Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2008. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 177-180).

Thesis--University of Florida. / Description based on print version record. Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 82-85).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--City University of New York, 2005.

Human origins have been debated by evolutionists and creationists. Christian young adults are educated first on creationism and learn of evolution later. This delayed education of evolution leads to potential belief change and stress. This belief change process may be similar to Berry’s acculturation. After belief change, individuals may exhibit belief bias during human origin argument evaluation. Little research has been done to explore a formal belief change model and belief bias in human origin argument evaluation. Data was collected from 121 PSYC 102 and MTurk participants in an online survey measuring evolution and creationist beliefs. Vignettes presented evidence for creationism and evolution. This evidence was evaluated by participants. Cluster analyses, MANOVAs, and ANOVAs were used to determine statistical significance. Results found three groups of individuals exist and these groups differed on age of exposure to evolution and belief change stress measures. These groups evaluated creationism and evolution evidence differently exhibiting belief bias during argument evaluation. These results expand current literature by finding a potential belief change model and preliminary evidence to support earlier teaching of evolution in schools. Limitations include violated statistical assumptions and forced clusters. Further research is needed to explore these three groups in more detail.

One of the hot topics in doxastic epistemology at the moment is how to characterise the relationship between beliefs and truth. The extant literature is dominated by two views; a teleological understanding of the relationship – championed by people such as Asbjørn Steglich-Petersen – and a normative understanding of the relationship – championed by among others Nishi Shah. I argue that neither view does an adequate job of capturing the relationship between beliefs and truth. I argue that these two views should be abandoned in favour of a third model that sees beliefs as part of a doxastic system that aims at rationality.

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The starting point of the thesis is an acceptance of the principles of a moderately naturalized epistemology which allow for the traditional questions of epistemology, especially that of empirical justification, to be addressed in a recognizable way. It is argued that naturalism construed in this way is not compatible with scepticism regarding empirical knowledge, at least as far as the justification condition goes. Five general consequences of a moderately naturalistic position are deduced. It is shown how these general conclusions lead to a modest foundationalism, that is, they imply the corrigibility of all empirical beliefs and the basic status of some. The sensory character of basic beliefs is argued for, as is the claim that basic beliefs are not about the character of experience but about physical facts in the subject's immediate environment. The way in which an empirical belief is brought about (its 'dependence relations') is then examined. The important conclusion, for a theory of justification, to be drawn from this examination, is that sensory beliefs depend on no other beliefs but themselves for their empirical justification. This points to the fact that, if they are justified for their subjects, they must be self-evident and prima facie justified. Before explicating the nature of prima facie justification, the general requirements for a satisfactory theory of epistemic justification are set out. Such a theory must account for the reasonableness of the agent in believing as she does; it must accommodate deontological aspects and explain how justified belief is distinguishable from unjustified belief; and it must provide some objective link between the justified belief and its likely truth. It is shown that the theory of prima facie justification of sensory beliefs which emerges from a naturalized epistemology, satisfies these requirements, and that a conception of prima facie justification which ignores naturalistic constraints cannot explain immediate justification. / Philosophy & Systematic Theology / D. Litt. et Phil. (Philosophy)

Magister Artium (Child and Family Studies) - MA(CFS) / Families remain a major social support system that plays a key role in the provision of primary healthcare (PHC) for children, and this role is especially important as PHC would normally take place before a child is taken to hospital for further treatment. The literature shows that although families have a direct influence on their children’s PHC, the former’s role is limited as a result of socio-economic factors such as poverty, unemployment and distance to healthcare centres. In South Africa, PHC is offered by the state but is of a lower standard than the more specialised, ‘hi-tech’ health services available in the private sector. Although the public health sector is over-stretched and under-resourced, the government has established PHC facilities in many locations throughout South Africa. This status quo requires families to play a role by knowing the locations of such facilities in order to maintain their children’s health. The provision of primary health in South Africa is a two-tiered system that requires the involvement of both families and healthcare providers. The results of the study indicated that there were various interpretations of PHC by both parents and health professionals, owing to different levels of knowledge about the concept. The lack of knowledge of the various forms of home remedies greatly affected the application of PHC in terms of a need to appreciate PHC practices in the family setting; and health professionals need to disseminate knowledge to parents on a routine basis as part of their work at hospitals. The findings furthermore suggested that parents and healthcare workers faced various challenges in the provision of PHC. The implications of the study pointed to the need for a more extensive study that engaged a high number of participants of both parents and healthcare professionals to place the results into perspective. Other implications required a concerted effort from government, parents, healthcare professionals and other stakeholders to arrive at a prudent and logical improvement of PHC in South Africa.

This thesis is the result of my work with the Military Nature-Centered community. The first thing is does it examine some of the distinctive features of the population, such as its history, sense of community, magical consciousness. It then presents the military Nature-Centered community as an emergent tradition.