This thesis investigates the role of representations and intersubjectivity in explaining pretend play of young children. Its goal is to show that basic forms of pretending can be explained without recourse to mental representations. The thesis targets two aspects of pretence: imagining (underlying the ability to act as if), and guiding (underlying the ability to play in specific ways). It proposes an alternative account of pretence to cognitivist accounts that dominate in the literature. The alternative account is based on enactivism; it proposes to explain pretending through dynamic interactions of environmental affordances and animal effectivities in context. The thesis emphasises the role of social and environmental factors as well as cultural engagements in shaping the relevant context for pretence to occur. The thesis is an important contribution both to the literature on pretence as well as to philosophy of mind. While the topic of pretence is narrow, considering it through enactive lens involves considering some of the most debated issues, such as the applicability of mechanistic explanations to studying cognition.

Qui est l’homme si ce n’est un être en développement permanent ? Quel est ce phénomène appelé développement si ce n’est un principe immanent à l’homme ? Notre travail montre que l’homme est, ontologiquement soi, soi-même comme un autre, tout au long de sa vie. De ce fait, aucune étape de la vie, jeune ou vieillard, malade ou bien portant, ne peut prétendre à avoir plus de valeur d’humanité qu’une autre. Le développement de l’homme n’est pas accumulation de nouvelles compétences pour elles-mêmes mais est perte de ses enveloppes (lat. : de voloper faluppa) de sa toute-puissance. La première partie montre que l’homme doit assumer sa finitude corporelle avec les deuils inhérents à ces pertes. La seconde montre que le sens de la vie s’inscrit invariablement dans l’intersubjectivité entre dons et pardons, où l’homme exprime son historicité en vivant pleinement ses présent-vécus. Ainsi, l’homme doit accepter ne pas se considérer seulement au singulier mais assumer sa singularité riche de ses alliances à retisser quotidiennement, c'est à dire assumer sereinement son interdépendance avec ceux qu’il côtoie dans une société donnée. Etre homme, c’est assumer son Je-suis comme un Je-suis-parceque-en-relation. La loi que le Je pourra dire n’est ni autonomie kantienne ni autodétermination utilitariste, mais bien une loi qui ne peut se dire et se vivre que par, avec et grâce à autrui(s), concept que nous appelons principe de konomie. La troisième partie montre que pour assumer sa position spécifique, l’homme doit donner du sens à son historicité, à sa liberté et au respect qu’il doit à tout autrui. Assumer son principe développement c’est vivre ensemble une anthropoéthique / Who is the man if not a human being in permanent development? But what is this phenomenon called development if not an immanent principle to man? Our present research shows that the human being is ontologically himself, himself as an other, throughout his life. No stage of life, from youth to old age, sickness or health, can be considered to be more human than any other. The development of man is not the accumulation of new competencies for their own sake but rather in order to lose the envelopes (lat.: voloper faluppa) of his omnipotence. The first part of this thesis shows that man must accept his bodily finitude (finiteness) with the mourning inherent in these losses. The second part shows that the meaning of life is invariably found in the intersubjectivity between giving and forgiving, through which man expresses his historicity by living fully in the present. Thus, man must agree not to be considered only in an individual situation but to accept his singularity as one rich in alliances he must re-weave every day. He must cope serenely with his interrelationships with his peers in his given society. To be human is to accept one's "being" as "being-in-relation-to". The principle of development is neither Kantian autonomy nor utilitarian autodetermination, but a law that must be voiced and lived with and thanks to others, a concept that we call conomy. The third part shows that to take his specific position and dignity, man must give sense to his historicity, to his freedom and to the respect that he owes others. To assume this development principle it is to live in an anthropoethic way

