À partir du constat de l'importance de l'argumentation scripturaire dans le discours du mépris du savoir mondain au Moyen âge et de la récurrence des versets employés, compte tenu de la dynamique intertextuelle ouvrant la citation sur sa tradition interprétative, notre thèse a pour but d'éclairer la signification de ce discours à travers le prisme exégétique. L'étude des commentaires bibliques médiévaux d'un corpus significatif, mettant en lumière pour chaque verset les perspectives de lecture retenues et les développements sémantiques opérés, permet alors une exploitation thématique transversale, caractérisant l’objet et la justification du mépris en question, dont la compréhension des différentes manifestations s'appuie ainsi sur l’apport du savoir sacré. Le recours à l’exégèse, inscrivant dans une continuité l’effort d’élucidation de l’expression biblique de la limitation de l'entendement humain, de la vanité de la science, de la réprobation des sages et de l’éviction de la sagesse de la parole dans la folie de la croix, permet d’appréhender de manière privilégiée, au cœur d’une confiance paradoxale dans le langage, les ressorts de la critique médiévale du dévoiement du savoir dans sa réception de l’héritage patristique et dans son orientation vers la connaissance salvifique. / Aknowledging as a key feature the recurrence of biblical verses within the argumentation conveyed by the medieval contempt of secular learning, given that the use of Scripture in the Middle Ages implies intertextual developments through exegesis, we offer to the understanding of this contempt the light of the medieval biblical commentaries upon a selection of preponderant verses. From the examination of the hermeneutical choices and semantic associations regarding each verse, we are then allowed to extend its contribution to an overview of this medieval approach towards knowledge and of its explanatory topics. The issues of secular versus sacred erudition are therefore received in a meaningful confrontation. By taking medieval exegesis as a reading key, from its insertion within a collective and progressive work of interpretation of Scripture, we offer to read the critic of the errance of knowledge in the Middle Ages in its reception of the patristic problematics and through the anagogical paradigm ; the biblical themes of the deficiency of human understanding, of the paucity and vanity of knowledge, and of the condemnation of the wise and of the wisdom of words in the foolishness of the Cross are then read through the paradoxical expression of the reliability of language.

No description available.

In modernity, probably more than ever, “knowledge” has become the object of an intense desire. The tensions underwriting this modern desire for knowledge are inscribed in the very term, curiosity, which is at the centre of this dissertation. A venerable motif, curiosity anchors the specifically modern desire to know within a longstanding philosophical, theological and literary tradition. By the 19th century, “curiosity” is certainly an anachronistic paradigm. Yet, inscribed in curiosity, there are two conflicting dialectics which can be found at the heart of modernity’s unquenchable thirst for knowledge: one the one hand, the dialectic between curiosity as a disenchanting desire to see through into the innermost secrets of things, and curiosity as a “thing”, the product of a fetishist desire arrested on the glittering surface of things. On the other hand, curiosity is beset by the dialectic between the desire for a “totalizing”, meaningful vision and the compulsive drive of an increasingly specialized, meaningless pursuit of knowledge. This dissertation examines a series of Modernist narratives which expose this double dialectic. The protagonists of Gustave Flaubert’s Bouvard et Pécuchet, Elias Canetti’s Die Blendung and Jorge Luis Borges’ El Aleph are all caricatural, anachronistic, curieux ultimately seeking an “absolute knowledge” that cannot be embodied. The moment it seems to have been attained, it is reified, “objectified” into a fetish, a “curiosity”. Yet, these narratives are not only about curiosity; they are in fact true vortexes of curiosity: that of the protagonists of the narratives as well as that of the authors and the readers themselves. As a result, these narratives also speak to the paradoxical location of literature within culture: literature appears simultaneously as the privileged site of all – ultimately phantasmic – totalizing, meaningful visions of the world, as well as a marginal locus, a monstrous cultural residue.

In modernity, probably more than ever, “knowledge” has become the object of an intense desire. The tensions underwriting this modern desire for knowledge are inscribed in the very term, curiosity, which is at the centre of this dissertation. A venerable motif, curiosity anchors the specifically modern desire to know within a longstanding philosophical, theological and literary tradition. By the 19th century, “curiosity” is certainly an anachronistic paradigm. Yet, inscribed in curiosity, there are two conflicting dialectics which can be found at the heart of modernity’s unquenchable thirst for knowledge: one the one hand, the dialectic between curiosity as a disenchanting desire to see through into the innermost secrets of things, and curiosity as a “thing”, the product of a fetishist desire arrested on the glittering surface of things. On the other hand, curiosity is beset by the dialectic between the desire for a “totalizing”, meaningful vision and the compulsive drive of an increasingly specialized, meaningless pursuit of knowledge. This dissertation examines a series of Modernist narratives which expose this double dialectic. The protagonists of Gustave Flaubert’s Bouvard et Pécuchet, Elias Canetti’s Die Blendung and Jorge Luis Borges’ El Aleph are all caricatural, anachronistic, curieux ultimately seeking an “absolute knowledge” that cannot be embodied. The moment it seems to have been attained, it is reified, “objectified” into a fetish, a “curiosity”. Yet, these narratives are not only about curiosity; they are in fact true vortexes of curiosity: that of the protagonists of the narratives as well as that of the authors and the readers themselves. As a result, these narratives also speak to the paradoxical location of literature within culture: literature appears simultaneously as the privileged site of all – ultimately phantasmic – totalizing, meaningful visions of the world, as well as a marginal locus, a monstrous cultural residue.

