published_or_final_version / abstract / Humanities / Master / Master of Philosophy

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects and persuasive mechanisms of expository and narrative HPV vaccine messages targeted toward young men. The researcher used the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s HPV facts for men as a framework for the expository message condition. He also created two similar but distinct narratives that focused on HPV and men. The first narrative was informed by narrative persuasion studies in the social sciences and was labeled the academic narrative. The second narrative incorporated important elements of storytelling from literary theory and was labeled the classic narrative. A comparison condition, which presented a testimonial from a testicular cancer survivor, was also employed to compare against the effectiveness of the three experimental conditions. In the experiment, 258 men ages 18-26 were assigned randomly to the expository, academic narrative, classic narrative, or comparison conditions. Outcome measures related to the persuasive effects of the messages were attitudes toward talking to healthcare providers about the HPV vaccine and receptiveness to the HPV vaccine. Outcome measures related to the persuasive mechanisms of expository messages were argument strength, source credibility, and emotional arousal. Outcome measures related to the persuasive mechanisms of narrative messages were perceived realism, transportation, identification, and emotional arousal. Hypotheses predicted that argument strength and source credibility would predict changes in knowledge, attitudes, and vaccine receptiveness in the expository condition, whereas perceived realism, transportation, and identification would predict similar changes in the narrative conditions. An additional hypothesis predicted that emotional arousal would affect the persuasion process differently in the expository and narrative conditions. Results indicated that transportation, identification, and emotional arousal were stronger in the narrative conditions, but these variables did not predict persuasive outcomes. Conversely, perceived realism and source credibility had unexpected persuasive effects in both expository and narrative conditions. Implications of the findings and directions for future research are discussed.

Motivated by the lack of scholarship surrounding female characters in Gabriel Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude, I sought to examine the distinct identities of four female characters. The collapse of dualities and embodiment of hybridity in Ursula, Pilar Ternera, Amaranta, and the Remedios women reveals the hegemonic power structures that are disrupted by these empowered women. The exploration of these women and their relationships to gendered dichotomies points to the potential of their identities in enacting colonial resistance and reclaiming traditional cultural heritage.

China’s successful test of a direct ascent anti-satellite (ASAT) weapon last year marks a highly significant development in the strategic use of outer space and represents a milestone achievement in China’s quest to develop asymmetrical anti-access and area denial strategies to counter the ability of the United States military to operate effectively in the Western Pacific. However, the reckless manner in which the test was conducted, producing as it did a historic amount of dangerous space debris, and the unresponsive and duplicitous manner in which the Beijing government dealt with (or failed to deal with) the diplomatic fallout produced by the test have led scholars to speculate that the test was the result of one of the following: 1) a desire to challenge the U.S. dominance in space, 2) an effort to force the issue of space weapons arms control to the diplomatic forefront, or 3) a diplomatic blunder resulting from bureaucratic “stovepiping” and miscommunication. However, these three viewpoints, while all providing valuable insights into Chinese decision-making, fail to fully develop the topic and leave key questions unanswered. The purpose of this study is to link the questions raised by the aforementioned typologies and achieve a deeper level of analysis vis-à-vis the application of the theoretical prism of offensive realism. Ultimately this study finds that the ASAT test represents a top-level decision made by the Chinese leadership, and was informed by a number of strategic and domestic-political factors, none of which bode particularly well for the future of U.S.-Chinese relations. / China’s successful test of a direct ascent anti-satellite (ASAT) weapon last year marks a highly significant development in the strategic use of outer space and represents a milestone achievement in China’s quest to develop asymmetrical anti-access and area denial strategies to counter the ability of the United States military to operate effectively in the Western Pacific. However, the reckless manner in which the test was conducted, producing as it did a historic amount of dangerous space debris, and the unresponsive and duplicitous manner in which the Beijing government dealt with (or failed to deal with) the diplomatic fallout produced by the test have led scholars to speculate that the test was the result of one of the following: 1) a desire to challenge the U.S. dominance in space, 2) an effort to force the issue of space weapons arms control to the diplomatic forefront, or 3) a diplomatic blunder resulting from bureaucratic “stovepiping” and miscommunication. However, these three viewpoints, while all providing valuable insights into Chinese decision-making, fail to fully develop the topic and leave key questions unanswered. The purpose of this study is to link the questions raised by the aforementioned typologies and achieve a deeper level of analysis vis-à-vis the application of the theoretical prism of offensive realism. Ultimately this study finds that the ASAT test represents a top-level decision made by the Chinese leadership, and was informed by a number of strategic and domestic-political factors, none of which bode particularly well for the future of U.S.-Chinese relations.

