This thesis, Böhme and Hegel: A Study of their Intellectual Development and Shared Readings of Two Christian Theologoumena, explores the connections which exist between both the intellectual development of Jakob Böhme and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, and in their readings of two Christian theologoumena. As such, this thesis is divided into three chapters. Chapter One consists of a comparative study between the intellectual development of Böhme and Hegel. The course of this development is divided into three phases, periods in which (...) Böhme and Hegel will be shown to share. The examination begins with their reaction against Christian orthodoxy, their subsequent interest in the heterodox, and their eventual return to the Reformation. Through the course of this chapter it will be realised that the progression of Böhme and Hegel from one period to another constitutes development in language, but not in content. Both seek to find a mode of expression which adequately represents eternal truths which they consider to be perennial. Chapter Two analyses an occasion in which Böhme and Hegel attempt to render this perennial content. Through their examination of the Christian concept of God, both are endeavouring to represent a kernel of religious truth, beyond its representational trappings. As such, both Böhme and Hegel will examine, in detail, Christian notions such as the nature of the unrevealed God, the Trinity and its supposed personhood, and the doctrine of the Incarnation. Chapter Three continues Böhme and Hegel’s line of investigation, in attempting to unveil the speculative meaning between the Christian theologoumena of the creation of the world, the psychology of the first created being, and the fall from his original nature. Through the course of this chapter, Bohme and Hegel’s shared thoughts on notions of the conflicting accounts of creation, the primordial unity with the divine, and the necessity of the Fall of Man will be examined. Throughout the course of this comparative study, it is hoped that a clear and direct influence on Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel’s philosophy of religion by Jakob Bohme will be shown. (shrink)

In this thesis I will examine St. Thomas Aquinas’s treatment of human nature and connect my findings with his conception of the ultimate end o f human existence. As a theologian St. Thomas held the position that man’s ultimate goal is happiness or beatitudo - which consists in the vision of God. Thomas explores the resources that are to be found in human nature and in particular those that are needed in order to achieve happiness to some degree in this (...) life, and then considers the infinite happiness that is to be found in God alone. I show how St. Thomas’s solution to the mind-body problem is relevant today, albeit in a world which measures success in terms o f power and wealth but yet longs for what today we might term a spiritual dimension to our lives. The underlying principle for St. Thomas is that the rational soul is the unique form of the body, that is, that the soul actualises the body. Body and soul form a composite, a unity o f matter and form. In exploring the powers of the soul and St. Thomas’s explanation for the soul’s immortality I examine some of the interpretations made by contemporary Thomist scholars. St. Thomas emphasises the autonomy of the person, the capacity to reason and to make choices. In order to explore St. Thomas’s ethics I will consider intellect and will which are, for him, the two great powers of the soul and show that although distinct they are not separable. St. Thomas believes that we can and do act with real freedom, otherwise we cannot speak meaningfully about responsibility and in addition the application of reward and punishment would be futile. The second part of my thesis is a discussion of St. Thomas’s treatise on happiness, highlighting his conviction that human beings are not free in one respect - that is in their desire for the certainty of eternal life or beatitudo. According to St. Thomas human beings always act according to what we believe to be the ‘good’ but being human also means that we can be very much mistaken in our judgements and decisions. Finally I aim to show that St. Thomas’s overall achievement was to produce a synthesis of Christian philosophy with the natural philosophy o f Aristotle. Also, by drawing on elements from Jewish and Islamic thought, St. Thomas proves that it is possible for us in the twenty first century to move forward and to explore every avenue to find a common ground between the various disciplines of science, philosophy and theology. All have the common goal of seeking to understand and explore human nature and human destiny. (shrink)

