This study explores the implications of misogyny in the virtual and physical worlds. The 2014 GamerGate scandal shed light on the immense violence to which female gamers and gaming entertainment consumers are so frequently exposed to. Minecraft is the most played mass online multiplayer game in the world with over 100 million copies sold. The open gameplay mode of Minecraft and the non-linearity of the objective of the game has grown into a lush ground for violence, as there are seldom physical or virtual repercussions for verbal violence online. Gendertrolling has become a pastime within the gaming world on its own and focuses on specifically targeting women and ranges from benign jokes to violent threats of rape and murder. There seems to be a feeling of lack of physical world consequences for those that keep women from fully participating online. By drawing upon the concept of digital dualism, this study discusses the implications of being exposed to online threats online and women’s self-regulation and ways of navigating the hostility of the online gaming world.

Many in the Christian tradition accept three theological affirmations: (TA1) That bodily resurrection is not a superfluous hope of afterlife; (TA2) There is immediate post-mortem existence in Paradise; and (TA3) There is numerical identity between pre-mortem and post-resurrection human beings. Many of the same Christians also accept a robust doctrine of The Intermediate State, a paradisiacal disembodied state of existence following the biological death of a human person. I say The Intermediate State makes TAs 1 – 3 an inconsistent set. So, given these TAs, I say that there is no such thing as The Intermediate State and, therefore, it should be jettisoned from Christian theology. Chapter 1 aims to show that, if the TAs are true, Christian theology should jettison The Intermediate State. This is because The Intermediate State specifically undermines TA1. Along with The Intermediate State, Christian theologians should jettison the metaphysics of substance dualism. This is because substance dualism, a metaphysics that The Intermediate State requires, is either false or unmotivated. Substance dualism is false because, minimally, it conflicts with an argument St. Paul lays out in 1 Corinthians 15. And, even if it did not, it lacks motivation for Christian theology because there is no The Intermediate State. In Chapter 1, I advance theological arguments along these lines. If the arguments go through, Christian theology needs a way coherently to speak about afterlife that does not make use of these errant views. If TAs 1 – 3 are true, substance dualism is either false or unmotivated, and The Intermediate State does not obtain, Christian theology requires an amended metaphysics of human persons and an amended metaphysics of time. I attempt to offer such things in Chapters 2 – 5. Chapters 2 and 3 are given over to investigating physicalist and constitution metaphysics of human persons. I find the range of views wanting for a number of philosophical and theological reasons. Chapter 4 is an explication and defense of a hylemorphic metaphysics of human persons and a sustained argument against some leading hylemorphic conceptions that insist the soul of a biologically dead human person can survive the death of the body. Lastly, Chapter 5 offers a theory of time that completes the project’s goal: a coherent metaphysics within which a human person’s death is immediately followed by her eschatological (future) bodily resurrection so that the three TAs are an affirmed and consistent set.

Thesis advisor: Robert G. Murphy / Income inequality is an issue of moral, ethical, and economic concern. Disparity in levels of wealth and income in developing countries prevents poor individuals from enjoying the same opportunities as their wealthier counterparts, and hinders the prospects for future development. FDI is one among several possible culprits responsible for increasing income inequality. As a representative of foreign control and influence in developing economies, some countries are wary of FDI. On the other hand, FDI brings the promise of jobs, technology spillovers, foreign exchange, and economic growth. Previous studies have explored the effects of FDI on income inequality in developing countries, but they have all relied on FDI data that does not distinguish between direct investment destined for the primary, secondary, and tertiary sectors. This study uses sectorally disaggregated FDI data for a sample of developing countries over the years 1990-2005 in an attempt to discern whether sector-specific features play a role in affecting domestic income inequality. While this study fails to find the FDI variables significant, it does find much support for other possible causes of income inequality, such as population growth rate and levels of urbanization within a country. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2007. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: International Studies. / Discipline: College Honors Program.

