In the first part of this dissertation I investigate whether the Pentecostal Churches in South Africa has a reductionist understanding of crucial missiological issues. Issues such as the definition of mission, motivation for missions, the role of the Holy Spirit in mission, mission as a quest for social justice, mission as anti-racism, mission as a quest for gender equality and mission as inter-religious encounter. In the second part of the dissertation I present a more contextual approach to these missiological issues, challenging the Pentecostal churches to move: towards the formation of a more relevant missiology. l finally present the 'cycle of missionary praxis' or 'the Pastoral cycle' as a tool that can be used to formulate a contextual missiology / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / M.Th.

In the first part of this dissertation I investigate whether the Pentecostal Churches in South Africa has a reductionist understanding of crucial missiological issues. Issues such as the definition of mission, motivation for missions, the role of the Holy Spirit in mission, mission as a quest for social justice, mission as anti-racism, mission as a quest for gender equality and mission as inter-religious encounter. In the second part of the dissertation I present a more contextual approach to these missiological issues, challenging the Pentecostal churches to move: towards the formation of a more relevant missiology. l finally present the 'cycle of missionary praxis' or 'the Pastoral cycle' as a tool that can be used to formulate a contextual missiology / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / M.Th.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-25T19:20:10Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Jose Carlos Cariacas Romao dos Santos.pdf: 15930909 bytes, checksum: 4969cf8823d7867bf45db98e6cd7fce8 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-09-24 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / The aim of this thesis is to analyse the reductionist presuppositions about cordel (pamphlet) literature in its religious dynamic. We examine the hypothesis that the cordel is a polyphonic product and that therefore it must be analysed in such a way as to avoid simple general statements in respect of its production. 　 We begin our research with a deep examination of the world of the cordel and the problems inherent in its interpretation, targeting, to begin with, the poor usage of the terms people/popular in the understanding of the cordel, which in its turn cancels out the complexity of perception of the listeners for whom the poems were written. Next we look at the precariousness of the classification of the religious cordel which only deals with elements outside of the context without getting caught up in the internal dynamic of its production. In three chapters we discuss the fallacy that asserts the production of the cordel to be coloured by catholic orthodoxy, thus analysing human images as if they are thoughts in the same production (with a view to counterpoint the reductionist interpretation). In the last chapter we analyse and refute the exaggerated suggestion that the cordel is conservative and traditionalist. 　 The research uncovers the following results: the cordel is a polyphonic product with its own internal logic and which does not offer any margin for reductionist interpretation. Any reductionism is due to the intellectual short-sightedness of researchers-once they are shown to be ignorant of religious phenomena and theoretical articulations concerning the culture of popular religion. The work in question offers information for the process of interpretation of catholic symbolism in the cordel / O objetivo desta tese é analisar pressupostos que se mostram reducionistas em pesquisas sobre a literatura de cordel em sua dinâmica religiosa. Atentamos para a hipótese de que o cordel é uma produção polifônica e que, portanto, deve ser analisada de modo a evitar afirmações gerais e simplórias acerca da sua produção. Iniciamos a abordagem vasculhando o mundo do cordel e os problemas inerentes a sua interpretação, focando, destarte, o mau uso dos termos povo/popular na compreensão do cordel que, por sua vez, anula a complexidade da percepção dos auditórios para os quais os poemas foram escritos. Em seguida observamos a precariedade da classificação do cordel religioso que só lida com elementos externos do contexto sem ater-se a dinâmica interna de sua produção. Em três capítulos discutimos a sentença falaciosa que afirma ser a produção do cordel marcada pela ortodoxia católica analisando, destarte, as imagens humanas no modo como são pensadas na referida produção (com vista a contrapor a interpretação reducionista). No último capítulo analisamos e refutamos a afirmação exagerada de que o cordel é conservador e tradicionalista. A pesquisa aponta os seguintes resultados: o cordel é uma produção polifônica que possui uma lógica interna própria e que não oferece margem para ser interpretado de maneira reducionista. Os reducionismos são devidos a miopia intelectual dos pesquisadores uma vez que se mostram como desconhecedores do fenômeno religioso e das articulações teóricas acerca da cultura da religiosidade popular. O trabalho em questão oferece subsídios para o processo interpretativo do cordel de simbólica católica

