideologie politiche tradizionali a incorporare la sensibilità ambientalista all’interno del loro pensiero politico. In tal senso, esiste un pensiero politico ambientalista o "verde"? In cosa si differenzia da altre ideologie politiche? Quando si è formato e qual è la sua storia? Quali sono i suoi principi? Che visione della società, della politica e dell'economia propone? Quali partiti e movimenti politici vi si ispirano direttamente o ne sono stati influenzati? Questi sono i temi che questa tesi intende approfondire, proponendo un'analisi del pensiero politico verde e delle sue varie articolazioni.
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O'Sullivan, Bernadette. "Comparing the effectiveness of thought suppression and cognitive defusion in managing obsessional intrusive thoughts." Thesis, University of Glasgow, 2013. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/4637/.
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Background: Cognitive defusion is a core therapeutic process in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). ACT helps clients distance themselves from cognitive content that functions as a barrier to pursuing valued behavioural directions. This systematic review focuses on cognitive defusion techniques that use deliteralisation to try to reduce the literal quality of thoughts and help individuals see them as just thoughts rather than absolute truths. Aims: To synthesise experimental findings regarding the effects of cognitive defusion on distress and believability in experimental laboratory-based component studies. Method: A systematic literature search was conducted in June 2013 using CINAHL, EMBASE, MEDLINE, PsychINFO, Web of Science, and the Cochrane Library databases to identify relevant studies. Results: Nine studies met inclusion criteria for review. The majority of studies (i.e. 7) were rated “moderate” in quality, the remaining two were rated “good” and “low”. Cognitive defusion was generally shown to produce superior results to distraction, imaginal exposure, and control conditions, and similar results to cognitive restructuring and thought suppression. The studies reviewed also reported findings about potential moderator variables, namely the use of experiential exercises and the duration of cognitive defusion techniques. Conclusions: Given the promising findings in relation to cognitive defusion and the dearth of research in this area, it would seem that further research into this therapeutic technique is warranted.
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DiLiberto, Leilani Feliciano. "Articulated thoughts in simulated situations: An investigation into the thought processes of aggressive adolescents." Scholarly Commons, 2000. https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/uop_etds/2669.
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Although previous research has examined the role of social information processing patterns, attributions, and expectations in aggressive adolescents, there is a lack of studies examining self-dialogue in this population. Eighty male and female adolescents, half of them aggressive and the other half nonaggressive, were given the Articulated Thoughts in Simulated Situations (ATSS) method to examine their thoughts “in the moment”. The Stait-Trait Anger Expression Inventory-2 (STAXI-2) was utilized as a measure of anger experience and aggression. ATSS anger, aggressive intent, and hostile attribution verbalizations and STAXI-2 scales were correlated using Pearson's r to examine concurrent validity. Results revealed that males compared to females expressed significantly more aggressive intent on the ATSS. Results also indicated that aggressive compared to nonaggressive adolescents expressed significantly more anger and aggressive intent in their self-dialogue on the ATSS. Results from the STAXI-2 indicated that aggressive adolescents scored higher than nonaggressive adolescents on the state and trait anger, anger expression-out, and the anger expression index scales of the STAXI-2, but scored lower on the anger control-in and out scales of the STAXI-2. These results indicate that not only do aggressive adolescents describe experiencing and expressing more frequent feelings of anger and frustration than nonaggressive adolescents, but they also report making fewer attempts at controlling their anger and aggression when angered. This has implications for treatment because if aggressive/hostile thoughts mediate aggressive behavior, we should be able to reduce aggressive behavior by altering the thinking that underlies it.
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Torberger, Fredrik. "MIND-WANDERING – A Human Condition." Thesis, Högskolan i Skövde, Institutionen för biovetenskap, 2014. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:his:diva-10388.
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Mind-wandering was until recently not a mainstream topic of research. The aim of this literature review is to present current views on the definition of mind-wandering and how the phenomenon is experienced. Furthermore, it gives an account of the implications of mind-wandering on cognitive performance, as well as its neurological correlates. In addition, the methods used to study mind-wandering are reviewed.The study of mind-wandering reveals a highly frequent phenomenon with practical consequences on a broad scale, both disruptive and supportive to goal-related behaviour and wellbeing in general. Originating from the default network, and its regions related to representations of self, memory, Theory of Mind, empathy and creativity, mind-wandering is hypothesized to be a function for planning one’s future life. Suggested further research concerns how mind-wandering can be countered, detected from the outside and whether it alters the physical feature of the brain.
