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Weisend, Ausma Skerbele. "Poetry, nature and science: romantic nature philosophy in the works of Novalis and E. T. A. Hoffmann." The Ohio State University, 1994. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1249485965.
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Elicker, Bradley Joseph. "The Mediated Nature of Literature: Exploring the Artistic Significance of the Visible Text." Diss., Temple University Libraries, 2016. http://cdm16002.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p245801coll10/id/381480.
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Philosophy<br>Ph.D.<br>My goal in this dissertation is to shed light on a practice in printed literature often overlooked in philosophy of literature. Contemporary works of literature such as Mark Z. Danielewski’s House of Leaves, Jennifer Egan’s A Visit from the Goon Squad, and Irvine Welsh’s Filth each make artistic use of the features specific to printed literature such as font and formatting. I show that, far from being trivial aberrations, artistic use of font and formatting has a strong historical tradition going back to the Bucolic poets of ancient Greece. When these features deviate from traditional methods of inscription and perform some artistic function within the work, they are artistically significant features of the works themselves. The possibility of the artistic significance of these features is predicated on works of printed literature being visually mediated when one reads to oneself. All works of literature are mediated by some sense modality. When a work of printed literature is meant to be read to oneself, it is mediated by the modality of sight. Features specific to this method of mediation such as font and formatting can make artistic contributions to a text as well. Understanding the artistic significance of such features questions where we see literature with respect to other art forms. If these features are artistically significant, we can no longer claim that works of printed and oral literature are both the same performative art form. Instead, philosophy of literature must recognize that works of printed literature belong to a visually mediated, non-performative, multiple instance art form separate from the performative tradition of oral literature.<br>Temple University--Theses
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Vicas, Astrid. "The nature of fictional discourse." Thesis, McGill University, 1992. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=39800.
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This dissertation presents an account of fictional discourse which is teleological. According to it, questions about what is said in fiction and how it ought to be said are answerable in terms of the goals and methods belonging specifically to fiction-making as a practice. Viewed in such a way, it is argued that the incompleteness of fictional discourse and its apparent tolerance of inconsistency are distinctive of it. Moreover, it is argued that there is a sense in which one can produce true statements in fiction without thereby committing one self to the thesis that words made use of in fiction are endowed with reference. Throughout the dissertation, the view espoused in it is contrasted with rival positions on the issues of what fiction is about, and whether it can be true. It is argued that a teleological account of fictional discourse can present a coherent alternative to these.
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Shin, Hyun Kun. "The nature and scope of Eastern thought and practice in contemporary literature on American physical education and sport (1953-1989) /." The Ohio State University, 1990. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1487677267728948.
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Bell, Nathan M. "The Green Horizon: An (Environmental) Hermeneutics of Identification with Nature through Literature." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2010. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc30435/.
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This thesis is an examination of transformative effects of literature on environmental identity. The work begins by examining and expanding the Deep Ecology concept of identification-with-nature. The potential problems with identification through direct encounters are used to argue for the relevance of the possibility of identification-through-literature. Identification-through-literature is then argued for using the hermeneutic and narrative theories of Hans-Georg Gadamer and Paul Ricoeur, as well as various examples of nature writing and fiction.
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McCurry, Sara Kathleen. "The places of contemporary American poetry /." view abstract or download file of text, 2005. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/uoregon/fullcit?p3181111.
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Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2005.<br>Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 260-266). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.
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Beebee, Fay. "Re-imagining an ethic of place : Terry Tempest Williams's new language for nature and community /." abstract and full text PDF (free order & download UNR users only), 2005. http://0-wwwlib.umi.com.innopac.library.unr.edu/dissertations/fullcit/1430441.
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Thesis (M.A.)--University of Nevada, Reno, 2005.<br>"May, 2005." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 109-113). Online version available on the World Wide Web. Library also has microfilm. Ann Arbor, Mich. : ProQuest Information and Learning Company, [2005]. 1 microfilm reel ; 35 mm.
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Zeng, Hong. "A deconstructive reading of Chinese natural philosophy in poetry." online access from Digital dissertation consortium, 2002. http://libweb.cityu.edu.hk/cgi-bin/er/db/ddcdiss.pl?3070928.
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Reisenwitz, Erica. "Transcendence Through Taste: The Relationship of the Preparation and Sharing of Meals to the Perfection of Human Nature as Evidenced by Literature." Thesis, Boston College, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/2345/567.
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Thesis advisor: Mary J. Hughes<br>Thesis advisor: Brian J. Braman<br>Drawing different people with unique tastes into relationships with one another, the dinner table acts as an anchor for the human community. Though a daily practice for most, can we mark one meal as being more significant, or more influential, or more artistic than another? While we may not consciously realize the forces at work while attending a dinner ourselves, examining the retelling of the shared human experience with meals and meal preparation allow us to analyze more objectively the multi-faceted meanings behind the event. One way in which to do this is through examining the role that mealtime has played in literature. Virginia Woolf's novel, To the Lighthouse, Isak Dinesen's short story Babette's Feast, and Frances Osbourne's biography Lilla's Feast explore the unique human transformation present as their heroine hostesses go beyond simply feeding to truly cater to their guests. Although three very different narratives, the works share the same heart as their presentation of grandiose meals, creative spirit, mystical energy, and ultimate human transcendence express the unique power each hostess has to create warmth in even the coldest of homes.Yet, what about each hostess' artistic, culinary masterpieces, their mode of self-expression, allow those who partake in their creations to better themselves? Can the meal, like art, do anything for the soul? Our psyches can be affected by the ritual act of dining. Through reflection on the communal culinary experience, as presented to us in ready-to-analyze literature, we may almost spiritually experience the art and its encouragement of the perfectibility of our own human natures<br>Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2008<br>Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences<br>Discipline: Philosophy<br>Discipline: College Honors Program
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Snyder, Lydia L. "Voicing Mother Nature: Ecomusicological Perspectives on Gender and Philosophy in Japanese Shakuhachi Practice." Kent State University / OhioLINK, 2019. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1556496056536201.
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Potter, Emily Claire. "Disconcerting ecologies : representations of non-indigenous belonging in contemporary Australian literature and cultural discourse." Title page, contents and abstract only, 2003. http://web4.library.adelaide.edu.au/theses/09PH/09php865.pdf.
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Includes bibliographical references (leaves 313-325) Specific concern is the poetic, as well as literal, significance given to the environment, and in particular to land, as a measure of belonging in Australia. Environment is explored in the context of ecologies, offered here as an alternative configuration of the nation, and in which the subject, through human and non-human environmental relations, can be culturally and spatially positioned. Argues that both environment and ecology are narrowly defined in dominant discourses that pursue an ideal, certain and authentic belonging for non-indigenous Australians.
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Urbina, Gabriel Eduardo. "Baroja y Schopenhauer: Senderos del pesimismo." Diss., The University of Arizona, 1996. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/187464.
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This study seeks to establish the influence of Arthur Schopenhauer over pro Baroja. In order to establish the parameters of said influence, pessimism is defined, and the world view of both philosopher and writer, their views on men and women; and common themes such as individualism, the idea of the preservation of the species, marriage, the futility of life, suicide, and education are examined. The chaotic, absurd and capricious world depicted by Schopenhauer finds its way into the writings of Baroja. The study of his protagonists and secondary characters provide an insight on how these fictional beings deal with this world of misery. In fact, these characters must create their own world and invent their own structure, which is in harmony with the thought of Schopenhauer, where the world is an idea or representation of the subject. The works of Schopenhauer included in this study are The world as will and idea, and a selection of essays from Parerga and Paralipomena. Eight of Baroja's novels are analyzed: La dama errante, La ciudad de la niebla, EI árbol de la ciencia, EI mundo es ansí, La sensualidad pervertida, EI gran torbellino del mundo, Las veleidades de la fortuna, y Los amores tardíos. The writer's Memorias are also considered in some detail.
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Walmsley, Jonathan Craig. "John Locke's natural philosophy (1632-1671)." Thesis, Boston Spa, U.K. : British Library Document Supply Centre, 1998. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?did=1&uin=uk.bl.ethos.286485.
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Kennedy, Robert Oran. ""And a soul in ev'ry stone"| The ludic natures of Pale Fire and Gravity's Rainbow." Thesis, The University of Utah, 2016. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10001410.
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<p> The author argues that ecocriticism has overlooked important works of mid-20th-century American literature because of their unorthodox approaches to writing about nature. These unorthodox approaches revolve around the use of humor and play to formulate arguments about nature. The author argues that because ecocriticism as a political critique emphasizes ecological catastrophe, humor and ludic writing tend to get ignored in the critical discussion. The author expresses the desire to expand the conversation on ludic texts. The author argues that two texts with relatively little ecocritical attention, Thomas Pynchon’s <i>Gravity’s Rainbow</i> and Vladimir Nabokov’s <i>Pale Fire,</i> use the aesthetic theories of Friedrich Nietzsche to explain the role of the non-human in human civilization. </p><p> In the first chapter, Vladimir Nabokov’s <i>Pale Fire</i> is argued to be a novel that is about the natural source of human aesthetic production. The author synthesizes studies of the novel and argues that Nabokov’s novel, both in its language and form, valorizes mimesis as the source of all aesthetic production. Nabokov’s belief in some form of design is examined through mimicry, and is found to permeate the novel through structural and descriptive references to games and nature. Nabokov is found to be influenced by the theories of Friedrich Nietzsche, Johan Huizinga, and Walter Benjamin. Nabokov ultimately finds that the justification for the world is aesthetic, that nature is important to humans as the origin of all artistic impulses. </p><p> The second chapter reads Thomas Pynchon’s <i>Gravity’s Rainbow</i> through the many references to Nietzsche’s <i> Birth of Tragedy,</i> finding that the novel sets nature against civilization according to Nietzsche’s distinction between the Dionysian and the Apollonian. The author finds that the novel holds up the natural world as a counter-force to the capitalist impulse to control and exploit the natural and human worlds. The author examines how Pynchon uses Dionysian tropes like drunkenness, absurdity, music, and feelings of oneness in the novel in moments of resistance to the dominant order. </p><p> The conclusion suggests that the work of Friedrich Nietzsche ought to be examined as an influential source for modern views on the value of nature. </p>
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Rees, William J. "Cassius Dio, human nature and the late Roman Republic." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2011. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:75230c97-3ac1-460d-861b-5cb3270e481e.
