Supervisory Committee Dr. Warren Magnusson, Department of Political Science (CSPT) Supervisor Dr. Rob Walker, Department of Political Science (CSPT) Departmental Member Dr. Michael Asch, Departments of Anthropology and Political Science (CSPT) Departmental Member Dr. Alan Drengson, School of Environmental Studies Outside Member Several scholars are now examining the emergence of ecology as a means for achieving tighter governmental regulations under the label of what they call green or ecogovernmentality. Adopting Michel Foucault‘s historical ontology, one of their critiques consists in problematizing the notion of Nature at the core of environmental debates as a political construct modulated by the historical conditions in which it finds itself. One implication of this is that ―Nature‖ has no normative implications except the ones we collectively fantasize about. Such a critique is often perceived as a threat by many environmentalists who are struggling to develop a global and intercultural perspective on environmental destruction. This dissertation suggests that Foucault‘s critical project should be examined from a more thoroughly ecological standpoint, leading toward the adoption of a broader, less ethnocentric and anthropocentric ontology. It explores the possibility of rethinking the concept of Nature at the core of political ecology from the standpoint of a relational ontology rather than an historical ontology. It argues that a relational ontology offers a possible alternative to historical ontology by posing our relations to ―Nature‖ not through the metaphysic of will and temporality assumed by Foucault (by which he asserts a universal state of contingency and finitude to deploy his critical project), but through a holistic understanding of Nature in terms of inter-constitutive relations. By being relational instead of historical, a relational ontology contributes to the formulation of open-ended and dynamic worldviews that do not operate against the backdrop of a homogenizing form of temporal universalism or constructivism, but rather poses the immanent differences and processes of diversification we are experiencing as the unifying and harmonizing principle by which we can rethink a more thorough egalitarian and non-anthropocentric standpoint for ecological thinking. Such a differential—yet shared—understanding of Nature could facilitate the development of an intercultural and non anthropocentric perspective on environmental destruction.

Essays in Metaphysics: Identity and Difference

Green governmentality and its closeted metaphysics: toward an ontological relationality

This essay considers the way and manner in which a musician and music educator approaches his or her work. It is suggested that anthropomorphic conceptions of music have endured in music education practice in the West. It is proposed that our view of the ‘processes’ of music making, music reception and music learning can be challenged and reconsidered. Heidegger's theory of art is used as a way of rethinking these processes, and of reconsidering our relational dimension with music. The unfolding of music in music‐events occurs as people ‘work‐with’ music and interact with its dimensions in a way that is culturally and dialogically vibrant. Music education can thus become more responsive to changing ‘modes of beings’ in the moment.

‘Working With’ Music: A Heideggerian perspective of music education

The 1991 Boswil Composition Seminar took place under the doubled thematic rubric of ‘Stille Musik’/‘Quiet Music’ and constituted a legitimating Ursprungsort for the fledgling Wandelweiser composers in attendance. This article explores the contexts in which silence emerges as the site of musical and philosophical contestation in Europe during the second half of the twentieth century, and examines the persistence of theoretical, literary and musical silences drawn from the thought and writing of Martin Heidegger, Jacques Derrida, Edmond Jabes and Alain Badiou in the work of Wandelweiser composers and Boswil prizewinners Jurg Frey and Antoine Beuger.

Stille Musik—Wandelweiser and the Voices of Ontological Silence

The Euthyphro’s Dilemma Reconsidered: A Variation on a Theme from Brody on Halakhic Method

This exegesis investigates the nature and construct of a musician’s Artistic Identity as it relates to the composer/performer construct arising in improvised music practice. As a Practice-led Research project the creation of significant musical works involving the creative processes of composition and improvisation were examined alongside a phenomenological investigation into the personal experience of Artistic Identity as realised through the author’s practice of music. Situated in the context of the ontology of being, the dialogue between the author’s reflexive engagement with her creative processes and creative output was at the core of this investigation. It was found that identity is a malleable construct that is open to reinvention and regeneration, a construct that is continually in the processes of becoming, propelled toward the future by ontological understanding of one’s self in relation to being-in–the-world. Yet as an epithet identity was found to be apprehended specifically in relation to a given time and circumstance. Therefore it was deemed necessary to investigate the construct of the author’s Artistic Identity in relation to its active cultivation in terms of current musical processes and outcomes. The creative work to arise from this investigation encompassed the recording of three studio albums of original works which in turn encompassed the primary data-set by which the author examined the performed outcomes of her creative output and the audible “stamp” of her Artistic Identity as evidenced in the body of her works. Additional data was collected through audio and audio-visual recordings of live performances and the keeping of a journal in which the author reflected upon the phenomenon of Artistic Identity as it was informed through her musical practice and research into literature on the subjects of music, identity, the philosophy of self and being. Analysis of this data enabled the author to distinguish the elements that contribute to her sound as an improviser and composer – the distinctive tonal qualities and utilisation of musical materials as evident in the body of her works, the utilisation and articulation of which facilitates selfexpression through the cultivation of a personal voice.

Essays in Metaphysics: Identity and Difference

Citations

Green governmentality and its closeted metaphysics: toward an ontological relationality

‘Working With’ Music: A Heideggerian perspective of music education

Stille Musik—Wandelweiser and the Voices of Ontological Silence

The Euthyphro’s Dilemma Reconsidered: A Variation on a Theme from Brody on Halakhic Method

Artistic identity: music and the mirror

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