Safety is an important topic for a wide range of disciplines, such as engineering, economics, sociology, psychology, political science and philosophy, and plays a central role in risk analysis and risk management. The aim of this thesis is to develop a concept of safety that is relevant for decision-making, and to elucidate its consequences for risk and safety research and practices. Essay I provides a conceptual analysis of safety in the context of societal decision-making, focusing on some fundamental distinctions and aspects, and argues for a more complex notion than what is commonly given. This concept of safety explicitly includes epistemic uncertainty, the degree to which we are uncertain of our knowledge of the situation at hand. It is discussed the extent to which such a concept may be considered an objective concept, and concluded that it is better seen as an intersubjective concept. Some formal versions of a comparative safety concept are also proposed. Essay II explores some consequences of epistemic uncertainty. It is commonly claimed that the public is irrational in its acceptance of risks. An underlying presumption in such a claim is that the public should follow the experts’ advice in recommending an activity whenever the experts have better knowledge of the risk involved. This position is criticised based on considerations from epistemic uncertainty and the goal of safety. Furthermore, it is shown that the scope of the objection covers the entire field of risk research, risk assessment as well as risk management. Essay III analyses the role of epistemic uncertainty for principles of achieving safety in an engineering context. The aim is to show that to account for common engineering principles we need the understanding of safety that has been argued for in Essays I-II. Several important principles in engineering safety are analysed, and it is argued that we cannot fully account for them on a narrow interpretation of safety as the reduction of risk (understanding risk as the combination of probability and severity of harm). An adequate concept of safety must include not only the reduction of risk but also the reduction of uncertainty. / QC 20101119

Данное диссертационное исследование посвящено сравнительному анализу ключевых концептов песенного дискурса группы Pink Floyd на материале альбомов Dark Side of the Moon и The Wall. Работа выполнена в русле актуальных исследований в области когнитивной лингвистики и лингвокультурологии. В работе рассматривается вопрос целесообразности сравнения ключевых ядерных и околоядерных концептов двух альбомов одного автора с разницей написания в 6 лет. На примере анализа языкового наполнения тектов песен рассматриваются конкретные случаи изменения и сохранения авторской картины мира. Отмечается сохранение большинства ядерных концептов, но полностью меняется их ассоциативный ряд. Структура работы состоит из двух глав, теоретической и практической. В теоретической части нами были рассмотрены основные теоретические аспекты понятий концепт и дискурс, методология их изучения и основные характеристики. В практической части нами проведен комплексный анализ языкового наполнения текстов песен на предмет ядерных и околоядерных концептов, а также их ассоциативных связей. Далее нами проведен их сравнительный анализ. На основании теоретической и практической главы данного исследования нами были определены наиболее оптимальные методы для выделения концептов в песенном авторском дискурсе, что обуславливает обозначенную цель, а также был выявлен тот факт, что концептуальный анализ художественных произведений обычно подтверждает тот факт, что наше восприятие часто не совпадает с замыслом автора, а прямые словарные дефиниции не раскрывают суть концепта или же вообще противоречат ей. В результате сравнительного анализа альбомов Dark Side of the Moon и The Wall нами были выявлены как сходства так и различия между ядерными и околоядерными концептами. Большинство ядерных концептов остаётся значимимыми в концептуальной картине мира автора, другие же были видоизменены. / This dissertation research is devoted to a comparative analysis of the key concepts of Pink Floyd’s song discourse on the basis of Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall albums. The work was carried out in line with current research in the field of cognitive linguistics and cultural linguistics. The paper considers the question of the expediency of comparing the key nuclear type of the concepts and near-nuclear concepts of two albums by one author with a difference of six years. On the example of the language content of song texts analysis, specific cases of changing and preserving the author's picture of the world are considered. The preservation of the majority of nuclear concepts is noted, but their associative relations are completely changed. The structure of the work consists of two chapters, theoretical and practical ones. In the theoretical part, we reviewed the main theoretical aspects of the concepts of concept and discourse, the methodology for studying them and the main characteristics. In the practical part, we carried out a comprehensive analysis of the linguistic content of song lyrics on the subject of nuclear and near-nuclear concepts, as well as their associative relations. Next, we carried out their comparative analysis. Based on the theoretical and practical chapter of this study, we identified the most optimal methods for highlighting concepts in the author's song discourse, which determines the stated purpose, and also revealed the fact that the conceptual analysis of works of art usually confirms the fact that our perception often does not match with the intention of the author, and direct vocabulary definitions do not reveal the essence of the concept, or even contradict it. As a result of a comparative analysis of the Dark Side Of the Moon and The Wall albums, we identified both similarities and differences between nuclear and near-nuclear concepts. Most of the nuclear concepts remain significant in the conceptual picture of the author’s world, while others have been modified.

