Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hong Kong, 200. / Also available online.

Inaug.-Diss.--Berlin. / Vita. Bibliography: p. 5-9.

I provide an interpretation of Hume’s argument in Treatise 1.2 Of the Ideas of Space and Time that finite extensions are only finitely divisible (hereafter Hume’s Finite Divisibility Argument). My most general claim is that Hume intends his Finite Divisibility Argument to be a demonstration in the Early Modern sense as involving the comparison and linking of ideas based upon their intrinsic contents. It is a demonstration of relations among ideas, meant to reveal the meaningfulness or absurdity of a given supposition, and to distinguish possible states of affairs from impossible ones. It is not an argument ending in an inference to an actual matter of fact. Taking the demonstrative nature of his Finite Divisibility Argument fully into account radically alters the way we understand it. Supported by Hume’s own account of demonstration, and reinforced by relevant Early Modern texts, I follow to its logical consequences, the simple premise that the Finite Divisibility Argument is intended to be a demonstration. Clear, abstract ideas in Early Modern demonstrations represent possible objects. By contrast, suppositions that are demonstrated to be contradictory have no clear ideas annexed to them and therefore cannot represent possible objects—their ‘objects,’ instead, are “impossible and contradictory.” Employing his Conceivability Principle, Hume argues that there is a clear idea of a finite extension containing a finite number of parts and therefore, finitely divisible extensions are possible. In contrast, the supposition of an infinitely divisible finite extension is “absurd” and “contradictory” and stands for no clear idea. Consequently, Hume deems this supposition “impossible and contradictory,” that is, without meaning and therefore, descriptive of no possible object. This interpretation allays concerns found in the recent literature and helps us better understand what drives Hume’s otherwise perplexing argument in the often neglected or belittled T 1.2.

Little research has been undertaken into the rapidly expanding genre of rephotography, where many developments have taken place in response to advancing technology. This thesis is practice-based and incorporates long-term fieldwork in Scotland. The primary rephotographic projects undertaken by practitioners in North America are reviewed and their innovative presentation of material to interpret changes to space and place through time, are assessed and analysed. This study considers the application of some of these practices in a Scottish context. The research sets out to collate and explore repetition through the construction of visual narratives and to better understand the representation of change in people and places over time. The narratives unintentionally formed when places are photographed and rephotographed by multiple practitioners are considered along with the establishment and consequences of iconicity. In a Scottish context, the research identifies three major sources of photographs: the closely aligned nineteenth century tourism-generated catalogues of George Washington Wilson and Valentines of Dundee and the Catalogue of the Countryside of Scotland created by Robert Moyes Adam. The overall picture that emerges from the research is one of opportunity with increasing democratic application, improved accuracy and greater ability to present and share results. Rephotography is known to be a powerful tool for the discernment and measurement of visible change and suggests avenues that might inform the interpretation and utility of repeated images. This research provides an overview from which limitations can be assessed or innovative application devised. While comparative monitoring may remain a primary application, projects – some sentimental and reflective - that explore personal experience, memory and loss can be explored with rephotography.

Quantum field theory is studied within the semi-classical gravity approximation. The quantum correction to the propagation of both photons and gravitons in a general curved space background is calculated showing a non-trivial spacetime refractive index as well as a dynamical dressing (or undressing) of the particle state. The initial interacting particle's 'dressing', the cloud of virtual particles that surrounds it, may receive corrections from an infinite number of modes even for flat space. When gravitational tidal effects remove this dressing, squeezing it back into the bare particle, this leads to an amplification in a way consistent with unitarity. There is a possible shift discovered in the graviton wavefront velocity related to higher order curvature couplings, although in this calculation there is also a logarithmic divergence at high frequencies, leading to a breakdown of the perturbative approximation. Next we consider initial value problems and the stability of de Sitter space. Here the self decay of a massive scalar in de Sitter space is proposed to lead to a particle explosion where divergent growth of the field expectation value is observed. Directly investigating this divergent field expectation value a one loop calculation is completed for a massive scalar particle in 3-dimensional de Sitter space. This result has characteristic secular growth that can be summed into a rapidly decaying exponential by using the dynamical renormalisation group. Finally the evolution of two point functions is studied, by numerically solving their equations of motion using the Kaydanoff-Baym equations in 2-dimensional de Sitter space. Here we see a decay of the vacuum state due to the coupling. This appears to be related to the choice of initial conditions be chosen to match the free field vacuum plus non-interacting particles. This choice is made inappropriate by the dynamical dressing of the bare particle states.

No description available.

No description available.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2008. / Title from first page of PDF file (viewed May 14, 2008). Available via ProQuest Digital Dissertations. Vita. Includes bibliographical references P. 359-373.

Abstract available in pdf file.

In orthodox linguistics, the relations between time and language are recognized only to a limited extent. Although there have been abundant and substantial investigations into the two topics of temporal deixis and linguistic change (Harris, 2006, pp. 28-29), questions concerning what integrational linguists call “cotemporality” remain largely unexplored. The principle of cotemporality, in integrational linguistic terms, states that “[t]he chronological integration of language with events in our daily lives requires us to suppose that what is said is immediately relevant to the current situation, unless there is reason to suppose otherwise.”(Harris, 1996, p. 81) The time-bounded nature of language, as spelled out in this principle, is not only of theoretical weight to linguistics, but also valuable to the understanding of time, and it is in this sense that the lack of relevant researches in orthodox linguistics signals the failure to realize the mutual dependence of a proper linguistic theory and a proper temporal theory. The general interest of this thesis is to explore the interrelationship between time and language from an integrational linguistic perspective. To do this, the Saussurean anachronic linguistic model (1983) is called under scrutiny with the conclusion that it is beset by an inadequate notion of time and an inadequate view of history, induced largely by western literacy. Second, the theories against the reality of time put forward by philosopher McTaggart (1908) and physicist Greene (2004, 2011) are examined and I argue that they are built upon the psychocentric and reocentric (Harris, 2005, p. 3) versions of the fixed-code model of language respectively. Lastly, I deal with the very concept of time and take an integrational approach towards its reality, signhood, and in turn the principle of cotemporality. It is by this reflexive analysis that we can finally come to a clearer vision and a deeper understanding of time, language as well as integrational linguistics itself. / published_or_final_version / English / Master / Master of Philosophy