A posição filosófica chamada de externismo semântico caracteriza-se pela tese segundo a qual a individuação do conteúdo de estados mentais deve recorrer a fatores que não podem ser localizados na região geralmente circunscrita pela noção mesma de mente. Tal tese implica, em todo caso, que a suposta interioridade da vida psicológica não se basta para tornar inteligível as condições de possibilidade que o pensamento conceitual requer. Assim, se fatores externos aos indivíduos são vistos como desempenhando uma contribuição decisiva na própria determinação de seu conteúdo mental, isto é algo que torna necessário compreender em que sentido mente e mundo podem ser tomados como intrinsecamente relacionados. A aposta teórica do presente trabalho é a de que apenas uma concepção da individuação liberada dos grilhões substancialistas permite fornecer um solo ontológico fértil para uma teoria externista do conceito. Daí que a noção de triangulação, que Donald Davidson forjou para dar conta de alguns fatores cruciais na gênese da conceitualidade, seja lida a partir de filosofias que ressaltam o caráter decisivo da vida como referencialidade fundamental do conceito. Logo, é na ordem vital que se busca dissolver os impasses ligados à origem da normatividade e à dualidade entre interno e externo, oposição a partir da qual a subjetividade desde muito tempo tem sido pensada. / The philosophical position called semantic externalism is characterized by the thesis according to which the individuation of the content of mental states must make reference to traits that cannot be placed inside the sphere usually circumscribed by the very notion of mind. Such a thesis implies, anyway, that the supposed interiority of the psychological life is not enough to make intelligible the conditions that conceptual thought requires. If factors external to individuals are seen as entertaining a decisive contribution in the very determination of their mental content, that is makes it necessary to understand in what sense mind and world can be taken as intrinsically related. The theoretical bet of the present thesis is that only a conception of individuation free from the substantialist commitments can provide a fertile ontological ground to an externalist theory of the concept. In this sense, the notion of triangulation, that Donald Davidson has forged to explain some crucial elements in the genesis of conceptuality, is read from the standpoint of philosophies that highlight the decisive character of life as fundamental referentiality of the concept itself. So, it is in the vital order that some deadlocks concerning the origins of normativity and the inner outer duality structural opposition under which from a long time subjectivity is thought upon, are dissolved.

The aim of this thesis is to increase our ontological understanding of musical works in two ways. We’ll increase our understanding of their categorial nature and we’ll increase our understanding of what the identity of each musical work consists in. In chapter 1, I introduce the basic question of the thesis: what are musical works? This question is broken down into four separate questions which guide the structure and argument of the thesis. One question asks if musical works exist, the other asks about the ontological category to which musical works belong. In the first half of the thesis, I argue that musical works exist and that the best explanation of their features is given by assigning them to the category of universals. I argue for this conclusion by elaborating and defending a view according to which musical works are properties. I then show that this conception is superior to the strongest rivals. One rival takes musical works to be historical individuals (Rohrbaugh 2003). The other takes them to be actions of composition (Davies 2004). In chapter 6, I turn to two questions about identity. One question asks about the identity criteria for musical works, the other question asks for an explanation of musical work identity. In the remainder of chapter 6, I argue by reference to contextualist intuitions that a superficially appealing view, sonicism is problematic. The critique of sonicism is used to draw out certain contextualist assumptions that our ontology of music ought to explain. In chapter 7, I examine a family of Levinsonian contextualist proposals. I argue that the original formulations (Levinson 1980) give incorrect results, and that attempts to modify them (Davies, S: 2001) slip into obscurity, or undermine the aims of the project (Levinson 1992). I end chapter 7 by presenting the performance theory in a more flattering light. I argue that as a theory of musical work identity, the performance theory is the best on the market because it overcomes the problems associated with the Levinsonian views and deepens our understanding of contextualist intuitions. In chapter 8, I present an account of the ontology of music which integrates the property theory of category with the performance theory of identity by construing musical works as impure relational properties. I then defend the integrated account against various objections. In this defence, I elaborate a view of compositional actions as belonging to the ontological category of processes.

Mémoire numérisé par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.

Universities in South Africa are currently undergoing mergers. Intended for commercial gain, mergers rarely accommodate the psychological milieu of staff. Similarly, the majority of studies conducted with respect to university mergers adopt a quantitative approach. This study adopts a qualitative approach and locates the researcher within the epicentre of the research, using a case study, with the researcher as unit of analysis. The lack of merger studies that focus on the experiences of minority groups, including women, prompted me, as researcher, to adopt a feminist approach to conduct this study in the context of the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University merger. A Jungian gendered view, which endorses the personal experiences of minority groups, explored the connection between organisational change and concomitant opportunities for psychic growth. The primary purpose of this study was to explore the presence of the Wild Woman archetype during a university merger. The data that made up this study were contained in my field notes, research journal and a wall montage. An analysis of the qualitative data and a comparison of Jung’s archetypal theory and Pinkola Estés’ theory of the Wild Woman archetype, enabled the researcher to find evidence of the presence of the Wild Woman archetype during the university merger. The secondary purpose of the study was to document the findings which could act as a spoor which other women could follow on their journey towards connecting with their own Wild Woman archetype. The limitations of this study, and recommendations for future research are also offered.

