Thesis (doctoral)--Rijksuniversiteit te Leiden, 1917.

B. F. Skinner (1971) conceptualized freedom and dignity as by-products of the aversive consequences of a programmed contingency. The basic operant labs have operationalized freedom and dignity in terms of access to choice, and escape from aversive consequences. Yet, little experimentation has been conducted to demonstrate this conceptual understanding in more complex organisms. The current study used an A-B-A-B design to evaluate the effects of two types of programmed contingencies, and the relationship between those contingencies and the perception of freedom and dignity. 20 college students played two versions of Tetris, one version on a Gameboy console and one version on a laptop, each with different contingencies associated with space and time. After engagement in either version, participants recorded their individual perception of freedom and dignity associated with the condition. While participants were engaging in either the Gameboy or laptop, researchers recorded total frequency of verbal and physical responses. Results suggest a relationship between programmed contingencies which lead to aversive consequences and the perception of freedom and dignity. Implications are discussed.

This thesis argues that the modern notion of free-speech was born within the Westphalian nation-state. It suggests that the legal rights framework - particular to the Westphalian nationstate - not only legitimizes and legalizes the right to free-speech, but also enables us to invoke legally the necessary limitations that demand the limitation of free-speech in certain contexts. However, such a legal-rights framework is exclusive to the nation-state and cannot be enforced on an international level, outside of the nation-state boundary. With reference to examples on an international level, this thesis demonstrates that calls for the limitation of free-speech are indeed legitimate and necessary but cannot be enforced on an international level for the reasons just mentioned. In order to address this problem, this thesis proposes a framework - based on a Kantian model - that enables us to invoke the limitation of free-speech on an international level without appealing to a legal-rights discourse to do so.

In this essay I shall give a critical account of Spinoza's arguments for intellectual freedom as they occur in chapter twenty of the TRACTATUS THEOLOGICO-POLITICUS. His arguments exhibit certain ambiguities issuing from his appeal to the rational and prudent on the one hand and to several practical implications following from presumed facts about human nature on the other. These ambiguities will be discussed. This discussion will lead to Spinoza's doctrine of natural right upon which he constructs his political philosophy. One: THE HISTORICAL SETTING Here I shall give a brief outline of the political climate of Spinoza's time. My purpose is to show that Spinoza's ideas were at once advanced for his age while intended at the same time to solve some of the pressing problems he observed. Not until after his death were the civil liberties Spinoza considered important adopted as basic premises of government. Two: SPINOZAfS NOTION OF INALIENABLE NATURAL RIGHT AND HIS DOCTRINE OF NATURAL RIGHT This section is concerned with the question of whether Spinoza's idea ©f an inalienable natural right conforms with his general doctrine of natural right. I shall argue that it does not and that it probably has a more solid foundation in Spinoza's ethical rather than in his political theory. Three: SUPPRESSION IS LITERALLY INEFFECTIVE In this section I present and discuss Spinoza's proposition that suppression of thought and speech is literally ineffective because it is impossible to deprive men of the freedom to say what they think. I shall base my argument against Spinoza on the premise that there is nothing inherent in human nature which leads us to conclude that suppression is ineffective. I shall also try to Illustrate that his notion of an inalienable natural right to freedom of thought may be a viable political tool in the creation of a political and moral climate within a body politic encouraging the general acceptance ©f freedom of thought on principle. Finally I shall argue that Spinoza has to move away from considerations of human nature and deal with the rational and prudent when proposing that certain speech-acts may rightfully be restrained. Four: SUPPRESSION HAS UNDESIRABLE EFFECTS Here Spinoza describes some of the ill effects of suppression. These effects, he argues, will be felt by the oppressed as well as by the government. He says that suppression is a two-sided evil. On the one hand the suppressed will cause trouble for the government, on the other, those who enjoy the advantages, such as they are, of a suppressive government will become involved in internal power struggles and these in turn may lead to national unrest. Thus Spinoza concludes that the government cannot secure any advantage by resorting to suppression. It follows that only two factors may cause a government to resort to suppression as a means of maintaining control; one, ignorance of human nature and two, an inherent weakness in the government rendering it unable to confront rationally a powerful lobby of dissenters. Five: LEGITIMATE RESTAINTS OF FREEDOM OF SPEECH Recognizing that some speech-acts may reasonably be considered detrimental to the state, Spinoza feels that freedom of speech cannot be granted fully. He discusses which speech-acts and beliefs he considers to be detrimental to the state and how to deal with them. I shall argue that Spinoza is too vague on this subject and that in the light of his discussion here and the power-right relation of the sovereign, it is not always possible for him to determine when a speech-act is detrimental to society and when it is not. I shall argue that, consequently, his division between social and antisocial is not made sufficiently clear but remains rather a matter of contention. / Arts, Faculty of / Philosophy, Department of / Graduate

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1973. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 244-259).

Thesis--Wisconsin. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 164-174).

