Thesis (B.A.)--Haverford College, Dept. of English, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (D. Min.)--Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, Charlotte, N.C., 2002. / Abstract and vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 218-222).

Texte remanié de: Th.--Toulouse--Université de Toulouse-Le Mirail, 1995. / Bibliogr. p. [313]-331.

Many attempts at solving the liar paradox involve either rejecting some principles in classical logic so as to block the argument that leads to the contradiction or modifying the notion of truth so that the liar sentence can be classified as true in one aspect while false in another. However, the prominent approaches based the above strategies may suffer from the revenge problem. That is, while they solve the pristine liar paradox, the introduction of the solution triggers another one with the same structure. In this dissertation, three prominent approaches to the liar paradox are first introduced and examined. In particular, they are, first, the Tarskian hierarchical approach, whose main idea can be roughly characterized as that a natural language is a hierarchy of a series of languages and the liar sentence is true at one level of the hierarchy and is false at another; second, Saul Kripke's paracomplete approach, whose main idea can be roughly characterized as that the liar sentence is ungrounded and has no classical truth value at all; finally, Gupta and Belnep's revision theory of truth, the main idea of which is that truth is a circular concept and that the truth predicate is circularly defined. With a new semantics and logic for circular concept and definition, one can classify the liar sentence as not categorical. Based on two general patterns that give rise to the revenge paradox by Graham Priest, it is shown that none of the above approaches can escape the revenge paradox, at least, not satisfactorily. After the examination of three prominent approaches, I provide an initial characterization of a kind of approach which I call the silence approach. The main idea of the silence approach is that, perhaps what the liar paradox teaches us is that the semantic status of the liar sentence is eventually not classifiable, in the sense that the accepted or correct semantic theory for natural language simply does not apply to the liar sentence. There are two theoretical possibilities that can evoke the failure of classification. Either there is just no semantic category that fits the liar sentence or the necessary principles for the classification do not apply to the sentence. In either case, the silence approach suggests that although the liar sentence could have a semantic status according to the accepted or correct semantic theory, but given that we cannot classify it, we cannot know it. In this dissertation, I do not provide a detailed and well-developed theory of the silence approach. Instead, after the initial characterization of this approach, I go on to introduce and examine two current theories on the liar paradox which I think satisfy at least part of my characterization of the silence approach. The first theory is the semantic epistemicism by Paul Horwich. The second one is what I call exceptional theory, which is given by Thomas Hofweber. The result of the examination is that, both theories can indeed be interpreted as a silence approach. However, although they can block both the pristine liar paradox and the revenge paradox, they suffer severely from the problem of being ad hoc. The current conclusion of this dissertation about the silence approach thus is that, it is possible to construct a silence approach which can block the pristine liar paradox and the revenge, but it is hard to find a rationale for the solution. That is, it is hard to answer the question as to why the liar sentence is not classifiable. Finally, as an overlook to the future development of the silence approach, I suggest that even if we can solve the problem of ad hocness, there remains a question as to whether the incompleteness of classification is a symptom revealing that the accepted semantic theory is defective, or it is a symptom showing that there is just no possible semantic theory that can eventually do the job. Without answering this question, the silence approach still lacks a plausible theoretical ground

Silence in contemporary Roman Catholic liturgy. The thesis studies the phenomenon of silence in contemporary Catholic liturgy of the Roman rite. The first part looks for the semantic field of the term "silence" from the perspective of several disciplines. The second part consists of an analysis of currently used liturgical books of the Roman rite, while the attention is paid to introductory instructions, to rubrics and to liturgical texts as such. Third, synthetic, part follows up with a typology of various types of silence in liturgy. A list of all identified incidences of silence within liturgical books is added and these passages are classified according to the above-mentioned key.

