This essay constitutes an attempt to expose, with reference to contemporary animal research, the limits of Martin Heidegger’s concept of the being of animality in Die Grundbegriffe der Metaphysik (1929/30) and to propose some possible ways to think, within the philosophical style of this particular work, the being of those animals that most distinctly transcends Heidegger’s concept. The essay seeks to address the following question: Do the results of contemporary animal research expose ways of being within animality that withdrawal from Heidegger’s concept of the being of animality in general, and if so, how should we think these new ways of animal being? The motivation to ask this question, I argue, are immanent to Heidegger’s thinking in at least three ways: 1) Because of his standpoint that philosophy cannot, in any meaningful way, create an ontological concept of animality without an orientation towards the results of the positive sciences; 2) Because of the unfinished and tentative character of Heidegger’s analysis, a character that is such that it should be seen, according to Heidegger himself, as an essential point of departure for further thinking; 3) Because of Heidegger’s view that the being of the animal are such that it involves the withdrawal of this very being from any originary access, a withdrawal that necessitates an infinite return to the question concerning the being of the animal. The essay wants to be a continuation of lines that are present in Heidegger’s open-ended thought on this theme rather than to be an external critique that approach the text, which is most often the case, as a closed point of view which we are forced to affirm or reject. Motivated by these immanent reasons, I attempt to set up a dialogue between Heidegger’s way of thinking the animal and that scientific evidence that has become available since Heidegger wrote his text in the late 20s’. The paradigmatic change in the scientific view of animals that constitute this time period has philosophical consequences, I argue, and I attempt to flesh them out as follows: Contemporary animal research motivates the ontological conclusion that many species withdrawal from the meaning of Heidegger’s concept of the animal in general, and thereby necessitates a philosophical response to this, namely to create – at least as a first step toward a full-blown philosophical and ontological recognition of the differentiated animality of animals – a new concept of the being of those particular animals who most clearly show themselves, both in the new scientific evidence and to our phenomenological experience, as being different to that Heidegger claim them to be. I suggest, with reference to Heidegger’s thesis of the animal as ”poor in world”, that the being of these animals is better understood as otherworldly worlds within the world of human world forming. The being of these animals are to be seen as otherworldly worlds insofar they are what they seem to be, namely alien subject’s that have some sort of access to being, an access that differs from the openness of human Dasein in some profound and ungraspable sense, but that nonetheless suggests itself in the results of contemporary research. In this way I seek to sketch out a thought that let the otherness of these animals shine forth in a radicalized manner from out of their very nearness to the human way of being. The ontological recognition of these beings, I can thus conclude, enrich our world with their woundrous presence while at the same time exposing, with novel acuteness, the finitude of this world. Uttermost, I propose in an forward-looking reflection, these animals turn us toward the discovery of that world that we share with them, here named as the elemental world, as an crucial question for philosophy today and as a theme for further research.

How do music consumers come into contact with the music they like? How is music consumption patterns developed? Using a phenomenological approach this master's thesis sets out to answer a number of questions regarding the development of music consumption patterns. To do this in-depth interviews has been carried out with eleven respondents who were interviewed about their experi- ences of developing a music consumption pattern. Through this research it is shown how the development of music consumption patterns is a long process which begins with the introduction of the music consumer to an artist or group upon which future consumption will be conditioned and continues through the constant adding of new music and knowledge until the music listener one day stops developing his or her taste further and the music consumption stagnates. This research has also made possible the analysis of how well three influential theoretical models are at explaining music consumption from the perspective of the music consumer.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of North Texas, Dec., 2007. / Title from title page display. Includes bibliographical references.

