Les multiples voyages que réalise Potocki tout au long de sa vie lui permettent de faire l'expérience d'un monde relatif, dont la compréhension appelle, au-delà de la raison, d'autres moyens de connaissance. La variété des normes, des croyances et des valeurs qu'il enregistre témoigne d'une infinie diversité des hommes. Parallèlement à ses récits de voyage, l'auteur revendique pourtant, dans ses écrits historiques, politiques, et dans ses aphorismes, un universel humain, appréhendé à l'aune de la liberté. La thèse met en lumière comment l'auteur tente de faire coïncider cet absolu, posé de manière théorique, avec un très grand relativisme normatif, perçu de manière empirique, et dont il entend rendre compte par une éthique de voyageur, à laquelle il n'est pas toujours fidèle. Précisément l'analyse de cet écart, entre sa manière d'appréhender l'Autre et la démarche qu'il s'était imposée, est riche de sens et dessine des éléments de réponse qui déplacent la question sur l'articulation entre diversité et unité humaines. Celle-ci ne se fait pas sans heurts à l'échelle des Œuvres, mais elle trouve sa pleine expression dans la synthèse proposée par le Manuscrit trouvé à Saragosse. Ce constat amène à réfléchir aux possibilités heuristiques offertes par la fiction. Potocki se sert du roman comme d'un laboratoire pour soumettre l'homme à l'expérience de la philosophie du « comme si », et pour mettre à l'épreuve sa nature ontologique. Cette enquête, extrêmement féconde pour comprendre comment l'universel humain favorise paradoxalement la plus grande diversité des peuples et la singularité des individus, soulève néanmoins le problème du relativisme cognitif. L'être et le monde n'existent-ils, pour Potocki, qu'à travers un discours, une représentation ? / Built on a life-long series of travels, Jan Potocki's experience of a relative world calls, beyond the notion of reason, for the unveiling of new paths to knowledge. The wide variety of norms, beliefs and values he has recorded demonstrate the endless diversity of men. Yet, alongside his travel memoirs, the author has also depicted, in his historical, political works, as well as in his aphorisms, a universal humankind in its rapport to freedom. This thesis highlights the writer's attempt to match his search for the Absolute, as defined in theoretical terms, with a compelling normative relativism in its empirical perception. Thus Potocki sought to outline the ethos of the wanderer - without necessarily being true to it himself. The discrepancy between the way he related to his fellow men and the approach he had initially devised for himself is precisely where the analysis becomes meaningful, suggesting in its findings that the contention might in fact revolve around the junctures between the diversity of men and their notional oneness. While research may prove strewn with obstacles in Œuvres, it is most significant and highly relevant in the synoptic Manuscript Found in Saragossa, leading us to reflect upon the heuristic potential of fiction writing. Potocki uses the novel as a laboratory in which he subjects man to the philosophical experiment of the ‘as if', and puts his ontological nature to the test. However fruitful the investigation might be when it comes to understanding the paradox of how universality in men breeds growing diversity and individuality, it also raises the issue of cognitive relativism. Do humankind and the world only exist, according to Potocki, through verbal and mental representations ?

This work has four aims: (i) to provide an overview of the current debate about the semantics of knowledge attributions, i.e. sentences of the form ⌜S knows that Φ⌝; (ii) to ground the debate in a single semantic-pragmatic framework; (iii) to identify a methodology for describing the semantics of knowledge attributions; (iv) to go some way towards describing the semantics of knowledge attributions in light of this methodology, and in particular to defend moderate invariantist semantics against its main current rivals. Aims (i) and (ii) are largely clarificatory; in §1 I set out a single semantic-pragmatic framework and over the course of this work show that it can be modified to explain and distinguish the various theories of the semantics of knowledge attributions currently on offer. Aim (iii) is also met in §1. I argue that a theory of the semantics of knowledge attributions T must be able to account for at least some ordinary speakers’ intuitions about the felicity or infelicity of utterances of the sentence ⌜S knows that Φ⌝ (felicity intuitions) purely in terms of its semantics. I also identify a number of theoretical considerations about knowledge and argue that if T conflicts with any one of these considerations, we should presume that T is false. Aim (iv) is met over the course of this work. According to moderate invariantism ⌜S knows that Φ⌝ is true if and only if S confidently believes the proposition expressed by , this proposition is true and S’s epistemic position with respect to this proposition meets a moderately high epistemic standard. In §§2 – 5 I argue that the main current rivals to moderate invariantism – attributor contextualism, contrastivism, subject-sensitive invariantism and assessor relativism – conflict with at least one of the theoretical considerations identified in §1. In §6 I argue that moderate invariantism accounts for some ordinary speakers’ felicity intuitions purely in terms of the semantics of ⌜S knows that Φ⌝; I also argue that it is consistent with all of the theoretical considerations identified in §1. Moreover, in §§2 – 6 I argue that no theory is capable of accounting for all felicity intuitions purely in terms of the semantics of ⌜S knows that Φ⌝, and that only moderate invariantism can successfully explain why speakers have all of these intuitions. In §7 I conclude that moderate invariantism correctly describes of the semantics of knowledge attributions, or at least does so better than its main current rivals.

