Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of Political Science, 2008. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on May 11, 2009). Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 69-08, Section: A, page: 3302. Adviser: Jeffrey C. Isaac.

Habilitationsschrift--Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, 1974. / Includes index. Bibliography: p. [417]-427.

Thesis (S.T.D.)--Catholic University of America, 1933. / Bibliography: p. 133-137.

This thesis proposes that Søren Kierkegaard's thought - in particular, his theological anthropology - is undergirded by an inchoate metaphysics of modality. It focuses on the concept of possibility (Danish: Mulighed), arguing that possibility is a primary ingredient of the Kierkegaardian self and serves as a kind of 'engine' for the development of the individual before God. Accordingly, viewing Kierkegaard's works through the lens of possibility is a fruitful way to gain new insights into his beliefs, and clarifies what he sought to express in his authorship. Kierkegaard, I argue, formulates a multilayered account of possibility that, while not abandoning metaphysics, re-frames possibility existentially, in terms of what the self may actually become, not only in and for itself but also in relation to God. One's selfhood and one's relation to God both require an ontology of possibility. His existential concerns arise from this metaphysical footing. This thesis then considers how possibility is integral to human selfhood. Genuine selfhood is an openness towards God's eternal possibility, rather than the self's attempting to create its own eternal possibilities via some other means of actualization. If the human person, by faith, becomes 'grounded in the absolute', then that person is becoming a self precisely because God is actualizing her possibilities. God is for Kierkegaard the source of all possibility. Theologically, Kierkegaard's conception of possibility presents us with ideas that may be fruitful in further discussion of God's attributes and the ways in which God is understood to relate to the created world. Anthropology, ontology, and theology are thus inextricably linked.

No description available.

Karl Marx's philosophy of writing demands his readers help develop his theory by questioning its gaps and contradictions. A crucial question concerns Marx's relation to his Jewishness. In "On the Jewish Question," Judaism stands for civil society and the transformative power of practical need, Christianity for the "political state" and spiritual solutions to material problems. Human emancipation will spring not from politics but "the negation of Judaism": recognizing and overcoming barriers to fully human existence. Marx thus endorses a "Jewish" viewpoint which senses reality as the Hebrew bible does. The Torah conceives human beings in dialogue with God as indispensible partners in creating the world. We are called to act; our action matters. Marx criticizes the Greeks and most Western philosophers for their static, contemplative view of reality. Any ontology which imposes a truth beyond social relations privileges some people and needs, excluding others. By rejecting God, Marx discredits the God's-eye view that leads to false universals. He retains the structure of dialogue between the species and its evolving needs. Hegel had offered the young Marx a dialectical approach to reality, but Marx eventually found Hegel's ontology too Greek. Rather than simply reversing Hegel, though, Marx corrects him as though he were subject to a Jewish worldview. Marx's method resembles the traditional Jewish style of hermeneutics called midrash. It performs the same function: restoring sense to a chaotic world as glimpsed from a particular tradition. The breakdown of social meaning is central to Marx's theory of alienation. The Jewish theme of exile explains Marx's urgency. A group is exiled when society constructs reality to preclude it from expressing or acting upon the needs that constitute its identity. A society in exile frustrates the realization of human purposes. Both workers and capitalist society are exiled. To return, they must believe the world can become human--as their experience under capitalism shows it cannot. Marx's personal exile is that his audience lacks the Jewish context to recognize his theory of how we become free. Theorists continue his work by listening to people in exile and working out different roads to emancipation.

It is often remarked that we are entering into a biotech age that will afford us with the unprecedented means to remake human biology. The question is: should we use our imminent techno-scientific powers to ‘enhance’ and even ‘transcend’ our ‘natural’ limitations or remain human ‘as we have always been’? But is this the right question? This dissertation critically examines the human enhancement debate in bioethics and bioethics-adjacent literature. More specifically, it mobilizes a wide range of disciplinary tools to reflexively explore the discursive resonances, effects, and shortcomings of human enhancement as a conceptual framework. Through this exploration, I demonstrate that the well-established therapy/enhancement distinction depends upon deeply humanist ontologies that are insufficient for understanding and addressing the biotechnological ‘crisis’. In turn, I provide a posthumanist approach to thinking human nature, which highlights the relational, embodied, and differential character of subjectivity. Such an approach implies that we have always been cyborgs and, therefore, never been human as such. In doing so, I take a small step towards constructing post-enhancement frameworks for doing bioethics in our posthuman moment.

No description available.

The objective of this study has been to establish the level of significance that Gustavo Gutierrez and Juan Luis Segundo attribute to politics in their contributions to liberation theology and to extract the relevant consequences for political theory. A systematic analysis of the theory of history in the works of these two authors indicates a higher level of integration between Christianity and politics that is usual in Christian political thought. Liberation is equated with salvation and political liberation is seen as one of its components. This brings politics to a position of privilege. When at the service of justice it occupies, for our authors, a high rank among Christian concerns and when devoted to oppression it requires diligent response from every Christian. This understanding of politics is valuable in that it accentuates the political aspect of the Christian theory of history, an element frequently underestimated. Certain tensions remain, however, in the theory as a result of this emphasis: between the moral improvement expected from the involvement in political activities conducive to justice and the moral ambiguity of political structures emerging from such activity; and between the use of the concept of class struggle and notions of conversion and reconciliation. Finally, there is the danger of reducing the critical ability of Christians regarding a particular political project by identifying it with the concept of eschatology.

No description available.