Les études consacrées à Charles Johnson soulignent la distance entre sa vision originale et le Black Arts Movement et le Black Aesthetic, mouvements politiquement engagés. Cependant, ses romans et nouvelles, indéniablement philosophiques, traduisent une réflexion qui interroge les fondements de la politique. Oxherding Tale et Middle Passage montrent des catastrophes politiques (i. e. la plantation nommée Leviathan ou le négrier appelé Republic) alors que les héros de ces romans explorent différentes esthétiques. Le désastre politique provient donc d’une incapacité esthétique. Inversement, les voyages métaphysiques des personnages principaux aboutissent à de nouvelles façons de percevoir le monde et les autres au travers d’une intersubjectivité esthétique. La comparaison des théories de Schiller et d’Adorno sur l’art et la politique avec la vision bouddhiste de l’auteur sur l’art et ses effets sur le monde, permet de faire émerger de l’ensemble de l’oeuvre de Charles Johnson sa quête esthétique et sa philosophie politique qui définissent l’action comme une co-création. En conclusion, si l’oeuvre de Charles Johnson, héritier de la fiction morale de John Gardner, est le lieu d’une libération esthétique et spirituelle, elle est aussi une contribution à la construction de ce qu’Arendt appelait le monde, et sa définition de l’art correspond à l’enracinement de Simone Weil. / Those who have commented on Charles Johnson’s fiction often find a distance between his work and Black Aesthetic or the Black Arts Movement, and indeed his fiction is not committed to any racial politics. Nevertheless, it does reflect on the bases of politics and bring them into question. Since Oxherding Tale and Middle Passage have political catastrophes as backgrounds (i.e. Flo Hatfield’s Leviathan or Falcon’s Republic) on which the heroes explore different aesthetic systems, it can be argued that political failure stems from aesthetic impairment. Conversely, as the metaphysical journeys of Charles Johnson’s characters end in new ways of perceiving the world, the relationship between self and other is re-evaluated in aesthetic intersubjectivity. Moreover, an examination of Schiller’s and Adorno’s ideas regarding the link between art and politics serves as a comparison with the novelist’s Buddhist understanding of art and its effect upon the world. Consequently, an analysis of the subtext highlights Johnson's aesthetic quest and its relation to a philosophical inquiry into politics. Thus, political action is defined as a co-creative work. In conclusion, while for Charles Johnson fiction is the space for aesthetic and spiritual liberation, it also starts an ethical rebuilding of what Hannah Arendt called the world, and Johnson's definition of art is an answer to what Simone Weil termed as the need for root.

by Wan-chaw Shae. / Bibliography: leaves 74-81 / Thesis (M.Ph.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong

Master of Visual Arts / My research paper is an attempt to begin to articulate and document my lived experience of being both a mother and an artist. Underpinned by research into the cultural and social history of the experience of mothering and the cultural institution of ‘motherhood’, I revisit and reinterpret some of my earlier works, and explore issues of identity brought up by the relational experience of mothering. I seek out other women who are, or have been, both mothers and artists – particularly sculptors – whose work relates to their subjective experiences of mothering. From them I select and investigate both works, and reflections, which I feel resonate with my own experience of combining the roles of mother and artist. Against this background I describe and interpret my own recent body of work, drawn from my subjective experience of becoming, and being, a mother whilst continuing my artistic practice.

The phenomenological approaches to embodiment presented by Levinas and Merleau-Ponty cannot provide an adequate account of bodily identity because their methodological commitments forbid them from admitting the central role that sensation plays in the constitution of experience. This neglect is symptomatic of their tradition's suspicion toward sensation as an explanatory concept, a suspicion stemming from Kant's critique of empiricist metaphysics and Husserl's critique of psychologism and objectivism. By contrast, I suggest that only with a robust theory of sensation can the integrity of the body and its relations be fully captured. I therefore develop--contra Kant and Husserl's idealism--a realist conception of sensation that is at once materialist and phenomenological. / McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts; / Philosophy / PhD; / Dissertation;

