No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

The aim of this thesis is to discover the cognitive role of Plato's metaphors for the gods and the soul; that is, what part they play in the expression and elucidation of his philosophical theories and arguments. I maintain that these metaphors are primarily illustrative and persuasive; that they serve both to illuminate certain concepts and ideas and to persuade the reader into accepting them as true. But I also believe that in very particular circumstances, that is, in the formulation of radically new theories, Plato uses metaphors to develop and to express ideas for which no literal terms already exist. In Part I the cognitive role of metaphor is discussed. Three modern views (the Epistemic, Non-Informative and Illustrative) are set out and compared both to Aristotle's account of metaphor and to Plato's comments on the philosophical significance of figurative language. Part II opens with a discussion of the role of metaphor in theology, embracing both modern perspectives and the views of Plato. The various groups of metaphors for the gods are examined and three passages from the dialogues are analysed in detail, showing how metaphors can function as very effective instruments of persuasion. In Part III the debate turns to Plato's metaphors for the soul. First I argue against the view that Plato's soul myths provide, or were intended to provide, special cognitive access to the soul. Second 1 examine the significance of metaphors for the immortality of the soul, the soul/body relationship and for the inner nature of the tripartite soul. Finally I offer a new interpretation of the development and rhetorical significance of the metaphor of spiritual pregnancy in the Symposium.

No description available.

I conduct an experiment to test the impact of relative power differential on the relationship between gender and role-taking accuracy. First in an 80 subject study, and then in the current study, role-taking accuracy is conceptualized as the accuracy with which one can predict the behavior of another or others. In Study 1, I examined self-evaluative measures of role-taking ability and found that self-evaluative measures of role-taking do not correlate with actual role-taking accuracy. In addition, women were more accurate role-takers than were men in same-gender dyads regardless of the existence of a prior relationship between the two individuals. This prior experimental research showed that female friends were much more accurate role-takers than were male friends. In fact, female strangers were more accurate role-takers than were male friends. It is my conjecture however, that role taking ability is not directly connected to gender; rather I propose that it is a situationally prompted ability based on the need for individuals of relatively less power to predict the behavior of individuals with relatively more power. In other words, while women are, indeed, better role takers, this is not a general ability; rather it is prompted by their relatively low positions of power. In Study 2, I examine role-taking accuracy under conditions in which differential power is assigned to one member of a dyad and established through interaction. I predict that power position will account for variability in role-taking accuracy, but gender will not. I tested this hypothesis using power balanced and power-imbalanced, task-oriented, same and cross gender dyads. I found that power position does account for variation in role-taking accuracy while gender and gender composition of the dyad do not account for variation in role-taking accuracy.

Typescript. / Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1978. / Bibliography: leaves 116-125. / Microfiche. / x, 125 leaves ill

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Adelaide, 1983. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 453-474).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Virginia Commonwealth University, 2008. / Title from title-page of electronic thesis. Prepared for: Center for Public Policy. Bibliography: leaves 113-118.

Diss. Linköping : Univ.