This paper examines the relationship between literature and philosophy, with special regards to how literature can contribute to deepen the understanding in philosophical matters. This is executed by a comparison between how a work of fiction, versus works of philosophy, can tackle the issue of personhood. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is being compared with philosopher Lynne Rudder Baker’s Persons and Bodies and Jacques Maritain’s The Person and the Common Good in order to map out how literature can contribute to the philosophical discourse regarding personhood. The paper finalizes that the main character in Frankenstein, “the monster” displays several issues that may show up when trying to define what it means to be a person, and where the line is to be drawn between a person and a non-person. The paper thus serves a two-folded purpose: to expand and challenge the traditional philosophical methodology, and find new understanding within the subject of personhood.

I hope this scientific essay can shed som light over how guilt kan appear at a school, primarily for those working as fritidslärare. Fritidslärare come often in close contact with special needs children.In the story I shall recount a case where I have taken the roll of carer and helping an extroverted pupil through his schoolday. He spends most of his time outside the classrum and is mostly with a special needs teacher. Generally his day is filled with rewards and punishment; methods that I find myself uncomfortable with. On one of these schooldays I find myself giving up on him. I see myself ignoring him, taking out my cell phone while he watches a film on the computer. In this situation I feel guilt. Do I have a bad moral standard or am I just acting in accordance with the situation? The question of how I deal with this guilt and what shape the guilt takes are two of the questions I pose to myself. I have made use of the Algerian author and philosopher Albert Camus and his theory of the absurd and the lack of freedom in our lives and how the absurd always stands in the way of total freedom. If we are aware of its existence then we can live with it and minimize its effect upon us. I will also refer to his novel The Fall (2007) in which the protagonist has long managed to avoid guilt and judgement. He comes to feel discomfort after an incident that he identifies as feelings of guilt. The guilt can be both collective and individual. In my text I shall concentrate on individual guilt. I, as an individual teacher, have my version of the truth whilst those around me have another. What does this imply? I also treat the mechanisms of control within the school that manifest themselves through reward and punishment.

This thesis relies on the works of Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak and Seyla Benhabib in the field of Postcolonialism. Guided by their theoretical insights it is aiming at providing an understanding of how postcolonial structures within the International Humanitarian Aid discourse takes form and discuss strategies for communication that would be deemed justified in this context. Through a field research in Lebanon, focusing on the Lebanese Red Cross and their methods used for communication, it provides a scrutiny of the theoretical insights of Spivak and Benhabib, in order to see how plausible they are when discussing the way Global Humanitarian Organizations operate in todays’ world. In the conclusive discussion, the study exposes the importance for these organizations to let go of their essentialist way of looking at the subaltern, continuously depriving her of her subject position. In a context of asymmetrical power relations, there is a need for these organizations to ”learn to learn from below”. The people of the Western world need to unlearn Western privilege to enable themselves to relate to people and communities outside of their own paradigm and thus create presuppositions for an ethical communication.

This essay presents the result of a quantitative study made among contemporary pagans in Sweden. The study, which is based on an Internet survey, examines which types of pagan practices that are most common and what kind of troubles pagan faith could cause in the practitioners daily life. The study also examines whether the historical tradition and the archaeological facts behind a contemporary pagan movement serves as a pattern or an inspiration for the practitioners way of leading their lives or performing rituals. It also examines the correlation between the participants sex and their pagan tradition. The study shows that a vast majority of the 132 participants claimed to belong to an Old Norse tradition, but also believed in different beings of nature and nature religion. A majority of the participants viewed historical and archaeological facts with a connection to their faith more as an inspiration to their religious practices than actual religious rules.

Sverige blev först i världen 1981 med att officiellt erkänna teckenspråket som dövas första språk. Det görs en uppdelning av döva teckenspråkiga personer i äldre och yngre döva, eftersom deras språkliga situation i hem och i skola är olika. Uppdelningen går mellan dem som gick i skolan på 1960-talet och tidigare och dem som började skolan vid 1980-talets början och fram till nu. Under 1970-talet användes en svenskanpassad undervisningsform där teckenspråket mer och mer började accepteras, men där döva hamnade mellan två stolar. Uppsatsen tar sin utgångspunkt från en representant från gruppen äldre döva och hans berättelse. Syftet är att undersöka teckenspråkskommunikationen i förskola och skola för barn i gruppen yngre döva. Genom en kvalitativ intervjustudie är syftet att belysa pedagogernas teckenspråkskommunikation vid bemötandet av barnens eventuella frågor om död. För att besvara uppsatsens frågeställning har åtta pedagoger verksamma i förskola och skola, för döva och hörselskadade barn, intervjuats enskilt. Alla åtta pedagoger är hörande och har talad svenska som sitt första språk. Tidigare forskning gällande barns tankar om döden, teckenspråkskommunikation och livsfrågor har studerats. Resultatet visar att pedagogernas livserfarenhet har gett dem öppenhet att kommunicera livsfrågor, men det råder stor kunskapsbrist i teckenspråk för att möjliggöra detta. Det finns ett stort samverkansbehov hos pedagogerna för att ge barnen tillgång till ett meningstolkande sammanhang.

