In this dissertation I look at a series of portraits of Plato’s philosopher throughout the corpus. I argue that there are three central components in his account of the philosopher: (1) having certain motivations, (2) having a certain sort of nature, and (3) engaging in a set of characteristic activities. All three features emerge in the early dialogues in the figure of Socrates. There we see that the philosopher is motivated by a deep and enduring love of wisdom and a desire to seek it. In addition, he has traits of character and intellect that make him well suited to the pursue the wisdom. And he engages in certain activities that has as its aim attaining knowledge. While this basic picture of the philosopher emerges in the early dialogues, it gets fleshed out and developed more fully in later dialogues and, in particular in the Republic with the figure of the philosopher ruler. There we see the close relationship between the philosopher’s character and intellectual pursuits and how both his character and pursuits are shaped through courses in education. And, in the Republic, the philosopher does actually succeed in his pursuit of knowledge. The knowledge he comes to have shapes his character, affecting the sorts of things he values and resulting in philosophical virtue. In the Theaetetus we see a portrait of a philosopher who, while sharing the same nature and pursuits as the philosopher ruler of the Republic, is born in an unjust city. Here the philosopher withdraws from the political and instead lives a private life, pursuing those interests and questions that are conducive to virtue. Finally, in the Sophist and Statesman, we find the philosopher in the figure of the Eleatic Visitor, as he develops accounts of the sophist and statesman. Here, Plato’s focus shifts from the philosopher’s nature to his activities as the Eleatic Visitor proposes, teaches, and uses a new method of inquiry - the method of collection. It is here where we see Plato articulate just how one goes about developing the systematic and defensible accounts necessary for the knowledge that the philosopher so desires.

Emily Brontë began transcription of two poetry notebooks in February 1844. The title of one, 'Gondal Poems' is self-explanatory in its content and focus. But the purpose of the second, simply headed 'EJB. Transcribed Febuary [sic] 1844' has never been fully explored. It has not been recognised as a discrete piece of work, nor has it been printed in a complete edition of Emily's work with the exact text, and in the sequence in which she created it. In this thesis I ask what Emily's composition of her EJB notebook reveals about her as a writer and thinker, and why readers have never had the opportunity to read the poems in the context that she created for them. Chapter One examines the critical history of the poems, and here I describe the 'lexicon' created by Charlotte Brontë, Emily's first posthumous editor, through which much of Emily's work is still interpreted. I propose that the continued use of elements of this 'lexicon' impedes a recognition of Emily as a rigorous intellectual and thinker. In Chapter Two I show how a sequential reading of the EJB poems places her within her contemporary intellectual world. I propose that her purposeful creation of the notebook provides evidence of an engagement with the philosophies and literature of early nineteenth-century Europe, and reveals not only a profound understanding of the thought-systems of the time, but also a capacity to use those systems to develop a unique philosophy through poetry, a philosophy which she then employed in her creation of Wuthering Heights. The EJB holograph is not currently available for examination but this investigation is supported by my own transcription of the notebook which is based on a set of photographs taken over eighty years ago. Chapters Three, Four and Five are supported by a series of 'post genetic' diagrams which describe the textual development of the poems from the first publication of fifteen of them in 1846, to the most recent collected edition published in 1995. These chapters elucidate the effects of the activities and decisions of the editors, collectors and scholars who have influenced the texts and the presentations of the poems since the beginnings of transcription in 1844. This thesis proposes that in creating her EJB notebook Emily constructed a discrete piece of work which should stand alone as evidence of her distinctive philosophical engagement with her contemporary intellectual world. It demands a new vocabulary through which to interpret Emily and her work, and it requires an end to the 'lexicon' which has shaped Emily Brontë scholarship since her death in 1848. The evidence presented in this thesis supports the need for a new and definitive edition of Emily's poems, and particularly for a contextual presentation of the EJB notebook. This will enable a new conception of her as a systematic, methodical and abstract thinker, a philosopher-poet who has engaged with some of the foremost ideas of the early nineteenth-century.

