Made available in DSpace on 2014-08-20T13:17:39Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Arthur- Piranema- da- Cruz- Dissertacao.pdf: 771597 bytes, checksum: 7d92370496f82c2964609a2649c412a9 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-07-15 / This work seeks to sustain the particularistic view of Aristotle‟s Nicomachean Ethics as opposed to universal readings. The analysis of the passages on the method of practical philosophy, about virtue as mean and about prudence as perceptive ability of the virtuous man will show that Aristotle‟s Ethics is actually particularistic. Although you can not defend an extreme particularism, because the record of universalizations and generalizations also find shelter, yet there is a distinct particularistic base that gives priority to the perception of what is relevant in every situation. / Este trabalho busca sustentar a visão particularista da Ethica Nicomachea de Aristóteles em contraposição às leituras universalistas. A análise das passagens sobre o método da filosofia prática, sobre a virtude como mediedade e sobre a prudência como capacidade perceptiva do homem virtuoso mostrará que a ética de Aristóteles é efetivamente particularista. Embora não seja possível defender um particularismo extremo, pois o registro das universalizações e generalizações também encontram guarida, ainda assim se verifica a nítida base particularista que dá prioridade à percepção do que é relevante em cada situação.

This thesis will revisit the debate between moral particularists and moral generalists in the field of meta-ethics. The general aim of this project will be to come to a better understanding of the status and role of moral principles in a reasons-holistic moral landscape. The specific aim will be to develop a viable position within the particularism-generalism debate that will combine elements from both theories. My central argument will be threefold: (a) I will argue that, in a reasons-holistic moral landscape, exceptionless moral principles are not sufficient to ground the possibility of moral thought and judgement; (b) that the possibility of moral thought and judgement depends in part on a determinate set of exceptionless moral principles and an indeterminate set of defeasible moral principles; and (c) that moral principles are insufficient to codify all or most moral truths in finite and manageable terms. My position therefore is a modified version of Principled Particularism. In this thesis, despite defending a version of particularism, I will not shy away from employing generalist terminology or from accepting certain generalist assumptions. Furthermore, unlike some particularists, I will stress the necessity and utility of moral principles. This thesis will also incorporate research about moral thought and judgement from the fields of moral psychology, cognitive science, and neuroscience.

Countries in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development have experienced a decline in citizens' trust in government in the last few decades. In response, public administration shifted from traditional public administration to New Public Management (NPM) with the goal of increasing trust in government by trying to make government more responsive, work better, and cost less. An important element of NPM is the reliance on managerialism's application of private sector solutions such as performance management whose assumed strength is that it can deliver on efficiency, effectiveness, and accountability. An underlining basis of private sector imports into the public sector environment is that they are based on universalism – the existence of general laws irrespective of the situation or circumstance. Often, referred to as a 'one-size-fits-all' approach. However, after a few decades of implementing performance management based on universalistic principles the evidence suggests that performance management has not fully met expectations. Contrasting universalism is particularism - meaning that different rules and applications will depend on the situation, in other words, context matters. In short, 'no best way'. To explore the universalism vs particularism debate, this research uses the Management Accountability Framework (MAF) which is a Canadian government's long-standing performance management tool. The MAF serves as a proxy for a one-size-fits-all approach to performance management. With regards to particularism, this research employs a contingency approach as the theoretical basis to explore performance management. The contingency approach is premised on three core concepts: external contingent factors, internal contingent factors, and fit. The Canadian Intelligence Community (IC) is used as the case study to explore the primary question of whether a universalism-based or a particularism-based approach is better suited for performance management in the public sector? In seeking an answer to this question, two additional sub-questions are explored. First, what makes the IC different from the other policy domains? Second, what is the fit between the MAF and the IC's contingent factors? To answer these questions, data collection consisted of content analysis of documents as well as interviews with senior officials. Findings from this exploratory study reveal that universalism-based approaches to performance management should at the very least be complemented by particularism considerations. The IC was found to be different from other policy domains in terms of both external and internal contingent factors. The former consists of the threat environment, the legislative framework, and the external expectations of the IC. The latter consists of the intelligence process, the intelligence product, intelligence and secrecy, and the IC as a high reliability organization. It was found that there was more misfit than fit between the MAF and the IC's contingency factors. In exploring these questions, this research contributes concurrently to the public administration and intelligence studies literature in a number of ways. For instance, evidence that universalism-based approach to performance management does not always deliver what it promises, being able to intersect intelligence studies and public administration which is currently lacking, examining the 'hidden' parts of the public sector (i.e., the IC) that tends to be ignored in public administration, peering into the 'black box' of public sector organizations' management tools, the exploration of how practitioners use management tools, analyzing public sector organizations operating in a complex environment, adding to a limited non-historical contemporary Canadian IC literature, looking at the IC's performance-related issues that goes beyond the overwhelming intelligence failure literature. In addition to contributing to knowledge, the research highlights the importance of performance management and intelligence in relation to society.