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This thesis builds on recent scholarship on Dio’s φύσις model to argue that Dio’s view of the fall of the Republic can be explained in terms of his interest in the relationship between human nature and political constitution. Chapter One examines Dio’s thinking on Classical debates surrounding the issue of φύσις and is dedicated to a detailed discussion of the terms that are important to Dio’s understanding of Republican political life. The second chapter examines the relationship between φύσις and Roman theories of moral decline in the late Republic. Chapter Three examines the influence of Thucydides on Dio. Chapter Four examines Dio’s reliance on Classical theories of democracy and monarchy. These four chapters, grouped into two sections, show how he explains the downfall of the Republic in the face of human ambition. Section Three will be the first of two case studies, exploring the life of Cicero, one of the main protagonists in Dio’s history of the late Republic. In Chapter Five, I examine Dio’s account of Cicero’s career up to the civil war between Pompey and Caesar. Chapter Six explores Cicero’s role in politics in the immediate aftermath of Caesar’s death, first examining the amnesty speech and then the debate between Cicero and Calenus. Chapter Seven examines the dialogue between Cicero and Philiscus, found in Book 38. In Section Four is my other case study, Caesar. Chapter Eight discusses Caesar as a Republican politician. In Chapter Nine, I examine Dio’s version of the mutiny at Vesontio and Caesar’s speech. Chapter Ten examines Dio’s portrayal of Caesar after he becomes dictator and the speech he delivers to the senate. The Epilogue ties together the main conclusions of the thesis and examines how the ideas explored by Dio in his explanation of the fall of the Republic are resolved in his portrait of the reign of Augustus.
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Sysak, Janusz Aleksander. "The natural philosophy Of Samuel Taylor Coleridge." Connect to thesis, 2000. http://repository.unimelb.edu.au/10187/2866.
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This thesis aims to show that Coleridge's thinking about science was inseparable from and influenced by his social and political concerns. During his lifetime, science was undergoing a major transition from mechanistic to dynamical modes of explanation. Coleridge's views on natural philosophy reflect this change. As a young man, in the mid-1790s, he embraced the mechanistic philosophy of Necessitarianism, especially in his psychology. In the early 1800s, however, he began to condemn the ideas to which he had previously been attracted. While there were technical, philosophical and religious reasons for this turnabout, there were also major political ones. For he repeatedly complained that the prevailing 'mechanical philosophy' of the period bolstered emerging liberal and Utilitarian philosophies based ultimately on self-interest. To combat the 'commercial' ideology of early nineteenth century Britain, he accordingly advocated an alternative, 'dynamic' view of nature, derived from German Idealism. I argue that Coleridge championed this 'dynamic philosophy' because it sustained his own conservative politics, grounded ultimately on the view that states possess an intrinsic unity, so are not the product of individualistic self-interest.
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Murray, Matthew. "Body Matters: Gary Snyder, The Self and Ecopoetics." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2000. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc2513/.
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Gary Snyder has offered, in poems and essays, ways to acknowledge the interrelationships of humans with the more-than-human. He questions common notions of selfness as well as understandings of what it is to be human in relationship to other species and ecosystems, and he offers new paradigms for the relationship between cultures and the ecosystems in which these cultures reside. These new paradigms are rooted in a reevaluation of our attitudes toward our physical bodies which impacts our relationship to the earth and raises new possibilities for an ecological spirituality or philosophy. The sum of Snyder's endeavors is a foundation for an understanding of ecopoetics.
Snyder's poem "The Trail is Not a Trail" is an interesting place to begin examining how human perceptions of the self are central to the kinds of relationships that humans believe are possible between our species and everything else. In this poem there is a curious fusion of the speaker and the trail. In fact, with each successive line they become increasingly difficult to separate. The physical self is central to Snyder's poetry because his is a poetry of the self physically rooted in ever-shifting relationship with the biosphere.
The relationship of the self to the biosphere in Snyder's poetry also points toward a spiritual experience that can be called ecomysticism, by which I mean the space where new ecological paradigms and mystical understandings of the world overlap.
Ecomysticism goes beyond mysticisms that describe a spiritual being longing for supernatural experience while being "unfortunately" trapped in a physical body. Ecomysticism emphasizes the spiritual and physical interrelatedness or interconnectedness of all matter, the human and the more-than-human.
The integration of the spiritual and physical aspects of the self is only possible through an awareness of the interrelatedness of the self and the non-human. New paradigms for the self are thus central to ecopoetics, a poetics that seeks to heal the rift between humans and the biosphere.
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Morton, Jonathan Simon. "The Roman de la Rose : nature, sex, and language in thirteenth-century poetry and philosophy." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2014. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:6e179c13-9046-44d3-801c-9cb12eb28229.
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Jean de Meun's continuation of the Roman de la rose (The Romance of the Rose), written in Paris in the 1270s, presents a vast amount of philosophy and natural science in vernacular poetry, while engaging thoroughly with contemporary, local philosophical and institutional debates. Taking this into consideration, this study investigates how the Rose depends for its meaning on questions around human nature, natural philosophy, and the philosophy of language that were being discussed and debated in the University of Paris at the time of its composition. It suggests a reading of the poem as a work of philosophy that uses Aristotelian ideas of nature and what is natural to present a moral framework – at times explicitly, at times implicitly – within which to assess and critique human behaviour. The concepts of the unnatural and the artificial are used to discuss sin and its effects on sexuality – a key concern of the Rose – and on language. The Rose is shown to present itself as artificial and compromised, yet nevertheless capable of leading imperfect and compromised humans to moral behaviour and towards knowledge which can only ever be imperfect. It is read as a presenting a rhetorical kind of philosophy that is sui generis and that appeals to human desire as well as to the intellect. The specific issue of usury and its relation to avarice is examined, studying contemporary theological and philosophical treatments of the question, in order to illustrate similarities and contrasts in the Rose's theoretical methodology to more orthodox modes of philosophical enquiry. Finally, the poem's valorisation of pleasure and of the perversity inherent in artificial productions is explored to show how poetry, though deviating from the strictures of dialectical language, is nevertheless productive and generative.
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Russell, Rowland S. "The Ecology of Paradox: Disturbance and Restoration in Land and Soul." [Yellow Springs, Ohio] : Antioch University, 2008. http://etd.ohiolink.edu/view.cgi?acc_num=antioch1204556861.
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Thesis (Ph.D.)--Antioch University New England, 2008.<br>Title from PDF t.p. (viewed November 11, 2009). "A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Environmental Studies at Antioch University New England (2008)."--from the title page. Advisor: Mitchell Thomashow. Includes bibliographical references (p. 289-296).
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Liu, Siyu. "Connecting man and nature : philosophical meanings of Zhu Xi's poetry." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2014. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:01e07a0b-c9b1-429e-aea8-c8dd31117944.
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My thesis closely analyzes the shi poetry of the Song dynasty philosopher Zhu Xi (1130-1200). I look at its deep structure, especially the tensions embedded therein between literature and philosophy, and between his inner mind and the external world, manifested in ways different from what he taught in his philosophical works. Although his poetry itself is not considered to be aesthetically outstanding, I suggest that it is crucial to a better understanding of the evolution of Zhu’s philosophical project on the relationship between humans and the natural world. Zhu Xi wanted to establish and defend a coherent and practical self-cultivation theory, which would enable people to recognize the dao through daily experiences. Nevertheless, in his poetry production, he was facing a long-entrenched influential poetic tradition with its emphasis on the outer world described by embellished words and spontaneous overflow of emotions, while leaving an open end for the meanings or less discriminatively appealing to the Daoist or Buddhist idea of transcendence, the logic of which fundamentally contradicts that of daoxue construction. This made it impossible to achieve the dao in a this-worldly fashion. The contradiction had to be reconciled by Zhu Xi in his poems, an issue that he actually wrestled with throughout his life. Consequently, the style of Zhu Xi’s poetry was differentiated from both that of other Neo-Confucians and indeed that of any other poets in Chinese history. In his poetic texts, the tension between the outer world, inner emotions and philosophical inclination is more intensified, and the exploration of the relationship between man and nature more focused and conscious. In this thesis, I present an aesthetic world of Zhu Xi beyond all his ambiguous philosophical discussions, unfavorable comments on poetry, and his profoundly contradictory attitudes towards versifying.
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Nickerson, Erika Lawren. "The Measure of All Things: Natural Hierarchy in Roman Republican Thought." Thesis, Harvard University, 2015. http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:17467310.
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This work explores how writers of the late Roman Republic use the concept of nature rhetorically, in order to talk about and either reinforce or challenge social inequality. Comparisons between humans and animals receive special attention, since writers of that time often equate social status with natural status by assimilating certain classes of person to certain classes of animal. It is the aim of this study to clarify the ideology which supported the conflation of natural and social hierarchy, by explicating the role that nature was thought to play in creating and maintaining the inequality both between man and man, and between man and animal. In investigating this issue, this study also addresses the question of whether the Romans took a teleological view of human society, as they did of nature, and ultimately concludes that they did not. It proposes, rather, that the conceptual mechanism which naturalized social inequality, and which drove the assimilation of human to animal, was the belief that there is one, natural measure of worth and status for all creatures: utility to the human community.
