Submitted by Marilene Donadel (marilene.donadel@unioeste.br) on 2017-11-07T18:52:31Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Willian_C_Kuhn_2017.pdf: 760801 bytes, checksum: 78300a5c770a1d87d077e80adea6ae0b (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-11-07T18:52:31Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Willian_C_Kuhn_2017.pdf: 760801 bytes, checksum: 78300a5c770a1d87d077e80adea6ae0b (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-05-23 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / This work aims the investigation of the relationship between metaphysics and science using the popperian concepts of metaphysical realism and the metaphysical research programs. The place of metaphysics was reevaluated throughout the developments of popperian philosophy and changed the situation of excluded from the domain of science, by its non-testability at first, to be incorporated directly into the scientific methodology at second. A cause for this is that Popper thought the methodology is not empirical, but possibly metaphysical and normative, besides the realism, while metaphysical in nature, and non-testable, is open to criticism. The philosopher thought the methodology of science saying that induction must be rejected as a characteristic method of science and replaced by falsifiability, whose assumption is that universal theories are accepted as conjectures, considering the fallibility of our knowledge. We see that Popper, in developing his falseationist theory of method he accepted the correspondential truth theory due to the understanding that it was the only well suited option to the falsifiability and its metaphysical realism and had no choice but admitting the problems arising as a mystery. Popper didn´t realize that in doing so he created problems for the rest of his own philosophy, especially for the thesis of knowledge as a human invention. Thus it seems that popperian realism and its presupposition of natural laws seems to have been sustained by the belief in the connection of this with the latent aim of science, which is in his point of view the search for truth. But it seems this conception of truth, as Caponi (1996) also pointed out, can be understood as an idealization of rational acceptance, which seems to be an acceptable internalist alternative as more compatible with falseasionism and, at the same time, as an outline of difficulties arising from the metaphysical commitments of popperian realism. We understand that the defense of realism for Popper is also motivated by the attempt to avoid one of the negative ethical consequences of solipsism that is the human suffering. At this point we see the metaphysical programs of investigation seemmingly occupying the function of the methodology in terms of their programmatic character. Therefore, the methodology will depend on a metaphysics. We see that a reasonable explanation for this shift in Popper's perspective of metaphysics is the understanding that criticism regulates both metaphysics and empirical science. Thus, the demarcation that makes sense at all is that between criticisms and non-criticism, that is, falsification is not a strict criterion make possible the idea about the influence of metaphysics in science. The predominance of criticism over knowledge allows imaginative theories such as some metaphysical programs to provide content-rich insights and contribute on problems selection and its interpretation. Criticism, therefore, is the link between metaphysics and science. / O presente trabalho tem como objetivo a investigação da relação entre metafísica e ciência utilizando os conceitos popperianos de realismo metafísico e programa metafísico de investigação. O lugar da metafísica foi reavaliado ao longo dos desenvolvimentos da filosofia popperiana e passou da condição de excluída da esfera da ciência, pela sua não testabilidade em um primeiro momento, para ser incorporada diretamente na metodologia científica em seguida. Um motivo para pensarmos isso é o fato de Popper ter constatado que a metodologia não é empírica, mas possivelmente metafísica e normativa, além de o realismo, apesar de ter caráter metafísico, e não ser testável, ser criticável. O filósofo pensou a metodologia da ciência no seguinte sentido: a indução deve ser rejeitada como método característico da ciência e substituída pela falseabilidade, cujo pressuposto é de que as teorias universais são aceitas como conjecturas, considerando a falibilidade do nosso conhecimento. Entendemos que Popper, ao desenvolver sua teoria falseasionista do método, aceitou a tese da verdade como correspondência por entender que era a única opção compatível com a falseabilidade e seu realismo metafísico e não teve outra opção senão admitir os problemas decorrentes como um mistério. O que Popper não percebeu é que, ao fazer isso criou problemas para o restante de sua filosofia, sobretudo para a ideia do conhecimento como invenção humana. Assim nos parece que o realismo popperiano e seu pressuposto de leis naturais, parece ter sido sustentado pela crença da vinculação deste com o objetivo latente da ciência, que é, para ele, a busca da verdade. Mas essa concepção de verdade nos parece, conforme Caponi (1996) também assinalou, pode ser entendida como uma idealização da aceitação racional, a qual parece ser uma alternativa internalista aceitável como mais compatível com o falseasionismo e, ao mesmo tempo, como um contorno das dificuldades decorrentes dos compromissos metafísicos do realismo popperiano. Entendemos que a defesa do realismo para Popper é motivada também pela tentativa de evitar uma das consequências éticas negativas do solipsismo, a saber: o sofrimento humano. Em torno dessa discussão, pensamos que os programas metafísicos de investigação parecem ocupar a função da metodologia, por terem o caráter programático. Assim sendo, a metodologia dependerá de uma metafísica. Entendemos que uma explicação razoável para essa mudança da perspectiva popperiana sobre a metafísica é entender que a crítica regula tanto a metafísica quanto a ciência empírica. Portanto, a demarcação que importa realmente é entre teorias criticáveis e não criticáveis, ou seja, a falseabilidade não é um critério rigoroso e permite pensar a possibilidade de influência de uma metafísica na ciência. A predominância da crítica sobre o conhecimento permite que teorias ricas em imaginação como alguns programas metafísicos possam fornecer intuições ricas em conteúdo e contribuir na seleção de problemas e na interpretação destes. A crítica, portanto é o elo entre a metafísica e a ciência.

