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1	Realist methodology and the articulation of modes of production : an analysis of Palestinian peasant household production in the north Jordan Valley of the Occupied West Bank/the Central Highlands of Palestine Pollock, Alex January 1987 (has links) This thesis outlines the main features of empiricist and positivist epistemology and looks at the critique of this position developed by conventionalist philosophers of science. It then attempts to present the basis of an alternative realist epistemology. This realist alternative is then used as a means of laying down a set of methodological protocols for reinterpreting the anti-empiricist debate in development theory over "the articulation of modes of production". This debate was concerned with producing an alternative paradigm to explain the causes of poverty and underdevelopment in such a way that the internal determinations of poverty in nation-states would be part of the explanatory structure, rather than treating poverty and underdevelopment as a phenomenon which was essentially generated through relationships of exploitation between the countries of the "developed" and Third World. Having outlined the basic concepts of this debate in a manner which is compatible with the research protocols of methodological realism, the concepts - social formation, modes of production and articulation - are applied to the concrete context of peasant relations of production in the north Jordan Valley of the Occupied West Bank/the Central Highlands of Palestine. The last section considers some of the major strategic models designed to resolve the problem of Third World poverty and underdevelopment, viz. Community Development, the Green Revolution and Basic Needs. Finally, a radical democratic approach to development intervention is suggested as a background to development action in the context of settler-colonialism and military occupation. 301
2	Illuminating Inner Life : A Comparison of Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse and Arthur Schnitzler's Fräulein Else Stahl, Marie-Helen Rosalie January 2016 (has links) In the early 20th century, authors increasingly experimented with literary techniques striving towards two common aims: to illumine the inner life of their protagonists and to diverge from conventional forms of literary representations of reality. This shared endeavour was sparked by changes in society: industrialisation, developments in psychology, and the gradual decay of empires, such as the Victorian (1837–1901) and the Austro-Hungarian (1867–1918). Those developments yielded a sense of uncertainty and disorientation, which led to a so-called “turn [inwards]” in the arts (Micale 2). In this context, this essay examines Virginia Woolf’s (1882–1941) development of her literary technique by comparing To the Lighthouse (1927), written in free indirect discourse, with Arthur Schnitzler’s (1862–1932) Fräulein Else (1924), written in interior monologue. Instead of applying Freud’s theories of consciousness, I will demonstrate how empiricist psychology informed and partly helped shape the two narrative techniques by referring to Ernst Mach’s (1838–1916) idea of the unstable self, and William James’ (1842–1910) concept of the stream of consciousness. Furthermore, I will show that there is a continuous progression of literary ideas from Schnitzler’s Viennese fin-de-siècle connected to impressionism, towards Woolf’s Bloomsbury aesthetics connected to Paul Cézanne’s post-impressionist logic of sensations. In addition to that, I address how the women’s movement, starting in the end of the 19th century, inspired Woolf and Schnitzler to utilise their techniques as a means of revealing women’s restricted position in society. Methodologically, I will analyse the two novels’ narrative techniques applying close reading and by that point out their differences and similarities in connection to the above-mentioned theories as well as the two author’s literary approaches. I argue that this comparison demonstrates that modernist literary techniques of representing interiority evolved from interior monologue towards free indirect discourse. This progression also implicates that modernism can be seen as a continuum reaching back to the fin-de-siècle and culminating in the 1920s.
