Graduate Theses and Dissertations (Restricted)
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- "Que esta misa nos haga soñar"
- A lo largo de NuestrAmérica, comunidades eclesiales —algunas dentro y otras al margen de la iglesia católica romana— están creando nuevos rituales para sus celebraciones litúrgicas, ejerciendo una creatividad que se basa en y sobrepasa la interpretación normativa de la teología litúrgica que se ha desarrollado a raíz del Concilio Vaticano II. El presente trabajo explora, por un lado, cómo la recepción de tal teología conciliar por parte del magisterio episcopal latinoamericano y caribeño no ha madurado lo suficiente para atender las necesidades celebrativas de estas comunidades eclesiales y, por otro lado, cómo las comunidades mismas han retomado su propio protagonismo y creatividad litúrgica para celebrar de una manera que motive y alimente su praxis cristiana. A través de un proceso de investigación cualitativa sobre las celebraciones extra-ordinarias de las Comunidades Eclesiales de Base (CEBs) de El Salvador, como ejemplo y referente para la región, concluimos que la teología litúrgica expresada puede considerarse como fiel al Concilio y como desafío para la teología litúrgica normativa. En la primera parte de la tesis, abordamos la reflexión teológica y la enseñanza magisterial episcopal. El primer capítulo compara diferentes líneas teológicas que han influido en la recepción de la teología litúrgica del Concilio Vaticano II en NuestrAmérica, identificando un conjunto de reflexiones de(s)coloniales pendientes de incorporarse más plenamente a la tradición. El segundo capítulo traza la recepción de la teología litúrgica conciliar a lo largo de las cuatro Conferencias Generales posconciliares del Consejo Episcopal Latinoamericano y Caribeño (CELAM), concluyendo que la teología litúrgica resultante carecía de la profundidad y la madurez necesarias para que la liturgia cristiana fuera «cumbre y fuente» de la vida cristiana para muchas comunidades del subcontinente. El tercer capítulo analiza de cerca la recepción magisterial episcopal del Concilio en El Salvador, mostrando cómo una «eclesiología dual» propia del periodo posconciliar inmediato ha dado paso hoy en día a diferencias más extensas entre las CEBs y la institución eclesiástica. Tales diferencias han dado lugar a que las CEBs retomen su protagonismo y creatividad litúrgica para buscar celebrar su fe de manera coherente con su vida y praxis cristiana. En la segunda parte de la tesis, trabajamos las experiencias vitales y litúrgicas de las CEBs de El Salvador. El cuarto capítulo justifica el uso de métodos cualitativos de investigación para la teología, reconociéndolos como herramienta importante para las actuales teologías de la liberación y de las culturas. Identificamos aquí el papel y la actividad de un «sujeto teológico descolonial», como una «telaraña» de subjetividades que resiste y re-existe a pesar de la persistente colonialidad de la religión sacrificial. Es a un nudo de esta telaraña que giramos en el capítulo 5 para concentrar la mirada y el análisis en la práctica litúrgica de las CEBs de El Salvador con la teología que las anima, reconociendo específicamente en sus altares y en los momentos eucarísticos de sus celebraciones el espíritu de la teología litúrgica conciliar. Al final, las celebraciones litúrgicas y reflexiones teológicas de las CEBs representan una expresión de la tradición viva de la fe que sigue abriendo nuevos desafíos para la vida cristiana.