Orientador: Marcelo Siqueira Ridenti / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-25T10:01:01Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Almeida_EmilianoCesarde_M.pdf: 1750416 bytes, checksum: da8e6ce96421f593db033c0ae16625af (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014 / Resumo: O romance S. Bernardo, de Graciliano Ramos, foi publicado em 1934. A narrativa é determinada pelo fechamento da consciência humana à compreensão dos elementos qualitativos e sensíveis da realidade. Assim como todo valor se transforma ¿ ilusoriamente ¿ em valor-de-troca, toda relação humana se transforma destruidoramente ¿ numa relação entre coisas, entre possuído e possuidor. Este é o mundo do protagonista, Paulo Honório, que guia suas ações no sentido sempre da obtenção da vantagem. Ao longo do desenrolar da trama, é possível inferir uma correspondência entre o mundo de S. Bernardo e o conceito de reificação, sistematizado por Georg Lukács na obra História e Consciência de Classe. Tomando como ponto de partida desta dissertação o próprio romance, o conceito de reificação surge, enquanto categoria analítica, tendo em vista o aprofundamento da compreensão e do debate sobre o universo de S. Bernardo. O empreendimento de elaboração da estrutura do romance foi bem sucedido porque garantiu a organicidade dos elementos da obra, ou seja, cada traço adquire sentido em função de outro, o que garantiu a verossimilhança, o sentido da realidade. Esta unidade entre conteúdo e forma é o elemento decisivo da verdade dos seres fictícios, o princípio que lhes infunde vida. Eis o porquê da caracterização de S. Bernardo como um romance realista / Abstract: Graciliano Ramos¿ novel, S. Bernardo, was published in 1934. The narrative is determined by the closing of human¿s consciousness to the understanding of reality¿s qualitative and sensitive elements. As all value becomes - deceptively - in exchange-value, every human relationship is transformed destructively ¿ in a relation between things, between possessor and possessed. This is the protagonist Paulo Honório¿s world, who guides his actions in order to always obtain advantage. Throughout the course of the plot, it is possible to infer a correspondence between S. Bernardo¿s world and the concept of reification, systematized by Georg Lukács in his work History and Class Consciousness. Taking as starting point of this dissertation the novel itself, the concept of reification emerges as an analytical category, aiming to deep the understanding and debate about S. Bernardo¿s universe. The project of developing the novel¿s structure was successful because it ensured the organic elements of the work, ie, every line makes sense in terms of another, what ensured the likelihood and the sense of reality. This unity of content and form is the key element of the truth of fictitious beings, the principle that infuses them life. Here's why S. Bernardo is characterized as a realist novel / Mestrado / Sociologia / Mestre em Sociologia

Context. Simulation of nature is something that is used to immerse the player into the world of games. By adding details in the world such as birds circling in the sky or small fishes swimming in a flock, developers can improve the gaming experience for the user. More precise simulations are something that should be aspired for. This thesis will explore the boid flocking algorithm and evaluate what settings users perceive as realistic behavior for simulating schools of fish. Objectives. This thesis proposes that there should be a set of variables that reflect a more realistic behavior and through gathering data from volunteers and mapping their answers, conclude if that statement is true. Methods. A boid simulation will be run in a number of different scenarios, each differing in variables that are vCohesion, vSeparationand vAmount that make changes to the overall behavior. This behavior is then recorded and compared next to each other in a perceptual experiment with the objective of finding out the preferred settings interms of realism. Results. The experiment showed that the preferred value of vSeperation was around 50 to 60 world units. The value of vCohesion and vAmount was random to what was perceived, so their impact on realism was not significant enough. Conclusions. After running the experiment it was apparent that there was a preferred value on some of the variables that were examined. The larger impact on realism was in the distance each boid wanted to keep from its neighbor, the vision range of each boid defined what was considered a neighborhood. The range on this variable was not of much importance and did not impact what the user perceived as realistic.

