Världen har alltid varit social och miljömässigt föränderlig, men den post modernalivsstilen och ingripandet på naturens rytmer har påskyndat den omvälvande förändringensom vi upplever idag. Klimatförändring och miljöförstörelse i denna bemärkelse har attgöra med den samtida sekulära förståelsen av människans relation till naturen och denonödiga utvinningen av naturliga resurser. Klimatrörelsen med utgångspunkt ivetenskapliga och traditionella kunskaper utvecklar en ideologisk plattform och enekologisk helhetssyn för att förändra tanke- samt handlingsmönster, och motverkaklimatförändringens förödelser som ett preludium i skapandet av en hållbar framtid. Syftet med denna studie är att kartlägga de filosofiska spår av urfolks visdomar som kanfinnas i dagens klimatrörelsers principer och övertygelser. Ett annat syfte är att reda utden traditionella filosofins roll i de nutida progressiva sociala rörelserna samt att avgöraom dessa världsbilder utgör relevanta tillägg eller alternativa till ett nytt perspektiv somkan leda mänskligheten ur en överhängande klimatkollaps. För att uppnå syftet med denhär studien har en resumé av olika urfolks världsbilder samt av samtida miljö-ochklimatrörelser verksamma i Sverige och i världen insamlats. Den kvalitativa metoden iform av en diskursanalys används i undersökningen för att koppla materialet till de temansom undersöks och dra fram ett nyanserat resultat. Resultatet visar att ekologiska idéer om att se världen som ett sammanlänkat system, attrespektera och bevara mångfald och återställa balans och harmoni med naturen ärfilosofiska beståndsdelar som kan spåras till urfolks världsbilder. Dessa kopplas dessutomtill principer och miljömässiga ståndpunkter hos de olika grenarna av de nutida klimatrörelserna. Det faktum att dessa filosofiska element inspirerar till en miljömässigt sundlivsstil och en hållbar utveckling gör detta till relevanta alternativa/tillägg till modernttänkande och livsstil. En kort analys och tillämpning av undersökningens resultat medutgångspunkt av Durkheims teori The social as sacred bekräftar den traditionellafilosofins giltighet och relevans i dagens miljö och sociala verklighet.

The purpose of this study is to see how religious resources and prison staff can promote and support the inmate to religious commitment as part of their rehabilitation process. The questions asked to delineate how the availability of religious resources looks like in the institutions and how prison staff and religious actors can promote religious commitment as well as how religious resources, staff and religious actors can contribute to promoting positive changes and creating a meaningful existence for the inmates. The method that has been used is semi-structured interviews where six religious representatives have been interviewed. The theoretical framework used consists of a sociological and an existential input. Previous research has shown that there is a lack of studies on religion in prisons and therefore I want to contribute to that research. The essay shows that religious resources can play a big role for the inmates and that the humane function is of great importance. It also shows that the availability of religious practice has shortcomings that limit the chance to pursue religious practice.

Through the application of a phenomenological hermeneutic approach, this study seeks toexamine how seven moral dilemmas can be understood through the lenses of utilitarian ethicsand virtue ethics. These dilemmas are derived from Pablo Vierci’s depiction of a real-life1972 plane crash tragedy in the non-fictional book Society of the Snow. By incorporatingprevious research on similar topics, this study situates itself within the broader academicdiscourse on moral ethics, while providing a contemporary interpretation of a significanthistorical event depicted in literature. The goal of this research is to explore the practicalapplications of utilitarianism and virtue ethics in real-life scenarios. The findings indicate thatanalyzing moral dilemmas through these ethical frameworks deepens our understanding ofmoral philosophy, making complex and distressing moral choices more comprehensible. Byengaging with the intricacies of these theories and their practical implications, individuals canunderstand the complexities of moral decision-making with greater insight and sensitivity.

Denna essä undersöker rektors roll i en verksamhet där statligt uppdrag ser ut att kollidera med de förutsättningar som ges till skolorna via kommunen som finansiär och arbetsgivare. Upplevelsen speglas i situationer där lärare och vårdnadshavare ser ut att ha en annan förståelse för skolans uppdrag än den som rektor upplever sig ha utifrån de styrdokument som råder och de möjligheter som kommunen tillhandahåller. En fråga är vad rektor behöver veta om kunskapen hos medarbetare för att kunna leda. Undersökandet utgår från Aristoteles kunskapsbegrepp med fronesis som tyngdpunkt, läsning av Finks beskrivning av Aristoteles begrepp samt med hjälp av Sa Cavalcante Schuback och Schön gällande förståelse som övergår i handling.   Dessutom utifrån teorier om ledarskap och synen på förståelsens roll i ledarskap där ett perspektiv av mytbildning i skolan undersökts vilket kan vara en förklaring till den svåra situation som både lärare och rektor befinner sig i. / The essay examines the role of the principal in an organization where the state’s mission seems to clash with the conditions provided to schools by the municipality as the fonder and employer. The experience is reflected in situations where teachers and parents seem to have a different understanding of the school’s mission than the principal perceives based on the curriculum and budget provided by the municipality. One question is what the principal needs to know about the knowledge of teachers in order to lead. The investigation is based on Aristotle’s concept of knowledge with phronesis as the focus, reading Fink’s description of Aristotle’s concept, and with help from Sa Cavalcante Schuback and Schön regarding understanding that transitions into action. Additionally, based on theories of leadership and the role of understanding in leadership, a perspective of myths in school is also examined, which may be an explanation for the difficult situation in which both teachers and principals find themselves.

