Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-29T14:27:28Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dayvid da Silva.pdf: 1495725 bytes, checksum: 8d277fe01cdd12f6310f0828ccf14b5f (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-09-22 / This study intends to work up the origins fault topic and its consequences to human nature, which will be called in the 5th century Original Sin by Saint Augustine, directly in reference to Adam s sin. However, before dealing with Adam s sin, as related in Judeo-Christian Holy Writ, aiming at answering the question that names this dissertation Original Sin: an Augustinian inheritance? , it seemed advisable to increase research field, although moderately. So the possibility of finding the idea of origins fault in other traditions is considered, as related in the Book of Genesis. As a result, before entering the biblical narration about Adam s and Eve s sin, this research studies other myths, namely: Prometheus s and Pandora s myth; Zoroastrian Myth on the world creation. After analyzing the above mentioned myths, the study focuses on the biblical narration about Adam s and Eve s sin and its interpretation by Paul the Apostle and by Church Fathers, who had in Saint Augustine s thought their theological systemization under construction about Adam s sin. A systemization that takes place mainly because of Pelagian controversy, which denied human nature s defectibility attributed to the first parents sin, called by Augustine original sin . Finally, the influence of Augustinian thought concerning the original sin in the Church will be studied; the first definitions; Augustinian thought through two great Scholastic theologians: Anselm of Canterbury and Thomas Aquinas; the Council of Trent and the dogmatic definition to all the Church about the original sin, based on Augustine s thought; the relation between two dogmas: Original Sin and Immaculate Conception; the concept of original sin in face of new scientific discovers and of the Second Vatican Council. Thus this study intends to ponderate the concept of original sin not properly as an Augustinian idea, but an idea that is part of human thought, because when asking about the existing goods in the created reality, it is asked also about evil existence / O presente estudo tem por objetivo trabalhar o tema da falta das origens e suas consequências para a natureza humana, que, no século 5, será chamado por Santo Agostinho de Pecado Original , fazendo referência direta ao pecado de Adão. Porém, antes de se falar do pecado de Adão, como se encontra nas Escrituras judaico-cristãs, visando responder à questão que dá título à dissertação Pecado Original: uma herança agostiniana? , achou-se por bem ampliar, mesmo que de forma moderada, o campo de pesquisa. Dessa forma, cogita-se a possibilidade de em outras tradições se encontrar o tema da falta das origens, como se faz presente no livro do Gênesis. Desta forma, antes de se adentrar no relato bíblico do pecado de Adão e Eva, esta pesquisa se detém em outros mitos, a saber: o mito de Prometeu e Pandora; o Mito de Tântalo; o Mito zoroástrico da criação do mundo. Analisados tais mitos, parte-se para o estudo do relato bíblico do pecado de Adão e Eva e a interpretação que se fizera deste pecado, principalmente pelo apóstolo Paulo e pelos padres da Igreja, que encontram em Santo Agostinho um sistematizador da teologia que se estava construindo sobre o pecado de Adão. Uma sistematização que acontece, principalmente, por causa da querela pelagiana, que negava a defectibilidade da natureza humana advinda com o pecado dos primeiros pais. A este pecado, Agostinho chamará pecado original . Por fim, estudar-se-á a influência do pensamento agostiniano sobre o pecado original na Igreja; as primeiras definições; o pensamento de Agostinho em dois grandes teólogos da escolástica: Anselmo de Cantuária e Tomás de Aquino; o concílio de Trento e a definição dogmática para toda Igreja do pecado original, tendo como base o pensamento de Agostinho; o encontro de dois dogmas: Pecado Original e Imaculada Conceição; a ideia de pecado original diante das novas descobertas científicas e do concílio Vaticano II. Assim, este estudo trabalha a ideia de pecado original não como uma ideia propriamente agostiniana, mas como tema da reflexão humana, pois, ao se questionar sobre os bens que existem na realidade criada, questiona-se também a existência do mal

The large marine protected area (MPA) declared in 2010 around the Chagos Archipelago, also known as the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT), has led to a conflict in the thick of environmental protection, colonialism, sovereignty claims, and the human rights dispute of the Chagossian people that once were exiled from the islands in the 1970s. By applying a Foucauldian inspired critical discourse analysis, this study interprets and examines how the nature/human relationship was portrayed during and after the creation of the Chagos MPA. Applying theories and concepts from political ecology and Foucault’s idea of biopower sheds new light on a conservation effort depicted as a global environmental success by some, and a geopolitical social justice disaster by others. Finally, this thesis applies Tim Ingold’s philosophical concept of the globe and sphere to discuss the implications of inclusion or withdrawal from nature.