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- "Work Hard, Depend on Yourself"
- As increasing numbers of international students enroll at US universities, these institutions must consider how best to create inclusive campus environments that serve varied learning needs. While international student enrollment at schools of education remains low, some elite programs are drawing growing numbers, but there is a dearth of research regarding international students' transitions into this culturally-embedded field. These experiences warrant investigation so that faculty, administrators, and fellow students might better understand, accommodate, and empower the international students in their midst. The purpose of this dissertation is to describe how 7 female international students from China, South Korea, and India perceive their transition experiences in Master’s programs at an elite US graduate school of education. Three interviews were conducted with each woman, using questions based on Charmaz's (2006) life change protocol. Research sub-questions concerned: a) the decision to study in the US, b) the women’s personal characteristics and background experiences, c) challenges and changes, d) strategies, and e) forms of support. Grounded theory was paired with narrative methods to analyze and present findings, highlighting themes within and across participants’ transitions. Schlossberg’s transition model (Anderson et al., 2012) was used to interpret results, especially women's coping resources. Three main themes emerged: the complexity of self-determination, hard work and its limits, and marginalization and attempts to minimize it. Despite positive experiences, the women faced challenges. While most gained a sense of independence, some resented their new responsibilities and missed previous support networks. All women reported hard work as a key academic strategy, but their diligence was not always enough to transcend language and cultural barriers. Faced with segregation and/or marginalization in America, most women attempted to enrich their experience, surrounding themselves with caring people, volunteering, or seeking resources to achieve goals. The findings suggest that institutions of higher education should assess the social and academic needs of international Master's students and offer tailored support services that address language and cultural barriers inherent in their programs.
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- 3 Essays in Empirical Finance
- In the first essay, I examine the role of cross-listings in the digital token marketplace ecosystem. Using a unique set of publicly available and hand-collected data from 3,625 tokens traded in 108 marketplaces, I find significant increases in price and trading activity around the date of a token’s first cross-listing. Tokens earn a 49% raw cumulative return in the two weeks around the cross-listing date. Global token-trading volume is almost 50 times higher after cross-listing. Using the uniquely heterogeneous characteristics of token marketplaces, I am able to identify specific value-creation channels. I provide the first evidence supporting value creation through network externalities proposed by recent token-valuation models. Consistent with equity cross-listing theory, I find higher returns for cross-listings that reduce market segmentation and improve information production. In the second essay, we analyze a dataset of 4,003 executed and planned ICOs, which raised a total of $12 billion in capital, nearly all since January 2017. We find evidence of significant ICO underpricing, with average returns of 179% from the ICO price to the first day’s opening market price, over a holding period that averages just 16 days. After trading begins, tokens continue to appreciate in price, generating average buy-and-hold abnormal returns of 48% in the first 30 trading days. We also study the determinants of ICO underpricing and relate cryptocurrency prices to Twitter followers and activity. In the third essay, I examine reputation building by activist hedge funds and document two new findings with regard to hostile activism. First, there is evidence of a permanent reputation effect to hostile activism. Activist hedge funds that have engaged in hostile tactics, receive on average a 3% higher CAR [-10,+10] on their subsequent non-hostile campaigns, compared to hedge funds that have never engaged in hostile tactics. This abnormal return is positively correlated with the level of hostile reputation of the campaigning hedge fund. Second, I find that activist hedge funds with more hostile reputation modify their non-hostile activism style to engage “hostile-like” targets and pursue “hostile-like” objectives, but withhold the use of hostile tactics. These findings imply that hedge funds are able to build reputation using their past engagement tactics and that market participants value such reputation as evidenced by the higher announcement return observed in their targets.
