University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences. / Department of Sociology

Habilitation - Universität, Tübingen, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 461-504).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2008. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 120-123). Also available online in ProQuest, free to University of Oregon users.

No description available.

The aim of this dissertation is to study segregation within the Swedish school system, with regard to the reformation during the last decades of the 20th century which researchers have described as a system change. After an initial research survey two questions are identified: one which concerns the process of human becoming, and the other concerning segregation, within and between social milieus in a school system. The first is answered from a relationistic philosophical perspective, which leads to the study object the educative milieu. In turn the study object leads to the development of a research approach to investigate such settings. The research approach consists in the construction of epistemic objects (in short: epiobjects) – in this case two school classes whose pupils have actively made the choice of these classes – understood as monistic entities constituted of internal relational structures. The construction of the epiobjects identifies the families involved in the classes as informants and decides on a number of research themes (for example description of the school, the teachers, leisure activities) for the data collection. The disposition of the study consists of tree main steps: determining relevant symbols, positioning and description. Determining relevant symbols means to decide what is assigned meaning in respect of the research themes. This was achieved through an interview study. Positioning means to decide how the symbols and bodies are distributed within the epiobjects in order to represent their relational structures. This was done with questionnaire data that was organised with aid of correspondence analysis. In the description the epiobjects can be understood as educative milieus, by focusing on their educative tensions and doxa. Educative tensions are differences between positions in the epiobjects relational structure, while doxa are areas of agreement. The analysis shows that the epiobjects are obviously different in terms of educative tensions and doxa. The main difference between the epiobjects concern the families’ motives for the choice they have made: families in one class maintained they chose the school because of its subject specialisation, while families in the other claimed that they sought a school characterised by orderly behaviour and a better learning of subject knowledge and skills. Associated with these differences are dissimilarities concerning, for instance, political orientation, education level, income, democracy, freedom of choice, as well as regarding inclination to attend different kinds of cultural events and institutions. The results can be seen as an illustration of how a system of freedom of choice leads to segregation, by orienting people with dissimilar preferences to different alternatives while, at the same time, these preferences concerning school choice correspond with differences in other areas of life.

No description available.

Thesis (Th. M.)--Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, 1994. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 118-127).

