This thesis maintains that, in spite of many differences and oppositions between the theologies of Paul Tillich and Karl Barth, so far as the problem of authentic humanity is concerned, the two theologians complement rather than exclude each other. Furthermore, the thesis shows that their understandings of humanity, though deeply rooted in the Christian tradition, can provide a genuine dialogue with non-Christian approaches to the realization of authentic humanity. The first chapter is a comparative survey of the two theologians' encounters with human inauthenticity during the First World War. After this 'Introductory' part, the following two chapters are concerned with divine intervention as the foundation and beginning of authentic humanity. This consists of a study of Barth's interpretation of the doctrine of reconciliation and of Tillich's interpretation of the doctrine of justification. The study demonstrates that Earth's Christological objectivity and Tillich's existential concern complement each other, so that together they build up a more comprehensive understanding of God's salvific act in Christ and its transforming power in human experience than does either in its own. The next two chapters are concerned with the realization of authentic humanity. Tillich's idea of unambiguous life is studied from an interdisciplinary perspective and compared with Martin Heidegger's philosophy, Abraham H. Maslow's humanistic psychology, Karl Marx's politics and Zen Buddhism. Then Barth's doctrine of the Christian life as the realization of man's ontological determination is studied under the categories of the God-man and man-man relationships. Again we find that Tillich's interdisciplinary concern and Barth's delineation of the Christian life in the presence of a living God and guided by a personal Spirit also complement each other, so that together they constitute a comprehensive picture of authentic humanity, which may be called a 'Christian personalist' view of anthropology.

In the age of cybernetics, contemporary man is experiencing an ever greater degree of alienation with himself, society and the universe. The Italian writer, Italo Calvino, characterized this phenomenon as “laceration” (“dimezzato” in Italian) and portrayed it in his 40-year writing career as a recurring theme. This study highlights Calvino’s understanding of and response to this challenge to modernity, which is arguably rooted in the era of Enlightenment when human beings addressed themselves as masters of Nature. Young Calvino was once a member of the Italian Communist Party (Italian: Partito Comunista Italiano, PCI) and published his first novel as a neo-realist in 1947. He had written novels that portrayed the hardship of post-war Italy, however he had a vision that stretched beyond Italy and class struggle – the universal struggle of human existence. In the late 1950s, he left PCI and departed in his writing from neo-realism. He shifted to fantasy and metaphysics. But he did not abandon his compassion and concern for the fate of humanity. He remained cautious yet optimistic about the world in the next millennium, and literature holds the key to this mission. With the help of his work, both fiction and nonfiction, I will demonstrate how humanity is becoming increasingly perplexed and mutilated in this labyrinth-like existence, and how literature acts as an important instrument in mapping the world, thus aiding our understanding of the man-universe relationship and the possibility of discovering a hidden order. / published_or_final_version / Modern Languages and Cultures / Master / Master of Philosophy

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, Dept. of Philosophy, June 2002. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

Utopia, the perfect society, is a concept linked with the perfect human being. These concepts are the focus of Arthur C. Clarke's The City and the Stars, and this essay will examine how the text challenges ideas of humanity and utopia. The two utopias are presented in The City and the Stars, with one branch of genetically engineered humans on Earth in each utopia. Their differences in approaches to challenges sets them apart. While examining the text literary and philosophical concepts of utopia and humanity will be used to better understand the text. The text shows us the significance of facing challenges. Moreover, that utopia, while desirable, is not for humankind as humanity's potential will not be reached when it resides in a utopia.  Humanity is defined by complex emotions that are hard to allow to exist in utopias.

Children, who are the future of the country, are the most important asset. If cancer in children is diagnosed at an early stage, effective precautionary measures can be taken in order to save their lives. Children sense their physical space in a very immediate and detailed manner and their response to spaces can be far more direct and energetic than adults. For children, visiting hospitals can be particularly difficult emotionally, as they are stressed by ill-health, painful medical procedures. The objectives of this research are first to understand what constitutes a supportive pediatric setting from children’s and adolescents’ perspectives and try to explore the role of architecture in making hospital stays more pleasant. Second, to define a vision for the sustainable hospital design movement; and third, to illustrate the value of participatory research for healthcare design. The outline is a new design of the children hospital and how architectural design steps can be taken to improve cancer patients’ care.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Massachusetts Amherst, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 178-189). Print copy also available.

Shaftesbury believed that the height of virtue was impartial love for all of humanity. But Shaftesbury also harboured grave doubts about our ability to develop such an expansive love. In The Moralists, Shaftesbury addressed this problem. I show that while it may appear on the surface that The Moralists solves the difficulty, it in fact remains unresolved. Shaftesbury may not have been able to reconcile his view of the content of virtue with his view of our motivational psychology.