La liberté et l'universalité sont des critères de la moralité fondés en raison et qui n'admettentrien de relatif. Dans cette étude, nous soupçonnons le relativisme d’être à l’origine de la crisemorale d’aujourd’hui. Ensuite, parce ce que ce courant de pensée soulève un doute sur l’unitéde la raison, et donc de la liberté et de l’universalité pour le genre humain. Pour cela, nousvoulons opposer au relativisme la philosophie kantienne, laquelle pose la liberté etl’universalité comme étant deux concepts fondamentaux dans la conception kantienne de lamoralité, atemporels et dépassant le champ de toute expérience. De fait, nous comprenonsmieux l’effort de Kant qui consiste à poser l’autonomie de la volonté comme le principeunique et universel de la morale (pour le genre humain) et à désapprouver toutes les doctrinesmorales qui sont fondées par exemple sur la culture, la religion ou le bonheur personnel. AvecKant, on ne peut donc dériver la morale de tout cela. / Liberty and universality are criteria of morality ; they are grounded in reason and admitnothing relative. In this study, relativism is put into question as being at the origin of today’smoral crisis. More to the point, this school of thought raises a doubt about the unity ofreason, and therefore the liberty and universality for mankind. In this perspective, the thesisconfronts relativism to the Kantian philosophy, which puts forward the concepts of ‘freedom’and ‘universality’ as fundamental in understanding morality that is timeless and goes beyondthe scope of any experience. In fact, we understand better Kant's premise which consists inputting forward the principle of party autonomy as the unique and universal criteria ofmorality (to mankind) and in disapproving all moral doctrines which are based, for example,on culture, religion or personal happiness. From a Kantian point of view, one cannot derivemorality from the latters.

I denna uppsats studeras Per Anders Fogelströms historiska roman Mina drömmars stad. Undersökningen har två syften. Det primära syftet är att undersöka hur maskulinitet konstrueras och upprätthålls av de två manliga huvudkaraktärerna. Denna del av undersökningen utgår från R.W. Connells maskulinitetsteori och genomförs med metoden karaktärsanalys. Det sekundära syftet är att undersöka romanens handling och karaktärer utifrån John Stephens kulturrelativistiska perspektiv. Undersökningens resultat visar att de två manliga huvudkaraktärerna eftersträvar att uppnå hegemoniska maskulinitetsideal i olika sociala grupperingar, men att deras framgång i denna strävan skiljer sig, samt att de olika maskuliniteterna samspelar med och påverkar varandra. Utifrån den kulturrelativistiska teorin visar undersökningen att 1950-talets samhälle och värderingar på flera plan avspeglas i karaktärerna och berättelsen som tilldrar sig i Stockholm 1860-1880.

Many international conventions concern child labour and child work and this practice tend to often be viewed as a violation of child rights. However, the discourse has changed and a tension among universalistic and relativistic scholars risen. The former tends to condemn child work under the age of 14 and the latter claims that culture needs to be taken into account arguing that child work, is not necessarily a violation of rights.  This study analyses narratives from former child workers in Cochabamba, Bolivia. It aims to increase the understanding of experiences from child workers and how it relates to Child Rights from a universalistic and relativistic perspective and to identify reasons for child work.  The findings demonstrate that the experiences vary a lot and that there is a complexity in the practice of child work. The respondents have experienced violation of rights at their work, but on the other hand, has the income enabled them to fulfil other rights. The relativistic and universalistic perspective both serve to gain a deeper understanding of child work and its complex relationship of Child Rights. This argue for that one should strive to use both perspectives rather than embrace one and condemn the other. Economic need was identified as the main reason to why children were working.

Human Rights: Universality vs. Regionalism Jalal Naji Abstract The basic idea of the existence of certain rights that human beings are entitled to has been present, in some form or another, throughout the history of mankind long before their universal recognition and codification in 1948. The revolutionary work of the United Nations in adopting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) in 1948 was the coronation and completion of all the earlier attempts of mankind in identifying the safeguards of humanity. Of course, the current shape, structure and context of international modern-day human rights never existed on the international sphere before 1948 as all the earlier efforts to identify human rights can be characterized as sporadic, localized, flawed, incomprehensive and even discriminatory as they only recognised certain rights to particular categories of people, such as ascribing rights only for citizens, for believers of a religion, or only for freemen and aristocrats. Conversely, UDHR's human rights standards are ascribed to everyone without discrimination. The foundation of international human rights is premised on the universality concept which indicates that all human beings are equal and that human rights are universally enjoyed by all mankind without discrimination. However, this majestic...

