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In dieser Dissertation schlage ich eine neue Erklärung dafür vor, warum es in der antiken Philosophie eine tiefe Meinungsverschiedenheit in Bezug auf das menschliche Gute gab. Die Erklärung lautet, dass verschiedene Autoren verschiedene Auffassungen über die Kontexte und die Ziele von Argumenten über das menschliche Gute vertraten. Daraus ergab sich, dass sie nicht dieselben Argumente als gültig anerkannten und daher verschiedene Theorien über das Gute als plausibel erachteten. Die Texte, mit denen sich in erster Reihe beschäftigt wird, sind: Platons Gorgias und Philebos; Aristoteles’ Topik und Nikomachische Ethik, Senecas Epistulae Morales 82, 83, 87 und 120; Epikurs Brief an Menoikeus, Lukrez’ De Rerum Natura, Sextus’ Grundzüge der pyrrhonischen Skepsis. / In this dissertation, I suggest a new explanation for disagreement about the human good (I.e what makes a human life good) in ancient philosophy: namely, that differing understandings of argumentation contexts and goals shaped selection of argument schemes, which in turn influenced which theories of the good seemed plausible. The texts I primarily deal with are connections between Plato’s Gorgias and the Philebus, Aristotle’s Topics and the Nicomachean Ethics, Seneca’s EM 82, 83, 87 and 120, Epicurus’ Letter to Menoeceus and Lucretius’ De Rerum Natura, and Sextus’ Outlines of Skepticism.

In 13th century Europe, the German bishop and scholastic philosopher Albertus Magnus was one of the most influential writers on the natural world and theology. This thesis investigates the relationship between humans and animals in his Quaestiones super de animalibus and De animalibus. In writings on medieval history the theologically enforced boundary between humans and animals is both emphasized and treated as a given. This study nuances the picture presented by previous scholars by highlighting an alternative natural philosophical discourse on humans and animals. Using discourse analysis, I argue that the differences that Albertus used to differentiate humans from animals were based on an understanding of similarities rather than opposites. To Albertus, the human was one species in the animal kingdom, thus sharing many basic functions with other animals. His understandings entailed a theory of essential differences between species but also allowed for divisions based on gradation and relativity. This study sheds new light on the complex relationship between humans and animals in medieval Europe.

Ambitionen med denna uppsats är att skapa en översikt över hur modern forskning ser på den hierarkiska indelning av de kristna änglarna som Dante redogör för i Den Gudomliga Komedin, samt vad som ligger till grund för rangordningen. Dessutom analyseras sambandet mellan hierarkin och änglarnas kosmologiska funktioner och deras betydelse för upprätthållandet av världen. En viktig faktor för förståelsen av Dantes änglalogi är dess relation till senmedeltidens filosofi och kristna tro; hur den påverkades av – och i sin tur påverkade – sin kontext, vilken sedan bidrog till utvecklingen av den moderna västerländska synen på världen. Den teologiska diskurs som sträcker sig ända tillbaka till de första århundradena når nämligen en höjdpunkt i Dantes änglahierarki, där tron slutligen förenas med filosofin. I Dante möts således den kristna ängladoktrinen, med utgångspunkt i Bibeln, med den neo-platonska emanationsläran och Aristoteles kausalitetslära, vilka tillsammans utgör fundamentet för det senmedeltida västerländska sättet att se på verkligheten. I denna uppsats redogörs följaktligen för Dantes änglahierarki och änglarnas kosmologiska betydelse genom att analysera den assimilation av tro och filosofi som utgör dess metafysiska grund. / The ambition with this essay is to create a general idea of how modern research estimates the hierarchic division of the Christian angels, as Dante accounts for in The Divine Comedy, as well as the hierarchy it is based on. In addition to that, the connection between the hierarchy and the cosmological functions of the angels, and the subsequent task to uphold the world, is analyzed. An important factor for the comprehension of Dante’s angelology is its connection to the philosophy and Christian faith of the late medieval period; how it was affected by – and at the same time affected – its context, which eventually contributed to the generation of the modern Western world view. In fact, the theological discourse that expands from the first centuries of Christianity reaches a summit in Dante’s angelic hierarchy, where faith and philosophy finally consolidate. Thus, Christian angelic doctrine, with starting point in the Bible, meets in Dante the neo-platonic doctrine of emanation and Aristotle’s principle of causality, which together count for the foundation of the Western late medieval view of reality. The aim of this essay is consequently to investigate Dante’s angelic hierarchy and the cosmological functions of the angels, by investigating the assimilation of faith and philosophy that constitutes their metaphysical base.

