This research project investigates Confucian thinker Dai Zhen (1724-1777) and Jewish thinker Emmanuel Levinas’s (1906-1995) philosophical discourses on desire from a comparative perspective. First, I look at Dai Zhen and Levinas individually each in their own philosophical contexts, while framing my readings with parallel structure that pivots on a hermeneutic strategy to examine their ideas of desire within the larger prospect of the human relation with transcendence. Then, my inquiry leads to a critical analysis of several interesting issues yielded in my interpretive readings of the two thinkers as regards transcendence and immanence and the self-other relationship. Methodologically, my study combines careful textual analysis, philosophical reflection, and historical sensitivity. We might want to say that there is in fact no correlative of the Levinasian desire in Dai Zhen’s philosophy. Dai Zhen’s notion of desire perhaps comes closer to Levinas’s concept of need. However, the disparity of their conceptual formulations does not keep us from discerning their shared ethical concern for the other, the weak, marginalized, and underprivileged group of society, which provides me the very ground for a dialogical comparison between the two thinkers. Henceforth, my writing is hinged on a comprehension of their conception of desire as an articulation of human striving for what is lying beyond themselves, as a redefinition of the being or essence of humankind in relation to the transcendent which in both philosophers’ ethical thinking is translated into a sympathetic understanding of and care for the other, particularly the stranger, the widow, the orphan, the young, the weak and the like. Through the comparative study of the two thinkers’ ideas of desire, I want to argue that “desire,” which is most readily directed to human egoism and instinctive propensity in both Confucian and Western philosophical traditions, can be at once the very driving force to open us to the other beyond ourselves and an actual moral creativity to produce ethical being out of material existence.

This research project investigates Confucian thinker Dai Zhen (1724-1777) and Jewish thinker Emmanuel Levinas’s (1906-1995) philosophical discourses on desire from a comparative perspective. First, I look at Dai Zhen and Levinas individually each in their own philosophical contexts, while framing my readings with parallel structure that pivots on a hermeneutic strategy to examine their ideas of desire within the larger prospect of the human relation with transcendence. Then, my inquiry leads to a critical analysis of several interesting issues yielded in my interpretive readings of the two thinkers as regards transcendence and immanence and the self-other relationship. Methodologically, my study combines careful textual analysis, philosophical reflection, and historical sensitivity. We might want to say that there is in fact no correlative of the Levinasian desire in Dai Zhen’s philosophy. Dai Zhen’s notion of desire perhaps comes closer to Levinas’s concept of need. However, the disparity of their conceptual formulations does not keep us from discerning their shared ethical concern for the other, the weak, marginalized, and underprivileged group of society, which provides me the very ground for a dialogical comparison between the two thinkers. Henceforth, my writing is hinged on a comprehension of their conception of desire as an articulation of human striving for what is lying beyond themselves, as a redefinition of the being or essence of humankind in relation to the transcendent which in both philosophers’ ethical thinking is translated into a sympathetic understanding of and care for the other, particularly the stranger, the widow, the orphan, the young, the weak and the like. Through the comparative study of the two thinkers’ ideas of desire, I want to argue that “desire,” which is most readily directed to human egoism and instinctive propensity in both Confucian and Western philosophical traditions, can be at once the very driving force to open us to the other beyond ourselves and an actual moral creativity to produce ethical being out of material existence.

