Theories of recognition, once seen as a promising approach for addressing the politics of difference and identity, have recently faced a sustained critique. This thesis participates in that critical project by confronting two recognition theorists – Charles Taylor and Nancy Fraser – with the injustices of colonialism in Canada as articulated by Indigenous scholars, particularly Dale Turner. The resultant critical multilogue highlights the shortcomings in each theory, but also points to their key strengths. These insights inform a discussion of agonistic reconciliation, a concept that transcends the limits of the recognition paradigm and offers hope for more just relations between Indigenous peoples and settlers in Canada. / Graduate

The past few years have seen a renewed critical interest in the vampires and vampirism of English literature, owing both to their growing influence in popular culture and a more inclusive reordering of the literary canon. Much of this recent work has typically approached vampirism through a psychoanalytic lens inherited from Gothic criticism, characterized by a dependence on Freud, Lacan, and Foucault, and often by a model of crisis in which these supernatural figures of terror are supposed to symbolize cultural anxieties with varying degrees of historicity. This dissertation builds upon the narrative of secularization set out in Charles Taylor’s recent work, A Secular Age, to answer the need for a new and alternative narrative of what function the vampire serves within English literature, and how it came to prominence there. The literary history of vampirism is reconsidered in light of the new sociological observations made by Taylor, hinging upon two key methodological principles: first, that Taylor’s new secularization narrative has the potential to reshape the way we think of literature in general and our literary relationship to the supernatural in particular; and second, that the fiction generated during this period of upheaval has much more to tell us about secularization, broadening our understanding of the ideological shifts and changing relationships to the supernatural that brought forth this uniquely modern monster in literature. / Graduate / 0593 / 0318 / 0358 / glukemaynard@gmail.com

Denna studie syftar till att, genom en komparativ ideologianalys, analysera tre valda filosofiska modeller och uttolka vilka implikationer dessa kan ha vad gäller religionsämnets syftesbeskrivning ur LGY11; att eleverna ska "förstå och leva i ett samhälle präglat av mångfald." Studien syftar inte till att argumentera för någon specifik modell. De modeller som analyserats är hämtade ur verk författade av Charles Taylor, Seyla Benhabib samt Martha Nussbaum. Analysen påvisade såväl skillnader som likheter mellan de olika modellerna. Analysen påvisade att kristendomens särställning som "förvaltare av den svenska värdegrunden" kan vara en problematisk aspekt av läroplanen då kristendomen kan tas som neutral, objektiv eller tolkas som innehållande en "god" essentiell kärna. Ett annat resultat vilket uttolkades av de analyserade modellerna var att förståelse för de andra, måste föregås av en kritisk granskning av, eller medvetenhet om, den egna utgångspunkten. Detta tolkades som ytterst relevant i en religionsundervisning vilken syftar till att uppnå förståelse för mångfald

Philosophers who show interest in authenticity tend to narrowly focus on its capacity to help people evade conformity and affirm individuality, a simplistic reduction that neglects authenticity’s moral potential and gives credence to the many critics who dismiss it as a euphemism for excessive individualism. Yet when conceived ethically, authenticity can also allow for worthy human flourishing without falling prey to conformity’s opposite extreme—egoism. This thesis proposes a relational conception of authenticity that can help prevent the often destructive excess of egoism while also offsetting the undesirable deficiency of heteronomy, concertedly moving agents towards socially responsible living. It demonstrates how authenticity necessarily has ethical dimensions when rooted in existentialist and dialogical frameworks. It also defines egoism as a form of self-deception rooted in flawed logic that cannot be considered “authentic” by relational standards. Relational authenticity recognizes the interpersonal relationships and social engagements that imbue meaning into agents’ lives, fostering a balance between personal ambitions and social obligations, and enabling more consistently moral lifestyles.

Philip Pettit claims his neorepublican theory of freedom as non-domination is preferable to the liberal ideal of non-interference, and he is right. But the reasons why he is right run deeper than is apparent if we attend solely to his arguments defending non-domination in negative terms. In fact, embedded in the three benefits that Pettit claims non-domination can offer (which non-interference cannot) lie significant resonances with a positive idea of freedom concerned with a person’s sense of agency. We find such an idea in Charles Taylor, where freedom as self-realization is intricately linked with his “significance view” of human agency. By adopting this Taylorian lens and assessing Pettit’s non-domination, I show that non-domination does have much to offer those of us who think of freedom primarily in positive terms and, more generally, to all those of us who believe that freedom and agency are inextricably linked and must be treated as such.

