The central purpose of this PhD project is the search for meaning by the writer of the thesis,by its principal researcher,through/with the active collaboration of his research advisers. There are called supervisors,but it would seem that the mode of guidance he presently enjoys may be better understood as advising rather than supervision,since his guides are operating m,ore in terms of the Platonic notion of the teacher as midwife of the students own truth,capacity for knowing than the more modern understanding of the teacher as someone who imparts knowledge.Meaning of what,about what?Meaning of life,a unifying understanding of the experience of being,as can be perceived from his own vantage point and as can be thereby related to the experiences of others.

Stephen Hart argues that you can not discover how the world works in a PhD. Implying,I think,that the penetration of thought,the leisure for extended reflection, the scope of expression required for such foundational thinking is not the province of the PHD but is better suited to a more assured,less socially dangerous context,where the stakes of success or failure are not as acute. Since time is limited on the PhD. Particular constraints have to be observed. The candidate has to work within/in relation to specific academic requirements which might not always be compatible with the kind of quest implied an exploration of how the world works. Professor Hart made that point in passing while advising me about the choice of a PhD topic. His reception of my enquiry as to whether I was qualified to PhD in comparative literature at University College,London has been vital to my eventual PhD candidacy in that university. His response helping to redefine my self perception into that of a person who could gain admission to an institution which he had long admired from afar but I did not think he could belong to,with his present qualifications,at least no to the program in comparative literature.