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- Acculturation-related Measures, Ethnic Discrimination, and Drinking Outcomes Among U.S. Latinos
- With implications for chronic disease and mortality, alcohol-related problems represent a threat to population health. Among U.S. Latinos, the process of acculturation has traditionally been identified as a predictor of drinking outcomes. However, past research on the relationship between acculturation and drinking has varied widely, leaving uncertainties regarding the circumstances under which the relationship operates or the reasons why the relationship is observed. The present study therefore explored the intricacies of the relationship between acculturation-related measures and drinking outcomes among U.S. Latinos, highlighting within-group variation based on sex and heritage country/region and the importance of examining mediators. Using a population-based probability sample of U.S. adults (NESARC-III, 2012-2013), the present study examined data from 7,037 self-identified Latinos. Using multivariable regression analyses, the study tested relationships between various conventionally-used acculturation measures (including proxy measures and an acculturation scale) and a range of drinking outcomes: drinking status, average daily ethanol intake, and DSM-5 alcohol use disorder. Moderation analyses examined the role of sex and heritage country/region. Finally, the study employed mediation analysis to test the hypothesized role of self-reported perceived ethnic discrimination as a mediator in the relationship between acculturation-related measures and drinking outcomes. Results indicated a significant and positive, albeit modest, relationship between acculturation-related measures and a range of drinking outcomes. Many of these relationships varied by sex or heritage country/region, depending on the specific acculturation-related measure and drinking outcome examined. Notably, the link between acculturation-related measures and DSM-5 alcohol use disorder was consistent for men and women. For Latino men, results of mediation analyses indicated that self-reported perceived ethnic discrimination acted as a partial mediator in the relationship between two acculturation-related measures and past-year DSM-5 alcohol use disorder. This finding lends credence to the notion that ethnic discrimination and experiences of “othering”—which can accompany the process of acculturation—may help explain problem drinking in U.S. Latino adult men. Further research is needed to uncover the variety of experiences or structures of discrimination involved in problem drinking among U.S. Latinos. Mediators in the relationship between acculturation and problem drinking may provide opportunities for intervention to weaken this detrimental relationship.
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- Aflatoxin detoxification
- Aflatoxins (AFs) are secondary fungal metabolites that contaminate common food crops and are harmful to humans and animals. The ability to remove AFs from feed commodities will improve health standards and counter the economic drain inflicted by AF contamination. Strategies to mitigate AF contamination fall into three categories: physical, chemical, and biological. In this thesis, I explore the identification of degraders and degradation mechanisms, as well as their enhancement, within the context of chemical and biological strategies. Known chemical strategies have used strong acids and bases to remove contaminating AF, but these methods often lead to ecological waste issues downstream. Chapter 3 investigates the application of weaker acidic and alkaline conditions to remove two types of AFs, AFB1 and AFG2. I find that a weakly alkaline environment is sufficient to degrade AF, providing an alternative solution for chemical decontamination. Biodetoxification is a promising solution to AF contamination because of its low cost and few undesired environmental side-effects. Microbes possess a rich potential for removing toxins and pollutants from the environment. Despite the fairly wide availability of this potential, identifying suitable candidates and improving them remain challenging. In Chapter 2, I explore the use of computational tools to discover strains and enzymes that detoxify harmful toxins. Of focus is the detoxification of mycotoxins by biological enzymes. Existing computational tools can be used to address questions in the discovery of new detoxification potential, the investigation the cellular processes that contribute to detoxification, and the improvement of detoxification potential in discovered enzymes. I showcase open bioremediation questions where computational researchers can contribute and highlight relevant existing and emerging computational tools that could benefit bioremediation researchers. In Chapter 4, I screen several environmental isolates for their AF detoxification ability, using AFG2. I used different carbon sources (glucose and starch) as isolation and culturing media to examine the effect of the environment on degradation ability. Overall, I find that starch medium expedites the screening process and generally improves the performance of isolates, making this a promising method for identifying new degraders and enhancing their performance. Chapter 5 highlights the characterization of degradation by two promising Rhodococcus species, R. erythropolis and R. pyridinivorans. While previous work has identified their degradation ability, further investigation into degradation mechanisms has been understudied. Here, I explore the characterization of degradation mechanisms toward enzyme identification. Finally, the appendix starts to broach the question of enhancing degradation of known degrading enzymes, the example here is laccase from the fungus Trametes versicolor. Using molecular dynamic and quantum mechanics simulations to identify mutations of interest in increasing the affinity of laccase toward AF, I create five mutants to test their degradation against the performance of wildtype. These mutants show a range of improvements against AF and showcase the efficacy of this approach to enhancement. Together, this body of work highlights the importance of understanding AF degradation for the creation of new strategies of AF mitigation. My thesis provides a framework for developing AF decontamination strategies, from identifying degraders and unlocking their mechanisms to enhancing their performance.
