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The phenomenon of phantom limb pain has been well documented for centuries, but little clinical work has been done to alleviate it. Physician and neuroscientist Vilayanur S. Ramachandran began researching this condition nearly two decades ago, and has discovered a promising alternative treatment: mirror-box therapy. This therapy is not yet widely accepted by the scientific and medical communities because there is insufficient data explaining how and why it works. This study analyzes Ramachandran's rhetoric promoting the therapy. Scott Stroud's melioristic method is applied to Ramachandran's scientific and popular publications. The purpose is to determine whether or not his rhetoric is melioristic in that it promotes positive, and thus, pragmatic changes. This thesis indicates the important insights pragmatism can yield when utilized in acts of rhetorical criticism. / Graduation date: 2012

Upplysningen var en period av radikala förändringar. Religion, vetenskap och politik influerades under denna period av de vetenskapliga framgångar som gjordes under 1600-talets vetenskapliga revolution tack vare bland annat Galileo och Kopernikus. Trots att upplysningens påverkan inte begränsades till enbart vetenskap och filosofi utan även religion finns det en etablerad definition av upplysningen som icke-religiös. Christopher Hitchens och John Gray är båda ateister men har markanta meningsskiljaktigheter när det kommer till upplysningen och deras tankar om periodens främsta representanter. Hitchens tillskriver upplysningen ideal som förnuft, framgång och en ärlig intellektuell strävan medan Gray menar att upplysningen var en era av blind hängivelse till förnuft och vetenskap som ersatte den monoteistiska guden. Han menar även att upplysningens tendens att intellektualisera och legitimera rasism genom att inkorporera den i vetenskap har lett till moderna rasistiska ideologier. Även om dessa perspektiv skiljer sig i hur de beskriver upplysningen och deras främsta tänkare är Grays analys mer historisk och även fri från en form av ytlig romantisering som Hitchens gör sig skyldig till. En granskning av utdrag ur verk från Voltaire, Baruch Spinoza och David Hume gör det svårt att känna samma vördnad för dem som Hitchens gör och legitimerar Grays beskrivning av eran som fylld av rasism, kolonialism och intellektuellt förtryck av allt som inte var europeiskt.

This dissertation arose from a need to derive an inclusive model for describing the historical meanings of progressive education. It considers reform rhetoric published in two widely distributed and accessible journals in Ontario, The School and The Canadian School Journal, between 1919 and 1942. These sources brought together a wide variety of educationists in the province, including teachers, school board representatives, members of the Department of Education, inspectors, and the staff of teacher training institutions, and were forums for the exploration of new and progressive educational ideas. Various conceptions and interpretations of what progressive education would entail were published side by side, in parallel. This dissertation describes the rhetoric of progressive education, which concerned three domains—active learning, individualized instruction, and the linking of schools to contemporary society—and considers the distinctions within this language. Further, this dissertation argues that progressivist ideas were interpreted and represented in different ways according to conceptual orientation and context. Three distinct interpretations of progressive education are described in this thesis. The first progressivist orientation was primarily concerned with child study and developmental psychology; the second concerned social efficiency and industrial order; the third concerned social meliorism and cooperation. Hence, I draw not only on three different domains of progressivist rhetoric, but also on three distinct orientations to reform. What emerges is a description of how different progressivists understood and represented Ontario’s transforming schools, in a context affected by the forces of modernity, world war, and economic depression. / Thesis (Ph.D, Education) -- Queen's University, 2009-06-14 19:00:04.184

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