The phenomenon of the proliferation of holiday homes, particularly in remote and isolated areas, has provoked widespread concern regarding the fate of the indigenous rural community. The central concern of this thesis is to investigate how the rural community is adapting to the presence of the outsider as both a temporary and permanent resident, by examining the interaction between local and outsider resident in order to get a sense of the dynamics involved in the restructuring of the rural community. The (...) study approached this central problematic, by looking at how rural space is being socially constructed as a result of this interaction, and how rural space is determining the dynamic involved in this interaction. The two rural villages which were chosen for this study, are located in regions of unique cultural and historical interest: Dunfarraig in the Burren region in the west of Ireland, and Gireux in the Cathar region in the south of France. Despite their empirical similarities, these villages have demonstrated quite different responses to the presence of the outsider, which has become apparent through a comparative analysis of the way in which concepts such as ‘community membership’ are played out in either context. The central findings of this research, has been to show how the landscapes of Dunfarraig and Gireux are being symbolically constructed as ‘suburban’ through the social practices of its residents, taking an abstract or social form in the French context, and a material form in the Irish context. Further, how these practices are appealing to a vocabulary of ‘suburbia’, located in the suburban imaginary of residents. These findings of ‘suburbia’ are premised on the theory that residents are constructing a view of the physical landscape for private consumption in the Irish context, and a view of the social landscape, for private consumption in the French context. However, the thesis ultimately defends the rural character of these two villages, maintaining that this interpretation of the ‘suburban imaginary’ is one way of understanding the complexity of these social practices. (shrink)

Postmodernism is a post Second World War movement that is the natural issue of its progenitor, modernism. That is, where early twentieth century and post First World War ‘modern’ intellectuals held that it was their privilege and duty to restore order to a fragmented and chaotic world, post Second World war thinkers hold that since world order is an unachievable and therefore fruitless ambition, all humankind can do is make the best of what they have. One could say that where (...) modernists attempted to put the shattered shell of Humpty Dumpty back together again following his tumble from the wall, postmodernists feel that all one can do is do what one can with the pieces. Postmodernism is also associated with a movement that arose when writers and thinkers, in the wake of Saussure’s revelation that the words we attach to things are purely arbitrary, turned their iconoclastic gaze on universal concepts or ‘grand narratives’. This thesis sets out to show that postmodern consciousness is not a recent phenomenon, but, as a critique of the fragility of the claims made by exponents of the notion of metanarratives or ‘universal concepts’, it is evident in the philosophy of the eighteenth century Italian philosopher, Giambattista Vico. The title of this thesis, ‘Vico’s Road to Postmodernism’, is something of a play on words of the theme that James Joyce, who, as will be shown, Ihab Hassan identifies as a postmodern thinker, took for his book Finnegans Wake. It seems that Joyce, who declared that his imagination soared whenever he read Vico, as a tribute to the Italian philosopher, begins the narrative of his famous novel at the Vico Road in the South Dublin suburb of Killiney. Not only is there a link between the name of this road and Giambattista Vico, but the view of Dublin Bay from this road is said to replicate the view of the bay of Naples, Vico’s native city. (shrink)

For Aristotle, prudence or practical wisdom is a virtue of thought that is practical rather than theoretical and deliberative rather than intuitive. It is the intellectual virtue that perfects reasoning in regard to decision making in the realm of human action. To have this virtue is to be good at thinking about how to live a fulfilled life as a whole, and to be successful in so doing. The prudent person is the only one who is truly just, courageous and (...) temperate, and the good person is truly good only if he is prudent. According to Aristotle, there is a fundamental connection between prudence and moral virtue. This connection depends on the pre-existence of certain natural qualities. Although Aristotle stresses the importance of prudence and the ethical life, he holds that the human person - endowed as he is with the divine element of reason - is capable of an even higher way of life. This is the life of contemplation, the life dedicated to the appreciation of truth, the life that is closest to the way of life of the gods. For St. Thomas Aquinas, Aristotle is the Philosopher. In treating of prudence, Aquinas follows Aristotle very closely especially in his Commentary on Aristotle’s 'Nicomachean Ethics He teaches that prudence is a virtue of the practical intellect that is related in a particularly close way to the moral virtues. In order to be morally good, a person needs the moral virtues, and these in turn need the judgment of prudence. Aquinas’s interpretations of Aristotle’s notion of prudence are more accurate than, and indeed represent improvements on, those advanced by other leading authorities ofh;s time, including St. Albert the Great in his Super Ethica. In ways that are significant, he changes and develops some of Aristotle’s teachings on prudence in both his Commentary on Aristotle’s ‘Nicomachean Ethics ’ and in some of his more theological works, e.g., his Summa Theologiae. For example, Aquinas holds that Aristotle’s conception of ultimate end or human flourishing - by Aristotle’s own statement - can only be realized in an imperfect way in this life. (shrink)

