In this thesis, I explore the psychological and experiential aspects of the shift from a supernatural theistic worldview (specifically born-again Christianity) to aphilosophically naturalistic and atheistic worldview in the context of the religiouslandscape in the U.S. I posit that certain features of this transition, which is known as "deconversion,” can be thought of as potentially analogous, both psychologically and subjectively, to the experience of another's death as an objective environmental change. I provide anthropological and psychological evidence that believers often experience the God of born-again Christianity as an independently existing and active agent in the world. The similarities between human relationships and God relationships provide the foundation for the claim that loss of these relationships potentially constitute similar experiences, respectively. Both shifts (deconversion and death) share a number of similarities. For example, they both feature a reduction in the number of entities that are believed perceived as having minds (i.e., theory of mind determinations). Also, both shifts require a re-understanding of purpose and meaning in the world (i.e., teleological reasoning). I explore each of these shifts in detail. Finally, I show that the interpretation of the deconversion experience as analogous to the experience of death has implications for the public dialogue between Christians and atheists.

Several contemporary virtue ethicists have provided systematic presentations of normative virtue ethics. The virtue ethical literature, however, does not contain much information on the meta-ethical roots of virtue theories. The present paper seeks to address this deficiency by examining the neo-Aristotelianism of Rosalind Hursthouse in an effort to ascertain what meta-ethical commitments are most consistent with her theory; these commitments are shown to be cognitivism, objectivism, and (in some form) naturalism. These positions are then put into dialogue with Moore’s seminal metaethical arguments against naturalism and agent-relative value. Ultimately I show that the literature on normative virtue ethics is rich enough to provide powerful responses to Moorean criticisms.

This research project discusses the construction of human nature in the medical-scientific discourse of the second half of the nineteenth century in three different works from the Naturalism movement: O Homem (1887), by the Brazilian author Aluísio Azevedo; Sin Rumbo (1885), by the Argentinian Eugenio Cambacérès Alaias; Los pazos de Ulloa (1886), by the Galician author Emilia Pardo Bazán. My arrival at this topic -the human condition in medical-scientific discourse- developed from reading The Political Technology of Individuals (1982), where Michel Foucault affirmed that the art of governing people at the turn of the nineteenth century is based on the observation of the nature of governed subjects (149). Thus, my endeavor is to answer some of the questions raised by Foucault’s claim such as: how is the human subject portrayed in the medical-scientific discourse, and what status is it given? Hence, I begin my analysis with La Psychologie comme science naturelle: son présent & son avenir (1876), a theoretical text developed within the medical-scientific framework, and whose author Joseph Delboeuf was a member of the Nancy School, founded in 1882. This text was cited in La cuestión palpitante by Emilia Pardo Bazán, a work in which the notion of being is depicted as a split into two dimensions: the physical and the subjective. Many authors, like Charles Taylor in Source of the self. The making of the modern identity (1989), for example, have observed this historical and uniquely modern phenomenon, I attempt to focus on the consequences of this process of the division of human nature, such as the institutionalization of a diseased state of self, as well as the death of God and being, and finally, the restoration of Catholic tradition contra medical-scientific discourse. / Este trabalho problematiza a construção da natureza humana no discurso médico-científico da segunda metade do século XIX em quatro diferentes obras: O Homem (1887), do escritor brasileiro Aluísio Azevedo, Sin Rumbo (1885), do argentino Eugenio Cambaceres, La cuestión palpitante (1883) e Los pazos de Ulloa (1886), ambas da escritora espanhola Emilia Pardo Bazán. O tema em questão surgiu da leitura de The Political Technology of Individuals (1982), no qual Michel Foucault afirma que o fundamento da arte de governar, que surge no final do século XVIII, seria a observação da natureza daqueles que são governados (149). A partir desta sentença, procuramos responder algumas questões, por exemplo: como o discurso médico-científico tratou o indivíduo no nível da linguagem e qual passou a ser seu status. Nesse sentido, inciamos nosso trabalho com um texto teórico desenvolvido no âmbito das ciências médicas, de Joseph Delboeuf (1831-1896), membro da escola de Nancy fundada em 1882: La Psychologie comme science naturelle: son présent & son avenir (1876), citado por Emilia Pardo Bazán em La cuestión palpitante, no qual o ser é dividido em duas diferentes dimensões, a física e a subjetiva. Muitos autores, como Charles Taylor em Source of the self. The making of the modern identity, tem observado este histórico e singular fenômeno moderno. Entretanto, dedicamo-nos às consequências deste evento, como a instituição de uma natureza doentia do ser, a morte de Deus e a do próprio homem, bem como o resgate da tradição sagrada contra o discurso médico-científico. / text

The claim that a principle known as Irreducible Complexity (IC) is empirically discoverable is investigated successively from the perspective of engineering, then molecular biology and finally theology, with the aim of evaluating the utility of IC for an interdisciplinary dialogue between all three. In the process, IC is subjected to the principle objections presented against it in the literature, leading to the conclusion that IC is sufficiently resistant to scientific criticism to be accepted as a true property of certain living systems. The ubiquity of machine descriptors in the professional literature of molecular biology is scrutinised in the context of the role of metaphor in science, as well as in the context of entailment models. A Biblical Theological approach to the Bible is harnessed to establish a framework for estimating the extent to which the story of Christ warrants expectation of first order design formalisms in nature, and whether that story within itself provides any homomorphic exemplification of IC. Additionally, key theological criticisms of IC are evaluated as well as criticisms of the Neo Darwinian revisioning of the Biblical account. The overall conclusion is that a true interdisciplinary dialogue where IC is the nexus holds theoretical as well as experimental promise. / Thesis (M.A. (Dogmatics))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2008.

