Master of Philosophy / Following P.F. Strawson's reading of Kant, the majority of the literature on transcendental arguments seeks to divorce such arguments from their original Kantian context. This thesis is concerned with Mark Sacks's recent defence of transcendental arguments, which takes a different approach. A critique is given of Sacks's work and extensions and modifications of his approach are recommended. It is proposed that certain difficulties encountered by Kant's transcendentally-ideal approach can be overcome with Hegelian solutions.

This thesis is a morphosyntactic description of the Australian language Mawng with a focus on verbal gender agreement and its lexicalisation. Mawng’s five genders have a strong semantic basis. In verbs with lexicalised agreement, a verbal pronominal prefix that usually indexes a core argument of a particular gender instead functions to specify a particular sense of the verb. Such verbs form a significant portion of the verbal lexicon in Mawng. An investigation of these verbs requires an updated description of Mawng, which has not been the object of linguistic study for some time. A non-Pama Nyungan language of the Iwaidjan language family, Mawng is still spoken by around three hundred people living on the north-west coast of Arnhem land, Northern Territory, Australia. This description is based on new fieldwork carried out at Warruwi (Goulburn Island) and adds to what was previously known about the Mawng language. Complex verb constructions, reciprocal constructions, argument structure, complex sentences, NP structure, the semantic basis of the gender system and the nature of verbal agreement are some of the topics explored in greater detail in this thesis than previously available materials. Lexicalised agreement was not discussed in previous work on Mawng.

Master of Philosophy / Following P.F. Strawson's reading of Kant, the majority of the literature on transcendental arguments seeks to divorce such arguments from their original Kantian context. This thesis is concerned with Mark Sacks's recent defence of transcendental arguments, which takes a different approach. A critique is given of Sacks's work and extensions and modifications of his approach are recommended. It is proposed that certain difficulties encountered by Kant's transcendentally-ideal approach can be overcome with Hegelian solutions.

Em muitos momentos na sociedade contemporânea, a ciência se mostra importante para que as pessoas critiquem, argumentem e se posicionem, para tanto, conhecer os mecanismos de funcionamento e de produção desta forma de conhecimento é importante. Atualmente, a ciência é reconhecida como uma forma de cultura com os seus próprios valores, linguagem, práticas, percepções, teorias e crenças. No ensino de Ciências, diversos autores têm utilizado a ideia da aprendizagem de ciências como enculturação. Tal concepção prevê o desenvolvimento de múltiplas práticas em sala de aula, de modo a facilitar a aproximação dos alunos nessa cultura, proporcionando a aquisição de novos conhecimentos. Em relação à linguagem da ciência, a argumentação é uma característica marcante e, na interface argumentação e ensino de Ciências, muitas pesquisas apontam que há poucas oportunidades para que jovens desenvolvam sua habilidade de construir argumentos. Com este cenário, este estudo analisou argumentos gerados por turmas do Ensino Médio, com o intuito de identificar, entre os conhecimentos mobilizados pelos estudantes para a construção de suas falas, a relação com o conhecimento científico; buscou, também, caracterizar tais argumentos, verificando se o conhecimento demonstrado evidencia o trânsito entre a cultura científica e o conhecimento científico enunciado na escola. Utilizamos como referências para análise dos dados o layout de argumento de Toulmin (2006) e, para caracterizar o conhecimento mobilizado pelos alunos em suas falas, refêrencias que analisam a dimensão epistêmica da aprendizagem em Ciências Jimenez-Aleixandre et al. (1998, 2000). Analisamos duas sequências didáticas para coleta de dados, de tais sequências, utilizamos duas aulas, em especial, como universo gerador de dados; na primeira, os alunos discutiam sobre um problema científico e, na segunda, sobre um problema sociocientífico. Nossos dados evidenciaram que quando os alunos discutem sobre temática científica, esses demonstram em suas falas, resgatar o conhecimento científico. Já quando discutem sobre um problema sociocientífico, resgatam, parcialmente, o conhecimento científico, evidenciando, também, conhecimento de distintos campos. Tais observações corroboram com os dados discutidos pela literatura levantada, contudo, observamos a necessidade de maiores estudos e reflexões acerca das características do conhecimento mobilizado em discussões de natureza científica e sociocientífica. / In contemporary society, science proves important for people to criticize, argue, and position themselves. It is, therefore, important to understand the mechanisms of operation and production of this form of knowledge. Currently, science is recognized as a form of culture with its own values, language, practices, perceptions, theories and beliefs. In science education, several authors have used the idea of science learning as enculturation. This design provides for the development of multiple practices in the classroom in order to facilitate alignment of the students in this culture and foster the acquisition of new knowledge. Regarding the language of science, the argument plays a distinctive feature, and it has been shown by many researches that, in terms of the interface between argumentation and science teaching, there are few opportunities for students to develop their argument-building skills. With this background, this study examined the arguments raised by secondary education classes, in order to identify, among the knowledge mobilized by the students to construct their speeches, the relationship with scientific knowledge. We also sought to characterize such argumentsby analyzing whether they ratify the link between scientific culture and the scientific knowledge transmitted at school. . Our reference to analyze the data is the argument\'s layout as presented by Toulmin (2006) and, to analyze the knowledge mobilized by students, we used references that work with the epistemic dimension of science education, namely Jimenez-Aleixandre et al (1998, 2000). We analyzed two teaching sequences for data collection, out of which two specific classes were thoroughly analyzed. In the first class students were discussing a scientific problem and, in the second, a social-scientific one. Our data showed that when students discuss scientific issues, they refer to scientific knowledge on their speeches.. However when they discuss a social-scientific issue, they partially refer to scientific knowledge, resorting to other fields of knowledge as well. These observations corroborate the data discussed on our reference literature, however, further studies are required, as well as reflection on the characteristics of knowledge mobilized in scientific and social-scientific discussions.

