Many bodies of modern scientific theory (such as both Newtonian and relativistic physics) have proven to be remarkably successful at predicting future observable phenomena. Some philosophers have seen this success as calling for deeper explanation: what is it about these theories that makes them so predictively reliable, when, presumably, not just any theory would enjoy such success? This question has often motivated philosophers (such as Richard Boyd) to adopt a realist stance towards scientific theories, wherein the entities and mechanisms postulated by a successful theory are understood as referring to real entities and mechanisms in the world. However, as Nicholas Rescher has argued, a close look at the concepts employed in scientific theorizing reveals that they are not of the right kind for such a realist explanation to work. His arguments show that at the root of the meaning of each key element of our standard scientific framework is a reference to mental functionings. This being so, an explanation such a Boyd's ceases to be viable, as an approximately accurate picture of the external world would presumably be free of reference to mental functioning. I thus attempt to provide a plausible explanation for the success of science bearing in mind that a straightforward correspondence between the world described by our theories and the world itself does not obtain. Such an explanation relies not only on the features of the external world that our theories might approximate, but also on the ability of mental processes to enrich this world, both in theorizing and in experience. / Master of Arts

International relations are heralding a new era with the expectation of a new world order. However, the international community is facing a crisis of perception. They are trying to apply the concepts of outdated perspectives, such as realism, idealism, and Marxism, to an international political reality that can no longer be understood in terms of these concepts. The emergence of non-state nations, which are threatening the existence of the state system, are not integrated into the international system by the perspectives. The problem is "perspective effect" - one uses perspectives to perceive, understand, judge, and manipulate, the world order. Any international political issue that does not match conditional perception, is ignored and distorted. The result is "perspective paralysis" - the perspectives are unable to adjust to changed circumstances in the world order. "Perspective paralysis" can be overcome if there is a "perspective shift" - perspectives employ alternative criteria for evaluating world order. / World order / New world order / M.A (International Politics)

In Ancient Egypt, the concept of beauty is well-known and discussed by modern scholars. This concept is known from the old Egyptian language as ‘nfr’. In contrast to this, the term and concept of ancient Egyptian ugliness is neither understood nor analyzed. Since the Egyptians indeed had a perception of societal beauty, then logically, they would have had a perception of ugliness as well. This study aims to uncover the truth about the ugly and grotesque in ancient Egypt, questioning how this would have been expressed and manifested in Egyptian society. The research in this study is conducted through the hermeneutic method of comparison and analyzation, which of mostly is pictorial, however includes some textual evidence as well.

This thesis examines the relation between the conception of an act as the original ground of all knowledge and the conception of the I as self-limiting in the philosophies of Johann Gottlieb Fichte and Benjamin Höijer. By relating the philosophical project of these two thinkers to Kant’s definition of enlightenment it argues that, while both Fichte and Höijer seek to find a satisfactory refutation of scepticism, their motive for doing this is chiefly a practical rather than a theoretical one: their ambition is to show how knowledge is only possible through human freedom and independence. Thus, the scep-tical doubt about whether true knowledge of the external world is possible is transformed into a ques-tion about how the fundamentally free and infinite I can stand in a relation to a “not-I” posited beyond itself. Both Fichte and Höijer try to answer this question by arguing that such a limit of the I’s subjec-tivity must be a product of an original free act, and that it is therefore only thinkable in relation to the infinite nature of the concept of action. The main difference between their respective philosophies lies in their characterisations of this original, limit-imposing act: for Fichte, it is synonymous with the I, while for Höijer, it must necessarily precede any agent.

Uppsatsens centrala tes är att tanken på den eviga återkomsten i Nietzsches prosadikt Så talade Zarathustra kan förstås som ett tragiskt ögonblick. För att kunna avhandla denna tes ställs den avgörande frågan: Vad avses med 'tragiskt ögonblick'? Jag söker syftesbestämma detta begrepp inom ramarna för den tyska idealismens tanketradition, där Schelling och Schopenhauer tjänar som exempel. Denna specifika förståelse av det tragiskas begrepp är att särskilja från genrebestämningar av tragedin. / The central thesis of this paper is that the thought of the eternal return in Nietzsche's work Thus spoke Zarathustra can be interpreted as a tragic moment. For proving this thesis, it is necessary to clearly understand how the concept of the metaphysically revelatory tragic moment within the tradition of German idealism differs from a genre-definition of tragedy. I use Schelling's and Schopenhauer's philosophies of art as examples of cases in German idealism where the tragic moment has been considered metaphysically revelatory. Thereupon I adjudicate whether the thought of the eternal return can qualify as such a moment.

