No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

This dissertation analyzes the Christian doctrine of grace in conversation with secular moral philosophy, highlighting its relevance to virtue cultivation within and beyond religious contexts. This is an unusual connection, admittedly, but properly understood, grace addresses key ethical issues such as moral development, moral psychology, moral luck, the limits and structure of human agency, and the importance of social conditions that hinder moral development. Though born in the teachings of ancient people who followed Jesus Christ, and subsequently historically entangled with supernatural varieties of Christian theology, the concept of grace has far wider relevance. By setting it within an existentialist and materialist framework, this dissertation explores the complex interaction between institutional, biological, and psychological factors that influence moral judgment and shape human decision making. The work gives special attention to Paul Tillich’s naturalistic conception of grace as “acceptance,” influenced by Augustinian, Hegelian, and existentialist thought, and proposes grace as a necessary condition for moral growth. In line with Tillich, it suggests that the experience of grace can help manage the estrangement caused by the awareness of life’s finitude and the entrapments of our temporal existence. However, Tillich’s use of symbolic language to describe religious experiences attributed acceptance to a non-agential God without disclosing the ontological or causal nature of the experience of grace, thereby creating a gap between the consequences of acceptance and its concrete facilitation in the absence of divine agency. This dissertation closes that gap by rearticulating grace in existentialist and intersubjective terms, clarifying Tillich’s position and bridging the divide between Christian theology and secular philosophical ethics. Analyzing the historical development of existential philosophy, this dissertation further argues against the view of existentialism as inherently anti-religious or nihilistic, and critiques recent interpretations of Tillich’s work as primarily influenced by Neoplatonic Christian theology, instead reaffirming his existentialist roots and the inspiration he drew from German idealism. In the final chapters, the dissertation explores the concept of intersubjectivity and its decisive role in the emergence of values and moral systems in order to illuminate how grace is extended and received between persons. The dissertation concludes with a case study illustrating the practical import of grace in contemporary ethics, suggesting that gracious interactions can lead to structural changes that positively impact life outcomes. The cumulative argument suggests that traditional supernatural theologies of grace and contemporary moral philosophy may have much more in common than is typically assumed, at least when the concept of grace is reinterpreted through an existentialist lens. / 2027-06-04T00:00:00Z

The purpose of this study is to ascertain the major aspects of the theoretical structure of Sartrian existentialism and to examine the portrayal of these in Sartre's fiction. The theoretical investigation is based largely on Sartre's "L'Être et le néant" and "L'Existentialisme est u humanisme." The fictional works are "La Nausée," the trilogy "Les Chemins de la liberté," and "Le Mur." The study is prefaced by an examination of the term existentialism and a brief historical comparison of essentialist and existentialist philosophy. The aspects of Sartrian existentialism discussed are: the question of the existence of God and its importance to Sartre's philosophy; the premise of existence preceding essence; the fact of contingency on absurdity and its attendant nausea; the doctrines of freedom and responsibility; the dilemma of choice, anguish, and commitment; and the themes of authenticity, transcendence, and death.

Denna studie är en undersökning av hur människor beskriver mening utifrån sig själva i förhållande till vår samtid. För detta ändamål berörs psykologiska områden som existentiell-, positiv- och religionspsykologi samt delar av religion och existentiell filosofi. Studiens empiri har framställts via intervjuer med fyra informanter som rekryterats genom ett bekvämlighetsurval på ett universitet i södra Sverige. Materialet har därefter tolkats och analyserats utifrån hermeneutisk metodik och tematiska analys. Vad som framkom i studien som betydelsefullt för uppfattningen av mening var frihet och informanternas föresats att ha en framtida familj, däremot uppfattades inte mening som en slutdestination eller ett mål utan det beskrevs som ett föränderligt förlopp där flera faktorer spelar in. / This study is a research on how people describe meaning from themselves in relation to our time. For this purpose, psychological areas such as existential, positive and religious psychology as well as parts of religion and existential philosophy has been utilized. The study’s empirical data has been gathered from interviews with four informants who have been recruited through a convenience sample at a university in southern Sweden. The material has subsequently been interpreted and analyzed based on hermeneutic methodology and thematic analysis. What emerged from the study as important for the perception of meaning was freedom and the informants' intention to have a future family, on the other hand, meaning was not considered a final destination or a goal, but it was described as a changing process in which several factors play a role.

No abstract available. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Durban-Westville, 1985.

This paper deals with the novel Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro and explores the feeling of unease established by the author. The theoretical framework for this paper is based on questions of humanity and thus makes use of existentialism as established by Sartre and Kierkegaard. Initially the essay explores how the setting of the novel helps establish a familiar world with unfamiliar elements. After that questions of humanity are raised and how these questions relate to the clones by showing that the clones have human qualities yet are not treated as human. These questions are expanded in the following part about ethical issues and it is shown that the reader is tempted by the author to cross certain ethical boundaries leading to a feeling of unease. Special attention is given to freedom of choice in the third part of the analysis and it is shown how the choices of the clones are very limited, especially if they are considered human. The fourth part then discusses the narrative perspective and how the narrator Kathy H. is used by the author to establish a connection and a perception of the narrator as human.

Until recently, research into dreaming followed the reductionist paradigm within a Freudian framework. This line of enquiry has failed to date to provide a meaningful relationship between neuropsychology and dreaming. As a result, theory development has halted, original therapeutic approaches outside the analytic tradition are scarce, and practitioners are disempowered when confronted with dream material. However, in recent years the concept of consciousness is back on the scientific agenda and the study of the subjective experience of dreaming is once again possible. Eight coinquirers employed Heron’s (1996) co-operative inquiry. We collaboratively explored our experience of dreaming holding seven meetings over six months. Paradoxically, we found that our experiences and understandings were similar and conflicting, mirroring the current debates in dream research. Our findings indicate strong links with waking consciousness, and that dreams are a source of entertainment, insight, problem solving and angst. Our study also highlighted that directing our awareness altered the nature of our dreams and our perceptions. Implications for Counselling Psychology theory, practice and research are discussed. It is argued that intentionality is a key concept and should be incorporated in Counselling Psychology research, theory and practice.