This dissertation thesis is dedicated to the phenomenon of spontaneity in the Hispanic-American rainforest novel. The concept of spontaneity is based on the mechanism of synthesis of components in the structure of an artistic text. These components are a part of the variability of the analyzed novels. Heterogeneous structures are created on the basis of spontaneity and their result is interpretation variability of a literary work. This multiple meaning enables the reader not to lose interest in this kind of work over time. The theoretical explanation of the spontaneity in the literature is based on the concept of transculturation created by the Uruguayan essayist Ángel Rama and the terms of intentionality and unintentionality defined by Jan Mukařovský. The dissertation thesis is divided in two parts: the first one is dedicated to the formal aspect of the phenomenon of spontaneity and the second one to the thematic point of view. The whole process of synthesis finishes in the final chapter with a decomposition of a storm, when the element of water separates from the element of fire to be able to rejoin each other and create a new storm. This characteristic movement for the phenomenon of spontaneity follows the cyclic process of synthesis and separation of the components in the literary work....

/ a b s t r a c t This thesis deals with the environment of the landscape in connection to movements of the body and of the mind which result in an art gesture. It closely focuses on an individual experience of a landscape as a unique environment. It explains concepts and speculates about their meanings. Through interviews, the thesis presents different approaches to art from plethora of artists, who work in and with the landscape. It deals with a didactic project which aspires to inspire students to think more deeply about the environment that surrounds them and to communicate their understanding o fit through art. Personal artworks created in Finland in the Arctic Circle region capture motion in the landscape of the nature and that of the mind.

Le philosophe et théologien saint Anselme de Cantorbéry (1033—1109) offre une pensée riche de la liberté qui a été influente au Moyen Âge. Katherin A. Rogers a récemment jugé bon de mettre Anselme en dialogue avec la philosophie contemporaine par rapport au débat sur le libre arbitre. La présente étude approuve ce projet, mais rejette le rapprochement que Rogers opère entre Anselme et Harry G. Frankfurt (1929—) avec son Interprétation Hiérarchique. Cette étude se donne pour tâche, dans un premier temps, de reprendre à zéro une étude historique sur la liberté chez Anselme en l’abordant par différents angles d’approche dans chacun de ses cinq chapitres, et dans un deuxième temps et de manière secondaire, de mener à bien une conversation entre Anselme et la philosophie contemporaine analytique sur le libre arbitre. À travers ces chapitres sur la pensée anselmienne, l’on verra : ce qui constitue le fondement de la morale, de la causalité, de la possibilité, et de la nécessité ; les distinctions et les concepts autour desquels s’articule le problème de la liberté, notamment la distinction entre faire sponte et naturaliter ; qu’Anselme se classe parmi les penseurs libertariens par rapport au libre arbitre, mais avec d’importantes qualifications ; le concept de la liberté du choix et sa force insurpassable ; les différents sens du mot « volonté », soit la volonté-instrument, la volonté-usus, et les affections de la volonté ; ainsi que la solution qu’Anselme apporte au problème de la possibilité du mal. Dans une conclusion, plutôt que de rapprocher Anselme de Frankfurt, on l’associera avec la théorie nommée agent-causation, dont Roderick M. Chisholm (1916—1999) est un des plus grands représentants. / The philosopher and theologian Saint Anselm of Canterbury (1033—1109) offers a rich framework for thinking about freedom that has been influential in the Middle Ages. Katherin A. Rogers has recently judged right to put Anselm in dialogue with contemporary philosophy with regard to the debate on free will. The present study approves this project, but rejects the attempt to link Anselm with Harry G. Frankfurt (1929—) that Rogers operates with her Hierarchical Interpretation. This study gives itself the task, firstly, to rework from scratch a historical study on freedom in Anselm by tackling the subject from different vantage points in each of its five chapters, and secondly as well as secondarily, to establish communication between Anselm and contemporary analytical philosophy on the topic of free will. Throughout these chapters on Anselm’s philosophy, the following will be seen: what constitutes the foundation of morality, causality, possibility, and necessity; distinctions and concepts around which the problem of freedom articulates itself, in particular the distinction between doing sponte and naturaliter; that Anselm can be classified as a libertarian thinker regarding free will, but with important qualifications; the concept of freedom of choice and its unsurpassable strength; the three different senses of the word “will”: instrument of the will, usus of the will, and the affections of the will; as well as the solution that Anselm gives to the problem of the possibility of evil. In a conclusion, instead of bringing Anselm closer to Frankfurt, it is with the so-called agent-causation theory that he will be associated with, of which Roderick M. Chisholm (1916—1999) is one of the main upholders.