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The principle aim of the study is to describe, analyze and problemize the ways in which television science documentaries (within a public service context) discursively represent scientific theories, research results and conclusions about the origins of human nature and the causes of human behavior. The study covers 25 programs broadcasted by SVT and UR during a period of four years,2002-2005 , and 12 additional programs are used as a basis for discussion. Most of the programs included in the study are productions purchased mainly from BBC Science. Thus, managing editors, producers and presenters were interviewed for the purpose of illuminating quality judgements and purchasing criteria. A five stage-model of critical discourse analysis has inspired the method which emphasizes the network of communicative practices in which the media text and representation are embedded. That includes media genre, production and narrative conventions as well as the wider historical, social and political/ideological context and discourse practices of which the issues represented are a part. The critical discourse analysis has been complemented by ideas about different documentary modes of representation or basic ways of organizing documentary texts in relation to certain recurrent features or conventions. In the analysis these modes have been applied to understand the degree of transparency and editorial presence and visibility in the science documentaries. The importance of the discourses presented is related to their more applied meanings. When certain descriptions, explanations and understandings of alleged human “basics” gain priority, it may affect the possibilities to define and handle very concrete social issues in a way that is inconsistent with this fundamental perspective. Thus, the ideological function of the science documentaries (as public service-program and educational media) deserves serious attention.

This thesis explores the status of a specific subset of absent characters within twentieth century American drama. By borrowing the term “proximate cause” from tort law and illuminating its intricacies through David Hume’s A Treatise of Human Nature, this thesis re-appropriates proximate cause for literary studies. Rather than focus on characters whose existence remains the subject of critical debate, this set of absent characters presumably exists but never appear onstage. Despite their non-appearance onstage, however, these absent characters nonetheless have a profound effect upon the action that occurs during their respective plays. Highlighting the various ways in which these characters serve as the proximate cause for the onstage action of a given play will expand the realm of drama and literary studies in myriad ways.

Over the last two decades, there have been increasing concerns about environmental degradation and its consequences on the long-term sustainability of socio-economic systems around the world. The publication of the report of the Club of Rome in 1972, (Meadows et al. 1972) focused on the issue of limits to growth. Since then, there has been a profusion of literature and general models have been developed to address the causes of environmental degradation and the unsustainability of current patterns of growth (Ehrlich and Ehrlich 1970; 1990). Essentially these models used parameters that included population growth, consumption levels and aspects of technology, and their effects on the environment. While these models and studies were at a macro level that helped focus attention on the patterns of growth and their unsustainability, they did not provide insights into the mechanisms that were driving ecological change, nor suggest alternative models of growth. An entry point into the current study is to understand the mechanisms that drive ecological change. Motivated by concerns for environmental degradation, and the need to understand the mechanisms that drive ecological change, the study is situated in the academic domain of studies on human-nature interactions. The complex nature of interactions between human groups with their environment and their dependence on the situational context, requires that such studies be at a regional and local scale for which sufficient detail is available. This particular study is situated in the Nilgiri hills in the Western Ghats of Southern India for which such detailed information is available. The study reconstructs the ecological history of the Nilgiri area during the last 200 years, and from this laboratory of human-nature interactions, attempts to derive general patterns.

This thesis contributes to a field of Kant’s practical philosophy that has received renewed attention, namely his moral anthropology. While it is true that Kant, in some of his best-known writings, literally says that the fundamental ground of morality must be pure and thus entirely free from admixture with anthropological principles, he nevertheless admits that these “subjective conditions” in human nature that “either hinder or help people in fulfilling the laws of the metaphysics of morals” make up the foundation of all applied ethics. In other words, in order to know if and to which extent human beings are susceptible to moral commands, we need to know our abilities as well as our limitations. Kant wrote several works about these topics and his long-term teaching of anthropology shows that he had a continuing interest in the theory of man. Moreover, it is widely acknowledged that Kant, during the mid-1760s was highly influenced by Rousseau. It is hardly a coincidence that Kant’s first reference to the “unchanging nature of human beings” appeared at the same time as Rousseau proclaimed the need of finding the true nature of man – the unmasked being who has not been damaged by social prejudice. In order to understand man and his moral capacities we need to find his true essence or what really constitutes humanity. Accordingly, a careful examination of the multifaceted characteristics of human nature is needed in order to understand the very concept of a moral being and to account for his moral progress. I will argue that Kant’s early insights about this need runs like a thread through his entire course of philosophy and that Rousseauian ideas actually affect also his critical ethics. They agree that man is sociable, but also suspicious. He has good predispositions but is likewise susceptible to corruption. My analysis will shed light on man’s eternal balance between conflicting forces and on the means needed for the progress towards the vocation of humankind. This reveals the need of knowing oneself and explains why the question: “what is the human being?” ought to be taken seriously.

