This thesis examines the relationship between metaphysical theorisation and the practice of philosophy as a way of life. The thesis begins by highlighting the parallels between the Cartesian shift away from the premodern practice of philosophy as a way of life (what Foucault terms ‘the Cartesian moment’) and the ontological suspension of ‘life’ in Descartes’ influential re-conception of the soul as the principle of thinking instead of life and in his mechanistic understanding of living beings as automata. After this, it examines the works of Martin Heidegger, Heidegger’s former students Hannah Arendt and Giorgio Agamben, as well as Gilles Deleuze (and via Deleuze, Henri Bergson) and considers how the metaphysical theoretical conception of ‘being’, ‘living’ and ‘thinking’ informs and affects the practice of philosophy. The thesis concludes with a re-reading of Augustine’s philosophy of life in light of these contemporary philosophical developments. By underscoring the connections between Augustine’s metaphysical conception of God as ‘Life itself’ and his philosophical practice of introspection as notably found in his Confessions—one of the most important texts of Western metaphysics and spiritual practice, this thesis argues that metaphysical theorisation is in fact not incompatible with the premodern practice of philosophy as a way of life or spiritual exercise (as suggested by Foucault and to some extent Heidegger). Instead, Augustine’s Christian appropriation of the Platonic metaphysics of participation in light of his philosophical interpretation of the Christian doctrine of the incarnation not only shows us how speculative metaphysics can provide a powerful theoretical incentive to lead a philosophical life, but also how a ‘religious’ approach to philosophising can help recover the understanding of philosophy as way of life and furthermore reconcile the supposed division between metaphysical theorisation and the practice of philosophy as a way of living.

Thinking and using a language are two different but similar activities. Thinking about thinking and thinking about language use have been two major strands in the history of philosophy. One of the principal similarities is that they are both rational activities. As a result, the ability to think and the ability to use a language require being able to recognise and respond to reasons. However, there is a further feature of these activities: we humans are able to have explicit knowledge of how those activities work and what is done by performances in those activities. Thus, theorists face at least two constraints: 1. An account of a rational activity must be compatible with the possibility of agents engaging in that activity. 2. Having described an activity, it must be possible to have knowledge of an activity which is correctly described like that. There are a variety of accounts of how thinking works and how using a language works, and further variation in accounts of what is involved in explicit understanding of particular performances. These accounts can be distinguished by their views of the nature of the reasons that govern performances in that activity and by their views of the way a description of the activity relates to the way the activity proceeds. I argue that any description of thinking or language use requires showing how the truth conditions of thoughts/sentences are determined, and how the truth values of thoughts/sentences affects the way the activity proceeds. I then argue that in order to have explicit knowledge of what we do, truth has to be a substantial evaluative property of uses of language, and furthermore a truth conditional theory of meaning has to be taken as the description of the rationality of using a language. The big result is that, because in understanding language we understand truth, the philosophy of language is first philosophy.

In this thesis, I am arguing for a single claim, namely that perceptual experiences are judgements, and I am arguing for it in a very specific way. This has not been a popular theory, although some have defended similar theories. One main reason that this has been a historically unpopular theory is to do with the problems of conflicting beliefs. I can see (strictly speaking, experience) the Müller-Lyer lines as being of different lengths, they look different lengths, and yet I know that they are the same length. Hence, I have explicit contradictory judgements on a judgement-theory of experiences. However, despite this being the major historical obstacle, two widely held theses in the philosophy of perception in recent times also stand as an impediment to this theory, namely the theses that experiences have a phenomenal character which individuates them from judgements, and that experiences, unlike judgements or beliefs, have non-conceptual content. I seek to offer an ''incremental defence'' of the judgement-theory of experiences by arguing in stages against the competing theories, and defending the judgement-theory from the objections that arise from the motivations for these other theories. As regards the phenomenal character of experience, I argue that once the representational theory is accepted, the path is open, should a range of individuating conceptual contents for experiences be found, to analyse the psychology of experience in terms of this content. I define this conceptual content, and then I motivate and defend the theory that experiences are judgements.