Le propos de cette thèse est de réfléchir sur la notion philosophique de Maine de Biran : l’ "aperception immédiate". L’aperception immédiate, c’est le moment où je m’aperçois de moi, où je saisis immédiatement l’évidence de mon existence. Biran a relié ce moment au mouvement volontaire, le mouvement dont le but est le mouvement lui-même. Quelle est la signification philosophique de cette corrélation ? Dans cette thèse, à l’entremise de Félix Ravaisson et de Kitarô Nishida, nous trouverons que le mouvement volontaire chez Biran est d’abord la réflexion, qui nous fait reconnaître nous-même, et puis il est ultimement considéré comme création, l’acte de s’engager dans le monde réel et historique. / The aim of this thesis is to prove a philosophical notion of Maine de Biran: the “immediate apperception (aperception immédiate)”. The immediate apperception is the moment when I know myself, or when I grab immediately the evidence of my existence. Biran links this moment to voluntary movement, a movement which has its purpose in itself. What is a philosophical signification of this connection? In this thesis, with the study of Félix Ravaisson and of Kitaro Nishida, we will find that the voluntary movement in Biran is, at first, a reflection (réflexion), which lets us know ourselves. We will also find that it should be considered as a creation, an act of taking part in the real and historical world. / 本論文の目的は、メーヌ・ド・ビランにおける概念「直接的覚知 (aperception immédiate)」について考察することにある。直接的覚知とは、私が私に気付く瞬間、あるいは私が直接的に私の存在を確信する瞬間である。ビランはこの瞬間を、意志的運動に見出した。意志的運動とは運動それ自体が目的である運動である。この連結は何を意味しているのか。本論文は、フェリックス・ラヴェッソン、西田幾多郎を経由して、この問いに答える。すなわち、意志的運動とはまず、自分自身を知る反省として考えられる。次いで、それは究極的には創造として考えられるべきであることを明らかにする。創造とは、現実的歴史的世界へ参与する行為である。

Jamais nos modes de vie et les produits qui nous entourent n'ont évolué aussi rapidement. Cette évolution est un facteur nouveau à prendre en compte dans le développement de produits pour s'assurer de leur appropriation par les utilisateurs. C'est ainsi que les approches de conception s'orientent petit à petit vers l'intégration des usages. L'approche Living Lab est axée autour de quatre principes : le réalisme de la situation d'usage étudiée ; la continuité de la collaboration avec les utilisateurs ; la collecte de données d'usage spontanées ; l'augmentation de la capacité des utilisateurs à influencer le développement du produit. Ces principes facilitent le passage de la conception centrée-utilisateurs vers la conception centrée-usages, mais sont difficiles à réaliser concrètement. Pour accompagner et inspirer les concepteurs, nous proposons une méthode de pilotage de projet Living Lab composée de dix-huit opérations visant chacune l'atteinte d'un de ces principes. La méthode proposée est représentée sous forme de diagrammes NIAM-ORM, facilement compréhensibles car proche du langage naturel binaire. Deux projets urbains et deux projets industriels ont permis de tester notre méthode. La pertinence des opérations sur l'atteinte des principes est évaluée par le biais des réseaux bayésiens : selon les résultats obtenus, les opérations sont validées, ajustées ou reformulées puis ré-implémentées dans le modèle NIAM-ORM / Our way of life and the products that surround us have never evolved so quickly. This evolution is a new factor to take into account in the product development to ensure the product appropriation by the users. For that reason the design approaches try to integrate usages. The Living Lab approach is organised around four principles: the realism of the studied situation; the continuity in the collaboration with the users; the collection of spontaneous usage data; the empowerment of users in the design process. These principles facilitate the path from "user-centred design" to "usage-centred design" but are difficult to realise practically. To guide and inspire the designers we propose a Living Lab project method made of eighteen operations; each operation is supposed to reach one of the four principles. The proposed method is represented with NIAM-ORM diagrams which are easily understandable because of its similarity with natural language. We tested our method on two urban projects and two industrial projects. The relevance of the tested operations on the principle realisation is evaluated according to bayesian networks: depending on the results the operations are validated, adjusted or rephrased and implemented again in the NIAM-ORM model

