In preschools it is common that mathematics mainly focuses on how children learn mathematics through everyday activities, or on children´s understanding of mathematical concepts. However, views on mathematics-learning are today deepened and extended, and embrace children’s own mathematical signs, visual representations and bodily experiences. The overall aim of this thesis is to experiment with how this extended view in which children´s engagement and creativity is affirmed, simultaneously as they are developing knowledge about the world of mathematics with its procedures and rules. With inspiration from the French philosophers Gilles Deleuze´s and Félix Guattari´s immanent ontology and transcendental empiricism, and from the pedagogical philosophy of the preschools in Reggio Emilia, I have experimented both with mathematics, and with toddlers’ explorations and potentiality. The research-material primarily consists of video observations and documentations, and it is taken from a project with a mathematical topic through a cooperative work by me, preschool teachers and children aged 1–3 years. Methodologically the work is based on one example from the project where some children explores and experiment on geometric objects. In relation to the example some concepts from Reggio Emilia’s pedagogical thinking and Deleuze´s and Guattari´s immanent ontology are put to work, by focusing on the connections that emerge. The study make visible that children explore and experiment with mathematics in what in the study has called “a relational field of potentiality”. In relation to preschool didactics the study stresses the importance of teachers paying attention to and “listening” to children’s experimentations and sign-making, in order not to interrupt what is emerging/becoming. This requires an environment that embraces “the hundred languages” and enables collective experimentation for thoughts and ideas to be shared in “togetherness”. / I förskolan är det vanligt att matematiken främst handlar om det som sker i barnens vardag eller fokuserar på barnens förståelse av matematiska begrepp. Synen på matematik i förskolan håller dock på att vidgas och inbegripa barns egna teckenskapande och kroppsliga erfarenheter. Licentiatuppsatsens övergripande syfte är att experimentera och utforska hur barns engagemang och kreativitet kan tas tillvara, samtidigt med att barnen kan utveckla sina kunskaper kring matematikens värld med dess procedurer och regler. Utifrån de franska filosoferna Gilles Deleuze’s och Félix Guattaris immanenta perspektiv och transcendentala empirism och Reggio Emilias pedagogiska filosofi, har jag experimenterat kring matematik och de yngsta förskolebarnens experimenterande och potentialitet. Forskningsmaterialet består främst av videoobservationer och pedagogisk dokumentation från ett projekt med ett matematiskt ämnesinnehåll genom ett kollektivt arbete med mig, pedagoger och barn i åldern 1–3 år. Metodologiskt utgår arbetet från ett exempel från projektarbetet där några barn utforskar och experimenterar kring geometriska objekt. I relation till exemplet sätts några begrepp från Reggio Emilias pedagogiska tänkande och Deleuze´s och Guattaris immanenta ontologi i arbete med särskilt fokus på vilka förbindelser som frambringas. Det som studien synliggör är att barn utforskar och experimenterar kring matematik i det som i studien kallats ”det relationella potentialitetsfältet”. Förskoledidaktiskt synliggör studien vikten av att pedagoger uppmärksammar och ”lyssnar” till barns experimenterande och teckenskapande, för att inte stoppa barns potentialitet och det som är i tillblivelse. Detta förutsätter en miljö som inbegriper de hundra språken och som gör ett kollektivt experimenterande möjligt där tankar och idéer kan delas i en ”tillsammansskap”.

