This thesis is about consciousness and representation. More specifically, the big picture issue in the background throughout is the relationship between consciousness (or "phenomenology") and representation (or "intentionality") in the life of the mind. Phenomenology and intentionality are inarguably the two central topics in philosophy of mind of the last half-century. The question of phenomenology is, "how can there be something it feels like, from a subjective viewpoint, for a physical being to experience the world?" The question of intentionality is, "how can something physical, such as a brain state, be about, or represent, some other thing out in the world?" Not too long ago, the majority opinion was that these two questions addressed two essentially independent domains. However, in recent years the views of many philosophers have swung dramatically in the opposite direction. An important theme of analytic philosophy of mind in the last decade or two has been the exploration of the groundbreaking idea that these two domains might be fundamentally linked in previously unrecognized ways. Perhaps phenomenal properties are reducible to certain kinds of intentional properties. Perhaps the mind's non-derivative intentionality is grounded in phenomenology. Perhaps we should think of phenomenology and intentionality as "intertwined, all the way down to the ground" (Chalmers 2004, 32). This thesis addresses one crucial question within this larger framework: whether, and how, thoughts are phenomenally conscious. Thoughts are an important test case for theories about the relationship between phenomenology and intentionality, because they have long been considered paradigmatic intentional states, in contrast to perceptual and sensory experiences, which are paradigmatic phenomenal states. While there is something it is like, from the inside, for an individual to undergo a perceptual experience such as an olfactory experience of roasted coffee beans, by contrast entertaining a thought might seem to lack such a distinctive qualitative "feel". The thought is clearly intentional: it involves carrying informational content about objects and properties in the world. But is there also something it is like for a subject to experience thinking itself? To answer this question in the affirmative is to accept the existence of a phenomenology of thought, so-called "cognitive phenomenology" (CP). The literature on this topic so far has focused primarily on the question of whether CP exists. Here I will focus on the subtly different, and largely neglected, question of whether a kind of CP exists that is able to determine thought's intentional content. Many proponents of CP seem to be motivated by the hope that it can, since they believe that in the case of other conscious states, the phenomenology accounts for the intentionality. However, in what follows I argue that this ambitious project is doomed to fail, because CP is not suited to determine the intentional content of thought.

Les pertes liées à la capacité fonctionnelle, au réseau social et à l'approche de la mort, sont autant de menaces pour le bien-être en général mais représentent aussi des opportunités de transformation et de croissance par l'intégration des parties de sa vie en un tout cohérent et l'acceptation que la mort représente la fin naturelle de la vie. Ainsi la recherche d'un sens à sa vie est importante à n'importe quel âge et plus encore dans le grand âge. La présente étude s'est intéressée au rôle que joue le sens de la vie dans les stratégies d'adaptation et les attitudes face à une mort prochaine. Elle se divise en quatre chapitres. Le premier chapitre présente la problématique sous-jacente à la recherche, la question de recherche, la recension des écrits sur les principaux thèmes, les objectifs ainsi que le cadre théorique. Le deuxième chapitre traite de la méthodologie utilisée, des stratégies d'observation et d'analyse, des obstacles méthodologiques et des considérations éthiques. Le troisième chapitre présente les caractéristiques des participants, le processus d'analyse, les résultats et leur interprétation. Le quatrième chapitre présente la synthèse des résultats, une comparaison avec les autres études, le modèle exploratoire du lien entre sens de la vie, stratégies d'adaptation et attitudes face à la mort, la portée et les limites de la recherche ainsi que les pistes de recherches. La conclusion comprend des recommandations pour l'intervention tant au niveau du personnel soignant que pour les personnes âgées et leur entourage.