Isaiah Berlin maintains that there are two distinct forms of freedom or liberty: negative and positive. Berlin’s principal claim is that negative liberty does not require that the self be somehow separate from the empirical world (causally aloof, or an originator of causal chains). My principal claim is that to be an agent is to be committed to a separation of self in this sense, thus that the self for its very being requires to possess a species of positive liberty. This conception proceeds in part from Immanuel Kant’s claim that there is a separation between spontaneity and receptivity. Commitment to this assertion allows there to be an understood distinction between the self as a spontaneous self-active agent that makes choices, and the self as a mere reactionary brute that does what it does by biological imperatives. In this thesis, I defend the view that negative liberty is subsumed under positive liberty: you cannot have the former without the latter. I am therefore taking a rationalist stance towards Berlin’s thinking. My methodology is to bring into consideration two perspectives upon the underlying normative principles within the space of reason. The first is of Kant’s understanding of the principle of responsibility and the activity of spontaneity; the second is John McDowell’s understanding of that principle and activity. The key claim of this thesis is that Berlin misunderstands what it is to be a chooser. To be a chooser is to be raised under the idea that one is an efficient cause; human children are brought up being held responsible for their reasons for acting. This principle allows mere animal being to be raised into the space of reason, where we live out a second nature in terms of reason. Using their conclusions I further investigate Berlin’s understanding of conceptual frameworks, taking particular interest in historic ‘universal’ conceptions that shape human lives. He too finds that that we are choosers is necessary for what it is to be human. I take his conclusion, and suggest that if he had had a clear understanding of the space of reason, the historic claim that we have choice would find a more solid footing in the principle of that space, in that we are responsible for our actions. I conclude that the upshot of understanding the ‘I’ as an originating efficient cause is that we treat ourselves as free from a universal determinism that Berlin himself disparages; and that the cost to Berlin is that all choice is necessarily the activity of a higher choosing self. It is part of a Liberal society’s valuing, by their societal commitment to, the ideology of raising our children to understand themselves as choosers, that we have choice at all. This is irrespective of whether that which fetters choice is internal or external to the agent, or of whether having self-conscious itself requires such a cultural emergence of second nature.

My thesis draws connections among Herbert Read’s aesthetics, his anarchism, and Carl Jung’s aesthetic theory. I discuss Jung’s concept of individuation and its importance in his theory of the creative process of life. He distinguished between personalistic and archetypal art, and argued that the latter embodies primordial symbols that are inherently meaningful. Archetypal art, he believed, symbolizes unconscious knowledge, which can promote self-awareness and impact on society, if an individual is able to discern its relevance and integrate this into an ethical lifestyle. Jung emphasized the importance of rational discernment and ethical choices along with free creativity. I show how Read used these Jungian concepts to explain aspects of his aesthetic and political emphasis on freedom. According to Read, art creates reality and as such it is both personally transformative and socially activist: he believed that aesthetics are a mechanism of the natural world, and that art is a unique type of cognition that manifests new forms. Art communicates new versions of reality because perception is holistic, allowing people to perceive both the essence inherent in forms and the relationships among them. Further, I consider Read’s belief that cognition and society are both organic, and should be allowed to evolve naturally. Therefore, according to Read, society must be anarchist so that creative freedom and aesthetic consciousness can be adequately supported. Finally, I conclude by highlighting the pivotal role of creative freedom in Jung’s and Read’s theories of personal and social change. I illustrate that Jung and Read concurred that the unique individual is the site of transformation, living out the organically creative nature of life.