Ce mémoire entend mettre en lumière la solution au problème du mal développée par Philippe le Chancelier dans la Summa de bono (1225-1228). À cet effet, notre analyse se polarise sur la notion du mal qui occupe à la fois le système des transcendantaux et la division du bien créé découlant du principe du souverain bien. La somme est bâtie d’après la primauté de la notion du bien transcendantal, et fut rédigée par opposition avec la doctrine manichéenne des Cathares, en vogue au XIIIe siècle, qui s’appuyait sur la prééminence de deux principes métaphysiques causant le bien et le mal, d’où devaient procéder toutes les choses de la Création. Ceci explique que nous ayons privilégié de seulement examiner les notions du bien et du mal en un sens général, car c’est au stade universel de l’ontologie du bien que l’auteur défait la possibilité du mal de nature, en amont des ramifications du bien créé, déployées, à l’envi, dans les questions de la somme où les réponses sont assignées à des problèmes spécifiques. Nous offrons ici, pour la première fois, une traduction en français d’une série de questions ayant permis de mener à bien ce projet. / This master’s thesis intends to clarify Philip the Chancellor’s answer to the problem of evil in the Summa de bono (1225-1228). To this end, we focus on the concept of evil as located within the transcendental system and the division of created good resulting from the supreme good. This sum, which is conceived from the primacy of the transcendental notion of good, was drafted in opposition to the Manichean doctrine of Cathars, a belief popular in the thirteenth century, which states that two metaphysical principles cause good and evil and it is from these principles that all things are created by nature. For this reason, we decided to study the concepts of good and evil only in a general sense, because the author dismantles the possibility of natural evil at the universal level of the ontology of the good and, prior to the deployment of the created good, it is through the sum’s questions that specific problems can be resolved. Here, we offer for the first time a French translation of several questions useful to this project.

Ce mémoire entend mettre en lumière la solution au problème du mal développée par Philippe le Chancelier dans la Summa de bono (1225-1228). À cet effet, notre analyse se polarise sur la notion du mal qui occupe à la fois le système des transcendantaux et la division du bien créé découlant du principe du souverain bien. La somme est bâtie d’après la primauté de la notion du bien transcendantal, et fut rédigée par opposition avec la doctrine manichéenne des Cathares, en vogue au XIIIe siècle, qui s’appuyait sur la prééminence de deux principes métaphysiques causant le bien et le mal, d’où devaient procéder toutes les choses de la Création. Ceci explique que nous ayons privilégié de seulement examiner les notions du bien et du mal en un sens général, car c’est au stade universel de l’ontologie du bien que l’auteur défait la possibilité du mal de nature, en amont des ramifications du bien créé, déployées, à l’envi, dans les questions de la somme où les réponses sont assignées à des problèmes spécifiques. Nous offrons ici, pour la première fois, une traduction en français d’une série de questions ayant permis de mener à bien ce projet. / This master’s thesis intends to clarify Philip the Chancellor’s answer to the problem of evil in the Summa de bono (1225-1228). To this end, we focus on the concept of evil as located within the transcendental system and the division of created good resulting from the supreme good. This sum, which is conceived from the primacy of the transcendental notion of good, was drafted in opposition to the Manichean doctrine of Cathars, a belief popular in the thirteenth century, which states that two metaphysical principles cause good and evil and it is from these principles that all things are created by nature. For this reason, we decided to study the concepts of good and evil only in a general sense, because the author dismantles the possibility of natural evil at the universal level of the ontology of the good and, prior to the deployment of the created good, it is through the sum’s questions that specific problems can be resolved. Here, we offer for the first time a French translation of several questions useful to this project.

The goal of this thesis was to reassess the relationship between the moving body and technology, and more specifically, to focus on recent perspectives in the performing arts which inscribe new manifestations and dynamics of cross-pollination between the somatic and technology. According to Dr. Andrea Davidson, 'Such research has rarely been formally identified with the specialised field of somatics' (2013, p.3). The thesis thus proposes to reflect on the experience and conception of the performative body in the link it entertains with technology. Investigating this relationship, it defines a new paradigm, that of an 'interfaced intercorporeality'. This paradigm is constructed with special attention to a different relationship revealed between the interface and the notion of a corporal potentiality or 'interval'. In particular, the thesis focuses on the concept of a 'collective body' based on this relationship and on practical research conducted within the framework of my research, along with the methodology that supported it. The research and creative work that are presented derive from experiments I conceived, conducted and participated in making. My analysis is thus based on direct experience. The relationship between the somatic and technology notably led me to focus on the notion of embodied cognition or 'bodily knowledge' and for this, to re-examine the work of Maurice Merleau-Ponty. As a consequence, this return to the experiential also required revisiting definitions given by the Greeks concerning the aesthetic as a reference to sensation and the ability to perceive. The thesis approaches the body as the ground and basis for creating work, as well as for testing the effect(s) that technology has on