ABSTRACT Do you have stories of meaningful places in your life? Are there examples of stories of place(s) you have heard have been powerful influences for you? Why? How have these places been impacted by climate change, and how will they be impacted by climate change? Our shared environment is at a critical juncture. The physical survival of this planet and our collective wellbeing is increasingly dependent on challenging our ways and bettering educating ourselves and others to respect and acknowledge the interconnection we have with the planet home that gives us life. In this research, I examine the power of personal stories which focus on relationship to place in order to connect us to each other and to the places we inhabit as a powerful tool to forge practices that are benevolent towards the Earth. Sharing personal stories of our meaningful place-based settings has the power to expand universal understanding of the link between our behavior towards the Earth and the wellbeing of these places, which is crucial for the health of all species, including human survival. Stories are perhaps one of the most efficient methods in highlighting interdependency between humans and the environment to foster an ethic of a care for the planet and future generations. This thesis draws from storytelling as action in indigenous cultures and their effectiveness in Earth justice movement building today specifically in the United States. I examine the Gwich’in Steering Committee as one vital model that uses storytelling as their primary tool for not only Earth and human rights justice, but importantly, their survival. Additionally I will reference storytelling used as a method of education and action used by the Water Protectors of Standing Rock and L’eau Est La Vie camp. These indigenous organizations are by no means the only indigenous models that use personal, place-based storytelling for movement building, but serve as the research focus for this thesis. The literature review will reflect upon the Gwich’in Steering Committee’s use of story throughout their movement; their own sustainable, cultural and spiritual way of life, to protect The Sacred Place Where Life Begins, their water and food sovereignty in the face of oil drilling proposals and climate change. Through Scholarly Personal Narrative methodology, this deep dive account unearths my own depictions of my place-based stories which have taught me that the Earth deserves our compassion, our empathy, and our urgent attention and to craft a sustainable planet. This thesis will draw from on my personal lived experiences in my local and global settings, my own stories of connecting to the places sources of cultivating care and wellbeing for the planet. This project explores my narrative journey through my childhood in Vermont, my family homes across Maine, my four undergraduate years in Connecticut, my studies in Chile, and return to Vermont. My hope is that the indigenous model of the Gwich’in Steering Committee, paired with my personal and reflective account of place-based stories can prompt educational leaders to reflect and utilize personal storytelling as one educational tool that assists with building empathetic and active healing for the wellbeing of our shared planet.

Abstract: Emmanuel Levinas: Ethics, Justice and the Human beyond Being. Levinas finds the early twentieth century to be marked by a rejection of the concept of humanity, at the moment of its awakening to its own brutality. While accepting the anti-humanist position, insofar as it questions the primacy of free will, and an unquestionable security in its attachment to a pregiven, universal Reason, Levinas' work questions the value of rethinking the human in terms of being. This thesis traces Levinas' attempt to rehabilitate humanity from its devotion to ontology as first philosophy. It argues that Levinas offers a reinterpretation of the relation of being and the human, tracing the movement in Levinas' work from a critical attempt to rethink the human and being, to the notion of the human beyond being. The thesis begins with a critical engagement with Heideggerian ontology suggesting that Levinas' renewal of the question of being in his prewar essays reflects a concern for the meaning of subjective existence and its relation to the social and political totality. These concerns lie behind his reinterpretation of the relation of existence and the existent in his essays of the 1940's in which Levinas undertakes a critique of a Platonic social totality and introduces a notion of the alterity of eros which does not have its value determined in terms of a teleology of social production. From this basis, Levinas is shown to address the question of justice by articulating the essentially ambiguous relation between the subject and another in terms of the ambivalence of the face, and contrasting this with the alterity of love. The development of these ideas is traced across Levinas' major works. In Totality and Infinity, Levinas argues that the response to the singular other is conceived of as the event of the production of a universal which affirms the tertiality of the social totality, that is, attests to the whole of humanity. In Otherwise than Being, the relation of ethics and justice is discussed in different terms, those of the relation of the ethical Saying and the realm of the Said or being's justice. Levinas juxtaposes the ontological tertiality of the third, with the notion of an ethical tertiality, which he calls illeity. Illeity is found to not be reducible to the ontological tertiality of the third party, but to name the exceeding of subjectivity in terms of an absolute susceptibility to the Other, and is an excessive concept of a singular universal: the human beyond being.

This essay has handled the subject of humanity in Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood. The aim of the thesis was  to argue that the Crakers developed into human beings with help of their teachers. This was made by researching different aspects in humanity such as human identity, language, religion, life and death and how these traits of humanity were developed.    The development of the Crakers’ identities has also been discussed with regards to teachers, teaching and the relation between power and knowledge meaning how the Crakers’ teachers helped them or tried to prevent them from growing into humans. The relation between power and knowledge shows how the teacher holds power over his pupils since he decides what he will teach them. The results revealed that the Crakers became as human as they could be without being born human through teaching and acquiring traits that are known to be human.