School of Historical and Philosophical Studies - Theses

Permanent URI for this collection

Search Results

Now showing 1 - 10 of 17
  • Item
  • Item
    Thumbnail Image
    State and local government relations Prahran 1850-1863
    Malone, Betty ( 1955)
    Dealing as it does with only one suburban municipality, and with the first two enactments on municipal government and the period of less than a decade between them, this somewhat specialized study only scratches the surface of the work waiting to be done an municipal history in the middle 19th century. Mr. Weston Bate, in his more detailed study of Brighton, has also stressed this need for balanced historical research on local history. The first section of the following thesis is, to sane extent, a companion piece to his history of another suburban locality. Similar studies remain to be tackled on the other 13 suburban municipalities incorporated before 1863, especially those where, unlike Brighton or Prahran, the Corporation of Melbourne was vitally interested. The Melbourne Corporation itself would provide material for a similar thesis. Only when such work has been done could a rounded interpretation of the metropolitan district be attempted. Similarly, the rural districts, whether gold-raining, squatting, agricultural or mixed areas, have much to yield the research worker.
  • Item
    Thumbnail Image
    Healing without hospitals : homeopathy and medical pluralism in nineteenth century New South Wales (1840-1880)
    Bak, Tao ( 2000)
    As in the neighbouring colony of Victoria, homeopathy in colonial New South Wales attracted the support and attention of a wide cross section of society. In this thesis I concentrate on the varying ways in which homeopathy made its presence felt within New South Wales - with particular focus on the period 1840-1880. Linking itself with colonial ideals of progressive social reform, homeopathy in New South Wales, much like its counterpart in the United States, managed to establish itself in opposition to the `conservative' element within nineteenth century society. In a colony which has been described as `excessive' in its preoccupation with liberalism, the New System of homeopathy in New South Wales fitted neatly with both the anti-orthodox sentiment prevalent within New South Wales society, as well as the vision of a better, more egalitarian world which many colonists brought with them to the new country. During the 1850s the homeopaths and their supporters concentrated their efforts on the Sydney Homeopathic Dispensary both as a symbol of progress of the New System within the colony and as a means by which to extend the social benefits of this cheaper, milder and (for many) more effective medicine to the broader community. During the 1860s, with the Dispensary struggling to remain viable, the homeopaths attempted to secure legal support for the New System, petitioning the government to provide homeopathic treatments in government funded hospitals. During the 1870s, the homeopaths made their presence felt primarily through their role in blocking the repeated attempts of the regular medical profession to secure regulatory (restrictive) medical legislation within the colony. Focussing in particular on the public and political debates surrounding Sir Alfred Stephen's 1875 Medical Bill, I focus in the last section of my thesis on the nature of the opposition to restrictive legislation in the colony. I argue that this opposition needs to be understood not only in terms of the lack of unity within the regular medical profession itself, as has often been emphasised, but on the existence of a coherent and self-conscious defence of medical pluralism within the colony - a campaign within which the homeopathic movement in New South Wales played a central role. Working primarily outside of the bounds of the symbolic markers of professionalism (institutions, journals, societies,) often associated with a mature and influential medical tradition, homeopathy in New South Wales was less visible than in many comparable places during the nineteenth century, but no less influential.
  • Item
    Thumbnail Image
    An examination of an argument of E.L. Mascall's in The Christian universe
    Hughes, David John Malcolm ( 1977)
    E.L. Mascall's book The Christian Universe was chosen as as a basis for this thesis because the argument he presents there is a distinctively modern attempt to provide a justification for religious belief. Although it is not merely a reiteration of the traditional arguments, it is deployed in the same way to provide grounds for belief in God. While not dismissing or discounting the value of recent work done in clarifying uses of language in religious contexts -- indeed, the methods and fruits of linguistic and conceptual analysis have been employed in interpreting and assessing the force of Mascall's argument -- there remains the substantial question of whether engaging in religious discourse finally has any point. The impetus to investigate this problem - and thus Mascall's attempt to answer the problem - was gained from an article by- H.E. Root ("Beginning All Over Again," Soundings, A.R. Vidler (ed.), C.U.P., London, 1966). In it be upbraids Christian theologians who . suppose, they can justify their beliefs by reference to revelation. He points out that unless they can give a more appropriate reason for what they believe "there are no grounds for believing that a Christian scheme is preferable to some non-Christian one" and the choice between "Christianity and some other religion (or note) becomes arbitrary, irrational, even trivial" (p.13). There are no easy solutions to this old problem of justifying belief in God. It is significant even to make a small advance in understanding what could provide such a justification. In treating Mascall's argument attention has been paid to the distinct notion, implied there, that the 'usefulness' of the belief -- the function it performs in satisfying the human need for sense and meaning in life -- is a basis, or part of a basis, for asserting that there is such a God, To treat grounds for belief in this way provides a. new insight into theistic argument.
  • Item
    Thumbnail Image
    William Thomson 1841-1851 : Thomson's program of Natural Philosophy and the historical development of the concept of energy