it. Experiments conducted sought to develop greater sensory and perceptual awareness in order to invest the relationship of somatics/technology in a dimension that could potentially constitute a transformation of self, of one's relationship to others and to the world. Merleau-Ponty's phenomenological existentialism formed the basis for explorations made to forge links between the somatic and technology. However, it is important to clarify that my intention was not to make an analysis of phenomenology per se. It was rather referenced as a means to explain the framework of my research in relation to lived experience, sensation, and specifically, to my creative approach involving new technologies. Merleau-Ponty's methodology includes subjective, first-person accounts of 'lived experience'. Third-person accounts, or so-called 'objective' positions, are also included. These accounts are then shown to evolve towards an ecosystem of interaction and movement in order to experience and test the production of theory and practical experimentation involved in the methodology I adopted. The thesis incorporates knowledge from several disciplines, but principally from the field of dance and technology. Highlighting sensorial and perceptual phenomena related to the transformation of the body through technology and subjective experience, it takes into account an interdisciplinary perspective that is linked to this problematic. The thesis begins with an introduction to phenomenology in which the concepts and positions of Merleau-Ponty are outlined, including those of anti-dualism, the lived body, the ontology of the body, corporeality, intercorporeality and the flesh. Chapter 1 looks at the evolution of this philosophical movement throughout history and continues with a history of the body in phenomenology, an analysis of certain applications of phenomenology in the field of dance and subsequently, in the specific field of dance related to technology. Chapter 2 comprises a literature review. It also presents the bases of reductionist thinking, the proposition of a return to integrative thinking and issues concerning instrumentalisation, the double and the complexification of the self. It further examines the history of ideas surrounding the relationship between the body and technology, notions of the real-virtual-actual and a history and problematics of the interface. It concludes with a presentation of theories on the notions of potentiality, the interval and real-time. Chapter 3 presents my artistic background, an historical overview of the trends and principal ideas that have influenced my work, as well as an examination of the field of dance and technology from the point of view of its history and more recent developments. Chapter 4 is dedicated to an analysis of the research methodologies employed in the practical research for this thesis and identifies related issues. An analysis of problems encountered with existing methodologies notably highlights a need to invest in other methodological modes for practical research of an interdisciplinary nature. The chapter continues with a presentation of some of the methodologies currently used in the field of dance related to technology. The principles underpinning the specific creative research methodology I experimented with are then presented, proposing an adaptation of the aforementioned methodologies in order to respond to the dynamics of collective research of an empathic nature that are specific to my approach and also in order to invest in the link between the somatic and technology my project proposes. This proposition modestly attempts to respond to the lack of methodologies observed in the field of artistic practical research. A discussion of the experimentation involved in the practical research for the thesis is made in Chapter 5. Two creative experiments are analysed. Their aim was to investigate and develop a collective physical body composed of five dancers in constant contact, whose movement and relationships create what I call a 'collective sound body'. This collective entity produces sound in real-time which is simultaneously spatialised. The analysis takes into account the ways these two bodies are interdependent and constantly interrelated. Schematically, the first experiment served as a basis on which to found principles related to the collective body, while the second experiment developed them. The chapter further outlines creative strategies that were employed to test principles of self-organisation linked to sensation and stemming from the somatic techniques employed. It also returns to some of Merleau-Ponty's main concepts that were implemented and tested in performative experience: intercorporeality, the lived body, the dynamic of continual transformation and the principle of coexistence. Lastly, Merleau-Ponty's investigation of sensation and perception and his concept of sensory chiasms are related to the experiments' multisensory exploration and theme of intersubjectivity which are then proposed as leading to the possibility of intercorporeality. Chapter 6 forms the conclusion and seeks to identify new knowledge generated in the thesis. Essentially articulating another vision of the performative body as developed through its contact with technology, the findings, both practical and theoretical, bring to light a different understanding of the body rendered through a dissolution of psychophysical borders in the development of the performative model I called the 'collective body'. The thesis further proposes that the 'collective body' and its evolution as the 'collective sound body', open up the path to a new approach to interfaces and further, to what I propose as a theory of interfaced intercorporeality. This research aims to reintroduce the body and its specific intelligence in the understanding and building of relationships that can be renewed. The technology used in these experiments was considered as a physicality and the activator of a reconfiguration of sensory-perceptual processes that the thesis argues can lead to the final paradigm of 'interfaced intercorporeality' it proposes.