This thesis analyses how contemporary pilgrims understand the 88-temple-Shikoku pilgrimage, and in particular what role Kōbō Daishi plays in their outlook and practices. The particular issue that this research addresses is that while Kōbō Daishi figures large in many of the popular presentations of the pilgrimage (in guidebooks, TV programmes, and in temple pamphlets), there is a question of what role he actually plays in the outlook and practices of contemporary pilgrims. The thesis therefore highlights the ways in which ‘Kōbō Daishi’ figures in the views and behaviour of pilgrims and those who support them: the various roles ‘Kōbō Daishi’ plays, and how these relate together, and to other themes and aspects of the pilgrimage, as well as pointing out aspects of the pilgrimage that are not focussed on Kōbō Daishi. In other words, how contemporary pilgrims make meaning of the pilgrimage and, in particular, Kōbō Daishi’s place in this. Looking at the position of Kōbō Daishi and the legendary construction of the pilgrimage in the minds of the informants, it becomes clear that in their views, the ‘real history’ of the pilgrimage is not important compared to the legendary one centred on Kōbō Daishi, and this is seen in their adherence to legends and stories relating to him. Quantitative and qualitative research was conducted, including brief surveys and in-depth interactions with pilgrims, pilgrimage guides, those that give out alms, and temple officials to analyse contemporary pilgrims’ understanding of the ‘sacred’ foci of the pilgrimage: Kōbō Daishi and his possible role in the Shikoku pilgrimage and its origin, with related issues of meaning-making, such as the Daishi-faith, Kōbō Daishi-tales, the various deities whose images are enshrined in the temples, Shinto and Buddhism and related rituals and the role that Kōbō Daishi is seen to have in pilgrims’ thoughts about ‘religion’, pilgrimage items and related ritual behaviour, experiential aspects of the pilgrimage, people’s motives for doing the pilgrimage, their understanding of Kōbō Daishi’s role in healing, how he is seen as accompanying dead ancestors as well as the present pilgrims and aiding in communication of the living with the dead, etc. This research provides a useful window on how contemporary people relate to the pilgrimage, and a better general understanding of contemporary Japanese cultural practices and the world they live in, and how they seek to achieve well-being and happiness. Four appendixes and an extensive glossary round off this thesis.

<p> The full moon rising in the dark sky and the river of stars in the Milky Way galaxy have fascinated humans since their first days on Earth. For the ancients, the universe was so alive that they could not help but share its awe and wonder, and they created myths to live by. In modern times, this intimate connection to the universe seems to have been lost. This dissertation explores and rediscovers the profound sense of human embeddedness and participation in this grandeur, the dynamic universe evolving for over 13.8 billion years, through reflection on the cosmologies of Shinto, Tantra, and cosmogenesis. </p><p> This dissertation argues that when Shinto and Tantra are placed in a dialectical relationship in the context of cosmogenesis, all are enhanced, providing a new way of consciously participating in the sacred universe. Shinto affirms the sacred nature of the phenomenal world and celebrates the powers of the universe through ritual ceremonies. Tantra shows a way to fully realize the infinite consciousness of the universe through meditation. Cosmogenesis provides the perspective of being inside of the universe, and thus of being embedded in its unfolding in each moment. </p><p> To embody the new cosmology that arises from the integration of the wisdom of the three cosmologies, I suggest a new practice: Two way falling in love. This is a tool to see the sacred nature of every form of existence, to see how they are interconnected, and how the whole is reflected in each part by zooming into the smallest and zooming out to the largest with love, simultaneously. Human beings, when situated in the course of the evolution of the universe can develop an identity as an earthling with cosmic roots, becoming the awe and wonder of the universe. This project hopes to inspire those who seek to mend the distorted human relationship with the Earth and the universe, and to help those seekers find their own unique way to enter into an intimate and participatory relationship with the universe.</p>

In this thesis I examine the medical concept of informed consent and the philosophical concept of autonomy in conjunction with the relationship between them. This examination is complicated because autonomy can refer to decisions or persons. Further autonomy may have instrumental or intrinsic value. These differences mean autonomy may be respected in different ways. This examination is further complicated because whilst a vast wealth of medical literature exists on informed consent and mentions autonomy, very little of this literature does more than mention autonomy. As a result of my examination I argue for the following. Firstly I argue the form of autonomy underlying informed consent should be personal autonomy and to respect autonomy means accepting autonomous decisions. Secondly I show in certain contexts a surrogate decision maker cannot make a decision on behalf of an incompetent patient that would be generally agreed to be in his best interests. I will argue in such contexts a patient’s decision should always be accepted as the concept of competence becomes detached from the concept of informed consent. Thirdly I show a patient may make an autonomous decision based only on understanding the purpose of the procedure he is consenting to. I will argue it follows a patient should not be required to understand details of the nature of the procedure he is consenting to for his consent to be accepted. Fourthly I argue an autonomous decision must be one an agent identifies with and has some persistence. I will show these conditions are satisfied by an autonomous agent’s absence of restlessness to change his decision Lastly I argue informed consent decisions should be linked to a patient’s ability to understand the risk involved in his decision and not directly linked to the degree of risk involved in his decision.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of Religious Studies, 2007. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 68-11, Section: A, page: 4735. Adviser: Richard B. Miller. Title from dissertation home page (viewed May 22, 2008).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of History and Philosophy of Science, 2005. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 66-02, Section: A, page: 0615. Advisers: Michael L. Friedman; Noretta Koertge. Title from dissertation home page (viewed Oct. 18, 2006).

