Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Transcendence'

This thesis investigates the nature and dynamics of transcendent experience: phenomena I have witnessed in many individuals, groups, and organisations. Transcendent experience is best described as an attitude or way of life that is fundamentally different to what could be construed as the ' normal ', conventional, and rationalistic attitudes that pervade the Western epistemological mind-set today as the most-if not sole-means to valuable knowledge and experience. This thesis does not seek to explain its features dogmatically and definitively-after all, such a phenomenon evades the reductive and totalising effects of rationalisation-but assesses a vast range of supporting literature to emphasise how it is manifesting itself across an equally vast and eclectic range of peoples. By examining evidence from contemporary personal accounts, historical case study, published biographical accounts, scholarly reports and personal anecdotes, a number of key characteristics and principles of transcendence are identified as underpinning their experiences. These principles include a commitment from the individual or group in question to embrace and practice 'ways of knowing' beyond rational cognition. There is a tendency for the subject to recognise themselves as involved in purposeful ways of knowing. This is seen as a recognition that the physical self is merged with a nature that is experienced by the subject as ' transcendent ' to them; that is to say, a nature that is described as 'divine ' or 'spiritual'. A further principle is the subject's openness to, and assimilation of, what is reported to be not one but multiple transcendent experiences. The benefits of these are construed to be a sense of belonging and a feeling of wellbeing-feelings, which it is claimed, could not be obtained through conventional ' rational ' ways of knowing. In short, these people seem to be living according to, or at least intent on working towards, a transcendent way of ' being', one that validates non-rational, possibly ' divine ' experiences as essentially ' human'. Other key characteristics of transcendent experiences are ascertained, including the role of suffering and emptiness.

This thesis is a description and critical analysis of the processes, concepts and imagery of my artwork. I am interested in creating visual narratives, often figurative, in the form of sculpture, collage, and installation. In my work I attempt to call attention to the human condition, specifically addressing sexuality, mortality, psychological issues and power struggles. I incorporate both cultural and personal references and use traditional and non traditional materials and processes that are intended to conceptually inform the viewer further. My intention is to create distinct embodiments that provoke contemplative emotion and in which the object and the aesthetic experience allow us to consider and reconsider who we are and how we progress as a culture.

Artist Statement I have often created art with an organic quality because I have felt bound by the earth’s natural elements and forces. These extend to and influence my human qualities which influence my artwork. My paintings and mixed media works symbolize the issues and defects that affect me in various ways and represent my attempt at overcoming them. At its core, my body of work addresses psychological and emotional recovery work. I have been burdened for a long period of time with anxiety, various character defects, and difficulties but I find catharsis through creative expression. Because I have chosen to address and convey my on-going struggle for emotional well-being in my work, I depict distorted images which I sometimes describe as ghostlike figures. These images symbolize the issues and defects that often have a negative impact on my life. However, in many ways, these images also symbolize to me the gratitude I feel for overcoming such trying times. For without these psychological and emotional trials and tribulations, I would not be the person I am at this point in my life. I now possess the tools I need to develop a healthier quality of life. My experiences are reflected in my works.

The research identified the ‘Sublime’ as a tradition I was intrinsically drawn towards and focused on the critique in Edmund Burke’s Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of the Sublime and Beautiful. The significance of the concept was further supported by a range of readings that include, Kant, Wordsworth and the documentary prose of W.S. Sebald and P.Schrader’s account of the transcendent in film. Burke’s psychological enquiry traces the source of the sublime to experiences that excite and cause one to tremble with pleasure, combining fear with delight. He moves the Sublime encounter away from the object (nature) and towards the conception of the beholder. My own enquiry centres on his theory of aesthetic opposition, in which beauty is derived from pleasure and sublimity from pain. The paradox articulates my own perspective and forms the foundation of my creative discourse, which travels a precarious route until it finds a resolution in the Final Viva Exhibition.

Where epistemology and transcendence are considered compatible, two approaches to truth are pursued. A Platonistic approach sees transcendence as the grounds of all true knowledge, whilst an Aristotelian approach sees natural human knowledge as providing inferential lodging places for speculative knowledge about transcendent truth. This paper argues: firstly, that the Aristotelian approach does not work; secondly, that the Platonistic approach does work; thirdly, that the failure of the Aristotelian approach has resulted in the death of truth at the hands of modern epistemological foundationalism, and; fourthly, that the Platonistic approach is able to displace post/modern scepticism regarding knowing transcendent truth.

