The writings of the American pragmatist thinker Charles S. Peirce (1839-1914) provide resources for what this thesis calls the “nested continua model” of theological interpretation. A diagrammatic demonstration of iconic relational logic akin to Peirce’s Existential Graphs, the nested continua model is imagined as a series of concentric circles graphed upon a two-dimensional plane. When faced with some problem of interpretation, one may draw discrete markings that signify that problem’s logical distinctions, then represent in the form of circles successive contexts by which these distinctions may be examined in relation to one another, arranged ordinally at relative degrees of specificity and vagueness, aesthetic intensity and concrete reasonableness. Drawing from Peter Ochs’s Scriptural Reasoning model of interfaith dialogue and Robert C. Neville’s axiology of thinking—each of which makes creative use of Peirce’s logic—this project aims to achieve an analytical unity between these two thinkers’ projects, which can then be addressed to further theological ends. The model hinges between diagrammatic and ameliorative functions, honing its logic to disclose contexts in which its theological or metaphysical claims might, if needed, be revised. Such metaphysical claims include love as that which unites feeling with intelligibility, hell as imprisonment within an opaque circle of interpretation whose distorted reflections render violence upon oneself and others, and the divine as both the center of aesthetic creativity and outermost horizon from which our many layers of interpretive criteria emerge. These are claims made from a particular identity in a particular cultural context, but the logical rules upon which they are based are accessible to all, and the hope of the model is to help people overcome problems of interpretation and orient themselves toward eternity without ignoring the world around them.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-27T17:27:03Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Luis Manuel Malta de Alves Louceiro.pdf: 2733334 bytes, checksum: 75c7752ec68aa866df506058beb978ce (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-11-12 / Our Doctor s Dissertation as an aftermath of our Master s Thesis (2008) aims at showing that the thorough answer that Charles Sanders Peirce (1839-1914) gave to the Riddle (of Existence) proposed by Ralph Waldo Emerson in the latter s philosophical-poem, The Sphynx (1841, 1846, 1867) is in his admirable Architectonic. Our work is divided in two parts plus an Appendix. Part 1 will exhibit Peirce s Sciences of Discovery; or Heuristics: (I) Mathematics, wherein we will show the importance of the continuum so as to understand the whole edifice of the Sciences; (II) Philosophy [subdivided into (II.I) Phenomenology (subdivided, into the categories of Firstness, Secondness and Thirdness); (II.II) the Normative Science (subdivided into Esthetics, Ethics and Logic); and, (II.III) Metaphysics (subdivided in Ontology, Cosmology and Religious Metaphysics)]; and, (III) the Special Sciences; or, Idioscopy, subdivided into (III.I) the Sciences of Nature and (III.II) Human Sciences with resource to the American author s original texts, and his main scholars . In Part 2 we will resort to Peirce s Heuristics (Part 1) to analyze the following six areas of knowledge of his Special Sciences (Idioscopy): (1) in Physics, Stephen Hawkins & Leonard Mlodinov s book, The Grand Design (2012); (2) in Biochemistry, the works What is Life? & Mind and Matter by Erwin Schrödinger, as well as the discovery of the Quasi-Crystals by the 2011 Nobel for Chemistry, Dan Shechtman, and his ten-year ordeal with the Scientific Community (Linus Pauling); and, (3) in Astronomy, the work Cycles of Time: An Extraordinary New View of the Universe (2011) by Roger Penrose, in the sub-branch of the Natural Sciences. In the subbranch of the Human Sciences we will analyze, (4) in Psychology, the work Thinking: Fast and Slow (2011), by the 2002 Nobel