This thesis presents an account of the development of Scots criminal law which concentrates on the influence of the Scottish moral tradition, as epitomised by Calvinist theological doctrine and Scottish Enlightenment moral philosophy. It argues that there are several crucial but seldom-acknowledged points of similarity between the Calvinist aim of creating a holy community and key tenets of eighteenth century Scottish moral thought, which rest upon community-oriented conceptions of the nature of morality and society. Both these shared conceptions and the particular ways they are expressed in Calvinist creed and Enlightenment philosophy are shown to have had a bearing on the way that Scots criminal law changed over time. The areas in which this influence is demonstrated are: the scope and principles of the law, i.e. the type of conduct that was punishable and the arguments that were put forward to justify its prohibition; the attribution of criminal responsibility (and non-responsibility); and the importance of mental state. It is argued that in each of these discrete areas changing perspectives on the nature of morality and human agency had a palpable impact on both legal doctrine and practice. When these different areas of the law are viewed as a whole and in historical perspective, the formative force of the Scottish moral tradition becomes clear and its influence can be seen to have extended into the contemporary law. The thesis therefore provides an original interpretation of the history of Scots criminal law by considering its sources and institutions from hitherto unexplored theological and moral perspectives, whilst simultaneously enhancing scholarly appreciation of certain aspects of the contemporary law that appear unusually moralistic. It also makes a broader contribution to socio-historic scholarship and strengthens its position as a recognised and worthwhile discipline by illustrating, using a concrete legal system, how legal history can enhance debates within criminal law theory and vice versa.

abstract: “The Moral Sense of Touch: Teaching Tactile Values in Late Medieval England” investigates the intersections of popular science and religious education in the late fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, the project draws together a range of textual artifacts, from scientific manuals to private prayerbooks, to reconstruct the vast network of touch supporting the late medieval moral syllabus. I argue that new scientific understandings of the five senses, and specifically the sense of touch, had a great impact on the processes, procedures, and parlances of vernacular religious instruction in late medieval England. The study is organized around a set of object lessons that realize the materiality of devotional reading practices. Over the course of investigation, I explore how the tactile values reinforcing medieval conceptions of pleasure and pain were cultivated to educate and, in effect, socialize popular reading audiences. Writing techniques and technologies—literary forms, manuscript designs, illustration programs—shaped the reception and user-experience of devotional texts. Focusing on the cultural life of the sense of touch, “The Moral Sense of Touch” provides a new context for a sense based study of historical literatures, one that recovers the centrality of touch in cognitive, aesthetic, and moral discourses. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation English 2016

Although scholars and Christian leaders have indicated that there is marked separation between morality and spirituality in the Christian praxis of many Africans and that the African worldview, which African Christians still hold is responsible for this separation, there has not been a detailed study of the issue. The aim of the research is to offer an explanation, of a paradox in Ghanaian society where there is enthusiastic Christian spirituality that is separated from social morality, so that a deeper integration of the Christian and Akan traditional moral schemes can be proposed.My research focuses on Pentecostals in Ghana whose appropriation of the African worldview into Christian praxis has generally been considered as a positive response to African religiosity. By the use of a practical theological method of correlation whereby the Christian truth is represented by the moral theology of John Wesley and brought in dialogue with the Akan traditional moral scheme, this research offers reasons for and proposes a solution to the lack of social morality in Ghanaian Pentecostalism. It uses the virtue theory as a heuristic tool for the analysis of morality in a way that provides explanation for the situation and guides an integration of the two moral schemes at a deeper level. The examination of the two moral schemes has been guided by the elements of character, a central theme of the virtue theory. It has been shown that the ‘Deliverance Theology’ of Ghanaian Pentecostals involves significant misrepresentation of the Akan traditional scheme, and that this situation causes many Christians to focus on religion as a means for the supply of existential needs rather than the transformation of inner dispositions for moral character formation. This research shows that reinterpreting the Akan view of humanity and integrating it with the Wesleyan account of the Christian truth, transforms the ‘Deliverance Theology’ by portraying the Christian life as a pneumatological characterology. The moral responsibility that this entails will ensure that African Pentecostals understand social morality as an essential outcome of their Christian spirituality.