La lex petrolea est l’ensemble des règles constituées au fil du temps par les acteurs impliqués dans l’exploration, le développement et l’exploitation des hydrocarbures. Consignée et régulièrement actualisée par la doctrine anglo-saxonne, elle forme le point d’Archimède à partir duquel les travaux universitaires déclinent ce qui devrait être considéré comme le droit des hydrocarbures. Toutefois, présentée comme une déclinaison de la lex mercatoria, ou ensemble des règles des marchands constituées de façon coutumière, la lex petrolea ne semble pas épuiser les caractéristiques véritables du droit des hydrocarbures, notamment en Afrique. Elle se décline davantage comme un ensemble de normes de sources plurielles (arbitrales,contractuelles, législatives), sans cohérence d’ensemble et surtout sans singularisation du rôle des acteurs qui ont pourtant des statuts juridiques et économiques différents. Les États, d’une part, sont certes mus par des intérêts patrimoniaux légitimes, mais aussi par des intérêts géoéconomiques, voire politiques. Les investisseurs énergétiques, d’autre part, sont exclusivement motivés par le gain du lucre, et cette relation génère un droit des hydrocarbures conséquent. Afin de renouveler la doctrine juridique relative à cette activité, il est proposé une approche nouvelle basée sur les théories respectives et complémentaires du monisme juridique, d’une part, et du relationnisme juridique, d’autre part. Les normes structurant la lex petrolea ne deviennent un droit des hydrocarbures que par la co-conception, l’application et la validation de celles-ci par l’État, en relation avec les investisseurs privés étrangers. Ces normes juridiques, aussitôt établies, sont plus ou moins appliquées, immergées qu’elles sont au sein de la relation particulière nouée entre les États et leurs cocontractants. Le lien contractuel débouche sur une relation juridique plus vaste, structurée autour de normes écrites, de pratiques des acteurs et tout simplement d’une relation génératrice d’un droit des hydrocarbures supérieur aux normes écrites identifiables. L’intervention systématique d’un tiers, soit l’administration sur plusieurs formes dans l’exécution des obligations des parties, soit l’arbitre en cas de contentieux, permet la construction, l’entretien et le maintien durable des relations juridiques entre les parties. Celles-ci aménagent ainsi un cadre symbolique de leurs relations, sous l’emprise et la maîtrise totale de l’État, en tant que propriétaire des ressources extractives. C’est ce que nous avons appelé, en conclusion de l’étude, le monisme relationniste du droit des hydrocarbures africain. / The lex petrolea is the set of rules established over time by actors involved in the exploration, development and exploitation of hydrocarbons. Recorded and regularly updated by Anglo-Saxon doctrine, it constitutes Archimedes' point from which academic work declines what should be considered hydrocarbon law. It is more likely to be interpreted as a set of norms of plural sources (arbitral, contractual, legislative), without any overall coherence and, above all, without distinguishing the role of actors who nevertheless have a different legal and economic status. On the one hand, States are certainly driven by legitimate patrimonial interests, but also by geo-economic and even political interests. Energy investors on the other hand are exclusively motivated by the gain of profit, and this relationship generates a significant hydrocarbon law. In order to renew the legal doctrine of this activity, a new approach is proposed based on the respective and complementary theories of legal monism on the one hand and legal relationalism on the other. Once legal norms are established, they are more or less applied, immersed in the special relationship between States and their contracting partners. The contractual relationship leads to a broader legal relationship structured around written standards, shareholder practices and simply around a relationship that generates a hydrocarbon law that goes beyond identifiable written standards. The systematic intervention of a third party, either the administration in several forms in the execution of the obligations of the parties, or the arbitrator in the event of litigation, allows the construction, upkeep and permanent maintenance of legal relations between the parties. They thus create a symbolic framework for their relations, under the influence and total control of the State, as the owner of the extractive resources. This is what we have called in conclusion to the study the relational monism of African hydrocarbon law.

Nous proposons de lire l'oeuvre de Georg Simmel comme un effort de détermination d'une idée de culture adéquate à une modernité dominée par des processus d'objectivation et de fonctionnalisation, et où s'observe partout la « discordance » entre la « culture subjective » et la « culture objective ». Simmel n'est pas seulement un Kulturkritiker, qui s'arrêterait à la description de ce problème, mais un philosophe de la culture, qui cherche à déterminer la structure ontologique et axiologique du problème et à le résoudre. Cet effort se présente comme l'accomplissement d'un programme théorique, nommé « relativisme », et que nous rebaptisons « relationnisme philosophique ». Ce relationnisme voudrait, après avoir rendu compte de la validité propre aux formations culturelles – dans la forme d'une théorie de la valeur et de l'esprit objectif –, l'élever à une validité de second ordre, individuelle et vivante : à la forme de la culture individuelle. Ce faisant, le relationnisme se constitue en « concept cosmique » de philosophie, non sous la forme d'un système, mais d'une métaphysique fonctionnelle, tandis que l'opposition statique du sujet et de l'objet est dépassée en direction d'une « objectivation du sujet » et d'une « désubjectivation de l'individuel ». / We suggest reading Georg Simmel's work as an endeavor to determine an idea of culture that is suitable to a modernity dominated by objectivation and functionalization processes, and where one can observe the "discrepancy" between the "subjective culture" and the "objective culture". Simmel is not only a Kulturkritiker, who would merely describe this problem, he is also a philosopher of culture, who seeks to determine the ontological and axiological structure of the problem and solve it. This effort appears as the fulfillment of a theoretical program known as "relativism", which we rename "philosophical relationism". This relationism, after having accounted for the specific validity of the cultural formations - within the form of a theory of value and objective spirit -, aims at promoting it to a second order validity, individual and alive, that is: to the form of individual culture. Thus, relationism constitutes itself as a "cosmic concept" of philosophy, which doesn't take the form of a system, but that of a functional metaphysics, while the static opposition between the subject and the object is outmatched towards an "objectivation of the subject" and a "desubjectivation of the individual".

