School of Graduate Research Student Theses
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Browsing School of Graduate Research Student Theses by Subject "A - Philosophy"
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- PublicationA Soft substance dualist: An investigation and appraisal of Richard Swinburne’s philosophy of mind(2016-02) Carter, Ian RossAre human beings complex organic machines or immaterial souls interacting with physical bodies? Richard Swinburne defends the later position. The thesis exegetes Swinburne's substance dualist position and offers a critique
- PublicationHabermas, Taylor, Marion, and the Post-Secular Public Sphere: Towards Friendship, Hospitality, and Mutual Learning(2022-11) 'Tringas, Konstantin F.'What is the optimum way to accommodate religious and other diverse voices in the public sphere of modern representative democracies without at the same time endangering the secular or neutral character of its political institutions? In order to answer this question, the thesis discusses in turn the philosophy of Habermas, Taylor, and Marion. Habermas’ approach to this question has a number of limitations. In the thesis I propose the adoption of a more hermeneutic process of mutual learning and a more nuanced application of Habermas’ translation proviso. I argue that Marion’s philosophy provides a concept of love and charity which can be translated into friendship and hospitality in the public sphere. This case study provides a positive example of a religious contribution to the conduct of politics. I also argue that a more hermeneutic approach would lead to a more balanced relationship between universal laws and the affected individual.
- PublicationO Le Tofa Liliu A Samoa: A Hermeneutical Critical Analysis of The Cultural-Theological Praxis of the Samoan Context(2011-05-12) Tuisuga, Fa'alepo A.The central question of this study is: ‘How can we understand the Samoan church as an indigenous church of the twenty-first century?’ In the eyes of the adherents of the Ekalesia Fa’apotopotoga Kerisiano Samoa (EFKS) – also known as the Congregational Christian Church of Samoa (CCCS) – the Samoan life-world as it is now has been vigorously shaped and reshaped by the assimilation and integration of Samoan culture and Christianity since the arrival of the latter in 1830. The whole Samoan existential system, the fa’asamoa, which encompasses moral, ethical, cultural, political, economic and social factors, and indeed the spiritual values of Samoan society, has been conditioned by the interface between the two institutions – the EFKS, and Samoan culture. Reciprocally, the Christian faith and practice of the EFKS has been reshaped by the Samoan cultural context. The concrete actions and activities that constitute good Samoan life are what the term praxis denotes in this study. The sum total of actions and activities that derive out of the fine synthesis between Samoan culture and Christianity is described here as the ‘cultural–theological praxis’. This study is an attempt to interpret and understand the dynamics of the integration, interaction, and inter-relationship processes existing between Christianity and Samoan culture within the Samoan context. Thus, the overarching aim of this study is to critically analyse the cultural theological praxis of the EFKS setting; and to explore and establish a philosophical hermeneutic to both appraise and understand such praxis of the indigenous Samoan church context of the twenty-first century. I have developed this contextual philosophical hermeneutical approach from the indigenous notion of ‘O le Tofa Liliu a Samoa’ – ‘objective self-reflective wisdom of Samoa’. From the critical evaluation and analysis of the EFKS some suggestions are made as to further significant elements of possible contextualisation from the fa’asamoa, through which the EFKS may be made more relevant and participatory for its contemporary adherents, especially the younger generation. The hermeneutical approach O le Tofa Liliu a Samoa could establish a solid foundation for a more extensive review of the EFKS.
- PublicationThe opening and the entering are a single act: Divine and human agency in the realization of union in Meister Eckhart(2022) Knauf, ChristopherUnlike other medieval writers who schematize spiritual itineraries and prescribe ascetical means for coming to an awareness of oneness with God, Meister Eckhart is critical of such methods. This provokes the question concerning human agency: what would Eckhart have us do to realize the ultimate potential of every human soul?
- PublicationSaying by unsaying: The redemptive outworking of Terry Eagleton’s irony(2021) Curkpatrick, SamIrony is conventionally associated with subversion and self-contradiction, leading toward scepticism. This thesis makes a Christian theological argument that irony can otherwise open possibilities for redemptive engagements within present experience. This view develops from Terry Eagleton’s writings on human experience through an ironic structure that does not simply undercut meaning.
- PublicationA Sociological Investigation of the Religiosity and Spirituality of Australian Generation X Catholics: Who They Are and What They Believe(2022-09) 'Westmore-Peyton, C.'This thesis drew on data from in-depth interviews of 28 Australian Generation X Catholics (born 1965–1980) who attended Catholic schools, were raised as Catholics with two Catholic parents, and attended Mass weekly with their parents whilst growing up.