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T20:12:18Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 4610.pdf: 1206950 bytes, checksum: 82dd8102d5be9ad4b11acf189d64fdb4 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-03-21 / The present thesis defends that Hegel´s dialectic can be understood as a process of development, both from the standpoint of pure reason and from a perspective based on historical and political factors. The dialectic of the concept is a development of the consciousness of being with relation to an object so as to comprehend the universal content of the object. The preservation of what is in opposition in the dialectical synthesis is the nucleus of the idea of development and what gives it a positive, constructive and directional character as philosophical and historical process. From a strictly rational point of view, development is the progression of consciousness. From a historical perspective, development is the progressive manifestation of spirit, or Geist. Both means of development consolidate themselves with the enunciation of the concept, which envelops an internal and subjective determination as well as a normative element. The philosophical law contained in the concept reveals its intrinsic value and its comprehension becomes a constitutive part of being. The determination in terms of rule of law and moral values is the absolute determination towards which is driven the national spirit. / A presente tese defende a leitura da dialética de Hegel como um processo de desenvolvimento, tanto do ponto de vista racional quanto histórico e político. A dialética do conceito seria um desenvolvimento da consciência do sujeito com relação ao objeto de modo a apreender o conteúdo universal do objeto. A preservação do que é contrário na síntese dialética seria o núcleo da idéia de desenvolvimento, conferindo um caráter positivo, construtivo e direcional ao processo filosófico e histórico. Do ponto de vista estritamente racional, o desenvolvimento seria a progressão da consciência. Do ponto de vista histórico, o desenvolvimento seria a progressiva manifestação do espírito, ou Geist. Ambas instâncias de desenvolvimento se consolidam com a formação do conceito, que encerra em si um elemento de critério interno ao sujeito assim como um elemento normativo. A lei filosófica encerrada no conceito revela o valor intrínseco e seu conhecimento passa a ser atividade constitutiva do ser. A lei jurídica ou moral seria a enunciação do valor absoluto ao projeto do espírito nacional.

The thesis provides an analysis and comparison of Geography textbooks for children with hearing impairment, children with a mild intellectual disability and children in mainstream elementary schools. The aim of the thesis is to highlight the current state of Geography textbooks for children with hearing impairment and, by means of combining findings on deaf education and the didactics of Geography, suggest specific solutions for improving the quality of education of children with hearing impairment through raising the standard for didactic materials used for teaching. The introduction of the thesis explores the position of Geography as a field of study within the School and Framework Educational Programmes; the objectives of teaching Geography at the second stage of elementary school are examined in relation to the target groups whose the textbooks are analysed in this thesis. Further, the thesis focuses directly on textbooks. The functions of the textbook in the educational process are introduced, as well as its structural components with a particular emphasis on the textual elements. Drawing on relevant academic literature, the characteristic features of these elements are described with special attention paid to learning from text - predominantly with regards to deaf children who typically...

Consummation was the one term about which Kenneth Burke wasn't particularly long-winded - odd considering his claim that it was the apex of his theory of form. Perhaps Burke never explained exactly what consummation was because he himself was never clear on the subject, as he told John Woodcock in an interview toward the end of his career. Burke began conceptualizing his theory of form early on - in his 20s - and published it in his first critical book, Counter-Statement, in 1931. At that time, Burke's theory of form had already taken one evolutionary step - from self-expression, with the focus on the artist, to communication, with the focus on the psychology of the reader. Communication was to Burke an "arousing and fulfilling of desires." However, by the 60s, Burke introduced us to a new term which he only used a handful of times in his entire corpus: consummation. This paper attempts to define consummation by exploring Burke's theory of form and looking to his correspondences with friends and scholars. It offers two answers: first, consummation is the act of a reader responding to a writer in critical conversation; second, consummation is the ultimate cathartic achievement. Both play an important civic role. Using current science regarding the gut in connection with emotional purgation, this paper treats seriously Burke's essay "The Thinking of the Body (Comments on the Imagery of Catharsis in Literature)" and his ideas regarding the "Demonic Trinity": micturition, defecation, and parturition, explaining Burkean catharsis as it differs from, deepens, and extends Aristotelian catharsis. What can we learn from what Burke meant by consummation? That the symbolic world is much more significant to our survival than we may realize. As the world of scientific motion advanced rapidly during Burke's lifetime, he began to lose hope that symbolic action could keep up with it. We can see how important poetry and the symbolic motive was for him; he seemed to think it was a matter of life and death. This paper explores what it meant for Burke to seek a consummated life, and the implications that held for him and for us. In the end, the paper posits the importance of catharsis to society in terms of war and peace.