This paper is about Edith Steins phenomenological investigation on empathy, based on the dissertation she wrote for Edmund Husserl: Zum Problem der Einfühlung. The philosophical method she used was an early phenomenological realism, practiced by phenomenologists in prewar-time, and she was an active member of the Göttingen philosophical society founded in 1907. Her analysis of the phenomenon empathy also includes a theory of emotions which recently has been brought up in the empathy-debate as crucial to an understanding of our empathic experience and our basic intersubjective experience. By looking in to how we perceive the others emotions Stein includes a survey, in the analysis of empathy, over different layers of our personality: from the outer bodily dimension to the inner core in the psychophysical individual. She provides for a phenomenological insight into the structures and layers of the other person, which then creates an understanding of how the emotional aspect of the empathic act discloses the others personality and values. / Den här uppsatsen handlar om Edith Steins fenomenologiska analys av empati-begreppet, med grund i doktorsavhandlingen hon skrev för Husserl: Zum Problem der Einfühlung. Hon ägnade sig åt en realistisk fenomenologi i likhet med samtida fenomenologer och var med i Göttingen filosofiska sällskap (grundat 1907). I Steins (tidiga) filosofi får vi dessutom en fenomenologisk inblick i de underliggande strukturerna i psyket, samt en teori om känslor som visar på hur kroppen och psyket i en sammanhängande enhet ger uttryck för våra upplevelser. Uppsatsen lyfter, tillsammans med ny forskning, fram den tyska innebörden av ordet empati (Einfühlung), där Stein på ett realistiskt vis beskriver det kännande jaget som fenomen - det empiriska jaget. Ordet översatt till svenska blir inkännande och det är denna innebörd som här specifikt betraktats i samband med den empatiska akten. Det handlar först och främst om den andres upplevelser och känslor som då utgör fokus i empati - där Steins undersökning av den empatiska upplevelsen och de olika känsloskikten i personen även bidrar till en förståelse för hur känslorna avslöjar personlighet och värden, i en grundläggande intersubjektiv upplevelse.

Atmosphere carries multi-faceted meaning when considered in the context of spatial design. In an architectural sense, we may speak of atmosphere as a spatial quality or in the way the built or natural environment is capable of moving us emotionally. Yet, when considered in a scientific register, atmosphere may be described as a complex of observable and measurable energies, which give air substance, behavior and force. The practice of landscape architecture entails a heightened awareness of exposure, namely the exposure to meteorological processes that in turn shape much of our perceptual and haptic experience of the ‘outside’ world. The intent of this practicum will be to draw attention to the importance of both designations of atmosphere, particularly within the discipline of landscape architecture, and set within the context of phenomenology. The context of this work begins at the scale of the circumpolar boreal forest and examines a particular biological and chemical phenomenon that occurs between the atmosphere and the boreal forest biome. The scale of focus will be drawn to a site at the southern transition zone between the boreal forest and St. Lawrence mixed forest within the Temagami region of northeast Ontario, Canada. Here, the phenomenon in question is quite palpable. / May 2017

La supersymétrie représente le cadre théorique phare en physique des particules pour prendre la relève du modèle standard. Cependant, en tant que cadre général, il dispose de beaucoup de liberté dans sa mise en oeuvre, notamment au niveau des modèles de brisure. Le travail principal de cette thèse consiste à tenter de réduire l'espace des paramètres par des considérations théoriques, en trouvant un sous-espace réduit dans les modèles de brisure par médiation gravitationnelle, en utilisant les méthodes de minimisation du potentiel effectif développé dans les scénarios dits no-scale. / Supersymmetry is the most preferred theoretical framework that could replace and complete the standard model of particle physics. However it is hard to distinguish clearly between all the possible models allowed.During this thesis, we tried to reduce the arbitrariness in the choice of some parameters in supergravity breaking models, by looking at minimisation methods introduced in no-scale supergravity scenarios.

This study has evaluated outcomes of the care and educational intervention set up for children of Magalasi and the surrounding villages since 2003. Magalasi Village is located in the rural area of Zomba District in Malawi, Southern East of Africa. The study has investigated perceptions, attitudes and ultimately meanings that participants have attached to this intervention. In doing so, it has established the effectiveness of this intervention, which is based on based on the principle of partnership, and aimed at improving the care and education of young children of Magalasi Village. The study employed the narrative inquiry approach situated within a hermeneutic phenomenological framework. Data was collected from 35 community participants using conversational narratives and has been analyzed thematically. The study has generated numerous findings; way beyond assessing the objectives set out at the beginning of the intervention, 40 themes in total. The major findings are: a) the reversal of child neglect situation; resulting in improvement in the hygiene and personal care of nearly all children in Magalasi village; b) highly improved school performance of most children attributed to improved school preparedness and leading to most children enjoying and staying in school, and successfully completing primary education; c) highly appreciable nutritional support to children; and d) existence of challenges and tensions underlying the implementation process. Overall, the Muula Center is having a huge positive impact on the care and education of most children of Magalasi village with minimal financial and essential technical support. Therefore, the financial, technical and community ingredients that are responsible for the delivery of the care and educational services in this intervention need to be sustained for continued impact. Also, a good understanding of challenges and tensions underlying the implementation process bears the potential of identifying and addressing critical issues, which will lead to further strengthening of the efficacy of the intervention. / Graduate / khamachibwana@gmail.com