The Kosovo conflict has for a long time been the subject of debate, research and controversy. NATO's and US's role in the conflict has been seen differently from different perspectives. Serbia opposes the US and NATO`s involvement by claiming the right to the principle of non-intervention and accusing them of occupying an independent country. The United States and NATO claim that the Belgrade regime has lost the right to rule Kosovars because of the treatment they were subjected to. The United States and NATO claim that the war was about humanitarian intervention, aimed at saving Kosovo`s people from ethnic cleansing. This case study aims to find out the main causes of military intervention and understand how two of the classical theories, Liberalism and Realism can explain NATO`s role, in particular the United States main reason for intervention. This study shows that Nato and USA interfered in the conflict for two main reasons, firstly because of humanitarian reasons and to save Kosovo`s people and secondly to prevent that the conflict would spread to other balkan countries.

In this thesis I give a response to external world scepticism. I first argue that scepticism arises when we accept that it is an empirical question whether I am in a sceptical scenario, that is, a scenario in which my beliefs are coherent, and yet my empirical beliefs are false. The idea that it is an empirical question whether I am in a sceptical scenario gets its plausibility from the realist claim that our empirical beliefs have an objective subject matter. I then attempt to give a response to scepticism that is compatible with this realist claim. Three promising responses to scepticism are considered, but are found to be inadequate. Seeing why these responses are inadequate helps us to appreciate some of the conditions on an adequate response to scepticism. By drawing on the work of Donald Davidson I develop a response to scepticism that is compatible with the realist claim, and that meets these conditions. According to this response, when we get clear about the concept of belief we see that sceptical scenarios are a conceptual impossibility. Thus, just as it is not an empirical question whether I am a married bachelor, it is not an empirical question whether I am in a sceptical scenario, and the argument for scepticism breaks down.

The topic of this dissertation is the alliances of a regional power. The framework used to explain this central aspect of International Relations is the realist one, and particularly the work of the Classical Realist Arnold Wolfers. The regional, state and domestic dimension are integrated in order to provide an “updated realist” interpretation of alliances, why states form them, maintain them or break them. This dissertation seeks to recover the concept of state's goals that was central to Classical Realism and then “abandoned” when Neorealism became the dominant Realist paradigm. The case studies used in this research is Syria during the 1970-1989 phase and particularly five pivotal relations: the Egypt 1973 war alliance, the 1978 failed détente with Iraq, the 1979 Damascus-Tehran alliance, the regional client-superpower alliance with the USSR and finally the relation with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. By analysing Syria's foreign policy and particularly these five relations this dissertation show how a framework based on realism provides a coherent and insightful interpretation of a regional power's foreign policy.

This thesis is a project of intellectual history which focuses on the development of notions of power and the nation-state in realist thought. The main aim of the thesis is to offer a comprehensive account of how different conceptions of power in the work of various realist thinkers influence their perceptions of the nation-state. Although both power and the state are considered as central to realism, their connection has not been adequately discussed and remains largely implicit. The thesis aims at illuminating such a connection. The authors under examination are both key realist thinkers and representative of the diversity of realist thought as well as of the development from classical to structural realism. As such, the thesis focuses on the works of E.H. Carr, H. Morgenthau (as classical realists), J. Herz (as a transitional figure) and J. Mearsheimer (as a structural realist). The thesis engages with each realist’s theory in a three-step process. First, it analyses their conceptualisation of power and the role it plays in their ontological and epistemological assumptions. Then, using that conceptualisation of power as a starting point, it discusses its impact on the way the realist under examination understood the nation-state. Finally, the way the aforementioned realists engaged with the foreign policies of given nation-states is employed as an illustration of their theoretical framework. The thesis identifies a close interplay between power and the nation-state in all realists examined. Power plays a central role in each realist’s ontology and as such influences profoundly the way they conceptualised the nation-state. The latter can thus be approached as a manifestation of power which is unfixed in time. The realists examined approach the state as a historically conditioned entity. As such, it is argued that it is power that constitutes the core analytical category of realism rather than the state whose very conception is dependent upon that of power. In terms of the development of realism, a process of gradual narrowing down of the concept of power from classical to structural approaches is observed. The multifaceted conception of power advanced by early realists is abandoned in favour of an approach which understands power as material capabilities. While this approach is compatible with a scientific vision of politics as manifested after the second debate it reduces significantly realism’s analytical purchase both in understanding power and the nation-state. This is evident in the precarious balance that neorealists have to attain when theorising nationalism, the ideological corollary of the nation-state, which can more fully be accounted for by classical realists. Finally, by removing power from the field of epistemology, structural variants of realism lack the reflexivity of earlier realists and as such find it difficult to engage in foreign policy debates without compromising the core assumptions of their theory. The thesis is structured as follows: In the introduction, the thesis is put in the context of existing literature on realism and the way questions of power and the nation-state have been addressed in the past. Questions of methodology and selection of authors are also addressed in the introduction. The following four chapters are dedicated to analysing the theories of the selected realists. The concluding section summarises the findings and main argument of the thesis.

