The nature of this study is two-fold. Firstly, it is a critique of the ontological assumptions implicit in the neo-Kantian intellectualism which dominates philosophy of mind and cognitive science. As such, it is based upon the criticism against external causalism developed in the last three decades by the Critical Realists in the Anglophone world and some accounts of the history of science and philosophy on the continent. On this basis, the study proposes a materialist approach to the mind which brings together Marxian sociocultural theory of the mind and cognitive science's neurocomputational model. Thus, human beings are conceived as both a social construction and a formal device which can and must be accounted for in terms of productive efficiency rather than any kind of external causality. This study focuses on the materialist ontology of dynamic processes and the embodied nature of thinking, particularly on dialectics as a mediation through language of the internal processes and the external world, and on the actual relevance of Marx's notions of 'passion' or affects and 'practical consciousness'. Secondly, this thesis also studies the nature of the mind in relation to the life of the body, preliminary to a future Ethics whose aim is to consider the form in which passions are used for the political purposes of producing and maintaining, with the manufactured consent of the multitude, authoritarian social formations. Some of the features of such an 'Ethics of Self-valorization' are discussed here. It opposes the transcendental option, considered to be based on a notion of causality which leads it to present the forms of jurisprudence and other ego-ethnocentric discourses as the rational forms. Similar ontological options impede this doctrine from considering the productive role of passions, which are conceived merely as pathological events to be policed by reason and the categorical power of the law. Therefore it does not allow the kind of analysis of the potential of passions that this study aims to make possible.

The purpose of this investigation is to characterize the dramatic characters of Federico García Lorca as realists or idealists. Lorca wrote a total of fifteen plays, and the majority of them are considered in this study. Additional source materials include the works of such critics as J. Alberich, María Teresa Babín, Alfredo de la Guardia, and Francisco Umbral.

The main goal of this disertation is to map American pespectives on the position of Central Europe in American foreign policy after the Cold War. Its ambition is to systematize the particular area of American foreign policy thought that deals with Central Europe and, more precisely, with U.S. relations with the region. The goal is to contribute to a better understanding of how have the individual camps and traditions represented in the American foreign policy debate approached this particular issue. To achieve these goals, this disertation employs two existing typologies of American foreign policy thought and, subsequently, attempts to create a new, original typology that would better suit the aim of mapping the whole spectrum of relevant American perspectives on Central Europe. This disertation does not describe what has really happened in Central European-American relations, but rather aims at understanding better the U.S. foreign policy thought or, better said, one specific part of it: Opinions on U.S.-Central European relations and the position of Central Erope in international politics. Analysing the American post-Cold War discourse on Central Europe is the instrument to achieve this goal. This disertation, however, does not pressupose a direct causal link between the discourse and the...

The main aims of this broad exploratory study were (a) to gain insights as to the possible interrelations between Unisa students' expectations for success and a variety of significant variables (such as their academic performance, self-perceptions, confidence, motivation, self-determination, others' expectancies, locus of control and attributions relating to previous performance), and (b) to discover possible differences relating to various groups (i.e. racial and gender groups; 'pass' and 'fail' groups; and 'realistic' and 'unrealistic' groups). The results of 61 hypotheses are compared with a variety of theoretical suggestions and past findings. It was found that, on the whole, the various groups, inter alia, expected to succeed, were confident about the accuracy of their expectations, perceived themselves to work hard, considered themselves to have considerable ability and to be above class average. Despite this rosy outlook many students failed the examinations. Two of the most striking findings of this study were that (a) those who failed overestimated their future performance to a significantly greater extent than those who passed, and (b) overestimations were negatively correlated with achievement. In contrast to theory and numerous research findings, the psychological profiles of 'overoptimists', 'realists', and 'underestimators' revealed that overoptimistic expectancies and self-perceptions appear to be maladaptive in an academic context. Indeed, the findings suggest that accurate or even underoptimistic self-assessments may be more conducive to academic success. It is proposed that overoptimism may reflect ignorance of standards required, of adequate study methods, or may result in inappropriate preparation. In light of the findings, the implications and possible benefits and dangers of overoptimistic expectations and self-perceptions are discussed. The subjects are 715 third year Unisa psychology students, who are more heterogeneous than most other university students as they not only vary considerably in age but also come from a variety of cultures and backgrounds. / Psychology / D. Litt. et Phil. (Psychology)

The main aims of this broad exploratory study were (a) to gain insights as to the possible interrelations between Unisa students' expectations for success and a variety of significant variables (such as their academic performance, self-perceptions, confidence, motivation, self-determination, others' expectancies, locus of control and attributions relating to previous performance), and (b) to discover possible differences relating to various groups (i.e. racial and gender groups; 'pass' and 'fail' groups; and 'realistic' and 'unrealistic' groups). The results of 61 hypotheses are compared with a variety of theoretical suggestions and past findings. It was found that, on the whole, the various groups, inter alia, expected to succeed, were confident about the accuracy of their expectations, perceived themselves to work hard, considered themselves to have considerable ability and to be above class average. Despite this rosy outlook many students failed the examinations. Two of the most striking findings of this study were that (a) those who failed overestimated their future performance to a significantly greater extent than those who passed, and (b) overestimations were negatively correlated with achievement. In contrast to theory and numerous research findings, the psychological profiles of 'overoptimists', 'realists', and 'underestimators' revealed that overoptimistic expectancies and self-perceptions appear to be maladaptive in an academic context. Indeed, the findings suggest that accurate or even underoptimistic self-assessments may be more conducive to academic success. It is proposed that overoptimism may reflect ignorance of standards required, of adequate study methods, or may result in inappropriate preparation. In light of the findings, the implications and possible benefits and dangers of overoptimistic expectations and self-perceptions are discussed. The subjects are 715 third year Unisa psychology students, who are more heterogeneous than most other university students as they not only vary considerably in age but also come from a variety of cultures and backgrounds. / Psychology / D. Litt. et Phil. (Psychology)

The thesis Political Programmes of the Czech Representation in the Second Halve of the 19th Century focuses on both programme documents and actual work of Czech political parties, whether more or less institutionalized, between the years 1848 (March Revolution) and 1918 (the downfall of Austria-Hungary). At first it summarizes the historical development in the respective period (Chapter 1), next, it analyses programmes of political parties in three broadly defined topics: 1) Organisation of the empire, question of the Czech State Right (Chapter 2); 2) Constitutionalism, civil rights and role of a citizen (Chapter 3) and 3) National matters (Chapter 4). The attitudes about each of these areas of the following political parties are defined: Bohemian nobility, National Party (till 1874) or Old Czechs (since then), Young Czechs, Social Democrats, Agrarians, Catholic parties, National Socialists, Progress parties and parties of the Radical State Right, Realists and Anarchists. For the conclusion, the author of the thesis attempts to characterise and evaluating the Czech political representation, as well as its importance for the development since 1918.