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- Alexis De Tocqueville and John Stuart Mill on Liberty and Empire
- This dissertation investigates the liberal imperialism of Alexis de Tocqueville and John Stuart Mill, two of the most prominent defenders of liberalism in the 19th century. The principal question guiding the inquiry is whether their support for imperialism was compatible with their commitment to liberal politics as the best form of government possible in the modern world. The dissertation argues that both their liberalism and their imperialism ultimately spring from their respective understandings of human nature. What appear as incompatible strands of their thought are in fact deeply interwoven; both depend on theories of civilizational development and the malleability of human nature. Moreover, given the political exigencies of the 19th century, Tocqueville and Mill thought that liberalism was most likely to survive and spread if countries such as Britain and France that embodied it in customs, mores, and institutions maintained a prominent position on the international stage and a leading role in world affairs. When compared with previous liberal thinkers, Mill and Tocqueville have much in common. They conceive of their particular historical and civilizational moment as unprecedented, believing that its characteristics shape the possibilities for realizing a liberal political order. Yet their assessment of the challenges facing those who wish to spread liberalism depends on their divergent understandings of the prerequisites necessary for liberalism to be established and sustained. It is in light of their different understanding of the conditions and the purposes of a liberal regime that we can best understand their judgments about empire. Mill argued that the imperial rule of a liberal country could help less advanced peoples prepare themselves for political freedom. He did not regard the conquest of and undemocratic rule over “uncivilized” foreign peoples to be inconsistent with Britain’s commitment to liberalism because his understanding of liberal principles limited their application to “civilized” peoples. Mill’s ideas about liberty’s prerequisites guide his prescriptions for both rulers and ruled in empire: Britain will prepare “barbarian” peoples for the introduction of liberal ideas and she will maintain enough global security that liberty will have the opportunity to take root in foreign countries, enabling them eventually to take their place in a peaceful world order. Tocqueville’s concern for France’s international position was the most urgent reason for his imperialism. He argued that imperialism would advance France’s national interests, redounding to France’s glory, honor, and greatness. Tocqueville believed that French empire would foster strength in French politics and mores – strength which he thought was necessary for ensuring the longevity of democratic liberty in France. More broadly, Tocqueville’s understanding of the unfolding epochs of human civilization informs his thoughts about how greatness and liberty can be realized in a democratic age and about the role empire might play in advancing those aims.
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- All Talk No Action?
- Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are used by many educators for professional development (PD). However, only a few studies explored what educators’ goals in PD-MOOCs are and whether educators with different goals interact with MOOCs in different ways. These issues are addressed in three related studies described in this work. First, I conducted a literature review on MOOCs for educators and identified underexplored topics and underutilized data collection and analysis methods. I found that a few studies looked at educators’ learning motivations and none linked them to complex engagement patterns as measured using log data. In the second study, I used natural language processing (NLP) to identify teachers’ motivations in four MOOCs (n = 3,212) based on their responses to open-ended and Likert-style survey items. I also examined the association between these motivations, participants’ intention to complete the course, and actual completion. Three motivation groups were identified: Intrinsic, Professional, and Prosocial (i.e., taking the course to help students or improve the educational system). Participants with intrinsic motivations were less likely and those with prosocial motivations were more likely to plan to complete the course or to complete it even after accounting for initial intentions. In the third study, I compared the engagement processes of the three motivation groups in one course (n = 969). I found that the intrinsic motivation group was the most engaged during the course, but the prosocial group was the most engaged by its end. The prosocial participants were also the most interested in the course’s forum. These findings have theoretical and practical implications for the study of MOOCs and educators’ PD in general. They can, for example, be used to enhance PD design in a way that helps educators meet their individual goals. Rethinking the design of educators’ PD courses this way can potentially affect their teaching practice and thus, improve education for their students, as well.