This essay reflects upon a group process where the goal was to use an art exhibition as a source of inspiration. The purpose of introducing art through an Exihibition was to generate associations that lead to subjects for dialogue and therefor developed a creative process amongst the group. We used the experience that came out of the visit and phrased questions regarding electrical light sources to mediate to the children. The main questioning is regarding the transformation from conformity to a more experimental approach to children’s learning. My dilemma concerns me getting caught in between two different points of view and not always knowing to whom the dilemma should be addressed, towards the staff or the organisation. My investigation concerns the role of a supervisors communications skills in relation to aesthetics as a learning process. Secondly, I reflect upon pedagogic documentation and how it can be used in the preschool practice. Through the pedagogic documentation, I can reflect upon the children’s becoming in relationship to the spatial dimensions and their relationships towards each other. My purpose of outcome was to investigate creative thinking in relationship to a group process in the preschool practice and how one can go about to introduce art as a catalysator for a creative process.

The main purpose of the thesis is to investigate the possibility of bridging the dichotomy between Islam and the criteria of modern society by means of reinterpreting the principles (foundations) of Islam. The reformists Abdolkarim Soroush, Sedigheh Vasmaghi and Tariq Ramadan seek to prove that the methods keeping strictly within the boundaries of tradition interpreting the Quran along the lines of previous generations is not necessarily the sole means of coming to an understanding of the Quran’s message. The thesis discusses these reinterpreters’ critique of tradition and their arguments for the possibility of uniting the principles of Islam with the prerequisites of modern society. In conjunction with this, the question whether modern society presupposes a strict division between the private and the public sphere is problematized from a point of departure in Jeffrey Stout’s Democracy and Tradition. The thesis attempts to show potential conceptions of a modern society based on the principles of Islam.

This thesis traces the ‘New Moment’ in Pauline reception in the writings of Alain Badiou, Terry Eagleton and Slavoj Žižek. It explores how the Pauline epistles are read and feature in their thought. An answer to the question, 'why Paul?' prompts reflection on what it is to read and understand the Apostle. An introduction sets out the writers of this ‘New Moment’ [Jacob Taubes, Giorgio Agamben, Stanislas Breton, as well as Badiou, Eagleton and Žižek] before isolating the figures of this study. The reception of this ‘moment’ by mainstream New Testament studies is considered, and with it the charge of ‘appropriation’. The concept of ‘appropriation’ is explored, and a definition arrived at, for the purpose of evaluating the readings we will go on to discover. As part of this notion of ‘appropriation’, the turn to Gadamer in recent New Testament study is surveyed. We suggest another potential hermeneutical approach that derives from Gadamer is possible. Thus, the object of this study is both an instance of, and means by which to critique the understanding of, New Testament Wirkungsgeschichte. Each of our thinkers is then considered in turn. The outline for each chapter is the same. A brief introduction to the figure with bibliographical background salient to his Pauline reading precedes some textual examples indicative of that reading. We then move to analyse the manner of that reading and certain conceptual problems which are revealed in the course of the engagement with Paul. The conclusion analyses the approaches, and reasons for turning, to Paul on the part of these thinkers. Salient differences between each thinker's reading are noted and the charge of appropriation is evaluated afresh. The implications of such readings for conventional biblical criticism are considered, and the success of an approach which explores a Gadamerean-inspired interest in reception in the manner adopted by this thesis is judged.

Horrendous evils pose distinctive challenges for belief in an ethically perfect God. To home in on these challenges, I construct an ethical framework for theodicy by sketching four cases of human action where horrors are either caused, permitted, or risked, either for pure benefit (i.e., a benefit that does not avert a still greater harm) or for harm avoidance. I then bring the framework and the moral valuations confirmed by this casuistry to bear on the project of theodicy. I construct four analogous structures – one for each case – and identify examples of each structure in theodicies in contemporary philosophy of religion. I summarize each theodicy and evaluate whether it is structurally promising with respect to horrendous evils. That is, if the proposed interconnected set of facts and reasons were true, would God be ethically in the clear? My initial conclusions impugn the dominant structural approach of depicting God as causing or permitting horrors in individual lives for the sake of some merely pure benefit. This approach is insensitive to relevant asymmetries in the justificatory demands made by horrendous and non-horrendous evil and in the justificatory work done by averting harm and bestowing pure benefit. I next argue that the structurally promising theodicies I have identified are implausible due to their overestimation of the extent to which finite human agents can bear primary responsibility for horrendous evils and their underestimation of the importance for theodicy of being consonant with a broadly Darwinian approach to evolutionary theory. The project of theodicy is in trouble. The second half of my thesis develops an approach to theodicy that falls outside my proffered taxonomy. Following a suggestion of Leibniz, Robert Adams has argued that theodicy can be aided by the insight that almost all of the evil of the actual world is metaphysically necessary for the community of actual world inhabitants to be comprised of the specific individuals who comprise it. Beginning with this insight, I develop (what I term) Non-Identity Theodicy. It suggests that God allows the evil he does in order to create and love the specific individuals comprising the community of inhabitants of the actual world. This approach to theodicy is unique because the justifying good recommended is neither harm-aversion nor pure benefit. It is not a good that betters the lives of individual human persons (for they wouldn’t exist otherwise), but it is the individual human persons themselves. In order to aim successfully at the creation of particular individuals, however, God would need a control of history so complete that it might be argued to be inconsistent with beliefs about human free will that are important to some theologies. I construct a second version of Non-Identity Theodicy designed to avoid this problem by considering whether God’s justifying motivation for allowing the evil of this world could be his aiming for beings of our type, even if it could not be his aiming for particular individuals. I suggest that God would be interested in loving those he creates under various descriptions (e.g., biological, psychological, and narrative descriptions), and argue that a horror-prone environment is necessary for us to be the type of being we are under each of the descriptions. I assess the structural promise and plausibility of Non-Identity Theodicy. In order to do so, I engage with Derek Parfit’s non-identity problem and with some influential assumptions in the ethics of procreation literature. I end by recapping what I take to be the key areas of overemphasis and under-emphasis in contemporary theodicy.

