Tentative Criteria for Evaluating High School Literature Curriculum Outlines

A thesis presented to the Members of the Graduate Committee of Morehead State Teachers College by Paul Clay Burns in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in August of 1947

The Preexistence of the Soul in the Early English Enlightenment: 1640-1740

This dissertation assesses the English revival of the metaphysical Platonic doctrine of the soul’s preexistence against the backdrop of the philosophical, cultural, and religious changes that defined seventeenth-century intellectual life. The reemerged doctrine of preexistence was the last important gasp of strict metaphysical dualism, and through the writings of its defenders, the idea became incorporated into the primary philosophical innovations of modernity, scientific materialism, democratic equality, and what Charles Taylor calls exclusive humanism. But preexistence did not persist in seventeenth-century life only in philosophical argument, but in literary creations and ideas with practical human import. Between 1640 and 1740, Henry More, Anne Conway, Thomas Traherne, and the anonymous author of Præexistence (1714) express the idea of preexistence in poetry, philosophical and scientific prose, and even social polemic. This dissertation thus looks at the affective content of ideas, understanding William James’s point that behind all philosophy are affects and feelings, not merely logical sequences. Henry More (1614-1685), the Platonist author who introduced the doctrine of preexistence to England, in his texts negotiates the gap between Christian orthodoxy and his own belief in the soul as a spiritual entity equivalent to God. Chapter One “Henry More and the Possibility of Metaphysical Poetry” analyzes how this negotiation appears through More’s strategic deployment of allegory modeled on Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene and his explosive metaphor of the soul as a “ray” of the divine sun. Lying between the sociopolitical poles of high and very low-church Protestantism, More’s metaphorical praxis promotes preexistence to convey the individual’s power to save herself without the intermediaries of church hierarchy and scripture, a radical position his most perceptive Calvinist contemporaries criticized and his most radical followers expanded and developed. Indicative of the growing influence of materialism—promoted by Thomas Hobbes and Margaret Cavendish, More’s immediate student Anne Conway (1631-1679) departs from More’s strictly immaterialist version of preexistence and envisions a composite spirit-matter soul, most similar to the animist materialism of John Milton. Chapter Two “The Very World: Early Modern Metempsychosis as Proto-secularism” examines Conway’s semi-material soul and the complex process of soul transmigration that expands human identity from an individual and anthropocentric singularity to a composite non-human entity that shares a deep kinship with all physical nature, living and otherwise. In Conway’s account, the soul is not separate from but a part of physical nature. At the same historical moment when preexistence theology incorporated materialism, the poet and Anglican divine Thomas Traherne (1636-1674) envisions a version of preexistence verging on philosophical idealism. Chapter Three “Visions of Eternal Being in Thomas Traherne’s Writing” examines the idealized conception of an eternally self-existing soul in Traherne’s Centuries of Meditation. Unlike the previous authors who define their terms with metaphysical precision, Traherne falls back on the appearance of eternality—the transcendence of time—that characterizes certain perceptive and meditative moments of consciousness. Patiently describing such moments when the soul becomes subject and object of mental experience simultaneously, Traherne displays a human soul incapable of non-existence, harm, or distraction, a position that transcends individual interest and embodies aesthetic universality. Immateriality confronts materiality in the works of the Deists who believe in preexistence, as shown in Chapter Four “Gnostic Deists: Preexistence after Milton.” The author of the Milton imitation, Præexistence (1714), paradoxically combines a metaphysical belief in the preexistent soul with hostility toward Christian theology. Displaying the shipwreck of spiritual humanism upon the shores of skeptical materialism, the author of this poem and other contemporary Deist authors present life as unredeemed suffering, emblematized by the preexistent soul as a hapless divine entity stuck inside a permanently suffering body. This paradox exemplifies the spiritual crisis of Enlightenment modernity, one that cannot justify the spiritual aspirations of human beings but simultaneously cannot abandon those aspirations. Complexly expressed in literary images, metaphors, paradoxes, and new ideas and affects, this mythology draws human life to the absolute center of cosmic import and transforms the individual from a subject of the creator God into a semi-divine, self-authorizing figure, born in eternity and unlimited in scope and agency. Seen in historical perspective, the revival and dissemination of the doctrine of preexistence is thus both a refuge from Enlightenment and an espousal of Enlightenment principles. Preexistence theology inaugurates affects and ideas, such as materialism, individualism, nihilism, and pessimism, that are nevertheless anti-secular in the etymological sense, unlinking human experience and identity from the saeculum, the Christian age between Incarnation and Last Judgment. As an emergent theology without religious mediators, the preexistence theology of the seventeenth century anticipates similar spiritual revolts in Romanticism and the New Age movement

Quest for a Bright Line Personal Jurisdiction Rule in Contract Disputes—Burger King Corp. v. Rudzewicz, 105 S. Ct. 2174 (1985)