This master thesis explores ideas, values, virtues, and masculinities within The Raw Man, a Swedish men’s group active since 2012, in the context of Swedish gender equality politics. The material used for this study is the The Raw Man’s website (with an array of persuasive texts and pictures), YouTube-videos, a podcast, and the group’s participation in a Swedish television program. The theoretical framework draws from tools and theories from the fields of rhetoric, philosophy and gender studies. First, I analyse the movement’s argumentation and sort their arguments within different rhetorical topoi. Then, with a similar method, I explore which virtues constitute an ideal man within the movement’s discourse. This analysis builds on Aristotle’s understanding of topoi and virtues and takes further help through texts of the modern rhetorical scholar Janne Lindqvist. To further investigate the movement and what kind of masculinities it reproduces, I take inspiration from Edwin Black’s theory of The Second Persona. The most commonly used topoi and virtues are used to form a second persona, the implicit reader of The Raw Man’s arguments and therefore, the embodiment of the movement’s ideas, values, and ideals. This second persona is then gazed through perspectives from men’s studies. The results show that The Raw Man is greatly inspired by the so called Mythopoetic Men’s Movement, and employs ideas from Robert Bly, Carl G. Jung, and adheres to traditional notions including essentialism, polarity between the sexes, men’s destiny as leaders and women’s as nurturers. It also shows that The Raw Man in fact considers Swedish gender equality politics as somewhat of a threat, and feminists as enemies. The type of masculinity that is being reproduced within the movement can best be described as sticky, a term used in men’s studies for describing conservative and misogynistic values that stick to men’s bodies and are difficult to shake off. The results also indicate that the movement’s discourse is rather contradictory, for example it shows ideals of being vulnerable and grounded while at the same time being a strong leader with traditional manly qualities. This implies some difficulties in fully defining their ideology and ideals, hence the second persona lacks some ideological consistency. Finally, the study shows that the use of rhetorical theories and perspectives can be useful tools when exploring men’s groups, and social movements as a whole.

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The Young Adult novel Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe portrays the coming out stories of two queer Mexican American boys who struggle with their ethnicity and sexuality, which leads to internal conflicts. The focus of the analysis in the essay is to investigate how the novel can be taught in Upper Secondary classrooms through queer pedagogy and anti-oppressive approaches focusing on silenced discourse. When teachers allow their students to work with the coming out story in the novel within this framework, teachers can engage their students in exploring and finding meaning in the silences that the protagonists Aristotle and Dante speak through. The anti-oppressive practice of reading for silences allows students to look beyond what is being represented in the novel in regard to Aristotle’s and Dante’s sexuality and ethnicity and thereby find meaning in what is unsaid.

One of the central questions in political theory deals with the nature of rights. What sorts of rights do people possess? How are these rights justified? How ought these rights be reflected and related when seen in political, economic, and social institutions? Following the publication of John Rawls' A Theory of Justice (1971) and Robert Nozick's Anarchy, State, and Utopia (1974), rights have once again returned to dominate much of contemporary political theory. However, natural law, which was the historical basis of the early Enlightenment theories of rights, is no longer the primary system appealed to when discussing rights. In fact, classical natural law has been all but discarded in most of political theory today. There has also been renewed debate over the nature of public neutrality, and what the relationship ought to be between the public and private sphere. The mainstream view of how our liberties relate to our rights, as well as what kinds of rights we have over our private affairs, has come under fire from a newly emerging political philosophy known as communitarianism. This thesis will present a robust theory of rights that provides a new understanding of the relationship between positive and negative rights through a defense of classical natural law as an ethical foundation for political theory. It will side with the communitarian critics of public neutrality, and offer a practical method of determining when the state is justified in limiting private liberties due to public interest.

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