The religious significance of Emmet Fox (1886-1951), a pioneer in the New Thought movement, is the focus of this study. The relevance of Fox's religious thought will be determined in reference to and in the context of contemporary theorist Ken Wilber's theoretical framework of integral hermeneutics. On the basis of Fox's primary writings, biographical information, the ideas and philosophy of modern New Thought scholars and Wilber's literature, Fox's religious thought was interpreted and evaluated. Aspects of Fox's belief, such as creative mind, scientific prayer, meditation and healing, concepts such as God, Jesus Christ, death, reincarnation, karma and end times, as well as his method of biblical exegesis are discussed. It becomes apparent that Emmet Fox, preacher and teacher, had never intended to provide a scientific or academic structural doctrine in which to deliver his teaching. His non-conformist, simple, yet well thought-through beliefs, which include esoteric, eastern and universal truths, focused on the fundamental truths that are necessary for humanity's evolutionary development. This approach made Fox's teaching valuable to his audience of the time, a changing American consciousness, as well as appropriate to a transformational South Africa, where it is relevant in bridging the various cultures, languages, and religious beliefs within a continuously changing spiritually minded population, and most of all, beneficial to every person's inner spiritual journey towards ultimate enlightenment. Fox's underlying religious belief is that `the thought is the thing' and this endorses the whole of the New Thought teaching, which states that `whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve' or `be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind'. Probably the most remarkable feature of his religious thinking is his popular allegorical interpretation of the Bible, which he interprets spiritually. It is apparent that there is an affinity between the religious thought of Emmet Fox and that of Wilber. Although the intent of this study is not to compare these scholars, it is interesting and valuable to Fox's interpretation that they advocate a similar underlying belief in the holistic Kosmos and the importance of having an integral vision. / Religious Studies and Arabic / D. Litt. et Phil. (Religious Studies)

O objetivo da presente pesquisa é o de configurar o lugar do pensamento na obra de Michel Foucault, de modo que se evidenciem pontos de interlocução com algumas questões educacionais contemporâneas, em particular com aquelas que questionam os pressupostos de soberania do sujeito e do conhecimento os principais eixos norteadores das teorias críticas em educação. Nesse contexto, os estudos foucaultianos acerca do poder, da resistência e da subjetivação oferecem uma oportunidade ímpar de problematização das questões da verdade e do conhecimento, apontando para a experiência do pensamento da diferença. A pesquisa busca então sustentar o princípio de que, numa perspectiva pós-crítica, a tarefa educacional poderia deslocar-se do trabalho com o conhecimento para o do pensamento. Do ponto de vista metodológico, procedeu-se à genealogia da concepção de linguagem na obra do autor e, posteriormente, à do pensamento do fora e da diferença. Tais eixos temático-conceituais são vertebradores para a condução do percurso argumentativo. Assim, foram articuladas teoricamente as relações possíveis entre os conceitos de linguagem literária, loucura, morte, ser da linguagem, limite, transgressão, dobra e subjetivação. Nas considerações finais, estabeleceu-se que a experiência do pensamento instaura-se como uma possibilidade fecunda de produção ético-política da existência, cabendo à educação os cuidados em relação à estética de si e do mundo comum. / The present research aims at outlining the role of thought in Michel Foucalts work so as to highlight aspects which dialogue with certain contemporary educacional issues, mainly the ones that refer to the principles underlying the concepts concerning the sovereignty of the subject and knowledge, namely the main axes that guide the critical theories on education. Under the scenario, the Foucaultian studies on power, resistance as well as subjectivity offer an unique opportunity of problematizing the issues of truth and knowledge, focussing on the experience of the thought of difference. Therefore, this study tries to sustain, from a post-critical perspective, the principle that the focus of the educacional task could shift from working with knowledge to working with thought. From a methodological perspective, this work departed from the genealogy of the conception of language within the work of the author to the subsequent thought of the outside as well as the difference. Such thematic and conceptual axes proved to be essential to the development of the argumentative discussion. Hence, the possible relations between the notions of literary language, madness, death, linguistic being, border, trangression, fold and subjectivity were articulated. In the final considerations, it was stablished that the experience of thought departs from a rich possibility of ethical and political production of existence, thus empowering education with the responsibility of taking care of aesthetics at both the personal and the communal world.