Théoricienne américaine particulièrement connue pour son ouvrage Trouble dans le genre, Judith Butler est une autrice amplement discutée dans le milieu académique sur les questions de genre, et considérée par plusieurs comme une penseuse centrale des théories queer. Toutefois, ses plus récents écrits ont davantage porté sur des questions politiques plus larges qui ont étendu la portée de sa réflexion à d’autres formes d’oppression, notamment à partir de réflexions sur la précarité et la vulnérabilité. Cette thèse porte sur l’œuvre de Butler, plus précisément sur ses réflexions politico-philosophiques entourant la vulnérabilité, l’agentivité et la résistance politique. J’y défends que les idées de Butler sont particulièrement pertinentes pour penser le politique et les pratiques émancipatrices, car Butler accorde une grande importance à la critique, à la résistance et aux pouvoirs d’agir des précaires. Dans mon premier chapitre, j’explique la place qu’occupe le concept de vulnérabilité dans les théories féministes contemporaines et je situe Butler au sein de cette littérature. À cette fin, je propose une nouvelle typologie des théories féministes contemporaines de la vulnérabilité se divisant en trois courants : les théories libérales, les théories du care et les théories féministes critiques. Dans le deuxième chapitre, je montre comment la conception de la vulnérabilité proposée par Butler lui permet de défendre une nouvelle compréhension de la responsabilité sociale qui fait en partie écho aux éthiques du care – un nouvel éthos de la solidarité. Puis, j’explique en quoi cette vulnérabilité est nécessairement liée à la capacité d’agir même du sujet (son agentivité) et en quoi la critique – comprise comme pratique – occupe un rôle central dans cette approche lorsque l’on parle de lutte et de résistance politique. J’y soutient également que Butler engage un discours et un cadre théorique qui permettent de parler des formes d’agir politiques employées par les opprimé·e·s, et d’envisager la création d’alliances et d’une solidarité entres les luttes. Dans le troisième et dernier chapitre, je puise chez les auteurs et autrices qui travaillent sur ce que j’appelle les silences agentifs afin d’offrir quelques exemples de résistances politiques pouvant s’inscrire dans un projet butlerien de lutte contre les inégalités, la précarité et la violence. Cet excursus dans ces écrits me permet d’analyser de manière critique l’opposition binaire qui a été historiquement constituée entre passivité et agentivité, puis entre silence et parole – mais également de défendre des pratiques politiques alternatives pouvant être mobilisées par les dépossédé·e·s.

This dissertation investigates the role of listening and sounding in the geopolitics of extractivism, in which the Brazilian Amazon is deeply immersed, by weaving a storytelling of transformation and destruction of places in the region through the tropes of noise and silence. Extractivism here means a process of accumulation by dispossession tied to the tearing apart of places to become resources. The storytelling of this dissertation builds on ethnographic fieldwork in the state of Pará, in the Brazilian Amazon, and the geopolitical testimonies of small farmers, inhabitants of riverine communities, and a social educator, as they articulate relations between the sonic and what they perceive around them, what they are losing, and what they value. I elaborate on a dialogue with and critique of acoustemology as tied to place making by attending to noise and silence as acoustic assemblages tied to modes of making, destroying, sensing, and neglecting place. In the context of radically unequal land distribution, finite land becomes a major contested ontological ground. As places clash, unequal needs of sensing reality as a shared ecosystem come to the fore. Chapter one delves into the way an educator in the Xingu region talks about the silence of the water and the loss of forest and river spirits to neoliberal megaprojects. In dialogue with her words, I explore how silence participates in an economy of extraction in which incompatible notions of nature clash while crystallized sensorial machinations of neoliberalism destroy place from a safe distance. Chapter two debates how soy monoculture farming, in the Low Amazonas Region, fabricates multiple silences as it displaces people, desertifies place, and fills the land with pesticides and mechanisms of surveillance for private property. In dialogue with the testimonies of small rural farmers, and building on my visits to the region, this chapter discusses silences in relation to the desertification and animation of place as part of the cycles of the monoculture extractive chain. The third chapter focuses on the trope of noise as tied to present and potentially changing infrastructures in a riverine community in a conservation unit in the same region. I build on what four inhabitants of this community express about the noise of motors and generators in relation to singing birds and roosters, noting how the storytelling of the relation between these sounding presences is also the storytelling of development as a threat and a promise, in a context where belonging is complexly situated in relation to state tutelage, notions of environmental protection, and NGO projects. Altogether, the storytelling of noise and silence presented in these chapters points to the complicated entanglement between modes of listening and modes of tying being, belonging, and land together, in territories of a region constantly positioned as a resource for extraction.