Submitted by Maicon Juliano Schmidt (maicons) on 2015-06-03T14:54:25Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Leandro Rodrigues de Oliveira_.pdf: 1362296 bytes, checksum: 487da756b68c0545f7af4eff93ac8240 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-06-03T14:54:25Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Leandro Rodrigues de Oliveira_.pdf: 1362296 bytes, checksum: 487da756b68c0545f7af4eff93ac8240 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-04-17 / CAPES - Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / O presente trabalho se propõe a pensar a crise das referências como um pressuposto por onde se localiza uma problemática contemporânea de fundamentação ética. Tendo por base a reflexão sobre o niilismo, o que se pretende é entender como se deu o processo de enfraquecimento da tradição de pensamento moral na visão ocidental, diagnosticada pelo pensador Friedrich Nietzsche, como desvalorização dos valores supremos. Este trabalho contemplará diretamente o pensamento do filósofo alemão; contudo, manter-se-á numa leitura construída sob a ótica do filosofo jesuíta francês Paul Valadier, cujas obras nos convidam a compreender o problema do niilismo, tendo como perspectiva central uma avaliação que se desdobra em uma análise a respeito da crise valores e suas consequências para o mundo contemporâneo. Para o autor francês, a partir dos avanços da racionalidade científica com o advento da era moderna, as tradições foram postas em causa, interrogadas ou mesmo recusadas. Com isso, instala-se a impossibilidade de respostas às questões morais que se apresentam, uma vez que o ser humano passa a ser o responsável por definir seu agir e seu pensar no mundo. O resultado disso é o surgimento do relativismo moral que se instala como consequência do processo de anarquia dos valores, na condição de ausência do princípio de ordenação e hierarquização destes, originários da concepção de sentido e de mundo ordenado, antes provenientes das tradições. Por isso, faz-se perceber a importância de Nietzsche. Para Valadier, não há dúvida de que o filósofo alemão contribuiu mais do que muitos para este abalo moral. Daí que o diagnóstico nietzschiano seja tomado neste trabalho considerando-se sua relevância por vários aspectos: tanto no que concerne à crítica dos valores, à moral cristã, quando pela importância dada ao método genealógico pelo qual se torna possível compreender os fatores que levaram a tradição perder sua força de atuação, quando é revelado o seu sentido niilista escondido sob os valores considerados mais supremos. / This paper proposes to think the crisis of references as an assumption by where is a contemporary issue of ethical reasoning. Based on the reflection on nihilism, the aim is to understand how was the weakening of the moral tradition of thought in Western view, previously diagnosed from the thinker Friedrich Nietzsche, as devaluation of the highest values. This work directly contemplate the thought of German philosopher; however, will remain in a reading built from the perspective of the French Jesuit philosopher Paul Valadier, whose works invite us to understand the nihilism of the problem, with the central perspective an assessment that unfolds in an analysis about the crisis and its values consequences for the contemporary world. The French author, from the advances of scientific rationality with the advent of the modern era, the traditions have been challenged, questioned, or even rejected. With this, install the impossibility of answers to moral questions that arise, since the human being becomes responsible for defining their actions and their thinking in the world. The result is the emergence of moral relativism that develops as a consequence of the process of anarchy of values, provided that the absence of the ordering principle and ranking of these originating in design sense, orderly world, but from the traditions. In this sense, is made to realize the importance of Nietzsche. To Valadier, there is no doubt that the German philosopher contributed more than many for this moral shock. Hence Nietzsche's diagnosis is taken in this work considering their relevance for various aspects: both as regards the criticism of values, Christian morality, when the importance given to genealogical method by which it becomes possible to understand the factors that led to tradition lose its force of action, when it is revealed its nihilistic sense hidden under the values considered most supreme.