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In this dissertation, I motivate and defend a neo-Aristotelian concept of absolute prohibitions. The starting point of my argument is Elizabeth Anscombe’s famous critique of modern moral philosophy. Anscombe’s argument is widely interpreted as a call to rehabilitate Aristotelian ethics, but few among the scholars who responded to that call have dealt head-on with Anscombe’s insistence that modern moral philosophy’s deepest failure is its inability to account for absolute prohibitions. I argue that not only does Aristotle take the view that some actions are necessarily wrong, and therefore impermissible without exception, but also that this view is of genuine philosophical interest and merit. Drawing on Aristotle, I outline a concept of absolute prohibitions against gravely wrong actions on which absolute prohibitions emerge, as practical principles, from reflection on the goods human beings need to flourish. In neo-Aristotelian terms, absolute moral prohibitions are best formulated not as transcendent laws of reason or divine commands, but as preconditions for the shared life and the states of character that human beings need to live well. When we recognize that some actions directly and necessarily undermine or damage essential goods—human life, justice, virtue, and so on—we can and should rule those actions out as impermissible in principle. I argue that an Aristotelian concept of absolute prohibitions has considerable advantages over its rivals, found in traditional theology and in Kantian ethics, and that this concept can withstand the most powerful objection to the plausibility of absolute prohibitions, which is the problem of hard cases.

Le présent travail réévalue la conception baudelairienne de la modernité à partir du roman Shaba deux, de V.Y. Mudimbe. Il dresse d'abord le portrait de l'écrivain. Coupé tôt de ses parents, Mudimbe est pris en charge par les bénédictins où il passe son temps à prier et à lire. Il devient moine au Rwanda, quitte les ordres, va continuer ses études à l'Université Lovanium à Léopoldville. Puis, il s'envole en Belgique où il termine un doctorat en Philologie romane. À son retour au Congo, Valentin Mudimbe assume des fonctions importantes au sein de l'Université de Lubumbashi, et il crée les Éditions du Mont noir, pour promouvoir les lettres congolaises. Il y publie son premier recueil de poèmes, Déchirures. Intellectuel total, Mudimbe s'engage également dans le roman et l'essai. Le second chapitre analyse Shaba deux en relation avec la modernité. Celle-ci peut se comprendre comme une expérience de la singularité de l'écrivain, tantôt cédant la prééminence aux mots, tantôt déréglant le sens. La modernité, pour Baudelaire, est cette irréductibilité de l'objet d'art à la fois à la beauté absolue et à la représentation contingente du monde. En fait, Shaba deux se caractérise essentiellement par l'hybridation générique qui fait coexister, à l'intérieur du roman, les genres : les carnets - qui donnent le sous-titre au roman -, le journal - que tient Marie-Gertrude au jour le jour durant un mois -, la chronique - de la guerre civile qui file le roman du début à la fin -, et l'autobiographie. Ensuite, le roman use constamment de la citation. Ce mélange discursif permet à Mudimbe de dire les doutes et hésitations de la narratrice face au monde et à l'ordre, mais aussi de traduire les horreurs de la guerre qui secouent le pays. L'éclatement de la guerre entraine la désagrégation de la congrégation des Franciscaines de Kolwezi ; les religieuses européennes sont rapatriées pour leur sécurité, alors que les autres sont abandonnées à elles-mêmes. Tiraillée entre la contemplation et l'action, c'est-à-dire entre Marie et Marthe, Marie-Gertrude assume, sans aucune préparation, la responsabilité du couvent. A travers le style sobre, fait de masques, de transfigurations et de dissolution, Mudimbe dit, à sa manière, le drame de la condition humaine.

Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2014. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis has two aims. The first is to assess the cogency of the three most influential theories of intention – namely those of Elizabeth Anscombe, Donald Davidson and Michael Bratman. I identify five requirements that a convincing account of intention must fulfil, and then assess each of these theories in light of these five requirements. In the course of this analysis, I demonstrate that, while each of these theories contributes to our understanding of intention, none of them meet all the specified requirements. This leads to the second aim of this thesis, which is to develop an account of intention capable of overcoming the problems inherent in the foregoing theories of intention and hence fulfilling the specified requirements. This account is built around the definition of intention as a complex mental entity, consisting of two components: a revisable pro-attitude and a belief that the agent will try to fulfil this pro-attitude. It must further be possible for the agent to reflexively reconstruct the belief component without external information. I begin by setting out the five requirements for a convincing account of intention. In each case, I explain why it is necessary for a theory of intention to meet the relevant requirement, and elaborate on what is needed for an account of intention to fulfil this requirement. The five requirements for a convincing account of intention are: 1) It must explain the unity of the three seemingly irreconcilable uses of intention; 2) it must explain the epistemic requirements for intention; 3) it must clarify the relationship between intention and motivation, intention and causes, and intention and reasons; 4) it must explain the relationship between intention and practical reasoning, and 5) it must clarify the relationship between intention and moral responsibility. Together, these five requirements form the yardstick against which I evaluate the different theories of intention. With this yardstick in mind, I am then able to assess each of the influential theories of intention developed by Anscombe, Davidson, and Bratman. In each case, I examine how the relevant theory of intention fares in meeting each of the five requirements. This analysis shows that, while each theory provides a number of important insights, none of them succeeds in meeting all five requirements. Such analysis further enables me to identify the specific difficulties that have stymied the attempts of all three thinkers to develop a convincing account of intention. Having identified the strengths and weaknesses of the three preceding accounts of intention, I then try to work out an alternative account of intention that would not fall prey to the same complications. Following the same modus operandi as before, I evaluate my proposed account against the five requirements for a convincing theory of intention. In each case, I show that my account not only succeeds in meeting the specified criterion, but also, crucially, that it is able to overcome the difficulties that have plagued previous attempts to fulfil this criterion. I conclude that, while this account is not necessarily conclusive, it does meet the conditions for a convincing account of intention and thereby casts some light into the conceptual darkness surrounding intention that Anscombe identified more than half a century ago. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie tesis het twee oogmerke. Die eerste is om die oortuigingskrag van die drie mees invloedryke teorieë van intensie te beoordeel – naamlik die van Elizabeth Anscombe, Donald Davidson en Michael Bratman. Ek identifiseer vyf vereistes waaraan ‘n oortuigende verklaring van intensie moet voldoen en beoordeel dan elk van hierdie teorieë aan die hand van hierdie vyf vereistes. In die loop van hierdie analise wys ek dat, alhoewel elkeen van hierdie teorieë tot ons verstaan van intensie bydra, geeneen aan al die gespesifiseerde vereistes voldoen nie. Dit lei tot die tweede oogmerk van die tesis, wat die ontwikkeling van ‘n teorie van intensie behels wat daartoe in staat is om die probleme wat inherent aan die voorgenoemde teorieë is, te oorkom en wat dus aan die gespesifiseerde vereistes voldoen. Hierdie teorie berus op die definisie van intensie as ‘n komplekse mentale entiteit wat uit twee komponente bestaan: ‘n wysigbare pro-houding en ‘n oortuiging dat die agent hierdie pro-houding sal probeer vervul. Dit moet verder ook vir die agent moontlik wees om die oortuigingskomponent refleksief te rekonstrueer sonder eksterne inligting. Ek begin deur die vyf vereistes vir ‘n oortuigende verklaring van intensie uiteen te sit. In elke geval verduidelik ek hoekom dit nodig is vir ‘n teorie van intensie om aan die relevante vereiste te voldoen en werk ek uit wat nodig is vir ‘n verklaring van intensie om aan hierdie vereiste te voldoen. Die vyf vereistes vir ‘n oortuigende verklaring van intensie is: 1) Dit moet die ooreenstemming tussen die drie skynbaar onversoenbare gebruike van intensie verduidelik; 2) dit moet die epistemiese vereistes vir intensie verduidelik; 3) dit moet die verhouding tussen intensie en motivering, intensie en oorsake, en intensie en redes verhelder; 4) dit moet die verhouding tussen intensie en praktiese redenering verhelder; en 5) dit moet die verhouding tussen intensie en morele verantwoordelikheid verhelder. Gesamentlik vorm hierdie vyf vereistes die maatstaf waarvolgens ek die verskillende teorieë van intensie evalueer. Met hierdie maatstaf in gedagte is ek dan in staat daartoe om elkeen van die invloedryke teorieë van intensie, wat ontwikkel is deur Anscombe, Davidson en Bratman, te beoordeel. In elke geval ondersoek ek hoe die relevante teorie van intensie vaar in die voldoening aan elkeen van hierdie vyf vereistes. Hierdie analise wys dat, alhoewel elke teorie ‘n aantal belangrike insigte bied, geen van hul daarin slaag om aan al vyf vereistes te voldoen nie. So ‘n analise stel my verder in staat om die spesifieke probleme te identifiseer waardeur die pogings van al drie denkers om ‘n oortuigende verklaring van intensie te ontwikkel, gestuit is. Nadat ek die sterk en swakpunte van die drie voorafgaande verklarings van intensie geïdentifiseer het, probeer ek dan om ‘n alternatiewe teorie van intensie uit te werk wat nie aan hierdie selfde komplikasies onderhewig is nie. Deur dieselfde modus operandi as voorheen te volg, evalueer ek my voorgestelde verklaring aan die hand van die vyf vereistes vir ‘n oortuigende teorie van intensie. In elke geval wys ek dat my verklaring nie bloot daaraan slaag om aan die gespesifiseerde kriterium te voldoen nie, maar ook, van deurslaggewende belang, dat dit in staat daartoe is om die probleme te oorkom waardeur vorige pogings om die kriterium te vervul, geteister is. Ek kom tot die gevolgtrekking dat, alhoewel hierdie teorie nie noodwendig afdoende is nie, dit wel die voorwaardes vir ‘n oortuigende verklaring van intensie vervul en hierdeur lig werp op die konseptuele duisternis waarin intensie gehul is en wat meer as ‘n halfeeu gelede deur Anscombe geïdentifiseer is.