This thesis attempts to investigate whether Descartes’s epistemoiogy as presented in the Meditations should be interpreted in the traditional way, as an example of strong classical foundationalism or whether this traditional account needs to be revised. I will argue not only that the traditional account of Descartes’s epistemoiogy should be revised, but that there is a particular interpretation that may provide compelling reasons to adopt foundationalism. Foundationalism is presented as a theory of epistemic justification. In other words, foundationalism attempts to (...) answer the question: how can we justify what we claim to ‘know’? On the foundationalist account, there are basic beliefs whose justification does not depend on any other beliefs. Then there are beliefs whose justification does seem to depend on other beliefs, these are the non-basic beliefs. Foundationalist theories propose that the basic beliefs provide a solid foundation upon which the rest of our knowledge can be built upon. The attraction of a foundationalist theory is that if it is true, then it may provide a solution to the infinite regress problem. When we claim to know something, the sceptic can ask: how do you know? When we provide an answer to that question, once again the sceptic may ask, and how do you know that? This process could continue indefinitely, in other words an infinite regress of justification is set up. The foundationalist view is that at some point we must reach a base of knowledge which is not in need of further justification. (shrink)

The course of music in Ireland in the last two centuries presents a depressing picture. The creative legacy furnishes little evidence of a race artistically inclined or culturally cognizant. Yet the large and exquisite store of folksong has earned the people the reputation as a musical nation, a standing enhanced by the pioneering dedication of the early collectors and the proselytizing work of Thomas Moore. Their industry was consistent with the growth in ethnic consciousness universally evident in the wake of (...) the French Revolution. This novel pride was termed nationalism, and the phenomenon proved both pervasive and durable, exercising appreciable influence on all aspects of civi1izat ion. This study seeks to draw together these various strands. Prompted by the discrepancy between reputation and realization in relation to Irish music, it proposes to examine this shortfall in the context of wider social and political issues, and employs an interdisciplinary approach to arrive at an explanation. It does not purport to be an history of music; but, rather, an examination of the art’s progress in the light of a forceful determinant. It suggests that nationalism, that most protean of entities, has exercised a crucial influence on music, far greater than hitherto allowed, and has been responsible for its tardiness in responding to the cultural eclosion of the late nineteenth century. (shrink)

This study profiles the experiences of Irish immigrant entrepreneurs in Boston and New York. Through an in-depth analysis of the types of immigrants who become entrepreneurs and the role of ethnicity in mobilizing opportunities, this work advances our understanding of how immigrant entrepreneurs adapt ethnic strategies in response to local, transnational and global economies. This study develops two important concepts that enhance our understanding of the dynamics of immigrant entrepreneurship. Firstly, this work introduces a model of immigrant entrepreneurship which emphases (...) migrant orientation as a mode of economic activity. Mode of orientation focuses on how immigrant entrepreneurs adapt strategies of localism and cosmopolitanism to accommodate different forms of capital within diverse networks and markets. Secondly, this work develops the concept of the diasporic enclave to explore the role of local and transnational networks among immigrant entrepreneurs. The diasporic enclave provides a new framework for understanding how immigrant entrepreneurs mobilize ethnic solidarity, which accounts for the important role of migrant networks both within the host society and the homeland. In particular, it increases our knowledge of how migrants use different forms of capital to navigate local networks within the host society, and transnational networks that span global markets. IX. (shrink)

