The essay is an attempt to make sense of the apparently special relation between self-knowledge and agency. To achieve that goal, the essay translates the account of what it is like to be a human self offered by Sartre into the language of evolutionary psychology. In L’être et le néant, Sartre describes the phenomenology of the self as a series of inescapable choices in a contingent set of circumstances. This essay identifies Sartre’s description with what Baumeister, Maranges and Sjåstad call a matrix of maybe: the mechanism of nonfactual pragmatic prospection found in humans. Consequently, it defines the self as a matrix of maybe operating within a contingency matrix and reflecting on its own operation. Self-knowledge, the essay concludes, seems special because we routinely and erroneously ascribe to the self features of its contingency matrix. Most of our true first-person claims should not be read as I PREDICATE. Instead, they can be explicated as I have to act in a world where C PREDICATE, where C is the relevant part of the contingency matrix.

L’analyse phénoménologique du mouvement du Soi a été menée auprès de dix-sept sujets, des intervenants en soins spirituels (ISS), ayant cheminé en direction d’une profession ouverte à la spiritualité et s’ouvrant à leur spiritualité. Notre démarche de recherche s’appuie sur la phénoménologie et s’ancre dans un paradigme constructiviste. Nous avons cherché à appréhender la formalisation d’un nouveau métier qui donne accès à une forme de psychologie spirituelle et laïque mise en pratique au moyen de soins spirituels non-confessionnels. Cette pratique particulière du soin spirituel au sein d’institutions de santé laïques nous a fait interroger les sources épistémologiques de l’herméneutique du Soi qui subit à la fois l’impact de l’histoire de la sécularité qui reconnaît la rupture culturelle et religieuse. Cette recherche a permis d’accéder à une meilleure compréhension du parcours spirituel des ISS et de comprendre la nature d’un soin spirituel laïque qui engage la spiritualité personnelle de l’ISS. Elle a aussi permis de proposer un modèle d’accompagnement qui se situe à l’interface des soins spirituels et de la psychothérapie. Le mouvement du Soi s’exprime d’abord, chez l’ISS, dans la connaissance de ses propres blessures, de son humanité et dans un rapport à soi envisagé du point de vue de la normativité culturelle, religieuse, sociale et/ou institutionnelle. Ensuite, le Soi cherche à advenir à un nouveau rapport à l’existence que le sujet construit au fur et à mesure qu’il avance en direction d’une autonomie à conquérir – le gouvernement de soi – qui décrit une forme de maturité spirituelle ouverte à la spiritualité d’autrui. Enfin, l’atteinte de cette maturité se réalise pour le sujet au sein d’une création poétique de Soi qui est acceptation de Soi et permet au sujet ISS de déployer sa spiritualité au cœur d’un espace laïque au service du besoin spirituel des patients. L’analyse de contenu du mouvement de l’être a permis de formaliser quatre étapes évolutives à travers lesquelles s’accomplit le déploiement d’une psychologie spirituelle propre aux sujets spirituels : (1) la figuration en tant que pensée spirituelle qui se cherche dans un mouvement causal ; (2) la configuration qui renvoie à la pensée spirituelle engagée dans la construction d’un sens sur elle-même, d’une histoire à soi et d’une spiritualité à vivre ; (3) la refiguration comme la pensée qui se critique et se Remet en question (c’est la récursivité selon Morin 2006) ; (4) la transfiguration qui est le moment où la pensée se valide, advient et repart en mouvement rétrocausal. Cette dernière et quatrième étape du mouvement du Soi permet de mettre à jour les éléments constitutifs de la sagesse qui se centre sur la découverte, la construction et l’expression du Soi. Elle permet au sujet spirituel de se découvrir et de se prendre lui-même pour objet de conscience à portée universel, c’est-à-dire qu’il se projette adéquatement dans l’espace commun, entre sa spiritualité et la pensée dominante laïque. Cet entre-deux est ce qui caractérise la sagesse – Sophia en grec – dans la mesure où le sujet est capable de trouver un point de rencontre entre son histoire individuelle et l’histoire commune. Cette sagesse le fait s’inscrire au bon moment et au bon endroit (c’est le kairos) et l’aide à construire sa propre histoire soumise aux aléas de l’existence. Son expérience humaine et spirituel exprime alors son désir de l’indéterminé enchainé à la causalité. Les résultats concernant la psychologie spirituelle et laïque ont donné lieu à une distinction entre la croyance religieuse et la spiritualité religieuse. Dans le premier cas, le sujet se retrouve dans une forme de culture de soi (Foucault, 1979) qui vise le seul rapport authentique à soi ; dans le second, il place le sujet dans une situation relevant du dépassement de soi (Hadot, 1993) qui le positionne dans une quête de sens continuelle. En somme, ce mouvement du Soi apparaît être soumis à une organisation spécifique de la pensée faisant que la quête de sens s’accomplie dans une récurrence qui l’abolit sans répit (il n’y a pas de sens) tout en l’affirmant sans arrêt (le sens est le sens lui-même). Ce mouvement de la pensée est en fait un mouvement du soi qui se perd dans l’élaboration d’un savoir sur soi inductif et déductif