Where there has been a shift by certain strands of modern! postmodern thinkers towards rethinking 'transcendence' and the 'the divine' in strictly material and immanent terms, this thesis hopes to show that such a shift leads to problematic formulations of material immanence. Given such concerns a move is made towards developing an ontology that will properly sustain otherness (transcendence) within material immanence. Significantly, it will be suggested that this ontology is best supported given a theistic framework, where a more traditional understanding of divine transcendence is acknowledged. The turn towards thinking transcendence and! or the divine as entirely inherent within the world, rather than discontinuous with it in any way, is prompted by the worry that the affirmation of traditional, theistic understandings of divine transcendence invariably encourages the discrediting of the material world and inaugurates every kind of unwelcome hierarchical dualisms, for example, God! World, Transcendence/ Immanence, Spirit! Matter, etc. This thesis examines the philosophies of Giles Deleuze, Luce Irigaray, Jacques Derrida and Theodor Adorno to see how they might enable us to re-conceptualise 'transcendence' and! or 'the divine' in this-worldly, immanent terms. Specifically, I look at Deleuze's reading of Spinoza, Jrigaray's notion of the 'sensible transcendental', Derrida's 'differance', and Adorno's 'negative dialectics' in order to assess whether these deliver an account of material immanence broadly characterised by the otherness and becoming of embodied life. Through a careful analysis of their arguments I hope to demonstrate that these thinkers are unable to successfully account for otherness within material immanence in the ways that they claim. In light of the difficulties ascertained in these 'immanentist' philosophies, I argue for what I call a 'strong' ontological realism with respect to upholding otherness within material immanence. Such a realist ontology, I maintain, is most successfully accounted for given the reality of divine transcendence conceived in a monotheistic sense. I thus urge for a reconsideration of a more traditional conception of divine transcendence as one that actually secures otherness or difference within the material world rather than negates this.

This thesis project is an exploration of the sensory experiences through which one passes in the removal from the outside world toward introspection and mental clarity. The program consists of one large meeting space and four smaller meeting spaces sited in the Virginia Tech Duck Pond.
Master of Architecture

New technologies have transformed the traditional ways in which people develop and express themselves. In that context, the internet has meant a revolution in different spheres of society, in which the users and network providers are developed. Faced with this, the question arises: Should the relations that are presented in the network be regulated?.In this article, the author develops the principle of net neutrality as the basis of the protection of the fundamental rights from the different agents that are related by this means. It will be exposed the current regulation of the matter and its scope, which finds its support in the constitutional regulation.
Las nuevas tecnologías han transformado las formas tradicionales en las que se desarrollan y expresan las personas. En ese contexto, internet ha significado una revolución en diferentes ámbitos de la sociedad, en los cuales los usuarios y proveedores de la red se desenvuelven. Ante ello, surge la interrogante: ¿deben regularse las relaciones que se presentan en la red?.En el presente artículo, el autor desarrolla el principio de neutralidad de la red como base de la protección de los derechos fundamentales de los diferentes agentes que se relacionan por este medio. Se expondrá la regulación vigente de la materia y sus alcances, la cual encuentra su sustento en la regulación constitucional.

I am an interdisciplinary artist working with a merging of costumes and voice through the performance art medium. In this masters degree project I present costume as the main performer and look at the ability for my performance to create a transcendent experience in a secular art context. The paper will lift some of the historical and contemporary ideas about transcendence in art. I will argue that the singing voice can be used as an enchanting tool to create presence and communicate the inexplicable. By using my own practice as an example I present costume as the initiator and leading star of a performance. Finally, I give insight into the process and making of my master performance, A merging of Costumes, Voice & Transcendence.

This feminist study examines women's use of improvisation in discovering, creating, and articulating various self-identities. To create a theory of identity formation, two feminist theoretical position, essentialism and poststructuralism, are analyzed and merged. This hybrid theory addresses the interplay between the self and society that women must recognize in order to form satisfying identities. Improvisational practices, involving bodily awareness and movement, are demonstrated to have the potential for helping women to actualize themselves in these various identities. For this study, the writer uses her experience as an improviser and interviews three women who use improvisation in their choreographic processes. She also discusses performers whom she has seen and performers about whom feminist performance critics have written. This study examines improvisation in dance and performance art from a feminist perspective. I clarify what improvisation entails and, by doing so, illustrate how improvisational movement in dance and performance art can enhance the lives of women as viewers and performers. Through exploring improvisation from this feminist perspective, I demonstrate the psychological insights I have gained from practicing improvisation and document performances that have been improvisationally inspired by women who feel dissatisfied with the manner in which this society shapes and limits their identities.

The starting premise of this dissertation is that the formal techniques of comedy make the comic novel a distinct form within the category of the novel, not just in terms of content, the way one novelistic genre is distinct from another, but also in terms of form, similar to the way poetry is distinct from prose. The argument is that the formal structures of comedy, such as set-ups, punchlines, and comic rhythm, combine to constitute a formally rigorous, almost rule-bound art form. These techniques are explored through close readings of various 20th century comic novels, in particular Voyage au bout de la nuit by Louis-Ferdinand Céline, Le Sabotage amoureux by Amélie Nothomb, Moskva-Pethushki by Venedikt Erofeev and Catch-22 Joseph Heller. The further extension of this argument is that these formal structures create certain fundamental characteristics the comic novel, which in turn instantiate spiritual and emotional functions of the comedy on a structural level. The most important of these functions are that comedy serves creates a sudden, epiphanic awareness of reality, a sense of self-transcendence, and an instant bond between people. Finally, the dissertation considers the limitations of these functions. For example, comedy creates awareness of that which was previously latently grasped, but rarely substantively new knowledge. The sense of self-transcendence it is real but momentary, fleeting. And the connection it fosters between people is instant but limited by its own basic impersonality.