Chapter 1 identifies some pertinent beliefs, commonly found in Republican texts, about nature, animals, humans, and the relationship of all three to each other. Chapter 2 considers whether these beliefs have a philosophical provenance, by discussing Aristotle’s theory of natural slavery and Stoic views on the institution of slavery, and their possible relation to the ideas expressed in Roman sources. Chapter 3 returns to Republican texts, including popular oratory, and examines comparisons between domestic animals and humans in the treatment of slavery and wage-earning. Chapter 4 examines comparisons between wild animals and humans in discussions about violence and primitive peoples, and in political invective.<br>Classics
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Colborn, Robert Maurice. "Manilius on the nature of the Universe : a study of the natural-philosophical teaching of the Astronomica." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2015. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:481db8c5-4a3b-42ff-b301-eafc3e2f9ad8.
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The thesis has two aims. The first is to show that a more charitable approach to Manilius, such as Lucretian scholarship has exhibited in recent decades, yields a wealth of exciting discoveries that earlier scholarship has not thought to look for. The thesis' contributions to this project centre on three aspects of the poem: (I) the sophistication of its didactic techniques, which draw and build on various predecessors in the tradition of didactic poetry; (II) its cosmological, physical and theological basis, which has no exact parallel elsewhere in either astrology or natural philosophy, and despite clear debts to various traditions, is demonstrably the invention of our poet; (III) the extent to which rationales and physical bases are offered for points of astrological theory – something unparalleled in other astrological texts until Ptolemy. The second, related aim of the thesis is to offer a more satisfying interpretation of the poem as a whole than those that have hitherto been put forward. Again the cue comes from Lucretius: though the DRN is at first sight primarily an exposition of Epicurean physics, it becomes clear that its principal concern is ethical, steering its reader away from superstition, the fear of death and other damaging thought-patterns. Likewise, the Astronomica makes the best sense when its principal message is taken to be not the set of astrological statements that make up its bulk, but the poem’s peculiar world- view, for which those statements serve as an evidential basis. It is, on this reading, just as much a poem ‘on the nature of the universe', which provides the title of my thesis. At the same time, however, it finds new truth in the conventional assumption that Manilius is first and foremost an advocate of astrology: it reveals his efforts to defend astrology at all costs, uncovers strategies for making the reader more amenable to further astrological study and practice, and contends that someone with Manilius' set of beliefs must first have been a devotee of astrology before embracing a natural- philosophical perspective such as his. The thesis is divided into prolegomena and commentaries, which pursue the aims presented above in two different but complementary ways. The prolegomena comprise five chapters, outlined below: Chapter 1 presents a comprehensive survey of the evidence for the cosmology, physics and theology of the Astronomica, and discovers that a coherent and carefully thought-out world-view underlies the poem. It suggests that this Stoicising world- view is drawn exclusively from a few philosophical works of Cicero, but is nonetheless the product of careful synthesis. Chapter 2 explores the relationship between this world-view and earlier Academic criticism of astrology and concludes that the former has been developed as a direct response to these criticisms, specifically as set out in Cicero’s De divinatione. Chapter 3 examines the later impact of Manilius’ astrological world-view, as far as it can be detected, assessing the evidence for the early reception of his poem and its role in the history of philosophical astrology. The overwhelming impression is that the work was received as a serious contribution to debate over the physical and theological underpinnings of astrology; its world-view was absorbed into the mainstream of astrological theory and directly targeted in the next wave of Academic criticism of astrology. Chapter 4 looks at the more subtle strategies of persuasion that are at work in the Astronomica. It observes, first, a number of structural devices and word- patternings that set up the poem as a model of the universe it describes. This first part of the chapter concludes by asking what didactic and/or philosophical purpose such modelling could serve. The second part examines how, by a gradual process of habituation-through-metaphor, the reader is made familiar with the conventional astrological way of thinking about the world, which might otherwise have struck him as a baffling mass of contradictions. The third part looks at the use of certain rhetorical figures, particularly paradox, to re-emphasise important physical claims and assist the process of habituation. Chapter 5 takes on the task of making sense of the Astronomica as a whole, seeking out an underlying rationale behind the choice and ordering of material, accounting as well as is possible for its apparently premature end, and asking why, if it is a serious piece of natural-philosophical teaching, it so often appears to be self- undermining. A short epilogue asks what path can have led Manilius to embark on such a work as the Astronomica. It offers a sketch of the author as an adherent (but not a practitioner) of astrology, who had developed a philosophical system first as scaffolding for an art under threat, but had then come to see more importance in that philosophical underpinning than in the activities of prediction. The lemmatised commentaries that follow cover several passages from the first book of the Astronomica. As crucial as the remaining four books are to his natural-philosophical teaching, it is in this part of the poem that Manilius concentrates the direct expositions of his world-view. Like the chapters, the commentaries' two concerns are the nature and the exposition of the work's world-view. Each of the commentaries has its own focus, but all make full use of the format to tease out the poet's teaching strategies and watch his techniques operate 'in real time' over protracted stretches of text. Finally, an appendix presents the case for the Astronomica as the earliest evidence for the use of plane-image star maps. At two points in his tour of the night sky Manilius describes the positions of constellations in a way that suggests that he is consulting a stereographic projection of each hemisphere, and that he is assuming his reader has one to hand, too. This observation casts valuable new light on the development of celestial cartography.
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Buffington, Nancy Jane. "From freedom to slavery: Robert Montgomery Bird and the natural law tradition." Diss., The University of Arizona, 1998. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/282827.
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This dissertation explicates the rhetoric of liberty and slavery in the novels of Robert Montgomery Bird (1805-54). Bird, now largely forgotten and ignored, was prolific, popular, and at the center of Philadelphia culture and national politics from the 1830s until his death. His work represents a particularly clear intersection of political ideology and fiction at a time of cultural growth and conflict. Like many of his contemporaries, Bird saw his fiction as fulfilling a patriotic mission as he attempted to define and defend the nation's history, emergent identity, and contemporary political agenda. It is this mission, evident in his countless meditations on rights and rebellion, freedom and slavery, captivity and bondage, that I explore. Despite repeated scenes of unjust captivity, Bird's eloquent celebrations of liberty, ultimately work to deny the freedoms they evoke, rationalizing instead the conquest of indigenous populations, slavery, and national expansion. This analysis of Bird's rhetoric of freedom is grounded in an exploration of the natural law tradition. I trace the evolution of this philosophy from 17th-century England to its conservative manifestations in antebellum America. Within this context, Bird's conservative reworking of terms such as "freedom," "slavery" and "rights" is neither new nor unusual, but constitutes merely one episode in the ongoing adaptation of such terms in natural law. Natural law emerges as an exceedingly pliable theory, capable of serving both radical and conservative agendas, rebellion and the maintenance of the status quo, the defense and the denial of rights. In addition to natural law, my discussion of Bird's eight novels explores literary traditions from the historical romance to the captivity narrative to the satire, and historical contexts from the Spanish conquest of Mexico to 18th-century American frontier struggles to Southern slavery. I also place Bird's fiction into the context of contemporary political discourses, including proslavery and abolitionist ideologies, the discussion of Indian removals, and debates over national expansion. Finally, I substantiate my conclusions with original research from the University of Pennsylvania's archives of Bird's manuscripts, notebooks, letters, and political journalism.
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Park, E. C. "Plato and Lucretius as philosophical literature : a comparative study." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2012. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:97c3ba13-d229-429d-83fc-138fcbaf58b1.
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This thesis compares the interaction of philosophy and literature in Plato and Lucretius. It argues that Plato influenced Lucretius directly, and that this connection increases the interest in comparing them. In the Introduction, I propose that a work of philosophical literature, such as the De Rerum Natura or a Platonic dialogue, cannot be fully understood or appreciated unless both the literary and the philosophical elements are taken into account. In Chapter 1, I examine the tradition of literature and philosophy in which Plato and Lucretius were writing. I argue that the historical evidence increases the likelihood that Lucretius read Plato. Through consideration of parallels between the DRN and the dialogues, I argue that Plato discernibly influenced the DRN. In Chapter 2, I extract a theory of philosophical literature from the Phaedrus, which prompts us to appreciate it as a work of literary art inspired by philosophical knowledge of the Forms. I then analyse Socrates’ ‘prelude’ at Republic IV.432 as an example of how the dialogue’s philosophical and literary teaching works in practice. In Chapters 3 and 4, I consider the treatment of natural philosophy in the Timaeus and DRN II. The ending of the Timaeus is arguably an Aristophanically inspired parody of the zoogonies of the early natural philosophers. This links it to other instances of parody in Plato’s dialogues. DRN II.333-380 involves an argument about atomic variety based on Epicurus, but also, through the image of the world ‘made by hand’, alludes polemically to the intelligently designed world of the Timaeus. Through an examination of Plato’s and Lucretius’ polemical adaptation of their predecessors, I argue that even the most seemingly technical passages of the DRN and the Timaeus still depend upon literary techniques for their full effect. The Conclusion reflects briefly on future paths of investigation.
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Freitas, Leandro César Albuquerque de. "Análise e tradução do Livro I do De rerum natura de Tito Lucrécio Caro." Universidade de São Paulo, 2018. http://www.teses.usp.br/teses/disponiveis/8/8143/tde-15082018-145331/.