According to Jung, the individuation process is a spiritual transformation through which the individual attains the maturity of his personality. This process requires the incorporation of subconscious material to the conscious life. The unconscious, though personal, is according to the famous psychologist full of images and archetypes that conform what Jung called the “collective unconscious”, which transcends the personal and expands inter-culturally through time and space. This is the perspective used in the present study of Soldados de Salamina (2001), a novel by the Spanish writer Javier Cercas. The hero of this story that combines fiction and reality travels from the present time into the past of his country, the Spanish Civil war, with the purpose of understanding. This immersion in time parallels another one in his psyche through which he deepens into the collective unconscious of the Spanish people. As a result, we have the vital, spiritual and psychological voyage of a man that stars the narration from a chaotic state to finally emerge innerly renovated and mature. By virtue of this transformation, we witness the hero’s process of individuation. Soldados de Salamina returns to the mystery of the ix unconscious and becomes the narration of a voyage of a human being from his deepest psyche, both as a universal and a particular man, towards his conscience. Comprehension is ultimately the engine of a novel that revisits the Spanish past in order to heal inner wounds.

Wrought from clay and hardened by fire, the narrative sculptures which comprise this body of work are dualistic symbols of life’s brutality and nobility. The philosophical import of the opus is manifested through the convergence of material, process, and form—to instantiate truth and initiate analysis. In my interdisciplinary research, I have come to understand leviathan as an exceptional, universalizing symbol of life's duality and the locus of Man's potential for honorable distinction. I invoke the name in order to instigate reflection upon the concept of the world serpent as a symbolic representation of existential nuance.

This thesis is an examination of Bertrand Russell's realist "bundle theory of particulars". In Russell's earlier work, the need to explain the unity and individuality of objects compelled him to accept particulars as well as universals as ultimate kinds of reality. Nevertheless, in carrying out his efforts to economize his ontology, he discovered he could not reduce properties to particulars, because there are some relations that resist nominalistic explanation, but particulars could be reduced to bundles of qualities. In this thesis, I show that the realist 'bundle theory' not only reduces the kinds of ultimate reality to one, i.e., to universal qualities, but also serves all of the purposes for which bare particulars were originally required. Specifically. I examine what I take to be the major criticisms leveled against the realist 'bundle theory': the problem of individuation, the problem of necessity, and the problem of analyticity. I defend the strength and consistency of Russell's theory and argue that it can answer to the objections. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

No description available.

No description available.

Cette thèse traite des school shootings, soit les fusillades perpétrées par des élèves dans leur école. Elle rend compte de la globalisation de ce phénomène, observée depuis que les auteurs des fusillades prémédient leurs actes de violence via l'usage des médias participatifs. Il s'agit d'analyser cette stratégie de communication et montrer comment différents publics se l'approprient. Cette forme de violence produit des événements médiatiques disruptifs globaux. Nous montrons comment les citoyens ordinaires prennent part à ces événements en développant des formes contemporaines de sociation au sein des réseaux sociaux numériques. Nous en singularisons notamment une, la communauté cocon. Parmi ces publics ordinaires, on voit également émerger un contre public, celui des school shootings. Ils investissent les médias participatifs pour rappeler qu'une révolte souterraine se prépare. Ils la font vivre au quotidien dans une scène subculturelle numérique hébergée par YouTube, via des vidéos à l'effigie des tueurs. Leurs pratiques communicationnelles sont au cœur de cette thèse tant leur association est suspectée d'alimenter le vivier de futurs tueurs. L'investigation de cette subculture nous a amenée à singulariser le fait que les plus extrêmes, ceux qui passent à l'acte, s'engagent dans un processus d'individuation posthume d'anti-sujet. Si les auteurs des fusillades connaissent l'issue fatale qui les attend, un suicide by cop, ils la déjouent avec leurs stratégies médiatiques. En mobilisant des procédés imitatifs, ils instrumentalisent les médias pour garantir la signification de leurs actes et prendre leur revanche sociale en accédant au statut d'anti-héros. / This thesis deals with the phenomenon of "school shootings". It accounts for the globalization of this phenomenon, observed since school shooters started using participatory media for communication strategies. This thesis analyzes this strategy of premediation and shows how their audiences appropriate it. This extreme form of school violence creates global disruptive media events. We show how ordinary citizens take part in this event by developing contemporary forms of sociation in digital social networks. We shall highlight one particular: the cocoon community. Among the ordinary audience of the media event, we see the emergence of counter-public, “school shooting” fans. The use participatory media to remind everyone that an underground revolt is underway. The remind us of this daily in broadcasting videos to the effigy of the killers on a digital subcultural stage hosted by YouTube. These fans, as well as their audiovisual and communication practices, are at the heart of this thesis, as their subculture is suspected of constituting a pool of future killers. The investigation of this subversive subcultural scene has led us to single out a phenomenon that is characteristic of the youth in search of points of reference beyond good and evil. The most extreme, those planning to act, appear to engage in what we call a process of posthumous anti-subject individuation. Even if they know the fatal outcome awaiting them, “a suicide by cop”, they thwart it with their media strategies. By the means of imitation, they guarantee the attribution of meaning to their acts and instrumentalize the media to take their revenge by achieving social fame and the status of an anti-hero.