Parasitos pertencentes ao gênero Echinococcus são platelmintos que necessitam de dois hospedeiros para completar o seu ciclo de vida. Durante a fase larval expressam abundantemente uma proteína chamada Antígeno B (AgB), que é uma lipoproteína oligomérica com massa molecular de aproximadamente 150 kDa formada por subunidades de 8 kDa. As subunidades do AgB são codificadas por pelo menos cinco genes (AgB1-5), com similaridade superior a 70%. A função da proteína nativa tem sido relacionada com a modulação da resposta imune do hospedeiro intermediário, ocasionando um viés para a resposta Th2 e com a detoxificação de metabólitos lipídicos no interior do cisto. Neste trabalho, foi avaliada a ocorrência de rearranjos entre os loci gênicos AgB1-5 durante a fase larval de E. granulosus sensu stricto e E. ortleppi através de Southern blot e de variação do número de cópias dentro de um mesmo cisto de E. granulosus sensu stricto por qPCR. Também foram determinadas a diversidade de seqüências destes cinco genes durante a fase adulta de E. granulosus sensu stricto através de clonagem e o seqüenciamento de produtos de PCR obtidos a partir de um único verme, bem como foram desenvolvidos anticorpos policlonais contra a proteína recombinante dos cinco genes descritos e contra um peptídeo sintético representante do gene AgB2. As diferenças na organização dos genes do AgB entre cistos foram analisadas em três isolados de E. granulosus sensu stricto e três isolados de E. ortleppi por Southern blot. O padrão de bandas de hibridização revelou que esta família gênica contém pelo menos nove genes em E. granulosus sensu stricto e dez em E. ortleppi. Foram observadas diferenças entre os cistos de E. ortleppi quanto ao padrão de bandas de AgB3, o que indicaria a ocorrência de rearranjos. A análise do número de cópias dos genes AgB1-5 em protoescóleces de um único cisto revelou uma grande heterogeneidade no número de cópias de todos os genes do AgB analisados, muitas vezes superiores a 10 vezes entre os protoescóleces. A grande divergência entre os protoescóleces sugere que o mecanismo responsável pela variação origine elementos de DNA instáveis. A diversidade de seqüências dos genes do AgB1-5 do verme adulto foi menor que a encontrada na fase larval. Interessantemente, o verme adulto analisado neste trabalho apresentava seqüências típicas de duas espécies, AgB2 e Mdh de E. ortleppi e AgB1, AgB3, AgB4 e AgB5 além do haplótipo mitocondrial de Cox1 de E. granulosus sensu stricto. Esta é a primeira vez que um verme adulto, possivelmente hibrido, de Echinococcus é encontrado, e indica que o intercruzamento entre E. granulosus sensu stricto e E. ortleppi pode gerar organismos viáveis. A síntese de anticorpos contra cada uma das cinco subunidades do AgB descritas foi obtida pela inoculação de proteína recombinante (recAgB1-5) em camundongos BALB/c. Embora todas as proteínas recombinantes tenham sido imunogênicas, observou-se reação cruzada entre elas, e apenas os anticorpos contra recAgB3 e recAgB4 foram mais reativos contra a proteína inoculada. Para melhorar a especificidade dos anticorpos, sintetizou-se oligopeptídeos de 12-15 aminoácidos representativos de cada subunidade acoplados a uma proteína carreadora (oliAgB1-5) e imunizaram-se camundongos BALB/c. A análise do soro obtido dos camundongos revelou que dos cinco peptídeos testados, apenas oliAgB2 foi imunogênico e apresentou uma resposta específica. / Parasites belonging to the genus Echinococcus are flatworms that require two hosts to complete their lifecycle. During their larval stage, Echinococcus abundantly expresses a protein called antigen B (AgB), which is a 150 kDa oligomeric lipoprotein composed by 8 kDa subunits. AgB is encoded by at least five genes (AgB1-5) with similarity above 70%. The function of native protein has been related to the modulation of host immune responses leading towards a Th2 cellular response bias. The protein is also involved with detoxification of lipid metabolites inside the cyst. In this study we evaluated the occurrence of rearrangements within AgB1-5 loci on metacestodes of E. granulosus sensu stricto and E. ortleppi using Southern blot and the variation at AgB number of copies within an E. granulosus sensu stricto cyst by qPCR. We also analyzed the sequence diversity of these five genes during the adult stage of E. granulosus sensu lato by cloning and sequencing PCR products obtained from a single adult worm. Finally, we have developed antibodies against AgB1- 5 recombinant proteins (recAgB1-5) and against a synthetic peptide representative of subunit AgB2. The differences in AgB gene organization among isolates were analyzed in three E. granulosus sensu stricto and three E. ortleppi cysts. The banding pattern revealed that this gene family contains at least nine genes in E. granulosus sensu stricto and ten in E. ortleppi. Differences in the AgB3 banding pattern were observed among the E. ortleppi cysts, which would indicate the occurrence of rearrangements. The AgB1-5 number of copies analysis in protoscoleces from a single cyst revealed a large heterogeneity of all AgB genes analyzed, often more than 10 times between protoscoleces. The large divergence among protoscoleces suggests that the mechanism responsible for copy number variation originates unstable DNA elements. The sequence diversity of AgB within an adult worm was lower than that found in the larval stage. Interestingly, the adult worms examined in this study showed typical sequences of two species: AgB1, AgB3, AgB4 and AgB5, as well as the Cox1 mitochondrial haplotype, are similar to E. granulosus sensu stricto sequences and Mdh and AgB2 were identical to those described for E. ortleppi. That is the first time that an adult worm of Echinococcus possibly hybrid is found, and it may indicate that the cross fertilization between E. granulosus sensu stricto and E. ortleppi generates viable organisms. Antibodies against each of the five subunits of AgB described were obtained by inoculating BALB/c mice with recombinant proteins recAgB1-5. Although every recombinant protein was immunogenic, we observed crossreaction between them, and only the response against recAgB3 and recAgB4 showed some specificity. To improve the antibody specificity, we synthesized oligopeptides of 12-15 amino acids representative of each AgB subunit (oliAgB1-5) coupled to a carrier protein and used these antigens to immunize BALB/c mice. Analysis of serum obtained from mice showed that only one of five oligopeptides tested (oliAgB2) was immunogenic, and it leads to a specific response.