et qui décrit l’idée que « le sens du sens est un sens qui n’a pas de sens ». Mais qui permet d’arriver à un point de rencontre entre le soi et l’autre, entre l’intérieur et l’extérieur, entre le dedans et le dehors. Finalement, la Sophia (Reconnaissance de Soi) est portée par le principe de récursivité (la critique de Soi qui permet de juger ses jugements, de critiquer sa critique et de dépasser les préjugés sur soi ou sur le monde) et est le point d’ancrage à notre construction clinique axée sur la compréhension de l’ensemble du mouvement de l’être. / The phenomenological analysis of the movement of the Self was carried out with seventeen subjects, speakers in spiritual care (ISS), having journeyed towards a profession opened to spirituality and opening to their spirituality. Our research approach is based on phenomenology and is anchored in a constructivist paradigm. We sought to understand the formalization of a new profession which gives access to a form of spiritual and secular psychology put into practice by means of non-confessional spiritual care. This particular practice of spiritual care within secular health institutions made us question the epistemological sources of self hermeneutics which goes through both the impact of the history of secularity, which recognizes the cultural and religious rupture. This research provided a better understanding of the spiritual journey of the ISS and an understanding of the nature of secular spiritual care that engages the personal spirituality of the ISS. It had also made it possible to propose a model of accompaniment which is located at the interface of spiritual care and psychotherapy. The movement of the Self is first expressed in the knowledge of one's own wounds, of one's humanity and in a relationship to oneself from the point of view of cultural, religious, social and / or institutional normativity. Then, the subject seeks to come to a new relationship with himself that he builds while moving in the direction of an autonomy to conquer - self-government - which describes a form of spiritual maturity opened to other people’s spirituality. Finally, the achievement of this maturity is made by a poetic creation of the Self which is the acceptance of the Self that allows the ISS to deploy its spirituality in the heart of a secular space at the service of the spiritual need of patients. The content analysis of the movement of the Self has made it possible to define four evolutionary stages through which the deployment of a spiritual psychology specific to spiritual subjects is accomplished: (1) figuration as a spiritual thought that is sought in causal movement; (2) the configuration which refers to the spiritual thought engaged in the construction of a sense of itself, of a story of its own and of a spirituality to live; (3) refiguration as a thinking that criticizes and questions itself (this is recursion according to Morin 2006); (4) the transfiguration which is the moment when the thought is validated, occurs and starts again in a retrocausal movement. 6 This last and fourth stage of the movement of the Self allows to reveal a form of wisdom which approach is centered on the discovery, the construction and the expression of the Self. Indeed, the spiritual subject can discover himself and take himself as the object of consciousness with an universal scope, in other words, that he projects himself adequately in the common space, between his spirituality and the dominant secular thought . This in-between is what characterizes wisdom - Sophia in Greek - insofar as the subject is able to find a meeting point between his individual history and the common history. This wisdom makes him find himself at the right time, at the right place (this is the kairos) and helps him to build his own story subjected to the vagaries of existence. Then, his human and spiritual experience are expressing his desire for the indeterminate chained to causality. The results regarding the spiritual and secular psychology gave rise to a distinction between religious belief and religious spirituality. In the first case, the subject finds himself in a form of self-culture (Foucault, 1979) which aims at the only authentic relationship with the self; in the second one, it places the subject in a situation to surpass oneself (Hadot, 1993) which positions him in a continuous quest for meaning. In short, this movement of the Self appears to be subjected to a specific organization of thought where the quest for meaning is accomplished in a recurrence which abolishes it without respite (there is no meaning) while affirming it without stopping (the meaning is the meaning itself). This movement of thought is in fact a movement of the self which is lost in the formation of an inductive and deductive self-knowledge and which describes the idea that "the sense of meaning is a meaning that has no meaning". However, it makes it possible to reach a meeting point between the self and the other, between the interior and the exterior, between the inside and the outside; it also allows to judge the judgments, criticize the criticism and overcome prejudices about oneself or the world. Finally, Sophia (Self-recognition) is the anchor point of the whole movement of the Self, making the object of our clinic essentially focused on the principle of recursion (Selfcriticism).