abstract: One activity for which philosophers are perhaps best known is having disputes with one another. Some non-philosophers, and increasingly many philosophers, believe that a number of these disputes are silly or misguided in some way. Call such silly or misguided disputes defective disputes. When is a dispute defective? What kinds of defective disputes are there? How are these different kinds of defective disputes different from one another? What does it mean to call a dispute 'merely verbal'? These questions come up for consideration in Part One of this manuscript. In Part Two I examine whether certain disputes in ontology and over the nature of possible worlds are defective in any of the ways described in Part One. I focus mainly on the question of whether these disputes are merely verbal disputes, though I examine whether they are defective in any other ways. I conclude that neither dispute is defective in any of the senses that I make clear in Part One. Moreover, I conclude that even some defective philosophical disputes can be worth consideration under certain circumstances. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Philosophy 2011

The purpose of this research is the creation of the framework for immersive Virtual Worlds (VW) development and evaluation of factors affecting user’s immersion experience in 3D virtual worlds. Three experiments have been conducted to evaluate different aspects of the immersion experience in virtual reality. The first experiment aimed to explore the influence of communication on users whilst performing certain activities in a virtual world. The second experiment evaluated how the real-world environment affects users in a virtual world. The third experiment examined the aspect of mobility as a main contributor to a user’s distraction. The fourth experiment partly confirmed previous findings and added new factors, affecting immersion experience. The results of all experiments formed a framework, containing factors which users considered as affecting them during their activities in virtual worlds. During the experimentation phase of this research a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods was used. The Grounded Theory (GT) methodology was applied for data analysis in qualitative part. The major contribution of this research is the framework of factors for building immersive 3D virtual environments. Another contribution is the evaluation of factors affecting users in such an environment.

AN ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION OF Gabor Hardy, for the Doctor of Philosophy degree in Speech Communication, presented on 8 March, 2012, at Southern Illinois University Carbondale TITLE: A RITUAL IN PERSPECTIVE: AN ETHNOGRAPHIC ANALYSIS OF A LAKOTA SUNDANCE AT HOOSIER NATIONAL FOREST MAJOR PROFESSOR: Dr. Jonathan Gray Using ethnographic methods, interviews, observations, and participation of and in indigenous rituals, I discuss the ways in which Western and American Indian notions of spirit, human beings and their place in the world, and the practice of spirituality differ in action, thought, and word. Since the time of the Renaissance the supremacy of "rational" or "reasonable" modes of thinking has influenced the modern world. Many American Indian writers, shamans, and Sundance chiefs believe that an understanding of their approach to the Divine may never be apprehended without some sort of actual experience. This indigenous perspective differs in substantial ways from hegemonic, Christian and Western linear modes of thinking. I draw on my attendance at numerous Sundance rituals, readings by American Indian spiritual leaders, and ethnographic work done at the Salt Creek Sundance ritual to articulate and streamline major differences and similarities that exist in both approaches. Through participation and dialogue, a distinct indigenous spiritual approach emerges that is difficult to reconcile with traditional Christian and Eurocentric world views. As I hope to demonstrate, the appearance and performance of American Indian ritual serve to not only challenge Western colonial perspectives, but also to empower indigenous approaches to spirit. In order to cultivate a more tolerant approach to the diversity and various modes of spiritual expression, a change in consciousness is needed, not necessarily for the American Indian worldview, but from the current ethnocentric worldview of the US Government which holds this form of government as the highest accomplishment of any nation thus far. This dissertation offers an approach that probes the relationship between an earth based religion and a monotheistic religion. Finally, I present a vision that allows for an understanding and/or appreciation of a spiritual approach which remains alien to Western approaches and conceptualizations of spirit. Key words: rational mind, symbolic meaning, ritual, myths, sacred, ideology, truth, indigenous worlds, cosmology, spirituality, reason, ethnography, Sundance, performance, and Native American.