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Manners, Bucolo Catherine. "Food for Thought and Thought for Food: Applying Care Ethics to the American Eater." UNF Digital Commons, 2014. https://digitalcommons.unf.edu/etd/513.
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This piece provides an application of care ethics to the typical American diet. In the first chapter, the problems surrounding the Standard American Diet are discussed at both the individual, familial, global, animal, and environmental levels. The second chapter provides an overview of the theoretical components of care ethics, and lays a framework for analysis. The third and final chapter demonstrates how in applying many of the core principles of care, great strides can be made in remedying the numerous problems that are a direct result of typical consumption habits in the United States.
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Tolmacheva, Marina. "Essays in Swahili geographical thought." Universitätsbibliothek Leipzig, 2012. http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bsz:15-qucosa-95207.
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The essays offered here originated in a series of conference papers presented over the years at various professional meetings. In the time elapsed since the first of them was offered at the meeting ofthe UNESCO Commission on the History of Geographical Thought (1988), new important works on Swahili history and language have appeared which demonstrate a variety of productive approaches to the problems of Swahili cultural and ethnic history In a publication such as the Swahili Forum it may be appropriate to recognize the steps made, to acknowledge the advances achieved, and to identify the needs remaining John Middleton`s (1992) well-received book presents a thorough and authmitative analysis of the social, economic, and spatial structures which evolved in the international setting of the East African coast Jarnes de Vere Alien`s posthumously published study (1992) pursues the questions of historic identity of the Swahili and of the political styles developed in the process of interaction of Arab-Islamic and African elements of coastal culture The special role of Islam in the formation and dynamics of Swahili city-states` elites has been analyzed slightly earlier by Randall L Pouwels (1987) Pouwels also has addressed coastal historiography in a series of articles some of which are cited in the following essays The fundamental study of the Swahili language by Derek Nurse and Thomas Hinnebusch (1993) revises and elaborates the possibilities of relating the chronology of the development of Swahili to the history of the Bantu-speaking coastal societies, raised in the earlier works singly or jointly by Derek Nurse and Thomas Spear New editions of Swahili texts make available, sometimes for the first time, to African and Western scholars alike, the synchronic nanatives indispensable for historical accuracy of our interpretations (Omar & Frankl 1990, I olmacheva 1993)
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Glanville, Ranulph. "Architecture and space for thought." Thesis, Brunel University, 1988. http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/5018.
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This thesis is concerned with the description of individual experiences of (architectural) space in a social milieu. Architecture, while considered to be primarily concerned with space as its medium, has a very impoverished (or occasionally, very contorted) verbal language in which to discuss space. The author, as a beginner teacher, noted this in attempts to explore spatial experience with students of architecture, and resolved with their help to generate an appropriate verbal vehicle. The main body of the thesis relates this attempt and accounts for its failure. The Thesis, thus, follows three intertwined streams. 1) A scientific investigation into means for the description of human experience of (architectural) space, using methods developed from Kelly's Personal Construct Theory Repertory Grids. 2) A partially developed spatial analytic language, my personal response to 1) above, which is to be seen as the start of a new research programme that may last many years (the future of which is outlined). 3) An account of a personal learning experience both from, around and through each of these. These streams are organised into three parts. Part 1: Background Studies - into work in associated areas and fields, with an assessment of their relevance to the undertaking presented here. Part 2: The Experiments - attempting (and failing) to create a language, and the transition from verbal to visual, with critical arguments and observations. Part 3: A New Beginning - learning from the failure of Part 2, and the argument for and commencement of a new research programme.
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Jennings, Victoria. "Reincarnation in early Greek thought /." Title page, table of contents and abstract only, 1995. http://web4.library.adelaide.edu.au/theses/09ARM/09armj541.pdf.
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Gomes, Anil. "The possibility of empirical thought." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2007. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.440532.
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Bevir, W. Mark. "British socialist thought 1880-1900." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1989. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.303495.
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Lawrence, Gavin. "Aristotle on thought and action." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1985. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:9fe04a91-2848-4b55-8938-86633210efe4.