Freedom of speech has been a well discussed subject. Great philosophers and theoretics like Plato, Voltaire, Locke and Mill have again and again showed the importance of freedom of speech. Since the world have become bystanders to a series of events that can only classify as crimes aganst freedom of speech, it has become more important to study the phenomenon and analyse it. By finding cases where the freedom of speech has been compromised and analyse them in frames of three different theories, the argument of truth, the argument of democracy and the argument of tolerance, this paper makes the boundaries of freedom of speech a little clearer, and also makes a discussion about how reasonable the boundaries are possible. Everything according to the three theories.

A Thesis submitted to The University of Arizona College of Medicine - Phoenix in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Medicine. / While medical diplomacy has played a large role in US counterinsurgency (COIN) campaigns, few studies have been done to show their effectiveness. This study is a systematic review based on literature published by July 2014, looking at military medicine’s role in Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom (OEF/OIF). Both scientific and military databases were searched and yielded an initial 1,204 papers; however, these were later narrowed down to four articles, mostly restricted by the requirement of structured, scientific methods. These four studies were not well‐powered and focused on such different topics that no real conclusion could be drawn on the topic. In the end, the real value of the study was to show that despite the significant amount of resources poured into these COIN medical operations, very little study has been done to see if they have any effect.

Freedom of speech is a fundamental human rights. In Article 19 of United Nations  Declaration of Human Rights declared “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.”   China claims that the citizens of People’s Republic of China have the right of freedom of speech in Chinese current Constitution. However, Chinese journalists are barely able to express news freely, and the media freedom has become to a serious problem in modern China. On the other hand, Taiwan’s media freedom is considered to be the best in Asia according to Freedom House.   In this thesis, the author will research media freedom in China through a comparative case study, where the differences between Chinese and Taiwanese media will be explored. The thesis looks at how Chinese and Taiwanese media practice media freedom and how the Chinese media is constrained.     As a comparative case study, Chinese and Taiwanese media reports on the Mong Kok civil unrest in 2016 is used since the events in Hong Kong are of interest to both sets of media. Both quantitative and qualitative research method was used to do the data collection, and in analysis of the cases, critical discourse analysis is applied along with Trilling’s three models.   The research shows that the Chinese and Taiwanese media displayed obvious differences in their reporting of the Mong Kok civil unrest, they have different news quantities, article size, photo usage, news angle, key messages and thematic structure, as well as the means of expression. According to the analysis of these differences, the Chinese media freedom was limited to a great extent. In addition, the Chinese media was socially constrained by the deep-rooted sense of Democratic Centralism and Confucian value both in national leaders and citizens.

In 1997 the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) initiated a project to promote and defend the right to information. This decision to engage proactively with human rights was a radical expansion of the profession�s self-conception. Applying an action research methodology, this study traces the development and implementation of the Free Access to Information and Freedom of Expression (FAIFE) initiative. It traces the origins of the decision, and assesses the outcomes of its first five years as it developed from a project into a continuing and central program of the Federation. Both the internal effects on IFLA and the consequences of the project for the profession of librarianship are explored. The thesis locates the key decision in the history of librarianship, its growth as a profession paralleling the development of libraries as institutions. In turn, the decision is also located in IFLA�s own history, and the way it survived and worked to advance the ideas and tools of librarianship amid difficult and changing international environments. The politics of professionalism is at the core of the study. The disturbing innovation which FAIFE represented took IFLA outside its traditional focus on the status and techniques of the profession, postulating a new role for the Federation. By investing librarianship with a higher responsibility, it has gone further than the now widely accepted expectation that professionals will place community interests before organisational and personal interests at all times. The responsibility to promote the fundamental human right to information has been embraced as the key principle underlying and informing library and information service, the touchstone for evaluating professional priorities. This locates the primary purpose of the profession outside the profession�s institutional base in a supranational, absolute and almost universally recognised social goal. Adopting these aspirations and this role carried many dangers for IFLA. It would inevitably seem a deviation into politics by some. It heightened the risks of both internal dissent and external criticism. It challenged the habitus of disinterested professionalism by invoking a more interventionist social responsibility for IFLA, its constituent library associations and the broader profession. It drew on evolving and contested understandings of professional responsibilities in a complex global environment and has redrawn the accepted boundaries of professional discourse in librarianship. At least so far, the consequences have been beneficial for IFLA, reinforcing its jurisdiction and strengthening the Federation. As an international federation of professional associations, IFLA faces particular challenges in working across diverse national traditions, ideologies and cultures. Its existence and effectiveness rest primarily on internal cohesiveness. Its capacity to develop the FAIFE initiative into a program without schism, and indeed with growing support, has strengthened rather than weakened its organisational capacities. Through that process IFLA has reinvented itself, to a considerable degree, as a form of transnational social movement organisation. It has developed strong relationships with other civil society organisations while maintaining its position as a respected international professional body. It has strengthened its position by becoming a vigorous advocate for the right to information, thereby becoming an actor in the growing international concern with human rights. This study of a decisive period in IFLA�s history offers a rare example of an international professional association in transition. In examining this project to promote unrestricted access to information as the reciprocal right of freedom of expression, the research is a case study of the politics of an expanding sense of professionalism. IFLA�s experience is pertinent to a range of other organisations, and is itself part of the realignment of international political discourse in response to the growing influence of international organisations and the priority of human rights in international political agendas.