My thesis draws connections among Herbert Read’s aesthetics, his anarchism, and Carl Jung’s aesthetic theory. I discuss Jung’s concept of individuation and its importance in his theory of the creative process of life. He distinguished between personalistic and archetypal art, and argued that the latter embodies primordial symbols that are inherently meaningful. Archetypal art, he believed, symbolizes unconscious knowledge, which can promote self-awareness and impact on society, if an individual is able to discern its relevance and integrate this into an ethical lifestyle. Jung emphasized the importance of rational discernment and ethical choices along with free creativity. I show how Read used these Jungian concepts to explain aspects of his aesthetic and political emphasis on freedom. According to Read, art creates reality and as such it is both personally transformative and socially activist: he believed that aesthetics are a mechanism of the natural world, and that art is a unique type of cognition that manifests new forms. Art communicates new versions of reality because perception is holistic, allowing people to perceive both the essence inherent in forms and the relationships among them. Further, I consider Read’s belief that cognition and society are both organic, and should be allowed to evolve naturally. Therefore, according to Read, society must be anarchist so that creative freedom and aesthetic consciousness can be adequately supported. Finally, I conclude by highlighting the pivotal role of creative freedom in Jung’s and Read’s theories of personal and social change. I illustrate that Jung and Read concurred that the unique individual is the site of transformation, living out the organically creative nature of life.

The work is focused on child's play, its evolution, characteristics, importance and its contribution to the development of the child during early school age, ie after the onset of the elementary school. The work is divided into two parts. Theoretical and practical. The theoretical part describes the concepts as a game, toys, importance of play, early school age, development and personality development of the child. It also describes the characteristic traits of children of early school age, especially in the play and leisure activities. The practical part of the thesis builds on the previous thearetical part, which evaluates the results of the pre-selected children monitoring during the gameplay. Using a qualitative empirical research, I will carry out a detailed analysis of the activities of chlidren's game. Monitoring will be recorded in questionnaires, answering predetermined questions.

The purpose of this study was to develop and test a measuring instrument based on the Gibb’s Defensive Communication Climate Paradigm (1961) to assess the communication climate focus of professional nurses in selected public hospitals in the Gauteng province. This focus involves the communication behaviour orientation of the professional nurses and their perceptions of the communication behaviour orientation of their operational managers. The Gibb’s model comprises six bipolar conceptual continuums, namely Evaluation-Description, Control-Problem orientation, Strategy-Spontaneity, Neutrality-Empathy, Superiority-Equality and Certainty-Provisionalism Continuums. The study consisted of a non-experimental design, including a developmental phase and a testing phase. During the developmental phase the researcher developed a measuring instrument (a Semantic Differential Scale questionnaire); used a simple, random sample method to pre-test the instrument; analysed the data by applying Cronbach’s Alpha reliability analysis and refined the instrument. Further refinement of this new instrument by future researchers is recommended. During the testing phase the researcher also used a simple, random sample, consisting of professional nurses (N = 270) from three selected public hospitals in Gauteng; tested the items against the biographical data and the three research questions and analysed the obtained data by utilising both descriptive and inferential statistics. A Delphi panel of experts were involved in both phases of the study. The results of the study indicated that although the respondents had a predominantly supportive communication behaviour orientation, they were more focused on the communication behaviour of their operational managers than on their own. Furthermore, the results indicated no significant differences in the influencing factors: age, tenure (periods in hospital), gender, language and institution (public hospital), in terms of the six conceptual continuums. Significant differences were found only in the factor: unit/ward, indicating that the supportiveness of the communication behaviour of professional nurses could be dependent on their specific work environment. Guidelines aimed at the development of a supportive climate were drawn up for the National Department of Health, Gauteng Department of Health, public hospitals, operational managers and professional nurses. It is recommended that implementation of the newly developed guidelines be pivotal for public hospitals, to refocus their communication climates towards supportive communication. / Health Studies / D. Litt. et Phil. (Health Studies)