Submitted by Luciana Ferreira (lucgeral@gmail.com) on 2018-03-29T11:13:07Z No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Murilo Gonçalves dos Santos - 2018.pdf: 1330525 bytes, checksum: 8db093afbfdb2c921a3bd7c11efc306d (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Luciana Ferreira (lucgeral@gmail.com) on 2018-03-29T11:39:29Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Murilo Gonçalves dos Santos - 2018.pdf: 1330525 bytes, checksum: 8db093afbfdb2c921a3bd7c11efc306d (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-03-29T11:39:29Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Murilo Gonçalves dos Santos - 2018.pdf: 1330525 bytes, checksum: 8db093afbfdb2c921a3bd7c11efc306d (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-02-26 / Conselho Nacional de Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico - CNPq / Abstract: The work is subsumed on the objective of examining the theory of history developed by Raymond Aron (1905 - 1983), accounted primarily in relation to its connection with german thought. The process of constitution of his theoretical-epistemological, as well as political thought was deeply marked by the strenuous presence of german philosophical conceptions, whose fruitful dialogue took place, especially, during the decade of 1930, which resulted in the conception of his doctoral thesis, namely, Introduction à la philosophie de l'histoire: Essai sur les limits de l'objectivité Historique. The defense of this thesis is the representation of a process marked by the struggle not only of generations, but also of different systems of thought. The question of this work is, in this sense, precisely the critical analysis of the "appropriation" presented by the work of Aron, from the confrontation of the works he carried out in the 1930s with the tradition of which he is considered to belong and, finally, to prescribe its specificity. This discussion is embedded in a larger context which deals with the reception of german philosophical and sociological thought in France. Aron was from his formation linked to german philosophy, initially to Kant and, later, to phenomenology, marxism, to the philosophy of W. Dilthey, as well as to the Neo-Kantianism of the Baden School, and especially to Max Weber. This period is decisive for the constitution of his theory of history or, in Aron's terms, of his "critical philosophy of history", based on the "critique of historical reason". A theory distinguished mainly by the search of the limits of historical objectivity and by an ontological-existential perspective. / O trabalho encontra-se subsumido no objetivo do exame da teoria da história desenvolvida por Raymond Aron (1905 - 1983) considerada, primordialmente, em relação ao seu vínculo com o pensamento alemão. O processo de constituição do seu pensamento teórico-epistemológico, bem como político, foi profundamente marcado pela forte presença de concepções filosóficas alemãs, cujo fecundo diálogo foi realizado, especialmente, durante a década de 1930, o qual resultou na concepção de sua tese de doutoramento, a saber, Introduction à la philosophie de l'histoire: Essai sur les limites de l'objectivité Historique. A defesa dessa tese é a representação de um processo marcado pelo embate não só de gerações, mas de sistemas de pensamento distintos. A questão de trabalho é, nesse sentido, justamente a análise crítica dessa “apropriação” apresentada pela obra de Aron, a partir da confrontação de seus trabalhos realizados na década de 1930 com a tradição da qual se julga pertencente e, finalmente, da determinação de sua especificidade. Esta discussão está inserida em um contexto maior que trata da recepção do pensamento filosófico e sociológico alemão na França. Aron esteve desde a sua formação ligado à filosofia alemã, inicialmente a Kant e, posteriormente, com a fenomenologia, o marxismo, com a filosofia de W. Dilthey, bem como com o neokantismo da Escola de Baden e, principalmente, com Max Weber. Este período é determinante para a constituição de sua teoria da história ou, nos termos de Aron, de sua “filosofia crítica da história”, baseada na “crítica da razão histórica”. Uma teoria marcada principalmente pela busca dos limites da objetividade histórica e por uma perspectiva ontológico-existencial.

