For children, high quality friendships are associated with adaptive social, emotional and academic functioning. There is also evidence that children experience real and imaginary friendships in similar ways, and that imagined relationships could have an impact on development. However, less is known about the relationships made possible by virtual agents in digital media. This dissertation research was designed to provide preliminary data about children’s concepts of virtual agents, and the social opportunities they attribute to such entities. In Studies 1 and 2 (combined N = 48), preschool aged children differentiated the social affordances of a stuffed dog and a virtual dog. Participants played a game in which they guessed whether a child in a video was referring to a stuffed dog or a virtual dog in a series of statements. Items designed to assess high quality friendships, such as comfort, protection and love, were attributed more to the stuffed dog than the virtual dog. Studies 3 and 4 examined adult and child concepts of a virtual child, and how concepts of this entity might differ from a real child, a child on a video chat program (e.g., Skype™) and an inanimate doll. Adults and children attributed a range of properties to each child agent, including biological, psychological and social properties, as well as opportunities for relationships. In Study 3 (N = 144), adults did not differentiate between the virtual child and the doll on the social property; however, they favored the doll on opportunities for unilateral relationships. In Study 4 (N = 30), five to eight-year-old children indicated an overall preference for the doll on the social property, as well as on opportunities for reciprocal relationships. Children also favored the doll on opportunities for love, companionship, and intimate disclosure. Altogether, these findings suggest that virtual agents afford more limited social opportunities than inanimate artifacts, and they are less likely to be loved by children and adults alike. These results raise important questions about the design goals for virtual agents, and the functions they are intended to serve in our everyday lives. This dissertation includes both previously published and co-authored material.

"Mort du sujet", "retour du sujet", "sujet postmoderne", notre temps n'est pas avare de concepts et de formules... Or, savoir précisément ce qu'ils recouvrent est un autre défi. Penser l'époque contemporaine est en effet une gageure intellectuelle et déterminer ce qu'est le sujet ne l'est pas moins... Pour cela, étudier les spécificités du sujet aujourd'hui dans ses trois acceptions d'écrivain, de fable et de personnage sans gommer les différences propres à un corpus d'étude comparatiste semblait de bonne méthode. Une trentaine de vies imaginaires et d'essais méditatifs, formes littéraires nées pour ainsi dire dans le dernier quart du XXe siècle ; des proses mi-fictionnelles mi-sérieuses de quatre auteurs contemporains ayant déjà une certaine reconnaissance institutionnelle, P. Michon, G. Macé, P. Quignard et Fl. Delay, constituait notre corpus d'étude. Se demander d'abord comment les ruptures avec l'ère formaliste affectaient la parole de nos auteurs était une étape nécessaire. On les a ainsi vu refuser l'autorité de "l'auteur" pour se représenter en "lettrés actifs" et chercher davantage l'espace tenu mais ferme d'un "effet sujet" que les sables mouvants de l'écriture personnelle. Que cette subjectivité repensée influe également sur le délicat équilibre de l'avéré et de l'imaginaire dans nos textes n'est alors pas étonnant. Elle est révélatrice de l'attente double qui caractérise notre temps et d'une des configurations que prend le lyrisme dans la prose contemporaine. Ces tensions dans l'écriture sont cependant moins sources de déchirements que l'origine d'une figuration nouvelle. D'une densité légère, d'une luminosité spectrale et d'une profondeur complexe et translucide à la fois, l'hologramme constitue une métaphore riche de sèmes pour penser l'écriture contemporaine comme le fonctionnement du personnage dans nos textes. Ni acteur impliqué dans la glèbe du monde ni individu désabusé, le sujet contemporain est plutôt ce rêveur qui construit des mondes et qui s'efforce d'y advenir. Altérant le présent pour pouvoir rencontrer autrui, le sujet contemporain s'assume comme être de relation et d'accueil, nouveau sujet lyrique qu'une voix chuchotée a fait naître entre le monde de l'attesté et celui de l'imaginaire. / "Death of the subject", "return of the subject", Postmodern subject" - modern criticism is not short of such notions and formulae. To know precisely what these mean is, however, another matter entirely... Whilst understanding the contemporary poses an intellectual challenge of one kind, defining the subject poses another of equal importance. For this reason, it seemed methodologically appropriate to define the specificities of the subject today by considering the three dimensions it assumes in the works of contemporary writers - namely the scholarly, the fabulous and the fictional. The corpus of works considered in this study comprises about thirty imaginary lives and meditative essays - literary forms which have developed mainly during the last quarter of the 20th century. These texts, by four relatively well-established literary figures, (P. Michon, G. Macé, P. Quignard and F. Delay) mingle both fiction and reality. It was firstly necessary to determine how the break with the Formalist era had affected the writing of the authors considered. In this regard, they were found to be locking for a more concrete way of self-expression thus avoiding the potential pitfalls inherent in subjective writing. that this re-analysis of subjectivity in the chosen texts equally affects the delicate characterises our times and illustrative of one of the forms of lyricism in contemporary prose. Such tensions in contemporary writing do not lead so much to rupture as to the beginnings of a new configuration. With a lightness, a spectral luminosity and a depth of complexity with a translucent quality, the hologram represents a rich set of metaphors for contemporary writing and the dynamic of the character within our texts. Neither an active force within the world nor disabused by it, the contemporary subject is above all a dreamer constructing its own worlds in which to take place ; altering the present in order to approach others, the contemporary subject presents itself as open to relationships with others, and constitutes a new lyrical entity brought forth by a whispering voice between the real world and the imagined.