for Economy, Daniel Kahneman; (5) in Religion, we will analyze the work The Fall of Man and the Foundations of Science (2009) by Peter Harrison, the last intellectual to be invited to the famous Guifford Lectures (2011; University of Edinburg, Scotland), to which William James was among the first to be invited (1902); and, (6) in Literary Criticism, we will analyze some of the Poems by Tomas Tranströmer, the 2011 winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature. In the Conclusion we will resume Emerson s Riddle of The Sphynx to verify to what extent Peirce s Architectonic has answered it. In the Appendix we offer (1) Emerson s philosophical-poem, The Sphynx (1847); (2) A 48-page Intellectual Biography of Peirce, with the summary of all the 58 essays in The Essential Peirce, Volumes 1 & 2; (3) The translation of two outstanding Peircean essays Immortality in the Light of Synechism (1893) and Scientific Fallibilism (1893); (4) A diagram of Peirce s Architectonic; and, (5) Diagrams by Shechtman, Penrose, and M. C. Escher / Nossa Tese de Doutorado dando prosseguimento à nossa Dissertação de Mestrado (2008) - tem como principal objetivo mostrar que a resposta completa que Charles Sanders Peirce (1839-1914) deu ao Enigma (da Existência) proposto por Ralph Waldo Emerson no poemafilosófico deste, A Esfinge (1841, 1846, 1867) está em sua admirável Arquitetônica. Nosso trabalho está dividido em duas partes e um Apêndice. A Parte 1 exporá as Ciências da Descoberta ou Heurística de Peirce: (I) a Matemática, em que mostraremos a importância do continuum para se compreender todo o seu edifício das Ciências; (II) a Filosofia [subdividida em (II.I) Fenomenologia (subdividida, nas categorias da Primeiridade, Segundidade e Terceiridade); (II.II) Ciência Normativa (subdividida em Estética, Ética e Lógica); e, (II.III) Metafísica (subdividida em Ontologia, Cosmologia e Metafísica Religiosa)]; e, (III) as Ciências Especiais ou Idioscopia, subdivididas em (III.I) Ciências da Natureza e (III.II) Ciências Humanas com recurso aos textos originais do próprio pensador norte-americano, e de seus principais estudiosos. Na Parte 2 de nosso trabalho faremos uso da Heurística de Peirce (Parte 1) para analisar as seguintes seis áreas do saber de suas Ciências Especiais (Idioscopia): (1) na Física, a obra The Grand Design (2012; O grande projeto ) de Stephen Hawking & Leonard Mlodinow; (2) na Bioquímica, as obras, What is Life? ( O que é a vida? ) & Mind and Matter ( Mente e matéria ) de Erwin Schrödinger, assim como sobre a descoberta dos Quase-cristais do Nobel de Química de 2011, Dan Shechtman e seu ordálio face à Comunidade Científica (Linus Pauling) durante dez anos; e, (3) na Astronomia, a obra Cycles of Time: An Extraordinary New View of the Universe (2011: Ciclos do tempo: uma nova visão extraordinária do universo ) de Roger Penrose. No sub-ramo das Ciências Humanas analisaremos, (4) na Psicologia, a obra Thinking: Fast and Slow (2011: Pensando: depressa e devagar ), do Nobel de Economia de 2002, Daniel Kahneman; na (5) Religião, analisaremos a obra The Fall of Man and the Foundations of Science (2009; A queda do homem e as fundações da ciência ) de Peter Harrison, o último convidado para as famosas Guifford Lectures (2011; Universidade de Edinburgo, Escócia), para as quais William James foi um dos primeiros convidados (1902); e, (6) na Crítica Literária, analisaremos alguns dos Poemas de Tomas Tranströmer, ganhador do Nobel de Literatura em 2011. Na Conclusão volveremos ao Enigma d A Esfinge de Emerson para verificar em que medida Peirce o respondeu a contento. No Apêndice oferecemos, (1) O poema-filosofico de Emerson, A Esfinge (1847); (2) Uma Biografia Intelectual de Peirce em 48 páginas, com o resumo de todos os 58 ensaios do The Essential Peirce, Volumes 1 & 2; (3) A tradução de dois notáveis ensaios peirceanos A imortalidade à luz do sinequismo (1893) e Falibilismo científico (1893); (4) Um diagrama de sua Arquitetônica ; e, (5) Diagramas de Shechtman, Penrose, e M. C. Escher