Every summer solo-hikers roam the wilderness in northern Scandinavia; across mountains and rivers; they are in awe of the nature. This thesis explores the question: What do they seek out there? It uncovers their aspirations and experiences with a phenomenological research approach. Sixteen solo-hikers were interviewed in-situ (northern Scandinavia, June to August 2014) to gain immediate insights into the phenomenon. The analysis derived four major experiential themes from their narratives: the solo, the nature, the physical and the inner experience. Accordingly, the solo-hikers seek an individual mixture of experiences often linked to their personal life-paths. The study suggests that the solo-hike is both a journey of distance and closeness. The individuals seek (a perceived, not spatial) distance to common life-spaces and make sense of wilderness as a place that is away. However, they speak about the solo-hike as an experience of closeness to their inner selves. The thesis links to key concepts in human geography (such as place, identity) and central discussions in tourism studies (e.g. solo-travel, travel motivations). Ultimately, it also offers a thorough theoretical discussion of adopting phenomenology in human geography.

A mentor is a qualified mental health practitioner, namely in this instance a nurse who facilitates guides and supervises the learning experience and assesses the student’s competences in practice. This longitudinal study examines the perceptions of mentorship in clinical practice from nurses, as they move from students to recognised professionals with authority to advise and assess students’ competence in practice. This ethically approved study mainly uses qualitative methods. Initially it involved interviewing eight completing mental health nursing students, and 270 mainly qualitative questionnaires were sent to qualified mental health nurse mentors in clinical practice. The final data collection of the study involved interviewing six qualified nurses/mentors who were originally the students in this study. Existential phenomenology was a valuable means of interpreting the perceptions of both the students, qualified nurses and the mentors. This ontological perspective explores the consciousness of the self, operating within a collective consciousness of their world. The data analysis initially followed Van Manen’s holistic approach; then extracting essences, identifying themes and then synthesizing essences. This was then followed by an existential processing of the data from the first and second interviews. The results reveal that the students believe that mentoring is an absolute necessity for their practical training; but the mentoring experience is precarious due to the numerous barriers. The results also highlighted incidences where students who experience ineffective mentoring are inspired to become much more effective at mentoring, because they do not want their students to experience the poor mentoring they had received. The participants in this study said students who are not competent are still passing practice, and the craft of mental health caring is not taught to an appropriate standard. However, learning from the experience of the transitional process was also revealed, and how the development of the self affected the perception of mentoring.

This research study explored the meanings attributed by migrant Arab Muslim women to their experiences of childbirth in the UK. The objectives of the study were: • To explore migrant Arab Muslim women's experiences of maternity services in the UK. • To examine the traditional childbearing beliefs and practices of Arab Muslim society. • To suggest ways to provide culturally sensitive care for this group of women. An interpretive ontological-phenomenological perspective informed by the philosophical tenets of Heidegger (1927/1962) was used to examine the childbirth experiences of eight Arab Muslim women who had migrated to one multicultural city in the Midlands. Three in-depth semi structured audiotaped interviews were conducted with each woman; the first during the third trimester of pregnancy (28 weeks onwards), the second early in the postnatal period (1-2 weeks after birth) and the third one to three months later. Each interview was conducted in Arabic, then transcribed and translated into English. An adapted version of Smith’s model of interpretive phenomenological analysis (Smith 2003) together with the principles of Gadamer (1989) were used to analyse the interview data, aided by the use of the software package NVivo2. The analysis of the women’s experiences captures the significance of giving birth in a new cultural context, their perception of the positive and negative aspects of their maternity care and the importance of a culturally competent approach to midwifery practice. Six main themes emerged from analysis of the interviews: ‘displacement and reformation of the self’, ‘by the grace of God’, ‘the vulnerable women,’ ‘adaptation to the new culture,’ ‘dissonance between two maternity health systems’ and ‘the valuable experience’. These themes reflected the women’s lived experiences of their childbirth in the UK. The implications for communities, institutions, midwifery practice and further research are outlined. The study concludes that in providing culturally competent care, maternity caregivers should be aware of what might be significant in the religious and cultural understandings of Arab women but also avoid cultural stereotyping by maintaining an emphasis on individualised care.

This study offers a better understanding of the tourism experiences of at risk youth. A Husserlian phenomenology consisting of semi-structured interviews with a group of at risk youth residing in a treatment centre reveals a broader understanding of the tourism phenomenon as well as the essence of these experiences. Findings revealed that at risk youth value tourism and the opportunities that these experiences provide. The importance of support during this multi-phasic experience contributed to outcomes including increased learning opportunities, liberty to exercise free-choice and independence, skill acquisition, gains in social capital, improved self-perception and ultimately, increased resilience. / October 2016