Summary This dissertation studies the historical development of the Irish Catholic bildungsroman from James Joyce to Edna O ’Brien and John McGahern. Specifically, this study is focused on the construction of sexuality in this genre. The novels are therefore read in conjunction with those d iscourses of sexuality that were circulating in Irish Catholic culture between the First World W a r and the Second Vatican Council. The first chapter reconsiders the concentration on issues of public morality that characterised Irish (...) Catholicism in the early twentieth century, and most acutely in the two decades after independence. In the second chapter, I discuss the epistemic shift in the understanding of modern sexuality that was occasioned by the historical emergence of sexology and psychoanalysis, before moving on to develop a close reading of Joyce’s A Po rtra it o f the A rtis t A s a Young Man (1916). The third chapter contains close readings of two novels by Kate O ’Brien, and locates O ’Brien’s narrative aesthetic, and the conception of sexuality that informs that aesthetic, within the broader historical context of Irish intellectual and political culture in the 1930s and 1940s. The next chapter analyses advice literature produced for Irish teenag ers between the 1940s and 1960s and I argue that this literature exemplifies a significant shift in Irish Catholic thinking on sexuality. The writings of Maura Laverty and Patrick Kavanagh are discussed in Chapter Five. Their rural bildung sromane are read as innovative permutations within the development of this genre and as complex interventions into mid-century debates about sexuality and Irish underdevelopment. Finally, Chapter Six offers close readings of Edna O 'B rie n ’s The Country Girls trilogy (1960-64) and John McGahern’s The Dark (1965). This chapter locates the distinctive narrative aesthetic and plotting of these bildung sromane within the history of the genre, and also reconsiders the critical consensus about the relationship between these novels and Irish modernisation. (shrink)

The process of contemporary gentrification is a key feature of post-industrial growth and urban re-generation. A central concern of this research is to investigate the implications of the process of gentrification at the level of locality. This study approached this investigation by an examination of these processes within a particular inner city neighbourhood in Dublin called Ringsend. It is the understandings and experiences of contemporary processes that this research has aimed to capture. The aim of this research was to examine (...) the changes occurring in Ringsend at a particular point in time and in a particular context. Ringsend is an inner city working-class ‘urban village’ in Dublin, Ireland. The identity of Ringsend as ‘place’ is deeply entwined in its industrial development. However, since the 1970s Ringsend’s industrial base has been constantly eroded. In recent years Ringsend has attracted considerable private investment as the area is undergoing a shift to a post-industrial landscape. The process of contemporary gentrification is extremely visible in the built environment. The aim of this study was to capture these shifts as they are occurring and as the landscape changes further the opportunity to explore this particular juncture may not arise again. The central findings of this research indicate the importance of ‘place’ in recent transitions. However within these changes place is being re-imaged and re-structured. Further this research also highlights the importance of the specificity of locality in gaining a deeper insight into the process of contemporary ‘gentrification’. Finally this thesis argues that the changes occurring in Ringsend are impacting on understandings of ‘community’ and community re-generation. A central theme within this study is that while the shift to a post­ industrial society is advantageous for capital accumulation contemporary gentrified sites, increasingly surrounded by walls and gates, function as symbols of the uneven development of contemporary urban renewal. (shrink)

