Virginia Woolf’s views of consciousness in relation to art and life

Virginia Woolf is most often treated by critics as a "stream of consciousness" writer, whose main concern was to represent the varying shades of consciousness in its response to changing impressions and experience. Otherwise, her contribution is seen to lie in her experiments affecting the outward form of the novel: for example, the use of the interludes in The Waves. These presuppositions have caused critics to find many things obscure or unintelligible in her novels. Even sympathetic commentators have accused her of "haziness, vague in definability of meaning: precisely the kind of uninterpretable symbolism which is also to be encountered in other forms of art of the same period.” The purpose of this thesis is to demonstrate that the real basis of Virginia Woolf's novels lies in her own theories about the nature of man and his relationship to his universe: her books are intended to express her personal notions of consciousness, identity, immortality, society, the world of solid things, and of the relationship between art and life. Also, through her novels, her thought may be seen to form a coherent and developing whole. Thus the aim of this study is to show that Mrs. Woolf is a philosophical novelist, and that her works of art are essentially novels of ideas. A recognition of the structure and unity of each of her works does in fact depend on a knowledge of these ideas. Consequently, the body of this thesis is devoted to a close analysis of her novels and other writings in order to discover the nature of her important notions, and then to determine the way in which they affect the content and literary technique of the novels. Attention has been paid tox the part played by her circle of friends, the Bloomsbury Group, in forming her ideas, and reference has also been made to relevant aspects of the literary and social atmosphere of the times, and to the prominent figures - such as G.E. Moore, Bergson, Bradley, and William James - who contributed mast to the current climate of ideas. The results of this study have enabled definite conclusions to be drawn, and, I believe, have proved this approach to be successful. On the basis of this study's findings, the majority of what has been thought difficult and confusing in the novels has here been clarified, her symbols have been explained, and a new and accurate understanding of Mrs. Woolf's meaning has been made possible. Thus, in addition to its purpose of establishing its main thesis, this study may largely be considered a complete study of Virginia Woolf. The thesis has been organized according to the separate novels, partly for the sake of clarity, and partly due to the coincidence that there are nine novels, and nine separate sections in the life-cycle of The Waves. It was hoped that the thesis itself Would thus provide an additional illustration af "significant form".1. Auerbach, Eric, Ittmesis, Princeton: University Press, 1953, 551

An inquiry into the effect of the intellectual revolution of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries on the coming of the French Revolution

Since the late seventeenth century a lively debate has been in progress concerning the worth of history. Although professional historians no longer abuse their credit with the public, which as ceased seriously to question their veracity, the debate goes on. This historical Pyrrhonism of the seventeenth century was no based upon irresponsible skepticism; the fables, folk legends, and pure inventions preserved in the histories of the period had reduced history to a mere art form. The subsequent attempt to correct this situation, through it produced a reliable body of information, has tened to reduce history to a narrow objectivity that scarcely dares think for itself. Thus Voltaire remarked, with more moderation than he usually addressed to the subject, The qualification in which historians are commonly defective is a true philosophical spirit... For Voltaire, true philosophy begins with Bacon and Locke; hence the true philosophy begins with Bacon and Locke; hence the truce philosophical spirit\u27 of which he wrote is the scientific spirit

The (self-) fashioning of an eighteenth-Century Christian philosopher : religion, science and morality in the writings and life of Jean Henri Samuel Formey (1711-1797)

Defence date: 19 January 2018Examining Board: Prof. Ann Thomson, European University Institute; Prof. Stéphane Van Damme, European University Institute; Prof. Thomas Ahnert, University of Edinburgh; Prof. Daniel Fulda, Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-WittenbergIn 1750 the Prussian Huguenot and secretary of the Royal Academy of Science in Berlin, Jean Henri Samuel Formey, published a book entitled Le Philosophe Chrétien. This event marked not only a significant peak in his life and career, but it also is a significant example within a canon of several European events that emblematically represent the particularly diverse and partially ambivalent character of the middle decades of the Eighteenth Century: In 1751 the first volume of the Parisian Encyclopédie appeared, and it quickly obtained the reputation of spreading religious heterodox and anti-clerical ideas. Moreover, it was shaped and it circulated amongst authors that held materialist and sometimes even atheist ideas.1 Besides this, the Encyclopédie provided the leitmotiv for the eighteenth-century pursuit for truth and human progress: in his Discours préliminaire to the Encyclopédie, d'Alembert depicted the predominance and universality of philosophy as a science of reason, which comprised all kinds of subjects including religion.2 Simultaneously to the encyclopedic project of universal knowledge and trust in human reason, Jean Jacques Rousseau campaigned for the opposite model in his Discours sur les sciences et les arts of 1750, in which he argued that the progress of the sciences had a negative effect on human morality.3 At the same time in Scotland, David Hume, in his Enquiry concerning the Principles of Morals brought moral philosophical theories to a peak that had fermented in the British Isles since the third Earl of Shaftesbury and Francis Hutcheson. Moreover, Locke's empiricist epistemology inspired Hume to present a theory of moral sense that was established on empirical observation, and according to which morality was determined by feelings and passions instead of reason alone. By linking morality to human nature, Hume's theory discarded the role of God and revealed religion in questions relating to morality, and he generally dismissed the fusion of religious and philosophical questions

The attitudes of typically developing young children toward their peers with disabilities : a review of the literature

The purpose of this paper is to review the literature on young children\u27s attitudes toward their peers with disabilities and its impact on the social interactions between typically developing preschoolers and their peers with disabilities. A three-step search and selection process resulted in eleven studies to be reviewed. The findings in these studies are presented around the cognitive, affective, and behavioral dimensions of attitude formation. Results indicate that while typically developing young children have a simple understanding of disabilities and state their intention to play with and include peers with disabilities they are significantly less likely to play and be friends with their peers with disabilities. Implications for future research are offered as well as implications for practice within early childhood settings