The main objective of this study is to make a comprehensive analysis of the question &ldquo / Why is there something rather than nothing?&rdquo / , which is one of the major questions of metaphysics, and to find a plausible answer at the end, if it is possible. To begin this analysis, a clarification of what we understand by this question is needed first. For the clarification, a definition of &lsquo / nothingness&rsquo / will be sought. Afterwards, the motivation for us to ask this question, the significance of it, and the content of it will be investigated. This investigation will help us concentrate on and discuss within the framework of causation and necessity our understanding of &ldquo / contingent beings&rdquo / and &ldquo / nothingness&rdquo / . Two main approaches sought to answer this question till now are by theists and physicists. Those approaches will be discussed and compared. And at the end of the comparative analysis of these two approaches, a metaphysical approach which will be a layer of them will be sought.

Different theories of cognitive science propose different system descriptions in their models for the explanation of cognitive phenomena. According to one view, they are incompatible and competing theories. The view is defended by theorists and philosophers from different perspectives and they all claim that the proper conception of cognition is the conception provided by the theory which they advocate. The other view, on the other hand, insists on the compatibility of those theories. According to this view which is also defended here, these different theories are not only compatible, but also they are complementary. The cooperation of these theories and integration of the conceptions provided by these theories are needed to have a full account of cognition.

The aim of this thesis is to investigate the problems that use of idealizations in science leads to. Idealizations are simplifications and therefore false descriptions of how actual objects behave. Presence of idealizations in scientific theories is the reason for the problems in our understanding of confirmation of theories and also of scientific explanations. Nevertheless, idealizations are ubiquitous especially in natural sciences. Scientists have to employ idealizations because of the complexity of the real world and our limited capacity of computation. The roots of the methodology of modern science are in Cartesian philosophy. I propose that Descartes also employed idealizations in his theory of motion in the universe. Idealized worlds can be regarded as simplifications of the real world. Scientific theories are literally false but they are true in the possible worlds which are similar to the real world. Models provide the connections between idealized laws and the real world. Construction of models of the actual world is based upon idealizations which are indispensable in the theoretical sciences. Theories can be indirectly confirmed by models denoting different aspects of the phenomena.

abstract: This study described the multimodal communication patterns of college students and their parents, and examined how face-to-face and mediated communication frequencies relate to parental idealization and relational quality. Undergraduate students (N = 678) completed an online survey that assessed indicators of idealization (idealistic distortion and positive affect thinking), relational quality (relational/communication satisfaction, and relational closeness), and the frequency of face-to-face and mediated parental communication. Results indicated that average college students communicate with their primary parent 23 times per week, mostly via phone calls, text messaging, and face-to-face interaction. The frequency of mediated communication was positively related to both indicators of idealization and both indicators of relational quality. Moreover, idealization partially mediated the relationship between mediated communication frequency and relational quality. The frequency of face-to-face communication was inversely related to positive affect thinking. Indirect effects were also detected, such that face-to-face communication was negatively related to both indicators of relational quality as a function of positive affect thinking. Finally, this study examined whether students experience different levels of parental idealization and relational quality depending on whether their parent is geographically close or geographically distant, and whether they reside with their parent. Results indicated that students who live geographically distant from their parent experienced greater levels of idealization and relational quality than did student who live geographically close to yet separate from their parent, who reported greater levels of idealization and relational quality than students who live with their parent. These results were interpreted using concepts from interpersonal, family, and computer-mediated communication. Limitations and directions for future research were discussed. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Communication 2012