<p> Water is one of the most precious elements on Earth. Yet we find ourselves in a global water crisis, struggling to address freshwater scarcity, pollution, climate change, and the need for safe drinking water and sanitation. Given the urgency of the global water crisis, it is imperative that we reinvent our relationship to water and cultivate an integral water ethic.</p><p> This dissertation, and the ethic it explores, is grounded in an integral approach to ecology that studies phenomena across multiple perspectives (e.g., natural sciences, social sciences, and the humanities). Relating to water in an integral mode entails acknowledging that water has not only exterior, objective dimensions but also interior, subjective qualities. Thus, an integral water ethic holds that water is not a mere passive object to be exploited for human purposes; instead, this approach recognizes that water is an intrinsically valuable, vital member of the Earth community. An integral water ethic encourages humans to learn to cultivate love and compassion for water and for those suffering from the global water crisis. Through the cultivation of love and compassion for water, humans will be better able to see water not as a mere resource and commodity, but rather as a loving and compassionate member of the Earth community who nourishes all beings.</p><p> This dissertation explores three world religions (Christianity, Hinduism, and Buddhism) and considers the following contributions to an integral water ethic: sacramental consciousness of baptism, loving service of the Yamuna River, and compassionate wisdom of the bodhisattva. Contemplative practices for developing love and compassion for water are also shared. The purpose of this study is to draw attention to creative avenues for cultivating mutually enhancing relations between humans and water and thereby to help overcome destructive attitudes toward the natural world.</p><p>

<p> Leibniz makes substantive use of harmony and metaphysical perfection, but he very rarely offers more than a brief gloss in direct explanation of these terms. I argue that they name the same fundamental property. The definition of metaphysical perfection (hereafter, "perfection") as unity-in-variety misleads if taken as a reduction of perfection to separately necessary and jointly sufficient conditions for anything to enjoy perfection. The definition of harmony in terms of intelligibility leads to the same underlying notion, for intelligibility is defined in terms of unity and variety.</p><p> Chapter 1 introduces the tension between Leibniz's substantive use of perfection and his demand that it meet a high standard of intelligibility. Chapter 2 argues that there is no satisfactory account of compossibility in the literature because each of the viable proposals misunderstands the role of perfection. The current dispute rests in a disagreement about the best reductive account of perfection: either to sheer variety, or to variety and unity as independently intelligible but inversely proportional criteria for perfection. Either way, incompossibility relations become externally applied limits on God's will to maximize the variety of existing substances. Leibniz rejects all such external limits. I propose a new solution, in which two possibles are compossible if and only if they are jointly thinkable, that is, if they are members of an ideal unity. This involves a distinction between the variety that does contribute to unity and the variety that does not&mdash;and this distinction requires that we already have some notion of perfection prior to the appeal to variety.</p><p> Chapter 3 develops this account of perfection and incompossibility further, by introducing another puzzle God aims to create the most perfect world, but worlds are aggregates and aggregates seem to rank too low in Leibniz's ontology to explain God's aim. What is the world that God would care for it? God, being wise, does not and would not will multiple times in creating. Rather, God creates multiple substances through a single act of will. Acts of creative will, though, are individuated by the agent's concept of the object. This suggests that groups of substances are unified into worlds by God's intellect thinking of their many essences under a single idea. This is Leibniz's limited Spinozism: he is a metaphysical atomist about existing things, but a holist about the ideal and its value.</p><p> Chapters 4 and 5 tell the story of how Leibniz came to these views. The narrative is helpful in part because it sheds some light on Leibniz's motivations. Also, I argue that the mistakes common to recent approaches to compossibility have textual support only from premature versions of Leibniz's account of perfection, versions Leibniz rejected in part because they generate the problems discussed in Chapters 2 and 3.</p><p> Chapter 4 explores Leibniz's transition to philosophical maturity in the later 167os. He gave priority to the divine intellect throughout his career, but in the Paris Period, he left no work for the will at all: to exist is to be harmonious, and the existence of finite things depends directly on the divine intellect. This theory had theodicean advantages, but it also led to a necessitarianism just as absolute as Spinoza's. After studying Spinoza and leaving Paris, Leibniz placed the divine will between existence and harmony, or perfection. Perfection and harmony were now associated with God's ideas; coming to exist required, in addition, an act of God's will.</p><p> Having associated harmony with the possibles in God's mind, Leibniz now needed to explain why God does not maximize perfection by creating every substance. Chapter 5 deals with the gradual development after 1678, as Leibniz worked out how to determine the joint value of many independent substances. Just as previously he had separated existence from harmony while retaining a close connection between the two, the mature Leibniz distinguished harmony from the possible substances in God's mind. Harmony and perfection, on this final account, belong even to aggregates, which count as unities thanks only to their relation to a mind. With this in hand, Leibniz was finally in a position to argue that God leaves some possibles uncreated in order the maximize the perfection of what God does create.</p><p> Leibniz defended his commitment to a harmoniously limited, intelligible world by gradually distinguishing perfection from existence and from substantiality. Likewise, we profit by distinguishing Leibnizian perfection from (apparently) more accessible notions.</p>

