In this paper I wish to trace some connections between Donald Davidson's work (1917-2003) and two major representatives of the classical pragmatist movement: Charles S. Peirce (1839-1914) and William James (1842-1910). I will start with a basic characterization of classical pragmatism; then, I shall examine certain conceptions in Peirce's and James' pragmatism, in order to establish affinities with Davidson´s thought. Finally, and bearing in mind the previous con-nections, I will reflect briefly on the relevance –often unrecognized- of classical pragmatist ideas in the context of contemporary philosophi-cal discussions.

Made available in DSpace on 2013-08-07T18:56:08Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 000397517-Texto+Completo-0.pdf: 366103 bytes, checksum: bee6237c5a651542294a2ab9ddfc889b (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007 / This research will discuss important aspects of Donald Davidson´s Philosophy. He was one of the most influent philosophers of analytic tradition in the second half of twenty century. For this, we focus on two key concepts of his writings: Radical Interpretation and Principle of Charity. Through these concepts, Davidson defends the possibility to talk about objectivity. Since the communication between people occurs, so a considerable part that we share is common. The first person looses his ontological and epistemological priviledge and is seen as a topic in relation with world and other people, because man is inserted in a social and natural world, interacting with that. His writings offer a coherent image of mind, language and human rationality, adding a rigorous argumentation with an alive dialogue. / Esta pesquisa visa discutir aspectos importantes da filosofia de Donald Davidson, um dos mais influentes filósofos da tradição analítica da segunda metade do século XX. Para tanto, foram escolhidos dois conceitos-chave de sua obra: Interpretação Radical e Princípio de Caridade. Por meio desses conceitos, Davidson defende a possibilidade de falar em objetividade, uma vez que, se a comunicação entre pessoas ocorre, então é porque uma parte considerável do que partilhamos é comum. A primeira pessoa perde seu privilégio ontológico e epistemológico e passa a ser vista como um pólo em relação com o mundo e com as outras pessoas, pois o homem está inserido em um mundo social e natural, interagindo com ele. Sua obra oferece uma imagem coerente da mente, linguagem e racionalidade humana, aliando uma argumentação rigorosa com um diálogo vivo.

Mémoire numérisé par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.

A North Carolina Presbyterian minister and founder of Davidson College, Robert Hall Morrison was also a slave owner and father-in-law to three Confederate generals; yet he opposed slavery and often spouted anti-secessionist rhetoric. He preferred living in the Northern states. However, at the time of North Carolina's secession, he opted to stay in the South. Morrison expressed sentiments in letters written to family and close friends that together reveal no less than a paradoxical man. This thesis attempts to explore the contradictions expressed by Morrison in a series of letters, written primarily to a cousin and fellow Presbyterian minister, James Morrison, in the four decades leading to the Civil War. The letters unveil the contradictions that shaped Morrison and his views on slavery, secession and his society. In so doing, the thesis intends to flesh out an historic figure in North Carolina education and southern religion, and provide insights into various and similar contradictions and social issues in the antebellum South through the case study of one man. It examines paths he selected, and reveals Morrison as a fallible man who made strides in the name of education while questioning the inherently southern institution of evangelical religion. / Master of Arts

Dead languages present a case where the original language community no longer exists. This results in a language for which the evidence is limited by the paucity of surviving texts and in which no new linguistic uses can be generated. Ludwig Wittgenstein argued that the meaning of language is simply its use by a language community. On this view a dead language is coextensive with the existing corpus, with the linguistic dynamic provided by the community of readers. Donald Davidson argued that the meaning of language is not conventional, but rather is discovered in a dynamic process of "passing theories" generated by the speaker and listener. On this view a dead language is incomplete, because such dynamic theories can only be negotiated by participating in a living language community and are thus not captured by the extant corpus. We agree with Davidson's view of theories of meaning and conclude that our interpretations of dead languages will suffer epistemological underdetermination that removes any guarantee that they reflect the meanings as heard by the original language community. / Master of Arts

Mémoire numérisé par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.