Through the development of physical chemistry and chemical physics over the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, the relationship between physics and chemistry changed to create a broad interdisciplinary framework in which chemists and physicists could make contributions to problems of common value. It is here argued that evolving disciplinary factors such as physical and chemical responses to the atomic hypothesis, the nature of disciplinary formation in Germany and the United States, the reception of quantum mechanics within physics and chemistry, and the application of quantum mechanics to the problem of chemical bonding by physicists and chemists, formed the chemical bond into a physico-chemical theory. In the late nineteenth-century context of early physical chemistry, the chemical bond was known as a physical link between atoms, which could not be studied by chemical means because of the lack of an adequate atomistic framework. Both chemists and physicists broadly accepted the atomistic hypothesis following the discovery of the electron at the turn of the twentieth century, which afforded theoretical study of chemical bonding. Between 1916 and 1919, Gilbert N. Lewis and Irving Langmuir proposed the valence bond to be a pair of electrons shared between two atoms, within the context of a cubic model of the atom. However, the lack of a physical mechanism for the shared electron pair prevented the formation of a fully physico-chemical view of bonding. In 1927, physicists Walter Heitler and Fritz London showed the stability of the valence bond was caused by the wave mechanical phenomenon of resonance. Chemist Linus Pauling extended their treatment of the valence bond to a theory of structural chemistry in The Nature of the Chemical Bond. His synthesis of the physical and chemical views, his value as a physico-chemical researcher during the 1930s, and the research of his contemporaries John Slater and Robert Mulliken show that a true physico-chemical blend was only realized within the amorphous discipline of chemical physics. Finally, it is seen that this interdisciplinarity of chemical bonding and its supporting framework force a reevaluation of the reductionist criteria, and a re-definition of the chemical bond as a physico-chemical work.

Through the development of physical chemistry and chemical physics over the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, the relationship between physics and chemistry changed to create a broad interdisciplinary framework in which chemists and physicists could make contributions to problems of common value. It is here argued that evolving disciplinary factors such as physical and chemical responses to the atomic hypothesis, the nature of disciplinary formation in Germany and the United States, the reception of quantum mechanics within physics and chemistry, and the application of quantum mechanics to the problem of chemical bonding by physicists and chemists, formed the chemical bond into a physico-chemical theory. In the late nineteenth-century context of early physical chemistry, the chemical bond was known as a physical link between atoms, which could not be studied by chemical means because of the lack of an adequate atomistic framework. Both chemists and physicists broadly accepted the atomistic hypothesis following the discovery of the electron at the turn of the twentieth century, which afforded theoretical study of chemical bonding. Between 1916 and 1919, Gilbert N. Lewis and Irving Langmuir proposed the valence bond to be a pair of electrons shared between two atoms, within the context of a cubic model of the atom. However, the lack of a physical mechanism for the shared electron pair prevented the formation of a fully physico-chemical view of bonding. In 1927, physicists Walter Heitler and Fritz London showed the stability of the valence bond was caused by the wave mechanical phenomenon of resonance. Chemist Linus Pauling extended their treatment of the valence bond to a theory of structural chemistry in The Nature of the Chemical Bond. His synthesis of the physical and chemical views, his value as a physico-chemical researcher during the 1930s, and the research of his contemporaries John Slater and Robert Mulliken show that a true physico-chemical blend was only realized within the amorphous discipline of chemical physics. Finally, it is seen that this interdisciplinarity of chemical bonding and its supporting framework force a reevaluation of the reductionist criteria, and a re-definition of the chemical bond as a physico-chemical work.

This thesis analyzes specific challenges concerning 'truth-telling' war reporters face when reporting on international conflict. For this purpose truth is examined in accordance with journalistic principles outlined in codes of ethics, with a focus on objectivity and fairness. The aim is to discover ways to improve the application of principles, in order to battle epistemic errors and the effects they entail: polarization, reductionism, and superficiality. The study concludes that providing context and nuance is crucial, but that codes - although essential - are insufficient in helping journalists decide what is relevant and what is not. An approach in virtue ethics is recommended where phronesis (or practical wisdom) can inspire responsible journalists to comply with the spirit, rather than the letter of the principles.