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Arts in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Psychology at the University of Zululand, South Africa, 2013. / Art therapy is very popular amongst therapists, and Bonsai art adds another dimension to the intervention stratagem. One aspect of an intervention strategy is to reduce the burden of mental illness and related conditions. Bonsai as an intervention combines meditation, spirituality, responsibility and the ability to express oneself through this timeless art. An international study was conducted of the habits, health and spirituality of bonsai practitioners. Participants completed the Spirituality Scale, Patient Health Questionnaire and the Quality of Life Scales, as well as a questionnaire about their interest in Bonsai. Results indicated that although the participants were not necessarily healthier than the general population, they experienced peace by being actively involved in Bonsai. Bonsai is proposed as a new expanded category of supportive therapeutic mechanism, along with an elaboration of expressive therapeutic mechanisms such as when working in groups,such as hospitals,old age homes and prisons.

Recherche La partie recherche porte sur deux œuvres autofictionnelles contemporaines : Déterrer les os de Fanie Demeule et Matricide de Katherine Raymond. À partir de thèmes tels que l’anorexie et le suicide sont étudiées chez les deux auteures les notions de silence et d’enfermement entretenus par la littérature scientifique. Il s’agit de repérer dans les textes les signes corporels et les actions des protagonistes afin d’en tirer un tableau clinique. Dans le cas de l’anorexie, l’objectif principal est de mettre en lumière les méthodes d’écriture et les signes de la corporalité. Dans le cas du suicide, ce sont plutôt les limites du langage et les actions menées par le corps dans une visée terminale qui sont abordées. L’analyse aboutit à l’idée d’une « trahison des corps », selon laquelle le corps est médiateur entre l’intime et le public. De manière générale, cette recherche s’intéresse à la dichotomie entre l’étude de cas psychologique et le rôle de l’autofiction en tant que contre- narration. Création La partie création de la thèse se présente sous la forme d’un récit autofictionnel dans lequel la narratrice explore sa propre descente vers la psychopathologie tout en utilisant le silence comme manœuvre de contrôle. Dans le but de dénoncer la pression de performance, la narratrice est placée dans des espaces clos, figures de l’enfermement et de l’aliénation causée par les stéréotypes et les troubles de santé mentale. De plus, elle soumet le lecteur à l’acte performatif de la confession psychiatrique. L’histoire, divisée en deux parties, est écrite sous forme de fragments illustrant chacun un signe de performance ou un signe précis de la sémiologie psychiatrique, soit l’analyse des signes corporels et des symptômes qui mènent à un diagnostic de trouble de santé mentale. La deuxième partie, aussi en fragments, explore la vérité derrière le système psychiatrique. Principalement, il s’agit de dégager les divers mécanismes qui arrivent à relier la performance scolaire et la performance des critères sémiologiques afin de mieux saisir l’émergence des signes cliniques.

Abstract: This work examines the writings and other discursive practices of Ken Saro- Wiwa, the Nigerian dissident writer and minority rights activist, who was hanged by the military authorities in Nigeria in November 1995. Until his death, Saro- Wiwa had been a tireless campaigner against transnational oil corporations for devastating the local ecology while prospecting for oil, and against the Nigerian state for repressing oil-bearing minority communities through its nationalist bureaucratic practices. After his death, the ideas of this writer contained in over twenty literary texts and detention diaries continue to frame and inflame agitational discourses in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria and beyond. The aim of this work is to identify, interpret and critique the vast miscellany of oppositional modalities employed by Ken Saro-Wiwa and his Ogoni community in their tussles with nationalist modernity in Nigeria. Using interpretive protocols derived mainly from minority discourse theory, I attempt to examine and assess the place and significance of Ken Saro-Wiwa within the corpus of dissident culturalist discourse in Africa and beyond.