Este trabalho é uma etnografia das práticas sociais que tornam visíveis os processos de criação de sentidos e vínculos com a marca Harley-Davidson pelos pilotos que frequentaram os encontros do H.O.G. Harley Owners Group na cidade de São Paulo, entre maio de 2009 a fevereiro de 2011. Por meio da combinação das técnicas de observação participante, entrevistas e análise de imagens, busco entender quais as dimensões do envolvimento com a marca. A tese apresenta uma análise da organização do H.O.G. na capital paulista e acompanha o movimento dos pilotos para identificar as relações que se formam entre eles, e entre eles e a marca. A partir de imagens cinematográficas é possível identificar a constituição de um quadro de referências que inspiram a performance dos pilotos que participam das viagens semanais. A importância das imagens neste universo é reforçada pela fotografia, prática comum nos encontros e que auxiliou na identificação do que é entendido por Estilo Harley e a categoria daí decorrente o harleiro. O pertencimento ao grupo é resultado da articulação de vários elementos que envolvem a estetização da motocicleta e do piloto. Alguns aspectos escolhidos e compartilhados pelo grupo caracterizam uma masculinidade hegemônica que orienta comportamento, discurso e a experiência de consumo da marca. Finalizo o trabalho fazendo uma reflexão sobre o conceito de marca e os vínculos criados com ela. / This paper is an ethnographic study of the social practices that make the creation processes of meanings and links with the Harley-Davidson brand visible by the riders that attended the rides of the H.O.G - Harley Owners Group - in São Paulo city between May 2009 and February 2011. I try to understand the dimensions of brand involvement by combining the participant observation techniques, interviews and image analysis. This thesis presents an analysis of the H.O.G. organization in São Paulo city and follows the movement of the riders in order to identify the relations that are formed among them and between the riders and the brand. Through the use of film images it is possible to identify the constitution of a frame of reference which inspires the performance of the riders who participate in weekly rides. In this universe the importance of the images is reinforced by the photographs, a common practice in the events and that helped to identify what is understood as Harley Style and the deriving category the harleyro. Belonging to the group is the result of the articulation of several elements that involve the aestheticization of the motorcycle and the rider. Some aspects chosen and shared by the group characterize a hegemonic masculinity that guides the behavior, discourse and the brand consumption experience. I finish this paper reflecting on the concept of brand and the links created with it.

