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San Francesco D'Assisi E Santa Caterina Da Siena. La Loro Influenza Sulla Letteratura, La Cultura, La Religione E L'Arte Italiana Dei Primordi, Ann-Frances Hamill

Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

Examines the works and thoughts of two Italian saints: Saint Francis of Assisi (1181-1226) and Saint Catherine of Siena (1347-1380). Explores the common ideological denominator in the works of these major figures and analyzes their impact on Italian society and culture.

"I Am An Island To Myself": How One Veteran English Teacher's Beliefs, Experiences, And Philosophy Translate Into Classroom Practice, Tara Jenkins Bruhn

Middle-Secondary Education and Instructional Technology Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate the beliefs, philosophy, and experience of a veteran English teacher and how each of these constructs informed her classroom practice. This research, conducted in a metropolitan high school in the South, provides insight into the way a veteran teacher believes, practices in her classroom, and relates to her greater teaching milieu. The study is theoretically framed in Greene's (1971) notion of "doing philosophy" in which a teacher makes meaning from her reflected, lived-through experience, and Applebee's (1996) notion of curriculum as conversation for the teaching of language arts discourse. Research indicates …

Market Orientation And Order Of Entry Strategies: An Empirical Analysis, Anshu Saran

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

While the relationship between market orientation and business performance has been extensively investigated, the mechanisms by which market orientation contributes to performance are still not well understood. To fill this gap in knowledge of how order of entry would affect the relationship between market orientation and performance, this research provides a conceptual framework to link two disparate concepts, or research streams in the marketing/business strategy literature, market orientation and order of entry.

Timing of entry has generated great attention (Green, Barclay, and Ryans 1995). Pioneering new markets is expensive and risky, but also potentially very rewarding. If pioneers have advantages …

Study Of The Ethical Values Of College Students, Victor Mercader

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study focuses on five main purposes, all of them interrelated and each focused on ethical values, virtues, or character values. The five purposes are: a) Investigate college students' perceptions of ethical values, including their importance, application, usefulness, origin, benefits, need for education, and courses proposed to be included in the curricula; b) Review literature in areas related to ethical values, virtues or character values of college students; c) Develop and pilot an instrument to assess the ethical values of college students; d) Improve and use the developed instrument to describe the status of college students' ethical values; and e) …

The Mythical Speech Of Janine Antoni, Patrick L. Jones

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

The confrontation of societal myths has been a major concern of many female artists since the 1960s. However, confronting the ideological construction of myth is not enough to discredit it. The semiology of myth, according to Roland Barthes (1915-1980), simply absorbs this confrontation by placing the artist in the position of a signifier of the myth itself. Paradoxically, in order to discredit myth the artist must "speak the myth," in order to empty the ideological content of the myth through the adoption of mythical speech. This produces a counter-myth. Language as a vehicle of feminist expression has been a permeating …

Is Pascal A Safe Bet?, Bradley Mumford

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

The philosophical writings of Blaise Pascal may have passed completely unnoticed had it not been for the inclusion of his famous "wager". "Pascal's wager", as it has come to be known, has drawn a great deal of commentary and criticism over the years and it has stirred up excitement and speculation over Pascal's intended message. Many critics think his field of possibilities is too narrow. Some critics say that he allows for too few options, while others argue over the validity of his conclusion. In this essay we will discuss a number of the criticisms of Pascal's wager that have …

Stirring The Pot: Toward A Physical Reduction Of Mental Events, Dylan Jacoby

Regis University Student Publications (comprehensive collection)

Of the perennial issues that philosophers argue over, few have been quite as perennial as the problem of the Mind. The nature of the debate often comes in two flavors. One style, well call it the dualist concoction, states that there is a fundamental difference between what we call the mind and what we call the body. The body, appropriately, is the physical vessel which carries us through this world and allows us to interact with it. However, that which guides the body and the "thinking" part of it, the mind, is something that is at once highly complex and …

Cicero And St. Augustine's Just War Theory: Classical Influences On A Christian Idea, Berit Van Neste

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The theology of Saint Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, and the origin of his theory of Just War are subjects of serious scholarly debate. Just War involved the use of the state army to eliminate heresy by killing heretics who refused to convert to mainstream Christianity. The purpose of this paper is to argue that Augustine primarily based his theory of Just War on Cicero's own theory of Just War.