In this thesis I (1) identify some problems in the Popperian scientific method; (2) develop, as an alternative, and to a level of usability, a phenomenological method of knowing; (3) use this method to make a series of inferences about the nature of the human self; (4) compare and contrast my inferences with those of other scholars working on the same themes; and (5) let some of my inferences suggest ways of developing the method further. I show (1:1) how the scientific method is underpinned by a paradigm of ontic dualism; (1:2) how this paradigm has led to a certain conception of the human self; and (1:3) how this conception has led to the normalization of harmful ways of acting in the world, and thus to a planet made up of living beings who cannot find a steady fit with each other's life-ways. I develop an alternative method by building on the work of (2:1) Goethe, (2:2) Holdrege, (2:3) Ellis and (2:4) Heidegger. In essence this method consists of recalling and making inferences from one's experience. (3:1) I undertook a set of six activities (sometimes spoken of as 'Sufism'). (3:2) I try to understand my findings in the light of the ideas of four scholars: the teacher who leads these activities, Murshid Saadi, eleventhcentury polymath ibn Sina, anthropologist Tim Ingold and philosopher David Abram. (3:3) I make fifteen inferences about the human self, falling into seven themes: monism, mood, willing, perceiving, speaking, growing, and substantiveness. (4) Comparing and contrasting my conclusions with those of other scholars suggests that they are valid. (5) I develop the method further by incorporating into it the delineation of classes of phenomena and the delineation of patterns of phenomenal change. I end by discussing some implications for ethical human life-ways.

The purpose of this paper is to exam the philosophical development of Emanuel Swedenborg's doctrine of correspondence and to note some of the more important parallels between Swedenborg's doctrine and the three contemporary most debated theories concerning the mind-body problem. These three theories was pre-established harmony, its opponent physical influx and finally occasionalism. Especially occasionalism has close connections to Descartes' dualism, but neither pre-established harmony or physical influxus, which in some ways can be dated before Descartes, would have looked the same, if it were not for the Cartesian way of thinking. Also Swedenborg initially inherited major influences from Descartes and that is the first approach in this paper. From there on the paper follows the development of the doctrine of correspondence and the parallels according Swedenborg's more contemporary philosophical writers, until Swedenborg gets to a point where he underwent a profound spiritual crisis and turned his focus on an all together theological approach.

WISP is a forest that requests a reconsideration of the human relationship to nature and to the woods. It beckons the spirit and threads the supernatural through the everyday. The forest installation is comprised of drawings, sound, and suspended inorganic and organic objects that create an intimate entanglement and engages the body and senses. This paper reflects the experiences and the philosophies that led to this installation.

Mental causation between the material and the immaterial has been problematic for interactionist substance dualism ever since its first major proponent René Descartes. The contemporary philosopher Jaegwon Kim believes he has found an argument that shows exactly why an immaterial event cannot be said to cause a material event; he calls this the pairing problem argument. This thesis will argue that there is actually sufficient empirical evidence to suggest that Kim’s argument is unsuccessful due to one of its premises being false. Furthermore, this thesis will also argue that interactionist substance dualism is actually a philosophically viable alternative, and lastly ways are sketched of how one might go about constructing such a view responsibly.

Defining art has been one of philosophy of art’s biggest projects. However, no definition offered has achieved to account for all objects we consider art. In this paper, I argue that normative dualism, an unjustifiable Western prejudice for the mental, plays a big part in this failure. The division between fine art and utilitarian and “low” art has been perpetuated because the former is associated with the mental processes involved in its appreciation and, thus, considered more valuable. Theories of art also tend to exclude production (a physical process), concentrating mostly on the appreciation of art (a mental process). Ridding theory of the bias of normative dualism, by abolishing the division that sets fine art apart as more valuable and writing theory that takes art production into consideration, is the only way art theory will succeed in accurately describing art objects.

This manuscript serves as a path through memory, through time and through experiences that have brought me to a personal understanding of death and dying and the immaculate resonance of the spirit. Tracing my way through my first experiences with death and loss, I dissect my emotional and physical journey towards complete solace and serenity facing tragedy and heartbreak. My work embodies my philosophy of maintaining a connection to loved ones through memory and through recording.

Denna uppsats är en undersökning av ett antal smärtpatienters erfarenheter av Feldenkraislektioner med särskilt fokus på strategier informanterna tillägnat sig för att förflytta sig ut ur en smärtfylld värld. Smärta och smärterfarenheter analyseras utifrån ett fenomenologiskt perspektiv som inte skiljer smärtan från den som har den.