Nesta tese realizo uma exposição e exame sistemáticos do projeto semântico do filósofo estadunidense Donald Davidson de construir uma teoria composicional do significado para as línguas naturais explorando a estrutura recursiva de uma teoria interpretativa da verdade de tipo tarskiana. Nesta estratégia, uma teoria do significado deve ser capaz de capturar a capacidade linguística geral que qualquer falante de uma língua possui de produzir e interpretar novas sentenças. O requerimento de que a teoria seja composicional constitui o critério fundamental que orienta o empreendimento de Davidson e está na base do projeto de elucidar o aspecto composicional do significado via o emprego de uma teoria da verdade do tipo tarskiana. Defendo que o projeto de Davidson intenta lançar as bases de um programa de pesquisa em semântica das línguas naturais que, embora não hegemônico no campo e visto com ceticismo por alguns, é o único exemplo até o momento de uma tentativa de iluminar de forma sistemática o aspecto composicional do significado de amplos fragmentos das línguas naturais sem um apelo direto a entidades abstratas associadas às expressões de uma linguagem, como propriedades, proposições sentidos, intensões etc. Dois tópicos acerca do projeto recebem uma investigação detalhada. Em primeiro lugar, questões filosóficas fundacionais que a proposta suscita. Abordamos as objeções de Davidson a teorias que quantificam sobre significados, discutindo os problemas que ele identifica em análises que reificam a camada intensional dos significados das expressões de uma língua, em especial sistemas neo-fregeanos, tais como os propostos por Rudolf Carnap e Alonzo Church. Baseado em parte nesta crítica de Davidson, pouco examinada na literatura, e sem a qual se corre o risco de uma interpretação equivocada das ambições do projeto, sustento, em consonância com os semanticistas neo-davidsonianos Ernie Lepore & Kirk Ludwig (2005; 2007), que Davidson não intenta fornecer uma semântica que se caracteriza por substituir ou reduzir uma teoria do significado a uma teoria da verdade. A ideia é que uma teoria composicional do significado pode ser apresentada como um corpo de conhecimento sobre uma teoria interpretativa da verdade. Davidson tampouco intenta eliminar a camada intensional do significado; o que se busca é evitar a sua reificação. Uma outra parte da tese se debruça sobre o esforço de acomodar na teoria um conjunto de fenômenos linguísticos próprios das línguas naturais: expressões sensíveis ao contexto, como pronomes pessoais e demonstrativos, que forçam a relativização do predicado de verdade às situações de uso das sentenças; quantificação restrita; sentenças com verbos de ação e que descrevem relações causais entre eventos; contextos opacos criados por sentenças com verbos de atitude proposicional, e a dificuldade de tratar esses contextos sem introduzir entidades intensionais. Examino também aspectos fundacionais da semântica de Lepore & Ludwig, que, sem dúvida, amplia significativamente o escopo de fenômenos linguísticos que podem ser explicados por uma teoria motivada pelo projeto de Davidson. No método dos autores, é estabelecida, entre outras condições, seguindo Davidson, que não basta saber o conteúdo informacional expresso pelos axiomas de uma teoria da verdade. É preciso saber também quais conteúdos os axiomas veiculam. Isto é, tem-se que saber os sentidos dos axiomas. Ao sistematizarem na forma de uma teoria esse conhecimento, eles associam, por meio de uma lista, um sentido/intensão a cada axioma. Para cada expressão da linguagem objeto deve haver um axioma na teoria, e o sentido desse axioma deve ser conteúdo de conhecimento do semanticista/intérprete para que ele seja capaz de empregar a teoria-T para interpretar as expressões subsentenciais e as sentenças da linguagem objeto. Se minha observação estiver correta, na estrutura da teoria dos autores acaba por ocorrer a reificação dos sentidos dos axiomas, o que seria forte indicação de que a semântica que constroem não cumpre o propósito de ser uma teoria imune à introdução de entidades intensionais. Além disso, esta associação de um conteúdo semântico a cada axioma via quantificação, parece implicar uma questão mais grave: o assinalamento de objetos intensionais às expressões da linguagem objeto. Desse modo, se minhas ponderações estiverem corretas, a semântica dos autores parece não se configurar como uma alternativa às teorias neo-fregeanas, no sentido de cumprir o que estas fazem, sem que, na sua estrutura, tenha que postular entidades intensionais. / In this dissertation I carry out a sistematic exposition and examination of Donald Davidsons semantic project to construct a compositional theory of meaning for natural languages by exploring the recursive structure of an interpretative truth theory à lá Tarski. In this strategy, a theory of meaning must be able to capture the general linguistic ability of any speaker of a language to produce and interpret new sentences. The requirement that the theory be compositional is the fundamental criterion that guides Davidson\'s enterprise and ii is at the basis of the project of elucidating the compositional aspect of meaning via the use of a theory of truth of the Tarskian type. I argue that Davidson\'s project attempts to lay the groundwork for a research program on natural language semantics which, while not hegemonic in the field and viewed with skepticism by some, is the only example so far of an attempt to systematically illuminate the compositional aspect of the meanings of broad fragments of natural languages without a direct appeal to abstract entities associated with the expressions of a language, such as properties, senses, propositions, intensions, etc. Two topics about the project received detailed attention. Firstly, I focus on issues of philosophical foundations raised by the proposal. I approach Davidson\'s objections to theories that quantify over meanings by discussing the problems he identifies in analyzes that reify the intensional layer of the meanings of the expressions of a language, especially neo-Fregean systems, such as those proposed by Rudolf Carnap and Alonzo Church. Based partly on Davidson\'s criticism, which is scarcely examined in the literature, and without which there is a risk of a misinterpretation of the ambitions of the project, I maintain, along with the neo-Davidsonian semanticists Ernie Lepore & Kirk Ludwig (2005; 2007), that Davidson does not attempt to provide a semantics which is characterized by substituting or reducing a theory of meaning to a truth theory. The idea is that a compositional theory of meaning can be presented as a body of knowledge about an interpretive truth theory. Davidson does not seek to eliminate the intensional layer of the expressions. What is sought is to avoid its reification. Another part of the thesis focuses on the effort to accommodate in the theory a set of linguistic phenomena proper to natural languages: context-sensitive expressions such as personal and demonstrative pronouns, which force the relativization of the truth predicate of to the contexts of use; Restricted quantification; Sentences with action verbs that describe causal relationships between events; Opaque contexts created by sentences with propositional attitude verbs, and the difficulty of dealing with these contexts without introducing intensional entities. I also examine the foundational aspects of Lepore & Ludwig\'s semantics, which undoubtedly widens the scope of linguistic phenomena that can be explained by a theory motivated by Davidson\'s project. In the authors\' method, it is established, among other conditions - following Davidsons approach - that it is not enough to know the informational content expressed by the axioms of a theory of truth. It is also necessary to know what content the axioms convey. That is, one has to know the meanings of the axioms. By systematizing this knowledge in the form of a theory, they associate, through a list, a sense/intension to each axiom. For each expression of the object language there must be an axiom in the theory, and the meaning of this axiom must be the content of the semanticist / interpreter\'s knowledge so that he is able to employ a truth theory to interpret the subsentential expressions and the sentences of the object language. If my observation is correct, in the structure of the authors theory the reification of the meanings of the axioms occurs, which would be a strong indication that the semantics they construct does not fulfill the purpose of being a theory immune to the introduction of intensional entities. Moreover, this association of a semantic content to each axiom via quantification seems to imply a more serious question: the signaling of intensional objects to the expressions of the object language. Thus, if my considerations are correct, the semantics of the authors seems not to be configured as an alternative to neo-Fregean theories, in the sense of fulfilling what they do, without in the structure of the theory having to postulate intensional entities.

