Few would refute the didactic nature of stained glass windows, paintings, and sculptures used in Spanish cathedrals during the Counter-Reformation. For hundreds of years the artistic renderings of biblical narratives and of Catholic dogmata had aided both the literate and illiterate alike to internalize the teachings of the Church. In contrast, the seemingly complex web of semiotic signs that form part of the aural and visual spectacle of the auto sacramental has understandably led some to question if such productions could have truly held much meaning for commoners with little formal education. However, as a theatrical genre, the auto sacramental does not deviate much from the literal meaning and allegorical symbolism of the more static art forms that adorn cathedral walls and altarpieces. The usage of ships, highwaymen, and courtroom trials represent some of the most prominent symbols utilized by playwrights to create a Counter-Reformatory drama that facilitated the audiences' ability to decode the plays' allegorical meaning. The repeated use of these semiotic signs allowed the culturally literate public in urban centers across Spain to draw upon their intertextual knowledge of such symbols to appreciate and understand these Corpus Christi performances. Modern readers less familiar with these semiotic signs and their meaning experience an additional handicap because of their inability to see the visual spectacle designed, if not as the primary didactic tool of the genre, then at least as an effective complement to the instructive dialogue that takes place between the different characters of the auto. In spite of these additional challenges that the modern reader faces, the auto sacramental offers some insight into sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Spain that cannot be found in the more secular genres of the time. The added effort to investigate and understand the missing links of intertextual knowledge open a window that offers a panorama of a largely unexplored landscape of early-modern, Spanish society.

The literature presents us with two distinct, and at times opposed, approaches to strategic management: the use of strategic choice and determinism. This research shows that these approaches can actually be considered as two distinct variables, which create a space or framework in which it is possible to identify, according to the available different amounts of strategic choice and determinism, the four different ontological perspectives of determinism, hard incompatibilism, libertarianism and compatibilism. According to the literature, within each ontological perspective of the strategic choice/determinism framework, companies use different levels of strategic choice and determinism to produce organizational outcomes. This research provides empirical evidence of the real life existence of these ontological perspectives, in which companies’ performance of revenues is driven by a different amount of strategic choice or determinism according to the perspectives in which companies operate. This research also shows that other important performance indicators, such as EBITDA, depend only on deterministic variables, while ROA depends neither on strategic choice nor on deterministic variables. These findings suggest that future research could increase our knowledge on the internal environment of companies, as it could do from the hard incompatibilist perspective, which was not possible to study thoroughly within this research. The research conclusions provide several contributions to both academic knowledge and practice.

This thesis will explore whether Augustine of Hippo altered his theological views and what influences might have precipitated the alleged modifications. Augustine’s early "De libero arbitrio" argued for an individual’s ability to respond freely to God while his later anti-Pelagian writings rejected any human ability to believe until God infuses grace creating belief as his gift. Does his theology exhibit continuity or discontinuity? Four commonplace assertions within Augustinian studies are questioned in this thesis: 1.) Augustine changed his theology in AD 396; 2.) while he was writing the letter to Bishop Simplicianus (Simpl.); 3.) with his transition occurring through reading scripture (Rom.7, 9;1 Cor.15); 4.) which he developed through merely modifying prevalent doctrines. No scholarly work has researched Augustine’s entire corpus from AD 386–430 specifically analyzing his theology in the five final doctrines of: 1.) God giving initial faith as a gift, 2.) inherited damnable reatus from Adam, 3.) the gift of perseverance, 4.) unilateral pre-determination of persons’s eternal destinies independently of foreknowledge, and 5.) God’s neither desiring nor providing for the salvation of all persons. Only a comprehensive methodological approach—reading systematically, chronologically, and comprehensively through his entire corpus—can legitimately demonstrate changes. Did a Patristic consensus exist regarding post-Adamic free choice? What was Augustine’s contribution to this theology? To what degree did the combination of Stoicism, Neoplatonism, and Manichaeism contribute to his liberum arbitrium captivatum? Chapters include an introduction followed by chapters on free choice versus determinism in the: 1.) ancient philosophical-religious world, 2.) Christian authors AD 95–215, 3.) Christian authors AD 216–430, 4.) Augustine’s works AD 386–395, 5.) Augustine’s works AD 396–411, 6.) Augustine’s works AD 412–426, 7.) Augustine’s works AD 427–430, 8.) sermons and epistles, 9.) Augustine’s exegesis of scripture, and 10.) conclusion. Conclusions will be established via extensive primary quotations and references with supporting secondary sources.

One notes that Kant's philosophy became a part of Coleridge's thinking, and his devotion to its principle intensified through the years. Although Kant influenced Coleridge's aesthetics greatly, significant parallels between Kant's moral and ethical principles and Coleridge's religious doctrines are evidence of distinct influence. Particularly interesting are the views these two men had on the being and nature of God; on sin, salvation, and redemption; and on the various aspects of religion and faith.

This thesis argues that Isabel Archer of Henry James’s novel The Portrait of a Lady and Lily Bart of Edith Wharton’s novel The House of Mirth were nineteenth-century characters struggling to assert their social and sexual independence in a male dominated society. Although Isabel inherits a fortune that allegedly enables her to have more autonomy than Lily, both characters are negatively affected by their inability to conceive of their lives outside of social convention.