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The immediate object is a determinate resolution of Aristotle's position in Nicomachean Ethics 7.3. over the Socratic problem and in particular the possibility of last-ditch akrasia. My approach seeks interpretational constraints and illumination from considering the argument as a structured whole. Moreover, the passage is a point on which larger issues in Aristotle's philosophies of mind, action, and morals converge: the elucidation offered attempts both to frame and throw light on these. Chapter One makes preliminary moves on several fronts. Firstly it looks briefly at Aristotle's position over last-ditch akrasia in De Anima and Eudemian Ethics. Then it outlines the problems of Nicomachean Ethics 7.3. and classifies previous lines of solution. Thirdly an intuitive picture is given of Aristotle's method and basic stance. Finally some contrasts are drawn between Aristotle's and modern approaches to akrasia. Chapters Two to Five discuss the four Sections of Nicomachean Ethics 7.3's argument. Chapters Two and Three take Section 1 and 2 together and consider two major problems of interpretation. Chapter Two asks whether these Sections concern akrasia at all, and, if so, how. I argue that their concern is direct, general (i.e. not confined to some akratic species), and inclusive (i.e. embracing non-akratic phenomena). Chapter Three asks about the interpretation of "exercising knowledge". Firstly the results of Chapter Two are defended; an aporetic discussion of this difficult issue then follows. Chapter Four examines Section 3. After analysing its structure, it distinguishes three principal issues. I argue firstly that Section 3, like 1 and 2, concerns akrasia directly, generally and inclusively; secondly that the knowledge that the akratic is temporally unable to use (that is 'tied') is his (universal) knowledge of what is worthwhile; thirdly that this failure involves a cognitive failure (I suggest a distortion of the agent's situational appreciation) - and not, as some scholars have recently urged, merely a motivational failure. Chapter Five, perforce selective, tackles firstly various problems of Section 4's argumentative structure, and then the interpretation of 1147a26-31 (the 'normal case'). Finally 1147a31-5 (the 'akratic case') is examined and a case argued for its offering two syllogisms but only one practical syllogism.
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Beiotice, Claire. "Thought suppression and dietary restraint." Thesis, University of Southampton, 2008. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.494533.
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Nes, S. Anders. "Content in thought and perception." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2006. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.491235.
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Choy, King-fai, and 蔡景輝. "The thought of Wei Hsi." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 1987. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B31949009.
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Sturgeon, Donald James. "Knowledge in early Chinese thought." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10722/198813.
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Early Chinese philosophical texts contain discussions of the nature, origins, and possibility of knowledge, in which both positive accounts and skeptical responses to them are couched in importantly different terms to those most familiar from similar discussions in Western philosophy. In place of appeals to truth, belief, and fallibility of the senses, action, discrimination, and difference of perspective play crucial roles. The aim of this dissertation is to explain why this should be so, and what consequences this had for the early Chinese understanding of knowledge.
In an attempt to answer these questions, I argue that, likely influenced by both facts about the classical Chinese language and key philosophical trends and interests of the time, discussions of knowledge by early Chinese thinkers generally referenced a broad notion of knowledge that was seen as being closely related to action. Linguistic factors also contributed to theorizing about knowledge focusing not on beliefs or other sentential structures, but rather on the drawing of action-guiding shi-fei distinctions, and the same shi-fei framework that was applied to perception was also applied to knowledge.
Language, understood most fundamentally in terms of an ability to distinguish shi-fei and apply names to things in the correct way, also played an important role in the pre‐Qin understanding of knowledge. On a linguistic level, knowledge corresponded to reliably correct language use, and rigid fa (法 standards, models) were seen as underwriting this by providing the standard of correctness. Just as these fa could be used to measure the correctness of individual terms, thinkers interested in the correctness of doctrines and speech in general attempted to apply the same idea to larger linguistic structures such as sentences, in the hope of finding fa for correct language use at a higher level. In doing so, they discovered facts about natural language use that could not be accounted for using the types of fa they considered.
Likely in part influenced by similar observations, others called into question the existence and uniqueness of standards in general and the adequacy of language in expressing knowledge. I argue that the prevailing positive view of knowledge ultimately gave rise to an interesting and nuanced form of skepticism grounded in a form of perspectivism. This skepticism does not merely have the negative consequence that we should question some of our knowledge commitments, but can also be used to suggest that – while still doubting – we can make practical use of our skepticism to improve our knowledge by considering a wider range of perspectives.published_or_final_version
Philosophy
Doctoral
Doctor of Philosophy
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Chng, Soke Wang. "Language thought and literal meaning." Thesis, University of Newcastle Upon Tyne, 1999. http://hdl.handle.net/10443/179.