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O epicurismo apresentou teorias sobre a física que constituíam, em boa parte, uma continuidade do pensamento materialista antigo, ainda assim, há certamente muitos elementos originais em seu pensamento para destacá-lo e torná-lo em um sistema reconhecido por sua própria importância. Como se desenvolveu em uma filosofia de amplo alcance, e por isso mesmo muito visada por adversários, além dos conteúdos de sua física, ética e canônica, disciplinas principais de seu pensamento, Epicuro e os membros de sua escola viam-se compelidos a opinar em assuntos que transcendiam esse grupo de investigações. É notório o conjunto de opiniões que a escola teria apresentado sobre o lavor poético e a veiculação de mitos; testemunhos de Plutarco, Sexto Empírico, Cícero e outros marcam essa postura como de oposição a essas expressões, oposição essa que certamente encontra respaldo na orientação pela busca pela felicidade por meio da remoção do indivíduo das fontes de perturbação com as quais normalmente essas formas de expressão se associam. Ainda assim, a obra mais apreciada dessa mesma escola, o poema De rerum natura do romano Tito Lucrécio Caro, escrito no século I a.C. é notória por transigir com relação a essas modalidades de expressão \"rechaçadas\" por sua escola. Além dessa aparente transgressão, um outro elemento digno de nota nesse poema é a recusa em se usar um termo apenas para referenciar os átomos, definitivamente singularizado por Epicuro por meio do termo ἄτομος e ocasionalmente retomado também por meio termo σομα pelo autor grego. As opções de cunho estético (uso da forma poética e de elementos míticos) revelam a adesão a um programa didático estabelecido e nos convidam a relativizar a postura epicurista e a buscar elementos mais sólidos que corroborem uma visão não tão sectária como a veiculada pelos críticos da doutrina. De outra parte, a variação vocabular reflete o desenvolvimento do programa didático encampado, no qual se faz uso de posições de outros pensadores (pré-socráticos) a respeito dos componentes essenciais da matéria, posições essas que são convenientemente deturpadas como forma de desqualificar escolas de pensamento ativas e influentes na época de Lucrécio (estoicismo e a academia). Outra função que esse expediente cumpre é a de adiantar ao leitor a explicação de conceitos complexos sobre o atomismo, a partir dos quais a exposição das teses epicuristas possa se dar de uma forma mais rápida e completa.<br>Epicureanism presented theories on physics that can be seen to continue, for the most part, the ancient materialistic thought of the pre-socratics. Even so, it has certainly many original ele-ments on itself so it may be considered to have its own relevance and importance. As it became a well known philosophy in its time, and therefore a constant target for its adversaries, it needed to approach other subjects beyond the contents of its intended fields: physics, canonics and ethics. For this reason, Epicuro and the members of its school were compelled to provide posi-tions on aesthetic matters, even though this was not a primordial object of inquiry. The set of opinions that the school may have presented on subjects such as poetic creation and the propa-gation of myths is well known; testimonies of Plutarch, Sextus Empiricus, Cicero and others mark epicureanism stance as of oppositon to these forms of expressions. This alledged hostility certainly finds endorsement on the guidance for the pursuit of happiness by means of the re-moval of sources of disturbance normally associated with those means of expression. Still the most appreciated work of the epicurean school, the poem De rerum natura by the Roman author Titus Lucretius Carus, writen in the 1st century BC, is notorious for its compromise with regard to those modes of expression \"repeled\" by epicureans. Beyond this apparent violation, another noteworthy element in this poem is the refusal of a single term to mean \'atom\', which was definitively singularized by Epicuro by means of the term ἄτομος and, occasionally referred also by the term σομα. The options of aesthetic matrix (use of the poetical form and mythical elements) disclose Lucretius\' adherence to an established didactic program and invite us to rel-ativize the epicurean position and to search for more solid elements that support a view on aesthetic and mythic matters less sectarian than the one propagated by the critics of the doctrine. On the other hand, the vocabulary variation reflects the development of the didactic program, in that sense Lucretius makes use of positions of other thinkers (pre-socratic thinkers) regarding the essential components of matter. Those positions are conveniently misrepresented so to dis-qualify active and influential schools of thought at the time of Lucretius (stoicism and the Acad-emy). These misrepresentations help Lucretius to guide the reader throught complicated con-cepts and by this mean the exposure of the Epicurean thesis can be performed in a faster and more complete way.
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Williams, Sean 1980. "Silence and phenomenology: The movement between nature and language in Merleau-Ponty, Proust, and Schelling." Thesis, University of Oregon, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/1794/10917.
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viii, 189 p. A print copy of this thesis is available through the UO Libraries. Search the library catalog for the location and call number.<br>The question of the present study concerns the relationship between language and nature as it has been taken up in the history of Western philosophy. The goal of this study is to show how language and nature are held together by thinking the transition between them, through the figure of silence. I will show this by drawing primarily on the work of Merleau-Ponty, who, as a phenomenologist expressly concerned with the senses, the body, and language, attempted to describe and understand the passage between language and nature in a manner that could maintain their ontological continuity. Silence was the hinge of this passage, in which language, in its emergence from the silence of nature, turns back to disclose nature as already expression. Merleau-Ponty's late interrogation into how philosophical language might both emerge from and return to silence turned on the example of Proust's literary language. This study will also draw on Proust's meta-novelistic awakening to his literary calling, as it is recounted near the end of Le Temps Retrouvé, which discusses explicitly how Proust's language makes a turn through silence in order to emerge as literature. This provides an example of the emergence which Merleau-Ponty describes. I will then make the case that Merleau-Ponty's late philosophy can be read as the thinking of being as nature, and that it begins to think how language roots human beings in nature as it blossoms out of nature's soil. I will show how Merleau-Ponty repeats a structure of thought traversed by Schelling in his essay on freedom, which will further show how philosophical attention to language discloses nature as a radical excess. Finally, I will discuss how the negotiation between language, nature, and silence, as it is practiced by Merleau-Ponty, Proust, and Schelling, is another turn in a long story of the human place in language and in nature, a story which is at least as old as the mythical thought of ancient Greece.<br>Committee in charge: Peter Warnek, Chairperson, Philosophy;
Naomi Zack, Member, Philosophy;
Ted Toadvine, Member, Philosophy;
Jeffrey Librett, Outside Member, German and Scandinavian
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Franssen, Trijsje Marie. "Prometheus through the ages." Thesis, University of Exeter, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10871/15889.
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This dissertation explores the role and significance of the ancient Greek myth of Prometheus in Western philosophy from Antiquity to today. Paying particular attention to its moral and existential meanings, an analysis of this in-depth investigation produces an overview of the exceptional array of the myth’s functions and themes. It demonstrates that the most significant functions of the Prometheus myth are its social, epistemic, ontological and moral functions and that the myth’s most significant themes are fire, rebellion, creation, human nature and ambiguity. The dissertation argues that this analysis brings to light meaningful information on two sides of a reference to the Prometheus myth: it reveals the nature, functions, themes and connotations of the myth, while information about these functions and themes provides access to fundamental meanings, moral statements and ontological concepts of the studied author. Based on its findings this work claims that, as in history, first, the Prometheus myth will still be meaningful in philosophy today; and second, that the analysis of the myth’s functions and themes will provide access to essential ideas underlying contemporary references to the myth. To prove the validity of these claims this thesis examines the contemporary debate on ‘human enhancement’. Advocates as well as opponents of enhancement make use of the Prometheus myth in order to support their arguments. Employing the acquired knowledge about the myth’s functions and themes, the dissertation analyses the references encountered. The results of this analysis confirm that the Prometheus myth still has a significant role in a contemporary philosophical context. They improve our understanding of the philosophical argument, ontological framework and ethics of the debate’s participants; and thus demonstrate that the information about the Prometheus myth acquired in this thesis is a useful means to reveal fundamental ideas and conceptualisations underlying contemporary (and possibly future) references to the myth.
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Mitchell, Peter. "The anatomical speaking picture of The Purple Island : an index to anatomy in early seventeenth-century Christian literature, natural philosophy and theology." Thesis, University of Wales Trinity Saint David, 2002. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.683296.
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Lopez-Betancur, Olga del Pilar. "La philosophie tragique chez Clément Rosset : un regard sur le réel." Thesis, Paris 10, 2014. http://www.theses.fr/2014PA100188/document.