Quantum spin models play an important role in theoretical condensed matter physics and quantum information theory. One numerical technique that is frequently used in studies of quantum spin systems is exact diagonalization. In this approach, numerical methods are used to find the lowest eigenvalues and associated eigenvectors of the Hamilton matrix of the quantum system. The computational problem is thus to determine the lowest eigenpairs of an extremely large, sparse matrix. Although many sophisticated iterative techniques for the determination of a small number of lowest eigenpairs can be found in the literature, most exact diagonalization studies of quantum spin systems have employed the Lanczos algorithm. In contrast to this, other methods have been applied very successfully to the similar problem of electronic structure calculations. The well known VASP code for example uses a Block Davidson method as well as the residual-minimization - direct inversion of the iterative subspace algorithm (RMM-DIIS). The Davidson algorithm is closely related to the Lanczos method but usually needs less iterations. The RMM-DIIS method was originally proposed by Pulay and later modified by Wood and Zunger. The RMM-DIIS method is particularly interesting if more than one eigenpair is sought since it does not require orthogonalization of the trial vectors at each step. In this work I study the efficiency of the Lanczos, Block Davidson and RMM-DIIS method when applied to basic quantum spin models like the spin-1/2 Heisenberg chain, ladder and dimerized ladder. I have implemented all three methods and are currently applying the methods to the different models. In our presentation I will compare the three algorithms based on the number of iterations to achieve convergence, the required computational time. An Intel's Many-Integrated Core architecture with Intel Xeon Phi coprocessor 5110P integrates 60 cores with 4 hardware threads per core was used for RMM-DIIS method, the achieved parallel speedups were compared with those obtained on a conventional multi-core system.

Texte remanié de: Diss.--Tübingen--Universität.