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- All-Solution-Processed Transparent Conductive Electrodes with Crackle Templates
- In this dissertation, I first discuss many different kinds of transparent conductors in Chapter one. In Chapter two, I focus on transparent conductors based on crackle temples. I and my colleagues developed three (one sputter-free and two fully all-solution) methods to fabricate metallic networks as transparent conductors. The first kind of all-solution process is based on crackle photolithography and the resulting silver networks outperform all reported experimental values, including having sheet resistance more than an order of magnitude lower than ITO, yet with comparable transmittance. The second kind of all-solution proceed transparent conductor is obtained by integrating crackle photolithography-based microwires with nanowires and electroplate welding. This combination results in scalable film structures that are flexible, indium-free, vacuum-free, lithographic-facility-free, metallic-mask-free, with small domain size, high optical transmittance, and low sheet resistance (one order of magnitude smaller than conventional nanowire-based transparent conductors).
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- American Imperception
- “American Imperception” explores how early American writers investigated the role that political economy plays in the relation between sensory perception and knowledge. This dissertation argues that nineteenth-century American writers used literature to teach their readers to understand how economic forms and forms of economic activity fundamentally shape and train the sensorium to sense in historically and contextually specific ways. In “American Imperception,” I show how literature can make legible otherwise insensible forms of social and economic relations. The impossibility of sensing social and economic form—and the way in which that impossibility is rendered through literature—is what I call in this project “imperception.” Imperception describes the way in which literary form makes intelligible the structures of social, political, and economic life: structures that themselves cannot be sensed directly and which therefore cannot be directly represented by literature. “American Imperception” is focused on how literature interacts with social life within a capitalist modernity defined by the value form and the commodity form, and how literature formalizes the structures of social life through a specifically literary logic, transforming them into something that can be read where they cannot be seen, heard, felt, or represented. This dissertation draws on Karl Marx’s thinking on the senses and the suprasensible to consider how U.S. writers of the nineteenth-century mobilized literary form to make thinkable forms of sociality that cannot be contained by the imperceptible nature of sociality under capital. As I show in this dissertation, the political economy of social life determines what can be sensed, just as what can be sensed marks the horizon of political and social possibility.
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- Analogy, Spirituality and the Beatific Enjoyment of God
- The dissertation explores Bonaventure’s understanding of the doctrine of image and likeness in terms of analogy, spirituality and the beatific enjoyment of God. The concept had a patristic background, and there were two trends in interpreting the concepts of image and likeness: one which distinguished the concepts of image and likeness, and one which identified both. Irenaeus made a distinction between the image and likeness of God, whereas Augustine identified them. The monastic authors such as Bernard of Clairvaux, Hugh of St. Victor, and Richard of St. Victor contributed to develop the doctrine of image and likeness. In this period, monastic theologians constructed the idea that the image is a natural and inseparable endowment from God, while likeness is a supernatural gift. In his De sacramentis, Hugh articulates an important and influential statement: Imago pertinet ad figuram, similitudo ad naturam. Many of the medieval theologians, including Bonaventure, considered Hugh’s concept useful to interpret the distinction between image and likeness. Also, the affective reading of Dionysius by Hugh and Richard inspired Bonaventure to construct the spiritual theology in terms of affective ideology: Assimilation to God is more a matter of love than knowledge. Peter Lombard’s composition of The Book of the Sentences opened the possibility to talk about the image-likeness doctrine in terms of ‘uti’ and ‘frui,’ and of ‘res’ and ‘signa.’ Bonaventure further developed Lombard’s ideas, and he explicitly connected the idea of uti and frui, i.e., fruitio Dei, with the doctrine of image and likeness, i.e., the doctrine of analogy. In the scholastic era, the doctrine of image and likeness of God nuanced a new tone in that the schoolmen discussed the doctrine in terms of causal similarity between Creator and creatures, or of the metaphysics of causation. In this theological atmosphere, Bonaventure now relates visio beatifica to the theological argument of whether there is any convenientia between radically unlike things, such as God and creatures. According to Bonaventure, there is a convenientia between God and human beings in terms of comparatio duorum ad invicem. God as the formal object of the human soul “expressed/imprinted” God’s divine nature in the created order, that is, similitudo expressa. This divine likeness is the efficient cause for the human beings’ aspiration/capacity for God. It is important to notice that Bonaventure’s doctrine of analogy is a ‘theological instrument’ that plays between the doctrine of analogy and the spiritual life. Itinerarium is a fine theological and spiritual treatise that shows how Bonaventure sketches the course of the soul’s journey in terms of the godlikeness in the order of creation: vestige, image and likeness. For Bonaventure, St. Francis, a vir hierarchicus, is an ‘exemplar’ of a person who completes this assimilative/ascending process of the journey into God, and he becomes a ‘divine exemplar’ or a ‘similitudo expressa,’ benefiting others to ascend the ladder into the enjoyment of God. As an angelic person, Francis “descends” to the created order reality and participates in God’s providential care for the well beings of creatures including human beings.