Throughout the 20th Century, a number of philosophers, writers, artists and film makers have implied that there is some profound significance to the work of Donatien Alphonse François, the Marquis de Sade (1740-1814). The project at hand is to evaluate the claim that Sade, in some sense, is a philosopher, and to assess what his philosophy amounts to. There are two aspects to this task. Firstly, I will consider the various philosophical interpretations of Sade’s work. This part of the study will serve as a guide into the Sadeian labyrinth, and will establish some of the more central interpretive themes, in particular the claim that Sade’s thought anticipates that of the Nazis, or that he brings early Modern thought to its logical conclusion. Secondly, I will inquire into Sade’s writings themselves. Of particular interest are Sade’s thoughts concerning the nature of sexuality, psychology, and the human condition in general, his critique of conventional morality, and his description of the nature of power. / Whole document restricted, but available by request, use the feedback form to request access.

<p> The present work comprises a detailed study of specific terms of discourse in the pre-twelfth century sources of esoteric "Tantric" Shaivism, both scriptural and exegetical, some of which are still unpublished and others of which are published only in the original Sanskrit. As a dissertation in South Asian Studies using the philological method, the primary purpose of the study is to ascertain the range of meanings of certain technical terms of great importance to the theology and practice of the &Sacute;aiva religion, namely <i> &amacr;ve&sacute;a, sam&amacr;ve&sacute;a,</i> and <i>&sacute;aktip&amacr;ta. </i> The work focuses on both the independent meaning and the intersection of these key terms, incorporating also the terms <i>d&imacr;k&dotbelow;s&amacr; </i> and <i>vedha</i> in the latter endeavor. The intersection of these terms constitutes a complex set of relationships, a nexus of ideas that lie at the very heart of the &Sacute;aiva tradition and which, due to the latter's widespread influence, came to be important in Tantric Buddhism and later forms of Hinduism as well. This thesis contends that <i>sam&amacr;ve&sacute;a </i>&mdash;meaning the fusion or commingling of one's self with the energy of one's deity and/or the consciousness of one's guru&mdash;is <i>the </i> key term that distinguishes Tantric Shaivism from mainstream (esp. Vaidika) Indian religion. This constitutes a reinterpretation and overcoding of the earlier meaning of <i>&amacr;ve&sacute;a,</i> i.e. self-induced controlled possession by a deity. </p><p> <i>Sam&amacr;ve&sacute;a</i> is important to all forms of Shaivism, whether dualistic and ritualized (the Siddhanta) or nondual subitist charismatic forms (the Kaula). This thesis further contends that a philological study of <i>sam&amacr;ve&sacute;a</i> and related terms like <i> &sacute;aktip&amacr;ta</i> demonstrates that <i>religious experience </i> (or evidence thereof) was considered central and indispensable to initiatory Shaivism throughout the medieval period. <i>&Sacute;aktip&amacr;ta </i> was requisite to receive the basic level of initiation, and in the Kaula branch of the tradition, <i>sam&amacr;ve&sacute;a</i> denoted forms of religious experience that were necessary for aspirants to demonstrate in order to receive higher-level initiations. The former term is still commonly used in many Hindu communities today to designate a "spiritual awakening" or initiatory experience that is transmitted by a qualified guru. </p><p> Part One of this work is a comprehensive overview of the nature and structure of the Shaiva religion, providing important context to what follows. Part Two studies the key terms of <i>(sam)&amacr;ve&sacute;a, &sacute;aktip&amacr;ta, </i> etc. in a) early Sanskrit literature generally, b) &Sacute;aiva scriptures, and c) the abundant exegetical literature based on those scriptures. </p>

Throughout the 20th Century, a number of philosophers, writers, artists and film makers have implied that there is some profound significance to the work of Donatien Alphonse François, the Marquis de Sade (1740-1814). The project at hand is to evaluate the claim that Sade, in some sense, is a philosopher, and to assess what his philosophy amounts to. There are two aspects to this task. Firstly, I will consider the various philosophical interpretations of Sade’s work. This part of the study will serve as a guide into the Sadeian labyrinth, and will establish some of the more central interpretive themes, in particular the claim that Sade’s thought anticipates that of the Nazis, or that he brings early Modern thought to its logical conclusion. Secondly, I will inquire into Sade’s writings themselves. Of particular interest are Sade’s thoughts concerning the nature of sexuality, psychology, and the human condition in general, his critique of conventional morality, and his description of the nature of power. / Whole document restricted, but available by request, use the feedback form to request access.