La philosophie que nous avons conçue au sein de cet écrit se présente comme une manière de la pratiquer au long d’une quête de sens dans laquelle les individus peuvent se confronter à leurs questions, afin de donner une signification et une orientation à leur existence. En revenant à sa vocation originelle, nous proposons de renouveler les « exercices spirituels » de la philosophie gréco-romaine, en suggérant une tension vers un style de « vie philosophique », qui soit cohérent avec notre histoire concrète et avec notre époque actuelle. Pour ce faire, nous avons revisité l’œuvre de Paul Ricœur en faisant éclore la pensée des pratiques philosophiques, dans leurs implications expérientielles, affectives, linguistiques, narratives et éthiques. Le but principal a été de faire apparaître, à travers un regard qui survole la production intellectuelle de Ricœur, la figure d’un sujet qui, non plus auto-posé de manière évidente, mais désormais libéré de ses propres narcissismes, se montre dans sa nudité interrogative, dans sa capacité de se mettre à l’épreuve de la vérité et de l’autre, en essayant de trouver sa place dans le monde, en se perdant et en se retrouvant dans ses propres œuvres. Ainsi, en développant sa nature théorique, ses méthodes et ses limites disciplinaires, nous avons montré que le lieu d’application de la philosophie est représenté par le « deviens ce que tu es », par le processus de formation de la personnalité. Renvoyé à sa liberté et à sa responsabilité, le sujet affirme son pouvoir-être comme une véritable œuvre herméneutique, pratiquée selon une méthode biographique dans le champ de l’agir humain, conçue comme une sagesse dont la tâche principale est éthique. / The philosophy considered in this paper is presented as a way to practice it during our personal search for meaning dealing with our own questions and ultimately giving meaning and direction to our lives. Going back to this original idea, we aim to recreate the "retreat" of Greco-Roman philosophy, and promote a style of « philosophical life » which sits within both our concrete history and our present age. In this regard, we have revisited the work of Paul Ricœur, revealing - in all its layers - the notion of philosophical practice, and with all its experiential, affective, linguistic, narrative and ethical implications. The main aim was to show, bypassing the intellectual production of Ricœur, the figure of a person who, no longer so self-evident, is freed of his narcissism, and who shows it through his open questioning, who is able to put his truth and other values to the test, who tries to find his place in the world, and who loses and finds himself through his actions. So, by developing its theoretical nature, its methods and its disciplinary boundaries, we have demonstrated that through the application of this philosophy, and through the training of one’s personality « you become what you are ». Returned to their freedom and responsibility, the subject affirms their “to-be” as an authentic hermeneutic work, practised in the field of human action, according to a biographical method, and conceived as a wisdom, the main charge of which is ethical.

abstract: The Imagination + Imagery model for design pedagogy is presented. Two studies were conducted to develop the model: (a) the visual imagery assessment of design students; and (b) a historical research on the concept of imagination. Results suggest the following implications as the components of strong imagination for design thinkers: (a) the ability to shape vivid images of objects in mind; (b) the ability to mentally transform the spatial representations of images; (c) to consider the ethical consequences of imagined situation; (d) to use imagination for resolving design wicked problems; and (e) to actively imagine for mental and emotional health. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Design 2018

The main purpose of this work is creation a helpful material for teachers at elementary school, where they could find the parting of the special tasks with an inspiration for math education in accordance with National school curriculum. The whole graduation theses is devided into three main parts. The first part is theoretical and contains the main ideas od National school curriculum, math textbook analyse and a part of mathematical competitions. The second part is special tasks classification with display of some pupils´solutions. The last part of the graduation theses is a textbook of special tasks.