Student Number : 9112588A - MA Dissertation - School of Social Sciences - Faculty of Humanities / There is a concern that causal determinism might render free-will impossible. I compare some different perspectives, namely Compatibilism, Incompatibilism, Libertarianism, and Hard Determinism, and conclude that Hard Determinism is correct—we lack free-will. To further bolster the case, I consider the work of Libet, who has found neuropsychological evidence that our brains non-consciously cause our actions, prior to our being aware of it. Thus we are also not choosing consciously. I then consider Dennett’s work on the role of the conscious self. I defend his model—of a fragmented self—which could not cause our actions. Finally I argue that many things that free-will purportedly provides, eg., justification for the penal system and reactive attitudes, can be reconstructed without free-will. I then end with some speculations about why people still want free-will.

O presente trabalho visa compreender as relações entre a revolução científica do século XVII, com a passagem do antropocentrismo renascentista à subjetividade moderna, e as questões políticas no pensamento de Descartes. A partir de uma concepção mecanicista da natureza, Descartes elabora uma espécie de mecânica geometrizada das paixões que conduz ao estabelecimento de sua moral provisória, que, à luz de sua compreensão da necessidade e da contingência, se revelará como uma moral definitiva. A Moral cartesiana e a política que com ela se orienta requerem a condição do exílio e do mascaramento de índole libertina no teatro do mundo, a fim de que o livre-pensar possa distanciar-se das controvérsias do tempo, elegendo-se as virtudes da prudência e da generosidade como norteadoras de uma política de ideias regida pelo livre arbítrio / This study aims to understand the relationship between the scientific revolution of the seventeenth century, the passing of the Renaissance anthropocentrism to modern subjectivity, and the political issues in the thought of Descartes. From a mechanistic view of nature, Descartes elaborates a kind of geometrized mechanics of passions leading to the establishment of a provisional morality which, in light of his understanding of necessity and contingency, will prove to be a definitive morality. The Cartesian morality and the politics by which it is guided require the condition of exile and the libertine masquerading in the \"theater of the world\", so that free-thinking can distance itself from the controversy of time, electing the virtues of prudence and generosity as the guides of a policy of ideas ruled by free will

The current study investigated the interpretation of an agent's actions under the influence of external forces. Participants viewed a series of videos of an agent making a varying series of decisions and forced behaviors and were asked to predict future behavior. Firstly, we found evidence that suggests that perceivers make inferences about an agent that once they have shown a preference toward an object, they will persist with those initial desires, despite, external forces leading them to a different object. Secondly, we found evidence that suggests that submitting to a coerced choice will be perceived as reflecting a conflicting combination of pragmatic behavioral choice (due to concession to external forces) and maintenance of original desires, or, simply put, perceivers infer multiple underlying intentions in others. / by Brian Vail. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2012. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2012. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Yuan Ai. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2013. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 45-48). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstract in Chinese and English. / Yuan Ai.

Bien que le concept philosophique original du libre arbitre d’Augustin occupe une place à part dans l’histoire de la philosophie, son argumentation philosophique relative au libre arbitre s’appuie sur les théories des philosophes antiques. Cette thèse se concentre sur quatre approches philosophiques antiques élaborées par les Stoïciens, Cicéron, Alexandre d’Aphrodise et Plotin. Augustin accepte fragmentairement le principe du mouvement de la volonté, les formes de liberté et la relation entre la providence divine et la liberté humaine, etc., proposés par les philosophes antiques. Mais aussi, le libre arbitre chez Augustin prend de plus en plus forme au cours de ses controverses avec les Manichéens et les Pélagiens. Lors des controverses contre les Manichéens, Augustin se focalise tout d’abord sur le libre arbitre humain en relation avec le problème de la cause du mal. Augustin élabore une logique philosophique pour étayer son concept et parer aux attaques manichéennes. La cause du mal n’est pas la nature mauvaise de l’âme ni ne résulte de la volonté de Dieu, mais de notre volonté libre. D’autre part, lors de ses controverses contre les Pélagiens, son concept philosophique du libre arbitre entre dans une nouvelle phase. La volonté humaine n’échappe pas à la bride du péché sans la grâce divine, il s’agit donc d’une volonté faible. Le pouvoir de la volonté humaine est affaibli par le péché originel, même si l’homme possède son propre vouloir. Toutefois, dans la pensée augustinienne, la volonté humaine n’est pas contrainte par des puissances extérieures. Ainsi, le pouvoir du choix est toujours volontaire et libre. / Although Augustine’s philosophical concept of free will occupies a special place in the history of philosophy, the philosophical arguments about free will are based on the theories of ancient philosophers. This thesis focuses on four ancient philosophical approaches, elaborated respectively by the Stoics, Cicero, Alexander of Aphrodisias, and Plotinus. Augustine accepts the principle of the fragmentary movement of the will, the forms of freedom and the relationship between divine providence and human freedom, etc., offered by the ancient philosophers, but free will in Augustine takes on more shape in his arguments with the Manichaeans and the Pelagians. In his argument with the Manichaeans, Augustine first focuses on human free will in relation to the problem of the cause of evil. He develops a philosophical logic to support his concept and defend it against the Manicheans’ attacks. The cause of evil is not the evil nature of the soul or the result of the will of God, but of our free will. In his argument with the Pelagians, his philosophical concept of free will enters a new phase. Without divine grace, human will is too weak to restrain themselves from making sin. Thus, even if a man has his own volition, the ability of human will is weakened by original sin. Nonetheless, in Augustinian thought, the human will is not constrained by outside powers. Thus, the power of choice is voluntary and free.