Winner of the 2003 Outstanding Thesis prize. / Title from PDF of title page. / Document formatted into pages; / Thesis (M.A.)--University of South Florida, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references. / Text (Electronic thesis) in PDF format. / ABSTRACT: The Challenge: Today a daunting quantity of scholarship relating to Hamlet exists. While databases and electronic catalogues aid research, these directories present a virtual wall of minimal bibliographic data. Sorting through lists still takes eons. Meanwhile, new publications are constantly added to the academic stacks that ever threaten to tumble over. The Solution: A web site that groups together scholarly publications using similar approaches and treating similar subjects will translate the overwhelming into the maneuverable. The online medium will provide accessibility to everyone--student, research assistant, instructor, scholar--and will guarantee the opportunity to update this resource on a regular basis. Scope: Listings will span materials published between 1991and 2001. The bibliography will exclude notes, reviews, abstracts, and treatments of theatre and film performances as well as certain forums (e.g., newsletters, bulletins, electronic journals). / ABSTRACT: Scholarship focusing on the Folio/Quartos debate seems relevant but requires specific and technical specialization and will thus be omitted. Pedagogical studies and comparisons of Hamlet to other literary works will also be excluded. Research: IAC Expanded Academic Index, 1982-1995, IAC Expanded Academic Index, 1996-, and MLA Bibliography databases, as well as Dr. Sara Deats?private bibliography on Hamlet, will be combed for applicable scholarship. Organization: The bibliography will categorize publications by theoretical approach (e.g., feminism, new historicism) and subject focus (e.g., characters, themes). It will arrange individual works alphabetically by author within each subsection, using the MLA format. / System requirements: World Wide Web browser and PDF reader. / Mode of access: World Wide Web.

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By investigating the discursive rules of hermeneutics and diagnosis, this study seeks to problematize particular presuppositions—most notably the presupposition of sense—of the modern disciplinary hermeneutic context. Following Barthes's consideration of the Greek modus of the middle voice as a useful notion in conceptualizing the modern scene of writing, the study advances itself toward conceptualizing a configuration of the modern reading scene in its middle-voiced permutation. In such a scene, the moment a reading attempts to read itself from without its parameters, it arrives at a spatial and temporal crisis (from the Greek krin-ein; to decide) between its action and the place (of not sense and not not sense) which exceeds the parameters delimiting the action of reading itself, but which nevertheless conditions its possibility. The grammar of this crisis is the middle voice; its condition, in the context of this study, is configured as madness. Madness is thus configured as a function of interrogation, reading and diagnosis. At the nucleus of the modem reading scene itself, this thesis opens with an introduction of the terms middle voice, crisis and madness, and then offers a consideration of three permutations of reading: Chapter Two, Chapter Three and the space between. Chapter Two considers a fictional representation of writing in the middle voice through a reading of Nabokov's Lolita, a text of fiction in the form of a "mad writer's" diary, whose historical reception has been marked by acts of appropriative censorship and clinical diagnosis. Chapter Three considers a permutation of the middlevoiced reading through a reading of Gertrude Stein's lectures on writing. This consideration is framed by fragments from the writing of Maurice Blanchot, connecting reading (as conceived by Stein) to madness, figuring the convergence of reading and madness in writing. The Interchapter, between chapters Two and Three, is an aporetic space entitled "Madness Itself." By allowing a brief and partial view of the modem clinical psychiatric setting, and by calling into question the parameters of the surrounding "chapters" themselves, this section seeks to perform, structurally and thematically, a moment of crisis recalling the middle voice.

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Studies of women’s experimental narrative in the twentieth century have often been fixed to political interests in the recovery of women’s artistic practices for inclusion in the canons of literary modernism and formal postmodernism. Concurrent trends in philosophy and critical theory, however, propose the interrogation of the limits of subjectivity itself, suggesting that the most provocative assertions about human experience eschew the very categorical delimitations, like gender, on which such recovery projects depend. This dissertation traces the literary investments of women, particularly queer women, whose experiments in life-writing reconfigure the boundaries of human subjects without relinquishing claims to the material or political conditions that shape their lives. “Rough Text” examines writing that queers or complicates autobiography by featuring self-referential protagonists whose lives illustrate the explosive consequences of both gender and genre manipulation. Writing themselves by unfastening themselves textually, temporally, and spatially, these authors do a liberating violence to their own coherence that shakes, and then rethinks, the grounds of their ontologies in ways that offer alternatives to the “psychological squalor” Fredric Jameson describes as the postmodern condition.