Forces vitales et organisation : vitalisme et philosophie de la nature en Allemagne (1752-1802). / In the course of the last thirty years, a considerable body of scholarship has examined the life sciences that arose in Germany at the end of the eighteenth century. This literature has shown that previous dismissals of this tradition, assumed to be infected with a pathological imagination, were unwarranted. Yet the interpretations of the period have not always been consistent with each other, and they often have been characterized by vagueness. Generally speaking, the scholarly debate has focused on the historical and conceptual relationship between three elements: (1) Kant's philosophy of biology, as it is formulated in the Critique of the Power of Judgment , (2) the biological vitalism developed at the Göttingen medical school by Blumenbach and his students Kielmeyer, Link, Reil and Treviranus, and (3) the Naturphilosophie of Goethe, Schelling, Oken and Carus. In his pioneering studies, Timothy Lenoir (1978, 1980, 1981, 1982) argues that, although the life sciences developed in Germany in the late eighteenth century have been dismissed as an era dominated by empty speculation, they were in fact the result of a coherent research program. This program was developed in Göttingen by a wellconnected group of biologists after receiving its first formulation in Kant's Critique of the Power of Judgment in 1790. In the second part of this work, Kant sees teleology as a necessary tool to understand fundamental features of living beings such as functions and development. He also considers it as a mere heuristic principle, not as a constitutive character of organized bodies. According to this account, Blumenbach was the first naturalist to accept the Kantian understanding of teleological principles and organize it as a structured research program. This program was first developed by his most distinguished students Kielmeyer, Treviranus and Reil, and then employed by Meckel, von Baer and Müller (Lenoir 1982, 54-111). The disregard of this “Kantian” tradition in life sciences has, for Lenoir, both theoretical and historical grounds. The main issue is the assumption that only reductionist models are capable of generating a quantitative account of natural phenomena. Nevertheless, the idea that biological organization is not quite reducible to the laws of physics and chemistry is fully compatible with the fidelity to quantitative rigor as a touchstone of scientific explanation. According to Lenoir, the “vitalmaterialism” of the Göttingen School accepted this challenge and developed a “teleomechanical” research program based on the Kantian distinction between constitutive and regulative understanding of teleology. […]

I believe art can offer an antidote to our numbness and rekindle a sense of childlike wonder. Reclaiming Wonder is an installation in which I aim to explore the possibility of evoking the curiosity of childhood in the viewer’s mind and transporting him or her into a dreamlike atmosphere to wander about in wonder through the use of the senses of sight, touch, and hearing. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.F.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2017. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 313-325) Specific concern is the poetic, as well as literal, significance given to the environment, and in particular to land, as a measure of belonging in Australia. Environment is explored in the context of ecologies, offered here as an alternative configuration of the nation, and in which the subject, through human and non-human environmental relations, can be culturally and spatially positioned. Argues that both environment and ecology are narrowly defined in dominant discourses that pursue an ideal, certain and authentic belonging for non-indigenous Australians.

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 313-325) / [6], 325 leaves ; 30 cm. / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / Specific concern is the poetic, as well as literal, significance given to the environment, and in particular to land, as a measure of belonging in Australia. Environment is explored in the context of ecologies, offered here as an alternative configuration of the nation, and in which the subject, through human and non-human environmental relations, can be culturally and spatially positioned. Argues that both environment and ecology are narrowly defined in dominant discourses that pursue an ideal, certain and authentic belonging for non-indigenous Australians. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of English, 2003

Univ., Diss.--Potsdam, 2005.

My thesis examines Thomas Hobbes's attempt to develop a mathematical account of nature. I argue that Hobbes's conception of how we should think quantitatively about the world was deeply indebted to the ideas of his ancient and medieval predecessors. These ideas were often amenable to Hobbes's vision of a demonstrative, geometrically-based science. However, he was forced to adapt the ancient and medieval models to the demands of his own thoroughgoing materialism. This hybrid resulted in a distinctive, if only partially successful, approach to the problems of the new mechanical philosophy.

In 1934, Oxford philosopher Michael Beresford Foster (1903-1959) published an article in Mind, the prestigious British journal of philosophy. The article argued for a positive relationship between Christian theology and the rise of modern science. Two more Mind articles followed in 1935 and 1936. Taken as a whole, the three articles make for one philosophically sophisticated and complex argument, often referred to as the "Foster Thesis." In this paper I aim to contribute to the `Fosterian' conversation in two ways: in Part One, I present a thorough and detailed synthesis of Foster's three Mind articles, and in Part Two, I present a critical literature review of published references to the Foster Thesis. The first has never been done before, and the second has not been done since 1964 (at which time there were only six published references, as opposed to the more than forty today).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of English, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 313-325).

Thesis (Ph.D.) - Simon Fraser University, 2005. / Theses (Faculty of Education) / Simon Fraser University.

Thesis (Ph.D.) - Simon Fraser University, 2005. / Theses (Faculty of Education) / Simon Fraser University.