Kenneth Burke has been described as arguably the most important rhetorician and critical theorist of the twentieth century, and yet an important part of his scholarship has been generally overlooked by the academic community. The pentad has become the most prominent "Burkean" framework for analyzing texts, yet Kenneth Burke himself preferred "a more direct" way of approaching texts which he named "indexing." This thesis recreates this method from the pieces found in his scholarly writing, personal correspondence, and the papers his students produced for the class he taught at Bennington College. Kenneth Burke believed indexing could uncover the "pattern of experience" or "motivational structures" a text embodies, and thereby help people become aware of the persuasive power different texts have. The method of indexing has two parts: 1. Finding the implicit equations in a text, and 2. Tracking the hierarchies of terms and God-terms in those equations. Identifying equations in a text starts with finding "key terms" in a text, meaning terms which carry special significance as indicated by their intensity and frequency of usage. One then tracks the context of these terms throughout a text to find which other words frequently occur together with these words. The second step, tracking hierarchies of terms, is done by finding how the terms in the equations relate to each other in a hierarchy. We start with specific and move upward to more general terms. On the top of the pyramid we find the God-term, which is the driving motivation and ground of all possibility in the text. Kenneth Burke hoped his method of indexing could help us understand the power language and motivational structures have to drive human action, and that we could question our own motivational structure as well as that of others and of the communities we operate in.

Thesis advisor: Jeffrey Bloechl
This dissertation examines the relationship between the experience of beauty and intuitions of transcendence. The first two chapters explore the role that natural beauty plays in humans’ existential ruminations, finding an intimate connection between beauty and belief in transcendent realities. The final three chapters examine the post-WWII turn away from beauty in fine art, and argue that this turn is intimately connected with a broader turn away from transcendent horizons in the wake of the second World War, e.g. that seen in Rawlsian Liberalism. Finally, an argument is developed that a culture without transcendence and beauty is unlikely to thrive in the long run, and so the postwar turn against same should be carefully, soberly abandoned
Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2019
Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Discipline: Philosophy

This thesis is an enquiry into the Marquis de Sade, his writing and the perversion known as sadism. The narrower focus of this thesis investigates the problem of the meeting of violence and language in Sade's novels and the implications for cinema. The procedure has been to adopt the Critical and Clinical approach to philosophy that brings together both the literary style of Sade and the clinical symptoms of sadism. This method canvasses a number of Sades novels to consider the psychoanalytical definition of sadism before moving on to discuss the expression of sadism through language. Finally, the model of sadism and language is then applied to a number of films to discuss how violence within the context of sadism functions through language within cinema. The general results show how speech and action can be defined as equivalent forms of sadian violence when expressed through language in both literature and cinema. This occurs, furthermore, through the transcendent model of violence where both speech and action refer to a higher order of violence and this is put at the service of the senses through language. The major conclusions reached suggest that language in literature and cinema can be a demonstrative form of the higher order of violence. Sadism draws out the violence and excess of the world by reflecting it within language. In doing so, violence is designated with a quality of the erotic through this excess. Finally, each act of violence within literature and cinema is an attempt to overcome taboos through transgression. The breaking of a taboo creates an amount of excess but also reinstates the taboo in what becomes an empty act of transgression. The excess is expressed through violence within language and deed according to a transcendent function of language in literature and cinema.

Thesis (PhD)--Macquarie University, Faculty of Arts, Department of Media, Music, and Cultural Studies, 2009.
Bibliography: p. 303-332.
Carnal transcendence and sexual difference -- An amorous exchange -- Angels playing with placentas -- Fluid subjects -- Poetics -- Oneiric spaces -- Conclusion.
Carnal transcendence imagines a world in which the carnal has the weight and value of transcendence, and the divine is as liveable and readily evoked as the carnal. Carnal transcendence offers a means of thinking through difference in the work of Luce Irigaray, who asks: "why and how long ago did God withdraw from carnal love?" (1991a, p 16). This thesis argues that Irigaray enables her readers to explore the relationship between carnality, transcendence and difference, but resists elaborating it in her work. Carnal transcendence as difference risks remaining an exercise in rhetoric, rather than the transformative and creative philosophy that Irigaray imagines. -- Irigaray's resistance to the carnal is evident in her arguments for sexual difference, which offers our "salvation" if we think it through, and heralds "a new age of thought, art, poetry, and language: the creation of a new poetics" (1993a, p 5). Note the language of transcendence used here. When considered in the light of carnal transcendence, sexual difference imagines a differently sexed culture. This thesis argues that Irigaray's writing is contradictory on this point: it articulates the plurality of women's sexuality, but emphatically excludes theories of sex and gender that emphasise multiplicity. This thesis challenges these limitations by exploring the possibilities of the "other" couple in Irigaray's writing-mother and daughter - for thinking through carnal transcendence as difference. -- This thesis not only explicates a theoretical model for carnal transcendence as difference; it also attempts to put into practice a poetics - a playful rewriting of theory. This celebrates the carnality of Irigaray's writing - evident in her complex imagery of the two lips, mucus, the placenta and angels-and enables an exploration of the philosophical space of the "new poetics" that Irigaray is attempting to engender.
Mode of access: World Wide Web.
332 p. ill (some col.)

Vodou, the religious tradition of Haiti, has been maligned throughout history. However, a growing interest in Afro-Caribbean religions is carving out new avenues of access to this formerly secret and subjugated religion. Altered States: Travel, Transcendence and Technology in Contemporary Vodou is an ethnographic study of Vodou in North America that documents the shifting boundaries between a religion and its representations as it gains contemporary popularity. Contemporary Vodou communities are filled with practitioners who have consciously sought out new religious experiences and allegiances. This text charts their journey to and from Vodou. Altered States examines how Vodou practitioners navigate popular representations and commodification of the religion; how the cosmology of the religion absorbs and incorporates new technology and media practices; and how media practices and representations alters the constitution and constituents of the Vodou religion. The work contributes to an understanding of the shifts in identification and signification engendered by the intersection of religion, communication technologies, media representation and cultural commodification.