3	'Astride a dangerous dividing line': Preschool teachers' talk about childhood sexuality van der Riet, Jane January 1999 (has links) Magister Artium (Psychology) - MA(Psych) / The focus of this thesis is preschool teachers' talk about childhood sexualities. A literature review of empiricist, psychoanalytic, feminist, social constructionist and post-structural approaches to childhood sexuality suggests that it is a marginalized research topic. Moreover, emphasis tends to fall on the problems associated with childhood sexuality, rather than regarding it as part of everyday life. In this study, I facilitated a focus group discussion with eight preschool teachers. The complexities of analyzing a text produced by participants with multiple identities are acknowledged: The discussion was hinged around vignettes and questions about childhood sexuality, and was transcribed into a written text. Using discourse analysis, I explore some of the 'taken-for-granted' assumptions about childhood sexuality, within 15 extracts from the text. I argue that multiple, paradoxical constructions of childhood sexuality position children 'astride a dangerous dividing line', which can be read on many levels. This unstable positioning both creates and is created by multiple discourses of 'taking charge'. The discourses of 'taking charge' impel preschool teachers to police 'dangerously' sexual children and protect 'innocent' children from corruption. These discourses are gendered: girl children are constructed as more vulnerable to corruption; boy children tend to be constructed with 'sexdrives' needing to be tamed; and adult women are constructed as the monitors of childhood sexuality. Furthermore, silences or taboos about childhood sexuality are integral to these discourses. Although there are hints of childhood agency, I suggest that the teachers themselves have limited access to or use for feminist and other liberatory discourses. More subtle resistance may be evident in many examples of laughter in the text. While this is project situated on the margins of psychology, by virtue of its subject, epistemology and methodology, I conclude by discussing various limitations . Empiricist Psychoanalytic Feminist Post-structural Social constructionist Epistemology
4	Epicurus And Kant: A Comparison Of Their Ethical Systems Kutan, Ali Haydar 01 September 2010 (has links) (PDF) In this Study, the empiricist ethical system of Epicurus and idealist ethical system of Kant will be compared. Kant maintains that as Epicurus&rsquo / ethics regards morality as a means for the attainment of happiness, it is nothing but a self-love ethics. He, for this reason, calls Epicurean morality &ldquo / selfishness.&rdquo / According to Kant, the maxims of happiness can be known only through experience but he says, experience can never produce a law which is universal and necessary. He contends that as Epicurean ethics has happiness as its ultimate goal (i.e., the highest good), it cannot be able to produce an objective morality, valid for all rational beings. Kant, on the other hand, tries to found his ethical system on an a priori moral law of pure reason which borrows nothing from experience. This Study would, in a sense, be a defense of Epicurean ethical system against Kant&rsquo / s claims. The main argument of the thesis is that Epicurean ethics is not a self-love ethics, but rather a system which propounds happiness for all. I will be arguing that for Epicurus, one&rsquo / s own happiness is necessarily bound up with the happiness of others, and that his system is sound and consistent. I will also try to show that Kant is not successful in deducing a transcendentally ideal (a priori) law of reason and that his system has some inconsistencies.
5	Margaret Cavendish and Scientific Discourse in Seventeenth-Century England Bolander, Alisa Curtis 06 May 2004 (has links) Although the natural philosophy of Margaret Cavendish is eclectic and uncustomary, it offers an important critique of contemporary scientific methods, especially mechanism and experimentalism. As presented in Observations upon Experimental Philosophy and Blazing World, Cavendish's natural philosophy incorporates rationalistic and subjective elements, urging contemporary natural philosophers to recognize that pure objectivity is unattainable through any method of inquiry and that reason is essential in making sense and use of scientific observation. In addition to its scientific implications, Cavendish's three-tiered model of matter presents interesting sociopolitical associations. Through her own use of metaphor and her theoretical fusion of matter and motion, Cavendish confronts the masculinist metaphors and implications of mechanism. Through the dramatization of her model of matter in the narrative Blazing World, Cavendish exposes the theoretical failings of contemporary methods and legitimizes her alternative to pure experimentalism. By envisioning a new planet to place the utopia of Blazing World, Cavendish actively uses the rational functions of the mind, showing that reason and rational matter are above all else in natural philosophy. Although Cavendish's scientific theory in some ways promotes the participation of women in natural philosophy, it becomes complicated as she simultaneously reinforces her social biases and urges a traditional class system with a monarchical government. Cavendish actively separates the gender constraints in philosophical inquiry from the social limitations placed on the lower classes to promote herself and other aristocratic women in the pursuit of natural philosophy, urging that the rational realm, where all sexes are equal, should govern scientific investigation. Margaret Cavendish Blazing World natural philosophy Newcastle Duchess England scientific revolution natural philosophy scientific philosophy seventeenth-century science scientific discourse metaphor mechanism mechanist experimentalism experimentalist rationalism rationalist empericism empiricist Descartes Boyle Hooke Hobbes Bacon New Atlantis women woman feminist inductive deductive model matter utopia rational eschatology eschatological gender inquiry political monarchy aristocracy monarchical aristocratic English Language and Literature

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