International relations are heralding a new era with the expectation of a new world order. However, the international community is facing a crisis of perception. They are trying to apply the concepts of outdated perspectives, such as realism, idealism, and Marxism, to an international political reality that can no longer be understood in terms of these concepts. The emergence of non-state nations, which are threatening the existence of the state system, are not integrated into the international system by the perspectives. The problem is "perspective effect" - one uses perspectives to perceive, understand, judge, and manipulate, the world order. Any international political issue that does not match conditional perception, is ignored and distorted. The result is "perspective paralysis" - the perspectives are unable to adjust to changed circumstances in the world order. "Perspective paralysis" can be overcome if there is a "perspective shift" - perspectives employ alternative criteria for evaluating world order. / World order / New world order / M.A (International Politics)

The Critique of Pure Reason inaugurated Kant’s Critical Philosophy. Commentators commonly distinguish between Kant’s Positive Project (PP), that is, his epistemology as laid out in the Transcendental Aesthetic and Transcendental Analytic, from his Negative Project (NP), expressed in terms of the destructive implications his epistemology has on speculative metaphysics and rational theology. Against this tradition I will argue that the whole of the Critique is largely a negative-destructive enterprise. I will focus on what is commonly taken as the centerpiece of the PP, that is, the Transcendental Deduction, and demonstrate that even here the NP is given normative priority. Though, to be sure, certain passages tend to encourage an interpretation of the PP as primary, I contend that this view is myopic and fails to pay sufficient attention to Kant’s global concerns in the Critique. I will demonstrate that a clear exposition of Kant’s metaphilosophical aims, commitments, and convictions is in fact corrosive to any such reading. The objective of this thesis, then, is two-fold: 1) to provide an account of Kant’s metaphilosophy in the Critique, and 2) to argue for what I will here and elsewhere refer to as the Primacy of the Negative Thesis, that is, that Kant prioritized boundary-setting over principle-generating.

Dès le début de sa carrière littéraire, Zola se bat contre le romantisme. C’est en grande partie autour de cette polémique qu’il cherche à fédérer le groupe naturaliste, dont le recueil de 1880 "Les Soirées de Médan", auquel participent à ses côtés Céard, Maupassant, Hennique, Alexis et Huysmans, proclame l’existence. La haine affichée du romantisme unit les auteurs naturalistes dans un même combat contre l’-isme d’hier, en faveur d’une nouvelle esthétique et d’un nouveau mouvement de pensée : le naturalisme. La stratégie médiatique et collective mise en place par Zola pour faire de cette polémique anti-romantique un événement, permet aux naturalistes d’occuper le terrain de l’édition et du journal. Mais c’est aussi à travers l’opposition au romantisme que les naturalistes construisent leur propre esthétique, profondément anti-idéaliste, et se positionnent sur des questions telles que le rapport de la littérature à la société et à la politique. Enfin, la polémique anti-romantique informe également les œuvres de fiction. Si le personnage naturaliste apparaît souvent comme une victime de la culture romantique, le discours critique des naturalistes dans les romans passe également par la défiguration ou le dépassement de clichés considérés comme typiquement romantiques. Le métadiscours de certains romans naturalistes permet d’insérer la polémique anti-romantique au sein de la fiction, souvent de façon critique et réflexive. / From the beginning of his literary career, Zola fought against Romanticism.This opposition allowed him to build the unity of the Naturalist movement, a movement which first sprung into existence with the publication of "Evenings at Médan" (1880), the collection of short stories co-written with Céard, Maupassant, Hennique, Alexis and Huysmans. Naturalist authors, united by their hatred for Romanticism, joined forces against yesteryears’ dominant movement to defend a new aesthetics and a new school of thought: Naturalism. Thanks to Zola’s efforts to publicise this controversy, Naturalists gained visibility in the press and the publishing sector. It is largely through this opposition to Romanticism that Naturalists developed their own, deeply anti-idealistic aesthetics, and defined their positions on issues such as literature’s relation to society and politics. Their anti-Romantic stance further shaped their works of fiction. Naturalist characters often appeared as victims of Romantic culture. Moreover, Naturalist authors developed their critical discourse by dismantling clichés considered as typically Romantic. Through the novel’s metadiscourse, they inserted anti-Romantic polemic in the fiction, in an often critical and self-reflexive way.

This thesis aims to consider the contemporary relevance of the philosophical and religious project of Søren Kierkegaard by offering a systematic reading of his work against the backdrop of 19th century German idealism. Along with an emphasis on a systematic interpretation of a thinker usually considered to be wholly anti-systematic in aim and orientation, I also aim to show that through developing an ontological interpretation of the work of Kierkegaard the grounds are also created to develop a social and political interpretation of his work. Ultimately, I use the ontological and political reading of Kierkegaard developed in this work to not only show the relevance of this project to contemporary materialist philosophy, but equally to show how this version of Kierkegaard is capable of offering some crucial correctives to contemporary materialism.