"Retro" is a novel which attempts to depict the psychological reality of the spiritually isolated individual characterized in traditional gothic novels, in this case the alienated individual in the contemporary American South. The novel follows the doctrine set down by Roland Barthes, Frank Kermode, and other postmodern critics, which holds that, as Kermode puts it, "all closure is in bad faith." Therefore, rather than offering resolution to the problems and events presented in the text, the novel attempts instead to illustrate the psychological effects its main character experiences when confronted with a world that offers only irresolution and uncertainty. The novel's strategy is to depart from conventional, realistic modes of narration and to adopt instead certain characteristics of satire, surrealism, and the type of grotesque often associated with the gothic novel.

Magister Philosophiae - MPhil / The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) was negotiated to stop the proliferation of nuclear weapons, resulting from the dangers associated with the use of these weapons well visible during 1945, in Hiroshima and Nagasaki and a nuclear arms race as seen during the Cuban Missile Crisis. During NPT Review Conferences, held every five years, the strength and integrity of this treaty is tested. Evident in NPT review conferences is the disagreement between nuclear weapon states and non-nuclear weapon states over the role and importance placed on nuclear weapons and the slow pace of nuclear disarmament. The NPT has been in force for over 40 years; however the threat of nuclear weapons still exists. It then becomes necessary to understand what role the NPT plays in the international system, which differs depending on the theoretical lens used to interpret the NPT. A realist perspective of the NPT reveals that this treaty is an instrument used by dominant states to safeguard and legitimise their hold over nuclear weapons, while denying other states access to these weapons, instead protecting their allies through extended nuclear deterrence. A liberal perspective of the NPT highlights the moral influence of this treaty as an instrument for the benefit of the greater good, to shield humanity from the dangers of a nuclear explosion by delegitimizing nuclear weapons, key to shaping the perceptions of the decision makers of states regarding state security and nuclear weapons particularly. A constructivist interpretation of the NPT argues that this treaty is a social construction by states to impose a measure of order in their relations. At particular times in history, the NPT moves between a realist and liberal interpretation based on critical events that inform its direction. Social agents (decision makers of the state) through their thinking and ideas construct and give meaning to “reality” which is constantly negotiated. With that in mind, no interpretation of the NPT is fixed and for that reason, a constructivist conclusion seems ultimately applicable, namely that the NPT is what states make of it.

This critical realist thesis seeks to understand how student, graduate and professional identities emerge in Emergency Medical Science (EMS) students at a South African University of Technology (UoT) as well as in professional paramedics in the Emergency Medical Care Services (EMCS). It further considers the construct of graduate attributes (GAs) and its relationship to emergence of identity and influence on curriculum design. The research design is that of a case study. The theoretical framework is critical realism whose depth ontology posits three domains of reality. Causal powers and generative mechanisms exist in the Real domain which cause events or phenomena to emerge in the Actual domain that are experienced in the Empirical domain. Using retroduction one may come to explore some of the causes for the event. Using Bhaskar’s concepts of identity, the self, absence and emergence, ontology and four-planar social being, a Bhaskarian explanatory framework of identity to explore the emergence of identity has been created. In exploring graduate attributes, a critical realist question is posed: “What must the world be like for GAs to exist” to explore the possibilities of the existence of GAs. It was found that student identity emerges diachronically in three moments, while professional paramedic identity starts to emerge during the third year of study mainly through the structure, culture and agency of workplace-based learning. In answer to the critical realist question it was found that GAs emerge from the neoliberalist commodification of universities. In seeking an alternative to GAs, traits and attitudes were explored. It was found that these emerge from curriculum, interplay of departmental structure, culture and agency of and from students’ being which makes them ontologically radically different from GAs. This study concludes that student, graduate and professional identities emerge from a person’s core constellational identity diachronically within four-planar social being and the interplay of structure, culture and agency. GAs cannot be related to the emergence of identity and curriculum design because of their ontology; however, if traits and attitudes are substituted for GAs, a close relationship does exist between emergence of identity, traits and attitudes and curriculum design.