We investigate a class of minimal sequences on a finite alphabet Ak = {1,2,...,k} having (k - 1)n + 1 distinct subwords of length n. These sequences, originally defined by P. Arnoux and G. Rauzy, are a natural generalization of binary Sturmian sequences. We describe two simple combinatorial algorithms for constructing characteristic Arnoux-Rauzy sequences (one of which is new even in the Sturmian case). Arnoux-Rauzy sequences arising from fixed points of primitive morphisms are characterized by an underlying periodic structure. We show that every Arnoux-Rauzy sequence contains arbitrarily large subwords of the form V^2+ε and, in the Sturmian case, arbitrarily large subwords of the form V^3+ε. Finally, we prove that an irrational number whose base b-digit expansion is an Arnoux-Rauzy sequence is transcendental.

This thesis investigates Heidegger's concept of freedom between 1927 and 1930. In it, I argue that Heidegger advocates a radical reinvention of the positive concept of freedom in confrontation with Immanuel Kant and Henri Bergson. I also argue, against the grain of recent literature, that this conception remains the same as it is found in Being and Time and in the key texts concerning freedom from the period immediately after its publication: 'The Essence of Ground' [WG], Metaphysical Foundations of Logic [GA26], The Essence of Human Freedom [GA31], and 'On the Essence of Truth' [WW]. In Chapter 1, I interpret the argument of the lecture course The Essence of Human Freedom as Heidegger's attempt to dismiss the question of the freedom of the will. In doing so, I argue, he critically repeats the arguments that Bergson provides in Time and Free Will. In Chapter 2, I turn to Being and Time to follow the thread of Heidegger's argument, leading to the claim that Dasein is fundamentally free but, as inauthentic, also typically unfree. In Chapter 3 I investigate this apparent paradox further, showing that Heidegger, without using the term, is advocating a positive, rather than a negative, conception of unfreedom in evaluating inauthentic Dasein as unfree. In Chapter 4, I show how this positive conception also arrives as a critical confrontation with Kant and Bergson, where authenticity is conceived as Dasein's being-its-self in an ontological sense. In Chapter 5, I build on the above to demonstrate that the arguments in Being and Time concerning guilt, the arguments in WG and GA26 concerning transcendence, and the arguments in WW concerning truth all complement each other in a single concept of freedom: Dasein's being its self by choosing to be the ground of its world, rather than fleeing from this existential responsibility.

The present thesis is an attempt to understand Abd Al-Karim Al-Jili’s thought and to illustrate his original contribution to the development of medieval Islamic mysticism. In particular, it maintains that far from being an obscure disciple of Ibn Arabi, Al-Jili was able to overcome the apparent contradiction between the doctrinal assumption of a transcendent God and the perception of divine immanence intrinsic in God’s relational stance vis-à-vis the created world. To achieve this, this thesis places Al-Jili historically and culturally within the Sufi context of eighth-ninth/fourteenth-fifteenth centuries Persia, describing the world in which he lived and the influence of theological and philosophical traditions on his writings, both from within and without the Islamic world. A whole chapter is dedicated to the definition of the controversies that afflicted Islamic theology and philosophy over the issue of anthropomorphic representations of God and the relevance that this had on the subject of divine immanence and transcendence. Al-Jili’s original contribution to this discussion, summarised in the concept of the Perfect Human Being, is illustrated with the editing and translation of one of Al-Jili’s works, The Cave and the Inscription, followed by annotations to the book.

The following is a study of Jean-Paul Sartre’s ontology of conscious awareness. Ontology, for Sartre, consists in the delineation of the constituent elements, structures and dimensions of Being as well as the way in which such constituent features interact within the ekstatic dynamics of the lived experience of the being for whom such ontological features are capable of becoming phenomena of possible awareness. Sartre’s methodology, then, is manifold. The ontological project which Sartre undertakes to develop is at once transcendental, phenomenological and dialectical. It is transcendental inasmuch as it is a theory of the way in which phenomena become experientially possible for a being whose primary existential mode of conscious awareness is as an act of immanent self-relation, as pure auto-affection, and is capable of divesting itself of its modality of active self-affective immanence in constituting for itself a particular phenomenon transcendent to itself. This is to say that what Sartre refers to as pure or transcendental consciousness is capable of dissolving its primordial mode of autoaffective immanent self-awareness in the intentional (or, attentional) act whereby a choice is made to privilege a given phenomenon from amongst the otherwise undifferentiated multiplicity of the conscious existent’s (auto-)affective conscious awareness in order to become conscious of something which is not itself and from which the act of consciousness differentiates itself as not being, whether this privileged phenomenon is ekstatic or extensive, whether it is chosen from the otherwise undifferentiated virtual multiplicity of this conscious existent’s own psychic pastness (or possible future) or from the indifferent multiplicity of worldly actuality. In either case, whether the privileged phenomenon of intentional awareness is egological or material, of the psyche or of the world, the noematic correlate of conscious attention (the explicit or thetic phenomenon of intentional awareness) is transcendent to transcendental consciousness. It is in the investigation of such phenomena that Sartre’s ontology manifests itself as phenomenological. However, for Sartre, such awareness is by no means static, and it is through the ekstatic dynamization of the constituent features of conscious awareness that the transcendental and phenomenological methodologies of Sartre’s ontology of lived experience ultimately prove to be dialectical. Every moment of conscious awareness must, for Sartre, be both surpassed and preserved. Every moment of awareness, with its transcendent dimensions of virtuality and actuality and the auto-affective immanence upon which they depend, reveal themselves as intimately related, then, to memorial dynamics, dynamics which Sartre did little to explicitly develop but upon which an adequate understanding of his ontology depends and which will ultimately ground any investigation of what we might call an existential epistemology.