The late seventeenth century was the golden age of the printed descriptive catalogue. Nehemiah Grew’s 1681 catalogue, Musæum Regalis Societatis, printed for London’s Royal Society, exemplifies this elaborate published genre of early museum literature during a particular moment in time when collecting and ordering were methods of understanding the world. This thesis explores the importance of ephemeral texts in historical study by analyzing the prose used in Grew’s catalogue. Musæum Regalis Societatis opens a window onto late seventeenth-century English culture, providing insight into Grew’s opinions about contemporary religious and political debates and illustrating trends within scientific thought; most notably, the influence of Francis Bacon’s new empirical methods on Grew’s object descriptions. This results in a densely descriptive catalogue with vivid object descriptions, creating a virtual guide to the Repository. However, with the eighteenth-century development of museums as sites of leisure and the rise of experts and professionals in the burgeoning scientific disciplines, there is a noticeable decline in this genre of descriptive catalogue. Thus, Grew’s catalogue exemplifies a critical moment in the late seventeenth century in which scientific catalogues were published for a broad general public. / Graduate

No description available.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Michigan, 1987.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Michigan, 1987.

As part of the Bagnold Dune campaign conducted by Mars Science Laboratory rover Curiosity, visible/near-infrared reflectance spectra of dune sands were acquired using Mast Camera (Mastcam) multispectral imaging (445-1013nm) and Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) passive point spectroscopy (400-840nm). By comparing spectra from pristine and rover-disturbed ripple crests and troughs within the dune field, and through analysis of sieved grain size fractions, constraints on mineral segregation from grain sorting could be determined. In general, the dune areas exhibited low relative reflectance, a weak similar to 530nm absorption band, an absorption band near 620nm, and a spectral downturn after similar to 685nm consistent with olivine-bearing sands. The finest grain size fractions occurred within ripple troughs and in the subsurface and typically exhibited the strongest similar to 530nm bands, highest relative reflectances, and weakest red/near-infrared ratios, consistent with a combination of crystalline and amorphous ferric materials. Coarser-grained samples were the darkest and bluest and exhibited weaker similar to 530nm bands, lower relative reflectances, and stronger downturns in the near-infrared, consistent with greater proportions of mafic minerals such as olivine and pyroxene. These grains were typically segregated along ripple crests and among the upper surfaces of grain flows in disturbed sands. Sieved dune sands exhibited progressive decreases in reflectance with increasing grain size, as observed in laboratory spectra of olivine size separates. The continuum of spectral features observed between the coarse- and fine-grained dune sands suggests that mafic grains, ferric materials, and air fall dust mix in variable proportions depending on aeolian activity and grain sorting.

In understanding the importance of career adaptability in an individual‟s career development, career counsellors require a valid assessment technique for measuring career adaptability. The Career Adapt-Abilities Inventory (CAI) was originally developed by Mark Savickas (2008) as a measure of career adapt-abilities. The present study forms part of an international collaboration investigating the psychometric properties and construct validity of the CAI. The aims of the present study involved the following: conducting exploratory factor analysis in order to determine whether interrelationships within the items of the CAI can be explained by the presence of unobserved variables; conducting confirmatory factor analysis in an attempt to confirm the hypothesised factor structures of the CAI; and to explore and describe South African university students‟ perceptions of the underlying constructs of the CAI in terms of the language usage and comprehension of the inventory‟s item content. A sample of South African first-year university students were employed in this current study. In an exploratory factor analysis of the CAI, preference was given to the a priori criterion forcing the extraction of five factors. The oblique rotation method was employed using the OBLIMIN method provided by the statistical package in order to derive the simplest and most interpretable factor structure. Exploratory factor analysis supported a five factor solution after the fourth iteration, reflecting the underlying dimensions of Curiosity, Concern, Confidence, Cooperation and Control. These factors support the five scales presented by Savickas (2008). Confirmatory factor analyses were subsequently performed in order to test both the original CAI factor model as well as the factor model that emerged through exploratory factor analysis. After using several goodness-of-fit indices, it can be concluded that the inventory items adequately represent the five CAI scales based on the value obtained using the Root Mean Square Error of Approximation index. The factor model derived through EFA demonstrated a slightly better fit when compared to the original CAI factor model using other fit indices. In terms of the qualitative findings of this current study, participants indicated that the meaning of several items were unclear to them causing comprehension difficulty. Items 8 and 50 were marked by participants several times and can be viewed as the items causing most difficulty with regard to comprehension, with participants pointing out the words „keeping upbeat‟ (item 8) and „conscientious‟ (item 50). Participants were also asked to provide additional comments with regard to the readability, comprehension and applicability of the CAI. On investigation of these comments, three main themes were generated relating to: the comprehension and clarity of the CAI; the CAI enhancing participants‟ understanding of themselves; and the structure, length and general layout of the CAI. In essence, the current study provided useful information regarding the psychometric properties of the CAI using a sample of South African first-year university students. Factor analyses provided some support for the validity of the CAI while the qualitative results provided aspects for consideration in making the CAI more applicable for South African usage. Moreover, a foundation has been laid for further research to be conducted in South Africa regarding the validity and applicability of the CAI for South African populations.