Given Sociologys central concern with social interaction, the complexity, pace and intensity of social modernization creates a tremendous theoretical burden for investigating the modern social dynamic. Furthermore, three core themes are foundational to a sociological perspective concerned with intersubjectivity: social action, social order and social change. In this research, a Habermasian discursive approach to the study of the modern social dynamic holds significant potential for examining and critiquing Sociologys grounding issues or themes. My research presents the best case for using a Habermasian approach to understanding and theorizing family within contemporary pluralistic societies. By design, I did not utilize or focus upon the extensive secondary literature critical of Habermas thought and writing. Accordingly, Habermas social philosophy provides the theoretical framework for addressing three sociological problems: understanding the communicative basis of the social dynamic, interconnecting family with larger social formations, and studying Canadian families empirically.<p>In order to address these problems, a communicative sociological perspective is used to analyze each of Sociologys three focal themes: the discursive interlinking of social interaction through consensus formation (Chapter Two); the moral and legal nature of a communicatively produced solidarity for creating and maintaining social order (Chapter Three); and the communicative foundation of social change and emancipation within both private and public spheres of social life (Chapter Four). Prima facie evidence was found for the relevance of a Habermasian perspective through an empirical analysis of concordant familial relationships within Canada using the General Social Survey. Logistic regression reveals a distinct but complex profile of Canadian married couples who engage in democratic discourse as they construct a common family life-project together.<p>Habermas theory of communicative action and discourse theory reconstruct the normative basis for establishing and maintaining peaceful, cooperative and consensual relationships with both proximal and distal others. Through the use of everyday language to reach understanding and agreement within our communicative sociations with others, we have the capacity to establish egalitarian forms of family life and friendly forms of global coexistence. Habermas social philosophy provides a communicative lens through which to better understand, assess and address the conditions, problems and potentials of modern social life, whether at the level of family or global society. On the one hand, the discursive nature of communicative sociation reveals the fertile but fragile nature of the internal connection between Sociologys focal themes, between solidarity and justice, between ethical and moral life, between social and functional integration, between morality and law, and between family and system. On the other hand, our communicative practices have a productive force capable of establishing, reproducing and renegotiating new ways of accomplishing goals and meeting needs, new solidarities and responsibilities, and new motivations and attitudes.<p>According to a Habermasian approach to the sociological perspective, democratic discourse enables the voice of the other to be heard, respected, and considered. A communicative sociological approach therefore points to the relational structures which underlie our action coordinating practices. These relational structures emphasize the importance of a democratic relational dynamic, engendered by solidarity and justice, which can be characterized as an intact intersubjectivity. Democratic discourse therefore enables the consensual coordination of social interaction(s) with an other or others ethically and morally, within family and society, even under the pervasive and intensive constraints of a globalized market economy in need of effective moral-political governance.

Given Sociologys central concern with social interaction, the complexity, pace and intensity of social modernization creates a tremendous theoretical burden for investigating the modern social dynamic. Furthermore, three core themes are foundational to a sociological perspective concerned with intersubjectivity: social action, social order and social change. In this research, a Habermasian discursive approach to the study of the modern social dynamic holds significant potential for examining and critiquing Sociologys grounding issues or themes. My research presents the best case for using a Habermasian approach to understanding and theorizing family within contemporary pluralistic societies. By design, I did not utilize or focus upon the extensive secondary literature critical of Habermas thought and writing. Accordingly, Habermas social philosophy provides the theoretical framework for addressing three sociological problems: understanding the communicative basis of the social dynamic, interconnecting family with larger social formations, and studying Canadian families empirically.<p>In order to address these problems, a communicative sociological perspective is used to analyze each of Sociologys three focal themes: the discursive interlinking of social interaction through consensus formation (Chapter Two); the moral and legal nature of a communicatively produced solidarity for creating and maintaining social order (Chapter Three); and the communicative foundation of social change and emancipation within both private and public spheres of social life (Chapter Four). Prima facie evidence was found for the relevance of a Habermasian perspective through an empirical analysis of concordant familial relationships within Canada using the General Social Survey. Logistic regression reveals a distinct but complex profile of Canadian married couples who engage in democratic discourse as they construct a common family life-project together.<p>Habermas theory of communicative action and discourse theory reconstruct the normative basis for establishing and maintaining peaceful, cooperative and consensual relationships with both proximal and distal others. Through the use of everyday language to reach understanding and agreement within our communicative sociations with others, we have the capacity to establish egalitarian forms of family life and friendly forms of global coexistence. Habermas social philosophy provides a communicative lens through which to better understand, assess and address the conditions, problems and potentials of modern social life, whether at the level of family or global society. On the one hand, the discursive nature of communicative sociation reveals the fertile but fragile nature of the internal connection between Sociologys focal themes, between solidarity and justice, between ethical and moral life, between social and functional integration, between morality and law, and between family and system. On the other hand, our communicative practices have a productive force capable of establishing, reproducing and renegotiating new ways of accomplishing goals and meeting needs, new solidarities and responsibilities, and new motivations and attitudes.<p>According to a Habermasian approach to the sociological perspective, democratic discourse enables the voice of the other to be heard, respected, and considered. A communicative sociological approach therefore points to the relational structures which underlie our action coordinating practices. These relational structures emphasize the importance of a democratic relational dynamic, engendered by solidarity and justice, which can be characterized as an intact intersubjectivity. Democratic discourse therefore enables the consensual coordination of social interaction(s) with an other or others ethically and morally, within family and society, even under the pervasive and intensive constraints of a globalized market economy in need of effective moral-political governance.