La religion est un phénomène culturel universel et un sujet d'étude central en anthropologie. Pourtant, on constate un manque flagrant de consensus sur sa définition et son origine dans les manuels d'introduction et les dictionnaires d'anthropologie. Des hypothèses et des modèles explorant cette question sont toutefois disponibles depuis une vingtaine d'années du côté de la psychobiologie. Le présent projet cherche à déterminer si la définition et les explications de la religion que propose l'anthropologie sont compatibles, en tout ou en partie, avec les données et modèles de la psychobiologie. Une synthèse des hypothèses psychobiologiques est d'abord présentée; elle sert de point de comparaison analytique avec les théories anthropologiques de la religion. Deux de ces théories, celles de Edward Burnett Tylor ([1874] 1889) et Clifford Geertz ([1966] 2010), sont résumées et ensuite analysées en rapport avec leur définition de la religion, leurs éléments universels (explicites et implicites) et leurs principes théoriques. Ces deux auteurs sont reconnus pour leur influence majeure dans ce domaine et ils s'appuient sur des fondements théoriques opposés. L'analyse démontre que seule la théorie de Tylor confirme l'hypothèse de ce mémoire, à l'effet que certaines conceptions et explications anthropologiques de la religion sont compatibles avec les explications psychobiologiques. Malgré tout, une conciliation de l'ensemble des sources analysées et l'esquisse d'un modèle sur la nature et l'origine évolutive de la religion semblent se dessiner. / Religion is a universal cultural phenomenon that is central to anthropology, yet a lack of theoretical agreement about its definition and origin is obvious when comparing dictionaries and introductory handbooks. Hypotheses addressing this question have been available for the past two or three decades in the field of psychobiology, and this thesis explores whether anthropological theories of religion can offer a definition and explanations as to the origin of religion that are, at least in part, in agreement with psychobiology. First, a summary of the hypotheses offered by psychobiology is presented. This will serve as an analytical benchmark with which to compare anthropological theories on religion. Two such theories are summarised and analysed in terms of their proposed definition of religion, their universal elements, and their theoretical bases, that of Sir Edward Burnett Tylor ([1874] 1889) and that of Clifford Geertz ([1966] 2010). Both are influential theories, but have opposing theoretical foundations. The analysis shows that only Tylor’s theory supports the hypothesis of this thesis, which states that some anthropological conceptions and explanations of religion are compatible. Regardless the discrepancy between all the analysed sources, these could be conciliated, in a preliminary model of the nature and the evolutionnary roots of religion.

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This arts-informed, phenomenological, and heuristic inquiry focuses on what it means to immerse deeply into experiences within the natural world. Through attention and reflection on emotional and somatic aspects of my own ocean SCUBA diving experiences, and those of beginner and practiced divers, a method and the significance of learning through personal experiences and others’ shared stories is illuminated. Readers are invited to imagine or revisit what it is like to be enveloped by ocean life through an artful narrative account of the ocean diving experience. Crafted in meandering ways, through the aesthetics of photographic images, divers’ evocative descriptions and poetic text, and interspersed with remembrances and imaginations and contemplations of self and world, the narrative reflects the diversity, richness and resonance of divers’ shared stories, and the reverberating and nurturing beauty and mystery of the ocean world. Through five narrative sections that embody a sense of movement deeper into the experience – into relations with the natural world, (‘Immersing’ ‘Opening Pathways of Exploration’, ‘Widening Circles of Compassion’, ‘Nature Reveals Her Open Secret’ and ‘Surfacing’), I encourage readers to wander amongst ocean life to expand ways of experiencing the natural world. It is important to look for new, creative ways that allow space for explorations of self and world, to uncover new ways to reconcile both the mind-body connection as well as the human-nature connection. This inquiry brings the notion of connectedness with nature to the forefront as humans’ alienation from the natural world is recognized as a significant contributor to the present ecological crisis. The exploration of ocean experiences was also a search for ways to encourage and sustain a lifelong inquiry into the relations with the non-human world as a way to continually build and reinforce a strong bond with the natural world for psychological, social and ecological wellbeing. The immersive nature of research methods and representation illuminated how ocean life and artful expressions of remembrances and imaginations build lasting impressions, further adding vitality to what is perceived in both aquatic and terrestrial worlds – enhancing a sense of connectedness with the natural world.