Pretende-se averiguar, neste trabalho, a concepção de pensamento, ou inteligência, que os diálogos A República VI e VII e Fédon apresentam. Trata-se de pontuar a partir da análise das questões que envolvem o trabalho cognitivo da alma, mais precisamente os temas sobre o conhecimento, a reminiscência, o método dialético e a apreensão das ideias, a concepção de excelência da racionalidade que o pensamento filosófico sugere. Dada a hipótese de que os diálogos oferecem uma visão de aquisição de superioridade da alma, visão coincidente em muitos aspectos, tem-se a sugestão do pensar nos termos de atividade e de estado igualmente superiores, ou excelentes, no qual se tem a plena realização das capacidades racionais. O cerne da pesquisa consiste em verificar na descrição da atividade filosófica o que caracteriza a inteligência e obter uma compreensão acerca desse trabalho do pensamento em sua máxima capacidade, o qual se desenvolve na busca do conhecimento que possa dizer acerca das questões mais importantes, como o Bem e a imortalidade. / It is intended to investigate, in this paper, the concept of thought, or intelligence that is presented in the dialogues Republic VI and VII and Phaedo. It concerns to point out from the analysis of the issues surrounding the cognitive work of the soul, more precisely the themes about knowledge, the reminiscence, the dialectical method and the apprehension of ideas, the concept of the excellence of rationality that the philosophical thought suggests. Given the hypothesis that the dialogues offer a view on acquisition of superiority of the soul, coinciding view in many aspects, there is the suggestion of thinking in terms of activity and state equally superior or excellent, in which one has the full accomplishment of the rational capacities. The research core consists in verifying the description of philosophical activity which characterizes the intelligence, and acquiring an understanding of this work of the thought in its full capacity, which develops in the pursuit of the knowledge that can tell about the most important issues, such as Good and immortality.

"Denn wenn das Reisen für die Philosophie eine Rolle spielt, dann in Zusammenhang mit der Hervorbringung von philosophischen Texten. Diese nun sind nicht "Unterwegs" geschrieben, sondern "zuhause". Am Ende jeder Reise gab es ein Hinsetzen, ein Zu-Sich-Zurückkommen, ein Sich-Sammeln, und erst daraus entstand Philosophie. Jedenfalls ist das unsere Vorstellung. Das, was wir Philosophie nennen, halten wir für das Produkt einer geistigen Hervorbringung, einer gedanklichen "Setzung".

Mary Wollstonecraft’s ghost haunts women’s writing of the Romantic period. After her untimely death in 1797, and the publication of William Godwin’s candid biography in 1798, Wollstonecraft’s reputation was besmirched by the reactionary press in an attack on radical support for revolutionary ideals. Wollstonecraft’s campaign for women’s rights was conflated with a representation of her as sexually promiscuous, politically dangerous and religiously unorthodox. For women writing after Wollstonecraft’s death, an engagement with her political ideals risked identification with her lifestyle, deemed both improper and impious. My thesis explores how women writers negotiated Wollstonecraft’s scandalous reputation in order to discuss her influential feminist arguments and develop their own positions on these pressing issues in post-revolutionary Britain. In the early nineteenth century, Wollstonecraft’s life and work gets elided with the figure of the female philosopher, already popular in both pro- and counter-revolutionary writing of the 1790s. After Wollstonecraft’s death, fictional female philosophers echo elements of her biography whilst voicing an often caricatured version of her arguments. By rejecting these satirically overblown feminist positions, women writers could adopt a more moderate form of feminism, often closer to Wollstonecraft’s original polemic, to critique cultural restrictions on women, revealing how these warp female behaviour. My project modifies our understanding of the origins of modern feminism by focussing on Wollstonecraft’s reception across a range of socially and politically diverse texts, and the ways in which the process of reading itself is treated as potentially revolutionary.

