Thesis (M.A.)--West Virginia University, 2005 / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains iv, 36 p. : ill. (some col.). Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 36).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Victoria University (Melbourne, Vic.), 2008. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S. in Joint Campaign Planning and Strategy)--Joint Forces Staff College, Joint Advanced Warfighting School, 2006. / "26 May 2006." Electronic version of original print document. Includes bibliographical references (p. 68-73).

Thesis (M.S. in Joint Campaign Planning and Strategy)--Joint Forces Staff College, Joint Advanced Warfighting School, 2005. / "25 May 05." Electronic version of original print document. Includes bibliographical references (p. 77-80).

This dissertation addresses the problem of raising consciousness in Walter Benjamin's writings, which focuses on the problem in his major early works, and in his later writings on photography, film, and mimesis generally. It is a closely-read interpretation, following Benjamin in his attempt to present a historical-philosophical treatment of the literature he was examining. However, it moves away from Benjamin's methodology at critical moments, presenting its own reading of the raising of consciousness as a problem not only for political theorists, but for those interested in the philosophy of history as well. The chapters focus on Benjamin's key major early works, the untranslated "Concept of Art Criticism in German Romanticism," his dissertation, and the essay on Goethe's Elective Affinities. It contains a lengthy chapter on Benjamin's famous Trauerspiel book, and two on mimesis and the essay on the work of art in the age of its technical reproducibility. The dissertation casts these works in a different light, one under which they have not been examined previously: this light bears the shadow of Kant. Although this is not a dissertation on Benjamin and Kant, the place of the subject and its historicity is considered when contemplating the raising of consciousness at stake in each individual chapter. The question of temporality is present in each case, and marks the presence of Kant as the figure who attempted so articulately to bridge reason and history. Benjamin realized this, and so his attention to consciousness and its temporality is so keen in all of his writings. Conclusions are always difficult to enumerate, especially when a work sees itself as necessarily unfinished. It is the opinion of this author that it is evident, in each chapter, both how Benjamin wrote about raising consciousness, what that meant in each case examined, and how this author interjected to highlight, stress, and invent new ways to read what is often so terribly obscure.

<p>The question about the nature of art is at the centre of the philosophy of art. The thesis seeks to replace the two dominant approaches to this question in contemporary English-speaking philosophy - essentialism and descriptivism - with an historicist approach. The historicist approach I develop and defend holds that answers to the question ''What is Art?" must take the form of localized cultural-historical narratives.</p> <p>This alternative approach is applied to write the history of the development of what I call "the modem conception of art" in the early eighteenth century. A changing notion of art that emerges in Britain in this period is decisive for all later philosophy of art. Its genesis must be understood in a context of social, political and cultural changes. These changes deeply affected many people's conception of themselves and of their place in society. Social status becomes uncertain, and new criteria for the presentation of the self and evaluation of others emerge. Knowledge about art and the display of taste become indicators of social distinctions and thus criteria for social evaluation, replacing older notions of birth and rank. The modem conception of art emerges as part of new ideas of the presentation of the self, as part of a new ideal of edification.</p> <p>In contemporary philosophy of art, the evaluative contents of the conception of art - its historical and contemporary connection to notions of the moral and social order - are seldom discussed. Yet, as I show, these connections exist and have existed for a long time. At the centre of contemporary philosophy of art, therefore, there is a conception of art which is ideological in the sense that it treats the normative as factual and the historically contingent as the natural. Only a historical analysis of the kind I carry out is able to bring to light this aspect of the conception of art presupposed in contemporary philosophy of art.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

This work is an attempt of interpretation of philosophical views on art of Czech philosopher Jan Patočka, as outlined in its raw form in philosophical writings so called strahovská heritage. Strahovská heritage is a collection of so far unpublished philosophical writings, written approximately in the period of 1939 to 1945. These have never been submitted for publication. Philosopher Jan Patočka - in Czech as well as abroad is generally known mainly as a thinker developing thoughts of his famous teachers Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger - in the framework of heritage only refers to dilemma of art in a secondary way. Despite this, some referrals to art, which can be found within the framework of this heritage, contain a great potential for further interpretation. Interpretation of these Patočka references to art are required to be put into the wider context of Patočka's thinking and especially adds to understanding of evolution of Patočka's philosophy of art. Patočka's philosophy of art was only fully extended in his later works, namely 1960's of XX. century.

O presente trabalho é uma dissertação que tem como objetivo investigar de que modo podemos compreender o conceito de experiência estética na filosofia hegeliana, tomando como ponto de partida o modo como Hegel trabalha o conceito de experiência na Fenomenologia do espírito. A partir desta primeira etapa da nossa investigação, procuramos também entender de que modo o conceito de experiência pode ser entendido na Enciclopédia das ciências filosóficas, para somente então encaminharmos nossa análise para os Cursos de estética, onde podemos encontrar de fato um trabalho voltado prioritariamente para o tema da arte e, desse modo, é onde encontraremos uma forma de pensarmos o conceito de experiência observado nas duas obras supracitadas no contexto específico da estética, isto é, da filosofia da bela arte. Assim sendo, o presente trabalho busca analisar, ao longo dos segundo e terceiro capítulos, os diversos aspectos presentes nos Cursos de estética que apresentam-se com maior relevância à luz do nosso objetivo, a investigação do tema da experiência estética, mantendo-nos em referência ao conceito de experiência apresentado de início, no primeiro capítulo. / The present work is a dissertation that aims to investigate how we can understand the concept of aesthetic experience in Hegelian philosophy, taking as the starting point the way Hegel works the concept of experience in the Phenomenology of the spirit. From this first stage of our research, we also seek to understand how the concept of experience can be understood in the Encyclopedia of philosophical sciences, to only then progress our analysis to the Hegels aesthetics: lectures on fine art, where we can find indeed a work focused primarily on the theme of art and thus is where we will find a way to think of the concept of experience observed in the two works mentioned above in the specific context of aesthetics, i.e. the philosophy of art. That being said, the present work seeks to analyse, throughout the second and third chapters, the various aspects present in Hegels aesthetics: lectures on fine art which have greater relevance in light of our objective, the investigation of the theme of aesthetic experience, keeping us in reference to the concept of experience presented at the beginning, in the first chapter.

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The initial intention of this thesis was to amalgamate two distinct tendencies that evolved in the author's art work over the period of twenty-four years. The illusionary and corporeal qualities of his painting and sculpture had become amalgamated with social concerns, which emerged from his installation and performance work between 1975 and 1985. The moment the artist makes a gesture on a painting surface is a culmination of memory, the immaterial and the corporeal. That moment expresses his judgement about himself, and the world in illusionary form. By bringing together of the self and one's worldview, the corporeal and the immaterial, the past and present, the artist is provided with the authority to make judgements and to change themselves and their surrounding community, as well as gaining insights into changes in values in his community and family. The emphasis of the everyday in the artist's work has become an expression of universal social issues. / Master of Arts (Hons) Contemporary Arts