Today a growing number of countries around the world are strengthening their international work for women's rights by pursuing a feminist foreign policy. There is however no internationally accepted definition of feminist foreign policy, and feminism as a concept includes several different orientations. The purpose of this research is thus to examine and compare underlying perspectives that influence European Feminist Foreign Policy, and what this might entail. Based on a qualitative and comparative content analysis, and by using an ideal-type analytical approach as a tool of analysis, this study examines the feminist as well as human rights perspectives which form the basis of three European countries' strategic Foreign Policy documents – France, Spain, and Sweden. This research finds that the foreign policy documents, besides slight differences, are similar in both their feminist and human rights ambitions. Firstly, they all share a focus on an overall liberal feminist ambition that prioritises women's participation and economic empowerment. Secondly, they are characterized by a universalist approach to the pursuit of women's human rights, with limited space for the influence of other perspectives.

This thesis investigates how the different aspects and claims associated with moral relativism can be applied to the issue of corporate governance convergence. The question of how corporate governance models may be converging around the world is considered within the law, finance and management literature. To date, however, there has been no detailed consideration from a moral perspective of whether such convergence should occur. This study investigates this question, using South Africa as a case study, through an analysis of the claims of Descriptive, Metaethical and Normative moral relativism. South Africa is selected as a useful case study in the light of its colonial heritage, complex demographics and the ongoing project of post-apartheid ‘nation-building’. Different moral philosophies can be identified that underlie the predominant models of corporate governance around the world. The differences between these moralities can be expressed in terms of differences in the prescribed moral obligations and objectives of corporations. The claim of Descriptive moral relativism is that there are significant differences in moral judgement between groups or individuals. In the context of South African corporate governance, the principal area of interest concerns moral judgements that reflect corporate obligations and objectives that differ from those that underlie the shareholder model evident in Anglo-American jurisdictions. This was investigated in three ways: firstly, through a literature study that identified existing evidence of moral judgements relevant to corporate governance in South Africa; secondly, through a quantitative survey of a group of professional accounting students in South Africa; thirdly, through a series of semi-structured interviews with professional accounting students in South Africa. In all three cases there was some, albeit limited, evidence to support the claim of Descriptive moral relativism. The claim of Metaethical moral relativism is that there is no single ‘true’ or ‘correct’ morality, but that morality is relative to different groups or individuals. Applied to corporate governance, this claim was investigated firstly by examining the arguments that a particular corporate governance model is morally superior and thus universally applicable, as well as by considering the extent of moral agreement on the issue. Secondly, the positions of prominent supporters of moral relativism were considered in terms of how these could be applied to the issue of corporate governance convergence. It was concluded that universalist claims in support of particular models of corporate governance are largely insufficient, and that a limited relativist approach is more plausible. The claim of Normative moral relativism is that one should not interfere with the actions of another where these are based on different moral judgements. Although the claims of Descriptive and Metaethical moral relativism have implications for the normative claim, the normative claim does not necessarily follow. Adopting a value of tolerance or accommodation (from the work of David Wong) can, however, strengthen the normative argument. It was concluded then that based on the evidence of this study, and within its limitations, it is morally wrong to impose an Anglo-American model of corporate governance on South Africa. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2011. / Philosophy / unrestricted

Thesis abstract This thesis, "Dialogical Approach to Truth in the Plurality of Cultures and Religions" has two main goals, theoretical and applied one. It defends the importance of contextual relativism and perspectivism for the dialogue of two different discourses using a theory of language games. An individual lives in his or hers own special historical and geographical situation, in particular psycho-physical condition with a limited perspective through which he perceives the surrounding world. Only if the individual could be aware of these limits, to be able to renounce a tendency to generalize his own point of view without confronting the others within a dialogue. It is possible to judge the truthfulness, functionality and the level of development of any discourse only in the context and within the categories of the discourse itself. This approach is reflected in the field of interreligious dialogue by the idea of post- pluralism. It stresses the uniqueness of each independent religious discourse, while refusing both superiority of any particular religion on one hand and merging all religions into one common group on the other. One cannot discover the ultimate truth due to the lack of "general perspective" over all religious traditions and, therefore, he cannot judge ("This religion is the only true",...

Over 200 million women and girls alive today have been victims of Female Geni-tal Mutilation / Cutting, and another 3,6 million are at risk every year. This tradi-tional practice is widespread and has gained a lot of attention from Non-governmental organizations, scholars and medical professionals around the world, stating warnings about the harmful effects. Yet, the prevalence and continuance are still not regressing in a desirable rate. Many countries have enacted legislative actions against the practice, among these countries is the West African nation of The Gambia. The purpose of this qualitative study is to examine and analyse what experiences and perceptions NGOs in The Gambia have with using legislative ac-tion against FGM /C, how their work has changed due to the legislation as well as examine their perception on local community attitudes towards the law. This has been done using the theories of Cultural Relativism vs Universalism and through selected concepts within Hofstede's Theory of Cultural Dimensions. This study will theorise what happens when a law representing western norms and values gets implemented in a society where culture, traditions and the collective group is high-ly important. Our findings show that The Gambia, in particularly local communi-ties, holds a strong cultural relativistic mentality and is characterized by a collec-tivistic culture in which the power distance is high. This society puts emphasis on collective identity, solidarity and collective decisions as well as traditional heritage and cultural values. Implementing a law that promotes western values thus brings problems and a lack of efficiency.