Originally presented as the author's dissertation -- Berlin, 1940. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Southern California, 1970. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 248-255). Filmography: 203-246.

Metatheories of the State is a contribution to reinterpreting contemporary state theory through an account of three leading approaches in recent political theory. Metatheorising, as a form of critical analysis and exegesis, is portrayed as a sensitive exploratory technique which serves as a means of situating social and political theories in terms of their historical and social context as well as in terms of their epistemological and ontological assumptions. This thesis focuses upon three distinctive approaches in the field of state theory through an examination and theoretical reconstruction of key positions in Neo-Pluralism, Neo-Liberalism and Neo-Marxism. Each of the approaches considered is situated and assessed in terms of their epistemological and ontological frame of reference (their position in relationship to approaches within the philosophy of social science), as well as in terms of their contribution to the theorisation of the relationship between the state and society. This thesis addresses the tendency of state theorists to treat the state as the 'horizon' for the constitution of the social order rather than as an object in its own right with its own imperatives, structure and rationale. In each case, the substantive focus of analysis (polyarchic civility for Dahl, catallactic relations for Hayek and processes of societalisation for Jessop) is identified in relation to the state as a boundary or as a set of parameters which limit the operation of, and provide the conditions of possibility of social relations. Finally, this investigation highlights their distinctive models of causality within different accounts of knowledge construction in order to demonstrate the way in which realism is understood in relation to empiricism and idealism in social scientific practice.

published_or_final_version / Chinese / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Hideous Progeny: Postcolonial Fiction and the Gothic Tradition explores the vexed relationship between postcolonial fiction and the Anglo-European-American Gothic mode. Gothic motifs figure abundantly in postcolonial works, but they are not always meant to be taken seriously; often they take a comic and ironic stance toward the subject matter. When horror does appear in these works, it is usually not situated in the abject Other (the pharmakos figure), but in the projecting mindset of the dominant culture. As the title Hideous Progeny implies, such postcolonial novels are the rebellious offspring of the Gothic canon; they can even be dubbed Frankenstein's monsters, created from the disjecta membra of the nineteenth-century Gothic tradition and reassembled into a newly vital, global Gothic literature. Or, to use a different metaphor, they function as inverted mirror images, as photographic negatives, of the nineteenth-century Gothic novel, neutralizing its familiar tropes with an injection of "magical realist" motifs from diverse cultural traditions. This study uses a psychoanalytic methodology to analyze the Gothic source echoes in selected novels by Toni Morrison, Gabriel García Márquez, and Salman Rushdie. Through the lens of post-Freudian theorists Nicolas Abraham, Maria Torok, and Julia Kristeva, in particular, these novels will be depicted as Gothic--suspended between a haunted past and a technologically disorienting present--and also anti-Gothic. If the Gothic novel explored the unconscious anxieties of late eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Western culture, as many have suggested, the postcolonial Gothic novel explores the unconscious anxieties of an emerging global culture in the late twentieth century. Unlike its Anglo-American precursor, however, postcolonial Gothic fiction does not recoil from the unknown, but embraces the "liminal" zone, finding in it both "tiger and lady," both terror and potential renewal.

In this paper, I begin to develop a theory called Paradise on the Cheap - in so doing, I intend to provide a rival to David Lewis' modal realism. Paradise on the Cheap grounds possibilia in the features of the actual world; and so, it does not require realist commitments to the existence of non-actual worlds and individuals. I explain modality, conterfactuals, content, and properties in terms of recombinations of actual-world features, second-order mathematical schemata, and the similarity relations which hold between these things and parts of the actual world. Because the ontology of Paradise on the Cheap promotes unity and economy of theory to a greater extent than does model realism's ontology, I argue that we should accept the former theory instead of the latter. Moreover, I address the question of whether inference to the best explanation is an argumentative strategy that is even available to modal realists. / vii, 141 leaves : ill. ; 28 cm.

No description available.

Brian Lee Goard, Ph.D. The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2011 Chairperson: Dr. Gregg R. Allison This dissertation examines the role of critical realism in the theological method of Alister E. McGrath. The thesis of the dissertation is that Alister McGrath uses critical realism in a way that strengthens his theological method and that serves a number of good theological ends, yet McGrath's methodology is in need of revision in some areas, and clarification in others, if it is going to be theologically acceptable. Chapter 1 introduces (1) the philosophy of critical realism, (2) Alister McGrath's work in theological method, and (3) the thesis and methodology of the dissertation. Chapter 2 examines the history and development of critical realism, beginning with the work of Roy Wood Sellars in the early twentieth century and concluding with a description of critical realism as developed by Roy Bhaskar. Chapter 2 argues that historically, critical realism has been a versatile method that can be applied to a variety of projects and disciplines. Chapter 3 delineates the main themes of McGrath's methodology and how critical realism affects those areas. Specific points addressed in this chapter include McGrath's prolonged engagement with other theological methodologies (chief among them being postliberalism), the concept of nature, natural theology, and the science-theology dialogue. Chapter 4 provides a critical evaluation of McGrath's use of critical realism. A number of positive conclusions about McGrath's use of critical realism are drawn, yet where McGrath has made problematic or underdeveloped applications of critical realism, both correction and suggestions for further development are offered. Finally, chapter 5 reviews the thesis of the dissertation and considers the method that has been taken in defense of that thesis. Specifically, it demonstrates how each of the previous chapters serve as evidence for the dissertation's thesis.

No description available.

Denna rapport undersöker om olika gestaltningar av rumsklang ger högre gradperceptuellt realism med en visuell referens. Undersökningen baseras på denforskning inom rumsklang och perception av dessa som skett tidigare. I dessa fall utanen visuell referens. I detta fall undersöks gestaltningen som ges av konvolutionsreverb,fördröjningsnätsreverb och en kombination av dessa. För att undersöka detta skapadestre videoklipp med samma bild och samma ljudeffekter med skillnad i denreverbteknik som användes. Undersökningen skedde med semi-struktureradekvalitativa intervjuer som bestod av fyra frågor om informantens upplevelse. Detutfördes nio intervjuer med lika många informanter. Där varje informant endast fick sepå ett av videoklippen. Resultatet av intervjuerna visade att ingen gestaltning gavhögre grad perceptuell realism utan att så länge gestaltningen i sig låter bra spelar detmindre roll vilken teknik man använder. I en förlängning hade det varit intressant attutföra samma undersökning i en interaktiv kontext.