This thesis explores how two opposing world views espoused respectively by two social movements coexist within our society. One view holds that humans, non-humans, and all of nature are interconnected and interdependent. Its proponents believe that social justice should, therefore, be extended to all of nature. The other view holds that people are autonomous, independent individuals, each with a fundamental right to freedom from the coercion by others. Its proponents believe that social justice is a means of social control and. so. is incompatible with freedom. Four activists for each of these social movements were interviewed to understand their personal world views and to gain insights on the social implications of the coexistence of their respective projects. While the 'freedom' activists understand nature as being hierarchical and the'eco-social justice' activists deny a hierarchy, agreements between the two groups and disagreements within them suggest a dynamic mechanism for social change.

Il s'agit ici de comprendre comment un paysan pourrait avoir du pouvoir sur sa propre activité, sa propre vie. Le Plateau de Millevaches où fleurissent de nombreuses initiatives et alternatives à la société de consommation peut donner certaines pistes. Les paysans sont abordés par le biais d'entretiens non directifs. Le choix quant à sa façon d’être paysan, celui de privilégier une identité de filière, professionnelle, ou bien celui d’affirmer son identité locale est lié à diverses manières de concevoir et d’utiliser le pouvoir. En effet, le pouvoir ne se résume pas à la domination, propres aux relations hiérarchiques dans lesquelles sont plongés les paysans suivant un modèle institutionnel, mais il se compose aussi de l’influence ou de la création qu’utilisent des paysans qui revendiquent leur appartenance locale. A travers le pouvoir, c’est notre liberté et nos choix éthiques de vie qui sont mis ici à l’épreuve. / How a farmer can have some power on his activity, on his life? To find several levels of power used by farmers, I'm travelling the "Plateau de Millevaches"(Limousin, France) where are growing several original initiatives. Farmers are approached by qualitative interviews. Concerning the way of being farmer, there’s a choice: to privilege a sectorial and professional identity, or to affirm a local one; and this choice is link to several way to conceive and use power. Indeed, power is not restricted to domination, proper to hierarchical relations in which farmers, following an institutional model, are plunged, but power also consists in influence or creation, used by farmers who claim their local ownership.Through power, liberty and our ethical choices are challenged

Segundo John Stuart Mill, a maximização da felicidade está intimamente relacionada ao desenvolvimento do caráter das pessoas. O filósofo defende que a educação e a opinião têm uma influência tão grande sobre o caráter humano que se este for desenvolvido a partir da filosofia utilitarista seria possível estabelecer na mente das pessoas uma associação indissolúvel entre a felicidade individual e a felicidade de todos. Com a finalidade de aprofundar o entendimento dessa relação o tema desse trabalho é o utilitarismo de Mill e a formação do caráter moral. Para alcançar esse objetivo foi utilizada a metodologia de pesquisa bibliográfica, analisando a literatura já publicada sobre os conceitos que norteiam o tema proposto, observando e utilizando a abordagem metodológica analítico-interpretativa. A dissertação apresenta as principais ideias dos filósofos clássicos do utilitarismo, investiga a concepção de utilitarismo de Mill analisando a relação do princípio de utilidade e o princípio de liberdade e observa as noções de Mill acerca da constituição do caráter do moral. Os resultados da pesquisa permitem ponderar que Mill considera as noções de virtude, justiça, diversidade, tolerância e empatia valores inseparáveis da concepção de felicidade. Concluiu-se que hedonismo qualitativo de Mill configura-se em um utilitarismo indireto, oferecendo mais espaço para aceitação de máximas não utilitárias, sem abandonar o princípio da utilidade / According to John Stuart Mill, maximizing happiness is closely related to the development of people's character. The philosopher argues that education and opinion have such a great influence on human character that if it were developed from utilitarian philosophy it would be possible to establish in the minds of people an indissoluble association between individual happiness and the happiness of all. In order to deepen the understanding of this relation the theme of this work is the utilitarianism of Mill and the formation of the moral character. In order to reach this goal, a bibliographical research methodology was used, analyzing the already published literature on the concepts that guide the proposed theme, observing and using the analytical-interpretative methodological approach. The dissertation presents the main ideas of the classical philosophers of utilitarianism, investigates Mill conception of utilitarianism by analyzing the relation of the utility principle and the principle of freedom and observes Mill notions about the constitution of the character of morality. The results of the research allow us to consider that Mill considers the notions of virtue, justice, diversity, tolerance and empathy values inseparable from the conception of happiness. It was concluded that Mill qualitative hedonism is an indirect utilitarianism, offering more space for the acceptance of non-utilitarian maxims, without abandoning the principle of utility