Pretende-se averiguar, neste trabalho, a concepção de pensamento, ou inteligência, que os diálogos A República VI e VII e Fédon apresentam. Trata-se de pontuar a partir da análise das questões que envolvem o trabalho cognitivo da alma, mais precisamente os temas sobre o conhecimento, a reminiscência, o método dialético e a apreensão das ideias, a concepção de excelência da racionalidade que o pensamento filosófico sugere. Dada a hipótese de que os diálogos oferecem uma visão de aquisição de superioridade da alma, visão coincidente em muitos aspectos, tem-se a sugestão do pensar nos termos de atividade e de estado igualmente superiores, ou excelentes, no qual se tem a plena realização das capacidades racionais. O cerne da pesquisa consiste em verificar na descrição da atividade filosófica o que caracteriza a inteligência e obter uma compreensão acerca desse trabalho do pensamento em sua máxima capacidade, o qual se desenvolve na busca do conhecimento que possa dizer acerca das questões mais importantes, como o Bem e a imortalidade. / It is intended to investigate, in this paper, the concept of thought, or intelligence that is presented in the dialogues Republic VI and VII and Phaedo. It concerns to point out from the analysis of the issues surrounding the cognitive work of the soul, more precisely the themes about knowledge, the reminiscence, the dialectical method and the apprehension of ideas, the concept of the excellence of rationality that the philosophical thought suggests. Given the hypothesis that the dialogues offer a view on acquisition of superiority of the soul, coinciding view in many aspects, there is the suggestion of thinking in terms of activity and state equally superior or excellent, in which one has the full accomplishment of the rational capacities. The research core consists in verifying the description of philosophical activity which characterizes the intelligence, and acquiring an understanding of this work of the thought in its full capacity, which develops in the pursuit of the knowledge that can tell about the most important issues, such as Good and immortality.

L'objectif de ce travail est double : contribuer à la théorisation de ce qu'il est convenu d'appeler les Nouvelles Pratiques Philosophiques, d'une part, et fournir un appui méthodologique à ceux qui exercent, ou souhaitent exercer, dans cette discipline, de l'autre. Il s'agira d'établir une passerelle entre les Nouvelles Pratiques Philosophiques, telles qu'elles se développent aujourd'hui et le milieu universitaire, afin de donner aux étudiants en philosophie un débouché professionnel autre que l'enseignement académique ou la recherche. Il apparaît en effet que le manque de débouchés professionnels pour la philosophie en France, en dehors de l'enseignement et de la recherche universitaire, explique en partie la désaffection des étudiants pour cette matière et que celle-ci aurait tout intérêt à s'ouvrir à des pratiques professionnelles qui répondent aujourd'hui à une véritable demande de la part du grand public et dont le principal intérêt est de fournir un outil pertinent d'éducation populaire. / The objective of this work is twofold: to contribute to the theory of the so-called New Philosophical Practices, on one hand, and provide methodological support to those working or wish to engage in this discipline , the other. It will establish a bridge between the New Philosophical Practices, as they are now developing and academia, to give philosophy students an outlet other than professional academic teaching or research. It appears that the lack of professional opportunities for philosophy in France, apart from teaching and academic research, partly student disaffection for this matter and that it would do well to open for business practices that today meet a real demand from the public and whose primary interest is to provide relevant public education tool.

Force est de remarquer que les pratiques philosophiques, notamment à l'école primaire, mobilisent les enseignants et les chercheurs dans le but d'asseoir leur légitimité. Pour fonder cette légitimité, une mise en lien avec l'éducation à la citoyenneté a été esquissée, mais cette mise en lien porte davantage sur le protocole utilisé lors des ateliers de philosophie qu'à la philosophicité même des discussions. D'où la problématique que nous avons choisi de traiter : quelle éducation à la citoyenneté promeut cette philosophicité de la réflexion à laquelle on souhaite initier les enfants dès l'école primaire et quel fondement philosophique ce lien, entre apprentissage du philosopher et éducation à la citoyenneté, nous permet-il d'apporter à ces pratiques philosophiques ? Pour répondre à cette problématique, nous sommes allée puiser dans les Essais de Montaigne quelques pistes de réflexion pour montrer que l'apprentissage du philosopher concourt à une éducation à la citoyenneté dans le sens où il constitue une éducation à la tolérance.

