title: Extension, intension and dormitive virtue

authors: Legg, Catherine

subjects: Peirce

abstract: Would be fairer to call Peirce’s philosophy of language “extensionalist” or “intensionalist”? The extensionalisms of Carnap and Quine are examined, and Peirce’s view is found to be prima facie similar, except for his commitment to the importance of “hypostatic abstraction”. Rather than dismissing this form of abstraction (famously derided by Molière) as useless scholasticism, Peirce argues that it represents a crucial (though largely unnoticed) step in much working inference. This, it is argued, allows Peirce to transcend the extensionalist-intensionalist dichotomy itself, through his unique triadic analysis of reference and meaning, by transcending the distinction between (as Quine put it) “things” and “attributes”.

text: Extension, intension and dormitive virtue Would be fairer to call Peirce’s philosophy of language “extensionalist” or “intensionalist”? The extensionalisms of Carnap and Quine are examined, and Peirce’s view is found to be prima facie similar, except for his commitment to the importance of “hypostatic abstraction”. Rather than dismissing this form of abstraction (famously derided by Molière) as useless scholasticism, Peirce argues that it represents a crucial (though largely unnoticed) step in much working inference. This, it is argued, allows Peirce to transcend the extensionalist-intensionalist dichotomy itself, through his unique triadic analysis of reference and meaning, by transcending the distinction between (as Quine put it) “things” and “attributes”.

year: 1999

title: Work-family responsibilities and support for women academics in Pakistan

authors: Imran, Romana

abstract: Globally women have a long history of negotiating between public and private life.  While each individual woman undertakes such negotiation, all women’s lives are already shaped by historical, political, religious and cultural forces.  This study focused on contemporary academic women in Pakistan and their experiences of negotiation between professional and family responsibilities – in an Islamic nation, shaped by an imperial history. In particular it investigated both the possibilities and limitations of family and institutional support as women worked to fulfil both work and family responsibilities.  
This qualitative study employed semi-structured interviews, with individuals from three groups:  women academics, husbands of women academics, and heads of department of two Pakistani universities. The data from these interviews were then read alongside selected theory, to produce accounts of the visible and invisible discourses shaping the positions available to women as they navigate family and career responsibilities.  The study’s findings show that patriarchal traditions that position men as breadwinners and women as homemakers are disturbed when women take up career opportunities in academia, at the same time as patriarchal gender practices rob women of opportunities they have earned, as in examples of a woman giving up a job offer in favour of her husband, or giving an academic husband financial support for publication. As a further example of contesting discourses, the study identifies that academic women are expected to be productive on the terms of  globalised neo-liberal education at the same time as a traditional school curriculum and teaching practices position educated women - parhi likihi- as responsible for the basics of their children’s learning within the home.  Academic women are caught in the tension between the expectations of globalised tertiary education and the reality of the limited material resources in universities in a developing country.  The analysis of women academics’ accounts of family support includes few but significant examples of disturbing and resisting patriarchal gender practices, in ways that the thesis argues contribute to a “democracy to come”.   However, for the most part, the narratives of support include women academics’ husbands’ limited contributions and stories of women academics’ struggles, compromises and sacrifices of their own career progression for their husbands’ careers.  The thesis argues that identifying the possibilities of questioning and undoing patriarchal gender practices and producing alternative discursive practices might open up possibilities for gender justice within family and academic institutions.