- PublicationThe Liberal Doctrine of Hell and Universalism: A Transcendental Approach(2017-02) Broadstock, DanielThis thesis engages in a dialogue with the Liberal doctrine of hell and Universalism, represented by Jerry Walls and Jurgen Moltmann. It deploys a Kantian methodology to conclude that their respective arguments constitute an antinomy. It suggests that the problem of Hell can be resolved by employing a theological adaptation of kant's transcendental idealism.
- PublicationThe Moral Status of the Human Person in Bioethics: An Orthodox perspective with special reference to human cloning(2009-05-08) Daniel, VargheseAdvances in medicine due to the adoption of scientific and technological innovations are significant, and such applications in human beings deserve a unique ethical justification. In contrast to the Western bioethical illumination that rationality and brain function are the key criteria to personhood, the author highlights the Eastern anthropological affirmation that all human beings are the image of God, and grow towards theosis. This concept attributes personhood to all humans, irrespective of their physical and cognitive capacities. The research unveils the scenario in bioethics where the application of ethical theories such as deontology (a priori agapeic) and utilitarianism (a posterioriagapeic) leads the question about the moral status of human beings, in the particular context of cloning debate, into two extreme positions. Hence, the author launches a middle path holistic (eucharistic agapeic) approach which could be more obliging in bioethics. This theory considers the human scientific pursuit as epinoia rather than cataloguing it as “playing God”, and it could be utilised for the benefits of humanity without being over impressed or mesmerised by it. However, the author argues that it is indispensable to adopt a global perspective with a love of wisdom.
- PublicationTruth and Knowing After Method: A Hermeneutic, Universal, Fiduciary, and Provisional Approach to Truth(2016) Mulherin, ChristopherThis thesis argues that a hermeneutic, universal, fiduciary and provisional approach to truth is the necessary condition and actual practice of all knowing, ranging through theology, history, art, and the natural sciences. This approach affirms robust truth, while avoiding both naive optimism about human knowing and a relativism that cannot make universal truth claims.
- PublicationThe Truth Can Set You Free: Christian Living and Human Transcendence(2014-03-19) Calder, JamieThis thesis contributes to recent research into the narratological or discursive basis of psychological personal identities. Drawing upon Bernard Lonergan’s understanding of the human subject, it develops a Christian theological anthropology of freedom that is informed by this discursive nature of personal psychological identity.
- PublicationUnfolding the Dharma: The juxtaposition of Michel Foucault's late work on the themes of religion and sprituality juxtaposed with Nagarjuna's Madhyamika philosophy(2011-05-12) Wicking, Andrew P.The present study engages an emergent field of scholarly interest - the relationship between Foucault and Buddhism. Specifically this study is concerned with the possibility and potential for a substantive conceptual relationship between Foucauldian and Madhyamika Buddhist philosophy. The study explores the deep cultural difference between Western and Buddhist conceptual domains with the aim of developing a framework for relating meaningfully Western and Buddhist concepts. To achieve this a new approach called ‘interface soteriology’ has been developed. The fundamental challenge posed by Foucault’s early work to the modern episteme of Man is well understood by scholars. In contrast, the task of constructively engaging his late work, from 1976 to 1984, is widely recognised as more difficult. This is due, in part, to the fact that Foucault published no major works after History of Sexuality Volume One, until 1984, when the History of Sexuality Volume Two: The Use of Pleasure and Volume Three: The Care of Self were released. Indeed, until recently most scholars had no access to his lecture courses of 1979-1983, especially those given at the College de France. Moreover, it is a biographical fact that Foucault’s personal encounter with Buddhism, documented by a series of secondary texts and a handful of miscellaneous references, all occur in the very context of this unpublished period of the latter 1970’s and early 1980’s. Given these facts, the present study asks: what if scholarship was to take seriously Foucault’s encounter with Buddhism? There have been three notable publications in the last six years, each concerned with understanding aspects of Buddhism through a Foucauldian lens: Mrozik’s “Cooking Living Beings”, Konik’s “Buddhism and Transgression” and Voyce’s “Buddhist Confession: A Foucauldian Approach”. The present study builds on the strengths of this scholarship but departs from it in a significant way to argue a deeper substantive common ground between Foucauldian and Madhyamika Buddhist thought.