The central argument of this text is that the liberal subject is constitutively rather than coincidentally or contingently exclusionary. From this initial premise, I explore the conceptual and practical inadequacies of liberal articulations of multicultural justice, many of which I argue can be traced back to this exclusionary subject. When making this critique, I frame my analysis around the scholarship of Canadian philosopher Will Kymlicka, whose articulation of a distinctly liberal defense of the value of cultural belonging has shaped much of mainstream theoretical debate on multiculturalism both within Canada and elsewhere. Although Kymlicka’s work has faced a multitude of critiques from within and without liberal theory, he is widely recognized as the most prominent liberal defender of multiculturalism, and his work has been particularly influential within related discussions of national unity, multicultural accommodation, and national identity in Canada. I have chosen, then, to focus my critique of liberal multiculturalism on Kymlicka specifically for two reasons. Firstly, due to his prominence within the field and, secondly – and more importantly – because of the instrumental relationship between subject and culture which Kymlicka defends throughout his work. Despite this critical focus, what is primarily at stake in such a project is a rearticulation rather than a rejection of multiculturalism. While my arguments are based fundamentally on a critical interrogation, and ultimately a rejection, of liberal articulations of multicultural justice, within my project I also offer an alternative model of multiculturalism conceived as a vital form of epistemic cooperation. Such an alternative defense of multiculturalism is rooted in a commitment to the value of everyday experience, a more dialectically formed and culturally embedded sense of self, and finally, a critical and substantive awareness of context, both contemporary and historical. In making this positive case for a more radical form of multiculturalism expressed through intercultural dialogue/negotiation and a widening of the public sphere, I challenge dominant understandings of the value of multiculturalism defended within liberal theory and the mainstream of Canadian Political Science (CPS). / Thesis (Ph.D, Political Studies) -- Queen's University, 2013-05-29 14:51:51.628

This master thesis examines commercial video games and their relation to the concept of immersion and realism. Games as a communicative medium is quite a new area of interest within rhetorical research in Sweden. Most of the research conducted has, however, been focused on gaming and formation on opinion – games that explicitly tries to persuade the player, unlike commercial games that focus on entertainment, that is. But that does not mean that commercial games cannot influence us. From time to time we can read about video games in the press and the discussions they generate. Most recently, China has banned the Swedish video game Battlefield 4 when Chinese government officials was claiming that the game portrays the Chinese military in an unfair manner. Thus we seem to ascribe meaning to the things that happen to us in the digital world, and that what happens in the digital world also has effects in the physical world, which the example clearly implies. With all the advanced gaming consoles today, I often find that game journalists and game developers in many contexts are talking about realism and immersion as two concepts that make up a good gaming experience. But what is realism and immersion: what does it mean and how do they relate to each other, and what kind of rhetorical impact do they really have on the player in the game? Although there is more research about commercial games and rhetoric in an international context, there is no one to my knowledge that has been exploring the concept of immersion and realism in games in this way. In this essay I argue that it is crucial to understand immersion and realism in order to fully understand the video game medium and its persuasive aspects. By examining three popular games Battlefield 4, Grand theft auto V, and The last of us, and by applying the theories of Nelson Goodman and Kenneth Burke to my examination, my aim is to increase the understanding of the effect of realism and immersion in games. I find that there are several ways that rhetoric can help us in understanding the two concepts. Both realism and immersion could be seen as something that enables the creation of identification within the realms of gaming. My suggestion is that we should understand realism as something that is enabled by the use of symbols and that it is enabled through the use of procedures in gaming. While my other suggestion is to perceive immersion as something that transfer the player from the couch and into the game world through argumentation and narrative. Both realism and immersion is something that make the player feel that he or she is one with the characters, the events and the story in the game.