Denna text tar sin utgångspunkt i frågan om moralisk pluralism i dagens Sverige är möjlig. Forskning visar på att en grupp präglad av mångfald kan drabbas av samarbetssvårigheter, men det motsatta är inte garant för ett gott resultat. Enligt Fredrik Gregorius anpassar sig religiösa minoriteter ofta till det omgivande samhällets ide om etik och moral. Denna text undersöker om det finns något som skulle kunna benämnas hednisk etik i Samfundet Forn Seds egen tidning. Källmaterialet består av ett flertal artiklar från #20 respektive #35-36. De teoretiska begrepp som använts är antropocentrism samt universalism, vilka härrör från judisk och kristen etisk idétradition. Materialet har studerats med en metod för argumentationsanalys framtagen av Stephen Toulmin, vilken lämpar sig väl för att lyfta fram implicita antaganden om exempelvis människan. Det huvudsakliga resultatet pekar på att det finns minst två olika typer av hednisk etik en värdeontologisk och en dygdetisk. Båda antas ha sin grund i en föreställning om förnuft och därmed betraktas som universella värden/dygder. Naturen antas dock ha värde och rättigheter oberoende av människan i och med sin helighet, vilket innebär att exempelvis värden som frihet begränsas av naturens existensberättigande. Antropocentrismen är således inte lika framträdande som inom kristendomen och judendomen, men det finns andra beröringspunkter såsom en föreställning om en naturlig lag och att etiken är förnuftsbaserad, dessa likheter sammanfaller dock inte med samtliga judiska/kristna traditioner. / This paper starts with the question whether moral pluralism is possible in Sweden or not. Research shows that a group characterized by diversity is subjected to difficulties in cooperation, but the opposite is not a guarantee for a good result. According to Fredrick Gregorius, religious minorities often adapt to the surrounding societies' idea of ethics and moral. This text investigates if there is something that can be called pagan ethics in the community Forn Seds own newspaper. The source material consists of several articles from #20 and #35-36. The theoretical concepts that have been used are anthropocentrism and universalism, which is derived from Jewish and Christian ethical traditions. The material has been studied with a method of analysis of argumentation formed by Stephan Toulmin, which is suitable for highlighting implicit assumptions. The main result shows that there are at least two different types of pagan ethics, a value ontological and a virtuous theory. Both are assumed to have their foundation in the notion of reason and thus are regarded as universal values/virtues. However, nature is believed to have values and rights independent of humans because of nature's sanctity, which means that values for example, such as freedom, is limited because of the rights of nature to exist. Anthropocentrism is not as prominent as in Christianity and Judaism, but there are points of reference such as a notion of a natural law and that ethics is based on reason, these similarities, however, do not coincide with all Jewish/Christian traditions. Keywords

Uppsatsarbetet syftar till en förförståelse för hur studie- och yrkesvägledare arbetar och reflektera kring vägledningssamtal med elever i migration. Ett annat syfte är att lyfta fram elevernas migraionsberättelser som en del i vägledningssamtalet.

Abstract Purpose: In this essay a limited and specific selection of poems by the Swedish poet Nils Ferlin, has been analyzed in order to find various images of Christ. By using these images of Christ, a possible Christology within the poems by Ferlin, will then be elucidated, a so called Ferlinian Christology. The theoretical perspective used in the analysis is one of high versus low Christology i.e. whether the emphasis is focused on Christ as divine, or Christ as human. Method: The used method is hermeneutic, and the chosen poems have been ascribed autonomy in order to verify their message, rather than the message of the author. The poems have been read and analyzed with a text oriented focus. Result: The result of this study is that a various number of images of Christ can be found within the selected poems by Ferlin. In some poems the image of Christ is described by the views of others; persons in the immediate surroundings of Jesus, or first-hand witnesses to the events of the Gospels. Some images show Christ as an explored tool in the hands of dogmatic structures, where the death of atonement on the Cross is problematized, along with people’s misuse of the death of atonement as a free pass to heaven, instead of taking responsibility of their own sins. Other images of Christ in the poems are more positive; showing Jesus as an inspiration, a beacon and a compass of morality. The most striking image, however, is the one of Christ as someone who places mercy above all. Conclusion: A Ferlinian Christology can be seen primarily as low Christology since it is putting the emphasis on the humanity of Christ, and partly problematizing the divinity of Christ. A Ferlinian Christology emphasize the living Christ and the Christ one finds in the Gospels. The Christ found in the dogmas is not showing the truth. The Christ living and acting in the interest of the weak and marginalized people, is the one who ought to be seen upon with respect and as a beacon of morality and truth. Key words: poetry, Christology, Christ, hermeneutics, Ferlin

We live in a so-called late-modern age where religion and various world-views are something one must relate to in society, no matter what one thinks of that and wherever one lives in the world. This statement applies not least if we are to be able to live in consensus with each other and if we want a world with fewer conflicts, which I, without any evidence, claim that the majority of the world´s population wants.     The fact that people with different truth claims, religions an world-views live side by side as today, is not a new phomenon globally and historically, but the Christian conformity that was formerly the practice in the West has today been replaced by a multitude of world-views through increased immigration and through increased secularization.     The purpose of this thesis is to investigate and describe the mission of religious philosophy in a late-modern, multi-religious, pluralistic world. And in the first place to find out what the three religious philosophers Kevin Schilbrack from USA, Mikael Stenmark from Sweden and Nick Trakakis from Australia say about this. By comparing their perceptions with each other, I want to point out similarities and differences and see why I mean that the discipline should be developed for one or the other direction.     I advocate that religion of philosophy continues to work with the methods by which one seeks to understand, describe and explain different religions ans world-views, as well as critically review, assess or evaluate them. This is because the philosophy of religion is to be taken seriously in order for philosophy of religion to take society seriously. Religion of philosophy should also study lived religion as a complement to the textculture.     Moving the starting point to the religion you are studying can also be of benefit to the study of religious philosophy in order to get a more accurate picture of foreign religions. The advantage of what I advocate here is that in the future we can get a philosophy of religion that is not normative, defined that it has the starting point in theism, that the confessional is the norm, or relativistic.

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