Die Dissertation liefert eine Neuinterpretation des theoretischen Hauptziels der Harmonischen Elemente des Aristoxenos, sofern in der späten Herausbildung seines Dynamis-Begriffs unstrittig die zentrale Konzeption eines Wissens von der Musik liegt. Im Unterschied zur vorherrschenden Lehrmeinung und den bisherigen, vornehmlich musikhistorisch und philosophiegeschichtlich argumentierenden Ansätzen, welche die Innovationen des Aristoxenos auf die Befolgung der Methodik seines Lehrers Aristoteles und einer wissenschaftlichen Ferne von den Pythagoreern zurückführen, kommt die vorliegende, hauptsächlich medientheoretisch vorgehende Untersuchung zu dem gegenteiligen Ergebnis, dass (i) die Dynamis des Aristoxenos der Metaphysik des Aristoteles eklatant widerspricht und (ii) allein aus einer weiter gefassten Ontohistorie der griechischen Mousa-Kultur und deren philosophischen Verarbeitung durch den späten, pythagoreisierenden Platon in ihrer musiktheoretischen Relevanz hinreichend erkannt und in ihrer epistemologischen Signifikanz ausreichend gewürdigt werden kann. Für den Ansatz gilt zum einen, ernst zu nehmen, wie die in ihrer Vehemenz und Absolutheit bislang unverstandene Kritik an der Musiknotation aus der erstmaligen Einbeziehung der Melodie in die Wissenschaft von der Harmonie resultiert und entsprechend die radikalen Konsequenzen zu verfolgen, wie durch diese Verzeitlichung die Theorie der Musik insgesamt zu einer logisch-technischen Betrachtung eines harmonischen Prozesses wird, der unweigerlich mit virtuellen Entitäten operieren muss. Zum anderen sieht sich die Arbeit gezwungen, weit auszuholen, um kulturtechnisch auf die epistemogenen Momente der Erfindung des Alphabets und der Entdeckung des Inkommensurablen einzugehen, sowie philologisch das Pythagoreerbild des Aristoteles zu korrigieren. Beides zusammen führt ferner auf die Notwendigkeit, einen ‚zeiteigenen Sinn der Geschichte‘ zu postulieren und methodisch eine ‚doppelt negative Medienarchäologie‘ zu entwickeln. / This dissertation provides a reinterpretation of the major goal of Aristoxenus’ Harmonic Elements, inasmuch as it is beyond dispute that his late notion of dynamis constitutes the pivotal conception for a scientific understanding of music. Up to now the prevailing doctrine and a primarily music-historical arguing underpinned by a common approach to the history of philosophy holds that the innovations of Aristoxenus were to be explained by reference to the methodology obtained from his teacher Aristotle and the scientific distance taken from the Pythagoreans. By contrast, the present, mainly media-theoretical investigation arrives at the converse conclusion that (i) Aristoxenus’ notion strikingly contradicts the metaphysics of Aristotle and that (ii) it is alone by attaining a deeper onto-historical insight into the Greek Mousa-Culture and its philosophical incorporation by the late Pythagorising Plato that the music-theoretical relevance of the dynamis of Aristoxenus becomes sufficiently identifiable and that its epistemological significance can adequately be assessed. On the one hand, regarding the approach, one has to seriously account for the fierceness and absoluteness of the hitherto not understood critique of musical notation resulting from the first-time inclusion of melody into harmonic science. Accordingly, the radical consequences are to be traced, namely how by this temporalisation the theory of music as a whole is turned into a logico-technical consideration of a harmonic process that inevitably has to operate with virtual entities. On the other hand, the study is forced to go far afield in order to elucidate the epistomogenic momentum accompanying the invention of the alphabet and the discovery of incommensurability, as well as to correct the image of the Pythagoreans drawn by Aristotle. Taken together, this led to the need of postulating a ‘time’s own sense of history’ and to methodologically develop a ‘double negative media archaeology’.