Collaborative Virtual Environments (CVE) have been with us for some years however the way people utilise them is evolving and their potential is unclear. This research attempts to achieve a better understanding of retail in CVEs by comparing this channel with the competing retail channels of ‘bricks and mortar’, or offline, and two dimensional navigation websites (2D websites), in order to identify their respective Relative Advantages (RA). This is investigated from the consumer viewpoint, as they are the ones who will ultimately shape CVEs by voting with their feet, clicks or virtual feet. By exploring the literature a model was chosen to guide the research. Furthermore, based on this model and other literature five key objectives were identified for further investigation. These objectives are categories of RA that must be explored when comparing retail channels. The first research objective is as follows: A RA of CVEs to the 2D websites for e-commerce may be the aspects of offline retail it includes that do not exist in the 2D websites. The second research objective is: A RA of CVEs retail compared to offline retail may be aspects of 2D e-commerce it includes that are not included in the offline retail environment. The third research objective is: Consumers may vary their intended usage of CVEs across the different stages of the purchase process because the significance of the dimensions of RA may vary across those stages. The fourth research objective is: Consumers’ usage of CVEs may be different for simple and complex products. The fifth research objective is: CVEs such as Second Life (SL) may have the RA of a higher degree of institutional trust compared to the 2D websites. The first stage of data collection used focus groups to clarify the objectives identified from the literature. The second stage involved interviews where these objectives were explored with participants that had relevant experience. Both stages were analysed using template analysis. The first contribution was verifying the relevance of the five objectives and identifying significant dimensions within them. The second contribution was to develop the model used for comparing retail channels by adding enjoyment to the criteria. The third stage of this research is a survey. This quantitative analysis supplemented the two qualitative stages by gauging the significance of the objectives and their dimensions. This enables the findings to be more useful to retailers in making the strategic decisions to achieve the optimum synergies within and between channels. Participants showed a preference for offline and 2D in most situations however there was evidence that enjoyment, entertainment, sociable shopping, the ability to reinvent yourself, convenience and institutional trust were RA of SL in comparison to one of the other two channels.

Please read the abstract in the 00front of this document. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Science of Religion and Missiology / unrestricted

This paper explores the impact that spontaneous independent NPC dialogues have upon the player experience within a RPG. The study makes use of adjacent established research where dialogue is concerned as a launching point as spontaneous NPC dialogue has not been directly researched. The tests consisted of a playthrough of a two-part prototype. The first part had spontaneous independent NPC dialogue and the second part was used as a control part. While playing through the artefact participants voiced their thoughts and feelings concerning the prototype. With that and an interview, we measured the amount that the dialogue form used added or detracted from the participant’s experience. The dialogue was overall met in a positive manner from participants. However, a small study as this cannot conclusively state that spontaneous independent NPC dialogues are a boon to the RPG experience.

With the birth of “virtual worlds,” created a new space for social norms to evolve and change within a subset community. This thesis focuses on toxicity within the virtual world of EA DICE’s Battlefield V title. The goal of this research is to understand toxicity on a micro scale inside the world of Battlefield V from a gaming anthropological perspective. Along with understanding what toxicity looked like within the virtual world ofBattlefield V, the thesis obtained data for how the community and EA DICE employees perceived toxicity. This research has components of interviews with these members of the communities/staff as well as a netnography of the virtual world of Battlefield V gameplay. Findings and analysis were categorized under the themes of toxic language, power/freedom, virtual world creation, and gender toxicity. Battlefield V toxicity is ever evolving and shaped by player techne (player actions). Player chat consumes the majority of toxicity and therefore diving into toxic language was vital. Understanding the player perspective of power and freedom while gaming was just the first step as the thesis also dove into the developer’s perspective and analyzed the interviews with the backbone of Malaby’s (2009) contingency concepts to see how the developers have a large role to play when it comes to toxicity in games, even if they may not realize it. Just as in the “real world” the virtual world of Battlefield V also had a major theme of gender discrimination winessed and discussed via both community members and staff members of EA DICE. Overall, the goal of this research was not to find out if toxicity was “good” or “bad” but to simply shed more light on the complex topic within virtual worlds and open up research for other anthropologists to do further research on the topic.