This thesis deals with Martin Heideggers critique of the Cartesian problem of scepticism in Being and Time. In addition to the critique itself, Heideggers position with regards to the sense and task of phenomenological research, as well as fundamental ontology, is discussed as a necessary underpinning of his critique. Finally, the objection to Heideggers critique that is raised by Charles Guignon in his book, Heidegger and the Problem of Knowledge, (namely, that it suffers from the problem of reflexivity) is evaluated.

Thesis (M.A.)--Trinity International University, Deerfield, Ill., 1999. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 126-131).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2010. / Title from first page of PDF file (viewed March 29, 2010). Available via ProQuest Digital Dissertations. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 193-199).

Issued also as thesis, Colombia University. / Includes bibliographical references (p. [344]-351).

Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of Queensland, 2005. / Includes bibliography.

Thesis (doctoral) - Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, München, 2003. / DatabaseEbrary. EAN: 9783110183184. Includes bibliographical references (p. [211]-230) and index.

Syfte: En revisors oberoende är en grundläggande faktor för att säkerställa god kvalitet och hög tillförlitlighet på revisionen.  Denna studie skall belysa en egenskap som har ett samband med en högkvalitativ revision, och som utgör en stor och betydelsefull del av revisorsyrket; professionell skepticism. Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka om där finns några samband mellan professionell skepticism och tre andra faktorer: objektivitet klientidentifikation kvalitetsförsämrande handlingar   Metod: Vi har vid genomförandet av studien använt en kvantitativ metod där vi skickade ut en enkät till 3337 auktoriserade samt godkända revisorer, varav 178 av dem besvarades. Svaren analyserades statistiskt för att kunna testa hypoteserna som utformats i studien.   Resultat & slutsats: Resultatet av undersökningen visar ett positivt samband mellan objektivitet och professionell skepticism. Slutsatsen visar att en ökad professionell skepticism stärker objektiviteten hos revisorer.   Förslag till fortsatt forskning: Tid är i många fall en begränsande faktor, vilket också är fallet i denna uppsats. Längre tidshorisont skulle kunna resultera i en högre svarsfrekvens på enkäterna och därmed möjlighet till fler eller tydligare samband. En utveckling av frågeställningar för att mäta professionell skepticism, och som utgår från revisorsyrket, anser vi skulle vara en intressant idé för framtida forskning. Ett annat förslag är att undersöka om det finns skillnader i personlig skepticism och professionell skepticism. Att en revisor inte är skeptisk privat behöver inte betyda desamma inom professionen.   Uppsatsens bidrag: Uppsatsen bidrar till forskningen gällande påverkansfaktorer på revisorers objektivitet/oberoende. Professionell skepticism har visat sig vara en viktig del av revisorernas profession. Vi har i studien visat ett tydligt samband mellan skepticism och objektivitet som kan användas i framtida forskningssyften. Nyckelord: Professionell skepticism, Revisorns objektivitet/oberoende, Klientidentifikation, Kvalitetsförsämrande handlingar. / Aim: An auditor's independence is a fundamental factor for ensuring a good quality and high reliability audit. This study will shed light on a characteristic that is fundamental to be able to produce a high-quality audit, and which constitute a large and important part of the audit profession; professional skepticism. The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether there is any connection between professional skepticism and these three factors: objectivity client identification RAQ acts   Method: We have in the implementation of the study used a quantitative method where we sent out a survey to 3,337 authorized and approved auditors, of which we received 178 responses. The responses were statistically analyzed to test hypotheses developed in the study.   Result & Conclusions: The results of the survey show a positive correlation between objectivity and professional skepticism. The conclusion shows that increased professional skepticism strengthens the objectivity of the auditors.   Suggestions for future research: Time is often a limitation, which is the case in this thesis as well. Longer time horizon could have resulted in a larger number of replies on the survey and the possibility for stronger correlations between items. A further development of the questions regarding the professional skepticism aimed specifically to auditors might be a better way to look at it. Another suggestion is to investigate if there is a difference between personal skepticism and professional skepticism. Lack of skepticism in your personal trait does not necessarily mean the same for your profession.    Contribution of the thesis: This paper contributes to the literature about auditor independence and its surrounding effects. The professional skepticism has proven to be a vital part of the auditor profession and we have been able to prove the correlation between auditor independence and professional skepticism that can be used in future research purposes.   Key words: Professional skepticism, Auditor independence, Client identification, RAQ acts.

In this thesis, I compare the intellectual trajectories of René Descartes (c. 1596 – 1650) and Abū-Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī (c. 1058 – 1111). In Part I, I begin by considering their initial skeptical phases, where the two thinkers are at their most similar, philosophically, methodologically and narratively. I argue that while they begin their projects almost identically, especially in their methods and course of argument, they nonetheless differ in crucial respects. I locate the principal difference to be in their particular uses of the dream. While al-Ghazālī uses the dream to doubt reason itself, Descartes uses it merely to doubt sense-perception and particulars. I analyze this difference by drawing distinctions between dream consciousness and waking consciousness, local and global states of illusion, and which position in time each thinker argues from. I conclude Part I by showing how, despite arriving at the same formal, global skeptical conclusion, our two philosophers nonetheless arrive at it in characteristically different ways. In Part II, I consider how the two thinkers attempt to defeat skepticism. I pay particular attention to their epistemological, phenomenological and metaphysical claims, and their negotiations between reason, experience and the supra-rational. In virtue of comparing their parallel journeys out of skepticism’s void, I am able to argue that the substantive content of their skeptical phases is integral to their positive conclusions. I show that their positive conclusions are direct inversions of those early skeptical structures. More generally, I argue that skepticism –– to its own demise –– is never empty of content.