Diploma thesis „Management of personality development“ is focused on analysis of issues in case of managers of the company Advantage Consulting s.r.o. Theoretical analysis is focused on time management, stress management, personality development and then issue of personality types follows. The analysis of individual managers in all mentioned fields is given and recommendations for increasing level of management of personality development are for-mulated.

The goal of this thesis is to remind the importance of the two selected categories of the educational content of the subject of dance and movement education in primary school: improvisation and creativity, their conception and implementation in education. The thesis is divided into theoretical and practical part. The theoretical part firstly deals with dance based on movement - the most natural activity of everyone. Then, the subject of dance and movement education is introduced together with its characteristics. The following chapters describe the importance of improvisation and creativity in dance and movement education. The practical part consists of a qualitative research of which the main aim was to find out how improvisation and creativity are being fulfilled in practice. The research was realized using the method of participating observation. That part also presents its results.

This Master thesis analyzes the conception of self-knowledge in work of Jiddu Krishnamurti. Jiddu Krishnamurti (1895-1986) was a spiritual teacher and writer, born in India and lived in USA. The goal of the thesis is to show Krishnamurti's conception of self-knowledge from its own. In thesis there are quotations from Krishnamurti's works and also from works of others related authors from ranks of philosophy, science or literature. The first part of thesis shows Krishnamurti's life and his work in general. The second part analyzes a topic of self-knowledge in work of Krishnamurti. First of all, the thesis tries to introduce the way in which Krishnamurti understands a self-knowledge and its potential. In the second place, it tries to incorporate Krishnamurti's work into context of whole human searchng with intention to find a dialog between science and spirituality and between East and West.

This study focuses on how a Personal Portfolio can facilitate the narration of an adolescent’s life story and the outcome on self understanding. An instrumental case study that was exploritative and descriptive in nature was used to gain insight into the potential value of using a Personal Portfolio to reflect an adolescent’s quest for identity development. Data were collected by means of Personal Portfolio activities, open-ended interviews, tape-recordings of participant interviews, reflective reports written by the research participant as well as observations and field notes recorded in a diary by the researcher. The thematic analysis of the data was done within a constructivist-interpretivist framework. Five core categories: Identity Crisis/Confusion, Identity Exploration,Identifying Developmental Assets, Unresolved Past Issues, and the Experience of Compiling a Personal Portfolio emerged. These core categories were further linked to sub-categories and related themes. This study found that compiling a Personal Portfolio supported the research participant’s quest for identity. In particular, it facilitated a process of self exploration regarding career choice and sexual identity and resulted in increased self-knowledge, an awareness of personal assets and an overall improved sense of self-worth and self-confidence. This study also provided the research participant with a platform to work from and the means to solve some personal problems. The study further more concluded that a Personal Portfolio is a cost effective method that is suitable for use in a diverse South African context which could be utilised by counsellors and educators with their task to assist adolescents with their identity development. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Educational Psychology / unrestricted

This thesis explores a concept by Sonvox AB called VoiceUp. The concept is that of a mobile application that communicates with a wearable voice measuring device and visualizes voice information in a way that helps singers. Sonvox current main product is VoxLog—a system for long-term voice monitoring, mostly used for research purposes. Sonvox believes that their voice analysis technology could be relevant to a larger audience. The main goal for the thesis is to explore if a wearable voice measuring device could be relevant to singers, and in what ways. To do this, a needs analysis was conducted where song teachers and singers were interviewed. In order to draw statistical conclusions about the occurrence of needs, a survey was conducted where people with an interest for singing were the targeted respondents. Based on the result from the needs analysis, the VoiceUp concept was refined, resulting in an idea of a product that measures and visualizes how much the user sings and speaks with the aim to increase singers motivation to practice singing more regularly. Based on theory related to self-tracking, a design proving the concept was created, resulting in a mockup and a simple prototype. The mockup and the prototype can together be seen as one example of how self-tracking technology could be relevant to singers.