Die Dissertation prüft das Potential von Fines Semantischem Relationismus für einen kognivistischen Ansatz der Sprache und des Geistes. Hauptziel ist es, den Semantischen Relationismus als einzig angemessene Inhalstheorie für die Gedankensprache zu verteidigen, indem die Vorzüge gegenüber den wichtigsten Alternativen, dem Referentialismus und dem Fregeanismus, aufgezeigt werden. Die Arbeit soll zeigen, dass nur der Semantische Relatinismus alle Varianten des Frege Puzzles für die Gedankensprache lösen kann, und zwar in einerWeise, die die erheblichen Schwierigkeiten der alternativen Theorien umgeht. Das Ergebnis ist sowohl eine Verteidigung des Sematischen Relationismus als auch eine Bestätigung der Tragbarkeit der Hypothese einer Gedankensprache. Auf Basis der Gedankensprache und einer relationistischen Semantik stellt die Arbeit zudem eine neue Theorie der Propositionen vor, die sich erheblich von allen bestehenden Alternativen, inbegriffen der von Fine, unterscheidet. Das Endergebnis ist eine Auffassung von Propositionen als syntaktisch strukturierten mentalen Repräsentationen, die Sätze in der Gedankensprache darstellen, sowie Träger von Inhalten, die durch ihren semantischen Inhalt typindividuiert sind. Ein Kernziel der Arbeit ist es, die Vorteile dieser Auffassung gegenüber klassischen und modernen Alternativen aufzuzeigen. Die Arbeit entwickelt ihr Gesamtergebnis durch die Aufarbeitung von drei aktuellen, eng miteinander verbundenen Debatten. Erstens, das Problem, dass Freges Puzzle für Gedanken und überzegungen darstellt, insbesondere in Form von Kripkes Puzzle. Zweitens, das Problem der Typindividuierung von Symbolen in der Gedankensprache. Drittens, die Debatte um die Ontologie von Begriffen und Propositionen. Indem eine vielversprechende relationistische Lösung in diesen Problembereichen entwickelt wird, bietet die Arbeit zusätzliche Bestätigung für Fines semantische Theorie durch eine erhebliche Erweiterung ihres Anwendungsbereichs. / The thesis evaluates the potential of Fine’s Semantic Relationism for a cognitivist approach to language and the mind. The main aim is to champion Semantic Relationism as the only adequate theory of content for the Language of Thought by bringing out the benefits of the theory over its main rivals, Referentialism and Fregeanism. It seeks to show that only Semantic Relationism can address all the variants of Frege’s Puzzle for the Language of Thought, and that it can do so in a way that avoids the substantial difficulties that beset other semantic theories. The main outcome is at the same time a vindication of the adopted semantic theory and a confirmation of the viability of the Language of Thought hypothesis. The thesis also offers a new theory of propositions on the basis of the Language of Thought and a Relationist semantics that differs significantly from all such presently available theories, including Fine’s. The final result is a theory of propositions as syntactically structured mental representations, which are sentences in the Language of Thought, that are content bearers individuated by their semantic content as specified by Semantic Relationism. A major objective of the thesis is to highlight the advantages of this view over both classical and current alternatives. The thesis develops its overall view by offering solutions in three closely related ongoing debates. First, the challenge posed by Frege’s Puzzle for thought and belief, Kripke’s Puzzle notably included, secondly, the problem about the proper type-individuation of Language of Thought symbol tokens, and thirdly, the debate about the ontological nature of concepts and propositions. By developing a promising Relationist response to these problems, the thesis also provides additional support to Fine’s semantic theory by considerably expanding its scope of application.