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A partir du concept « philosophie tragique », nous proposons une approche de l’ensemble de la philosophie de Rosset, qui a jusqu’ici peu été étudiée en France. Nous envisageons le rapport, dans son œuvre, entre philosophie tragique et esthétique à partir de ses analyses d’œuvres d’art dramaturgiques, littéraires et musicales. Pour ce faire, nous analysons le terme même de tragique, la fortune du drame antique et l’usage que propose Nietzsche de la tragédie pour déterminer la ligne philosophique propre à Rosset. Nous proposons ainsi une cartographie de l’ensemble de son œuvre pour analyser les nouvelles tactiques qu’il met en œuvre pour renouveler l’approche du tragique, et par là, pour évaluer la manière de philosopher singulière qu’il met en œuvre. Analysant dans ses premiers travaux le tragique à travers une analyse de l’événement tragique et de son expérience individuelle, Rosset élargit son champ de réflexion pour faire du tragique l’objet d’une philosophie du réel. Ce tournant dans son œuvre nous amène à penser le tragique non comme une question circonstancielle ou réservée à l’analyse dramaturgique ou esthétique mais comme le programme d’une nouvelle philosophie, qui conteste l’idée de nature, et propose une nouvelle philosophie du réel. En précisant cette philosophie comme « logique du pire », « anti-nature » et philosophie du hasard, nous confrontons ainsi ses ouvrages de la maturité avec son premier geste philosophique, qui détermine la philosophie comme tragique. Cela nous amène à distinguer le tragique de l’absurde et du pessimisme, en insistant sur le rapport paradoxal à la joie qu’il comporte, qui détermine le tragique comme une philosophie de l’approbation. Le rôle que tiennent la littérature et la musique est alors évalué à la lumière de cette nouvelle rencontre, que Rosset nous propose, entre une esthétique de l’artifice et une éthique de l’approbation tragique. Nous espérons ainsi contribuer à l’ouverture en France d’une réception de la philosophie de Clément Rosset<br>Starting from the concept of “tragic philosophy”, we offer a complete analysis of the complete philosophy of Rosset, up to now little studied in France. We contemplate the link in his work between tragic philosophy and the arts, based on his analysis of works of dramatic art, literature and music. In doing this, we analyse even the term ‘tragic’ itself, the fortune of ancient drama and the usage of tragedy proposed by Nietzsche, in order to establish the philosophical approach that belongs to Rosset. We thus present a mapping of the whole of his works in order to analyse the new tactics that he puts to work in order to re-invent the approach to tragic, and in this manner, evaluate the singular manner of the philosopher that he puts to work. Analysing in his earliest works on tragic by means of the tragic event and his personnel experience, Rosset then enlarges his field of reflexion to make tragic the object of the philosophy of reality. This twist in his work brings us to think not of the tragic as a circumstantial question or the reserve of the dramatical or artistic analysis but as the plan for a new philosophy, which contests the idea of nature, and offers a new philosophy of reality. By clarifying this philosophy as the « logic of the worst », « anti-nature » and the philosophy of chance, we thus consider his works with the maturity of his first philosophical gesture that sets out the philosophy as tragic. This method in his work leads us to distinguish the absurd tragic from that of pessimism, whilst insisting on the paradoxical link of the joy that it brings, that determines the tragic as a philosophy of approval. The role played by literature and music is thus evaluated in the light of this new encounter that Rosset proposes to us, between an art of the subtle and the ethics of tragic approval. We hope in this manner to contribute to opening France up to the philosophy of Clément Rosset<br>Esta tesis tiene como objetivo comprender y precisar los términos a partir de los cuales Clément Rosset retoma y reelabora el termino filosofía trágica. Para hacerlo, hemos hecho una travesía que abarca el conjunto de su obra, para así hacer visibles los diferentes estratos que conforman este concepto. En primer lugar, la filosofía trágica de la que Rosset nos habla en sus libros de juventud aparece a une escala humana: él se interroga sobre el acontecimiento trágico y la relación del humano con ese tipo de situaciones. El describe, por tanto, el sujeto trágico que se sorprende cada vez que esas situaciones aparecen. Su elaboración no solamente su nutre y está ligada definitivamente a Nietzsche, sino también a las tragedias antiguas y modernas, reforzando así el lazo entre estética y filosofía. En segundo lugar, Rosset extiende su visión de lo trágico al mundo. Así él nos invita a pensar en la actividad misma de la materia, lo cual implica que no solamente el individuo es trágico sino el mundo en su totalidad. En este momento de la reflexión es necesario precisar que Rosset no comprende lo trágico como el “hecho lamentable”, sino que su visión es mucho mas compleja, puesto él debe entenderse como el “indeterminismo” que acompaña cada acto de nuestra vida y la actividad del mundo en su conjunto. Así una filosofía trágica se dedica a pensar ese ingrediente crucial, el “indeterminismo”, de donde surgen todos los determinismos que vemos y habitamos constantemente: los acontecimientos y los seres (animados e inanimados). En tercer lugar, si Rosset instaura una nueva concepción de lo trágico, ella va permitirle, algunos años más tarde, conducir su reflexión hacia lo “real”. Es así que la palabra “trágico” se diluye, pero no su sentido, el “indeterminismo”, el cual se incrusta en el centro mismo de sus reflexiones sobre lo real. Vemos así como Rosset desliza su pensamiento hacia una filosofía de lo real que por tanto es completamente equiparable a la filosofía trágica de sus primeros libros. Eso no significa que la reflexión de Rosset permanezca estática, todo lo contrario, ella es muy activa - pero guardando una profunda coherencia -, puesto que se dedica a reformular el problema de lo real, esta vez a partir del “indeterminismo”, que aparecerá como la verdadera “naturaleza” de lo real. Finalmente si la filosofía de Rosset se dedica pensar lo real, su solo objetivo es proponernos una reconciliación con lo inmediato, con el empirismo de las cosas que nos rodean. De esta manera su filosofía es una celebración de lo real, la cual también podría leerse como una celebración del “indeterminismo”. Para garantizar mejor nuestra cohabitación con lo real, Rosset la refuerza a través de un campo de sensaciones provenientes de la música y la literatura. Es así que una filosofía de lo real, puede mejor comprenderse por las sensaciones que nos producen estas manifestaciones estéticas. De esta manera Rosset conserva el lazo entre filosofía y estética que habíamos descubierto al comienzo de su reflexión sobre lo trágico
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Andrade, Alexandre de Melo. "A transcendência pela natureza em Álvares de Azevedo /." Araraquara : [s.n.], 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/11449/102379.
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Orientador: Antônio Donizeti Pires<br>Banca: Adalberto Luis Vicente<br>Banca: Karin Volobuef<br>Banca: Jaime Ginzburg<br>Banca: Solange Fiuza Cardosos Yokozawa<br>Resumo: Benedito Nunes, em "A Visão Romântica" (1993, p. 58), afirma que na poesia romântica, "O Eu transcende a Natureza física [...]", pois estabelece com ela um entendimento interno. Sob esse ponto de vista, a Natureza romântica é reveladora, pois exprime a experiência subjetiva do sujeito lírico e contribui para o alcance de uma consciência demiúrgica. Essa poesia referta de analogias será o ponto de partida para a abordagem de um universo onde cada elemento natural seja visto como metáfora de outra realidade superior, intuível pelo projeto poético. Álvares de Azevedo, em Lira dos vinte anos, desenvolve tal intuição panteística, especialmente na Primeira e na Terceira Parte, provocando contraponto em muitos poemas da Segunda Parte, quando substitui a intuição pela dedução irônica do mundo e dos homens. As outras obras do autor nos interessam na medida em que exploram as metáforas do anoitecer, como Macário, Noite na taverna e O Conde Lopo. Porém, entendemos que na Lira, a transcendência pela natureza se realiza mais plenamente, permitindo-nos uma leitura de seus versos por via dessa visada crítica. A intenção da tese é, dessa forma, entender a poética da natureza no jovem autor, de modo que possamos dialogar com a experiência transcendente do sujeito romântico e com os pressupostos da filosofia romântica disseminados a partir do Pré-Romantismo alemão<br>Abstract: Benedito Nunes, in "A Visão Romântica" (1993, p. 58), claims that in romantic poetry, "o Eu transcende a Natureza física" (the 'I' transcends physical Nature) [...]", for it establishes within itself inner understanding. Under this point of view, romantic Nature is revealing for it expresses the biased experience of the lyrical subject, and contributes to reaching a demiurgic awareness. Such poetry fulfilled with analogies shall be the start point for the approach of a universe where each natural element is seen as a metaphor of another superior reality, intuitable by the poetic project. Álvares de Azevedo, in Lira dos vinte anos, develops such pantheistic intuition, especially in the First and in the Third Part, causing a counterpoint in many poems from the Second Part, when he replaces intuition by the ironic deduction of the world and men. The other works by this author interest to us in what they concern the exploitation of the dusk metaphor, as in Macário, Noite na taverna and O Conde Lopo. Nevertheless, one understands that in Lira, the transcendence over nature is lived to its fullest, allowing us the reading of its verses through this critic look. The aim of this thesis is, thus, understand the poetics of nature in the young author in such a way one can dialog with the romantic subject's transcendent experience and also the assumptions of the romantic philosophy spread since German Pre-Romantism<br>Doutor
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Hanan, Rachel Ann 1978. "Words in the world: The place of literature in Early Modern England." Thesis, University of Oregon, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/1794/11156.
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ix, 268 p. : ill. A print copy of this thesis is available through the UO Libraries. Search the library catalog for the location and call number.<br>"Words in the World" details the ways that the place of rhetoric and literature in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries changes in response to the transition from natural philosophy to Cartesian mechanism. In so doing, it also offers a constructive challenge to today's environmental literary criticism, challenging environmental literary critics' preoccupation with themes of nature and, by extension, with representational language. Reading authors from Thomas More to Philip Sidney and Ben Jonson through changes in physics, cartography, botany, and zoology, "Words in the World" argues that literature occupies an increasingly separate place from the real world. "Place" in this context refers to spatiotemporal dimensions, taxonomic affiliations, and the relationships between literature and the physical world. George Puttenham's Arte of English Poesie (1589), for instance, limits the way that rhetoric is part of the world to the ways that it can be numbered (meter, rhyme scheme, and so forth); metaphor and other tropes, however, are duplicitous. In contrast, for an earlier era of natural philosophers, tropes were the grammar of the universe. "Words in the World" culminates with Robert Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy (1621/1651), in which the product of literature's split from the physical world is literary melancholy. Turning to today's environmental literary criticism, the dissertation thus historicizes ecocriticism's nostalgic melancholy for the extratextual physical world. Indeed, Early Modern authors' inquiries into the place of literature and the relationships between that place and the physical world in terms of literary forms and structures, suggests the importance of ecoformalism to Early Modern scholarship. In particular, this dissertation argues that Early Modern authors treat literary structures as types of performative language. This dissertation revises the standard histories of Early Modern developments in rhetoric and of the literary text, and it provides new insight into the materiality of literary form.<br>Committee in charge: Lisa Freinkel, Chairperson, English;
William Rossi, Member, English;
George Rowe, Member, English;
Ted Toadvine, Outside Member, Philosophy
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MacKenzie, Garry Ross. "Landscapes in modern poetry : gardens, forests, rivers, islands." Thesis, University of St Andrews, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10023/5910.
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This thesis considers a selection of modern landscape poetry from an ecocritical perspective, arguing that this poetry demonstrates how the term landscape might be re-imagined in relation to contemporary environmental concerns. Each chapter discusses poetic responses to a different kind of landscape: gardens, forests, rivers and islands. Chapter One explores how, in the poetry of Ian Hamilton Finlay, Douglas Dunn, Louise Glück and David Harsent, gardens are culturally constructed landscapes in which ideas of self, society and environment are contemplated; I ask whether gardening provides a positive example of how people might interact with the natural world. My second chapter demonstrates that for Sorley MacLean, W.S. Merwin, Susan Stewart and Kathleen Jamie, forests are sites of memory and sustainable ‘dwelling', but that deforestation threatens both the ecology and the culture of these landscapes. Chapter Three compares river poems by Ted Hughes and Alice Oswald, considering their differing approaches to river sources, mystical immersion in nature, water pollution and poetic experimentation; I discuss how in W.S. Graham's poetry the sea provides a complex image of the phenomenal world similar to Oswald's river. The final chapter examines the extent to which islands in poetry are pastoral landscapes and environmental utopias, looking in particular at poems by Dunn, Robin Robertson, Iain Crichton Smith and Jen Hadfield. I reflect upon the potential for island poetry to embrace narratives of globalisation as well as localism, and situate the work of George Mackay Brown and Robert Alan Jamieson within this context. I engage with a range of ecocritical positions in my readings of these poets and argue that the linguistic creativity, formal inventiveness and self-reflexivity of poetry constitute a distinctive contribution to contemporary understandings of landscape and the environment.