Ce travail se propose d’étudier, sous un angle grammatical, le phénomène romanesque connu sous le nom de "monologue intérieur", qu’il convient d’emblée de distinguer du "stream of consciousness", auquel il est souvent ramené. Afin de mieux cerner et de définir ce qu’est le monologue intérieur, nous confrontons les définitions qui en sont généralement données à des textes de fiction anglophones, et nous analysons les techniques linguistiques utilisées pour représenter ce discours particulier. Il apparaît donc que le monologue intérieur n’est pas une technique linguistique mais doit plutôt se concevoir comme une catégorie narratologique. Ce discours s’incarne grâce à diverses techniques linguistiques : le discours immédiat mais aussi certaines des techniques du discours rapporté, avec en son centre le discours direct (libre) et à sa périphérie le discours indirect classique. Le discours indirect libre, quant à lui, navigue entre les deux. Ces différentes techniques reposent donc sur une conception particulière du discours intérieur qu’elles véhiculent, et leur étude permet d’étudier la possibilité offerte à l’auteur ou au narrateur de détourner leur forme afin de servir une stratégie narrative, avec parfois pour but de faire passer pour verbal ce qui ne peut l’être. / This thesis investigates the literary phenomenon known as “interior monologue” from a grammatical point of view, and is based on a clear distinction between “interior monologue” and what is called “stream of consciousness”, both phenomena usually being seen as the same. The main objectives are therefore to define what we call “interior monologue” in order to confront this definition with English language literary texts, and to analyse the various linguistic techniques used to represent this special discourse. Interior monologue is therefore seen not as a linguistic technique but as a narratological category. This particular discourse is represented using different linguistic techniques: “immediate discourse” but also some of the reported speech techniques, with (free) direct speech as the core of the category, and indirect speech at its periphery, free indirect speech navigating between those two poles. These techniques differ both in their form and in the conception of the interior discourse they convey, but they always create the illusion of giving access to the (fictional) original discourse. It is for this reason that we want to show the possibility for the author or the narrator to use a syntactic form suggesting a reported discourse seemingly closely linked to the original discourse, to represent something that sometimes cannot be considered as verbal.

<p>The focus of this study is the opposition of Ludwik Fleck to the logical positivism. The main interest focuses on the mutability of knowledge and the inherent problems of incommensura-bility, as well as on Fleck´s notion of reality. Fleck emphasizes a rational and continuous de-velopment of knowledge, in contrast to Thomas Kuhn´s discontinuous and irrational devel-opment, and rejects all forms of reality independent of human beings.</p><p>Fleck´s monograph Entstehung und Entwicklung einer Tatsache is a rich and multifac-eted inquiry into the nature of knowledge, emphasizing the social and historical aspects of the epistemology of science at the expense of certain logical precepts. With his concepts thought style and thought collective, Fleck is generally acknowledged as a precursor to Kuhn´s con-cepts of paradigm and scientific community. Fleck maintains a relativistic view of science and develops a comparative epistemology which challenges the logical positivists in many re-spects. He dismisses every form of reality and has therefore been regarded as an idealist, al-though there are certain aspects to his epistemology which point toward an implicit ontology based upon his idea of the passive components of knowledge.</p><p>The chief epistemological works of Fleck and his contemporary Karl Popper were published within a year of each other, 1934 and 1935, respectively, by which Popper had left the Continent to eventually become one of the leading British philosophers, while Fleck spent several years during the Second World War as a prisoner in Nazi camps. Both were firmly opposed to the logical positivism, one as a critical rationalist, the other as a sceptical relativist. Fleck was also a forerunner to the constructivist ideas and the Strong Programme.</p><p>The word ”incommensurability” has been ascribed Kuhn but the term had already been used by Fleck in 1927. The ”incommensurability thesis” dominates Kuhn´s notion of scientific revolutions and is accordingly the reason why scientific progress is considered an irrational process. The debate on the incommensurability thesis has continued to interest epistemologists and philosophers of science and many solutions have been suggested, some in line with the one proposed by Fleck.</p>

The focus of this study is the opposition of Ludwik Fleck to the logical positivism. The main interest focuses on the mutability of knowledge and the inherent problems of incommensura-bility, as well as on Fleck´s notion of reality. Fleck emphasizes a rational and continuous de-velopment of knowledge, in contrast to Thomas Kuhn´s discontinuous and irrational devel-opment, and rejects all forms of reality independent of human beings. Fleck´s monograph Entstehung und Entwicklung einer Tatsache is a rich and multifac-eted inquiry into the nature of knowledge, emphasizing the social and historical aspects of the epistemology of science at the expense of certain logical precepts. With his concepts thought style and thought collective, Fleck is generally acknowledged as a precursor to Kuhn´s con-cepts of paradigm and scientific community. Fleck maintains a relativistic view of science and develops a comparative epistemology which challenges the logical positivists in many re-spects. He dismisses every form of reality and has therefore been regarded as an idealist, al-though there are certain aspects to his epistemology which point toward an implicit ontology based upon his idea of the passive components of knowledge. The chief epistemological works of Fleck and his contemporary Karl Popper were published within a year of each other, 1934 and 1935, respectively, by which Popper had left the Continent to eventually become one of the leading British philosophers, while Fleck spent several years during the Second World War as a prisoner in Nazi camps. Both were firmly opposed to the logical positivism, one as a critical rationalist, the other as a sceptical relativist. Fleck was also a forerunner to the constructivist ideas and the Strong Programme. The word ”incommensurability” has been ascribed Kuhn but the term had already been used by Fleck in 1927. The ”incommensurability thesis” dominates Kuhn´s notion of scientific revolutions and is accordingly the reason why scientific progress is considered an irrational process. The debate on the incommensurability thesis has continued to interest epistemologists and philosophers of science and many solutions have been suggested, some in line with the one proposed by Fleck.

