‘Snakes and Ladders’ – ‘Therapy’ as Liberation in Nagarjuna and Wittgenstein’s Tractatus

This paper reconsiders the notion that Nagarjuna and Wittgenstein’s Tractatus may only be seen as comparable under a shared ineffability thesis, that is, the idea that reality is impossible to describe in sensible discourse. Historically, Nagarjuna and the early Wittgenstein have both been widely construed as offering either metaphysical theories or attempts to refute all such theories. Instead, by employing an interpretive framework based on a ‘resolute’ reading of the Tractatus, I suggest we see their philosophical affinity in terms of a shared conception of philosophical method without proposing theses. In doing so, this offers us a new way to understand Nagarjuna’s characteristic claims both to have ‘no views’ (Mūlamadhyamakakārikā 13.8 and 27.30) and refusal to accept that things exist ‘inherently’ or with ‘essence’ (svabhāva). Therefore, instead of either a view about the nature of a mind-independent ‘ultimate reality’ or a thesis concerning the rejection of such a domain, I propose that we understand Nagarjuna’s primary aim as ‘therapeutic’, that is, concerned with the dissolution of philosophical problems. However, this ‘therapy’ should neither be confined to the psychotherapeutic metaphor nor should it be taken to imply a private enlightenment only available to philosophers. Instead, for Nagarjuna and Wittgenstein, philosophical problems are cast as a source of disquiet for all of us; what their work offers is a soteriology, a means towards our salvation

The limit experience in modern French poetry and thought

The limit experience (l’expérience-limite or, in Georges Bataille’s formulation, l’expérience intérieure) is the experience of reaching a firm limit and yet transgressing it. It is thus co-implicated from the outset with an experience of limitlessness. Twentieth-century thinkers in pursuit of the limit experience, such as Maurice Blanchot, have tended to locate something of it in poetry. While critics have identified numerous limit crossings or aporias in literature more broadly, a dedicated structural analysis of poetry’s own liminality has not been proposed. This thesis therefore expands the thinking of the limit experience beyond its presumed borders, bringing it into connection with close readings of poems to develop an understanding of on what grounds, if any, poetry is a privileged site for the limit experience. Using notions of experience, experiment, exemplarity, induction, and accumulation to frame its approach to the research question, this thesis offers a theoretical contribution to the study of modern French poetry, deconstruction, post-structuralism, liminality, and post-Heideggerian poetics. It clearly elucidates the figure of the limit and that of experience, drawing significantly on the thought of Jacques Derrida. It advances that the limit experiences identified by critics in the literary realm are interconnected, and that they form a differential matrix. Then, through the analysis of a corpus of poems by twentieth-century writers Jacques Dupin and Louis-René des Forêts—and incorporating an awareness of poetry’s fine details, its internal patterns and forms, including doubling, metaphor, rhyme, enjambment, parallelism, hyperbaton, typography, metonymy, and chiasmus—this study suggests that the experience of poetry takes the form of a compressed, vibrating network of mobile limit experiences. The thesis’s primary claim is that poetry’s exemplary status within the thinking of the limit experience may derive from its experimental, multiplicitous, and differential structure. In this way, the thesis provides a literary-theoretical explanation for why poetry in particular has become a privileged site for the limit experience

The limit experience in modern French poetry and thought

The limit experience (l’expérience-limite or, in Georges Bataille’s formulation, l’expérience intérieure) is the experience of reaching a firm limit and yet transgressing it. It is thus co-implicated from the outset with an experience of limitlessness. Twentieth-century thinkers in pursuit of the limit experience, such as Maurice Blanchot, have tended to locate something of it in poetry. While critics have identified numerous limit crossings or aporias in literature more broadly, a dedicated structural analysis of poetry’s own liminality has not been proposed. This thesis therefore expands the thinking of the limit experience beyond its presumed borders, bringing it into connection with close readings of poems to develop an understanding of on what grounds, if any, poetry is a privileged site for the limit experience. Using notions of experience, experiment, exemplarity, induction, and accumulation to frame its approach to the research question, this thesis offers a theoretical contribution to the study of modern French poetry, deconstruction, post-structuralism, liminality, and post-Heideggerian poetics. It clearly elucidates the figure of the limit and that of experience, drawing significantly on the thought of Jacques Derrida. It advances that the limit experiences identified by critics in the literary realm are interconnected, and that they form a differential matrix. Then, through the analysis of a corpus of poems by twentieth-century writers Jacques Dupin and Louis-René des Forêts—and incorporating an awareness of poetry’s fine details, its internal patterns and forms, including doubling, metaphor, rhyme, enjambment, parallelism, hyperbaton, typography, metonymy, and chiasmus—this study suggests that the experience of poetry takes the form of a compressed, vibrating network of mobile limit experiences. The thesis’s primary claim is that poetry’s exemplary status within the thinking of the limit experience may derive from its experimental, multiplicitous, and differential structure. In this way, the thesis provides a literary-theoretical explanation for why poetry in particular has become a privileged site for the limit experience