Christian theology (whether biblical or liturgical) generally affirms that God is somehow present in the setting of gathered worship. However, it is often the case that many worshippers themselves (and even ministers) might not perceive that God is present to the church in any discernible way, leading to worship practices that may functionally ignore God's presence, or that may attempt to conjure up some feeling that something transcendent is happening in worship. This thesis attempts to use Charles Taylor's concept of 'the immanent frame' to explain why believers and unbelievers alike might misinterpret worship. In doing so, this thesis applies Taylor's phenomenological methodology to several casual, popular-level accounts relating to perception of God's presence or absence in worship, revealing that the imminent frame does indeed come to bear on the ways in which people understand and experience worship, and suggesting that practitioners must learn to reinterpret worship.

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No description available.

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal.

Ce mémoire engage une réflexion sur la plénitude dans la pensée de Charles Taylor, et plus particulièrement dans son maître ouvrage L’âge séculier. L’idée de plénitude y est intimement liée à celles de modernité, de croyance et d’incroyance. C’est que, pour Taylor, comprendre la modernité implique de saisir le changement qui nous a permis de passer d’un contexte dans lequel il était impensable de ne pas croire en Dieu à un contexte dans lequel la croyance n’est qu’une option. Ce changement tourne essentiellement autour d’une modification de notre représentation de la plénitude. Qu’est-ce que la plénitude pour notre auteur ? Elle est la condition à laquelle tend tout homme et implique une réponse, tacite ou pas, à la question du sens de la vie. Mon principal objectif sera de saisir la nature de la plénitude telle que la conçoit Taylor. Je montrerai que la double définition de la plénitude dans L’âge séculier génère une certaine tension entre la plénitude conçue comme un événement unique et comme une aspiration constante vers le sens (qui correspond aussi au bien). Je proposerai une résolution de cette tension à travers une compréhension de la plénitude qui vise à en restituer l’unité fondamentale, l’idée étant de saisir la plénitude comme événement unique et comme aspiration constante au sens, non pas séparément, mais dans leur relation. Ce modèle d’interprétation, fourni par l’idée d’éternité, que l’on retrouve aussi dans L’âge séculier, me conduira à établir une coïncidence entre la poursuite de la plénitude et le désir d’éternité. Tous deux ont le même but fondamental : à travers l’inscription de moments qualitativement privilégiés et uniques, constitutifs de la vie, dans la totalité de cette vie, ils visent à en dévoiler le sens et à lui conférer une certaine pérennité. À plus forte raison, ce que j’entends montrer à travers la coïncidence entre plénitude et éternité, c’est que la quête de plénitude n’engage pas nécessairement la perspective religieuse déployée dans L’âge séculier, mais plutôt une forme de transcendance que l’on pourrait qualifier de « temporelle ». / This M.A. thesis unfolds a reflexion upon the concept of fullness as developed by Charles Taylor, especially in his book A Secular Age, in which the idea of fullness is intrinsically connected with modernity, belief and unbelief. For Taylor, the understanding of modernity implies a grasping of the change that allowed the transition from a context where unbelief in God was considered inconceivable to a context where belief remains only an option. That change consists essentially in a modification of our very representation of fullness. What is fullness for Charles Taylor? It is the condition to which any human being tends towards, and which implies an answer, unspoken or not, to the question of the meaning of life. My main goal will be the understanding of the nature of fullness as conceived by Charles Taylor. I shall show that the twofold definition of fullness in A Secular Age generates a tension between fullness conceived as a unique event, and fullness conceived as a constant aspiration towards meaning (which identifies with goodness). I shall suggest a resolution of this tension through an understanding of fullness which aims to restore its fundamental unity – the idea being to grasp the notion of fullness as a unique event and as the constant aspiration to meaning not separately, but in their relationship with one other. This interpretation model, provided by the idea of eternity, which is also present in A Secular Age, will allow me to establish a coincidence between the pursuit of fullness and the desire of eternity. Both of them share the same fundamental aim: through the inscription of qualitatively privileged and unique moments, constituents of life, in the very totality of this life, they aim to reveal its meaning and to bestow permanence to it. Moreover, I will argue from this coincidence between fullness and eternity that the quest for fullness doesn’t necessarily imply a religious perspective as unfolded in A Secular Age, but can lead rather to a form of transcendence that one can qualify as « temporal ».