Ma thèse, intitulée L’idée de liberté et sa dialectique négative : de l’histoire du concept à ses contradictions pratiques, articule histoire de la philosophie et philosophie sociale autour d’un axe herméneutique déterminant : les significations successivement attribuées au concept de liberté sont essentiellement reliées à des expériences d’aliénation - attestées par les textes - dont elles constituent des projections négatives idéalisées. Le travail généalogique effectué met en évidence l’indissociabilité de deux lignes d’analyse que le concept de « dialectique négative » est le plus propre à exprimer : la projection d’un concept de liberté à partir d’un contenu expérientiel historiquement mis sur le devant de la scène philosophique et la régression de ce concept en instrument idéologique.Dans cette perspective, l’analyse des différentes formulations paradigmatiques de l’idée de liberté - autour desquels les débats se sont concentrés et dont l’histoire de la philosophie s’est progressivement enrichie - met au jour le contenu philosophiquement inédit de chacune d’elles et son ancrage dans l’expression rationalisée d’une souffrance première, dès lors configurée comme forme d’aliénation. Ainsi, la peur de l’exil dans l’Antiquité, la conception chrétienne de l’homme endetté, la crainte asservissante d’autrui pour les Modernes et la peur contemporaine de l’objectivation unilatérale forgent essentiellement les significations respectives de la liberté comme autochtonie, rédemption, sécurité et réinsertion du sens.D’autre part, cette même analyse fait apparaître la dialectique négative 1 de l’idée de liberté : ce dont les idéaux de liberté veulent émanciper l’homme constitue du même coup et nécessairement le contenu motivationnel qui le conduit à s’aliéner. Dès lors, après avoir retracé de manière non exhaustive le contexte génétique de chaque paradigme philosophique, les chapitres déploient la dynamique régressive de l’idée de liberté, de telle façon qu’en chacune de ses formulations, elle engendre une nouvelle forme d’aliénation. Apparaît par là la dialectiquede la praxis au sein de laquelle l’idée de liberté devient mythe et mobilise des mécanismes psychologiques à la faveur desquels l’aspiration à l’émancipation se mue en désir d’adaptation et d’obéissance.Aussi le fil directeur tissé par ma thèse est-il que l’histoire de la philosophie fournit des éléments fondamentaux non seulement pour réveiller les sens du terme « liberté » confusément sédimentés dans notre usage discursif, mais aussi pour comprendre le rôle essentiel de l’idée de liberté dans l’imaginaire social. / The idea of Freedom and its Negative Dilaectics : from the History of the Concept to its Practical Contradictions.

This essay is focusing on Dag Hammarskjöld´s influences from Christian mysticism and modern criticism of metaphysics. Meister Eckhard is a well-known reference in Markings which in this study will be set as an example of mysticism i Hammarskjöld´s thinking. Not so associated to Hammarskjöld is the philosofer Axel Hägerström, though he will be an example of influences of modern thinking in Markings. To achieve a more specific view about how mysticism and modernity is converging and diverging in Markings, three subjects are more deeply discussed. These subjects are Jesus, Man and Metaphysics. In the matter of Jesus Hammarskjöld, Hägerström and Eckhart is sharing a lot of common understandings. When it comes to Man it is more complex diverging views between them all. Considering the metaphysics, Hammarskjöld´s and Eckhart´s view is diverging fundamentally from Hägerström´s. The result of this essay is leading to a discussion about some question this research has indicated and is setting focus on the meaning as an ontological resource, some problems with negative theology and Schweitzer´s ethics.

We are comparing the economic models of state social support which utilize the concept of the negative income tax. The comparison builds upon the overview of the main theoretical articles. We have analysed the proposals of various political parties regarding the negative income tax; in case of a Czech party's proposal of replacing a set of subsidies with the negative income tax, we have calculated the overall expected savings. For the purpose of the overall comparison, we selected the models of Friedman, Tobin, Sulik and the Earned Income tax Credit model. We benchmarked them in various theoretical and practical criteria. We conclude that they do not differ substantially except for their philosophical interpretation.