This thesis investigates the significance of the Church's experience of transcendence in the theologies of Robert W. Jenson (b. 1930) and Alexander Schmemann (1921-1983). Both theologians emphasize the indispensable role of eschatology for Christian theology, but they offer strikingly different accounts of what that means. Following an introductory chapter, the first half of the thesis (chapters 2-4) clarifies the loss of transcendence by following Jenson's and Schmemann's respective theological diagnoses of the chief problems facing the Church in the late-modern West. Jenson argues that a long hidden error in the ontology of the doctrine of God is the underlying cause of the nihilism pervading Western culture. Schmemann perceives secularism as the pervasive cultural backdrop to Christian faith in the West, identifying the betrayal of the Orthodox Church's liturgical experience of the Kingdom of God as the chief culprit. By placing their critiques in dialog with one another I further trace the mutually diagnosed problem of the Church's debilitated eschatology to underlying problems in received ontologies of transcendence. The second half of the thesis (chapters 5-7) explores Jenson's and Schmemann's theological proposals for rehabilitating eschatology. Jenson revises the ontology of God to more adequately fit the God identified by the gospel. His narratival ontology enables him to conceptualize God's transcendence in terms of triune faithfulness through time rather than in metaphysical immunity to time. Schmemann retrieves a symbolic ontology in order to affirm the sacramentality of the world by which God's transcendence can be mystically experienced in the Church's liturgical worship. I argue that Jenson's theological rejection of timelessness rests upon historicist assumptions which Schmemann's eschatological theory has resources to withstand and that, furthermore, theology should preserve apophatic humility rooted in the aseity of God rather than historicize the doctrine of God as Jenson proposes.