This thesis is a critical examination of civic nationalism that focuses on the disconnect between nationalist ideology and the social bases of nationhood, and the implications that this disconnect has for the feasibility of civic nationalism as a policy prescription for issues such as intra-state nationalist conflict and immigrant integration. While problems with the principles of civic nationalist ideology are important, my focus here is the more significant problem that civic nationalism is based on a general theory of nations and nationalism that treats them as solely ideological phenomena. Against this I argue that the term ‘nationalism’ refers to several different phenomena, most importantly a ‘system of culture’ or way of organizing society as described by Ernest Gellner and Benedict Anderson, and that augmenting Gellner and Anderson’s theories with the kind of relational social theory used by authors such as Rogers Brubaker and Charles Tilly provides an alternative explanation that is a better match for the evidence. If this is the case, I contend, then civic nationalism is both a misrepresentation of the history of nations and nationalism and infeasible as a prescription for policy issues such as intra-state nationalist conflict and immigrant integration. These arguments are supported with empirical evidence that is principally drawn from four cases: France, the United States, Northern Ireland, and Canada. / Thesis (Ph.D, Political Studies) -- Queen's University, 2012-11-27 11:21:47.013

Die Willensfreiheit ist ein zentraler Bestandteil des alltäglichen menschlichen Denkens und bildet eine wichtige Grundlage für Mechanismen unserer Gesellschaft. Trotz dieser zentralen Stellung herrscht unter Philosophen und Psychologen Uneinigkeit darüber, was Willensfreiheit eigentlich bedeutet. Dies wird besonders bei Experimenten zur Untersuchung der Willensfreiheit wie das Libet-Experiment deutlich. In dieser Arbeit wird in drei Surveys empirisch untersucht, ob der Freiheitsbegriff, mit dem die Libet-Experimente operieren, von den Freiheitsintuitionen der Laien gestützt wird, oder ob Laien eher den konträren Freiheitsintuitionen der Philosophen zuneigen. Die Ergebnisse der vorgestellten Untersuchungen zeigen, dass Laien eine von den philosophischen Vorstellungen abweichende Vorstellung von Freiheit haben. / Free will is one of the most crucial concepts in our daily life. It represents one of the most important aspects of daily human behaviour and has crucial importance in societal mechanism. However, despite its importance and long tradition philosophers still disagree on a definition. At the heart of the problem lie diverging intuitions about what is important for the concept of freedom. This is particular obvious in neuroscientific experiment, like the famous Libet-Experiment. Here I investigate in three empirical surveys whether the lay intuitions about freedom match freedom intuitions on which the Libet-experiment are based or rather the classical philosophical intuitions about freedom. For this purpose I adopt the empirical approach of experimental philosophy. The results demonstrate that lay people’s intuitions are pretty much in line with assumption that are made by the Libet-Experiment and contradict common philosophical intuitions about free will.