This thesis argues for an austere form of monism that incorporates aspects of panpsychism and physicalism, with the aim of putting naturalist epistemology on a secure footing. I criticise panpsychism for failing to live up to its promises of defending what we ordinarily think of as consciousness against physicalism, and criticise the metaphysical presuppositions of its current highprofile proponents. These presuppositions are contrasted with more recent approaches in philosophy of science. The mind‐body problem itself endures these assaults, however, and I criticise physicalists who claim their position is the more common‐sensical, along with naturalists who think they can avoid metaphysics. Both tendencies are represented by phenomenal concept strategists, whose position comes to seem extreme over the course of two chapters. I then offer my own solution to the mind‐body problem. My position seeks a dialectical reconciliation between the possibility of directly experiencing reality, associated with anti‐physicalist mysticism, and physical reductionism. I therefore take time to establish both the historical novelty of physicalism, and aspects of continuity which it may share with its predecessors.

This thesis uses Mass Observation Project data as a source of evidence for individual British people’s interpretations of British involvement in recent overseas military conflicts. Considering five of Britain’s post-imperial and post-Cold War conflicts in the Falklands, Gulf, Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq wars, it approaches these cases as objects of historical memory and considers how individuals connect these conflicts to narratives of British identity. Using an interpretative and qualitative method of analysis, it finds that, though contemporary circumstance and context are crucial in determining what is written about each case, these conflicts are given meaning through invocation of Britain’s military past, primarily British experience in the Second World War. Observers’ written responses across the period reveal a pervasive belief in Britain as an historical force for good, the crucible of which is British opposition to the evil of Nazi fascism and dictatorship in World War Two, and its entry into that war to defend both itself and other European nations. These connections began to fragment within the context of the ‘War on Terror’ and the occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq. Popular memories of the past have been critical in framing and clarifying what observers wrote about more recent conflicts, both among those who supported the use of force and those who did not, but have also been sustained as Britain continues to deploy military force in the present. Certain aspects of British experience in World War Two have been kept alive as they retain an explanatory power over contemporary circumstances while others are omitted as they are not thought to be relevant; observers’ written accounts show, in detail, how popular memories of the past have been affected by the changing context in which they are invoked and how military force is related intimately to narrative (re)constructions of national identity.

Background: Loneliness is associated with numerous detrimental effects on physical health, mental health, cognition, and lifestyle. Older adults are one of the groups at highest risk of loneliness, and indeed about 46% of older adults in England are lonely. Those experiencing loneliness visit their General Practitioner (GP) more frequently than those who are not, which has the capacity to put a strain on GPs and primary care waiting lists and costs. There is some literature on GPs’ experiences of other social problems, but it is yet unknown how GPs in the UK perceive and work with loneliness in older adult patients. Aims: To explore GPs’ views and experiences of loneliness within their older adult patients. Method: A qualitative approach was taken for this research and followed a social constructivist perspective. 19 GPs were recruited using researcher contacts, snowballing, and purposive sampling. Individual semi-structured interviews were conducted either in person or over the telephone. Data were transcribed and analysed using thematic analysis Findings: Five over-arching themes and 14 corresponding sub-themes were presented. GPs’ definitions of loneliness and its prevalence in our society is discussed. GPs held a medicalised and individualistic view regarding loneliness. They discussed their barriers to raising the topic, as well as the social stigma surrounding loneliness for both GP and patient. GPs felt powerless in their ability to fix the problem, and tended to use self-protection strategies. Further need for GP support and system improvements were discussed. Conclusions: Study findings are discussed in the context of relevant theories and literature. Implications include greater emphasis on social problems like loneliness in GP training, more practical and emotional support for qualified GPs, and a clearer more streamlined approach to managing loneliness presentations in primary care. Strengths and limitations of the study are discussed, and avenues for future research suggested.

