School of Historical and Philosophical Studies - Theses
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ItemMy shtetl Shepparton : the Shepparton Jewish community 1913-1939(University of Melbourne, 1985)
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ItemJawa : an adaptive strategy in a marginal environment(University of Melbourne, 1985)
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ItemT. S. Eliot and Senecan Drama( 1985)
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ItemReflective equilibrium, and Dworkin's theory of adjudication( 1985)The thesis examines the reflective equilibrium method of moral reasoning and theory-formation, and a central feature of Dworkin's theory of adjudication. This feature is the claim that there are two dimensions to the theory of law Dworkin requires a judge-to develop, a dimension of fit with the legal materials of the judge's jurisdiction, and a dimension of political morality. The central theme of the essay is the comparative roles of moral intuitions in a moral theory, and legal materials in a judge's theory of law. It is argued that background moral considerations should not be compromised by consideration of such facts as a person of group holding a particular moral conviction, or a court having decided a certain legal issue in a particular way in the past. It is the moral soundness of such matters, rather than their mere existence, that counts. Three objections to the reflective equilibrium technique are examined. The first objection holds that the technique presupposes that ordinary moral convictions have an unjustifiable epistemic standing. According to the second objection, it cannot be shown that the theory resulting from the technique is necessarily preferable to the 'input' intuitions. The third objection claims that that only by making assumptions that render the technique redundant is it capable of producing a moral theory in a non-arbitrary way. Various arguments put forward against these objections by proponents of the equilibrium technique are investigated. In particular, attention is devoted to the distinction between narrow and wide equilibrium, as developed by Norman Daniels, and to Dworkin's 'constructive' model of the coherence theory of morality underlying the technique. Concerning Dworkin's theory of adjudication, the essay examines two possible interpretations of the dimension of fit to a judge's theory of law, and the relation between the concept of legal materials and a judge's 'theory of mistakes'. The question of whether the dimension-of political morality is concerned with positive morality, critical morality, or some combination of the two, is then considered. Most importantly, the essay investigates the relation between the two dimensions, and asks whether they are genuinely compatible, or whether the admission of the dimension of political morality to a judge's theory of law does not result in the exclusion of the dimension of fit. We defend a theory which avoids these faults, and which is preferable to Dworkin's theory on his own premises, for it is more capable of respecting the right he takes to be basic, the right to equal concern and respect.
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ItemEarth science in the scientific revolution 1600-1728( 1985)Although recent historians of Earth science have attempted to show that the geological achievements of the seventeenth century provided the basis for the nineteenth-century development of geology, they have tended to regard seventeenth-century Ideas mainly as constructive elements in the preparation of the nineteenth century's approach to the Earth and have failed to treat them as being legitimate in their own right. My approach here is different from my predecessors not only in that I end my arguments by the mid-eighteenth century but also in that I attempt to illuminate the development of Earth science in seventeenth-century England as an integral part of the Scientific Revolution. Standard textbooks on the Scientific Revolution have discussed the development of physics, chemistry and biology, but not Earth science. This thesis discusses an aspect of the Scientific Revolution which has not previously been fully recognised. In the early seventeenth century the study of the Earth was not a distinctive discipline, but the formation of the Royal Society of London later in the century provided a forum where different approaches to the Earth could come into contact. The Society's plan for natural history facilitated the introduction of each programme, and eventually, by the mid-eighteenth century, created a basis for geology. I suggest here that the "internal" development of Earth science was conditioned by "external" factors such as the formation of the Royal Society and the ensuing interaction between scientists. I challenge the internalist historian's conviction that the "internal" development of science is autonomous and absolute. I even claim that the large-scale pursuit of Earth science was stimulated and motivated by "cultural values". Unlike the externalists, however, I do not intend to show any relation between the science and the value orientation of a society as a whole, because such an approach does not explain why conflicts at various levels occurred within a scientific community and eventually created a basis for geology. Therefore, this thesis is an attempt to synthesize the "internal" and "external" approaches to the history of science.
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ItemRationality and rule-following( 1985)
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ItemStress and identity: Australian soldiers during the first World War( 1985)Historical treatment of Australian participation in the Great War has been profoundly influenced by the work of Dr. C.E.W. Bean (1880-1968), its principal, official historian. Much modern scholarship has been stimulated by his claims about the distinctive character of the Australian Imperial Force, its members and military performance, and the importance of their experience in the creation of a national consciousness. The Anzac legend which emerged from the Gallipoli campaign and its sequel has proved a popular issue amongst postwar Australian historians, some of whom have investigated the experience of ordinary Australian soldiers, drawing on their diaries and letters - sources which, Bean warned, need to be treated circumspectly. Bill Gammage's The Broken Years, now 10 years old, is the outstanding work in this field, but I have no doubt he wouldn't claim it was necessarily the last word in every respect. This thesis explores war experience further, concentrating on the detailed insights diaries and letters provide of the psychological impact of the war on Australian troops - especially the acute and chronic stress and on the ways in which their changing national consciousness and attachment to home were partly a product of this and also helped them endure. The diaries and letters in the La Trobe Library of 179 servicemen formed my main sources, but I have also read widely in such sources in the Australian War Memorial, Canberra, to check their representativeness. In interpreting these diaries and letters, I have taken advantage of some seminal work by English military historians and of recent findings by American and English social psychologists and psychiatrists. (From Introduction)
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ItemPortraiture and patronage in quattrocento Florence with special reference to the Tornaquinci and their chapel in S. Maria Novella( 1985-03)Containing over forty portraits, the frescoes by Domenico Ghirlandaio in the cappella maggiore of S. Maria Novella provide the opportunity to investigate the function and context of Quattrocento portraiture. Burkhart’s famous notion of Renaissance “individualism,” usually seen as a sufficient explanation for the rise of this genre, is rejected in favour of corporate, especially family, motivations and modes of address. This necessitates an examination of consorterial traditions and patterns of patronage which are registered in the Tornaquinci chapel and enabled the acquisition of patronage rights to the chapel by the entire consorteria in October 1486. A biography is also supplied of Giovanni Tornabuoni, the man who paid for the decoration of this, his family monument, and closely supervised its progress.
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ItemBonegilla Reception and Training Centre: 1947-1971( 1985-08)In 1945 the Australian Government created the Department of Immigration. Its purpose was the promotion of a solution to Australia’s limited natural population growth in the face of defence fears and of an Australian society which, using the voices of its politicians, was increasingly willing to depict itself as an isolated and threatened British outpost. The fears themselves revolved as much around the defence of a singularly British heritage in terms of political, social and economic institutions, as a purely geographical or military threat. While the “threat” was more often perceived as assuming an Asian or non-European identity, Australians also had a history of feeling socially insecure when confronted by “non-British groups” within their own shores; the extent of that insecurity varying according to more specific ethnic categorisations within the general “non-British” label (i.e. northern c.f. southern Europeans, western c.f. eastern Europeans). The significance of the post-war period is that within two years of the formation of an Immigration bureaucracy by a party which had traditionally been hostile to immigration, an immigration programme had also begun to be formulated which would eventually allow, encourage, and financially assist, the introduction of groups which, traditionally, were depicted as posing the very threat to Australian homogeneity which immigration had been posited as assuaging.