El cultiu del silenci com una via per transcendir l’experiència ordinària del món és present en múltiples cultures al llarg de la història, en camps com ara l’espiritualitat, l’estètica o la filosofia. Aquesta tesi estudia les modalitats que adopta aquesta pràctica en el marc de la societat contemporània. Es parteix de la hipòtesi que el silenci com a experiència religiosa –entenent religió en un sentit ampli, com l’àmbit on les persones gestionen les seves experiències de transcendència i donen sentit a la vida– s’han reformulat i popularitzat com a conseqüència de les noves formes de relació que l’individu contemporani estableix tant amb el fenomen del silenci com amb allò transcendent. Aplicant una metodologia qualitativa que combina el treball etnogràfic multisituat amb l’anàlisi sociofenomenològica, i emprant les eines de l’anàlisi documental, l’observació participant i l’entrevista, la recerca s’aproxima a diferents col·lectius per als quals el silenci constitueix un element central en les seves cerques de la transcendència, des de meditadors cristians fins a persones que cultiven el silenci en els àmbits de les religions orientals, les espiritualitats holístiques, l’art, la teràpia o l’activisme social. El primer objectiu de la tesi ha consistit en descriure i analitzar diferents modalitats de pràctica, fixant-se en les narratives, els escenaris o els perfils dels actors implicats. El segon objectiu ha estat interpretar sociològicament aquestes pràctiques posant-les en relació amb l’actual context sociocultural. D’una banda, s’analitza la relació entre l’habitus dels individus i la forma com donen sentit a l’experiència del silenci i la incorporen al seu relat biogràfic. D’altra banda, s’ha traçat el procés de construcció de l’experiència moderna del silenci analitzant com els fenòmens del gir subjectiu, el pluralisme o la disseminació del sagrat han contribuït a conformar-la en les seves modalitats actuals. La tesi constata que el silenci s’ha ressignificat i popularitzat en el marc de la religiositat contemporània, en dos sentits: a) com a experiència: en tant que condició ambiental i psicològica, el silenci actua com un catalitzador de vivències subjectives de transcendència que adquireix protagonisme en diverses modalitats actuals de cultiu de la interioritat; i b) com a símbol transreligiós d’una realitat o experiència transcendent, el silenci ha esdevingut una idea força que identifica i distingeix unes determinades formes de religiositat subjectivitzades, que prioritzen la vivència íntima del sagrat i depassen els marcs de la religió institucionalitzada. Aquest silenci, com a vivència i com a metàfora, es construeix com alternativa tant a la crisi dels llenguatges i les pràctiques de la religió tradicional com, també, als valors i pautes de vida predominants en el capitalisme tardà. A partir dels casos analitzats, la tesi subratlla la dimensió intersubjectiva de les pràctiques de silenci. Aquestes són socials en tant que s’encarnen en significats, rols i pautes construïts i transmesos col·lectivament, però també en la mesura en què sovint són, en termes d’Alfred Schütz, experiències compartides en el vívid present en sintonia amb l’alteritat. La tesi també qüestiona les visions negatives o reduccionistes que atribueixen a les pràctiques de silenci una tendència a l’aïllament, al narcisisme o a l’apatia social i política. La pràctica moderna del silenci no és, necessàriament, una versió actualitzada de la tradicional fuga mundi ni tampoc una expressió de l’atomització i la desmobilització promogudes per l’ethos neoliberal sinó, ben al contrari, una reacció enfront d’aquestes, que promou l’associacionisme, el compromís cívic i l’acció social transformadora. En aquest sentit, a partir del concepte de ressonància de Harmut Rosa, la tesi finalitza reflexionant sobre el paper de l’experiència silenciosa com una resposta potencialment emancipadora enfront de les condicions d’alienació característiques de la tardomodernitat.
El cultivo del silencio como vía para transcender la experiencia ordinaria del mundo está presente en múltiples culturas a lo largo de la historia, en campos como la espiritualidad, la estética o la filosofía. Esta tesis estudia las modalidades que adopta esta práctica en la sociedad contemporánea. Partiendo de la hipótesis de que el silencio como experiencia religiosa –entendiendo religión en un sentido amplio, como el ámbito donde las personas gestionan sus experiencias de transcendencia y dan sentido a la vida– se ha reformulado y popularizado como consecuencia de las nuevas formas de relación que el individuo establece con el silencio y con lo transcendente. Aplicando una metodología cualitativa que combina el trabajo etnográfico multisituado con el análisis sociofenomenológico, y empleando las herramientas del análisis documental, la observación participante y la entrevista, la investigación se aproxima a diferentes colectivos para los cuales el silencio constituye un elemento central en sus búsquedas de sentido, desde meditadores cristianos hasta personas que cultivan el silencio en los ámbitos de las religiones orientales, las espiritualidades holísticas, el arte, la terapia o el activismo. El primer objetivo de la tesis ha consistido en analizar diferentes modalidades de práctica, fijándose en las narrativas, los escenarios o los perfiles de los actores implicados. El segundo objetivo ha sido interpretar sociológicamente estas prácticas poniéndolas en relación con su contexto sociocultural. Por un lado, se analiza la relación entre el habitus de los individuos y la forma cómo dan sentido a la experiencia del silencio y la incorporan en su relato biográfico. Por otro lado, se ha trazado el proceso de construcción de la experiencia moderna del silencio analizando cómo los fenómenos del giro subjetivo, el pluralismo o la diseminación de lo sagrado han contribuido a conformarla en sus modalidades actuales. La tesis constata que el silencio se ha resignificado y popularizado en el marco de la religiosidad contemporánea, en dos sentidos: a) como experiencia: en tanto que condición ambiental y psicológica, el silencio actúa como catalizador de vivencias de transcendencia que adquiere protagonismo en diversas modalidades actuales de cultivo de la interioridad; y b) como símbolo transreligioso de una realidad o experiencia transcendente, el silencio ha devenido una idea fuerza que identifica y distingue unas formas de religiosidad subjetivizadas, que priorizan la experiencia íntima de lo sagrado y traspasan los marcos de la religión institucionalizada. Este silencio, como vivencia y como símbolo, se construye como alternativa tanto a la crisis de los lenguajes y prácticas de la religión tradicional como a los modos de vida predominantes en el capitalismo tardío. A partir de los casos analizados, la tesis subraya la dimensión intersubjetiva de las prácticas de silencio. Estas son sociales en tanto que se encarnan en significados, roles y pautas construidos y transmitidos colectivamente, pero también en la medida en que a menudo son, en términos de Alfred Schütz, experiencias compartidas en el vívido presente en sintonía con la alteridad. La tesis cuestiona también las visiones negativas o reduccionistas que atribuyen a las prácticas de silencio una tendencia al aislamiento, al narcisismo o a la apatía social. La práctica moderna del silencio no es, necesariamente, una versión actualizada de la tradicional fuga mundi ni una expresión de la atomización y desmovilización promovidas por el ethos neoliberal, sino que puede ser una reacción frente a estas que promueve el asociacionismo, el compromiso cívico y la acción social transformadora. A partir del concepto de resonancia de Hartmut Rosa, la tesis concluye reflexionando sobre el papel de la experiencia silenciosa como una respuesta potencialmente emancipadora ante las condiciones de alienación de la tardomodernidad.
The cultivation of silence in order to transcend ordinary world experience is present in multiple cultures throughout history, in fields such as spirituality, aesthetics, or philosophy. This thesis studies the modalities adopted by this practice within the framework of contemporary society. We start from the hypothesis that silence as a religious experience –understanding religion in a broad sense, as the realm where people manage their experiences of transcendence and give meaning to life– have been reformulated and popularized as a result of the new forms of relationship that the contemporary individual establishes with both the phenomenon of silence and the transcendent. Applying a qualitative methodology that combines a multisituated ethnographic work with a sociophenomenological analysis, and using the tools of documentary analysis, participant observation and interview, the research approaches different groups for which silence constitutes a central element in his pursuits of transcendence, from Christian meditators to people who cultivate silence within the frame of Eastern religions, holistic spiritualities, art, therapy, or social activism. The first objective of the thesis was to describe and analyze different modalities of practice, focusing on the narratives, scenarios or profiles of the actors involved. The second goal has been to interpret these practices sociologically by relating them to the current sociocultural context. On the one hand, it analyzes the relationship between the habits of individuals and the way in which they give meaning to the experience of silence and incorporate it into their biographical account. On the other hand, the process of constructing the modern experience of silence has been traced by analyzing how the phenomena of the subjective turn, pluralism or the dissemination of the sacred have contributed to shaping it in its current modalities. The thesis states that silence has been re-signified and popularized within the framework of contemporary religiosity, in two ways: a) as an experience: as an environmental and psychological condition, silence acts as a catalyst for subjective experiences of transcendence that acquires prominence in several current modalities of cultivation of the interiority; and b) as a transreligious symbol of a transcendent reality or experience, silence has become a force idea that identifies and distinguishes some subjectivized forms of religiosity, which prioritize the intimate experience of the sacred and go beyond the framework of institutionalized religions. This silence, as an experience and as a metaphor, is constructed as an alternative both to the crisis of the languages and practices of traditional religion and, also, to the values and patterns of life predominant in late capitalism. Based on the cases analyzed, the thesis emphasizes the intersubjective dimension of silence practices. These are social insofar as they are embodied in meanings, roles and patterns constructed and transmitted collectively, but also insofar as they are often, in terms of Alfred Schütz, shared experiences in the present vivid in a tuning-in relationship with otherness. The thesis also questions negative or reductionist views that attribute to silence practices a tendency to isolation, narcissism, or social and political apathy. The modern practice of silence is not necessarily an updated version of the traditional fuga mundi nor an expression of the atomization and demobilization promoted by the neoliberal ethos but, on the contrary, a reaction against them, which promotes associationism, civic engagement and transformative social action. In this sense, based on Harmut Rosa's concept of resonance, the thesis ends by reflecting on the role of silent experience as a potentially emancipatory response to the conditions of alienation characteristic of late modernity.
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Programa de Doctorat en Sociologia