郭靜婷. / "2007年9月". / 論文(哲學碩士)--香港中文大學, 2007. / 參考文獻(leaves 112-116). / "2007 nian 9 yue". / Abstract also in English. / Guo Jingting. / Lun wen (zhe xue shuo shi)--Xianggang Zhong wen da xue, 2007. / Can kao wen xian (leaves 112-116). / 摘要 --- p.2 / Abstract --- p.3 / 目錄 --- p.4 / 胡塞爾原著縮寫表 --- p.6 / 緖論 --- p.7 / Chapter 第一章- --- 胡塞爾超越論觀念論：一些誤解及初部疏理 --- p.12 / Chapter 1.1 --- 導言 / Chapter 1.2 --- 觀念論一般 / Chapter 1.3 --- 胡塞爾現象學的觀念論特色 / Chapter 1.3.1 --- 胡塞爾存在論及知識論並存的觀念論進路 / Chapter 1.4 --- 對胡塞爾現象學的誤會 / Chapter 1.4.1 --- 回到意識是內省 / Chapter 1.4.2 --- 建構即是創造 / Chapter 1.4.3 --- 「自我」作爲疏理胡塞爾哲學誤解的入路 / Chapter 1.5 --- 胡塞爾、康德、柏克萊：胡塞爾的觀念論跟傳統的觀念論的反差 / Chapter 1.5.1 --- 胡塞爾不是柏克萊的主觀觀念論 / Chapter 1.5.2 --- 胡塞爾「超越論觀念論」與康德的「超驗觀念論」 / Chapter 1.5.2.1 --- 「超絶」（transcendent)在康德及胡塞爾中的使用 / Chapter 1.5.2.2 --- 「超驗」/「超越論」（transcendental)在康德及胡塞爾中的使用 / Chapter 1.6 --- 小結 / Chapter 第二章- --- 從自然態度越出至超越論態度：現象學還原的核心地位 --- p.37 / Chapter 2.1 --- 導言 / Chapter 2.2 --- 現象學還原-自然存在論的逆轉 / Chapter 2.2.1 --- 在自然態度下進行的理論活動以及其問題 / Chapter 2.3 --- 現象學還原的兩個局面-世界的否定及世界的顯題式處理 / Chapter 2.3.1 --- 現象學還原的基本操作 / Chapter 2.3.2 --- 《觀念一》的進路 / Chapter 2.3.3 --- 《危機》的進路 / Chapter 2.4 --- 現象學還原的意義 / Chapter 2.4.1 --- 作爲一切事實科學的基礎 / Chapter 2.4.2 --- 重新認識吾人置身的世界 / Chapter 2.5 --- 小結 / Chapter 第三章- --- 純粹自我及經驗自我：在純粹意識及肉身中開展的建構 --- p.60 / Chapter 3.1 --- 導言 / Chapter 3.2 --- 純粹自我-意識作爲意義賦予的絶對存在 / Chapter 3.2.1 --- 作爲賦予對象及世界意義的絶對存在-「意向性」的考察 / Chapter 3.2.2 --- 「超越」對象以及經驗流的構成-「內在時間意識」的考 察 / Chapter 3.3 --- 經驗自我-「肉身」作爲主體性在世界的具體展現 / Chapter 3.3.1 --- 「肉身」的初部考察 / Chapter 3.3.2 --- 「肉身」與「知覺」 / Chapter 3.3.3 --- 「肉身」與空間性的建構 / Chapter 3.4 --- 小結 / Chapter 第四章- --- 客觀世界的建構：自我、交互主體性及世界的關係 --- p.83 / Chapter 4.1 --- 導言 / Chapter 4.2 --- 在世界中的自我-「人格自我」（personal ego) / Chapter 4.2.1 --- 人格主義態度的優先性 / Chapter 4.2.2 --- 動機作爲「人格自我」的最大特點 / Chapter 4.3 --- 他人的建構-自我越出個人領域的第一步 / Chapter 4.3.1 --- 「他人」問題的重要性 / Chapter 4.3.2 --- 「同感」（empathy)作用-《笛卡兒式的沉思錄》的進路 / Chapter 4.4 --- 交互主體性與世界的建構 / Chapter 4.4.1 --- 交互主體性的建構性運作 / Chapter 4.4.2 --- 精神世界的建構 / Chapter 4.4.3 --- 作爲一個共同體的世界 / Chapter 4.5 --- 小結 / 總結 --- p.104 / 中外詞彙對照表〈德、英、中） --- p.109 / 參考書目 --- p.112