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Andrade, Alexandre de Melo [UNESP]. "A transcendência pela natureza em Álvares de Azevedo." Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP), 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/11449/102379.
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Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:32:07Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0
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andrade_am_dr_arafcl.pdf: 907081 bytes, checksum: d55068f5398dc682af48c62f607832ad (MD5)<br>Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)<br>Benedito Nunes, em “A Visão Romântica” (1993, p. 58), afirma que na poesia romântica, “O Eu transcende a Natureza física [...]”, pois estabelece com ela um entendimento interno. Sob esse ponto de vista, a Natureza romântica é reveladora, pois exprime a experiência subjetiva do sujeito lírico e contribui para o alcance de uma consciência demiúrgica. Essa poesia referta de analogias será o ponto de partida para a abordagem de um universo onde cada elemento natural seja visto como metáfora de outra realidade superior, intuível pelo projeto poético. Álvares de Azevedo, em Lira dos vinte anos, desenvolve tal intuição panteística, especialmente na Primeira e na Terceira Parte, provocando contraponto em muitos poemas da Segunda Parte, quando substitui a intuição pela dedução irônica do mundo e dos homens. As outras obras do autor nos interessam na medida em que exploram as metáforas do anoitecer, como Macário, Noite na taverna e O Conde Lopo. Porém, entendemos que na Lira, a transcendência pela natureza se realiza mais plenamente, permitindo-nos uma leitura de seus versos por via dessa visada crítica. A intenção da tese é, dessa forma, entender a poética da natureza no jovem autor, de modo que possamos dialogar com a experiência transcendente do sujeito romântico e com os pressupostos da filosofia romântica disseminados a partir do Pré-Romantismo alemão<br>Benedito Nunes, in “A Visão Romântica” (1993, p. 58), claims that in romantic poetry, “o Eu transcende a Natureza física” (the ‘I’ transcends physical Nature) [...]”, for it establishes within itself inner understanding. Under this point of view, romantic Nature is revealing for it expresses the biased experience of the lyrical subject, and contributes to reaching a demiurgic awareness. Such poetry fulfilled with analogies shall be the start point for the approach of a universe where each natural element is seen as a metaphor of another superior reality, intuitable by the poetic project. Álvares de Azevedo, in Lira dos vinte anos, develops such pantheistic intuition, especially in the First and in the Third Part, causing a counterpoint in many poems from the Second Part, when he replaces intuition by the ironic deduction of the world and men. The other works by this author interest to us in what they concern the exploitation of the dusk metaphor, as in Macário, Noite na taverna and O Conde Lopo. Nevertheless, one understands that in Lira, the transcendence over nature is lived to its fullest, allowing us the reading of its verses through this critic look. The aim of this thesis is, thus, understand the poetics of nature in the young author in such a way one can dialog with the romantic subject’s transcendent experience and also the assumptions of the romantic philosophy spread since German Pre-Romantism
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Sennett, Evan James. "Sky Water: The Intentional Eye and the Intertextual Conversation between Henry David Thoreau and Harlan Hubbard." University of Toledo Honors Theses / OhioLINK, 2019. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=uthonors1544635048555133.
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Tredinnick, Mark. "Writing the wild : place, prose and the ecological imagination." Thesis, View thesis, 2003. http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/668.
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In Australia, we have not yet composed a literature of place in which the Australian geographies sing, so in this dissertation, the author goes travelling with some North American writers in their native landscapes, exploring the practice of landscape witness, of ecological imagination. They carry on there,looking for the ways in which the wild music of the land be discerned and expressed in words. He talks with them about the business of writing the life of places. He takes heed of the natural histories in which their works have arisen, looking for correlations between those physical terrains - the actual earth, the solid ground of their work - and the terrain of these writers' prose, wondering how the prose (and sometimes the poetry) may be said to be an expression of the place. This work, in a sense, is a natural history of six nature writers; it is an ecological imagining of their lives and works and places. Writing the Wild is a journey through the light, the wind, the rock, the water, sometimes the fire that makes the land that houses the writers who compose these lyrics of place. Most of what it learns about those writers, it learns from the places themselves. This dissertation takes landscapes seriously. It reads the works of these writers as though the landscapes of which and in which they write might be worthy of regard in understanding the terrain of their texts. It lets places show light on works of words composed within them.
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Monteiro, Regina Maria Carpentieri 1979. "A filosofia do direito em "A cidade do sol", de Tommaso Campanella." [s.n.], 2013. http://repositorio.unicamp.br/jspui/handle/REPOSIP/269932.
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Orientador: Carlos Eduardo Ornelas Berriel<br>Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem<br>Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-22T05:54:12Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1
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Previous issue date: 2013<br>Resumo: O objetivo deste trabalho consiste em examinar A Cidade do Sol, utopia de Tommaso Campanella, redigida em 1602, sob o prisma da Filosofia do Direito. As leis da cidade fundam-se em uma lei eterna, que exprime a arte e a sabedoria divinas. O supremo soberano, Hoh ou Metafísico, detém o poder espiritual e temporal. Ele é ao mesmo tempo governante, cientista e sacerdote. A identificação do conceito de direito em A Cidade do Sol, as fontes das leis da urbe e os princípios norteadores de seu ordenamento jurídico deu se a partir do sistema penal e processual da cidade, dos usos e costumes imaginários dos habitantes, do sistema e forma de governo, das noções de Estado e indivíduo, autoridade e livre arbítrio e propriedade e trabalho. O estudo está dividido em três capítulos. O primeiro apresenta uma breve biografia de Campanella. O segundo trata de A Cidade do Sol e, brevemente, do gênero literário utópico. O terceiro aborda a filosofia jurídica na utopia. Um apêndice é dedicado às noções de lei natural e lei positiva desde o pensamento grego até o renascentista<br>Abstract: The purpose of this dissertation is to examine The City of the Sun, a utopian text written in 1602, by Tommaso Campanella, which considers the Philosophy of Law. The laws of the city lie in an eternal law, which expresses the divine wisdom. A supreme sovereign, Metaphysician or Hoh, holds laic and ecclesiastical powers. He is at the same time a governor, a scientist and a priest. The legal system guiding principles identification was developed based on the solar criminal justice system, on the inhabitants habits and customs, on the system and form of government, on the notions of State and individual, on the free will versus authority, on the working principle and property. The dissertation was divided in three parts. The first chapter is about Campanella's life. The second one examines The City of the Sun and the utopian literary genre. The third chapter discusses the juridical philosophy in Campanella's utopia. An appendix is devoted to notions of natural law and positive law from Greek thought until the Renaissance<br>Mestrado<br>Teoria e Critica Literaria<br>Mestra em Teoria e História Literária
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Marino, Mariana Cristina Pinto. "Fugere urbem et locus amoenus quaerere: uma análise ecocrítica de Marcovaldo ou As estações na cidade, de Italo Calvino." Universidade Tecnológica Federal do Paraná, 2018. http://repositorio.utfpr.edu.br/jspui/handle/1/3127.
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A presente pesquisa propôs a análise de todos os vinte contos que compõem a obra Marcovaldo ou As estações na cidade (2015 [1963]), de Italo Calvino. O foco das análises voltou-se para o protagonista, Marcovaldo, um trabalhador pobre e em permanente estado de desconforto com as mudanças ocorridas no contexto social pós-guerra, especialmente na Itália, no período de seu milagre econômico, que foi impulsionado pelo fim de medidas protecionistas na economia (GINSBORG, 2003). Ao tentar romper com esse cenário, buscando a beleza genuína da natureza, Marcovaldo vê-se experienciando situações que sempre o levam ao descontentamento, intrinsecamente ligado a um novo tipo de relação humana e social, construída a partir não somente da consolidação das sociedades capitalistas modernas, como igualmente da imposição de um padrão único de comportamento à sociedade — a mutação antropológica, como proposto por Pier Paolo Pasolini (1978, 1997). A pesquisa debruçou-se sobre o olhar Ecocrítico (GARRARD, 2006), despertado pela obra em questão, que sugere, a partir da Literatura (e da incorporação de outras áreas como a Sociologia, a Biologia, a Antropologia), o estudo da natureza, suas relações com a mulher e o homem e o refinamento da percepção acerca de questões ecológicas frágeis, captadas com mais afinco a partir da década de 1960 (PIGA; MANSANO, 2015), apesar de as mudanças de perspectiva sobre a sensibilidade em relação à natureza estarem em constante modificação principalmente desde o Iluminismo (THOMAS, 2010 [1983]). A esta pesquisa foram igualmente incorporados pressupostos da Ecosofia (GUATTARI, 2006 [1989]), que sugere um ressignificar de procedimentos e discursos hegemônicos advindos do sistema sócio-político-econômico capitalista. Para tanto, fez-se necessário, conjuntamente, compreender problemáticas concernentes à conjuntura ambiental do século XX e seu impacto sobre as classes menos favorecidas economicamente (BOFF, 1995), assim como assimilar os desdobramentos referentes ao ecologismo dos pobres (via econômica baseada na justiça social), preconizado por Joan Martínez Alier (2014 [2007]), tendo em vista a classe social à qual Marcovaldo pertence. Alicerçada nos princípios descritos, a esta pesquisa coube, portanto, analisar as interações de Marcovaldo e sua família com a natureza e suas possibilidades, suas modificações e incorporação a um efervescente mercado consumidor, com vistas a refletir sobre a crise ecológica (das três ecologias, conforme Guattari) e assinalar hipóteses de superação para a mesma, por meio da apologia de um convívio menos predatório do ser humano relativamente aos outros seres que ao seu lado coabitam na Terra.<br>The present research proposed the analysis of all twenty short stories that compose the book Marcovaldo or the seasons in the city (2015 [1963]), by Italo Calvino. The analyses focused on the protagonist, Marcovaldo, an impoverished proletarian that finds himself in a continuous state of discomfort with the changes that occurred in the post-war social context, especially in Italy during the period of the economic miracle, which was driven by the end of protectionist measures in the economy (GINSBORG, 2003). In trying to break away from this scenario, seeking the genuine beauty of nature, Marcovaldo ends up experiencing situations that always lead him to a discontent that is inextricably linked to a new kind of human and social relationship, built not only on the consolidation of modern capitalist societies, but also on the imposition of a single standard of behavior on society – an anthropological mutation, as proposed by Pier Paolo Pasolini (1978, 1997). The research focused on the Ecocritical approach (GARRARD, 2006), awakened by the object, which suggests the study (incorporating references from areas such as Sociology, Biology and Anthropology to Literary Theory) of nature, its relationship with women and men, and the refining of perceptions about delicate ecological issues, captured more intensively since the 1960s (PIGA, MANSANO, 2015), although the changes in perspective on sensitivity to nature are constantly shifting, mainly since the Enlightenment (THOMAS, 2010 [1983]). This research also integrated the assumptions of Ecosophy (GUATTARI, 2006 [1989]), which suggests a re-signifying of hegemonic procedures and discourses derived from the capitalist socio-political-economic system. In order to do so, it was necessary, jointly, to understand issues related to the environmental context of the twentieth century and its impact on economically disadvantaged classes (BOFF, 1995), as well as to assimilate the consequences related to the environmentalism of the poor, advocated by Joan Martínez Alier (2014 [2007]), in view of the social class to which Marcovaldo belongs. Based on the principles described, this research therefore had to analyze the interactions of Marcovaldo and his family with nature and its possibilities, its modifications and assimilation into an effervescent consumer market, aiming to reflect on the ecological crisis (of the three ecologies, according to Guattari) and point out hypotheses of overcoming it, by means of the apology of a less predatory human conviviality in relation to the other beings that, with them, live on planet Earth.
