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The Midwest Quarterly; Vol. 41 No. 2, John G. Parks, Arthur A. Molitierno, Stephen C. Behrendt, Greg Smith, James J. Mcclintock, Jennifer Radtke, David Baker, Dan Campion, Tom Hansen, Margaret Hasse, Ted Kooser, Roseann Lloyd, Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg, Kathleen Norris, Mark Sanders, Midwest Quarterly Editors

The Midwest Quarterly: A Journal of Contemporary Thought

Why is there humor in being helpless to counter the forces great (and sometimes small) at work in the world? JOHN G. PARKS traces the idea of the comedy of powerlessness in the works of late twentieth-century writers and concludes that our laughter stirs not from a bitter embrace of this condition but because it is an assertion of free will in the face of those forces. Professor of English at Miami University in Ohio, Parks has, in addition to numerous scholarly articles, published a book on the fiction of E. L. Doctorow. He is currently at work on two …

Review Essay: Jeffrey Jerome Cohen, Ed. The Postcolonial Middle Ages, Dorothy Kim

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Jeffrey Jerome Cohen, ed. The Postcolonial Middle Ages. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2000. 286 pp. ISBN 0312219296.

Montaigne And The Coherence Of Memory, Douglas Mcfarland

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Among the many classical authorities to whom Montaigne refers either through direct reference or quotation, little attention has been paid to Lucan and to his contribution to the intellectual and rhetorical strategies of the Essais. Hugo Friedrich, for instance, in his chapter on Montaigne’s intellectual inheritance from the classical world, does not even mention Lucan’s name. Although Virgil, Lucretius, Plutarch, and several others clearly have influenced both the style and content of the Essais in seemingly more direct and overt ways, Montaigne, nevertheless, turns to Lucan consistently and with regularity. The essayist directly alludes to Lucan on three occasions …

Meter Change As A Relic Of Performance In The Middle English Romance Sir Beues, Linda Marie Zaerr

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Despite the paucity of direct evidence of performance, some form of public representation of the Middle English popular verse romances remains a possibility, and that possibility has been reached by extrapolation from a number of directions. The convergence of evidence, though indirect, has become convincing, and a new approach strengthens that likelihood even further. In an attempt to understand if and how the romances were performed, scholars have considered internal references to performance, historical documents of performance and audience, physical evidence from the manuscripts, cognitive theory, theory of orality and “mouvance,” and evidence from textual variants.

Review Essay: James Sharpe. The Bewitching Of Anne Gunter: A Horrible And True Story Of Deception, Witchcraft, Murder, And The King Of England, Frances E. Dolan

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James Sharpe. The Bewitching of Anne Gunter: A Horrible and True Story of Deception, Witchcraft, Murder, and the King of England. New York: Routledge, 2000. 238 pp. + xvi. $26.00.

Review Essay: John Kitchen. Saints’ Lives And The Rhetoric Of Gender: Male And Female In Merovingian Hagiography, Isabel Moreira

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John Kitchen. Saints’ Lives and the Rhetoric of Gender: Male and Female in Merovingian Hagiography. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998. 255 pp. ISBN 0195117220.

Full Issue

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Front Matter

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Victorian Philosophies Of Useless Work Versus Work For The Mind: Carlyle, Ruskin, Morris, And Marx, Marlaina Easton

Masters Theses

In my Thesis, I will investigate the dominant perceptions of work that spanned the Victorian Period. One of the most important authors of criticism dealing with work in the early part of the Victorian Period was Thomas Carlyle (1845). John Ruskin then became a counterpoint to Carlyle throughout the middle of the century (1862). And although he agreed with much of what Carlyle said, he brings new notions of work to the Victorian Period. William Morris then offered a completely different point of view on the issue of work at the latter part of the Victorian Period (1885). I will …

Fantasy And Purchasing Power: The World Wide Web As A Utopian Space And The New Capitalist Arena, Cheyla Samuelson

Faculty Publications

A review of The World Wide Web and Contemporary Cultural Theory by Andrew Herman.

Amatory Jurisprudence And The Querelle Des Lois, Peter Goodrich

Articles

It is my view, and here, no doubt, I am pre-empting my conclusion, that what literary and feminist historicism recognizes as the querelle des femmes, the debate as to the status and political role of women, is in fact underpinned and motivated by a much less explicit, yet nonetheless portentous, querelle des lois. The querelle des femmes, in other words, was always a polemic as to the legal status of women, as to their definition and role in theology and jurisprudence, canon and civil law. More than that, however, what the recovery of amatory jurisprudence can help to show is …

Dalil-Dalil Ibn Sina Dalam Membuktikan Wujud Tuhan, Rajab Selamat

Student Works (2000-2009)

Among the 'mutakallimin' (teolog). they inclined to use their own concept ' dalil' regarding nature as an evidence to prove the existence of God. This concept is based on the principle that nature was created by God as a symbol of 'Al-Mighty' (Keesaan) 'lradahNya yang azali'. Without his prior consent, the whole world of nature would not be a existence. With this concept. it reveals that this would is 'new' ie. From non-existence to existence, whilst Allah are caisidered 'qadim ' (Forever Will Remain). lbn Sina (w. 1037m) was among the 'failasur who quite disagree with this concept. To him, …

Suatu Kajian Pemikiran Politik Pra-Qin : Konfusious, Meng Zi, Dan Zun Zi, Liong Ngo Ling

Student Works (2000-2009)

The Pre-Qin Era refers to the period before the Qin Dynasty and the Era of Xia (1), Shang, Zhou, Chun Qiu and the Warring States. There was no concrete political thoughts yet during the era of Xia and Shang whereby the people still believed in Heaven and the many gods who governed their lives. Since Chun Qiu, the importance of God had been replaced gradually by the importance of the "Human's Self' after the introduction of Confucianism by Confucius and further expansion by Meng Zi and Xun Zi whereby the humanitarian aspects of the government and administration were stressed.