This study was conducted to better understand how teachers use an argument-based inquiry technique known as the Science Writing Heuristic (SWH) approach to address issues on teaching, learning, negotiation, argumentation, and elaboration in an elementary science classroom. Within the SWH framework, this study traced the progress of promoting argumentation and negotiation (which led to student-generated questions) during a discussion in an elementary science classroom. Speech patterns during various classroom scenarios were analyzed to understand how teacher-student interactions influence learning. This study uses a mixture of qualitative and quantitative methods. The qualitative aspect of the study is an analysis of teacher-student interactions in the classroom using video recordings. The quantitative aspect uses descriptive statistics, tables, and plots to analyze the data. The subjects in this study were fifth grade students and teachers from an elementary school in the Midwest, during the academic years 2007/2008 and 2008/2009. The three teachers selected for this study teach at the same Midwestern elementary school. These teachers were purposely selected because they were using the SWH approach during the two years of the study. The results of this study suggest that all three teachers moved from using teacher-generated questions to student-generated questions as they became more familiar with the SWH approach. In addition, all three promoted the use of the components of arguments in their dialogs and discussions and encouraged students to elaborate, challenge, and rebut each other's ideas in a non-threatening environment. This research suggests that even young students, when actively participating in class discussions, are capable of connecting their claims and evidence and generating questions of a higher-order cognitive level. These findings demand the implementation of more professional development programs and the improvement in teacher education to help teachers confidently implement argumentative practices and develop pedagogical strategies to help students use them.

This study aimed at investigating and analysing the communication occurring during whole class discussions, with a specific focus on the nature of the mathematical arguments. The investigation was a qualitative case study where the communication during eight whole class discussions in grade 3-5 were analysed. Three types of arguments, wich are functional in the communication and convey different aspects of mathematics, were identified in the study. The types are (a) argument conveying a solution to a task/ a problem (b) argument conveying conceptual properties, and (c) argument conveying a mathematical relationship. The arguments types explain why an answer to a task is correct (type a), illuminate properties of a mathematical object (b), and clarify a mathematical relationship (c). The findings also reveal that arguments may be expressed through the use of a broad range of communicative resources, such as spoken language, written language, symbols, drawings, the use of manipulatives, and gestures. This highlights the importance of taking into account more than speech when construing arguments/reasoning communicated in mathematics classroom. The study also points to the importance of paying attention to arguments/reasoning that are created during other occasions than during task work or problem solving, and that arguments can enable the discerning of mathematical aspects for learners.