[pt] Esta tese é uma análise de Contra os gramáticos, tratado sobre a linguagem escrito quase vinte séculos atrás pelo cético Sexto Empírico. Dedicando-se a esse importante capítulo na história das idéias lingüísticas, o estudo tem em seu horizonte mais amplo contribuir para o entendimento das relações entre ceticismo e linguagem. Responde, em especial, a um cenário contemporâneo em que as virtudes das palavras para o entendimento e a comunicação são recorrentemente postas em dúvida – nas artes em geral, e também em expressiva parcela das reflexões teóricas produzidas no âmbito das ciências humanas e sociais. Partindo da hipótese de que o exame de uma das mais remotas manifestações do pensamento cético sobre a linguagem pode nos ajudar a compreender esse cenário, a pesquisa teve como perguntas norteadoras as seguintes: (i) que perspectiva(s) de linguagem informa(m) os argumentos de Sexto Empírico em seu tratado Contra os gramáticos? e (ii) Sob que aspectos da linguagem a dúvida cética recai nesse tratado? O antigo texto foi assim interrogado por meio de uma abordagem conscientemente anacrônica: tomamos como balizas de análise perspectivas contemporâneas de linguagem, a saber, aquelas que inflamaram o debate filosófico no âmbito da assim chamada virada lingüística, em que se pode discernir a oposição básica entre uma visão pragmática e uma visão representacionalista da linguagem. Reconhecendo que a contenda adquire inflexões substantivamente distintas conforme os autores que se tenha em mente, optamos aqui por tomar como referência mais específica a manifestação do referido antagonismo na filosofia de L. Wittgenstein – levando em conta sobretudo os interlocutores que dialogam em suas Investigações filosóficas. Uma primeira conclusão do estudo é que convivem na trama argumentativa de Contra os gramáticos duas proto-imagens de linguagem, associáveis respectivamente ao representacionalismo e ao pragmatismo. Outra conclusão a que chegamos é que, em Contra os gramáticos, a dúvida cética incide sobre a idéia de uma ordem intrínseca à linguagem, mas não sobre as suas virtudes práticas, cotidianas. Mostraremos ainda que a noção de linguagem comum, central em Contra os gramáticos, tem ali um status de solução, contrapondo-se a ambições metalingüísticas vistas como nocivas e fadadas ao insucesso. Por fim, concluímos que uma análise da mesma noção de linguagem comum em outras obras de Sexto Empírico desestabiliza esse status: a linguagem comum passa então a receber cuidados e a despertar escrúpulos sugestivos de que pode ser ao mesmo tempo solução e problema. / [en] This thesis is an analysis of Sextus Empiricus’ Against the Grammarians – a skeptical treatise on language written almost twenty centuries ago. In addressing this important chapter in the history of linguistic ideas, the study aims more broadly at the understanding of the relationship between language and skepticism. It is thus specially responsive to a contemporary scenario, where the virtues of language to promote understanding and communication are systematically placed under suspicion – in the arts in general, as well as in a significant part of the theoretical reflections in human and social sciences. Assuming that the examination of one of the remotest manifestations of skeptical thought about language may help understanding this contemporary scenario, this research was guided by the following questions: (i) what perspective(s) on language inform(s) Sextus Empiricus’s arguments in Against the Grammarians?; and (ii) what aspects of language fall under skeptical doubt in this treatise? The ancient text was thus interrogated by means of a deliberately anachronic strategy: our analysis took contemporary perspectives of language as points of reference - views that inflamed philosophical debate after the so-called linguistic turn, and can roughly be distributed between a pragmatic and a representationalist perspective. Since the dispute assumes quite different inflections according to the authors one has in mind, we have opted to focus on the manifestation of this debate within the philosophy of L. Wittgenstein, notably by taking as references the opposing voices that come into dialogue in his Philosophical Investigations. A first conclusion of this study is that two proto-images of language coexist within the argumentative web of Against he Grammarians, views that parallel the representationalist and the pragmatic contemporary stances. Another conclusion is that, in this ancient treatise, skeptical doubt falls over the idea that language has an intrinsic order, but not over language’s practical and day-to-day virtues.

The performance evaluation process is both an important tool for accounting firms to assess the performance of employees and provides supervisors an opportunity to provide feedback to their subordinates. Supervisions, such as managers, will provide feedback to subordinates (senior auditors) numerous times throughout a fiscal year. Prior research has shown that performance evaluations are largely based on results of the subordinate based on task completion and budgeted hours. These types of performance evaluations have been linked to employee dissatisfaction and a decrease in overall job performance. Utilizing psychology based theories, an experimental task was conducted to investigate whether the manager’s feedback orientation (positive/negative and tasks/goals) within a senior auditor’s performance evaluation will increase an auditor’s self-esteem and professional skepticism. Results show that positive and goal-oriented performance evaluations do increase an auditor’s self-esteem and supportive performance evaluations increase an auditor’s professional skepticism. These results provide valuable information to accounting firms to assist with their current restructuring of the performance evaluation process.