In this dissertation I claim that Michel Foucault is a pro-enlightenment philosopher. I argue that his critical history of thought cultivates a state of being autonomous in thought and action which is indicative of a kantian notion of maturity. In addition, I contend that, because he follows a nietzschean path to enlightenment, Foucault’s elaboration of freedom proceeds from his critique of who we are, which includes a rejection of humanism’s experiential limits. At the same time, and perhaps most importantly, I also suggest that Foucault articulates a posthumanist conception of finitude and being. To begin with, I show that on humanism’s path to edghtenment, which is established by Rousseau, Kant and Hegel and currently advocated by Rawls and Taylor, a philosophy of the autonomous subject who desires self-actualisation through recogrution precedes the epistemologcal and political critiques which generate humanism’s objective, normative and subjective axes of experience. On the basis of Foucault’s archzological, genealogical and, when they operate together, critical historical critiques of these conditions of possibility for autonomy and recogrution, I maintain that humanism fails to teach us how to think or act freelythat is, as critical thought that delivers enhghtenment-and that humanism’s knowledge of the world and its justice in politics necessitate the confined exclusion of those who are different and the submission of subjectivity of those who are normal. In response to the immaturity that is at the heart of humanism, I illustrate that Foucault deploys archeology, genealogy and critical history to excavate his posthumanist, enlightenment alternatives of savoir, pouvoir and ethico-morality. After he relocates an explanation of cause and effect in the human sciences from savioir to the relations between savoir and pouvoir, I explicate how Foucault reconceives, firstly, the way pouvoir is exercised by productive mechanisms, which discipline the body and regulate the citizen, and, secondly, the nature of pouvoir, which he characterises as governmentality, or one’s action upon the actions of others. He then retlunks freedom as the vis-a-vis of pouvoir/savoir, and I demonstrate how critical history reveals that, prior to the hermeneutic relation to self wluch is at the centre of humanism’s conception of moral identity, ethical subjectivity in antiquity is formed through an ascetic, agonistic freedom that is based on a practical relation to self. Foucault uses this as a blueprint for the present, in which an ethico-political state of being autonomous in thought and action is constituted over against our limits of pouvoir/savoir. I thus claim that Foucault’s portrayal as an anti-enlightenment philosopher, who proffers nothing but anormative critique and amoral freedom, represents the perspective of those for whom to be anti-humanism is akin to being antienlightenment. These criticisms are exposed as misguided by the thesis that I verify in this dissertation, which is that critical history qua critique, thence an ontology, namely, Foucault’s critical ontology, brings about maturity and endorses an ehghtenment that is both contra- and post-humanism.

Im Rahmen eines Lehrforschungspraktikums am Institut für Soziologie der Universität Leipzig hat im Sommer- und Wintersemester 2001/2002 eine postalische Befragung zum Berufseinstieg und beruflichen Werdegang von Leipziger Hochschulabsolventen der \"Fakultät für Sozialwissenschaften und Philosophie\" stattgefunden. Thematische Schwerpunkte dieser Absolventenbefragung sind neben relevanten Faktoren für einen erfolgreichen Berufseinstieg, einer Evaluation des Studiums und den Gründen für einen Studienabbruch bzw. –ortswechsel auch die Rolle sozialer Netzwerke für den Berufseinstieg gewesen. Die Beschreibung wichtiger Eigenschaften solcher ego-zentrierter sozialen Netzwerke hinsichtlich der Merkmale Geschlechtshomophilie, Bildungshomogenität und Netzwerkdichte bildet den Schwerpunkt der vorliegenden Arbeit.