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- Aquinas on Motion
- Motion is the central phenomenon that Aristotle's physics endeavors to explain, and the whole superstructure of his natural philosophy is bound to it. This was certainly understood by Thomas Aquinas, who produced a most careful and thorough account of the Aristotelian theory of motion. What is rarely recognized is that in so doing he developed and improved that theory in a number of respects. This dissertation is a study of the theory of physical motion in Aquinas. It has two principal results. The first regards the concept of motion itself. Aquinas accepts Aristotle's definition of motion, but gives his own explanation of it, one which employs non-Aristotelian ideas like participation, and places motion in a more general and cohesive system of relations between non-being and being. The second regards what is called natural motion, i.e., that which inanimate matter exhibits of its own accord. How Aquinas explains this has rarely been understood and has frequently been misunderstood. I provide a thorough, systematic treatment that sets forth the principles underlying Aquinas's theory of natural motion, explains in what sense such motion is said to be caused, and notes – what commentators are prone to overlook – the critical role played by analogy as an aid to grasp the causality of natural motion. Chapter 1 briefly introduces Aquinas as a medieval "physicist", i.e., natural philosopher, specifies the scope of the dissertation, and lays out the path to be followed in the succeeding chapters. Chapter 2 summarizes what Aristotle says about motion in his Physics. His definition of motion is presented, and the terms in which it is given are analyzed. As the definition is famously perplexing, and its meaning a matter of debate, the opinions of a number of modern commentators are reviewed. After having explained the primacy that Aristotle assigns to locomotion and the connection he establishes between motion and time, the chapter concludes with a section on the causes of motion. This covers Aristotle's arguments for the eternity of motion, his denial of pure self-motion, introduces his views on animal, natural, and violent motion, and concludes with the first mover and first motion reached at the end of the Physics. Chapter 3 is a short introduction to the tradition of Aristotelian commentary. It contains brief reviews of some of what Simplicius, John Philoponus, Averroes, and Avicenna say about the Aristotelian theory of motion, with especial attention given to those aspects of it with which they disagree or which they find troublesome. The next three chapters are devoted to Aquinas. Chapter 4 covers how Aquinas interprets Aristotle's definition of motion and how he integrates it into his own metaphysics. The chapter begins with two preparatory notes. First, it introduces Aquinas as a commentator, and stresses the importance of having the context of the commentary tradition in mind when reading Aquinas, because he belongs to it and approached Aristotle in much the same way as earlier commentators. This has the consequence that his own developments are somewhat concealed, since what he says in his commentary on the Physics is presented as straightforward exposition, without any suggestion of originality. Second, modern readers are cautioned not to import modern senses of "motion" unwittingly into Aquinas, as this leads to confusion. The point is made that his Latin usage is regular and well-defined. After this, Aquinas's interpretation of the definition of motion is presented and what he means by calling it "imperfect act" is explained. This involves a sophisticated theory of the order of act to act, and incorporates the Neoplatonic language of participation and perfection. The next section of the chapter presents some of the analyses that Aquinas makes of motion, including its mental character and categorization. It is noteworthy, yet in fact quite unnoticed, that Aquinas provides a subtle and inventive solution to a modern debate over the proper interpretation of the definition of motion (the so-called "process" vs. "non-process" debate) which reconciles the two sides. Finally, I present a visual analogy as an aid for grasping how motion fits into a larger Thomistic metaphysical scheme concerning the relationship between non-being and being. Chapter 5 treats Aquinas's account of natural motion. It begins by noting some of the problems involved with Aristotle's explanation of natural motion, including, critically, that of the cause of such motion. It then highlights the work of James Weisheipl, who rejected a motor coniunctus interpretation of natural motion and offered in its stead