Non-negative operators, in special case non-negative matrices, are an interesting topics for many scientists and scientific teams from the beginning of the 20th century. It is not suprising because there are a lot of applications in different areas of science like economy, statistics, linear programming, computer science and others. We can give as the particular example the theory of the Markov chains in which we deal with non-negative matrices, so called transition matrices. They are of the special form and we called them stochastic matrices. Another example is given by the non-negative operator on spaces of infinite dimension which is employed in the theory of stochastic processes. It is the backward shift operator called the lag operator as well. The non-negativity in these examples is considered as the piecewise non-negativity. Another type of non-negativity is that in the sense of inner products. In the case of matrices we talk about positive-definite or positive-semidefinite matrices. A typical example is the covariance matrix of a random vector or symmetrization of any linear operator, for instance the symmetrization of the difference operator. The terms inverse problem or ill-posed problem have been gaining popularity in modern science since the middle of the last century. The subjects of the first publications in this area were related to quantum scattering theory, geophysics, astronomy and others. Thanks to powerful computers the chances for applications of the theory of inverse and ill-posed problems has extended in almost all fields of science which use mathematical methods. Ill-posed problems bear the feature of instability and there is the need of regularization if we want to get some reasonable solution. A typical example of the regularization is the differencing of stochastic process with the purpose to obtain a stationary process. Another concept of regularization used for solving e.g. integral equations with compact operators consists in application of regularization method as truncated singular value decomposition, Tichonov regularization method or Landweber iteration method. Mathematical tools employed in this work are those of the functional analysis. It is the area of mathematics in which distinct mathematical structures meet each other. They are structures built within different mathematical disciplines as mathematical analysis, topology, theory of sets, algebra (mainly linear algebra) and theory of measure (probability). The functional analysis framework enables us to obtain right formulations of definitions and problems providing the general view on the notions and problems of the theory of stochastic processes.

The main objective of master thesis is to analyse the selection of negative stories in TV news of chosen commercial TV broadcaster with a focus on the relationship between negative stories and the impact of advertisement. At the beginning, the theoretical analysis devotes to mass media and matters related to audience, the media influence, and historical development of views on media content. After that, the next part is dedicated to TV news. The research has been based on the analysis of documents, in-depth interviews and the analysis of previous study. They have helped to find the answers on the problematic questions that are to find in the last overview chapter. The master thesis provides one of possible views on TV news of commercial TV broadcaster and can lead to thinking about the influence of negative news on advertiser in the commercial break.

This thesis answers the question how big is the negative externality associated with driving under the influence of alcohol in crowns per kilometer driven by the driver with alcohol in blood. The calculation includes the economic consequences of accidents, specifically, loss of production, the cost of health care, administration and social expenditures, included are also the values of lost human lives and values for heavy and light injuries. Calculation of externality is used to determine the fine that internalizes this externality.

The objective of this thesis is to introduce negative phenomena in the workplace, specify various forms in which they occur (such as mobbing, bossing, bullying and sexual harassment), define the related terms and find factors which affect the desirable environment within a company as well as the occurrence of the negative factors. The contribution of the practical part of the thesis lies in the analysis of a survey which is focused on the existence of individual phenomena and on determining the strengths and weaknesses of a labour-law relation based on an evaluation of the relation between importance and satisfaction. The thesis concludes by summarizing the general principles of preventive approaches to the occurrence of negative phenomena, and by specifying the roles of individual levels of the company's management.

Negative reinforcement can be a powerful tool for behavior analysts, yet it is often overlooked as a treatment method. Pryor (1999) outlines a method for approaching a "timid" animal using a combination of negative reinforcement and positive reinforcement. When the animal stands still, the human operates a clicker, and then retreats from the animal. Gradually, the human moves closer to the animal through the clicking and retreating shaping process. Once the human is standing close enough, food may be offered as a positive reinforcer, and the negative reinforcer is canceled out. The purpose of this study was to experimentally demonstrate the click-retreat technique with cows. A multiple-baseline design across subjects was used to test this technique. Results show that the click and retreat technique was effective. Results are discussed in terms of the difference between the click-retreat technique and systematic desensitization.

We examined the claim that equivalence classes contain all positive elements in a reinforcement contingency by asking whether negative stimuli in a reinforcement contingency will also form an equivalence class, based on their shared function as S-minus stimuli. In Experiment 1, 5 subjects were tested for equivalence for positive and negative stimuli. Testing of positive stimuli preceded testing of negative stimuli. Two of five subjects demonstrated equivalence for positive stimuli, and three subjects demonstrated equivalence for negative stimuli. In Experiment 2, order of testing was reversed. Four of six subjects demonstrated equivalence for positive stimuli, and none demonstrated equivalence for negative stimuli. In Experiment 3, positive and negative stimuli were tested together. Only one of five subject demonstrated equivalence for positive and negative stimuli. These data suggest that negative stimuli may enter an equivalence class, and so Sidman paradigm should be expanded. Order of testing was found as a meaningful variable.

In this study the stressors of Grade 1 learners in their learning environment were explored and described. Data was collected through interviews with 32 Grade 1 learners, observation, field notes, as well as member checking with the Grade 1 learners in the end. The data analysis process included familiarisation and immersion, coding, interpretation and checking, as well as elaboration. Positive and negative stressors were seperated as stressors that Grade 1 learners experience in their learning environment. The positive stressors were the educator’s disposition, the learners’ need to learn and to get educated, as well as the importance of friends on the playground. The negative stressors that emerged were a fear for physical pain on the playground, teasing and conflict among the Grade 1 learners, noise and chaos in the classroom, as well as a fear for the older children in the school. Even though the findings from this study cannot be generalised to other groups it can contribute towards a deeper understanding of factors that may cause stress for Grade 1 learners. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Educational Psychology / MEd / unrestricted