This infinite, unanimous dissonance : a study in mathematical existentialism through the work of Jean-Paul Sartre and Alain Badiou

This thesis seeks to elucidate a motif common to the work both of Jean-Paul Sartre and Alain Badiou (with special attention being given to Being and Nothingness and Being and Event respectively): the thesis that the subject 's existence precedes and determines its essence. To this end, the author aims to explicate the structural invariances, common to both philosophies, that allow this thesis to take shape. Their explication requires the construction of an overarching conceptual framework within which it may be possible to embed both the phenomenological ontology elaborated in Being and Event and the mathematical ontology outlined in Being and Event. Within this framework, whose axial concept is that of multiplicity, the precedence of essence by existence becomes intelligible in terms of a priority of extensional over intensional determination. A series of familiar existentialist concepts are reconstructed on this basis, such as lack and value, and these are set to work in the task of fleshing out the more or less skeletal theory of the subject presented in Being and Event.

A Psychosocial Approach to Understanding Causality Assessment in Early Phase Oncology Clinical Trials: A Phenomenological Study

Research Question: What are the psychosocial factors that affect causality assessment in early phase oncology clinical trials? Methods: Thirty-two qualitative interviews were explicated with the aid of “Naturalistic Decision Making”. Data explication consisted of phenomenological reduction, delineating and clustering meaning units, forming themes, and creating a composite summary. Participants were members of the National Cancer Institute of Canada’s Clinical Trial Group Investigative New Drug committee. Results: The process of assigning causality is extremely subjective and full of uncertainty. Physicians had no formal training, nor a tool to assist them with this process. Physicians were apprehensive about their decisions and felt pressure from their patients, as well as the pharmaceutical companies sponsoring the trial. Conclusions: There are many problem areas when attributing causality, all of which have serious consequences, but clinicians used a variety of methods to cope with these problem areas.

Nietzsche's children : a physiological analysis of the scholar's task

Throughout Nietzsche's writings we find discussions of the proper relationship of the scholar/scientist to the philosopher, wi th the scholar of ten being presented in a derogatory light. In this thesis, I examine Nietzsche's por t rai t of the scholar through the lens of his physiological or clinical perspective as articulated by Dr. Daniel R. Ahern in his monograph entitled Nietzsche as Cultural Physician. My aim in doing so is to grasp the affirmative, creative aspect of this seemingly destructive polemic against scholars. I begin wi th a detailed discussion of Nietzsche's por t rai t of the scholar in Beyond Good and Evil. This includes an explication of Ahern's position, followed by an application of the diagnostic perspective to Nietzsche's discussion of the objective type, the skeptic, and the critic. I then look at how the characteristics of all three types are present in the Nietzschean 'free spirit.' I also discuss the physiological basis of esotericism in Nietzsche's work, as well as Nietzsche's revaluation of the scholarly vi r tue known as Red/ichkeit (or 'honesty'). I conclude wi th comments on the free spirit's relationship to the future.