Confucianist's Perception Of Woman : Its Influence On Maxine Hong Kingston's The Woman Warrior : Memoirs Of A Girlhood Among Ghosts And Amy Tan's The Joyluck Club, Yoke Lin Yap

Student Works (2000-2009)

This thesis proposes to examine critically how the fundamental ideals contained within the philosophy of Confucius have evolved into social rites and rituals contained within the Five Classics and Four Classics for women. This is important for it is the social conventions that form the essential patriarchal structure in addition to the moral as well as behavioral norms of Chinese society. The study and analysis of Confucius' principal doctrines will help us understand the roles and responsibilities held by Chinese women within the structural hierarchy of Chinese family and society in general. The above will provide for a unique comparison …

An Epistemological And Methodological Study Of Technology Foresight, Choon Lee Chai

Student Works (2000-2009)

This research is an epistemological and methodological study of technology foresight. The low realisation rate (28%) of technology foresight has put into question as to whether foresight research is a scientific research, and whether foresight method is a scientific method. ln this research, the notion of scientific method is critically analysed. A comparison between physical and social science research is also made in order to highlight their basic similarities and differences. The Delphi method, which is the fundamental method of technology foresight, is epistemologically evaluated, particularly with regards to its basic assumptions and premises. Apart from the above, the research …

Civilization Dialogue : A Comparison Between Al-Ghazzali And Mencius On The Concept Of A Perfect Man, Kuek Chee Wee Florence

Student Works (2000-2009)

This dissertation seeks to compare between Al-Ghazzali and Mencius on the concept of a perfect man. It is on the ground of comparing one of the most profound and original philosophical thoughts in Islam and Chinese Civilization respectively on the concept of perfect man that the pair is chosen. Both have left behind extensive literature expounding on man as their subject of study and both suggested that man have a perfectible nature. The dissertation traces the lives of Al-Ghazzali and Mencius in their respective historical background. The readers will be informed of the social and political climax as well as …

Sex And Gender Through An Analytic Eye: Butler On Freud And Gender Identity, Anna Gullickson '00

Honors Projects

In her book. Gender Trouble, Judith Butler reinforces the conception held by many feminist philosophers that gender identity is not natural but rather culturally-constructed. Butler supports this conception of gender mainly by reading (and misreading) Freud. I will undertake a critical reconstruction of Butler's claims about gender identity which are based on Freud. In order to complete this project, I will outline (J) currents of feminism leading us to this question of the constructedness of gender, (2) Freud's theories, especially his account of sexual development and (3) two of Butler's main criticisms of Freud. Through this exploration, I will explain …

Comparison Of Ellis's And Campbell's Models Of Irrational Belief: Toward Resolving Ambiguities In Rational-Emotive-Behavior Theory, Ann C. Jorn

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

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Virtual Reality And The Modern Ideology Of Order And Control, Craig I. Murrihy

Theses : Honours

In this thesis I will examine the construction of the concept of Virtual Reality. I argue that rather than a technology of liberation as it is often perceived, virtual realities' conception has been influenced significantly by a discourse of control and order. I examine books, articles and films concerning Virtual Reality to support this claim. Furthermore this discourse of control and order is born out of a larger ideology of Western culture that values order and control. Throughout modernity this ideology has manifested itself through techniques and technologies of social and environmental control. I provide a brief historical outline highlighting …

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 …

Meaningful Work: Rethinking Professional Ethics, Mike W. Martin

Philosophy Faculty Books and Book Chapters

As commonly understood, professional ethics consists of shared duties and episodic dilemmas--the responsibilities incumbent on all members of specific professions joined together with the dilemmas that arise when these responsibilities conflict. Martin challenges this "consensus paradigm" as he rethinks professional ethics to include personal commitments and ideals, of which many are not mandatory. Using specific examples from a wide range of professions, including medicine, law, high school teaching, journalism, engineering, and ministry, he explores how personal commitments motivate, guide, and give meaning to work.

Framed: Utilitarianism And Punishment Of The Innocent, Guyora Binder, Nicholas J. Smith

Journal Articles

This paper is a defense of utilitarian penology, against the familiar retributivist charge that it promotes framing the innocent, and other charges similarly depending on the notion that utilitarianism encourages officials to deceive the public. Our defense proceeds from the striking fact that utilitarianism's critics do not cite textual evidence that the originators of utilitarian penology in fact endorsed punishing the innocent or deceiving the public. Instead, critics claim that these unsavory policies follow logically from the premises of utilitarianism. Our argument, in brief, is that the charge of framing the innocent rests on a misunderstanding of utilitarian penology. We …