In this thesis, I demonstrate the relationship of transnationalism, transcendence, and exclusion in the life, works, and words of Horatio Parker (1863-1919). Parker was an organist, composer, and the dean of the School of Music at Yale from 1904 until his death. Although his reputation has since waned, during his lifetime he was a sought-after speaker and composer, gaining recognition across the United States and in England. This thesis engages with three categories of Parker’s repertoire including orchestral, choral/liturgical, and song, and employs intertextuality as the main method of analysis. Parker, like many of his contemporaries, rejected Antonin Dvořák’s 1893 suggestion to American composers that a national idiom could be founded on African American and Native American musics. In combination with his lectures on the topic, I argue that Parker’s symphonic poem A Northern Ballad may be read as his response to Dvořák’s claim. Using many techniques reminiscent of Dvořák’s “New World” Symphony, Parker’s work transcends national boundaries rather than defining or being defined by them. Of greater concern to Parker than the perceived national characteristics of a work was that it should acknowledge music’s spiritual significance. Although the belief in music as a transcendent art frequently divorced music from words and from function, as a devout Christian, Parker sought to reunite the inherently “religious” quality of music with religious service, in works such as Hora Novissima and Light’s Glittering Morn. I frame Parker’s efforts in the context of the writings of John Sullivan Dwight (1813-1893), Wilhelm Wackenroder (1773-1798), and E.T.A. Hoffmann (1776-1822), all major proponents of musical transcendence. In general, appeals to transcendence idolized Beethoven and defined beauty by Eurocentric standards, establishing a false hierarchy that resulted in exclusion. The work of Parker, and other American composers, fuelled also by the false hierarchy of racism, continued to propagate exclusion. The final chapter of this thesis thus contributes to efforts to decolonise Parker’s settler colonial attitudes and examine how these influenced his musical choices.

Spirit-mediums and their activities have been of great interest to anthropologists, dealing, as they do with the nature of being a person in a social world. There have been various orientations towards studying the subject matter, including a psychoanalytical approach, although many anthropologists eschew psychoanalytical accounts as pathologizing the subjects of investigation. I, however, suggest that a Lacanian psychoanalytical approach can offer a significant contribution to the subject matter. It can help one investigate the healing aspect of spirit-medium phenomena and how healing relates to both psychological and social processes. Field research on spirit-mediums [tang-kis] in Singapore was undertaken over a total period of fourteen months. In that time, I was mainly involved in participant observation at two shines. Healing rituals at tang-ki shrines can be considered to be about sexual identity and resistance to a ‘master discourse’ given by governing authorities. I show that tang-ki worship can also be considered to be about being a subject and developing an identity, in a country where there are a multiplicity of identity discourses. In the shrines people develop a discourse that changes them so they are more able to deal with their personal problems and the problems of living in a modern, globalized, capitalist society. While many people who go to tang-ki shrines have problems that could be characterized in terms of psychopathology taken from the psychiatric discourse, I argue that tang-ki worship gives people the means of transcending these problems. I show that tang-ki worship is not insanity in the medical sense, but promotes a way of dealing with the ‘’madness’ within us and the ‘madness’ within society. To this extent, it can be called a transcendent phenomenon.