Mind and World is written in a Wittgensteinian spirit. It is a work whose aim is to address a specific philosophical discomfort. John McDowell diagnoses a tension between the urge for what he describes as 'minimal empiricism' and its apparent impossibility. Minimal empiricism is defined as the idea that constraint is exercised on our thought by the world through experience. In his view, minimal empiricism stands in tension with the fact that conceptually unstructured impressions can have no rational bearing on our beliefs and judgements. This tension forces an oscillation between two equally unattractive positions: the Myth of the Given and coherentism. McDowell's aim is to dissolve this apparent tension which he sees as resting on the more basic assumption of a dualism between reason and nature. Through his invocation of 'second nature' he aims to present a naturalised Platonism in which man's occupation of the space of reasons can be seen as an aspect of his animal nature, not as something essentially alien to us. The thesis starts by outlining McDowell's attempt to escape the oscillation he detects between the Myth of the Given and coherentism. In Chapter One, the content of Mind and World is briefly laid out. The underlying dualism of reason and nature on which the oscillation is said to rest is considered and the resources he employs in his attempt to escape it discussed. These resources include his metaphysical rejection of sideways-on accounts of understanding. The second chapter reinforces the first by isolating and defining a number of key concepts in McDowell's picture. The material discussed here is largely drawn from works other than Mind and World. Three key assumptions are isolated: the rejection of sideways-on accounts of understanding, the de re nature of singular thought and the fully conceptual nature of experience. These assumptions are shown to play a pivotal role in his philosophy by considering his work on Aristotle and Descartes. McDowell aims to provide a 'therapeutic dissolution' of the oscillation between the Myth of the Given and coherentism. In order to be successful it must meet (at least) three criteria which emerge from his writings. These criteria are discussed alongside attempts by other philosophers to escape the oscillation that McDowell detects. The third chapter develops, in broad outline, the argument of the thesis. Two lines of thought are traced from the three central elements of McDowell's view identified in the second chapter. The first stems from his rejection of sideways-on accounts of understanding, whilst the second arises from the object-dependence of singular thought. The picture in Mind and World incorporates what Julian Dodd has termed a 'modest identity theory of truth'. Put simply, an identity theory states that facts are true propositions, and the theory is modest if facts are taken to be composed of senses. McDowell himself explicitly accepts that his picture is committed to a modest identity theory, though its exact nature is unclear from his writings. McDowell's semantic externalism appears to provide an account in which singular senses are object-dependent. Thoughts are composed of these senses, and so are dependent on objects in the world for their content. One would expect that facts too (which are true possible thoughts) would be object-dependent. After all they are composed of object-dependent entities, namely senses. Such a position encourages the idea that objects are explanatorily independent of facts. In Kit Fine's terminology, propositions about objects 'ground' propositions about senses. However, this idea stands in tension with McDowell's rejection of sideways-on accounts of understanding. He claims that the world is composed of facts and that reality does not exist beyond the conceptual realm. Such a position suggests that objects exist only derivatively from their role in facts: "objects figure in the world by figuring in facts, which are true thinkables" [McDowell (1999a) p94. My italics]. In other words, that propositions about facts 'ground' propositions about objects. Since 'grounding' is an asymmetric notion, there is a tension in McDowell's picture which needs to be resolved. Chapter Four examines McDowell's Kantian account of objects. Objects are derived from facts. McDowell is not committed to a substantial semantic externalism in which, when we investigate whether our terms have a reference, we look at the world to see whether there is an object corresponding to our sense of the term. Instead, McDowell's semantic externalism is truistic: once a sense appears in a fact, no further questions can be asked about the reference of the term. The sense's figuring in a true possible thought ensures that there is a reference. There can be no sense without reference because objects are derived from facts (which are true possible thoughts). The conception of objects that McDowell offers, however, fails to sustain important common-sense realist intuitions. Looked at as an account of empirical objects (rather than formal objects, such as mathematical ones), there are deficiencies which can be brought out. His account can be challenged on the grounds that it is unable to allow that sapient and sentient environments have a common ontology. The discussion is framed as a dialogue between a common-sense realist and a McDowellian thinker. This provides for responses to the reasoning to be considered at every appropriate point. These responses are, in the end, not sufficient to allow his account to meet the realist intuitions. He has therefore failed to provide an account based on mere reminders of common-sense truisms. His account of objects is revisionary and must be either replaced or defended by positive arguments. The quietist's claim that only negative arguments are needed to defend his position is undermined once the position abandons common-sense realism. In Chapter Five the focus shifts back to the overall argument laid out in Chapter Three. It might be thought that McDowelPs particular conception of objects is a peripheral error. If this were the case, since his basic account has not been shown to abandon common-sense realism, his revisionary conception of objects could simply be dropped. This line of thought is countered. I present the arguments of two commentators to show the strength of my objection. Mark Sainsbury argues that McDowell should not maintain a substantial form of semantic externalism if he stands firm to his rejection of sideways-on accounts of understanding. Ruth Millikan argues that McDowelPs commitment to a substantial form of semantic externalism stands in tension with his account of sense, which is a central element in his rejection of sideways-on accounts of understanding. The tension which concerns these commentators needs to be addressed. The conception of objects considered in Chapter Four is required. It provides McDowell's explanation of how his rejection of sideways-on accounts of understanding is consistent with his semantic externalism. The final chapter concludes the argument of the thesis. It is shown that McDowell's theory (as it stands) fails to meet his therapeutic aspirations. In particular he has failed to meet two of the three therapeutic requirements attributed to him in Chapter Two. His conception of objects is revisionary and his picture does not avoid the appearance of an insurmountable problem in world-directed thoughts. Its failure to provide for common-sense realism means that he can no longer avail himself of the quietist strategy which disavows the need to provide positive arguments for its conclusions. Therapeutic dissatisfaction with his picture is the result. The argument of this thesis is then located within a broader philosophical landscape.

