Thesis (M.A.)--University of Toledo, 2010. / Typescript. "Submitted to the Graduate Faculty as partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Arts Degree in Philosophy." "A thesis entitled"--at head of title. Title from title page of PDF document. Bibliography: p. 80-87.

Thesis (B.A.)--Haverford College, Dept. of Philosophy, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references.

On the common sense view, an agent is an individual. Communities are collections of individuals, but the community itself is not understood to possess a collective, unified agency. Nevertheless, this view stands at odds with frequent ascriptions of communal agency; e.g., "Oregonians are environmentally conscious," "The team played to win," "The LGBTQ community is pro-gay marriage." If we are to vindicate such ascriptions, we need a theory of the "reality of community," the thesis that under certain conditions, a community possesses a unified, collective agency. This work reconstructs Royce's theory of communal agency through his views of purposiveness and the use he makes of C.S. Peirce's "theory of interpretation." I argue that, for Royce, agency is purposiveness and purposiveness always bears the triadic structure of the process of interpretation. Thus, the process of interpretation entails agency whether at the level of the individual or at the level of the community. / 10000-01-01

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:24:48Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2008-04-04Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T20:13:07Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 trevisan_md_me_bauru.pdf: 573571 bytes, checksum: 788dbbdf2c594843f99ffc749db74c25 (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / Esta pesquisa tem como meta investigar o uso da metáfora/analogia no ensino de ciências. Para tal, alicerçamo-nos no referencial semiótico peirceano, uma vez que o mesmo constitui-se sólida herança para os estudos de filosofia da linguagem. O discurso científico sempre abrigou um paradoxo: ao mesmo tempo em que propõe um registro objetivo, denotativo, comumente lança mão de metáfora/analogias, como recurso para transmitir e auxiliar a construção de conceitos. Um procedimento secular, que apresenta as mais diversas implicações para a ciência e o ensino de ciências. A metáfora é um signo, por conseguinte um operador cognitivo. Este aspecto norteou nossa análise nos enunciados lingüísticos e nas representações pictóricas (feitas em menor quantia). Em que pese tudo o que desabona a utilização do expediente metafórico/analógico, as inferências obtidas nos revelaram em grande medida o inestimável valor deste para o ensino de ciências, especialmente a Biologia, objeto de nossa análise empírica. O objetivo maior, cremo-lo atingido, é contribuir verdadeiramente, de modo direto e simples, aos estudos sobre o tema. / The objective of this survey is to investigate the metaphor/analogy use in science education. For that, we based on peircean semiotics reference, because it is a string legacy to language philosophy studies. The scientific speech has always comprised a paradox: at the same time that it proposes an objective, denotative text, it usually employs metaphors/analogies, as a resource to transmit and help the construction of concepts. A secular procedure, which presents several consequences for science and science education. Metaphor is a sign, therefore it is a cognitive operator. This feature has conducted our survey through the linguistic enunciation and pictorial representations (smaller amount). Despite all the facts against the metaphoric/analogical use, our finds revealed the great importance of its use for science education, especially Biology, which is our empiric survey subject. The major objective, we believe it was reached, is to contribute actively, directly and in a simple way, to the surveys concerning this subject.

The purpose of this thesis is to show that the philosophy of pragmatism is responsible for the techniques in modern educational theory.

What are the consequences of Neopragmatism on truth in ethics? In the development of pragmatism, from its beginnings in Charles Sanders Peirce to one of its current incarnations in the philosophy of Richard Rorty, "truth" has received a variety of treatments. I will argue that one of the main consequences ofNeopragmatism is that our anchor is gone; there is no foundational truth in ethics. Once foundational truth is eliminated from our ethical considerations, one is left to wonder what, exactly, is left of ethics? Various critiques of traditional theories of ethics are presented, specifically against the notion of an absolute moral criterion for judgment. Yet, in the end, one must to continue to wonder, what is ethics?

Syftet med studien är att undersöka hur lärare resonerar didaktiskt kring SO-undervisning i årskurs f-3 i demokratifrågor och vilka möjligheter och utmaningar som kan finnas i den undervisningen. För att kunna besvara detta syfte har semistrukturerade intervjuer genomförts med fyra informanter med varierande yrkeserfarenhet och aktuella undervisningsårskurser. Resultat för studien visar att informanterna har bra koll på varför det är viktigt att undervisa om demokrati, hur undervisningen ska genomföras och vad den ska innehålla. För att kunna uppnå skolans demokratiuppdrag behöver demokratiundervisningen genomsyra hela skolans verksamhet, utgå ifrån elevernas individuella förutsättningar, behov, intressen och erfarenheter, göra eleverna delaktiga i utformandet av sin utbildning och få de att inse att deras röst är betydelsefull. Kommunikation är a och o i demokratiundervisningen och ska ske både med och mellan elever, kollegor och vårdnadshavare.

Syftet med studien är att belysa förskollärares upplevelser och tankar om barns delaktighet och inflytande under samlingar i förskolan. För att få svar på syftet formulerades två frågeställningar: Vad uppfattar förskollärare som utmanande i arbetet med barns inflytande och delaktighet under samlingar? Vad upplever förskollärare har betydelse för att barns delaktighet och inflytande ska kunna möjliggöras under samlingar? Utifrån studiens frågeställningar skapades tolv intervjufrågor som ställdes till åtta förskollärare under varsin intervju. Undersökningsinstrument som användes var semistrukturerad intervju vilket gjorde det möjligt för förskollärarna att berätta fritt. Studien var kvalitativ med en fenomenologisk ansats som grund då studien byggde på tankar och upplevelser. Förskollärarnas svar från intervjuerna analyserades och kategoriserades. I den genomförda studien framkom att förskollärarna upplever att det finns utmaningar med att ge barn delaktighet och inflytande, där exempelvis samlingars utformning och demokrati har stor inverkan. I studien framgick även att förskollärarnas förhållningssätt och erfarenheter av att ha arbetat med barns delaktighet och inflytande under samlingar är betydelsefulla faktorer, som kan möjliggöra barns delaktighet och inflytande. En slutsats som kan dras är att förskollärare ständigt behöver reflektera över samlingars utformning, förhållningssättet och erfarenheterna för att få en förståelse för hur de återspeglas under samlingar. Det är av vikt eftersom förskollärare lägger grunden för barns delaktighet, inflytande och demokrati i förskolan.

The diploma thesis deals with the philosophical basis of Čapek's prose. At the beginning of this work, the topic is concentrated around the personality of Čapek and his life influenced by the philosophical attitude of pragmatism. Further on in the study it has been dealt with the pragmatism itself. The work is focused on the prose such as "Boží muka" ,"Hordubal", "Povětroň", "Obyčejný život" and "Život a dílo skladatele Foltýna", where Čapek viewpoints of the truth and knowledge are being tried to search for. The influence of pragmatism on Čapek's personality along with his own conception of this philosophical theory is demonstrated on the excerpts. The work also shows humanistic values that Čapek advocated and subsequently applied into his work of art.

The history of American philosophical thought is marked by a skepticism of epistemology and immutable truths, which is drawn under the term pragmatism. This skepticism is the genesis for the political and social attitudes that makes the United States exceptional. This thesis argues that this exceptionalism is important to the makeup of the American character and that it is being threatened by two front: ideologically driven politics, and the abuse of power by the majority. In the course of writing this essay I evaluated a large portion of the body of American philosophy as well as political and judicial writers in order to show that American exceptionalism is based upon a philosophical rejection of epistemology and immutable truth claims and that exceptionalism is integral to the progress of America as a nation.