At the outset of the Phaedrus, Plato tells us that Socrates’ knows himself (228a). This statement is then followed up by Socrates’ claim that he is not able to obey the Delphic imperative and know himself (229e-230b). This apparent contradiction has given rise to an interesting debate concerning what kind of knowledge we are dealing with here. While the debate is complex a few main positions can be identified. One group of scholars, hereafter referred to as the practitioners, argue that the self-knowledge Socrates here talks about is a life-guiding term. The practitioners argue that when striving toward what is true about oneself and acknowledging one’s limits, one turns away from chaos towards a well structured life. Another group of scholars, referred to as the mystics, argue that self-knowledge is something Socrates’ possesses when contemplating over his own epistemic limits as well as his soul and its connection to the Forms. Finally, the unitarian view explains the content of self-knowledge, namely that it includes dispositional and cognitive knowledge of oneself. Even if these views are helpful to explain the different parts of self-knowledge, they fail to explain Socrates’ apparently contradictory answers regarding self-knowledge. What is lacking, and what this thesis will try to provide, is an account of how Socrates both can say that he knows and does not know himself. The thesis will help explain how Socrates can be said to have self-knowledge. However, Socrates does not yet have absolute self-knowledge and acknowledges, with his denial of self-knowledge, that a deepened self-knowledge can be gained gradually. On the view that this thesis will test and defend, Socratic self-knowledge is a continuum, that is to say, a coherent yet dynamic knowledge. This can help to explain how Socrates can claim to both know and not yet know himself.

Text in Afrikaans / Spieel, kamer van spieels, mise-en-abyme, representasie, ensovoorts, is almal begrippe wat met die nosie van selfrefleksiwiteit in verband gebring word. Hoewel selfrefleksiwiteit nie 'n nuwe verskynsel is nie, is die vraag waarom dit juis vandag so akuut in die literer-teoretiese diskoers neerslag vind. Dit geld veral teoretiese bydraes oor die Postmodernisme en/of Postmodemistiese tekste. Hieruit kan 'n mens aflei dat daar 'n direkte verband tussen selfrefleksiwiteit en die Postmodernisme bestaan. Hierdie studie is dan primer gemteresseerd in die wyses waarop die Postmodernistiese dramafteater die nosie van selfrefleksiwiteit in die enkoderingsproses in diens neem. Daarbenewens word ondersoek ingestel na die invloed wat die konsep van vervreemding in die twintigste-eeuse dramajteater op die verskillende beskouings van selfrefleksiwiteit gehad het. Die uiteindelike oogmerk is om aan te toon dat selfrefleksiwiteit in die Postmodernistiese dramafteater gevestigde aannames oor kuns as spieelbeeld van die werklikheid omverwerp. / Mirror, hall of mirrors, mise-en-abyme, representation, et cetera are all concepts associated with the notion of self-reflexivity. While self-reflexivity is not a new phenomenon, the question is why, in our time, it should be so acutely present in the discourse of literary theory - especially in theoretic contributions on Postmodernism and/or Postmodernist texts. One is lead to conclude that self-reflexivity and Postmodernism are directly linked. This study, then, focuses primarily on how Postmodernist drama/theatre employs the notion of self-reflexivity in the encoding process. It also explores the impact of the concept of alienation in twentieth century drama/theatre on the various views of self-reflexivity. The fmal objective is to show that self-reflexivity in Postmodernist drama/theatre challenges ftxed suppositions about art as a reflection of reality. / Afrikaans, Theory of Literature / M.A. (Theory of Literature)

Ce mémoire entend présenter les formes de connaissance de soi développées par Thomas d’Aquin: la reditio incompleta, la réfraction sur les phantasmes, la conscience préréflexive, la réflexion par réfluence, l’analyse abstraite, le jugement critique et la reditio completa. L’âme humaine ne pouvant se connaître directement, elle a accès à son essence par le biais de tous ses actes ou actes de conscience. Notre analyse se concentre sur la connaissance habituelle, habitus de toutes les connaissances, qui est la racine de l’image trinitaire en l’homme et garantit la vérité des intellections humaines. Pour ce faire, nous avons procédé à la traduction des questions 87 à 89 de la Somme théologique, dans lesquelles Thomas présente la connaissance humaine des substances séparées et le statut de l’âme séparée, montrant en quoi l’esprit de l’homme partage un certain commun avec les autres esprits de son univers. / The purpose of this thesis is to present the different theories of self-knowledge developed by Thomas Aquinas: namely reditio incompleta, refraction of the soul on its own phantasms, preconscious reflection, reflection by reflux, abstract analysis, critical judgment and reditio completa. Although the human soul cannot have knowledge of itself directly, it can however approach its essence with its own acts or acts of consciousness. The analysis is based on the cognitio habitualis, habitus of all knowledge, that is the root of the trinitarian image in humankind and that guarantees the truth of human intellection. This involved translating questions 87 to 89 of the Summa Theologiae, in which Aquinas considers humanity’s understanding of immaterial substances and the separate soul’s knowledge. This demonstrates how the human soul shares common ground with other substances of the universe.