This dissertation examines the conceptualization of the ideal society in Western culture in relation to changes in communication modes. The utopian discourse is defined by a concern with the relationship between language and reality. I explore this concern as a reflection of the theoretical disposition invited by changes in communication modes, which are perceived as crises of representation. Plato and Thomas More’s enlightened communities in the Republic and Utopia reflect comparable idealistic perspectives on education. In my view, this optimism stems from the social reality of growing literacies with the advent of the alphabet and printing, respectively. I contend that these writers are animated by an ethical impulse to teach their readers that language is representation. From the vantage point of this knowledge, each individual may employ language symbolically in order to create and perpetuate a moral and spiritual mode of thought. I argue that the discourse of the ideal is the symbolic expression of humanity’s engagement with death, the ultimate existential concern made acute by the aspect of historical discontinuity in the crisis of representation. Plato and More exhibit comparable efforts to open to their readers the superior space of critical reflexivity which they themselves inhabit. From this conceptual, pre-representational space of conscious choice, language is subjected to achieving spiritual progress. I introduce the concept of post-utopia, which describes a pragmatic moment when the relationship between author and the ideal society is brought into the foreground and reinforced as a way of addressing concerns with textual authority. I examine these developments in Augustine’s De Civitate Dei, François Rabelais’s episode of the Abbaye de Thélème in Gargantua, and Francis Bacon’s New Atlantis. These authors draw on the ideologies of representation inherent in utopian discourse, and position the authorial figure as link between scriptural teleology and history, ensuring spiritual and societal betterment in the textual cultures of late antiquity and early modernity. The figure of the author emerges as a symbol of history and of man’s ability to assume the limits of the mind and of language.

This dissertation examines the conceptualization of the ideal society in Western culture in relation to changes in communication modes. The utopian discourse is defined by a concern with the relationship between language and reality. I explore this concern as a reflection of the theoretical disposition invited by changes in communication modes, which are perceived as crises of representation. Plato and Thomas More’s enlightened communities in the Republic and Utopia reflect comparable idealistic perspectives on education. In my view, this optimism stems from the social reality of growing literacies with the advent of the alphabet and printing, respectively. I contend that these writers are animated by an ethical impulse to teach their readers that language is representation. From the vantage point of this knowledge, each individual may employ language symbolically in order to create and perpetuate a moral and spiritual mode of thought. I argue that the discourse of the ideal is the symbolic expression of humanity’s engagement with death, the ultimate existential concern made acute by the aspect of historical discontinuity in the crisis of representation. Plato and More exhibit comparable efforts to open to their readers the superior space of critical reflexivity which they themselves inhabit. From this conceptual, pre-representational space of conscious choice, language is subjected to achieving spiritual progress. I introduce the concept of post-utopia, which describes a pragmatic moment when the relationship between author and the ideal society is brought into the foreground and reinforced as a way of addressing concerns with textual authority. I examine these developments in Augustine’s De Civitate Dei, François Rabelais’s episode of the Abbaye de Thélème in Gargantua, and Francis Bacon’s New Atlantis. These authors draw on the ideologies of representation inherent in utopian discourse, and position the authorial figure as link between scriptural teleology and history, ensuring spiritual and societal betterment in the textual cultures of late antiquity and early modernity. The figure of the author emerges as a symbol of history and of man’s ability to assume the limits of the mind and of language.