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The notion of literalness in linguistics is based on the following assumptions: Linguistic expressions are vehicle-meaning p airs (since literal meaning has to be the meaning of something). Linguistic expressions have to be cognised a nd used (especially uttered) in order for their meanings to be regarded as literally theirs. "Linguistie, vehicle-meaning relations are fixed and autonomous- - rather than having particular meanings in virtue of being used to express those meanings," linguistie' vehicle-meaning p airs are used to express certain meanings in virtue of having the meanings th at they have. This thesis criticises Chomsky's and Sperber and Wilson's attempts to establish the autonomy of "linguistie'vehicle-meaning pairs. I argue that " Both Chomsky and Sperber and Wilson fail to distinguish "linguistie' semantics from the "real" semantics of what "linguistic" vehicle-meaning pairs are used to express. " They persist in the idea that "linguistic" vehicles are specifically for being uttered (physically instantiated), thus defeating their own purpose of setting the linguistic absolutely apart from what it is used for. " Neither Chomsky's internalist conception of language nor Sperber and Wilson's relevance framework is able to account for the phenomenon of "language misuse", i.e. the use of a "linguistic" vehicle to express the "wrong" meaning. Burton-Roberts' representational conjecture is applied and developed in the presentation of an alternative non/ extra-linguistic account of "literal meaning" and "language use/ misuse". This account has it that neither "linguistic" vehicles nor "linguistic" vehicle-meaning relations are actually linguistic. It avoids the problems attending the notion of linguistic expressions as objects with sortally disjoint and arbitrarily conjoint properties (i.e. physically instantiable "vehicle" and mentally constituted "meaning"), and resolves the unease within Chomsky's Minimalist Program about the inclusion of phonology in I-language. Finally, by way of this resolution, I address some seemingly unrelated issues concerning vehicle-less "meanings" and the relations between l anguage,thought and consciousness.
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Storr, J. P. "The nature of military thought." Thesis, Cranfield University, 2002. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.396517.
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Gibbons, Brian John. ""Gender in British Behmenist thought"." Thesis, Durham University, 1993. http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/5730/.
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In the early modern period, women were commonly regarded as unruly and morally suspect beings. During the period, however, there was a revision in the moral status of women. Behmenism is representative of the process whereby women were raised to the status of morally elevating beings. In Jacob Boehme's theosophy, both the godhead and prelapsarian man have a feminine element, the Virgin Sophia; women are a sort of fallen counterpart to Sophia. The emphasis of early Behmenists, such as John Pordage, was on Sophia's passivity and chastity. Some Behmenists, notably Richard Roach, advanced the notion of women’s special eschatological role, based on their relationship to Sophia. Others, such as William Law, were more conservative in their attitude to women. By the mid- eighteenth century, Behmenism as a movement disappears, but traces of Boehme's thought can still be found in several writers of the period. By this time, there is less emphasis on both chastity and the other-worldly feminine principle. Relationships between the sexes tend to be regarded as sacramental, and women are seen as performing a morally elevating role in life.
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Boyce, Gavin John. "Artificial intelligence : thought and content." Thesis, University of Sheffield, 1997. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.265914.
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Kotzee, Hendrik Benjamin. "Normativity in meaning and thought." Thesis, King's College London (University of London), 2006. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.423098.
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Attwool, P. T. "Microbial polysaccharides : Thought for food." Thesis, University of Bristol, 1986. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.375377.
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Weatherall, Peter. "The language of thought hypothesis." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 1993. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.282900.
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GIRAUTA, BERNARDO MOUZINHO. "MUSICAL INDETERMINACY AND MUSIC-THOUGHT." PONTIFÍCIA UNIVERSIDADE CATÓLICA DO RIO DE JANEIRO, 2018. http://www.maxwell.vrac.puc-rio.br/Busca_etds.php?strSecao=resultado&nrSeq=34822@1.
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PONTIFÍCIA UNIVERSIDADE CATÓLICA DO RIO DE JANEIROCOORDENAÇÃO DE APERFEIÇOAMENTO DO PESSOAL DE ENSINO SUPERIOR
CONSELHO NACIONAL DE DESENVOLVIMENTO CIENTÍFICO E TECNOLÓGICO
PROGRAMA DE SUPORTE À PÓS-GRADUAÇÃO DE INSTS. DE ENSINO
O trabalho discorre acerca de algumas relações entre a música e a teoria, partindo da ideia de Indeterminação Musical proposta pelo artista norte-americano John Cage e suas consequências para a música, a linguagem, a ontologia e o pensamento de modo geral. O primeiro capítulo aborda o tema aproximando-se do conceito de indeterminação, das práticas musicais experimentais e das experiências verbais de notação musical, isto é, de partituras formadas apenas por palavras. No segundo capítulo, investiga-se a existência de certa zona de indiscernibilidade entre os escritos de Gilles Deleuze e Félix Guattari e a música, procurando elementos de um possível pensamento-música, isto é, um modo de orientação do pensamento e de concepção ontológica nos quais a música e o som não estão submetidos a critérios filosóficos pressupostos, mas funcionam eles mesmos como material fundamental para a construção de uma filosofia.