    Osorio, Jose Carlos ( 1999)
    It is the aim of this thesis, first, to investigate the historical development of Thomson's physico-mathematical theories during the period 1841-51, centred especially on the fields of electricity and magnetism, that led gradually to the emergence of Thomson's concept of energy. Second, to reconstruct Thomson's investigations during this decade under the scope of a program of natural philosophy in the Scottish tradition of abstract dynamics. For this purpose, I have identified two different epistemological grounds in Thomson's work. One, determined by Thomson's program of natural philosophy, whose aim it was to establish a Mathematical Core common to various fields of the natural sciences. The other, determined by Thomson's investigations in electromagnetism - ie, Thomson's program of natural history. Therefore, the task of reconstructing Thomson's work during the decade 1841-51 under the tenets of abstract dynamics became, on the one hand, to set the relationships established by Thomson between his programs of natural philosophy and natural history; on the other, to describe the gradual development of Thomson's mathematical core as it grew in complexity and extension. In the end, I conclude that it was precisely because this common mathematical ground, applicable to various fields of natural phenomena, and established during the decade 1841-51 under the guidance of a program of natural philosophy, that the convertibility and the ubiquitous character of the concept of energy could have been grasped and understood by Thomson.
  • Item
    Thumbnail Image
    A history of occupational health in Victoria until 1980
    De Silva, Pamela Elizabeth ( 1998)
    A History of Occupational Health in Victoria until 1980 In the flurry of activity in occupational health which began in the late 1970s, the impression was often given that nothing had been done before. In fact the State Governments made a considerable contribution to occupational health prior to this time, a contribution that has not previously been documented. The main theme of the thesis is the role of science in the prevention of occupational disease, with emphasis on the scientific work of the State Occupational Health Divisions, particularly in Victoria. Subsidiary themes concern the public administration of occupational health; the history of union involvement in occupational health; and the effect on occupational health of the changing political climate in the 1970s. The history of occupational health in Victoria began around 1900 with concern about the health of miners. In the beginning most of the work - including the chemical analysis of industrial pollutants - was done by physicians rather than scientists. In 1937 the Industrial Hygiene Division was set up in the Department of Health under the direction of,-- Dr D.O. Shiels. Eventually specialist inspectors and scientists, later known as Industrial Hygienists, were employed in the Division, an arrangement that continued until 1982. In that year the election of a Labor government in Victoria marked the start of a new attitude to occupational health, which placed less emphasis on a scientific approach to_ the assessment of occupational health hazards and more on the use of industrial relations as a means of protecting workers health. The history until the 1980's divides into three eras: prior to 1937; from 1937 - 1956 when Dr D.O. Shiels was appointed Industrial Hygiene Medical Officer in the Department of Health and established the Industrial Hygiene Division; and from 1956 - 1980 when the Division was under the control of Dr A.J. Christophers. Within this chronological framework, the thesis illustrates the effect on occupational health of various labour, industrial and governmental activities by means of a series of small case studies. These are: (i) the anthrax deaths in the 1950s which illustrate the IHD's scientific approach to problem-solving; (ii) the phosphine inquests which illustrate some of the attitudes of unions, employers and expert witnesses; (iii) a case of arsenic poisoning, claimed to be due to eating contaminated mussels and said to be a government cover-up; iv) the involvement of the IHD in other environmental health issues; (v) the 1951 Benzene Regulations which resulted in the cessation of the use of benzene as a solvent, despite the initial reaction from industry that no substitute was available; (vi) the wharf on-call service and the attitude of the waterside workers; (vii) the cases of methyl chloride poisoning that resulted in the promulgation of the Methyl Chloride Regulations banning the use of methyl chloride as a refrigerant; (viii) the story of asbestos in the blue Harris trains, which illustrates the differing attitudes of scientists and workers to the question of risk assessment, standard-setting and the acceptability of occupational risk; (ix) the activities of the IHD in monitoring exposures to asbestos and silica, illustrating some of the constraints under which the Division worked. (x) the response of the IHD to radiation hazards, which illustrates the effect of current social concerns on the direction of public policy. Written by Janet Sowden April 1998
  • Item
    Thumbnail Image
    Rawls's approach to political philosophy
    Sniedovich, Shoshana ( 1996)
  • Item
  • Item
  • Item
    Thumbnail Image
    Merleau-Ponty and the body : some comments on the phenomenological approach to the person
    Berry, Catherine ( 1962)
    In this thesis I intend to sketch out some of the most interesting concepts Merleau-Ponty uses which contribute to our understanding of the person. I will approach his notion of the person through his concept of the world, since it is always in the context of the world that I do in fact know myself and other people, and it is therefore in this situation that I must consider man if I am to understand him conceptually as well as existentially. This will lead to a consideration of the notion of the human body, as it is likewise always through the body that I meet other people, communicate with them and act In the world myself. Then I will try as best I can to assess Merleau-Ponty's contribution to and originality in his phenomenology of the person, and in doing so, I will raise a few questions which need further study.