A communicative theory of punishment is justified because it expresses censure and engages with the offender as a deserved response to the wrong that has been committed. The communicative theory treats all offenders as rational, autonomous agents capable of understanding and engaging with moral discourse. The focus of this thesis is R A Duff’s communicative theory of punishment which states that punishment as communication should involve what he calls secular penance, this aims to encourage the offender to repent, reconcile and reform. In this thesis I will present an argument in support of Duff’s communicative theory of punishment. However, the theory does not adequately deal with the punishment of dangerous offenders. If the communicative theory became practice then dangerous offenders would be subject to the same punishment as other, non-dangerous offenders; this does not seem to adequately address the seriousness of their ongoing behaviour. Even more problematic is that it appears that the punishment of dangerous offenders could not be justified at all within a communicative theory. I argue that there is a solution to the problem of dangerous offenders which is broadly consistent with Duff’s communicative theory, if a system of non-punitive detention is accepted.

Autism is typically framed as stemming from empathy deficits as well as more general cognitive and sensory issues. In turn it is further associated with other purported harms: ranging from psychological suffering to diminished moral agency. Given such associations, in the philosophical literature, autism is widely taken to hinder the possibility of both thriving and attaining personhood. Indeed, this purported stifling of thriving personhood can be taken as the core harm associated with autism as such. In direct contrast to this dominant view, the key aim of this thesis is to raise reasonable doubt as to the validity of this exclusion, by establishing that there is no decisive reason to accept the notion that autism is inherently harmful. This builds on arguments made by autistic self-advocates who argue in favour of de-medicalising and instead politicising autistic disablement and distress. However, the originality of this thesis lies in three key factors. First: it focuses more specifically on the purported impossibility of thriving autistic personhood, since I take this more fundamental matter to underlie all the other issues relating to these wider debates. Second: I use a negativist methodology. That is, instead of, say, arguing that autistic individuals can be useful to society or have positive attributes, my aim is to raise reasonable doubt regarding the core assumption underlying the dominant framing of autism as a pathology: namely, that autism and thriving personhood are inherently at odds. Third, I draw on methodologies developed by feminist philosophers and critical theorists in order to further our understanding of autism and the ethical issues surrounding it with more nuance than I have found in the existing literature. In sum: after a critical analysis of the concept of autism, and then further analysis of the relationship between autism and the harms it is associated with, I conclude that we have no decisive reason to think that being autistic, in and of itself, is at odds with either thriving or personhood. This chimes with the notion that autism is best framed as a difference, disabled by society rather than medical pathology, raises important problems for both ethical and psychiatric theory, and has significant implications for autism policy and practice.

This thesis argues that the neglected images of the history of science, found in the western alchemical tradition, provide a unique resource for thinking about same-sex union. It provides an opportunity to re-examine the cultural appropriation of these images, used by Jungian psychoanalysis and Evolian traditionalist metaphysics, which deny the validity of same-sex union and homosexuality. By adopting Foucauldian methodologies and using his effective historical, archaeological and genealogical approaches, the thesis argues that there is a silent secondary discourse supported through alchemical imagery that celebrates male same-sex union. The thesis shows how alchemy can be seen as a counter-memory to the dominant regime of sexual-union. By integrating Foucault and the suppressed alchemical images of the Solidonius manuscript with its unique all-male union I argue that this manuscript is a contemporary to Jung's seminal exploration of the Rosarium Philosophorum from which Jung, and Evola, outline the basis of a compulsive heteronormativity in their respective individuation and intiatic techniques. The thesis challenges the existing denial of same-sex union manifesting through identity politics and same-sex marriage. Chapter 1 demonstrates the problem and paradox of the internalized image of the hermaphrodite of Jung and Evola. It outlines a framework of etymological and phenomenological language which is used to critically expose the sui generis claims of the hermaphrodite's role in denying same-sex union. Chapter 2 provides the historical contextualization of the alchemical images, tracing the hermaphrodite trope through four successive phases. These are the philosophical, the alchemical (proper), the hermetic and the psychic. Finally, chapters 3 and 4 combined the alchemical symbols and Foucauldian critical perspectives to develop a reclamation of alchemical same-sex union. Although Foucault dismissed the value of alchemy, this integration offers an original reconceptualization that has the potential to impact directly on the internalized lives of those participating in same-sex identity politics today.