This work discusses some relationships between music and theory, starting from the idea of Musical Indeterminacy proposed by the North American artist John Cage and its consequences for music, language, ontology and thought. The first chapter approaches the subject through the concept of indetermination itself, experimental musical practices and verbal experiences of musical notation, that is, of scores formed only by words. The second chapter discusses the existence of a certain zone of indiscernibility between the writings of Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari and the music, looking for elements of a possible music-thinking, that is, a mode of thinking and an ontological conception in which music and sound are not subject to presupposed philosophical criteria, but function themselves as fundamental material for the construction of a philosophy
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Dechter, Eyal. "Using the language of thought." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/120620.
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Thesis: Ph. D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, 2018.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 125-129).
In this thesis, I develop and explore two novel models of how humans might be able to acquire high-level conceputal knowledge by performing probabilistic inference over a language of thought (Fodor 1975) - a space of symbolic and compositional mental representations sufficiently expressive to capture the meanings of human thoughts and utterances. These models and their associated learning algorithms are motivated by an attempt to provide an understanding of the algorithmic principles that might underlie a child's ability to search the haystack of sentences in her language of thought to find the needle that corresponds to any specific concept. The first model takes advantage of the compositionality inherent to LOT representations, framing concept acquisition as program induction in a functional programming language; the Exploration- Compression algorithm this model motivates iteratively builds a library of useful program fragments that, when composed, restructures the search space, making more useful programs shorter and easier to find. The second model, the Infinite Knowledge Base Model (IKM), frames concept learning as probabilistic inference over the space of relational knowledge bases; the algorithm I develop for learning in this model frames this inference problem as a state-space search over abductive proofs of the learner's observed data. This framing allows us to take advantage of powerful techniques from the heuristic search and classical planning literature to guide the learner. In the final part of this thesis, I explore the behavior of the IKM on several case studies of intuitive theories from the concept learning literature, and I discuss evidence for and against it with respect to other approaches to LOT models.
by Eyal Dechter.
Ph. D.
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Christodoulides, Marios Andreas. "Design heuristics : facilitating architectural thought." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1997. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/65239.
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Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1997.Includes bibliographical references (p. 48).
As D A Schon describes the problem space is not given with the presentation of the design task, but constructed by the designer as he/she invents the moves by which he/she attempts to find solutions. From such a design process two episodes emerge, the first one comprised of all the moves a designer makes to construct and organize a problem space, and the second one describing how a designer might navigate through such a problem space in his/her attempt to arrive at solutions. It is the methods which designers use in these episodes which I define as 'design heuristics'. These can facilitate the early stages of the design process in several ways. First they can help set up a platform upon which designers can begin to operate, and which can become the catalyst for further development and refinement to occur. Secondly, they help introduce into the problem space any concerns the designer chooses to address, whether those emerge from site, climate, or other potential factors. These help to complement programmatic concerns, set up hierarchies, and subsequently help the designer determine the important aspects of the problem he/she is attempting to address. Thirdly, the introduction of different 'design heuristics' in both episodes of the design process helps to limit the range of possible solutions, and therefore eliminate the need for exhaustive search. In this thesis an iterative process of investigation is carried out in order to gain a better understanding into the nature of different 'design heuristics' and examine the potential for the development of a tool that can facilitate their implementation. Different categories of rules are introduced in an attempt to create an environment where deSign operations, independent of particular design problems, can be identified. Rules such as the grid, line, and boundary are implemented to investigate concepts of alignment, articulation, and envelope respectively. A random generator is used upon which these rules are superimposed, allowing for a better understanding of the potential and limitations of single rules, or combinations of them. The careful evaluation of a series of experimental products gave rise to a series of concepts that could be critical in the development of an appropriate tool offering more insight as to how one should proceed next. Introducing 'flexibility' for each one of these rules allowed for the development of hierarchies of importance among the different heuristics a deSigner might choose to apply. 'Directional constraints' for each of the rules emerged as critical allowing the development of different variants from each one of the rules described above. The grid for example could have different constrains in anyone of its three axis. The 'sequence' by which these rules are applied emerged as important in the articulation of each one of these rules. The rule applied first would have to compromise the most following the application of subsequent rules. The careful study of products utilizing different variations of such concepts gave better insight as to how these concepts might be further developed and also allowed for new ones to emerge. Furthermore an attempt is made to address both episodes described above by defining a stage of 'generation' followed by a stage of 'post-generation control'. A collection of such concepts can begin to clarify some of the operations that are part of the design activity, setting up the ground for the development of a design tool that facilitates the application of heuristics in the early stages of the design process.