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<p>The aim for this thesis is to study the international gender equality work from a perspective of the concept of universalism and particularism, with the United Nation’s Declaration of Human Rights, and especially -“The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women”, in focus. The shadowreports of Namibia and Sweden are used as examples of how countries with different historical, political and social contexts are working with gender equality.A theroetical framework is constitued by theories as postmodernism, postcolonialism and feminism with basis from social constructionism. The thesis is methodological influenced by Critical Discourse Analysis. Notions from former studies were also used as tools in the analysis. Some of the main notions, which within the concept of universalism and particularism, appeared as difficulties in the implementing of the CEDAW, were religion, law, democracy and superior position for men towards women.</p>

The aim for this thesis is to study the international gender equality work from a perspective of the concept of universalism and particularism, with the United Nation’s Declaration of Human Rights, and especially -“The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women”, in focus. The shadowreports of Namibia and Sweden are used as examples of how countries with different historical, political and social contexts are working with gender equality.A theroetical framework is constitued by theories as postmodernism, postcolonialism and feminism with basis from social constructionism. The thesis is methodological influenced by Critical Discourse Analysis. Notions from former studies were also used as tools in the analysis. Some of the main notions, which within the concept of universalism and particularism, appeared as difficulties in the implementing of the CEDAW, were religion, law, democracy and superior position for men towards women.

[pt] A presente tese é primordialmente um trabalho de filosofia do direito. Não obstante, também pode ser encarada como uma contribuição para o estudo filosófico sobre a natureza das regras prescritivas (e do uso diretivo ou prescritivo da linguagem), englobando: uma investigação sobre as regras e suas notas características e contingentes e um estudo sobre as diferentes maneiras por meio das quais elas podem integrar o raciocínio prático dos seus destinatários. Para não usar a linguagem de férias, as regras serão discutidas dentro do cenário do positivismo conceitual. O objetivo é mostrar alguns dos principais problemas que devem ser enfrentados quando se pretende levar as regras a sério. Trata-se de uma incursão nas fontes filosóficas dos casos difíceis do direito, quando encarado como um sistema de regras. / [en] The present thesis is primarily an exercise in philosophy of law. However, it can also be viewed as a contribution to the recurring philosophical investigations about the nature of prescriptive rules (and the directive or prescritive use of language in general), encompassing: an inquiry about rules and their characteristic and contigent marks, and a research of several ways by means of which they can play a part in the practical reasoning of its addressees. In order not to use language on holiday, the discussion about rules will be held on the stage set up by conceptual positivism. The aim is to point out some of the main problems that must be faced when rules are taken seriously. In a nutshell, the thesis is an incursion into the philosophical sources of hard cases, when law is conceived as a system of rules.

[pt] Teorias ideais e teoria não-ideais da adjudicação são uma distinção metodológica dentro das teorias normativas da adjudicação. A última considera que a metodologia das teorias normativas deve ser adequada ao que podemos esperar de seres humanos ordinários. Autores do formalismo jurídico como Larry Alexander, Cass Sunstein e Adrian Vermeule estão associados a essa metodologia. O primeiro, por sua vez, considera que esta não é uma restrição normativamente relevante. Podemos defender teorias cujos padrões normativos violam o que podemos esperar de seres humanos ordinários. O particularismo de Dworkin é o principal expoente desse método. A pergunta central é se há um conflito genuíno entre esses dois métodos. Para responder essa pergunta, divido as teorias ideais em duas vertentes: teorias ideais não-orientador e teorias ideais orientadoras. Defendo que há um conflito metodológico apenas entre os métodos não-ideias e este último. Por fim, sugiro que a reflexão sobre esses métodos é importante para desenvolver novos projetos normativos, nomeadamente, do formalismo ideal e que tal empreitada é intelectualmente valiosa. / [en] Ideal theories and non-ideal theories of adjudication are a methodological distinction within normative theories of adjudication. The latter consider that the methodology of normative theories must be adequate to what we might expect from ordinary human beings. Legal formalist scholars such as Larry Alexander, Cass Sunstein e Adrian Vermeule are associated with this methodology. The latter, in turn, believe that this is not a normatively relevant constraint. We can defend theories whose normative standards violate what we might expect from ordinary human beings. Dworkin s particularism is the chief exponent of this method. The central question is whether there is a genuine conflict between these two methods. To answer this question, I divide ideal theories into two strands: non-orienting ideal theory and orienting ideal theory. I argue that there is a methodological conflict only between non-ideals and the latter. Finally, I suggest that reflection on these issues is important to developing new normative projects, namely, ideal formalism and that such enterprise is intellectually valuable.

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This thesis probes the relevance of objections against newly establishing contemporary paradigm of human dignity, based on connection between dignity and Kantian views on human autonomy, which possess universalistic ambitions. First chapter introduces the fundamental concepts of human dignity during history. The chapter shows there have been evolved at least three different concepts: (i) dignity as an internal value; (ii) dignity as a social status; and (iii) dignity as a certain manner of social behavior. Second chapter consequently deals with courts` techniques regarding the dignity as a legal concept. The conclusions extrapolated from German, Israeli and South African judicial decision-making noticeably support objections raised in contemporary discourse against the abovementioned universalistic concept. In spite of these universalistic ambitions, human dignity represents concept enabling to construe individual human rights through values shared by vast majority in certain jurisdictions. This mindset naturally leads to the limitation of individual freedom rather to its expansion, in the name of an idea that ideal moral order objectively exists. Consequently, the authority of classical human rights is considerably weakened. In third chapter the effort to analyze and construe current judicial practice is...