Este trabalho é resultado da pesquisa desenvolvida sobre a concepção do certum em Giambattista Vico. O nosso interesse foi encontrar nos diversos escritos filosóficos de G. Vico (1668-1744) um novo modo de apreensão da concepção original do pensador acerca do Conhecimento e de que modo ele apreendeu e trabalhou essa visão de mundo, ao contrário da visão tradicional, que atribuiu valor lógico ao modo de conhecer mediante o verdadeiro e o falso. Vico concebeu o conhecimento tanto como ordem do certum quanto como ordem do verum, realçando o papel originário do certum. Esse novo modo de perceber a ordem do certum confere ao saber viquiano uma lógica própria: a lógica do verossímil. A verossimilhança é trabalhada enquanto elemento que nos leva à certeza mediante a exclusão de toda exatidão matemática conferida ao conhecimento, nos propiciando a possibilidade de alcançá-lo na sua incerta abrangência e/ou nos seus incertos limites. / This work is the result of the research developed about the conception of the certum in Giambattista Vico. Our interest was to found, in the various philosophical writings of G. Vico (1668-1744), a new way of understanding the original conception of the thinker about knowledge and how he worked and seized this vision of the world, unlike the traditional view which gave a logical value to the way of knowing before the true and false. Vico conceived the knowledge both as certum and verum, highlighting the original role of certum. This new way of perceiving the order of certum gives to the Vico´s knowing its own logic: the logic of credible. The credibility is treated like the element which leads us to the certainty before the exclusion of all mathematical accuracy given to knowledge in providing the possibility of reaching it in its uncertain scope and / or its uncertain boundaries.

O foco principal da pesquisa é o capítulo I do Tratado teológico-político, no qual Espinosa discorre sobre as profecias. A exposição dos diferentes tipos de imagens proféticas mostra como, de maneira geral, a imaginação se constitui nos homens e como dela segue o conhecimento imaginativo. Os traços constitutivos da imaginação são idênticos em todo o gênero humano. Por conseguinte, Espinosa descreve a origem natural das imagens proféticas, negando a realidade do milagre ou de qualquer interferência divina extraordinária na natureza, já que a ordem natural segue leis necessárias que são, elas próprias, os decretos eternos de Deus. Tendo por exigência básica do método interpretativo prestar fidelidade à Escritura, o autor do Teológico-político a examina como uma coisa particular da natureza, elabora a história crítica dela com base na determinação natural de sua existência. À descrição histórica das profecias corresponde a dedução genética da imaginação efetuada na Parte II da Ética. Com base na estreita relação entre as duas obras, esta pesquisa consiste numa tentativa de provar que o ordenamento metódico dos diferentes tipos de profecias se funda e, ao mesmo tempo, explica a teoria espinosana da imaginação. A tipologia das imagens proféticas é um fator importante para se compreender a composição textual do Tratado e sua dimensão crítica frente à Escritura e aos intérpretes que, direta ou indiretamente, aparecem como interlocutores de Espinosa. / The research main focus is the Theological-political treatise first chapter, in wich Spinoza makes a speechs about prophecies. The exposition of different types of predictive images shows how, generally, the imagination constitutes in men and ho w the imaginative knowledge follows from it. The imagination constituent traces are identical in all human sort. Therefore, Spinoza describes the natural origin of predictive images, denying the miracle reality or any divine extraordinary interference in nature, since the natural order follows necessary laws, which are, themselves, the perpetual decrees of God. Having as his basic requeriment the interpretative method giving allegiance to the Scripture, the author of the Theological-political Treatise examines it as a particular thing, he elaborates its critical history based on its existence natural determination. To the prophecies historical description corresponds the imagination deduction effectued in Ethic\'s Part II. Based on the narrow relation between the two works, this research consists in proving that the methodical order of the different types of prophecies is established on, and, at the same time, explaining the spinozist imagination theory. The prophetical images tipology is an important factor to comprehend the Treatise\'s textual composition and its critical dimension front to Scripture and to interpreters who, directly or indirectly, appears as Spinoza\'s interlocutors.

A pesquisa tem como objeto a imaginação na filosofia de Pascal, a qual parece se revelar não propriamente como uma região da alma, mas como força e seus efeitos, os duplos o costume, a opinião e a fantasia , que são as formas segundo as quais a imaginação se expressa nas três ordens de realidade definidas por Pascal, ou seja, segundo as quais ela encarna e assume contornos visíveis. O objetivo é seguir os embates entre a imaginação nas duas ordens de realidade às quais Pascal atribui um papel positivamente epistemológico: aqueles entre imaginação e razão nos apresentarão seu duplo na ordem espiritual, a opinião, serão objeto do primeiro capítulo; os embates entre imaginação e coração gestam a fantasia na ordem da caridade e serão abordados no segundo capítulo. No terceiro e derradeiro capítulo da dissertação, examinaremos a relação entre imaginação e perspectiva para explorar outras dimensões dos instrumentos hermenêuticos que Pascal mobiliza em Pensamentos com o intuito de melhor fundamentar a hipótese dos duplos da imaginação. / This research has as object the imagination in Pascals philosophy, which seems reveals itself not properly as region of the soul but as a force and its effects, the doubles the custom, the opinion e the fantasy , that are the forms accordingly which the imagination express itself on the three orders of reality defined by Pascal, such as, accordingly which she embodies and and takes on visible contours. The goal is to follow the conflicts between imagination in the two orders of reality to which Pascal assigns a positive epistemological role: those between imagination and reason will present in his double in the spiritual order, opinion, will be the subject of the first chapter; the clashes between imagination and heart bear costume in the order of charity and will be discussed in the second chapter. In the third and final chapter of the this work, we examine the relationship between imagination and perspective to explore other dimensions of hermeneutical instruments Pascal mobilizes in The thoughts in order to better support the hypothesis of doubles of imagination.