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Hallengren, Anders. "The code of Concord : Emerson's search for universal laws." Doctoral thesis, Stockholms universitet, Institutionen för litteraturvetenskap och idéhistoria, 1994. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-14223.
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The purpose of this work is to detect a pattern: the concordance of Ethics and Aesthetics, Poetics and Politics in the most influential American thinker of the nineteenth century. It is an attempt to trace a basic concept of the Emersonian transcendentalist doctrine, its development, its philosophical meaning and practical implications. Emerson’s thought is analyzed genetically in search of the generating paradigm, or the set of axioms from which his aesthetic ideas as well as his political reasoning are derived. Such a basic structure, or point of convergence, is sought in the emergence of Emerson’s idea of universal laws that repeat themselves on all levels of reality. A general introduction is given in Part One, where the crisis in Emerson’s life is seen as representing and foreshadowing the deeper existential crisis of modern man. In Part 2 we follow the increasingly skeptical theologian’s turn to science, where he tries to secure a safe secular foundation for ethical good and right and to solve the problem of evil. Part 3 shows how Emerson’s conception of the laws of nature and ethics is applied in his political philosophy. In Part 4, Emerson’s ideas of the arts are seen as corresponding to his views of nature, morality, and individuality. Finally, in Part 5, the ancient and classical nature of Concord philosophy is brought into focus. The book concludes with a short summary.
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Vincent, Manon. "Les animaux dans la littérature hellénistique." Thesis, Paris 4, 2016. http://www.theses.fr/2016PA040225.
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Notre étude porte sur les animaux dans la littérature hellénistique. Nous avons volontairement choisi de travailler sur un vaste corpus afin de mettre en lumière les multiples représentations de l’animal apparaissant dans les textes de la période. La première partie de cette étude est consacrée à l’imagerie animale à travers laquelle les auteurs décrivent les caractères et les qualités de l’homme, exposant, dans une moindre mesure, les rapports analogiques entre les animaux. La deuxième partie s’attache à montrer les relations existantes, symboliques ou réelles, entre l’homme et l’animal. La mise en scène des animaux dans le récit traduit les pratiques et les modes de pensée de la société hellénistique vis-à-vis de l’animal. Quant à la dernière partie de cette étude, elle présente les tentatives d’objectiver les comportements et les qualités de l’animal. En ce sens, elle met en avant l’essor des écoles philosophiques et des sciences de la période par l’approche philosophique et didactique de la nature animale. Au fil des textes, la pensée hellénistique révèle la tension continuelle entre croyance et connaissance, entre représentations culturelles et « données scientifiques » sur l’animal. Si les auteurs conçoivent l’homme comme appartenant au continuum biologique animal, ils s’en démarquent par l’affirmation de sa supériorité d’un point de vue intellectif<br>Our study focuses on animals in Hellenistic literature. We deliberately chose to work on a large text corpus in order to highlight the multiple representations of the animal appearing in the texts of the period. The first part of this study is devoted to animal imagery through which the authors describe the characters and human qualities, exposing, to a lesser extent, the analogue relationship between animals. The second part aims to show existing relationships, symbolic or real, between man and animal. The staging of the animals in the story reflects thepractices and ways of thinking of the Hellenistic society towards the animal. The last part of this study presents the attempts to objectify the behaviours and qualities of the animal. In that sense, it shows the rise of philosophical schools and sciences of the period by the philosophical and didactic approach to animal nature. In texts, Hellenistic thought reveals the continual tension between belief and knowledge, between cultural representations and "scientific data" of the animal. If the authors conceive man as belonging to the animal biological continuum, they stand out by the assertion of their superiority in an intellective perspective
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Roldan, Sébastien. "Poétique du suicide dans le roman naturaliste : natures et philosophies de la mort volontaire (1857-1898)." Thesis, Paris 10, 2013. http://www.theses.fr/2013PA100096.
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Comment les romanciers naturalistes ont-ils raconté le suicide? Quel est le traitement qu’ils ont réservé à ce thème officiellement honni, étant par trop lié aux chimères sentimentales des écrivains de la génération précédente? Loin de faire l’objet d’une condamnation unanime pour romantisme excessif, la mort volontaire essaime partout dans le roman naturaliste, impose sa présence énigmatique et ses valeurs tant polémiques que polysémiques, déploie – sur ce terreau austère qu’est l’écriture expérimentale – sa portée symbolique et heuristique sous la fascination qu’éprouvent ces romanciers devant les grands mystères sublimes et mortifères. Si la conjoncture épistémologique de l’époque fait du suicide une question avant tout médicale, la littérature naturaliste elle-même puise son originalité et ses fondements théoriques dans les sciences de la nature, en particulier la médecine; néanmoins, la mort volontaire se charge, chez les romanciers de cette veine, d’un capital philosophique qui, en tant que savoir et discours extrinsèques au récit, demande à être interrogé avec minutie. Aussi, à partir d’un bassin de douze romans parus entre 1857 et 1898 sous la plume de Gustave Flaubert, Edmond et Jules de Goncourt, Émile Zola, Alphonse Daudet, Guy de Maupassant et Édouard Rod, nous retenons huit problématiques principales, orientées suivant deux axes de réflexion : natures et philosophies du suicide. Tout au long sont sondées les portées spéculative et littéraire de la mort volontaire dans ces œuvres<br>How did the French Naturalist novelists portray suicide? How did they deal with the romantic overtones of self-murder, a theme so strongly linked to the sentimental outbursts voiced by the previous generation of writers? Far from being banned for excessive romanticism suicide, albeit the object of openly expressed disdain by Naturalists, spreads its fiery black wings over much of the theoretically barren land that is the body of realistic novels complying – overtly or unwittingly – with the principles of Le Roman expérimental. The flaming, menacing, and enigmatic shadow thus cast over an intently objective and scientific literature is surprisingly apt at developing both polemic and polysemous fruits, and as it turns out sheds new light under the frightened but eager scrutiny of these novelists who found themselves fascinated by its great mystery, both sublime and deadly. If the state of knowledge at the time made suicide a problem essentially pertaining to medical and natural science, Naturalist literature itself was intent on synchronizing its depictions with the data, approach, and lexicon presented in scientific treatises. Yet suicide in these novelists’ fictions is loaded with a distinct philosophical sense which demands to be studied closely. Twelve Naturalist novels centered around self-murder, covering a forty-year period (1857-1898), stemming from Flaubert, Goncourt, Zola, Daudet, Maupassant, and Rod, serve as main ground for our investigation of eight chief interrogations, following two main orientations: we first review the diverse natures of suicide, then its many philosophies. Throughout are contemplated the literary and speculative reach of voluntary death
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Barnard, Helen. "Nature, human nature and value : a study in environmental philosophy." Thesis, Cardiff University, 2006. http://orca.cf.ac.uk/54314/.
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The main concern of environmental philosophy has been to find value for nature. The thesis is an attempt to link a theory of nature, a theory of human nature and a theory of value, which Andrew Brennan stipulated for a viable environmental philosophy. The problem is set forward in Part I where a definition of nature is explored. The complexity of the task leads to a brief history of the concept of nature (after a criticism of other historical accounts by three environmental philosophers) whereby two opposing explanations of nature and human nature are revealed: teleological and non-teleological. Part II traces the decline of teleological explanation in favour of non-teleological explanations and the development of two main explanations of human nature in relation to nature that are prevalent today: Ultra-Darwinism (a reductionist explanation of human nature) and postmodernism. An analysis of these two positions shows that neither have an adequate metaphysics for finding value for nature, and this is revealed by an examination of two different types of environmental philosophy influenced respectively by the two opposing views. In Part III the problem of values is discussed with particular emphasis on moral values. An argument for objective values based on objective knowledge is put forward as well as a theory of human nature which leads to the conclusion that teleological explanations link a theory of nature, a theory of human nature and a theory of value more satisfactorily than the non-teleological explanations of Ultra-Darwinism and postmodernism. The relevance of this conclusion to the problems of the environment is shown.