This thesis examines the theory and practice of humanitarian intervention in the early post-Cold War era. Taking as its basis US policy towards Somalia, Rwanda and Haiti between 1992 and 1994, it develops a theory of humanitarian intervention based on constructivist and scientific realist principles. Using identity as the organising concept, the thesis examines the meta-theoretical precepts of constructivism and scientific realism, which are developed into a methodology for analysing questions of foreign policy. Incorporating critical insights from sequential path analysis, morphogenetic social analysis - the notion of a dynamic mutual constitution of structure and agency - and constructivist social theory, the case studies provide a useful new means of conceptualising humanitarian intervention as a foreign policy practice through an identity-driven analysis. The findings of the research shed much light on this practice and its future prospects. They also suggest new directions for a scientific realist/constructivist research agenda.

This thesis explores the origins and evolution of European integration through the lens of classical realism. Classical realism, as an approach to International Relations, has had little to say about one of the most fascinating and politically important developments in the post-war international system, namely the effort by Western European states to integrate economically from the 1950s onwards. Grounded in classical realism’s ontology of power and the desire by states to secure autonomy and exert influence in the international system the thesis argues that a combination of military power, economic power, and power over opinion can explain the main contours and dynamics of integration. At the core of the argument is the idea of ‘Three Europe’s’ – Protected Europe, Confederated Europe, and a Europe of States – which have coexisted in a stable equilibrium for most of the post-war era. Protected Europe is grounded in both the military power and capacity of the United States and the national interest of the United States, remarkably static from 1945 onwards, to play a hegemonic role within the European military and security sphere. It was Protected Europe that created the military security and stability necessary for Western European states to pursue economic integration. It altered the guns versus butter trade-off and permitted Western European states to invest more in their welfare states. Most importantly if resolved the security dilemma that had existed between the most powerful states on the continent, France and Germany, and created a context in which their interaction shifted to one of intensive cooperation. The product was Confederated Europe. The logic at the core of Confederal Europe was a desire by France to bind Germany, and consent by the Germans to be bound. This was done for a variety of reasons. Internally the concern was to exert as much control over Germany as possible and Germany’s long-term national interest – to secure normalisation, independence, and reunification – complemented this urge. Externally the concern was to secure autonomy in the global economic system and to project power and influence within that system. But the components of the confederation remained distinct nation states and thus a Europe of States existed in an often uneasy tension with Confederal Europe. The fault line between a supranational economic structure and a political structure still tied to the states created intermittent tensions and political earthquakes that have punctuated the history of post-war Europe. However, throughout the period the European masses formed a permissive consensus vis-à-vis integration and, given the rather limited and technical nature of the confederation, this minimised the inherent tension between Confederal Europe and the Europe of States. All three Europe’s are, at the beginning of the twenty-first century, in a state of flux. The decline in the relative power of the United States, and the rise of new challenges in the Asia-Pacific, has triggered a strategic pivot away from Europe and a weakening of the commitment to Protected Europe. How Europe will manage this shift remains unclear but a more prominent European leadership role in NATO or a rejuvenated and more focused European security and defence policy seem necessary. The historical balance between a France that wished to bind and a Germany that consented to be bound has shifted palpably. More willing to act as a ‘normalised’ power in the European system, Germany has emerged as a clearly dominant actor and this will require a shift in the diplomatic practices of a European system that has become used to France leading and Germany both following and supplying the supporting economic power. If Confederal Europe is to survive it must accept stronger German leadership. Finally the permissive consensus at the mass level is being eroded as European integration touches upon ever-more salient policy spheres. This means that the power of the idea of Europe has to be strengthened and entrenched more firmly, thus diluting the prominence of the Europe of States, or integration must retrench to bring its competences back into line with its legitimacy.

This collection consists of a critical preface and five short stories. The preface analyzes what it terms 'fringe fiction,' or stories dealing with elements that are improbable or unusual, though not impossible, as it distinguishes this category from magical realism and offers guidelines for writing this kind of fiction. The short stories explore themes of attachment, loss, guilt, and hope. Collection includes the stories "Portrait," "Dress Up," "Change," "Drawn Onward, We Few, Drawn Onward," and "Broker."