Philosophy began, historically, with the discovery of nature-that which is permanent, preceding, outlasting and remaining unaffected by human action. Nature is understood by way of contrast with art and convention, which are specifically human. Man himself is a natural species, yet has produced a nonnatural (artificial and conventional) world. The classical (Platonic-Aristotelian) explanation for this is that man, through reason, participates in a 'higher' nature of which his arts and conventions are imperfect actualizations. The perfection of this nature would be wisdom embodied in the life of a state. Modern thought, beginning with Hobbes, rejects this account. Man has no natural purpose; reason is a mere invention; the state exists by convention. But the convention at the origin of the state is authoritative for political practice ever after. It thus implies certain ends of its own, the establishment of world government being among them. Alexandre Kojeve clarifies and radicalizes Hobbes's unclassical anthropology by an original interpretation of Hegel's story of Master and Slave: Hobbes failed to grasp the significance of mastery. Kojeve uses the Master/Slave story to interpret the entire Hegelian philosophy of history. His notorious doctrines of the 'End of History' and the 'Universal Homogeneous State' are merely the consequences of modern thought itself. But they are subject to various possible interpretations, which he does not always help us to decide between. And the 'wisdom' which replaces philosophy at the end of history provides no more unequivocal guidance for our actions than did the classical doctrine of the 'natural end of man' / acase@tulane.edu

acase@tulane.edu

The power of technology has led to a crossroads in world view. A choice for technism advocates technological growth and economic development, making means into ends. A radical loss of human potential appears to result. A choice for humanism seeks to implement programs enhancing autonomy and the quest for completeness. Choices concerning the practice, organization, and financing of medical treatment also present a crossroads. The choice for medicalization or demedicalization will support technism or humanism, respectively. The close relationship of sociomedical to metaphysical concepts gives these choices the leverage and power to affect the world view. The two crossroads are described and a choice for demedicalization and humanism advocated. Different conceptions of health, health care, responsibility, autonomy, needs, and rights result from the choice at the medical crossroads. Different conceptions of self, others, nature and the proper interrelationships result from the choice at the crossroads of world views. Humanism entails a different culture to support its values. Both programs carry significant risks. Conceptual analysis and historical research support the conclusions / acase@tulane.edu

acase@tulane.edu

acase@tulane.edu

acase@tulane.edu

acase@tulane.edu

Typically, the black woman character has been underrepresented and often ignored in the area of American folklore. If discussed at all, she is assumed to fill only subordinate, supporting roles. The male domination of field work and the lack of substantive research about the folkloric black woman have perpetuated these assumptions In this dissertation, I intend to alter this situation by identifying and discussing folktales that contain black women as principal characters. Additionally, I shall analyze these tales and characters with the aid of techniques from the fields of anthropology, English, history, and sociology. Such perspectives will provide an interdisciplinary treatment of the folktales. Explanations of world view or cultural group identity, literary themes and style, historical validity, and socialization and role-specific definitions will help to support my identification of the black woman as a major folkloric character Sixty-one folktales form the foundation for this investigation. In order to document the contextual information suggested by the content of the tales, I use primary and secondary sources from the disciplines cited earlier. This procedure follows the method of 'identification and interpretation,' a recent development in folklore analysis. Upon identifying the major roles portrayed by black women, I establish that two general categories, familial and religious tales, cover most of the positions assumed by women characters in folktales. Within each category, I identify behavioral or role types and discuss the contexts in which those activities or personalities could be documented. Both of the divisions of the tales contain role models or behavior patterns My findings indicate that the image of the precontemporary black woman is composed of many more sociocultural components than previously assumed. She is, indeed, a major character in folklore, as determined by my social scientific and literary analyses. Both traditional and non-traditional portrayals establish a folk figure that is just as colorful and well-developed as the male character who has been popularized since the period of American slavery. The results of my study can have significant bearing on placing some perspective on current issues concerning the roles of the American black woman / acase@tulane.edu

acase@tulane.edu

Let $\cal{H}$ be a Hilbert space. Of concern is the scattering problem for pairs of abstract hyperbolic equations of two particular forms. In each case, we study the problem by reducing the equations to systems on associated Hilbert spaces First we consider the equations$$\prod\limits\sbsp{i=1}{2\sp N}\left({d\over dt}-B\sbsp{i}{k}\right) u\sb{k}(t),\qquad t\in {\bf R}\leqno\rm(k)$$where for $k$ = 0 and $k$ = 1, $\{B\sbsp{i}{k}\}\sbsp{i = 1}{2\sp N}$ is a family of commuting, skew-adjoint operators on $\cal H$, with $B\sbsp{i}{k} - B\sbsp{j}{k}$ injective when $i \ne j$. For $k$ = 0, 1, equation (k) reduces to$${dv\sb{k}\over dt}={\cal A}\sb{k}v\sb{k}(t),\quad t\in{\bf R}, \quad v\sb{k}(t)\in {\cal H}\sp{2\sp N},\leqno\rm(k\prime)$$where ${\cal A}\sb{k}$ is a skew-adjoint matrix of operators on ${\cal H}\sp{2\sp N}$. Results are obtained for the scattering problem related to systems (0$\prime$) and (1$\prime$) Now let $L$ be a positive, self-adjoint operator on $\cal H$, and consider the equation$$\prod\limits\sbsp{j=1}{m}(\partial\sbsp{t}{2} + \alpha\sb{j}L)u(t)=0,\qquad t\in {\bf R}$$where the $\alpha\sb{j}$ are distinct positive constants. Results are obtained for the scattering problem related to two such equations, that is, for $L$ = $L\sb{0}$ and $L$ = $L\sb1$. In particular, we obtain results for the case where $D(L\sbsp{0}{m})$ = $D(L\sbsp{1}{m})$ / acase@tulane.edu