It is an important objective for the central government to strengthen the characteristics and competitiveness of single city as well as to empower the nation through the beauty of building in terms of economy, geography and style. However, with the resources to implement in practical operation, the public sector should embrace change. This research intends to address the issue of practicing aesthetics by public building cases under the current law.

This dissertation considers the future convergence between gothic studies and humanism in the age of posthumanism and proposes “cyborgothic” as a new literary genre that heralds that future. The convergence under consideration is already in progress in that an encounter between human and non-human consistently inspires the two fields, questioning the nature of humans and the treatment of such non-human beings as cyborgs. Such questioning, often conducted within the boundary of humanities, persistently interprets non-human beings as either representing or helping human shortcomings. Accordingly, answers are human-orientated or even human-centered in many cases, and “cyborgothic,” generated out of retrospective investigation into gothic studies and prospective formulation of posthumanism, aims to present different, nonanthropocentric ways to view humans and non-humans on equal terms. The retrospective investigation into gothic studies focuses on Ann Radcliffe’s The Mysteries of Udolpho and Edmund Burke’s A Philosophical Enquiry into the Sublime and Beautiful to retrieve a gothic aesthetics of the beautiful, and in the second chapter, examines Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein against Kant’s aesthetics to demonstrate how this gothic aesthetics becomes obsolete in the tradition of the sublime. This dissertation then addresses Bram Stoker’s Dracula along with Bruno Latour’s Science in Action to reveal problems in fabricating scientific knowledge, especially focusing on sacrifices made in the process. In the forth chapter, I examine Sinclair Lewis’s Arrowsmith with William James’s pragmatism, and consider the question of how moral complications inherent in science have been handled in American society. The last chapter proposes Marge Piercy’s He, She and It as a same cyborgothic text, which tries to develop a way to acknowledge the presence of the cyborg—one that is at once aesthetical and ethical—so as to enable humans and cyborgs to relate each other on equal terms. Thus, “cyborgothic” is being required as a literary attempt to present the age of posthumanism that is no longer anthropocentric.

This dissertation confirms war as the zenith of aesthetic experience and demonstrates the pragmatic nature of war through explication of John Dewey’s aesthetic philosophy. Likewise, the coherency of Carl von Clausewitz’s philosophy parallels Dewey as it too leads to complete development, or flourishing, of the individual in a complex, ever-changing world. Von Clausewitz’s sets his philosophy in the context of war, but his philosophy transcends that milieu. The timelessness of the General’s philosophical concepts guarantees the appropriateness of these concepts in today’s inconstant world. To exemplify this point, this paper applied von Clausewitz’s concepts to the range of contemporary wars in which the demands on modern warriors are often perceived as qualitatively different from demands placed on individuals in the armies of the early 1800s. This perception is shown to lack credibility and, even though the methods and technologies of war are in continuous flux while the basic nature of war remains unchanged, the germane nature of the General’s philosophy to contemporary times remains unsullied and follows logically. Rather than simply asserting that the concepts of these two philosophers are apropos in the contemporary context of war, this dissertation concludes by contending that modern military thinkers employ the Clausewitzian philosophy, as synthesized by John Boyd, as a basis for fighting in today’s contemporary environment. As an exemplar, the current doctrine of the United States Marine Corps is offered as a template of the philosophy of von Clausewitz and, by extension, Dewey. Modern war, once established as an archetype of the Deweyan philosophy, can be claimed as the primary illustration of the aesthetic.

Under globalized competition, the traditional meaning of space has been demolished and re-defined. The boundaries of countries have been blurred by the absence of time difference and a global movement that re-defines territory based on information, knowledge, acceptance and economy has begun. The global society moves towards the trend of ¡§urban orientation¡¨. ¡§Urban marketing¡¨ has growing importance as it affects the development capacity and life quality of its habitants. Local government actively promotes urban marketing in an attempt to raise the competitiveness of its city: promote local attractions, allow urban re-construction, and revitalize urban development. The process of urban renewal in the creation of a new city image is related to its urban competitiveness, and its adaptability relies upon innovative thinking and applicable strategies of urban development. The key to whether a city can rise among the ranks is that it can create a unique and irreplaceable urban value. This value will depend on the urban marketing ideal of its decision-makers and the urban positioning strategy under the guidance of this ideal. In the view of the function of ¡§Urban Aesthetics¡¨ in ¡§Urban Marketing¡¨, research is conducted on how local government utilizes ¡§Urban Aesthetics¡¨ and their gain and loss in the renewal process. The successful experience of Kaohsiung in utilizing ¡§Urban Aesthetics¡¨ sets an example for other counties to model. This is the research motivation of this undertaking. This research adopts the literature review methodology to investigate the concept and development background and different phases of urban marketing, and further classifies the different types of urban marketing, that is, its classification and product contents. From the perspective of individual case experience, the structure of urban marketing is analyzed to provide reference for future promotion and individualized marketing strategy. This research adopts in-depth interviews on direct participants and decision-makers of Kaohsiung City urban marketing. The first-hand materials gained from these interviews add value to this research.

To study architectural space in relation to other works of art, the author aims at understanding how meaning depends upon the medium within which it is formulated. More importantly, the process of re-stating a work from one medium to another requires analytically rigorous study at the level of design thinking. In this thesis, Piet Mondrian’s sixteen Diamond Compositions, George Braque’s Studio Series, and Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres’s Comptesse d'Haussonville will be studied as points of departure of John Hejduk¡’s two sets of architectural projects: the Diamond Series and the Wall House Series. Compositional similarities among these works will be discovered as the design means of Hejduk’s architecture. Moreover, these paintings suggest two design ends: C flatness and otherness. Hejduk’s poems about paintings and his architectural drawings will be examined as working media in which the two design ends are formulated. On this basis, the Diamond Series and the Wall House Series will be analyzed once again on the basis of how flatness and otherness are constructed in architectural space. In a way, Hejduk defines his own design means in the medium of architecture. It is noted that the re-statement of meaning in the medium of architecture involves both a retrospective understanding of the spatial structure and an embodied experience of the immediate spatial condition. Only when space makes sense independent of the references back to existing works in other media such as painting or poetry and the key design move is made will the readings of such works become architectural concepts. In the media of painting, poetry, architectural drawing, and architectural space, John Hejduk designs intention in its own right as part of the design process. Therefore, working across media entails far more than superficial references or fanciful representations. Rather, it is a serious investigation into the construction of medium-specific meaning, which the work of Hejduk clearly exemplifies. For the same reason, Hejduk’s work can be understood beyond personal or mystical expressions, becoming a tangible, logical, and thereby shared construction.

Edition de : Dissertation : Philologie : Lund : 1859.

Thesis (doctoral)--University of London, 1994.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2000. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 179-191). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

Thesis (M.F.A.)--University of Central Florida, 2009. / Adviser: Carla Poindexter. Includes bibliographical references (p. 31).

Thesis (B.A.)--Haverford College, Dept. of Philosophy, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references.