Thesis (doctoral)--Universität Basel, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 155-167).

Revision of dissertation (Ph. D.)--University of Toronto, 1989. / Includes bibliographical references (p. [231]-255) and index.

Thesis--München. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 7-10).

Diss.-- Franeker (H. Calsbeek, defendant).

Thesis (Th. M.)--Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, 1993. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 123-129).

This thesis is about the relationship between a belief being justified and it being true. It defends a version of the view that the fundamental point of having a justified belief is to have a true one. The particular version of that view it defends is the claim that belief is subject to a truth norm – i.e. a norm or standard that says that one should believe something if and only if it’s true. It claims that belief being subject to such a truth norm can explain which beliefs count as justified and which do not. After introducing the idea of a truth norm (Ch. 1), the argument of my thesis involves two main stages. Part One of the thesis (Chs. 2-3) contains the first stage, in which I argue that my way of arguing for a truth norm, on the basis of its explanatory role in epistemology, is much more likely to be successful than a more popular way of arguing for a truth norm, on the basis of its explanatory role in the philosophy of mind. Part Two (Chs. 4-7) contains the second stage, in which I argue that the truth norm can indeed explain justification in the way I’ve outlined. I do this by answering four criticisms that have been made of the claim that belief is subject to a truth norm. These criticisms claim that a truth norm should be rejected because, in turn, a truth norm cannot guide belief formation (Ch. 4), because a truth norm prescribes believing all the truths (Ch. 5), because a truth norm never prescribes suspending judgement (Ch. 6), and because a truth norm in some cases prescribes making problematic trade-offs of having one false belief for the sake of having many true beliefs (Ch. 7). I argue that all of these criticisms fail. But it is through answering these criticisms that we can see the contours of a defensible explanation of justification in terms of the truth norm.

This thesis concerns the reason-giving aspect of legitimacy. What reasons must be used to justify coercive laws, if citizens are to be respected as morally free and equal, in the face of their many moral, religious, and philosophical disagreements? Many theorists endorse 'political liberalism', according to which laws must be justified to all citizens by reasons that they can accept. This claim has been interpreted in two conflicting ways. The dominant view, which I call 'public reason liberalism', holds that laws must be justified by appeal to a set of values that all citizens can share, despite their many disagreements. In the first part of the thesis, I argue that this view should be rejected in favour of 'justificatory liberalism', which holds that laws must be conclusively justified to each citizen on the basis of all of their reasons. I also respond to the challenge of the 'right reasons view', which rejects the claim that laws need to be justified to citizens by reasons they can accept. Several prominent objections to political liberalism claim that it is incompatible with committed religious belief. In the second part of the thesis I investigate whether this is the case with regard to Christianity, by engaging with Christian theology. I argue that many of the common objections to political liberalism fail, but so do certain arguments that aim to show that Christians ought to endorse public reason liberalism on the basis of their religious beliefs. Nonetheless, Christians can accept political liberalism, and justificatory liberalism in particular. The requirements of justificatory liberalism and individuals' Christian beliefs will sometimes conflict, however. Justificatory liberals should accept that individuals can sometimes justifiably prioritise the latter over the former. My overall argument is that justificatory liberalism offers the best account of the reason-giving aspect of legitimacy, and that this is partly shown by its compatibility with Christian theology.

[pt] Desde a publicação do famoso artigo do americano Edmund Gettier sobre as condições do conhecimento diversos pensadores apontaram para as conseqüências céticas advindas do questionamento do conceito de conhecimento como crença verdadeira justificada. A despeito de tal afirmação, poucos foram aqueles que se dedicaram elucidar em que exatamente consiste a ameaça cética. O objetivo da presente tese é formular um conceito de ceticismo que esteja de acordo com suas expressões mais relevantes, no passado e na atualidade, e averiguar se o problema de Gettier a ele pode realmente conduzir. / [en] Since the publishing of the famous article from the american Edmund Gettier on the definition of knowledge several thinkers pointed out to the sceptical consequences derived from questioning the concept of knowledge as justified true belief. Despite such affirmation, few were those who dedicated themselves to clarify of what exactly consists the sceptical threat. This thesis objective is to formulate a concept of scepticism according to its most relevant expressions, in the past and nowadays, and to test if the Gettier problem can truly lead to it.

abstract: Convergent products are products that offer multiple capabilities from different product categories. For example, a smartphone acts as an internet browser, personal assistant, and telephone. Marketers are constantly considering the value of adding new functionalities to these convergent products. This work examines convergent products in terms of the hedonic and utilitarian value they provide along with whether the addition is related to the base product, revealing complex and nuanced interactions. This work contributes to marketing theory by advancing knowledge in the convergent products and product design literatures, specifically by showing how hedonic and utilitarian value and addition relatedness interact to impact the evaluation of convergent goods and services. Looking at a greater complexity of convergent product types also helps to resolve prior conflicting findings in the convergent products and hedonic and utilitarian value literatures. Additionally, this work examines the role of justification in convergent products, showing how different additions can help consumers to justify the evaluation of a convergent product. A three-item measure for justification was developed for this research, and can be used by future researchers to better understand the effects of justification in consumption. This work is also the first to explicitly compare effects between convergent goods and convergent services. Across two experiments, it is found that these two products types (convergent goods versus convergent services) are evaluated differently. For convergent goods, consumers evaluate additions based on anticipated practicality/productivity and on how easily they are justified. For convergent services, consumers evaluate additions based on perceptions of performance risk associated with the convergent service, which stems from the intangibility of these services. The insights gleaned from the research allow specific recommendations to be made to managers regarding convergent offerings. This research also examines the applicability of hedonic and utilitarian value to a special type of advertising appeal: reward appeals. Reward appeals are appeals that focus on peripheral benefits from purchasing or using a product, such as time or money savings, and make suggestions on how to use these savings. This work examines potential interactions between reward appeals and other common advertising elements: social norms information and role clarity messaging. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Business Administration 2012

Cybercrimes have been rapidly increasing over the past decade becoming more sophisticated and increasing victimization, resulting in an increased load of the police in the effort to prevent and stop these crimes. This study explores the challenges the Danish police encounter facing cybercrime and their approach to preventing it. The data were collected through interviewing individuals on a managing level in two different departments dealing with cybercrime within the Danish police force. The data were analyzed thematically to identify key issues. The main challenges found being; the time frame the police has to act upon in reference to the nature of the data, the culture that exists on the internet and distinguishing jokes from threats, the effortlessness of criminals justifying once actions, and the visible presence of the police on the internet. The primary focus of prevention to deal with some of these issues is moving towards creating a healthy network between the police and the private sector, in an effort to create a shared responsibility and a forum of which information can be shared to create a possible united front towards cybercrime.