by Marios Andreasa Christodoulides.
M.S.
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Casasanto, Daniel J. "Perceptual foundations of abstract thought." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/34129.
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Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, 2005.Includes bibliographical references (p. 75-78).
How do people think about things they can never see or touch? The ability to invent and reason about domains such as time, ideas, or mathematics is uniquely human, and is arguably the hallmark of human sophistication. Yet, how people mentally represent these abstract domains has remained one of the great mysteries of the mind. This dissertation explores a potential solution: perhaps the mind recruits old structures for new uses. Perhaps sensory and motor representations that result from physical interactions with the world (e.g., representations of physical space) are recycled to support our thinking about abstract phenomena. This hypothesis is motivated, in part, by patterns observed in language: in order to talk about abstract things, speakers often recruit metaphors from more concrete or perceptually rich domains. For example, English speakers often talk about time using spatial language (e.g., a long vacation; a short meeting). Cognitive linguists have argued such expressions reveal that people conceptualize abstract domains like time metaphorically, in terms of space. Although linguistic evidence for this Conceptual Metaphor Theory is abundant, the necessary nonlinguistic evidence has been elusive.
(cont.) In two series of experiments, I investigated whether mental representations that result from physical experience underlie people's more abstract mental representations, using the domains of space and :!I.:e as a testbed. New experimental tools were developed in order to evaluate Conceptual Metaphor Theory as an account of the evolution and structure of abstract concepts, and to explore relations between language and nonlinguistic thought. Hypotheses about the way people represent space and time were based on patterns in metaphorical language, but were tested using simple psychophysical tasks with nonlinguistic stimuli and responses. Results of the first set of experiments showed that English speakers incorporate irrelevant spatial information into their estimates of time (but not vice versa), suggesting that people not only talk about time using spatial language, but also think about time using spatial representations. The second set of experiments showed that (a) speakers of different languages rely on different spatial metaphors for duration, (b) the dominant metaphor in participants' first languages strongly predicts their performance on nonlinguistic time estimation tasks, and (c) training participants to use new spatiotemporal metaphors in language changes the way they estimate time.
(cont.) Together, these results demonstrate that the metaphorical language people use to describe abstract phenomena provides a window on their underlying mental representations, and also shapes those representations. The structure of abstract domains such as time appears to depend, in part, on both linguistic experience and on physical experience in perception and motor action.
by Daniel J. Casasanto.
Ph.D.
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Walters, L. "Singular thought and the nonexistent." Thesis, University College London (University of London), 2012. http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1352732/.
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I argue that a straightforward account of empty names can be given which allows them to contribute to the expression of thoughts, as seems to be the case. But that we can offer such an account does not mean that we should, as it should be conceded on all sides that what is happening in the case of empty names is radically different from what is happening in the case of non-empty names. Moreover, in the case of non-conniving uses of empty names, the subject is under a misapprehension, and so could be under the misapprehension that they are expressing a thought. Nevertheless, if we want to hold on to the truth of some singular negative existential claims, which is recognized as a desiderata even by those hostile to the intelligibility of empty names, we are forced to recognize that empty names can contribute to the expression of thoughts. But once we make this admission we then open the door to empty names being used to express other thoughts too. But that we can give a coherent account of empty names and singular negative existentials does not mean that we should be irrealists wherever we think we see empty names and true singular negative existentials. And I argue that this is the case with fictional names. There are good reasons to be realists about fictional characters, even though there are good reasons to accept that fictional names sometimes fail to refer and that as a result claims such as Sherlock Holmes does not exist are true. The solution is to accept that fictional names are ambiguous having a non-referring use and referring use. Such a position is well-motivated and plausible, and allows the realist to capture the truth of singular negative existentials in a straightforward manner. Moreover, since there are no metaphysical problems with this realism, we should embrace it.