The claim that a principle known as Irreducible Complexity (IC) is empirically discoverable is investigated successively from the perspective of engineering, then molecular biology and finally theology, with the aim of evaluating the utility of IC for an interdisciplinary dialogue between all three. In the process, IC is subjected to the principle objections presented against it in the literature, leading to the conclusion that IC is sufficiently resistant to scientific criticism to be accepted as a true property of certain living systems. The ubiquity of machine descriptors in the professional literature of molecular biology is scrutinised in the context of the role of metaphor in science, as well as in the context of entailment models. A Biblical Theological approach to the Bible is harnessed to establish a framework for estimating the extent to which the story of Christ warrants expectation of first order design formalisms in nature, and whether that story within itself provides any homomorphic exemplification of IC. Additionally, key theological criticisms of IC are evaluated as well as criticisms of the Neo Darwinian revisioning of the Biblical account. The overall conclusion is that a true interdisciplinary dialogue where IC is the nexus holds theoretical as well as experimental promise. / Thesis (M.A. (Dogmatics))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2008.

This research-creation thesis describes and analyzes the dramaturgical methodologies of verbatim theatre – a form of documentary theatre that uses transcripts as the dominant source of its dialogue – through the practical exercise of play writing. This paper marks the theoretical component of my thesis, which analyzes both the dramaturgical process and the historical context of my play Exhibit A. Using verbatim transcripts from legal evidence for its dialogue, the play examines the psychology of two teenage boys responsible for the brutal rape and murder of an 18-year-old Canadian woman in 2010. As documentary theatre emphasizes socio-political themes, this thesis considers the dramaturgical, aesthetic, and ethical considerations of verbatim theatre through my experience as a playwright and researcher. Acknowledging both the historical antecedents of documentary theatre and its contemporary examples, this thesis will define an original typology of verbatim theatre entitled the “Subcategories of Verbatim Theatre”. These subcategories are identified as Tribunal, Literary, Historical Drama, Expository and Participatory. Each privileges different types and usages of documents, which are further defined as being primarily related to “text” or “aural” based testimony. The thesis relates the dramaturgical principles of each subcategory to artistic choices made in Exhibit A. A description of the various incarnations of verbatim and documentary theatre, as well as an analysis of my experience as a documentary playwright examines the dramatic representation of reality as highly constructed in this form of theatre where the selection and editing of a documentary play's archive is a creative process that is not dissimilar from the creation of fictional drama. In that sense, the documentary genre can be said to present a dramatic representation of the playwright's subjective version of the truth. Exhibit A thus stands as my creative reconstruction of the evidence presented in the Kimberly Proctor murder trial.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1973. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:26:54Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2010-08-19Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T20:55:39Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 silva_rl_me_sjrp.pdf: 1235564 bytes, checksum: 1596ecf4f6c118cf0248968405f2bb33 (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / Pensando no tema central da representação da doença no romance naturalista, principalmente no que se refere às moléstias de cunho urbano e de natureza psíquica, e em todas as séries de determinismos fisiológicos, ambientais e sociais, buscamos averiguar em quatro obras de Aluísio Azevedo – O Mulato (1881), O Homem (1887), Casa de Pensão (1884), e O Cortiço (1890) – como o escritor brasileiro incorporou à sua ficção naturalista alguns assuntos patológicos, provenientes, em grande parte, das reflexões sobre as teses cientificistas que inflamaram o final do século XIX. Buscando entender, portanto, como Aluísio Azevedo elaborou artisticamente os temas provenientes da problemática social e das questões médicas em geral, e enfocando as relações entre texto e contexto, temos por objetivo mostrar que, na elaboração desses quatros romances naturalistas, Aluísio Azevedo adotou uma visão artística que enfocou as enfermidades degenerativas da condição humana de seu tempo. Explorando tanto os aspectos das epidemias urbanas como os mecanismos somáticos relacionados à patogenia nervosa, e submetendo seus personagens ao exame social e psíquico minucioso, o romancista aderiu à equação científica, num momento histórico que possibilitou uma aproximação entre ciência e literatura, como alternativa de se aplicar, no campo da ficção, os procedimentos experimentais próprios do método científico / The present work aims to investigate how the Brazilian novelist Aluísio Azevedo has tried and incorporated into his naturalist novels O Mulato (1881), O Homem (1887), Casa de Pensão (1884), and O Cortiço (1890) pathological issues which mostly originate from reflections on the scientificist theses that inflamed the late XIX century. To do so, this research particularly focuses on the representation of the disease in the naturalist novel, precisely on the urban maladies of psychic nature, as well as on all sorts of physiological, environmental and social determinisms. We try and evince how Aluísio Azevedo has artistically elaborated themes concerning the social problematic and medical issues as a whole. Therefore, we aim to ascertain, by laying emphasis on the relations between text and context, that Aluísio Azevedo, has adopted an artistic point of view that focused on the degenerative diseases of the human condition back in his time so as to compose the four novels under scrutiny. By exploring not only aspects of urban epidemies but also the somatic mechanisms related to the nervous pathology, let alone by his submitting the characters to minute social and psychic scrutiny, the novelist adhered to the scientific equation in a historical moment which caused literature to get closer to science. That in turn reveals an attempt to apply the experimental procedures typical of the scientific method to the fictional realm