Orientador: José Luiz Guimarães / Banca: Lucia Helena Tiosso Moretti / Banca: Wilka Coronado Antunes Dias / Resumo: O número crescente de separações vem aumentando consideravelmente, mas as pesquisas mostram que ao contrário do que se pensa, que o casamento é uma instituição falida, o que as pessoas buscam é fazer sua história de amor ser bem sucedida, mesmo que seja um recasamento, o que prova que esta é a área de maior significado na realização pessoal. Porém, o casal está constantemente sendo confrontado por duas forças: o amor idealizado, fantasiado, desejado, influenciado pelo peso que o amor romântico tem sobre as relações contemporâneas, assim como a influência dos Contos de Fadas e o amor real, que se revela ao deparar-se com a intimidade que a convivência traz, as falhas de cada um, a rotina e os conflitos que a vida a dois pode provocar. A proposta deste trabalho é investigar o ideal e o real presente no pensamento das mulheres sobre o casamento, verificando as fantasias e expectativas femininas, bem como perceber se a idealização do casamento pode conviver com o casamento real. A pesquisa foi fundamentada no referencial psicanalítico, compreendendo os caminhos para a escolha do companheiro, perpassando pela influência da transmissão psíquica e da história de vida. As participantes da pesquisa são cinco mulheres de uma mesma família, de três gerações, no estado de Mato Grosso do Sul. A coleta de dados foi feita através de entrevistas gravadas, transcritas na íntegra e orientadas por um roteiro semi-estruturado. Os resultados se apresentam construídos sobre categorias pré-estabelecidas, como a história de vida e a história do casamento de cada entrevistada, como vêem o casamento dos pais e dos avós, suas opiniões sobre o casamento, as alegrias e tristezas que... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: The crescent number of separations has been increasing considerably, but research shows that contrary to what you think, that marriage is an institution bankrupt, what people seek is to love its history of success, even a remarriage, which proves that this is the area of greatest significance in personal achievement. But the couple is constantly being confronted by two forces: the idealized love, fanciful, desired, influenced by the weight that romantic love is on relations contemporary as well as the influence of Tale of fairies of love real, which is to encounter with the intimacy that brings together, the flaws of each of the routine and conflicts that life can lead to two. The purpose of this study is to investigate the ideal and the real thinking in this women about marriage, noting the women's fantasies and expectations, and realize that the idealization of marriage can live with real marriage. The research was based on psychoanalytic reference, including the paths to the choice of companion, passing through transmission by the influence of psychological and history of life. The participants of the research are five women from the same family, it's three generations in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul. Date collection was record through interviews, transcribed in full and guided by a semi-structured guide. The results have been built on pre-established categories such as the history of life and history of the marriage of each interviewer, like you see the marriage of parents and grandparents, their views on marriage, the joys and sorrows that the marriage has brought it, identification women, the influence of Tales of fairies and future prospects and after analysis of each topic, presents itself considerations that answer to the questions raised is proposing to search the object of study. / Mestre