The decision to apply for Swedish membership in NATO in May 2022 demonstrates a major shift in security policy, as it means leaving the tradition of non-alignment. Three factors make this event interesting to explore further. 1) The decision was conducted under rapid circumstances and, 2) two of the larger political parties, the Social democratic party and the Sweden democrats, changed their traditional viewpoint on keeping non-alignment and instead argue for NATO-membership. 3) The decision was isolated from debates and referendum, which means a lack of transparency to the citizens. The research problem is focused on how this rapid decision officially was legitimized, and the aim of the research is thus analysing how the discourse on NATO-membership was constructed and prompted by the political actors who changed their policy. Leaning on theories on how attitudes, worldviews and security are constructed, this report analyses both the political actors’ communication process as well as how they displayed their attitudes and interpretations of the security context. Methodologically, Political discourse analysis (PDA) was applied on speeches and statements in order to deconstruct arguments, and as a complement, statistics were analysed to view public opinion. The findings display that the political actors mostly used descriptive arguments to rationalise the decision to apply for membership in NATO. In addition, the political parties used arguments associated with “fear” and “danger”. Emotional arguments that connoted “national love” were integrated in the Social democratic party´s speech to the citizens. In contrast, the Sweden democrats offered few statements and short speeches. Similarities between the political actors were that the Russian invasion of Ukraine 2022 is mirrored in the political actors’ interpretation of the security situation and the claim that Sweden needs the defence guarantees that follows with a membership in NATO. In conclusion, the findings suggest that the Swedish resistance to NATO-membership has turned to positive attitudes in a similar way in both politics and the “everyday life” of the citizens.

The following inquiry pursues two interlinked aims. The first is to understand Wittgenstein's idea of non-foundational certainty in the context of a reading of On Certainty that emphasizes its Pyrrhonian elements. The second is to read Wittgenstein's remarks on idealism/radical skepticism in On Certainty in parallel with the discussion of rule-following in Philosophical Investigations in order to demonstrate an underlying similarity of philosophical concerns and methods. I argue that for the later Wittgenstein, what is held certain in a given context of inquiry or action is a locally transcendental condition of the inquiry or action in question. In On Certainty, Wittgenstein's analysis of the difference between knowledge and certainty forms the basis of his critique of both Moore's "Proof" and radical skepticism. This critique takes the shape of rejection of a presupposition shared by both parties, and utilizes what I identify as a Pyrrhonian-style argument against opposed dogmatic views. Wittgenstein's method in this text involves describing epistemic language-games. I demonstrate that this is consistent with the rejection of epistemological theorizing, arguing that a Wittgensteinian "picture" is not a theory, but an impressionistic description that accomplishes two things: (i) throwing into relief problems with dogmatic theories and their presuppositions, and (ii) describing the provenance of linguistic and epistemic practices in terms of norms grounded in convention. Convention, in turn, is not arbitrary, but grounded in the biological and social natures of human beings--in what Wittgenstein calls forms of life. Thus there is a kind of naturalism in the work of the later Wittgenstein. It is a naturalism that comes neatly dovetailed with Pyrrhonism--a combination of strategies traceable to Hume's work in the Treatise. I read Hume as someone who develops the Pyrrhonian method to include philosophy done "in a careless manner," and argue that Wittgenstein adopts a similar method in his later works. Finally, I explain the deference to convention in the work of both Hume and Wittgenstein by reference to a passage in Sextus' Outlines, on which I provide a gloss in the final chapter of this work.

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The problem of how one can reconcile the omnipotence and omniscience of God with human freedom has penetrated a good deal of philosophical and theological thought. On occasion it has even been reduced to a unsolvable problem unworthy of consideration. Saint Augustine, however, clearly did not think this was the case. Augustine defends human freedom as a good which must be preserved even if it does allow for the possibility of evil. David R. Griffin, on the other hand, maintains that men cannot exert their own will, when they are considered to be subject to the will of an omnipotent.God and that the occurence of evil in the world must ultimately be allowed by God. William L. Rowe also maintains that there is a problem in claiming that human beings are free, but this time, because of God's omniscience rather than His omnipotence. Rowe argues that since whatever God foreknows must necessarily happen and He knows that evil will happen, man's decision to sin is not one of freedom but of necessity. These are generally considered the two main arguments for opposing Augustine's Free Will Defense, and although Rowe eventually shows the inadequacies of the 'omniscience argument', his presentation of the traditional view is most valuable. It is the contention of this paper that neither divine omnipotence nor omniscience, when considered independently, present sufficient evidence to seriously jeopardize Augustine's position, and this, can only partially be achieved by combining these divine attributes and pitting them against the possibility of human freedom. This thesis is defended by a demonstration of the weaknesses of the independent arguments which are overcome, or at least strengthened, when combined. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)