The synthesis, coordination chemistry and catalytic applications of phosphinite, phosphonite and phosphite ligands containing perfluoroalkyl substituents

A review is presented of the development and application of liquid-liquid biphase systems in homogeneous catalysis and the concept and application of fluorous biphase systems (FBS) in catalysis. Novel monodentate phosphorus(III) ligands of general formula PhxP(OC6H4-4-C6F,3)3.x and PhCHF-* (x = 0, 1 or 2), and the phosphite ligands P(OC6H4-4-C8Fl7)3, P(OC6H4-4-C10F2i)3, P(OC6H4-3-C6F13)3 and P(OC6H4-2-C6Fi3)3 have been synthesised and fully characterised by 'H, 19F and 3,P{lcub}1H{rcub} NMR spectroscopy, mass spectrometry and elemental analysis. The monodentate phosphinite, phosphonite and phosphite ligands (L) have been reacted with a variety of transition metal complexes to form complexes of the type cis- and trans- MC 2L2 (M = Pt, Pd), cw- PtCl2(PEt3)L , M(n5-C5Me5)Cl2L (M = Ir, Rh) and RI1CIL3 . The complexes have been isolated and characterised using analytical techniques including H, 19F and 31P{lcub}!H{rcub} NMR spectroscopy, mass spectrometry, IR spectroscopy, X-ray crystallography and elemental analysis. The steric and electronic influences of the perfluoroalkyl substituents on the chemical and physical properties of the metal complexes have been assessed by comparison of their spectroscopic and structural data with that for their related protio complexes. Preliminary catalytic studies involving P(OC6H4-4-C6Fi3)3 as a modifying ligand in the rhodium-catalysed hydroformylation of 1-hexene and 1-nonene under FBS conditions have been undertaken. The influence of the perfluoroalkyl substituents on the rate of reaction, product selectivity and catalyst/product separation has been examined. The synthesis of bidentate phosphonite and phosphite ligands containing perfluoroalkyl substituents has been investigated. The derivatised bidentate phosphonite ligands (C6F13-4-C6H40)2PCH2CH2P(OC6H4-4-C6F, 3)2 and {lcub}5,5' - (C6F13)2-2,2,-02C,2H6{rcub}PCH2CH2P{lcub}2,2,-02C,2H6-5,5,-(C6F13)2{rcub} (L-L) have been reacted with transition metal complexes to form coordination complexes of the type PtCl2(L-L) and Rh(u-C1)(L-L)]2

Non-naturalist metaethical realism’deki evrimin epistemik zorluklarına karşı pre-established harmony yanıtını güçlendirmek

Cataloged from PDF version of article.Thesis (M.S.): Bilkent University, Department of Philosophy, İhsan Doğramacı Bilkent University, 2018.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 47-49).This thesis outlines a popular non-naturalist response to evolutionary debunking arguments against metaethical realism: the pre-established harmony response. I argue that the pre-established harmony response is unsuccessful on two grounds: it is anthropocentric and it is question-begging. I suggest that we can overcome both problems and leave the essential features of pre-established harmony responses intact by substituting a proxy function for the question-begging assumption. I suggest one such proxy function: The Combined Evolutionary Aim; use of which brings the added benefit of being less anthropocentric than earlier pre-established harmony responses.by Seyed Zacharus Gudmunsen.M.S