The work is focused on delimiting the basic problematic of definition of religion in terms of Charles Sanders Peirce's semiotics. Its objective is througt selected Peirce's texts to interpret Peirce's philosophy of religion, which consists of concept of religion closely connected with Peirce's metaphysics, phaneroscopy, semiotics and agapism. It focuses primarily on Peirce's theory of evolution, the idea of God, the pragmatic way of inference through which one can come to the idea of God, and the relationship between religion and science. I conclude through the interpretation of Ch. S. Peirce's texts that the precise definition of religion can not be pursued in his theory. Even so, the semiotic conception of religion brings a new perspective: the religion could be based on the same principles that govern the science. It can also be understood as a community of people continually striving for truth. This community of people searches in its investigation for answers to the questions about theological ideals. The precondition of faith of individual members of religious communities is an experience of God, who is a perfect and the most general sign and together growth and semiosis in the universe, which people interpret. A believer comes to the worship of God through Musement, a special purposeless...

Nearly 300 years before the rise of a ‘Christianized,’ Eastern Roman Empire, generations of inhabitants in the Eastern Mediterranean and Near East had witnessed a considerable variety and evolution of religious thought. As a result of the expansion of Christian sects throughout the Near East and Mediterranean, in 325 CE, Emperor Constantine I convened a theological council to unite his vast kingdom in the East under a single religious creed. While revisions to the text of the first ‘Nicene Creed’ and subsequent councils would be organized, many dissenting factions refused to relinquish their long-held beliefs and traditions. Some of these ‘heterodox’ sects resisted the religious arm of the Empire and concealed their practices while continuing to worship in secrecy. Clues to the subversion of ‘orthodox’ ecclesiastical mandate may still persist in the mosaic programs of extant churches in the Mediterranean and Transjordan. In particular, the general design of mosaics in the Transjordan (e.g., the Petra Church, Petra; the Church of SS. Lot and Procopius, Khirbet al-Mukhayyat; and the Church of SS. Cosmas and Damian, Jerash) are somewhat similar, yet divergent from designs found within churches from the Italian Peninsula (e.g., the Theodorean Basilical Complex, Aquileia; the Church of San Vitale, Ravenna; and the Church of Sant’Apollinare in Classe, Classe). The purpose of this thesis is to use the principles of semiotic theory to re-evaluate the use of symbols and icons within sacred mosaic programs, juxtaposed against the historical and ecclesiastical context surrounding their creation.

Nearly 300 years before the rise of a 'Christianized,' Eastern Roman Empire, generations of inhabitants in the Eastern Mediterranean and Near East had witnessed a considerable variety and evolution of religious thought. As a result of the expansion of Christian sects throughout the Near East and Mediterranean, in 325 CE, Emperor Constantine I convened a theological council to unite his vast kingdom in the East under a single religious creed. While revisions to the text of the first 'Nicene Creed' and subsequent councils would be organized, many dissenting factions refused to relinquish their long-held beliefs and traditions. Some of these 'heterodox' sects resisted the religious arm of the Empire and concealed their practices while continuing to worship in secrecy. Clues to the subversion of 'orthodox' ecclesiastical mandate may still persist in the mosaic programs of extant churches in the Mediterranean and Transjordan. In particular, the general design of mosaics in the Transjordan (e.g., the Petra Church, Petra; the Church of SS. Lot and Procopius, Khirbet al-Mukhayyat; and the Church of SS. Cosmas and Damian, Jerash) are somewhat similar, yet divergent from designs found within churches from the Italian Peninsula (e.g., the Theodorean Basilical Complex, Aquileia; the Church of San Vitale, Ravenna; and the Church of Sant'Apollinare in Classe, Classe). The purpose of this thesis is to use the principles of semiotic theory to re-evaluate the use of symbols and icons within sacred mosaic programs, juxtaposed against the historical and ecclesiastical context surrounding their creation.

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“The Purloined Letter,” Edgar Allan Poe's third and final tale featuring the detective Dupin, has evoked a long history of critical response. Criticism has tended to read the text for its role in the development of detective fiction and as illustrative of various theoretical positions. However, the implications of the “The Purloined Letter,” as a tale of ratiocination, has largely been left unexplored. “The Purloined Letter” explores logical processes of value and exchange, particularly economic exchange, in a manner very similar to what Charles Sanders Peirce will call pragmatism several decades later. Dupin's deductive methods and Peirce's abductive logic express the nature of objects in terms of social systems of preference and perception rather metaphysics. Peirce's classification of signs as icon, index, or symbol provides a framework of signification which can be read in conjunction with “The Purloined Letter” to flesh out the role of materiality and value in the theory of economic criticism. Reading value and exchange as part of a social system of signs, perceptions, and representations of value will serve to expose a penchant for material fetishism in economic criticism and provide a theory of currency, value, and exchange that contextualizes representational and material notions of value within the social and economic system that provides the processes and mechanisms of value determination. The way that the Prefect, the Minister D___, and Dupin each conceptualize the purloined letter as having a different representational relationship with value can be used to demonstrate Poe's abductive framework for economy.

Syftet med uppsatsen är att utforska en ofta förbisedd genre hos två av de första svenska modernisterna Sigrid Hjertén och Isaac Grünewald, nämligen de strandbilder konstnärsparet skapade i samband med sina sommarsemestrar i Danmark åren 1917–1918. Hur skildrar konstnärerna sitt bad och strandliv och avviker dessa bilder från konstnärernas övriga produktion från samma tidpunkt? Uppsatsens metod utgår från C.S. Peirces semiotiska begrepp ikon, index och symbol. Ett annat syfte är att ur ett kritiskt vithetsperspektiv studera om de valda verken, Blixten och Den gröna badvagnen av Isaac Grünewald samt Badscen och Komposition av Sigrid Hjertén, upprättar eller reproducerar vithet som norm? Resultatet visar att så sker, både i verk, titlar och texter. Resultatet visar även att strandbilderna följer samma mönster som konstnärernas övriga produktion. I uppsatsen presenteras en ny tolkning av symbolerna i vissa av Isaac Grünewalds verk mellan åren 1914–1919, baserad på inflytande från baltiska folksånger (daina) och det politiska läget i ett sönderfallande Tsarryssland. Inflytandet från läraren Henri Matisse samt konststilen expressionismen syns tydligt hos båda konstnärerna.