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:29:01Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2008-10-17Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T19:17:06Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 damasceno_erm_me_assis_prot.pdf: 644849 bytes, checksum: ce431fbd4fa791d7dbc0f8be3d9cf688 (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / O número crescente de separações vem aumentando consideravelmente, mas as pesquisas mostram que ao contrário do que se pensa, que o casamento é uma instituição falida, o que as pessoas buscam é fazer sua história de amor ser bem sucedida, mesmo que seja um recasamento, o que prova que esta é a área de maior significado na realização pessoal. Porém, o casal está constantemente sendo confrontado por duas forças: o amor idealizado, fantasiado, desejado, influenciado pelo peso que o amor romântico tem sobre as relações contemporâneas, assim como a influência dos Contos de Fadas e o amor real, que se revela ao deparar-se com a intimidade que a convivência traz, as falhas de cada um, a rotina e os conflitos que a vida a dois pode provocar. A proposta deste trabalho é investigar o ideal e o real presente no pensamento das mulheres sobre o casamento, verificando as fantasias e expectativas femininas, bem como perceber se a idealização do casamento pode conviver com o casamento real. A pesquisa foi fundamentada no referencial psicanalítico, compreendendo os caminhos para a escolha do companheiro, perpassando pela influência da transmissão psíquica e da história de vida. As participantes da pesquisa são cinco mulheres de uma mesma família, de três gerações, no estado de Mato Grosso do Sul. A coleta de dados foi feita através de entrevistas gravadas, transcritas na íntegra e orientadas por um roteiro semi-estruturado. Os resultados se apresentam construídos sobre categorias pré-estabelecidas, como a história de vida e a história do casamento de cada entrevistada, como vêem o casamento dos pais e dos avós, suas opiniões sobre o casamento, as alegrias e tristezas que... / The crescent number of separations has been increasing considerably, but research shows that contrary to what you think, that marriage is an institution bankrupt, what people seek is to love its history of success, even a remarriage, which proves that this is the area of greatest significance in personal achievement. But the couple is constantly being confronted by two forces: the idealized love, fanciful, desired, influenced by the weight that romantic love is on relations contemporary as well as the influence of Tale of fairies of love real, which is to encounter with the intimacy that brings together, the flaws of each of the routine and conflicts that life can lead to two. The purpose of this study is to investigate the ideal and the real thinking in this women about marriage, noting the women's fantasies and expectations, and realize that the idealization of marriage can live with real marriage. The research was based on psychoanalytic reference, including the paths to the choice of companion, passing through transmission by the influence of psychological and history of life. The participants of the research are five women from the same family, it’s three generations in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul. Date collection was record through interviews, transcribed in full and guided by a semi-structured guide. The results have been built on pre-established categories such as the history of life and history of the marriage of each interviewer, like you see the marriage of parents and grandparents, their views on marriage, the joys and sorrows that the marriage has brought it, identification women, the influence of Tales of fairies and future prospects and after analysis of each topic, presents itself considerations that answer to the questions raised is proposing to search the object of study.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:29:03Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2004-04-05Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T19:58:36Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 ruprecht_r_me_assis.pdf: 758592 bytes, checksum: 2468a6b13617d94afdff966bcdbd1525 (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / No alvorecer da psicanálise, Freud estabelece a noção da natureza humana como fendida, clivada, fundando uma nova noção de realidade psíquica, na qual a descoberta da verdade está relacionada à verdade do desejo inconsciente, e a religião seria uma ilusão desejante, a transformação de um passado idealizado num futuro cambiante, prenhe de um desejo em constante metamorfose. No patamar da religião, essa supervalorização do ideal, diante da desvalorização do real, remete o sujeito a um estado de infantilização pelo pensamento mágico-infantil. Na presente pesquisa, foram analisados quatro sujeitos, estudantes de teologia protestante, em cujas entrevistas foram analisados alguns aspectos relacionados ao desamparo e à idealização religiosa, integrantes basilares da sua dinâmica vocacional /profissional, no contexto de um Seminário Teológico protestante. As análises nos permitem afirmar que o sentimento religioso se mantém por seus vínculos com as figuras paternas idealizadas, que confirmam a fantasia infantil de plenitude que diminuem o sofrimento imediato, mas infantilizam o sujeito, ao invés de buscarem sua superação, como proposto pela psicanálise. Supõe-se que a superação dessa condição humana não implica necessariamente na remissão total do sofrimento psíquico, mas na capacidade do sujeito em adquirir uma suportabilidade capaz de tolerar a falha... / At the dawn of psychoanalysis, Freud determines the notion of human nature as split, creating a new notion of psychic reality in which the truth discovery is related to the truth of unconscious desire and the religion would be a desirable illusion, the change of an idealized past into a convertible future, full of desire in constant metamorphosis. According to religion, this overestimate of ideal, beside the depreciation of reality, refers the person to a state of infantilism through the magic-infantile thought. Four students of Protestant Theology were analyzed in this study. The data were collected through interviews and some aspects related to both helplessness and religious idealization, which ones can be considered basilar integrants of their vocational/professional dynamics, in the context of a Protestant Theological Seminary were analyzed. The results showed that the religious feelings are supported by their ties with the idealized paternal figures that confirm the child fantasy of completeness through which the immediate suffering is decreased, but they make the person a child rather than seeking their overcoming as proposed by psychoanalysis. It is assumed that the overcoming of this human condition does not mean the person is protected against the total psychic suffering, but it results in person's capacity of supporting, being able of tolerating the fault, failure and helplessness without them representing a very hard threat to their psychic structure. Therefore, the constitution of religious feelings follows both given intra-psychic and external social determinism that... (Complete abstract, click electronic access below)