The purpose of this essay is to examine how God-talk can be used to say something reality depicting and potentially true, and at the same time contribute to a feminist aim where women and men are equally qualified in their talk about God. A pure shift from male to female metaphors and properties applied to God is rejected. Religious language that is used from a radical semantic realistic or radical semantic anti-realistic point of view is also rejected since those positions are not in line with the feminist aims. Metaphors are of value when examining how to speak about God. It is examined if, and in that case how, metaphors can express truths and say something reality depicting. It is argued that a theory of metaphors based on semantic modest anti-realism contributes with something more distinct than a theory of metaphors based on realism does. This distinction highlights the different uses in language between an analogical way and a modest anti-realistic use of metaphors. The three classical “ways” in religious language – univocal, analogical, and equivocal language – are possible to use from a feminist perspective of religious language. It is argued, however, that religious language that is supposed to be in line both with a feminist agenda and be able to contribute to our understanding of God, ourselves, and express truths must be based on a semantic modest realism or semantic modest anti-realism. Analogical language is the one and only religious “way” that is compatible with both semantic modest realism and semantic modest anti-realism. For that reason, it is argued, the analogical language has an advantage over univocal and equivocal language. Finally, four criteria are set up that a good feministic metaphor must achieve, and some remarks about the research of feminism and religious language still to examine is made. / Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka hur vi kan tala om Gud på ett sätt som kan vara verklighetsbeskrivande samtidigt som det gynnar feminismen och kvinnors och mäns lika rätt att tala om Gud. Ett rent skifte från manliga till kvinnliga metaforer om Gud avvisas. Religiöst språk som används ur en radikalt semantiskt realistiskt eller ett radikalt semantiskt anti-realistiskt utgångspunkt avvisas då dessa inte går i linje med en feministisk agenda. Metaforer är viktiga i undersökningen av hur vi kan tala om Gud. Det undersöks om, och i så fall hur, metaforer kan uttrycka något sant och verklighetsbeskrivande. Det argumenteras för att en metaforteori som utgår från semantisk modest anti-realism kan bidra med något mer distinkt och kreativt än en metaforteori som utgår från semantisk kritisk realism. Denna distinktion tyddliggör skillnaden mellan ett analogt religiöst språk och en semantisk modest anti-realistisk användning av metaforer. Både univokt, analogt och ekvivokt språkbruk kan användas ur ett feministiskt perspektiv. Analysen visar emellertid att ett religiöst språkbruk som ska gynna feminismen och samtidigt kunna uttrycka någonting sant och verklighetsbeskrivande måste utgå från semantisk kritisk realism eller semantisk modest anti-realism. Det analoga språkbruket är det enda religiöst språkbruk som är kompatibelt med både semantisk kritisk realism och semantisk modest anti-realism, varpå det analoga språkbruket har en fördel över univokt och ekvivokt språk. Tillsist ställs fyra kriterier upp som en bra religiös feministisk metafor måste möta. Uppsatsen avslutas sedan med några kommentarer om hur vidare forskning av religiöst språk med feministiskt språkperspektiv kan se ut.

This essay aims to shed light upon the philosophical dignity of Edith Stein’s critique of the early Heideggerian conception of sociality in her text ”Martin Heideggers Existenzphilosophie”, from 1936. I will argue that Stein’s critique of Heidegger’s concept of sociality comes to be substantiated through her existential-philosophical approach to his understanding of the transcendent character of Dasein. By objecting to Heidegger’s definition of Dasein as ecstatic temporality, Stein points out his inattentiveness to authentic otherness in Being and Time, which reaches out into a problem surrounding Mitsein. I will further demonstrate how Stein, by ascribing to Dasein an enduring and sustaining quality in the midst of ecstasy, uses Heidegger’s concept of Dasein in order to formulate her own social ontology.