Recent philosophers assess differently the extent to which affinity is to be found between the idealist metaphysics of G. W. Leibniz and George Berkeley. I argue that these figures’ idealisms are indeed strongly aligned. They espouse related accounts of the nature of mental substance and state. They similarly restrict the domain of causality. They each reject the Lockean primary/secondary quality dichotomy. Over against the criticism that idealisms cannot allow for a distinction to be made out between real and illusory perceptual experience, the two philosophers offer comparable solutions. Nevertheless, their ontologies are not identical, and are primarily to be distinguished in terms of their disparate characterisations of ultimate reality as being either immanent or transcendent to percipient subjects like us. This continuum of transcendentism and immanentism has further application as a conceptual tool both for tracing the rise of modern philosophy and for developing new metaphysical and epistemological accounts of the nature of the world and our relation to it.

Thesis advisor: Leslie Salzinger
Over a period of eight months, I conducted an ethnographic comparative study in a northeastern metropolitan area, identifying and exploring a variety of non-normative social spaces regarding both gender and sexuality. I focus this research on comparing two different non-normative communities of gender and sexuality, the queer and the lesbian communities. By concentrating on spaces populated by those who identify as queer, I witness and discuss the process of identity formation. Negotiation of both tangible and theoretical spaces contributes to the operationalization of queer as a category of identity. Using social space bound by identity as a unifying factor, I share observations of time spent in lesbian community, where intricacies of queerness, both as critique and as category of identity, were illuminated. The meaning of the theoretical construct of queer as explained in the literature and the experience of queer as an identity within community have areas of disconnect to which I draw attention in this paper. I interpret community space as giving power and visibility to the experience of those who live outside of, or between, gender norms in an experience that is unrecognized within mainstream heteronormative culture. I found this space creates a voice for a more encompassing and liberating embodiment of gender than that found in mainstream western society with its adherence
Thesis (MA) — Boston College, 2011
Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Discipline: Sociology

This study examined how women with advanced breast cancer manage adverse effects of disease and treatment so that they maintain energy for continued personal development and life quality during what may be a long period of dying. The specific purpose was to test a theory proposing that psychosocial resources mediate between illness related distress and self-transcendent views and behaviors that, in turn, lead to emotional well-being. The study employed a cross-sectional correlational design with a convenience sample (n = 107) of women with Stage IIIb or Stage IV breast cancer. Subjects had lived with advanced disease for a mean length of time of 1.7 years with bone being the most common site of metastases. Subjects completed a questionnaire consisting of 10 instruments indexing symptom distress, functional disability, concurrent distressful life events, financial concerns, perceived personal control, social support, spiritual perspective, self-transcendence, affective well-being and cognitive well-being. Factor analytic structural equations modeling was used for data analysis. There was no relationship between degree of illness distress and available psychosocial resources. Therefore, psychosocial resources did not serve as mediators between illness distress and self-transcendence. Self-transcendence mediated the positive link between psychosocial resources and emotional well-being. Negative paths between illness distress and both self-transcendence and emotional well-being led to a reconceptualization of the theory. An alternative model was analyzed with illness distress as a dependent variable. Self-transcendence continued to mediate between psychosocial resources and emotional well-being. Emotional well-being became a mediator between self-transcendence and decreased illness distress. Psychosocial resources indirectly served to decrease distress through their effect on self-transcendent perspectives and emotional well-being. However, the direct effect of resources was to increase illness distress. Further research is needed to support the reconceptualized theory and to clarify the apparent paradoxical role of psychosocial resources found in this study. Interventions that facilitate self-transcendent perspectives and activities may lead to increased emotional well-being and reduced distress associated with advanced breast cancer.

The primary purpose of this study was to explore the relationships among vulnerability, self-transcendence, and well-being in Japanese hospitalized elders. With their declining functional health and diminishing social network, elderly people are considered as a vulnerable population, which require special care and attention in the field of nursing. Self-Transcendence is identified as one of the developmental resources that promote well-being in later adulthood during increased vulnerability; however, applicability of the concept of self-transcendence as well as its theory has never been tested in Japanese population. Thus, the current study specifically tested and refined a theoretical model of self-transcendence in Japanese elders.In this study, a nonexperimental descriptive design was used to examine relationships among the variables. A total of 105 elderly patients were recruited from 4 hospitals in Sapporo, Japan. The respondents' level of vulnerability was assessed by three aspects: vulnerability in health status, vulnerability in resource availability, and past vulnerable experience. Well-being was examined from the level of depression and life satisfaction. Besides psychosocial self-transcendence, spiritual self-transcendence from Japanese perspective was conceptualized and evaluated.Reliability testing provided adequate supports for all the study instruments. Findings of multiple regression analyses indicated mediating effects of psychosocial self-transcendence on the relationship between vulnerability in resource availability and well-being variables. Psychosocial self-transcendence also demonstrated direct effects on well-being. Spiritual self-transcendence did not show any mediating and moderating effect in the relationship between vulnerability and well-being; however, it was found to be the strongest predictor for the level of life satisfaction. In addition, the findings revealed that vulnerability in health status had a direct effect on the level of depression, but past vulnerable experience had no effect on both self-transcendence and well-being.Findings of this study provided further evidence of universality of the concept of self-transcendence and applicability of its theory to Japanese hospitalized elders. This study not only contributes to Japanese nursing research by adding the body of knowledge about self-transcendence and spirituality but also can be a basis for formulating interventions that help enhance well-being in vulnerable elderly patients.