Em diversas passagens, Tomás de Aquino afirma que é impossível o nosso intelecto, unido ao corpo, inteligir algo em ato sem se converter aos fantasmas (conversio ad phantasmata). Segue-se, portanto, que a conversão aos fantasmas [i.e., o direcionamento natural do intelecto para as imagens recebidas pelos sentidos] é a condição de possibilidade da intelecção humana. Agora, se tal intelecção depende da conversão aos fantasmas, e estes, por sua vez, dependem da afecção dos entes materiais sobre os sentidos, conclui-se que o conhecimento intelectual humano só é possível a partir do conhecimento sensível. Se é correta essa simplificação, então, podemos continuar perguntando pela questão que, de fato, interessará aqui, a saber, se é possível o conhecimento dos incorpóreos, dos quais não existem fantasmas (imagens recebidas). Ora, se é indubitável que dos incorpóreos não temos fantasmas, então, como poderíamos inteligilos, uma vez que a intelecção humana depende necessariamente da conversio ad phantasmata? Para dar conta dessa problemática, propomos primeiro explicar porque a conversão aos fantasmas é a conditio sine qua non da intelecção humana. Somente depois disso, consideraremos o objetivo central desta investigação que é explicitar como Tomás de Aquino argumenta a favor da possibilidade do conhecimento de Deus, do qual não temos fantasmas / In several passages, Thomas Aquinas states that it is impossible for our intellect, united to the body, can actually to understand without conversion to the phantasms (conversio ad phantasmata). It follows therefore that the conversion to the phantasms (i.e., the natural direction of the intellect to the images received by the senses) is the condition of possibility of human intellection. Now, if such intellection depends on the conversion to the phantasms, and these, in turn, depend on the affection of the material ones on the senses, it is concluded that the human intellectual knowledge is only possible from sensitive knowledge. If this simplification is correct, then we can keep asking the question that really concern us here, namely, the question of the possibility of knowledge of incorporeal things, of which there are no phantasms (received images). While it is no doubt that we have no phantasms of incorporeal things, so how could we to understand them, since human intellection necessarily depends on the conversio ad phantasmata? To resolve this issue, we propose first explain why the conversion to the phantasms is the conditio sine qua non of human intellection. Only after that, we consider the main objective of this research: to explain how Aquinas argues for the possibility of knowledge of God, of which we have no phantasms

Na Teoria dos Sentimentos Morais, Adam Smith estabelece um esquema pluralista para explicar a aprovação moral, com quatro tipos de juízos morais: 1) em relação ao motivo da ação, o juízo que determina a conveniência ou inconveniência (propriety ou impropriety); 2) em relação aos efeitos imediatos da ação, o juízo determina seu mérito ou demérito; 3) ao analisar o acordo entre o ato e determinada regra geral de conduta, o juízo determina se o indivíduo agiu de acordo com seu dever; e 4) em relação aos efeitos não imediatos do ato, isto é, à maneira como esse ato se insere no funcionamento global da sociedade (juízo que Smith analisa sob o nome de aparência de utilidade). Esses quatro tipos de juízos se fundam na imaginação e formam a totalidade do princípio de aprovação que estrutura a parte especulativa de sua teoria moral. / In The Theory of Moral Sentiments, Adam Smith establishes a pluralist scheme to explain moral approbation, with four kinds of moral judgments: 1) regarding the motives of the agent, the judgment determines its propriety or impropriety; 2) regarding the immediate effects of the action, the judgement determines its merit or demerit; 3) analyzing if this act is a particular case of a general rule, the judgement determines if the agent has acted according to his duty; and 4) regarding the remote effects of the action, that is, the way this action is a part of the global operations of society (a judgement that Smith calls the appearance of utility). These four kinds of moral judgments are grounded in imagination and form the totality of the principle of approbation that structure the speculative part of his moral philosophy.