Comment les romanciers naturalistes ont-ils raconté le suicide? Quel est le traitement qu’ils ont réservé à ce thème officiellement honni, étant par trop lié aux chimères sentimentales des écrivains de la génération précédente? Loin de faire l’objet d’une condamnation unanime pour romantisme excessif, la mort volontaire essaime partout dans le roman naturaliste, impose sa présence énigmatique et ses valeurs tant polémiques que polysémiques, déploie – sur ce terreau austère qu’est l’écriture expérimentale – sa portée symbolique et heuristique sous la fascination qu’éprouvent ces romanciers devant les grands mystères sublimes et mortifères. Si la conjoncture épistémologique de l’époque fait du suicide une question avant tout médicale, la littérature naturaliste elle-même puise son originalité et ses fondements théoriques dans les sciences de la nature, en particulier la médecine; néanmoins, la mort volontaire se charge, chez les romanciers de cette veine, d’un capital philosophique qui, en tant que savoir et discours extrinsèques au récit, demande à être interrogé avec minutie. Aussi, à partir d’un bassin de douze romans parus entre 1857 et 1898 sous la plume de Gustave Flaubert, Edmond et Jules de Goncourt, Émile Zola, Alphonse Daudet, Guy de Maupassant et Édouard Rod, nous retenons huit problématiques principales, orientées suivant deux axes de réflexion : natures et philosophies du suicide. Tout au long sont sondées les portées spéculative et littéraire de la mort volontaire dans ces œuvres. / How did the French Naturalist novelists portray suicide? How did they deal with the romantic overtones of self-murder, a theme so strongly linked to the sentimental outbursts voiced by the previous generation of writers? Far from being banned for excessive romanticism suicide, albeit the object of openly expressed disdain by Naturalists, spreads its fiery black wings over much of the theoretically barren land that is the body of realistic novels complying – overtly or unwittingly – with the principles of Le Roman expérimental. The flaming, menacing, and enigmatic shadow thus cast over an intently objective and scientific literature is surprisingly apt at developing both polemic and polysemous fruits, and as it turns out sheds new light under the frightened but eager scrutiny of these novelists who found themselves fascinated by its great mystery, both sublime and deadly. If the state of knowledge at the time made suicide a problem essentially pertaining to medical and natural science, Naturalist literature itself was intent on synchronizing its depictions with the data, approach, and lexicon presented in scientific treatises. Yet suicide in these novelists’ fictions is loaded with a distinct philosophical sense which demands to be studied closely. Twelve Naturalist novels centered around self-murder, covering a forty-year period (1857-1898), stemming from Flaubert, Goncourt, Zola, Daudet, Maupassant, and Rod, serve as main ground for our investigation of eight chief interrogations, following two main orientations: we first review the diverse natures of suicide, then its many philosophies. Throughout are contemplated the literary and speculative reach of voluntary death.

Text in Afrikaans / The actuality of the pedagogical question concerning the role of ideology, values and norms in the life of man in general and education specifically stimulated the interest of the author and prompted her to examine the past in this respect. The contemporary image of ideology, values, norms, personal and global philosophies are looked at in this study. Particular attention is paid to the ideologies that developed from the Renaissance e.g. Humanistic oriented Realism, Rationalism and Naturalism. Certain role players are briefly referred to. The Communist Educational System influenced more than half of the human race over a period of seventy years resulting in a thorough investigation into this system. The influence of People's Education in education in general was also scrutinized. Because so many South Africans are adherents of Calvinism it was important that attention was paid to: The philosophy of Calvinism; What it entails; How it originated and its impact on South African Education. Particular reference was made to the role of Christian National Education. It is fairly generally accepted that a new period in history of the West in relation to values, norms and education is being entered into. The period discussion is more concerned with spiritual development, culture knowledge and religion of the human race than political and military power, although, the latter is not excluded. It was also necessary to take note of the influence of the New Age movement on values and norms. The study is concluded with the evaluation of ideology, values, norms, personal and global philosophies. Some of the most important conclusions arrived at are that these aspects are interwoven and that education is pertinently influenced by the values, norms, culture, personal and global philosophies of the individual, community and government. / Educational Studies / D. Ed. (Historiese Opvoedkunde)