Thesis--Cologne. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 150-153).

Jeanas-Paulis Sartre'as ir Maurice Merleau-Ponty neabejotinai priskiriami fenomenologinei tradicijai. Šiame darbe tiriama, kaip Jeanas-Paulis Sartre'as ir Maurice Merleau-Ponty sprendžia žmogaus kūno problemą intersubjektyvių santykių kontekste. Kūnas yra neatsiejamas nuo intersubjektyvių santykių, kadangi pirmiausia aš su Kitu susiduriu kaip su kitu priešais mane stovinčiu kūnu. Baigiamojo magistro darbo tikslas yra atskleisti Jeano-Paulio Sartre'o ir Maurice Merleau-Ponty fenomenologinio kūno sampratas. Darbe ypatingas dėmesys skiriamas žvilgsnio fenomeno analizei. Analizuodamas žvilgsnio fenomeną, Jeanas Paulis Sartre'as akcentuoja ne tai, kaip aš suprantu Kitą žvilgsnio metu, o tai, kaip kitas, žvelgdamas į mane, konstatuoja mano būtį bei atskleidžia mane kaip objektą, į kurį jis žvelgia. Žvilgsnis Jeanui-Pauliu Sartre'ui suprantamas kaip agresyvus ir nukreiptas į kitą, t.y. kaip objektyvuojantis mane. Maurice Merleau-Ponty žvilgsnio fenomeną suvokia kaip dviejų subjektų suokalbį; Kitas nėra akcentuojamas kaip radikaliai priešingas man. Kalbant apie intersubjektyvius santykius, kūnas yra suvokiamas kaip pamatinė sąvoka, kadangi intersubjektyvūs santykiai visų pirma ir yra dviejų kūnų susidūrimas. Būtent todėl žmogaus kūno fenomenas yra atskleidžiamas intersubjektyvių santykių kontekste. Kūnas suprantamas kaip pamatinis žmogaus būties būdas; jis yra išraiškingas ir išgyvenamas. Be to, kūnas suprantamas kaip bet kokio patyrimo pradžia. Darbas konstruojamas lyginamosios... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Jeane-Paulio Sartre and Maurice Merleau-Ponty certainly belong to the tradition of phenomenology. This thesis analyses the problem of body in the context of intersubjective relations as presented by Jeane-Paulio Sartre and Maurice Merleau-Ponty. The aim of the thesis is to clarify Jeane-Paulio Sartre’s and Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s notions of phenomenological body. Body cannot be separated from intersubjective relations because, first of all, I encounter the Other as the body standing in front of me. Special attention is paid to the analysis of the phenomenon of gaze. During the analysis of gaze, Jeane-Paulio Sartre does not emphasise the notion of how I perceive Other in the process of gaze. He rather pays attention to the notion how Other, while looking at me, states my being and perceives me as an object of his gaze. Gaze is understood by Jeane-Paulio Sartre as aggressive and directed towards the Other. Maurice Merleau-Ponty perceives the phenomenon of gaze as a collaboration of two subjects; the Other is not perceived as a completely opposed to me being. While talking about intersubjective relations, it should be noted that body is perceived as an underlying concept. Intersubjective relations are, first of all, a confrontation of two bodies. That is why the phenomenon of human body is revealed in the context of intersubjective relations. Body is perceived as an underlying mode of being. Body is expressive, powerful and lived. Besides, body is perceived as the initial... [to full text]