Chaque activité humaine nécessite d’avoir sa propre méthode pour obtenir un résultat concret et satisfaisant. C’est ainsi le cas pour la philosophie, une discipline qui compte 2500 d’histoire et dont la méthode est alors délimitée par les philosophes et les autres personnes. Quelle est donc cette méthode philosophique? Il existe plusieurs réponses. Cette thèse va donc tenter de répondre à cette question en introduisant un projet de méthode philosophique dénommée « Conceptual Tuning » [l’accord conceptuel]. Les boxeurs ne se préoccupent généralement pas de la question conceptuelle « Qu’est-ce que la boxe? ». De même les biologistes se posent à peine la question de savoir « Qu’est-ce que la biologie ». Pour eux, ce genre de questions sont extérieures à leur discipline. Cependant pour la philosophie, la question de la nature de la philosophie est une question bien interne à cette discipline. La conscience de soi est une condition sine quo non pour « faire de la philosophie ».Puisque la philosophie possède une si longue histoire et tant de traditions diverses et variées, on présuppose donc qu’il existe de très nombreuses méthodes pour « faire de la philosophie ». Ma thèse tentera donc de contribuer à cette discussion portant sur la méthodologie philosophique en proposant une méthode que j’appellerai « Conceptual Tuning ». Cet accord conceptuel sera principalement développé à partir de la méthode « Conceptual Engineering » déjà utilisée dans la philosophie depuis, dont les défenseurs s’efforcent d’améliorer nos concepts tels que « personne », « libéral », « science ». Cette thèse présentera ainsi six versions de « Conceptual Engineering », à savoir le « Conceptual Engineering » de Cappelen, la Méthode d’Explication de Carnap, le Révisionnisme Moral de Zagzebski, la Guerre Lexique de Ludlow, la Négociation Métalinguistique de Plunkett et l’Approche d’Amélioration de Haslanger. Ces six approches estiment déjà que nos concepts pourraient être défectueux, et c’est la tâche du philosophe de les « réparer ». Alors que la plupart des approches de « Conceptual Engineering » ne font que se concentrer étroitement sur la perspective de « réparation », cette thèse soutiendra que l’accord conceptuel exige que l’attention soit plutôt portée sur une perspective « expressive ». En d’autres termes, il faudrait employer cette méthode dans un cadre général de la pratique consistant à demander et à donner des raisons. Cette thèse soutiendra également que d’autres méthodes philosophiques importantes telles que la méthode de Brandomian, la philosophie du langage ordinaire et l’analyse conceptuelle traditionnelle peuvent être bien incorporées dans le projet d’accord conceptuel. Ainsi, au lieu d’être en opposition, ces méthodes sont en fait conformes à l’accord conceptuel ces méthodes s’intègrent parfaitement à l’accord conceptuel. / Different human practices require various methods to carry them out successfully. Philosophy, an activity with 2500 years of history, must also have its own method, which demarcates a philosopher from a lay person. This thesis embarks on a project of philosophical method—conceptual tuning. How to do philosophy belongs to the category of metaphilosophy or philosophy of philosophy. Boxers usually do not care about the conceptual question ‘What is boxing?’ and biologists barely ask ‘What is Biology?’. For them, this kind of question is a higher order question which concerns the nature of the thing in itself. It is an external question for most disciplines. But for philosophy, the question concerning the nature of philosophy is an internal question. Self-awareness is a sine qua non of doing philosophy.With such a long history and so many traditions, the method of doing philosophy must be miscellaneous. My thesis attempts to contribute to the discussion of philosophical methodology by proposing a method I shall call conceptual tuning. Conceptual tuning is grounded in the philosophical method of conceptual engineering, advocates of which endeavor to improve our concepts. According to the method of conceptual engineering, philosophical problems stem from defects in our understanding of concepts, and it is the philosopher’s task to fix them. While most conceptual engineering approaches only narrowly focus on the perspective of ‘repairing’ or ‘fixing’, conceptual tuning calls for attention to the ‘expressive’ perspective. In other words, we should put this method in the broad framework of the practice of asking for and giving reasons. In this thesis, I also attempt to explain some previous conceptual methods under the title of conceptual tuning, such as Brandomian method, ordinary language philosophy, and the traditional conceptual analyses.

This thesis uses analytic philosophical inquiry and autobiographical narrative inquiry to identify a conception of critical thinking (CT) that is “most adaptable” for teaching History 12, and then discusses the strengths and limitations. The CT literature includes several conflicting conceptions of CT, and I use two specific types of analytic philosophical inquiry, (conceptual analysis and conceptual structure assessment), to identify which conception is “most adaptable” for teaching History 12. After considering the degree to which each conception meets the criteria developed for the “most adaptable” conception of CT, I conclude that the Critical Thinking Consortium’s (TC²) conception is the most adaptable. Of all the conceptions developed thus far, the TC² approach is unique because it is designed solely as a pedagogical model for embedding CT throughout the curriculum of each subject and grade level. In the second section of the thesis, I use autobiographical narrative inquiry to reflect on the strengths and limitations of the TC² model after using the model to teach History 12 for a year. One of the foundational principles of the TC² conception is the notion that embedding CT throughout the curriculum is a powerful way of improving understanding. I determine that this contention is accurate because students improved their knowledge of the curriculum, the epistemology of history, and the adoption of CT in their everyday lives. Furthermore, use of the TC² conception helped improve my planning and assessment practices, and initiated a positive change of my role in the classroom.