The United States Supreme Court has returned to a personal jurisdiction methodology similar to that used a century ago. Under the traditional nineteenth century doctrine, the Court applied concrete and mechanical rules in jurisdiction disputes. With increased social mobility and technological advancements, however, these rules became inadequate. Responding to the deficiencies of its doctrine, the Supreme Court formulated a flexible test for personal jurisdiction in International Shoe Co. v. Washington. Gradually, the Court\u27s flexible test turned into a vague doctrine, incapable of consistent application by lower courts. The inconsistency caused by the Court\u27s rule also affected businesses that desired predictability for conducting their transactions. Accordingly, since the late 1970\u27s, the Court has been chipping away at the abstract, flexible test enunciated in International Shoe by reasserting bright line, concrete jurisdictional rules for various factual situations. Recently, in Burger King Corp. v. Rudzewicz, the Court stopped short of providing a concrete rule for personal jurisdiction disputes in contract situations. Prior movement toward bright line tests, however, suggests that the Court is searching for a personal jurisdiction rule applicable to contract cases. The Court should adopt, for contract disputes, a rule favoring buyer\u27s or consumer\u27s forums. A clear rule is particularly crucial for contract relationships where predictability and certainty are prime objectives. The most satisfactory rule for obtaining certainty in contract cases would, at the threshold, determine whether one of the contracting parties is an individual consumer or a commercial buyer.4 If an individual consumer is participating in the transaction, the consumer\u27s forum should be the place of litigation. If there is no individual consumer, there should be a presumption in favor of the commercial buyer\u27s forum as the place of litigation

Determining the Impact of Wind on System Costs via the Temporal Patterns of Load and Wind Generation

Wind Energy, System Costs, Alternative Energy, Electricity Generation, Environmental Economics and Policy, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, Q4, Q42, Q54,

Primary Care Provider Views of the Current Referral-to-Eye-Care Process: Focus Group Results

Purpose. To understand the barriers facing primary care providers (PCPs), including nurse practitioners (NPs) and physician assistants (PAs), in the current referral-to-eye-care process and to solicit suggestions from PCPs on how to improve the current referral system. Methods. Four focus groups were conducted with a total of 17 PCPs: two groups with physicians (MDs): one in a rural setting and one in an academic medical center setting and one group of NPs and one of PAs, both in an academic setting. All discussions were audiotaped and transcribed, and both authors performed content analysis of the transcripts with the assistance of qualitative software. Results. The most frequently cited referral barriers included: (1) poor communication from eye care providers (ECPs), (2) patients' lack of finances/insurance coverage, and (3) difficulty in scheduling an eye care appointment. Suggestions made in all groups on ways to improve the current referral system included (1) implementing electronic medical records (EMRs), (2) receiving better communication/feedback from ECPs, (3) having ophthalmologists hold clinic days in primary care facilities, and (4) performing retinal scans in primary care clinics. We found few differences between the opinions of MDs and those of NPs and PAs. Conclusions. PCPs desire change(s) in the current referral-to-eye-care system. Better communication between PCPs and ECPs, further implementation of EMRs, and increasing eye screening in primary care clinics were common themes. Implementing specific suggestions, such as modernizing medical record systems, may help to increase eye care utilization among patients at high risk for advancing eye disease and vision loss

TEMPERAMENT AND COGNITIVE FIT: AN EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION OF TASK PERFORMANCE

This study examines the fit between an individual’s temperament (a biologically driven cognitive antecedent to personality) and information representation and their impact on decision making task performance. Building upon the theory of Cognitive Fit, we propose that varying temperaments meaningfully affect the way in which individuals perceive the problem task representation and therefore impact their decision making task performance

Beyond Adoption Intention: Online Communities and Member Motivation to Contribute Longitudinally

As online communities are becoming more and more relevant to business, it is critical to understand why individuals are motivated to contribute content longitudinally. In this paper, we draw on existing literature on motivation and technology characteristics to conceptualize a model of longitudinal content contribution. We view longitudinal content contribution phenomenon as a recursive process of interaction between contributors, other participants and IT artifact of online communities. We conclude with the implications of our conceptual model for future research

TRUST IN TECHNOLOGY: DEVELOPMENT OF A SET OF CONSTRUCTS AND MEASURES

Trust plays an important role in many Information Systems (IS)-enabled situations. Most IS research employs trust as a measure of interpersonal or interfirm relations, such as trust in a Web vendor or a virtual team member. Although trust in other people is important, this paper suggests that trust in the information technology (IT) itself may also play a role in shaping IT-related beliefs and behavior. To advance trust and technology research, this paper presents a set of trust in technology construct definitions and measures. These construct measures will be examined using tests of convergent, discriminant, and nomological validity. This study will contribute to the literature by offering a) a framework for distinguishing between trust in people and trust in technology, b) offering a theory based set of definitions necessary forminvestigating different forms of trust, and c) developing measures useful to research and practice for evaluating trust in technology