Military analysis is becoming more reliant on constructive simulations for campaign modeling. Requirements for force-level capabilities, distributed command and control architectures, network centric operations, and increased levels of systems and operational integration are straining the analysis tools of choice. The models constructed are becoming more complex, both in terms of their composition and their behavior. They are complex in their composition because they are constituted from a large number of entities that interact nonlinearly through non-trivial networks and in their behavior because they display emergent characteristics. The modeling and simulation paradigm of choice for analyzing these systems of systems has been agent-based modeling and simulation. This construct is the most capable in terms of the characteristics of complex systems that it can capture, but it is the most demanding to construct, execute, verify and validate. This thesis is focused around two objectives. The first is to study the possibility of being able to compare two or more large-scale system architectures' capabilities without resorting to full-scale agent-based modeling and simulation. The second objective is to support the quantitative identification of the critical systems that compose the large-scale system architecture. The second objective will be crucial in the cases where a constructive simulation is the only option to capture the required behaviors of the complex system being studied. The enablers for this thesis are network modeling, graph theory, and in particular, spectral graph theory. The first hypothesis, stemmed from the first objective, states that if the capability of an architecture can be described as a series of functional cycles through the systems that compose them, then a simple network modeling construct can be employed to compare the different architectures' capabilities. The objective led to the second hypothesis, which states that a ranking based on the spectral characteristics of the network of functional interactions indicates the most critical systems. If modeling effort is focused on these systems, then the modeler can obtain the maximum fidelity model for the minimum effort.

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No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Bruna Garcia da Silveira Miguel Elias - 2018.pdf: 1464993 bytes, checksum: 4fb42bf2c5bf3dba934d5546c6206189 (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-10-15 / This dissertation is an investigation of the notions of “indeterminacy”, “inexactness” and “vagueness” in the context of Wittgenstein's phenomenology during in the intermediary period of the author. The occurrence of vague terms in phenomenological expressions seems a problem to be solved, since it gives rise to some dissatisfaction with the lack of “precision” which should be a feature of any suitable language. We will deal with this “problem” about the vagueness expressions and some reflections about it, specifically as they were presented by Wittgenstein in the work Phenomenal Language. We explore in this dissertation some changes in the thought of this philosopher, from the Tractatus-Logico-Philosophicus to the text Phenomenal Language, with the intention of identifying, clarifying and later proposing modes to overcome the mistakes from the new ideas of Wittgenstein throughout the intermediate period, as they are rejected by the philosopher himself in the mentioned text. Such illusions, according to Wittgenstein, would be responsible for certain illusory conceptions about “language” and “perception” itself. We shall deal with some of Wittgenstein's notes on these misleading conceptions, seeking to show their connection with an old Tractarian idea, called of “doctrine of the simple” by Fogelin, and which we‟ll refer to as the “paradigm of logical elementarity” in this dissertation. We will try to sort out how this paradigm about logical “simplicity” or “elementarity” would have led to a misunderstanding about the kind of “logical generality” involved in several domains, especially the empirical and the phenomenal, as in the intervening period. Our aim is to spot out and examine such misunderstandings with the intention of overcoming them, and thus perhaps offer a proper treatment of language and perception which would allow us to understand the kind of “logical generality” involved in the phenomenal realm, and thus understand what that is meant by “indeterminacy”, “inaccuracy” or “vagueness” in those contexts. / Esta dissertação é uma investigação acerca das noções de “indeterminação”, “inexatidão” e “vagueza”, no contexto da fenomenologia de Wittgenstein exposta no período intermediário do autor. A ocorrência de termos vagos em expressões fenomênicas parece um problema a ser resolvido, desde que ocasione certa insatisfação quanto à falta de “precisão” que deveria ser uma característica de qualquer linguagem adequada. Trataremos desse “problema” acerca da vagueza nas expressões e de algumas reflexões em torno disso, mais especificamente, como elas foram apresentadas no texto Linguagem Fenomenal por Wittgenstein. Exploramos nesta dissertação algumas mudanças no pensamento desse filósofo, desde o Tractatus-Logico-Philosophicus até o texto Linguagem Fenomenal, com a intenção de identificar, esclarecer e, posteriormente, propor, a partir das novas ideias de Wittgenstein ao longo do período intermediário, modos de superar os enganos, denunciados por ele próprio no texto mencionado. Tais enganos, segundo Wittgenstein, seriam os responsáveis por certas concepções ilusórias acerca da “linguagem” e da própria “percepção”. Lidaremos com alguns dos apontamentos feitos por Wittgenstein sobre essas concepções ilusórias, buscando mostrar a conexão dessas com uma antiga ideia tractariana, chamada por Fogelin de “doutrina do simples”, e que nós chamamos nesse trabalho de “paradigma da elementaridade lógica”. Consideraremos, como no período intermediário, esse paradigma acerca da “simplicidade” ou “elementaridade” lógica teria ocasionado uma má compreensão acerca do tipo de “generalidade lógica” envolvida em diversos âmbitos, principalmente os âmbitos linguístico e o fenomênico. Visamos trazer à tona e examinar tais enganos, com a intenção de superá-los, e assim talvez oferecer um tratamento adequado à linguagem e à percepção, que nos permita compreender o tipo de “generalidade lógica” envolvida no âmbito fenomênico, e assim compreender o que se entende por “indeterminação”, “inexatidão” ou “vagueza” nesse contexto.