This thesis uses analytic philosophical inquiry and autobiographical narrative inquiry to identify a conception of critical thinking (CT) that is “most adaptable” for teaching History 12, and then discusses the strengths and limitations. The CT literature includes several conflicting conceptions of CT, and I use two specific types of analytic philosophical inquiry, (conceptual analysis and conceptual structure assessment), to identify which conception is “most adaptable” for teaching History 12. After considering the degree to which each conception meets the criteria developed for the “most adaptable” conception of CT, I conclude that the Critical Thinking Consortium’s (TC²) conception is the most adaptable. Of all the conceptions developed thus far, the TC² approach is unique because it is designed solely as a pedagogical model for embedding CT throughout the curriculum of each subject and grade level. In the second section of the thesis, I use autobiographical narrative inquiry to reflect on the strengths and limitations of the TC² model after using the model to teach History 12 for a year. One of the foundational principles of the TC² conception is the notion that embedding CT throughout the curriculum is a powerful way of improving understanding. I determine that this contention is accurate because students improved their knowledge of the curriculum, the epistemology of history, and the adoption of CT in their everyday lives. Furthermore, use of the TC² conception helped improve my planning and assessment practices, and initiated a positive change of my role in the classroom.

This essay proposes a conception of the general jurisprudence as a conceptual analysis aiming at inquiring the fundamental theoretical concepts of a given legal system. The author clarifies her proposal by analysing its key-terms, and, in particular, by explaining what should be the object of the general jurisprudence, in which sense it should be said “general”, what should be its methods, its epistemic status and its relations with related disciplines. / En este ensayo, la autora propone una concepción de la teoría general del derecho como análisis de los conceptos teóricos fundamentales de un ordenamiento jurídico. Tal concepción, que no se pretende exclusiva, si no que bien puede convivir con enfoques diferentes y diferentes modos de entender la disciplina, está articulada por medio de un análisis del significado atribuido a sus términos-clave, mediante el cual se intenta mostrar cómo ésta conciba al objeto de la teoría general del derecho, su carácter de generalidad, su estatus epistemológico y sus relaciones con las disciplinas afines.

This thesis uses analytic philosophical inquiry and autobiographical narrative inquiry to identify a conception of critical thinking (CT) that is “most adaptable” for teaching History 12, and then discusses the strengths and limitations. The CT literature includes several conflicting conceptions of CT, and I use two specific types of analytic philosophical inquiry, (conceptual analysis and conceptual structure assessment), to identify which conception is “most adaptable” for teaching History 12. After considering the degree to which each conception meets the criteria developed for the “most adaptable” conception of CT, I conclude that the Critical Thinking Consortium’s (TC²) conception is the most adaptable. Of all the conceptions developed thus far, the TC² approach is unique because it is designed solely as a pedagogical model for embedding CT throughout the curriculum of each subject and grade level. In the second section of the thesis, I use autobiographical narrative inquiry to reflect on the strengths and limitations of the TC² model after using the model to teach History 12 for a year. One of the foundational principles of the TC² conception is the notion that embedding CT throughout the curriculum is a powerful way of improving understanding. I determine that this contention is accurate because students improved their knowledge of the curriculum, the epistemology of history, and the adoption of CT in their everyday lives. Furthermore, use of the TC² conception helped improve my planning and assessment practices, and initiated a positive change of my role in the classroom. / Education, Faculty of (Okanagan) / Graduate

