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Wittgenstein And The Grammar Of Physics: A Study Of Ludwig Wittgenstein's 1929-1930 Manuscripts And The Roots Of His Later Philosophy, Anton Alterman

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In 1929 Wittgenstein began to work on the first philosophical manuscripts he had kept since completing the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (TLP) in 1918. The impetus for this was his conviction that the logic of the TLP was flawed: it was unable to account for the fact that a proposition that assigns a single value on a continuum to a simple object thereby excludes all assignments of different values to the object (the "color exclusion" problem). Consequently Wittgenstein's "atomic propositions" could not be logically independent of one another.

Initially he thought he could replace the "logically perfect language" of the TLP with …

Comparative Cranial Anatomy Of Rattus Norvegicus And Proechimys Trinitatus, Richard Marcin

Student Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Robert Henri And The American Southwest: His Work And Influence, Valerie Ann Leeds

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

American artist Robert Henri (1865–1929) has most often been identified as the organizer of the 1908 landmark exhibition of The Eight and leader of the progressive movement; however, his relationship to the American Southwest has been largely neglected in scholarly discourse. This dissertation examines and reevaluates the work from and impact of Henri's extended visits to the Southwest in 1914, 1916, 1917, and 1922. During these stays he produced a distinguished body of work that is among the creative pinnacles of his career.

Henri painted more than three-hundred and twenty-five works while visiting the Southwest; his principal mode of expression …

The American Colonization Of The Philippines And The Self-Examination, Self-Presentation And Re-Presentation Of American Identity, Jennifer Marie Mcmahon

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study is an exploration of the disruptions that can be perceived in American identity through a close examination of America's colonial experience in the Philippines in three different, but related, contexts. The first is an analysis of American writers' reactions to the colonization, specifically those of Mark Twain, W. E. B. Du Bois, and William James. These writers were vocal contributors to the debate surrounding the colonization, though, like the colonization itself, these works have been largely ignored. These writers identify contradictions in American identity, focusing on issues concerning race, capitalism, individualism, American innocence, exceptionalism, and self-reliance. These are …

De La Pantalla Al Papel: El Cine Mudo Y La Narrativa Vanguardista Española, Maria Montoya

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The purpose of this interdisciplinary study is to document and explain the influence of silent film on the vanguard works of three outstanding Spanish prose writers—Francisco Ayala, Antonio Espina, and Benjamin Jarnes—during the 1920s, as well as on essays of theirs that appeared in Revista de Occidente and La Gaceta Literaria. Three aspects of film of particular importance to the analysis of these writers' works are: movies as a social phenomenon, Hollywood film stars, and the influence of film on their narrative techniques.

An examination of the main cultural and film magazines of that decade, as well as of …

Painted Slang: The Caricatural Aspects Of French Painting, 1850–1880, Melina V. Kervandjian

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

A complicated relationship between painting and caricature emerged in France in the 1850s and 1860s when writers like Baudelaire and Champfleury, who were known for their work on painting and painters, produced a number of texts focusing on caricature and caricaturists. Such writings legitimized imagery previously relegated to the realm of "low art" by declaring caricature integral to the aesthetic discourses of the nineteenth century.

The legitimization of caricature also involved a concurrent effort by artists like Honore Daumier, Gustave Courbet, and Paul Cezanne, who incorporated caricatural elements within their painted works. Rather than adopting the traditional strategy of marginalizing …

Ética Y Estética De La Narrativa Femenina Hispanoamericana Contemporánea: Un Diálogo Con Las Teorías Bajtinianas Del Discurso Literario, Aranzazu Borrachero

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study traces textual contradictions in the narrative of some contemporary female writers of Latin America: Isabel Allende's La casa de los espiritus (1982), Laura Esquivel's Como agua para chocolate (1989), Cristina Peri Rossi's "Desastres intimos" and "Entrevista con el Angel" (1997), Zoe Valdes' Te di la vida entera (1996), Eva Sefchovich's Demasiado amor (1990), Carmen Olle's Las dos caras del deseo (1994), and Sylvia Molloy's En breve carcel (1981).

I define "contradiction" as the coexistence of conflicting discourses within one narrative voice, i.e. discourses of love and violence, of romance and rape, of female strength and submission. I contend …

Chaucer's Troilus And Criseyde In Male Homosocial Contexts: The Politicization Of Same-Sex Desire, Richard E. Zeikowitz

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

I explore the dynamics of homosociality in late medieval culture, investigating both Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde and its cultural and political environments. I articulate two conflicting attitudes toward male same-sex relations: one affirming and celebratory, the other homophobic. I conclude that Chaucer's poem both replicates and generates a late medieval sociocultural discourse characterized by tension between normative male same-sex behavior and the potential politicization of such behavior.

In the introductory chapter, I survey important recent historical and feminist criticism of Troilus and Criseyde and situate my project within the current debate regarding definitions of premodern sexuality. In chapter 2, part …

Morphology And Photocatalysis Of Titanium Dioxide Aerogels, Sean Kelly

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Pollution of our environment has become one of the most serious problems of this century. Titanium dioxide aerogels is composed of nanocrystallites of TiO2 close-packed in roughly spherical mesospheres, which are agglomerated to form a highly-porous sponge. Aerogel morphology produces porosities of around 80% and surface area that can be as large as 1000 m2/g. The aerogels efficiently adsorb organic materials from the environment and when illuminated with UV light, decompose or oxidize the organic pollutants, ultimately to safe by-products such as CO2 and H 2O.

In this work we modify the synthetic conditions to produce aerogels with different morphologies …

Redemption And Recovery: An Ethnographic Comparison Of Two Drug Rehabilitation Programs, A Faith Community And A Therapeutic Community, Daniel E. Hood

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This ethnography of long-term residential programs for drug users compares a therapeutic community (TC) with an evangelical Christian "training program." Using participant observation and life history interviews, it pursues three themes. The first is comparative and descriptive. It poses a basic similarity between the ideologically disparate programs. Parallels in program process and personal experience of "identity transformation" (conversion) are described. Despite the religious/secular divide, important similarities in anthropological assumptions are also identified. Contrary to earlier research, the singularity of the clientele is demonstrated. Other parallels include the ritual function of prayer and encounter, the centrality of selective biographical reconstruction, and …