This thesis discusses the central ideas that surround Michael Dummett's claim that there is an incompatibility between a truth-conditional conception of meaning and a minimalist conception of truth. These ideas are brought into relation to the work of John McDowell and Donald Davidson, as all three philosophers can be better understood by locating them within Dummett's dialectic regarding the incompatibility. Dummett's argument crucially depends upon the assumption that a meaning-theory should be full-blooded in nature, against McDowell's insistence that a meaning-theory can only ever be modest. The main contention of this thesis is that neither Dummett nor McDowell is successful in establishing their strong contentions regarding the form that a meaning-theory should take. McDowell only wants to provide trivial answers to questions about the constitutive nature of the meanings and competency of particular items in a language. Dummett, on the other hand, wants to provide a reductive account of the central concepts that concern the philosophy of language. What this thesis will argue is that once both of these claims have been rejected, the position Dummett and McDowell jointly dictate is in fact the position that we should read Davidson as occupying, who lies in a conceptual space between the extremes of maximal full-bloodedness and modesty. This is an understanding of Davidson that is contrary to how McDowell reads him, who has been an influential commentator of Davidson. How Davidson should actually be interpreted is achieved by understanding how he has the resources to avoid Dummett's claim of an incompatibility between a truth-conditional conception of meaning and a minimalist conception of truth.

Multidisciplinary contemporary discourse involving science, philosophy and theology has explored themes of creation and human identity. Contemporary critiques of anthropocentricism stem from such discourse. The understanding of human beings as ‘spirited bodies’ rather than embodied spirits, arises from a non-reductionist physicalist standpoint. This is the point of departure for this thesis. The study attempts to explore the understanding of human beings as ‘spirited bodies’ from a non-reductionist physicalist view and as a metaphor for ‘fresh’ perspectives and insights that could potentially inform and/or shape a theologically grounded earth-keeping ethos on a different premise from the traditional dualistic hierarchical viewpoint. Methodologically, this study attempts to reflect a unitary approach to knowledge. The study views the subject through three prisms. Firstly it takes a retrospective look to account for perspectives that have shaped hierarchical views of creation based on a dualistic principle that in turn have shaped the human power-dominion relationship with the rest of creation that is deemed to have led to the devastating eco-crisis the world faces today. Secondly, it considers a non-reductionist physicalist viewpoint that has challenged dualistic anthropological views of being in favour of the conception of human beings as ‘spirited bodies’ and which places human beings in a continuum with the rest creation. Thirdly, it picks up on Moltmann’s Trinitarian and pneumatological views of creation which orient the theological framework anchored on the community and communion within the triune relationship. Human solidarity with the rest of creation is then posited as the nexus that converges the strands of these different perspectives. The juxtaposition of the Genesis 1 creation story with Zambian cosmogony constitutes ‘case studies’ that illustrate how the fresh perspectives on creation and human identity open up an ‘interpretive space’ that could locate human beings in a continuum with the rest of creation and offer insight for an alternative earth-keeping ethos. Human solidarity with the rest of creation thus critiques traditional western dualistic and hierarchical conceptions of creation on one hand, and serves as an orienting concept for the ‘fresh’ earth-keeping ethos this study proposes on the other. / Dissertation (MA Theol)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / gm2014 / Dogmatics and Christian Ethics / unrestricted