his own, one which has since become well-known. But a careful examination of what Aquinas says shows that Weisheipl's interpretation of him is incorrect, and must also be rejected. The chapter then lays out (1) the principles of motion and their schematic organization; (2) Aquinas's theory of efficient causality and how we are to understand his denial of the possibility of action at a distance; (3) his use of analogies to indicate how we are to understand the efficient cause of natural motion; and then finally (4) shows, first, how the multiplicity and variation of the analogies lead commentators to misread Aquinas, and, then, how they illuminate other aspects of his theory of motion. Chapter 6 treats, in turn, the much debated principle that "everything that is moved is moved by another", and then the arguments that Aquinas gives for the existence of an unmoved mover, which he takes to be God. With regard to the first, it is pointed out that the theory of inertia is not nearly so fatal to the principle as many historians of science assume. Indeed, understood in light of what was said about Aquinas's understanding of the efficient causality involved in natural motion in the preceding chapter, it is compatible with inertia. However, a review of the three arguments Aquinas takes from Aristotle purporting to prove the principle are all found to be subject to serious objections. Greatest attention is given to the argument drawn from the claim that a thing cannot simultaneously be in act and in potency in the same respect. With regard to the second, it is shown that what Aquinas has to say about the unmoved mover is perplexed and inconsistent. Aquinas accepts two series of arguments from Aristotle, one from the Physics that concludes to a first moving cause, another from the Metaphysics that concludes to a final cause. From the former, Aquinas constructs his own argument from motion, most famously presented as the prima via, but at times he attempts to combine the two Aristotelian series. It is shown that these attempts at harmonization involve Aquinas in inconsistencies. What the prima via revision concludes to is also discussed. An important observation is that the prima via is manifestly intended by Aquinas to be an argument from physical motion. Yet numerous commentators, perceiving its weakness, attempt to recast it in a non-physical form, such that "motion" no longer signifies what Aquinas intends. The chapter ends with some cautious remarks on the state of these highly controversial topics. Chapter 7 concludes the dissertation, first, with a brief recapitulation of some of its major points, and then with some speculation as to what use its results may have for future scholarship.
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- As Close as Lips and Teeth
- Why do communist party-states decide to enter or to exit a military alliance? What explains the existences of the Cold War-era China-North Korea and Vietnam-Laos alliances in a post-Cold War world? I argue that a communist party-state only enters an alliance if it shares security interests and ideological values with its military partner. In other words, the two variables are individually necessary, jointly sufficient. This is due to the party-state having to defend both the survival of the state and of the ruling communist party. Allying with a security compatible but ideologically hostile state poses threats to the communist party, while allying with an ideologically friendly but security incompatible state can endanger the interests of the state. A communist party-state exits an alliance if it no longer shares either security interests or ideological values with its ally. I evaluate the theory against three other alternative theories of alliance formation and deformation: balancing, bargaining, and bonding. I use the qualitative methods of structured-focused comparison and within-case process-tracing across seven cases of alliances involving a communist party-state. Those cases are Vietnam-Soviet Union, Vietnam-Laos, Vietnam-China, Vietnam-North Korea, North Korea-Soviet Union, North Korea-China, China-Soviet Union. I also test the theory against two cases of non-alliances involving military cooperation between a communist party-state and a non-communist state. They are China-United States and Vietnam-United States. I show that in all the cases, the communist party-state under investigation only joined or exited an alliance as the theory expects. My dissertation contributes to the contemporary scholarly and policy debates in the United States on the nature of contemporary military cooperation between China and Russia, Russia and North Korea, as well as Vietnam and the United States.