Since the land act of 1881 initiated the process of vesting Ireland’s greatest natural resource in a single class, the legacy of peasant proprietorship for Irish social and economic development has been the subject of much debate and comment. Few, however, have considered its implications for the other group indigenous to the land, the agricultural labourers. Largely synonymous with decline, this thesis challenges the tendency to write this class off as a sector o f note by establishing them not only (...) as Ireland’s largest single wage earning group until the 1960s but also its poorest and most disadvantaged. At a time when states began to actively intervene in society to protect the interests of their weaker members, this thesis explores Irish state policy towards the agricultural labourer. It examines how the state balanced the needs and interests of this disadvantaged group with those of the remainder of the farming community when agriculture was considered the country’s primary industry and the family farm the cornerstone of a self sufficient rural Ireland. Framed around the activities of the Agricultural Wages Board, a statutory minimum wage fixing body which operated from 1936 until 1976, this study carries out a detailed analysis of its performance in regulating the economic position of the agricultural labourer over forty years. Comparisons are drawn with the wages and hours of work of other Irish workers and comparable workers in the UK and Northern Ireland. Viewing this wage fixing machinery and its governing legislation as a reflection of government policy towards this class, its effectiveness is established by drawing reference to similar measures provided for other workers in Ireland and the UK. The systematic exclusion of the agricultural labourer from the modem labour code introduced for other workers around this period is for the first time examined in this study, and how this institutional stigmatization impacted on the agricultural labourer’s struggle to overcome his low status in Irish society. This thesis is essentially about a mindset which marginalised the agricultural labourer in Irish society until at least the 1970s. (shrink)

This thesis provides an in-depth argument for the inclusion of sound as formative in the social construction and shaping of urban spaces, and mobile mediation practices within the urban. This thesis: (1) advances theories of sound within sociology; (2) contributes new data on sound in urban development and spatial use; (3) interrogates the role of mobile mediation in navigating spaces of regeneration, and (4) explores these concepts with young teenagers. This research examines sound and the urban using Lefebvre’s theory of (...) space, particularly his theorization of symbolic spaces. It also offers a critique of the politicizing and policing of noise within the EU, as well as Ireland’s adoption of quantitative models to measure sound. (shrink)

I wish, in this article to take the opportunity to present some of the preliminary results of my preparatory investigations towards a first edition of Richard FitzRalph's Commentary on the Sentences. FitzRalph later became famous (or infamous) because of his criticism of the incursions of the religious orders into what he regarded as the proper preserve of the secular clergy. Much of the attention of scholars has concentrated upon the figure of Armachanus contra omnes, and little has been devoted to (...) his university career. The work of G. Leff was rather negative regarding his originality as a lecturer; he depicted our 'Ybernicus' as a traditionalist, as someone who ignored or was unaware of new ideas. In fact, the truth is rather different: FitzRalph was an extremely successful and influential lecturer. A close reading of his Commentary on the Sentences shows him not only to be one most representative of the Oxford tradition of the late 1320s but also to be one of its foremost protagonists. For this reason, my concern here will be with his earlier 'scholastic' work and, in particular, with the philosophical themes which he developed in the course of the surviving records of his teaching as a lecturer in Oxford. (shrink)

Adolf Reinach (1883-1917) is most often remembered for his role as a teacher of phenomenology or as a philosopher of law, yet the range of subjects covered in his surviving published and unpublished works is diverse. As scholars such as Kimberley Baltzer-Jaray have argued, Reinach's contributions to philosophy, and in particular his influence on the early phenomena logical movement, have been underestimated in the past. It is of both historical and philosophical importance, therefore, to identify and recognise the contributions that (...) Reinach made across the many fields his works touch upon, including that of ethics. This thesis argues that Reinach made a number of significant contributions towards the development of early phenomenological ethics, and although his works contain neither a complete nor a comprehensive systematic theory of ethics, this is no reason to overlook or dismiss the importance of his work in this field . The thesis demonstrates that Reinach's works on ethics were original; that they influenced other early phenomenologists in the development of their ethical theories; and, ultimately, that they were and remain valuable additions to the field, discussing value-theory, the problem ofnormativity, motivation, freedom and responsibility, and more. This thesis comprises two parts. Part one examines and assesses Reinach's contribution against his immediate philosophical background incorporating a discussion of how Reinach's works on ethics fit into his body of work as well in relation to other contemporary philosophers (e.g., Brentano, Husserl, Scheler, Stein) who advanced the development of early phenomenological ethics. To support the interpretation, part two of the thesis contains appendices of three relevant extracts from Reinach 's published and unpublished works, translated for the first time into English (with original German text supplied). These translations are also intended to be ofvalue in making Reinach's works on ethics more accessible to English-speaking scholarship in the future. (shrink)