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Pegan, Philip R. "The nature of assertion." Related electronic resource: Current Research at SU : database of SU dissertations, recent titles available full text, 2006. http://proquest.umi.com/login?COPT=REJTPTU0NWQmSU5UPTAmVkVSPTI=&clientId=3739.
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Radzik, Linda Christine 1970. "The nature of normativity." Diss., The University of Arizona, 1997. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/288845.
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There is something mysterious, and perhaps even dubious, about 'ought' claims. They seem to exert an authoritative power, a "binding force," over us. The norms of morality are most often said to exhibit such an authoritative force. The "queerness" of this alleged property has led many to moral skepticism. But, normative authority is no less mysterious in the case of the 'oughts' of epistemics, logic or prudence. The questions "Why should I believe the truth? accept deductive inferences? act prudently?" are puzzling in the same way as the more familiar worry "Why should I be moral?" Moral philosophers who have tried to explain the nature of normative authority have most frequently focused their efforts on developing theories of the nature of moral facts, our epistemic access to such facts, or our motivational responses to them. It seems to me that each of these approaches is inadequate to the task of capturing normative force. One may know that it is a fact that stealing is immoral but still wonder whether one should steal. One may feel a strong motivation to be honest without being convinced that there is good reason to be so motivated. We will not clear up the mystery of normative authority by clearing up the metaphysics, epistemology, or motivational efficacy of norms. I contend that normative authority is a matter of justification. A norm is authoritative for an agent if and only if it is justified in a thorough-going sense, which I refer to as "justification simpliciter." I analyze the nature of justification simpliciter by means of an extended analogy with epistemic justification. There is a regress problem with justification simpliciter, and there are foundationalist, coherentist and externalist approaches to solving that problem. I conclude that foundationalist and externalist models of justification simpliciter fail. I then develop a coherentist theory of the nature of normativity, called Reflective Endorsement Coherentism. According to this theory, an agent is justified in accepting norm N as a guide to her action if and only if she can both endorse N upon reflection and reflectively endorse her own practices of endorsement.
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Zakatistovs, Atis. "Hume's science of human nature." Thesis, University of Ottawa (Canada), 1996. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/9839.
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In my thesis I propose a new interpretation of Book I of A Treatise of Human Nature by David Hume. I claim that this Book must be read in the light of the Introduction to the Treatise. Thus, my interpretation revolves around Hume's intention of creating a new system of the sciences on the basis of his science of man. In this thesis I pay close attention to the following subjects: the analysis of the 'vulgar'; Hume's discussion about the impact of predispositions on our ideas; the distinction between the concept of causation and the process of causation. Finally, I discuss Hume's position on the question of the simplicity and complexity of ideas.
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Charette, Pierre. "Nature, reasons, and moral meaningfulness." Thesis, McGill University, 2008. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=21923.
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The "anthropology of moral life", or "moral anthropology", is an approach to moral philosophy which I take to have been initiated by Peter Strawson, and developed, independently and in different ways, by David Wiggins and Daniel Dennett. I take the respective moral anthropologies of Wiggins and Dennett to be complementary, and I propose to synthesize them within a Dennettian framework. The framework involves the definition of a "rationally acceptable language". Descriptions and accounts stated in that language are ontologically interpreted in the light of Dennett's ontology, and the knowledge claims made in the language are assessed in the light of his epistemology, which I take to include a "thesis of anthropocentricity". That thesis, also propounded by Wiggins, confers a vindicatory character to those philosophical accounts to which it is directly related. Thus, both Wiggins' and Dennett's respective moral anthropologies have a strong vindicatory character in regard to common moral life. Moral anthropology shows how the dispositional constitution of the human species "underdetermines" (i.e. conditions and constrains, but does not determine) the standards of correctness by reference to which we morally assess conduct, sentiments and judgments, including judgments about what is "morally meaningful". Wiggins' moral anthropology proposes a largely Humean theory of human nature, as well as an insightful description of morality, and of the "unforsakeable" concerns, motives, purposes, needs, aspirations and expectations that are attached to it, and which as such vindicate it. Dennett's moral anthropology proposes an evolutionary theory of human nature, and relates it to a compatibilist account of moral responsibility, free will, and moral decision-making. Regarding the latter, Dennett emphasizes, given our predicament as limited but committed beings, the importance of deliberation-stopping maxims, which I take to play in his moral anthropology a role similar to that<br>L' "anthropologie de la vie morale", ou "anthropologie morale", consiste en une approche de la philosophie morale initiée, au sein de la tradition analytique, par Peter Strawson, et développée, de façons différentes et indépendantes, par David Wiggins ainsi que par Daniel Dennett. Je tiens les anthropologies morales respectives de Wiggins et de Dennett pour complémentaires, et je propose leur synthèse au sein d'un cadre doctrinal dennettien. Le cadre doctrinal en question inclut la définition d'un langage "rationellement acceptable". Les descriptions et comptes rendus énoncés dans ce langage sont interprétés ontologiquement à la lumière de l'ontologie de Dennett, et les énoncés candidats au statut de connaissance sont évalués selon son épistémologie, dont j'affirme qu'elle inclut la thèse de l' "anthropocentricité". Cette thèse, également défendue par Wiggins, confère aux comptes rendus philosophiques auxquelles elle est directement liée, un caractère de validation. Aussi les anthropologies morales respectives de Wiggins et de Dennett valident-elles toutes deux, en grande partie, la vie morale ordinaire. L'anthropologie morale montre comment la constitution dispositionnelle de l'espèce humaine sous-détermine (c'est-à-dire conditionne et contraint, sans pour autant déterminer) les standards de correction par référence auxquels nous évaluons moralement la conduite, les sentiments et les jugements, y compris les jugements portant sur la "signification morale". L'anthropologie morale de Wiggins propose une théorie largement humienne de la nature humaine, ainsi qu' une description pénétrante de la moralité, et des préoccupations, motifs, buts, besoins, aspirations et expectatives "inaliénables" qui y sont attachés, et qui en tant que tels la valident. L'anthropologie morale de Dennett propose une théorie évolutionniste de la nature humaine, et la relie à un compte rendu compatibiliste de la responsabilité morale, du libr
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Thompson, Bradley Jon. "The nature of phenomenal content." Diss., The University of Arizona, 2003. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/289959.
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There is something it is like to see a bright red cardinal, to touch a stucco wall, or to hear an ambulance pass by. Each of these experiences has a distinctive phenomenal character. But in virtue of what it is like to have a particular experience--in virtue of the experience's phenomenal character--the world is presented to the subject as being a certain way. The dissertation is concerned with the nature of this "phenomenal content". In Chapter One I argue that there is such a thing as phenomenal content, understood as intentional content that supervenes necessarily on phenomenal character. The rest of the dissertation is concerned with the nature of this phenomenal content, and in particular the phenomenal content of visual experiences. In Chapter Two I present and critique the dominant view about phenomenal color content, what I call "standard Russellianism". According to standard Russellianism, the content of color experience consists solely in the representation of specific mind-independent physical color properties. I present an argument against such views based on the possibility of spectrum inversion without illusion. Further, I argue that such views fail to properly accommodate the phenomenon of color constancy. In Chapter Three, I address a different form of Russellian theory of phenomenal content advocated by Sydney Shoemaker. I present my own positive view of phenomenal color content in Chapter Four. There I argue that color content is a kind of Fregean content, involving modes of presentation of colors. In particular, I argue that phenomenal color content involves indexical, response-dependent, and holistic modes of presentation. Finally, in Chapter Five I turn to the spatial aspects of visual experience. I argue against Russellianism for spatial phenomenal content, based on the consideration of a kind of spatial Twin Earth thought experiment. In its place, I argue that spatial phenomenal content is also a kind of Fregean content.
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Sumner, David Thomas. ""Speaking a word for Nature" : the ethical rhetoric of American nature writing /." view abstract or download file of text, 2000. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/uoregon/fullcit?p9986764.
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Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2000.<br>Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes transcripts of interviews with Stephen Trimble, Barry Lopez, Annick Smith, Bill Kittredge, David James Duncan, Don Snow, David Quammen, and Terry Tempest Williams. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 367-373). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.
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Halliday, Robert. "On the nature of value." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1989. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.314954.
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Daly, Christopher John. "Universals and laws of nature." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 1995. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.285097.
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Nudds, Matthew. "The nature of the senses." Thesis, University College London (University of London), 2000. http://sas-space.sas.ac.uk/910/.
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My thesis provides an account of the nature of the senses. Many philosophers have supposed that the fact that we have different senses makes the integration of the senses problematic. In this thesis I argue that introspection reveals our perceptual experience to be amodal or unitary (that is, we cannot distinguish distinct experiences associated with each of our senses) and hence that the real problem is not how the senses are integrated with one another, but how and why we distinguish five senses in the first place. What we need is an account of what our judgements are about when we judge that we are, say, seeing something or some property. I argue that such an account cannot take any of the forms commonly supposed. Philosophers often assume that an account must appeal to differences between kinds of experience, but I argue that such differences are not sufficient to explain the way that we distinguish five senses. Nor can we explain the distinction by appealing to the different kinds of mechanism involved in perceiving, since recent cognitive psychological models of the mechanisms of perception show them to be functionally diverse in a way that undermines any correspondence between them and the five senses, and our common-sense grasp of the different mechanisms involved in perception presupposes a prior understanding of the distinction between different senses. I provide and account of the distinction that we make between the five senses, according to which the senses are not substantially distinct. Although our judgements about the senses are true, they are not judgements about kinds of thing; rather, we distinguish different ways of perceiving in terms of different, conventionally determined, kinds of perceptual interaction we can have with our environment.