Abstract The purpose of this study was to clarify the notion of diaconal nursing, to produce a description of diaconal nursing and to outline a model of it. The study was accomplished in three stages in accordance with the hybrid model developed by Schwarz-Barcott and Kim (2000). At the theoretical stage, the literature was searched for information of diaconal nursing. For this purpose, a discretionary sample of references dealing with diaconal work and nursing was collected in 1998–1999. The material was analyzed with methods of inductive content analysis. At the empirical stage, the narrative approach was used to collect experiential data about diaconal nursing. The data were collected in the form of written essays complemented by oral interviews. The narrators were a group of 70 senior nursing students with the orientation towards diaconal care, 36 teachers of diaconal care, two consecrated deaconess nurses from five polytechnics on different locations in Finland and eight nurses without diaconal education and four patients from the Kanta-Häme and Pirkanmaa regions. One of the informants was testing the diaconal nursing practice, and she discussed that in her personal narrative. The data were collected in 1998–2003. The substance of the empirical data was analyzed with holistic methods of narrative content analysis. At the analytical stage, diaconal nursing was described as a synthesis of the theoretical and empirical stages, and a model was constructed based on that description. The results indicated that nurses with and without diaconal education used different terms to describe diaconal nursing. Based on the model developed here, diaconal work and nursing are combined into diaconal nursing via the cultural level of religion. Diaconal nursing is a profession carried out in nursing environments and parishes by nurses with diaconal education. Knowledge of both nursing science and theology is applied. In addition to nursing interventions, caritative and liturgic interventions are also used in diaconal nursing. The term 'professional service' is in diaconal nursing. The interactive relationship is a professional human relationship, where the person being cared for receives care and compassion without an obligation to "pay back". For the nursing professional, actions accordant with the Christian view of humanity may be a resource in everyday nursing. The recipient of care is not expected to have a religious or other conviction. Diaconal nursing can be learnt through education, and being a professing Christian is not enough to make a nurse a professional of diaconal nursing. The knowledge produced is the study can be utilized in diaconal nursing instruction and helps students to encounter people in nursing practice. The model also provides insight for the development of diaconal nursing curricula in polytechnics. / Tiivistelmä Tämän tutkimuksen tarkoituksena oli selkiyttää käsitystä diakonisesta hoitotyöstä ja tuottaa kuvaus diakonisesta hoitotyöstä sekä rakentaa siitä malli. Tutkimus muodostuu kolmesta vaiheesta Schwarz - Barcottin ja Kimin (2000) kuvaaman hybridisen mallin mukaisesti. Teoreettisessa vaiheessa tehtävänä oli etsiä kirjallisuudesta tietoa diakonisesta hoitotyöstä. Tätä varten kerättiin 1998–1999 harkinnanvaraisella otannalla aineisto diakoniaa ja hoitotyötä käsittelevästä kirjallisuudesta. Aineisto analysoitiin induktiivisella sisällönanalyysilla. Empiirisessä vaiheessa koottiin narratiivista lähestymistapaa soveltaen kokemuksellista tietoa diakonisesta hoitotyöstä. Aineisto koottiin kirjoitelmina ja sitä täydennettiin haastatteluin. Kertojina oli 70 diakoniapainotteisen sairaanhoitajakoulutuksen päättävää opiskelijaa, 36 diakonian opettajaa, kaksi diakonian virkaan vihittyä sairaanhoitajaa viiden eri paikkakunnan ammattikorkeakoulusta sekä 8 sairaanhoitajaa ja 4 potilasta Kanta-Hämeestä ja Pirkanmaalta. Yksi kertojista testasi diakonista hoitotyötä hoitokäytännössä, josta hän tuotti sisäisen tarinansa. Aineisto koottiin 1998–2003 välisenä aikana. Aineisto analysoitiin holistis-sisällöllisesti narratiivisen aineiston analyysin mukaisesti. Analyyttisessa vaiheessa kuvattiin diakonista hoitotyötä teoreettisen ja empiirisen vaiheen muodostamana synteesinä, jonka perusteella siitä rakennettiin malli. Tulokset osoittivat, että diakoniaan kouluttautuneet ja kouluttautumattomat sairaanhoitajat puhuvat eri käsittein diakonisesta hoitotyöstä. Kehitetyn mallin mukaan diakonia ja hoitotyö yhdistyvät diakoniseksi hoitotyöksi uskonnon kulttuurisen tason kautta. Diakoninen hoitotyö on professio, jota tekevät diakoniseen hoitotyöhön kouluttautuneet sairaanhoitajat hoitotyön toimintaympäristöissä ja seurakunnissa. Siinä sovelletaan hoitotieteen ja teologian tietoa. Diakonisessa hoitotyössä toteutetaan hoitotyön auttamismenetelmien lisäksi karitatiivisia ja liturgisia auttamismenetelmiä. Diakonisessa hoitotyössä puhutaan ammatillisesta palvelemisesta. Vuorovaikutussuhde on ammatillinen lähimmäissuhde, jossa hoidettava kokee saavansa lahjomatonta hoitamista ja rakkauden tunnetta. Hoitotyöntekijälle kristillisen ihmiskäsityksen mukainen toiminta voi olla voimavara hoitamisen arjessa. Hoidettavana olevalta ihmiseltä ei edellytetä uskonnollista tai muuta vakaumusta. Diakoninen hoitotyö voidaan oppia koulutuksessa ja pelkkä hoitajan kristillinen vakaumus ei anna valmiuksia tähän työhön. Tutkimuksessa tuotettua tietoa voidaan hyödyntää hoitotyön opetuksessa ja sen seurauksena käytännön hoitotyössä ihmisen kohtaamisissa. Lisäksi tuotettu malli lisää ymmärrystä kehittää diakonista hoitotyötä opiskelevan sairaanhoitajan opetussuunnitelmaa ammattikorkeakoulussa.