his dissertation examines the rhetoric of the homestead movement in antebellum America as a particular instance of domesticity. Homestead rhetoric alters the modes of identity and subjectivity usually found in domesticity, and alters the home-nation metaphor at the moment when the nation faced an increasing sectional divide that would lead to a Civil War. As deployed by Congressmen, homestead rhetoric used domesticity to define the relationship between manhood and citizenship. Harriet Jacobs uses this rhetoric in her autobiographical Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl to shape an identity more in line with male homesteaders than with the subjects of women’s domesticity. E.D.E.N. Southworth’s The Haunted Homestead offers the home-nation metaphor as a solution to national crisis, but ultimately the crisis is too large to solve through domesticity. This dissertation uses Jurgen Habermas’s concepts of lifeworld and system to assess the types of subjects created through the different modes of domesticity. Lifeworld describes modes of communication that foster the agency of individuals, and system describes the instrumentalization of individuals into roles where they are only a means to an end. The lifeworld created through homestead rhetoric is ultimately systematized by the importance of transforming land into property; Harriet Jacobs recognizes that she must escape the systematization of slavery and enter into a new economic system to have her rights fully acknowledged; Southworth’s failure to find a literary solution to national problems suggests the limits of a literary lifeworld, or the extent to which the domestic itself has been systematized. This dissertation concludes by considering how Laura Ingalls Wilder’s experience homesteading in South Dakota can bring an ecocritical perspective to lifeworld and system. Ingalls Wilder rejects the system of commodified nature to find contentment in a lifeworld affirmed through an agrarian relationship to the land.

任何一門學科，必然都直接或間接的和個人、社會有一定的連繫，當然，哲學亦然，哲學所關切的問題，向來尤其是關乎每一個個人，以及人類全體，從先蘇的宇宙論時期、希臘三哲開始，就關心著人類如何在世界之中安身立命，並進一步針對人類的幸福、德行、善等等的倫理學問題進行討論。 即便哲學曾經一度遠離塵世，所討論的問題似乎越來越抽象難解，予人難以親近之感，但筆者認為，哲學既然是從個人，而且是生存在社會當中的個人出發，最終同樣應回到個人、回到社會之中，哲學不可能、也不應該只是被限縮在遙遠的彼岸，而不與實際社會發生任何聯繫，而事實上，在經過文藝復興、啟蒙運動之後，哲學也的的確確又回到此岸，重新對人類理性、道德、存在基礎的問題進行追問探討。 若以馬克思（K. Marx）對德國傳統哲學的批判為起點，及至更具體地對資本主義社會的運作規律進行分析與發展的預測起，哲學就不再是單單探求社會與人類的存在基礎或認知條件，更是對於為何是這樣的社會，人類是這樣的生活，而不是其他可能的社會、可能的生活，進行追問、批判的考察，於是一個對社會與人類的發展更好的理論體系不再是唯一的問題核心，去揭露與批判社會結構性問題並進行改變更是當前要務。 在這個觀點上，筆者相當認同，哲學對當代社會的重要任務之一，就是對於當今人類處境，特別是在面對現代社會種種已然面臨的以及可能面臨的危機時，我們應該能夠有所觀察、反省、直指問題核心並積極回應。而當代知名理論大師哈伯瑪斯（J. Habermas）在這一立場上，亦和任何對社會問題有實踐上的關心、理論上的興趣的人一般，同樣將哲學的功能定位在實踐指導、反思與批判之上，並以這樣的標準從事其理論研究。 當然，哈伯瑪斯在當代社會的影響力之大，讓任何一個進行相關領域學術研究後輩無法輕易跳過的原因之一，就在於其理論範圍的廣泛度與深度，他嘗試建立起一個能夠更普遍且更好的說明與解釋社會發展過程的理論，我們可以從一九八一年所出版的《溝通行動理論》（Theorie des kommunikativen Handelns/ The Theory of Communicative Action）中，看出他這番意圖。 不過，哈伯瑪斯激發起一些學術研究工作者注意力的另一部份原因，即是他身為法蘭克福學派後繼者，與他的前輩、甚至馬克思，在理論內容上及批判精神上的延續、關聯，對於筆者而言，正是在《溝通行動理論》出版之前的哈伯瑪斯，他與馬克思（主義）理論之間的差異，特別是他對馬克思（主義）理論核心「歷史唯物論」（historischen Materialismus/ historical materialism）的重建看法，更是筆者所感興趣之處。

This thesis examines the relation between two contrasting approaches to justice: the constructive and reconstructive projects of Rawls and Habermas on the one hand, and the deconstructive projects of Levinas and Derrida on the other. First, I identify the central difference between the two projects, reconstructing each account of justice as it develops in relation to Kant??s practical philosophy. I then argue that the two projects are complementary. [New Paragraph] Whilst Rawls and Habermas emphasise the possibility of objectively realising Kant??s idea of an impartial standpoint among autonomous persons, Levinas and Derrida defend the impossibility of determining the content of justice. Rawls and Habermas subscribe to the ??art of the possible??, rendering Kant??s impartial standpoint by means of the ??original position?? (Rawls) or the ??procedures of discourse ethics?? (Habermas). By contrast, Levinas argues for justice??s failure, discovering, in Kant??s moral law, a principle of responsibility for the particular other which conflicts with impartiality. Distinguishing himself from both the reconstructive tradition and Levinas, Derrida affirms, in part through his readings of Kant, the ??undecidability?? of the critical function of justice. Committed to the possibility of justice, Derrida also acknowledges its impossibility: no local determination can reconcile responsibility before the other with impartiality among all. [New Paragraph] Having identified the central difference between the two traditions, I then defend their complementarity. ??Reasonable faith?? in the possibility of justice must be supplemented by the acknowledgment of its impossibility. Conversely, attesting to justice??s failure is unsatisfactory without commitment to the possibility of constructing just social forms. Distancing myself from the liberal critique whereby deconstruction withdraws from the political (Fraser, McCarthy, Benhabib, Gutmann), I instead add my voice to a dissenting group (Young, Cornell, Mouffe, Honig, Honneth, Patton, Thomassen) which affirms that deconstruction can productively engage with the constructive tradition. Deconstruction is at home in Rawls?? view that ??the ideal of a just constitution is always something to be worked toward??.

This dissertation reports on an exploration of school leadership from the perspective of how school leaders bring multiple cognitive interests to bear in their leadership practice. By analysing the discourse of practising school leaders this study has enabled insight to be gained into school leaders’ reflections-on-actions in given leadership situations. On the basis of the analysis of discourse it is concluded in this study that school based leadership, and school leadership preparation, can be enhanced when illuminated through a cognitive perspective grounded in Habermas’ theory of knowledge-constitutive interests (1971). Recommendations are given in this dissertation for the development of an approach to school leadership preparation built on a cognitive interests framework. Based in qualitative research techniques the main evidentiary material was elicited by the use of semi-structured interviews, and the collection of narratives, and was analysed with a variation of Membership Categorisation Analysis (Sacks, 1972).

Universiẗat, Diss., 2006--Heidelberg.

Thesis (Ph.D.) - Carleton University, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 257-273). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Diss.--Institut für Philosophie--München--Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, 1990.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2004. / Supervisor: Jay D. Scribner. Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Also available from UMI.

Thesis (D. Min.)--Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, 2002. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 221-230).

The author's Habilitationsschrift--Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München. / Includes indexes. Includes bibliographical references (p. 472-485).