Dans la plupart des sociétés, le mariage est l'alliance d'un homme et d'une femme. mais la conception du mariage diffère d'un pays à un autre. ainsi en France outre le mariage religieux, le mariage doit être célébré par un officier d'état civil: c'est un mariage civil. En revanche, au Liban seul le mariage religieux au possible sur le territoire libanais, mais on reconnait certes les mariages civils à l'étranger. dès lors se pose la question de savoir comment le concept de liberté se décline en droit français et libanais dans le mariage. ainsi les libertés de se marier ou de ne pas se marier ou encore de choisir librement son conjoint, sont elles préservées? de la même façon de religion, d'opinion, d'expression par exemple? connaissent elles ou non des restrictions et des entraves en la matière dans les droits français et libanais? ce sont autant de questions auxquelles cette thèse se propose de répondre. / In most societies, marriage is an alliance of a man and a woman. But marriage conception differs from one country to another. In France, marriage is solemnized by a civil status official: This is a civil marriage. In Lebanon, civil marriage is authorized, but on the other hand, it is limited as it concerns citizens who have solemnized their civil marriage outside Lebanon. But, on the Lebanese territories, only religious marriage is possible. It is a comparative study between two types of societies, and each society follows a different juridical language. The French society is a lay society. Marriage is governed by the French Civil Code. While the Lebanese society is composed of different communities, every one of them having their own beliefs and organization.And marriage is governed by a confessional system, therefore it is pluralist.There is an important contradiction between the French law and the various Lebanese religious laws. This raises the question of how liberty declines in the French law and the Lebanese law in marriage. Thus is the freedom to marry, or not to marry, or to choose the spouse still preserved? What about individual liberties in marriage? For example, the liberty of spirit, the professional liberty, the sexual liberty, the body liberty… Are they protected against damage that could be brought by marriage? Do they know or not the restrictions in this matter in the French and Lebanese rights? These are all questions that this thesis aims to answer.

This study argues that the right to form political parties remains elusive in Swaziland in spite of the country’s claim that it is democratic. Discusses the following issues: (1) Whether political pluralism is the only means of actualising the right to freedom of association, and (2) whether the limitation imposed on the right to freedom of association by section 79 of the Constitution of Swaziland is justifiable / Thesis (LLM (Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa)) -- University of Pretoria, 2008. / A Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Law University of Pretoria, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Masters of Law (LLM in Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa). Prepared under the supervision of Dr Henry Ojambo, Faculty of Law, Makarere University, Uganda / http://www.chr.up.ac.za/ / Centre for Human Rights / LLM

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This dissertation is a study of the work of John Milton, most especially of his late poems, Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained, and Samson Agonistes. The early poetry, the prose tracts, and Christian Doctrine are considered in their developmental relation to those late poems. The question my study addresses is this: What does Milton mean by obedience? The critical approach used to address the question is as much philosophical-theological as it is literary. My project seeks to understand the shaping role of Milton's theology on his poetry: that is, to attempt to recreate and understand Milton's thinking on obedience from Milton's perspective. To this end, I focus on providing contextualized, attentive readings of key poetic moments. The contexts I provide are those derived from the two great heritages Milton had at his disposal--the Classical and Christian traditions. The poetic moments I attend to are most usually theologically and conceptually difficult moments, moments in which Milton is working out (as much as reflecting on or demonstrating or poeticizing) his key theological concerns, chief among them, obedience. Milton's concept of obedience is not just an idea developed within given interpretive frameworks, Classical, Christian, and a specific historic context, England in the seventeenth century. It is a strangely practical structure of being intended by Milton to recollect something of the disposition of Adam and Even before the fall. In other words, Miltonic obedience is multifaceted and complex. To address the complexity and nuance of what Milton means by obedience, I suggest that Milton's idea of obedience may be understood as a concept. The definitional source of Milton's concept of obedience is the Bible, and various texts of the Classical tradition. The necessary mechanism of the concept is Milton's idea of right timing, derived from the Greek idea of kairos. The necessary condition of Miltonic obedience is unknowing. With Milton's concept of obedience fully established, the dissertation concludes by suggesting connections between Milton's religious imagination and his political engagements. If Milton's paramount value was obedience, it was so because his paramount concern was liberty, for himself and for his nation.

The publication of Reid's Essays on the Active Powers of Man in 1788 fully completed his project, begun in 1785 with his Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man, to present to the public the substance of his lectures and reflections during his tenure as Professor of Moral Philosophy at the University of Glasgow. The Active Powers comprises five essays on the metaphysics of causation and the foundation of morals--four essays dealing with causation, motivation, and human liberty, and a fifth containing the main lines of his theory of morals and critique of Hume's moral theory. Unlike the Intellectual Powers, and unlike his first book, An Inquiry into the Human Mind on the Principles of Common Sense (1764), the Active Powers has kept the attention of few philosophers and scholars. Even those who have turned its pages are unclear about the central doctrines contained therein, and are accordingly undecided as to their implications and philosophical merits. Through a critical reconstruction of the Active Powers, this thesis remedies a long-standing neglect. After an extensive developmental exploration of Reid's epistemological designs and the naturalistic stamp of his theory of knowledge, I turn to his Active Powers and argue that the unifying doctrine of the essays is man's moral liberty, a doctrine that he supports with two strategic theses--first, that the only legitimate kind of cause, an efficient cause, is always an intelligent agent and, second, that men are efficient causes which act on rational motives. The first thesis has genuine religious implications, especially for his epistemology, but he cannot hold it, I argue, without also proving the second. Initially unable to do this, as a comparison with Hume demonstrates, Reid must then outline the nature of efficient causation by reason alone, and must prove that humans are efficient causes by rendering consistent our commitment to the durable causal principle, Every event must have an efficient cause that produced it, and what is necessarily demanded by our natural system of morals. Although the balance between animal motivation and the practical ends provided by reason is uneven, only the latter enable men to have moral liberty and make it possible for us both to accept the causal principle and to have the freedom required by our system of morals. Unfortunately, I argue, Reid's need for the motivation of reasons, or "rational principles of action," entails an untoward paradox: Either no efficient cause acts on reasons or liberty is simply irrelevant to our acting morally. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

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