Augustine was quite heavily influenced by Cicero. He credited Cicero with his own conversion to Christianity. He drew heavily from Cicero's works as a basis for many of his own writings, …

Depression, Volition, And Death: The Effect Of Depressive Disorders On The Autonomous Choice To Forgo Medical Treatment, Matthew Butkus

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Many contemporary models of medical ethics champion patient autonomy to counterbalance historically paternalistic decision-making processes. These models tend to suggest an autonomous agent free from cognitive bias and systematic distortion (e.g., Kantian or Cartesian rational agents). Evidence is emerging from the fields of cognitive psychology, cognitive science, and neuroscience that fundamentally challenge this cognitive model, demonstrating the dependence of cognition on deeper, avolitional structures (e.g., backstage cognition, cognitive heuristics and biases, automaticity, emotionally-valenced memory, etc.), and hence, shifting the cognitive model towards reductionistic and deterministic philosophies and psychologies. Medical ethics models must adapt their sense of autonomy in light of …

Power And Punishment In Nietzsche, Jacob Skinner

Master's Theses and Capstones

Nietzsche appears to hold contradictory views about punishment. Uncompromising in his commitment to noble ideals, Nietzsche often decries punishment as small-minded resentfulness and implores readers to look away. Though at times he describes it as an exalted flexing of the will, making the case that punishment plays a necessary role in social life. This paper argues that Nietzsche's views are not incompatible and that he holds a coherent theory of punishment which permits these clashing positions.

I argue that Nietzsche's theory of punishment is predicated as follows. Power is the objective measure of value. The single justification for punishing is …

How Kant Would Choose To Die: A Kantian Defense Of Euthanasia, Jennifer A. Bulcock

Master's Theses and Capstones

Legalizing euthanasia could have a serious impact on society and therefore requires careful attention be paid to the ethical issues involved. The two arguments advanced in this essay are: (1) that a consensus needs to be reached as to how to define the concept of autonomy in the euthanasia debate and (2) the application of Kantian autonomy to the euthanasia debate is only appropriate in making an argument that advanced directives, made by a present rational self for a future arational self, can legitimately specify conditions under which euthanasia should occur. To effectively make these arguments, an examination of Immanuel …

Spirituality And Therapeutic Counseling, Deborah Kelly

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

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The Relationship Between Spirituality And Effective Instructional Leadership Of Principals Of Inner City High Schools In The Archdiocese Of New York, Michael A. Ramos

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

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Heroic Individualism: The Hero As Author In Democratic Culture, Alan I. Baily

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

My study focuses on the literature of democratic morality, with specific reference to the question of "heroic individualism." I attempt to elucidate the notion of heroic individualism by examining three modern democratic moralists whose work occupies the space between politics and literature: Jean Jacques Rousseau, Thomas Carlyle and Friedrich Nietzsche. In brief, I conclude that the central aspiration of heroic individualism is to bridge the gap between writing and action, the Text and the Voice. The dialogue among Rousseau, Carlyle, and Nietzsche reveals that the problem of writing as action is central to heroic-individualist morality. Each of these authors demonstrates …

Reading Trauma In Postmodern And Postcolonial Literature: Charlotte Delbo, Toni Morrison, And The Literary Imagination Of The Aftermath, Sylviane Finck

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Some personal or collective histories can never be completely integrated into the continuum of one's emotional life. Such stories produced in traumatic times or in disastrous events are likely to remain only partially understood or accepted. Examining the human consequence of traumatic events such as the enslavement of Africans in the United States or the attempted extermination of the Jewish people in Europe is one challenging focus of this work. It is comparatively productive, however, if these events are approached from the perspective of the trauma they have produced-an approach that suspends chronological and geographical barriers of time and space. …

"Er Irrt Der Mensch, Solang Er Strebt:" Critical Studies On The Subject, The Genius Figure And Faust, Matthew James Austin

Digitized Theses

Ultimately my thesis reflects a dedication to a conceit I have labeled teleology without telos, which I have tried to establish in my readings of history, philosophy, and art (literature). Expressive of this conceit is the complex anthropological relationship Kant outlines between Man, as subject, and Nature—as expressed through history and art. In the writing of history and the production of art, the archetypal figures of the philosopher and the genius respectively express Nature’s indeterminate regulation under the compulsion of the Kantian idea. What is ultimately exemplified here is neither natural necessity, nor humanistic freedom. Rather, Kant offers an intriguing …