The Best PhD Thesis in the Faculties of Architecture, Arts, Business & Economics, Education, Law and Social Sciences (University of Hong Kong), Li Ka Shing Prize, 2009-2010. / published_or_final_version / Comparative Literature / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Thesis, 1955.

This work attempts to examine the relevance of the conceptual opposition between modernity and postmodernity on the basis of a typological analysis of the modes of subjectivity and intersubjectivity which are implicated in the integration and the reproduction of a given form of society. We first show that traditional societies rest on concrete and particular modes of personal identity and of mutual recognition, which are integrated together within a common culture, whereas modern societies rest on an abstraction and universalization of forms societally legitimized of subjective identity and of intersubjective recognition. These we propose to designate by the concept of individualism. After presenting the main stages in the construction of modern individualism, we attempt to illuminate some of the implications, but also some of the aporias, that the modern conception of subjectivity and intersubjectivity presents. In the final part of this work, we seek to establish the validity of the notion of postmodernity to define contemporary society. We try to show that the universalist type of individualism, which characterizes modern society and provides its identity, gradually gives way to a "singularist" type of individualism. This latter form of individualism attests to a crisis of personal identity and is associated with the progressive dissolution of any collective identity, that is, of any a a priori intersubjectivity.

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Using a page by page analysis of Herbert Marcuse's One-Dimensional Man, the author finds insight and empathy with almost all of the ideas in this 1964 book, written at the apex of the Cold War and the Space Race. Marcuse wrote that contemporary industrial society dominates life and repulses all alternatives, its "project" is to convert nature and people into "stuff", and its absorbs criticism by co-opting it from within. Although Marcuse did not forsee the collapse of European Communism, his writings about the domination of the industrial world are more prescient: the author finds the progress of free market capitalism has actually speeded up, with diastrous consequences for both the world's poorest people and its physical ecology. Using contemporary historians, critics and writers that can support Marcuse's analysis, as well as personal experiences and observations, the author cites sources that show 40,000 people die of starvation every day, that 90 million people are born every year, and about 1/3 of the world lives in a realm of exploitation and suffering. In addition, the environment is irreparably damaged, and capitalism may consume itself with automation and electronic finacial speculation. The author proposes a reasonable standard of living for individuals to solve the problems of poverty and environmental chaos, just like teachers are paid to educate children. There must also be a more independent source of information about this crisis, and that information should be brought into classrooms, and the largest corporations must be convinced that rectifying the situation, and paying for it, is in their best interests. The entire project that Marcuse was critical of must change toward the idea of finding ourselves in the service of others. To that end, schools should de-emphasize job training and concentrate on current events and consumer education, there should be more resources for the development of the arts, students should spend more time in school, and post secondary students should spend one academic year working in poorer countries. The cost of these changes should not be argued: there is adequate technology, expertise and wealth in society, what is lacking is the will. / iv, 213 leaves ; 28 cm.

Thesis (Th. M.)--St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary, Crestwood, N.Y., 2003. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 130-133).

Thesis (Th. M.)--St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary, Crestwood, N.Y., 2003. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 130-133).

Thesis (Th. M.)--St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary, Crestwood, N.Y., 2003. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 130-133).

Orientador: Carla Gandini Giani Martelli / Banca: João Carlos Soares Zuin / Banca: André Ricardo de Souza / Resumo: Ao contrário do que previa a tese clássica da secularização, a religiosidade não combaliu. Na realidade, o que temos observado na contemporaneidade poderia ser definido como um caso de reconfiguração religiosa de características próprias, um processo de reenquadramento. Dentre as mais diversas e significativas mudanças no cenário religioso brasileiro dos últimos anos destaca-se a desinstitucionalização cristã, sobretudo evangélica. Os desigrejados, termo usado para designar os que se encontram nesse processo, estão inseridos numa variável crescente. A presente dissertação busca levantar as características de tal grupo, bem como estudar a relação entre o seu crescimento vinculado aos aspectos próprios da modernidade radicalizada nele reverberados. Para tanto, toma a comunidade Caminho da Graça, liderada por Caio Fábio D'Araújo Filho, como principal caso de campo a ser observado. / Abstract: Contrary to the classical thesis of secularization, the religious field did not lower. In fact, what we have observed in contemporaneity could be defined as a case of religious reconfiguration of its own characteristics, a process of reframing. Among the most diverse and significant changes in the Brazilian religious scene of the last few years, it is worth mentioning the christian deinstitutionalization, above all evangelical. The desigrejados, portuguese term used to refer to those who are within this process, are inserted in an increasing variable. The present work seeks to analyze the characteristics of such a group, as well as to study the relationship between their growth linked to the aspects of radicalized modernity reverberated therein. To do so, it takes the Caminho da Graça community, led by Caio Fábio D'Araújo Filho, as the main field case to be observed. / Mestre