From the Bazaar to the Family: A Critical Approach to Rortyan Political ‘Idealizations’”. Richard Rorty’s political work has united, in a unique narrative, the social hopes of liberal egalitariasm with the philosophical anti-essentialism of postmodernism. As a consequence, when Rorty’s political philosophy justifies” the institutions of liberal democracy it does not appeal to metaphysical or transcendent fundamentals firmly established; however, it does appeal to idealizations, to narrative constructions that allow emphasizing those componentsof our political practices that we think are worthy and minimize those that we think are secondary. This article analyzes two of the idealizations used by Rorty to summarize the purposes of his liberal democracy: Kuwaiti bazaar -images of the separation between public and private sphere- and of the family -archetype of the relations that should be promoted in liberal societies. These narratives resources not only express the nature of his political project but also show the limitations at the moment of realizing his main objective: the expansion of solidarity. / La obra política de Richard Rorty ha reunido, en un único tejidonarrativo, las esperanzas sociales del igualitarismo liberal con las exigencias filosóficas del antiesencialismo posmoderno. En consecuencia, al momento de justificar” las instituciones de la democracia liberal, la filosofía política rortyana no apela a fundamentos metafísicos o trascendentales firmemente establecidos, sino más bien a idealizaciones, esto es, a constructos narrativos que permiten enfatizar aquellos componentes de nuestras prácticas políticas que creemos valiosos y minimizar aquellos que consideramos prescindibles. En el presente trabajo, analizaremos dos de las idealizaciones utilizadas por Rorty para resumir los propósitos de su democracia liberal, a saber, la del bazar kuwaití –imagen dela escisión entre las esferas pública y privada– y la de la familia –arquetipo de las relaciones que han de promoverse en el marco de las sociedades liberales–. Entendemos que tales recursos narrativos no solo expresan la naturaleza de suproyecto político, sino que dan cuenta de sus limitaciones al momento de realizar su objetivo fundamental: la expansión de la solidaridad.

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[pt] Esta tese consiste na realização de uma investigação acerca dos conceitos de sublimação e idealização em psicanálise, com o intuito de verificar a hipótese de que ambas participam do processo de constituição da cultura. Para tanto, sugerimos que, no texto freudiano, a cultura é concebida como uma resposta à condição inexorável de desamparo e que sua constituição depende da renúncia à satisfação pulsional. Embora a sublimação seja o destino pulsional que tradicionalmente é associado à construção da cultura, propomos que também a idealização participa deste processo. Tanto a sublimação quanto a idealização atenderiam à renúncia pulsional exigida pela cultura, mas enquanto a sublimação renunciaria aos objetivos iniciais da pulsão a partir da dessexualização, a idealização apenas inibiria meta original da pulsão. A partir disso, sugerimos que na atualidade observa-se, por um lado, um declínio da atividade sublimatória e, por outro, um aumento da idealização. / [en] This thesis proposes an investigation about the concepts of sublimation and idealization in psychoanalysis, in order to verify the hypothesis that both participate in the constitution of culture. Thus we suggest that, in the Freud s text, culture is conceived as a response to the inexorable condition of helplessness and that its constitution depends upon the renunciation of instinctual satisfaction. Although sublimation is the instinctual vicissitude that is traditionally associated with the construction of culture, we propose that idealization also participates in this process. Both sublimation and idealization comply with the instinctual renunciation required by culture, but while sublimation renounces to the initial aims of the drive through desexualization, idealization only inhibits the original aim of the instinct. Finally, we suggest that the dynamics of contemporary society allow for the hipotesis of, on one hand, a decrease in sublimatory activity and, in the other hand, an increase of idealization.