text: Work-family responsibilities and support for women academics in Pakistan Globally women have a long history of negotiating between public and private life.  While each individual woman undertakes such negotiation, all women’s lives are already shaped by historical, political, religious and cultural forces.  This study focused on contemporary academic women in Pakistan and their experiences of negotiation between professional and family responsibilities – in an Islamic nation, shaped by an imperial history. In particular it investigated both the possibilities and limitations of family and institutional support as women worked to fulfil both work and family responsibilities.  
This qualitative study employed semi-structured interviews, with individuals from three groups:  women academics, husbands of women academics, and heads of department of two Pakistani universities. The data from these interviews were then read alongside selected theory, to produce accounts of the visible and invisible discourses shaping the positions available to women as they navigate family and career responsibilities.  The study’s findings show that patriarchal traditions that position men as breadwinners and women as homemakers are disturbed when women take up career opportunities in academia, at the same time as patriarchal gender practices rob women of opportunities they have earned, as in examples of a woman giving up a job offer in favour of her husband, or giving an academic husband financial support for publication. As a further example of contesting discourses, the study identifies that academic women are expected to be productive on the terms of  globalised neo-liberal education at the same time as a traditional school curriculum and teaching practices position educated women - parhi likihi- as responsible for the basics of their children’s learning within the home.  Academic women are caught in the tension between the expectations of globalised tertiary education and the reality of the limited material resources in universities in a developing country.  The analysis of women academics’ accounts of family support includes few but significant examples of disturbing and resisting patriarchal gender practices, in ways that the thesis argues contribute to a “democracy to come”.   However, for the most part, the narratives of support include women academics’ husbands’ limited contributions and stories of women academics’ struggles, compromises and sacrifices of their own career progression for their husbands’ careers.  The thesis argues that identifying the possibilities of questioning and undoing patriarchal gender practices and producing alternative discursive practices might open up possibilities for gender justice within family and academic institutions.

year: 2023

title: Ki te kapu o takau ringa - In the Hollow of my Hand: Wānanga based Photographic Approaches to Place Representation

authors: Hill, Rodrigo

abstract: Ka matakitaki iho au ki te riu o Waikato
 Ano nei hei kapo kau ake maaku; 
Ki te kapu o taku ringa, 
“I look down on the valley of Waikato, 
As though to hold it  
In the hollow of my hand.
 The words above are from Māori King Tawhiao’s maioha (song poem), a representation of his love for his homelands of the Waikato and the region known today as the King Country. Now imagine a large-scale photograph: a close-up of cupped hands, holding an object carefully. The phrase above informs Professor Tom Roa and Dr. Rodrigo Hill’s current research project titled ‘Te Nehenehenui - The Ancient Enduring Beauty in the Great Forest of the King Country’. With this project still in its early stages the research team will present early and ongoing creative practice developments, discussions and ideas about photography practice, wānanga, and place representation. The project promotes the use of wānanga (forums and meetings of focus groups through which knowledge - mātauranga - is discussed and passed on) and other reflective practices, engaging with and led by mana whenua (guardians of the land) providing a thread which will guide the construction of the photographic images. The research fuses wānanga, that is Mātauranga Māori (Māori Knowledge), and photography practice in novel ways, aiming to move away and challenge core photographic conventions and Eurocentric modes of place representation. Roa and Hill understand wānanga as a fluid practice of engagement which can be with mana whenua or with the taiao - the environment - either by itself or with the mana whenua. This is the essence of Kaupapa Māori Research.

text: Ki te kapu o takau ringa - In the Hollow of my Hand: Wānanga based Photographic Approaches to Place Representation Ka matakitaki iho au ki te riu o Waikato
 Ano nei hei kapo kau ake maaku; 
Ki te kapu o taku ringa, 
“I look down on the valley of Waikato, 
As though to hold it  
In the hollow of my hand.
 The words above are from Māori King Tawhiao’s maioha (song poem), a representation of his love for his homelands of the Waikato and the region known today as the King Country. Now imagine a large-scale photograph: a close-up of cupped hands, holding an object carefully. The phrase above informs Professor Tom Roa and Dr. Rodrigo Hill’s current research project titled ‘Te Nehenehenui - The Ancient Enduring Beauty in the Great Forest of the King Country’. With this project still in its early stages the research team will present early and ongoing creative practice developments, discussions and ideas about photography practice, wānanga, and place representation. The project promotes the use of wānanga (forums and meetings of focus groups through which knowledge - mātauranga - is discussed and passed on) and other reflective practices, engaging with and led by mana whenua (guardians of the land) providing a thread which will guide the construction of the photographic images. The research fuses wānanga, that is Mātauranga Māori (Māori Knowledge), and photography practice in novel ways, aiming to move away and challenge core photographic conventions and Eurocentric modes of place representation. Roa and Hill understand wānanga as a fluid practice of engagement which can be with mana whenua or with the taiao - the environment - either by itself or with the mana whenua. This is the essence of Kaupapa Māori Research.

year: 2023-10-25