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1	Near-Death Experiences, Religion, and Life After Death Wallace, Holly 08 April 2004 (has links) This thesis investigates current scientific literature on near-death experiences (NDE), focusing on two common types of models used to explain the NDE: biological models and spiritual models. Four biological models and two spiritual models are presented and evaluated. During the evaluation, particular emphasis is placed on how these models accommodate veridical evidence. I found that, of the biological models, only one could account for veridical evidence, whereas both of the spiritual models provided explanations of these strange occurrences. From this conclusion, the implications of NDE research on human survival are explored. NDE survival hypothesis veridical evidence corroborative NDEs OBE American Studies Arts and Humanities
2	Kant's theory of experience Stephenson, Andrew Charles January 2013 (has links) In this thesis I present and defend an interpretation of Kant’s theory of experience as it stands from the viewpoint of his empirical realism. My central contention is that Kant’s is a conception of everyday experience, a kind of immediate phenomenological awareness as of empirical objects, and although he takes this to be representational, it cannot itself amount to empirical knowledge because it can be non-veridical, because in such experience it is possible to misrepresent the world. I outline my view in an extended introduction. In Part I I offer a novel interpretation of Kant’s doctrine of sensibility and sensation. Utilizing a data-processor schematic as an explanatory framework, I give an account of how outer sense, as a collection of sensory capacities, is causally affected by empirical objects to produce bodily state sensations that naturally encode information about those objects. This information is then processed through inner sense to present to the understanding a manifold of mental state sensations that similarly encode information. I also give accounts of how the reproductive imagination operates in hallucination to produce sensible manifolds in lieu of current causal affection, and of the restricted role that consciousness plays at this low level of cognitive function. In Part II I turn to the role of the understanding in experience. I offer a two-stage model of conceptual synthesis and explain how Kant’s theory of experience is a unique blend of conceptualist and non-conceptualist elements. I show that it explains how our experience can provide us with reasons for belief while at the same time accounting for the fact that experience is what anchors us to the world. Finally, I return to non-veridical experience. I confront recent naïve realist readings of Kant and argue that, for Kant, the possibility of non-veridicality is built into the very nature of the human mind and the way it relates to the world. 193
3	Informationist Science Fiction Theory and Informationist Science Fiction Long, Bruce Raymond January 2009 (has links) Master of Philosophy (MPhil) / Informationist Science Fiction theory provides a way of analysing science fiction texts and narratives in order to demonstrate on an informational basis the uniqueness of science fiction proper as a mode of fiction writing. The theoretical framework presented can be applied to all types of written texts, including non-fictional texts. In "Informationist Science Fiction Theory and Informationist Science Fiction" the author applies the theoretical framework and its specific methods and principles to various contemporary science fiction works, including works by William Gibson, Neal Stephenson and Vernor Vinge. The theoretical framework introduces a new informational theoretic re-framing of existing science fiction literary theoretic posits such as Darko Suvin's novum, the mega-text as conceived of by Damien Broderick, and the work of Samuel R Delany in investigating the subjunctive mood in SF. An informational aesthetics of SF proper is established, and the influence of analytic philosophy - especially modal logic - is investigated. The materialist foundations of the metaphysical outlook of SF proper is investigated with a view to elucidating the importance of the relationship between scientific materialism and SF. SF is presented as The Fiction of Veridical, Counterfactual and Heterogeneous Information. Science Fiction Information Theory Informationism Anti-simulacra Simulacra Information Types Veridical information Literary theory Pseudo-information William Gibson Iain M Banks Neal Stephenson Alastair Reynolds Science Fiction Theory Novum Pseudo-novum Character-novum Auto-novum Pseudo novum character novum Darko Suvin N. Katherine Hayles William Paulson High information Claude E Shannon Adrian Moles Hyperreal Hyperreality Hyperreal information Samuel R Delany Damien Broderick David Lewis Transrealism Transrealist Manifesto SF Mega-text SF Codon Thomas Pynchon Information Synthesis Synthesis Multivariate nexus Heterogeneous information profile Cognitive Aesthetic Complexity Aesthetic of Complexity
4	Informationist Science Fiction Theory and Informationist Science Fiction Long, Bruce Raymond January 2009 (has links) Master of Philosophy (MPhil) / Informationist Science Fiction theory provides a way of analysing science fiction texts and narratives in order to demonstrate on an informational basis the uniqueness of science fiction proper as a mode of fiction writing. The theoretical framework presented can be applied to all types of written texts, including non-fictional texts. In "Informationist Science Fiction Theory and Informationist Science Fiction" the author applies the theoretical framework and its specific methods and principles to various contemporary science fiction works, including works by William Gibson, Neal Stephenson and Vernor Vinge. The theoretical framework introduces a new informational theoretic re-framing of existing science fiction literary theoretic posits such as Darko Suvin's novum, the mega-text as conceived of by Damien Broderick, and the work of Samuel R Delany in investigating the subjunctive mood in SF. An informational aesthetics of SF proper is established, and the influence of analytic philosophy - especially modal logic - is investigated. The materialist foundations of the metaphysical outlook of SF proper is investigated with a view to elucidating the importance of the relationship between scientific materialism and SF. SF is presented as The Fiction of Veridical, Counterfactual and Heterogeneous Information. Science Fiction Information Theory Informationism Anti-simulacra Simulacra Information Types Veridical information Literary theory Pseudo-information William Gibson Iain M Banks Neal Stephenson Alastair Reynolds Science Fiction Theory Novum Pseudo-novum Character-novum Auto-novum Pseudo novum character novum Darko Suvin N. Katherine Hayles William Paulson High information Claude E Shannon Adrian Moles Hyperreal Hyperreality Hyperreal information Samuel R Delany Damien Broderick David Lewis Transrealism Transrealist Manifesto SF Mega-text SF Codon Thomas Pynchon Information Synthesis Synthesis Multivariate nexus Heterogeneous information profile Cognitive Aesthetic Complexity Aesthetic of Complexity

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