This is an investigatory work on the Aristotelian foundations of Martha Nussbaum's capabilities approach and the disability issue. After an initial exposition of the capabilities approach and the application of the approach on the disability issue, the author makes a survey of the previous works of Nussbaum on Aristotle. That survey of the works of Nussbaum on Aristotle was utilized to evaluate the Aristotelian foundations of the capabilities approach (which Nussbaum claims is an Aristotelian approach). The conclusion was that Aristotle, as developed by Nussbaum, does not provide a sufficient foundation for the approach nor for the issue on disability.

This study is an attempt to develop the discussion about self-injury with the aid of philosophical discussions about understanding. I will present a reading of the discussion between Michel Foucault and Jacques Derrida about reason and madness, and also an interpretation of the Derrida and Hans-Georg Gadamer encounter. These readings focus on the concept of understanding, on the possibility to understand the other and on the possibility to reach out from reason toward the irrational. The project to formulate an ethical approach to self-injury by Nancy Nyquist Potter is then used to bring the question about understanding to life. I conclude that the project of Potter, formulated as “uptake”, is weakened by the fact that she fails to recognize the underlying philosophical problems in stating the possibility to understand the meaning of something that until today has been considered meaningless.

No description available.

Syftet med denna studie är att synliggöra några lärares uppfattningar kring etik och moral samt hur läraren förmedlar etik och moral till sina elever. Därtill beskrivs några faktorer som dessa lärare uppfattar har betydelse för förmedlingen av etik och moral i skolan. Litteraturdelen består av källor från tidigare forskning, teoriböcker i ämnet samt statliga utgåvor kring skolans samhällsuppdrag. Den empiriska undersökningen bygger på en kvalitativ studie med utgångspunkt i den fenomenografiska ansatsen. Intervjuer från nio stycken lärare på grundskolans olika stadier har blivit underlag för studiens resultat. Studiens resultat visar att lärarens samhällsuppgift som värdegrundsförmedlare är både svår och komplex. Valet av stoff, samt på vilket sätt läraren förmedlar etik och moral, bygger till stor del på hennes egna beslut och erfarenheter. Detta tar sig uttryck i en variation mellan lärarnas uppfattningar kring dessa frågor. Uppdraget har också visat sig vara svårartikulerat, eftersom tolkningen kommer att se olika ut hos olika individer. Värdegrundsuppdraget visar sig därför behöva ett fungerande samtal på skolanoch en gemensam vision av dess mål.

Detta examensarbete behandlar lärares sätt att se på och undervisa i etik, samt lärares påverkan på barns etiska och moraliska utveckling. I arbetet kommer det fram att lärarna i min undersökning ser som sin främsta uppgift att stödja barnens utveckling, så att de ska klara av framtida konflikter och problem. Detta sker bl a genom etikundervisning, ofta i form av diskussion eller värderingsövningar. Informanterna anser att deras påverkan på barnens utveckling är väldigt stor, något som styrks av litteraturgenomgången.

Arbetet beskriver hur tre lärare och en skolledare för ut och förankrar den värdegrund som be-skrivs i nuvarande läroplan (Lpo 94). Metoden som använts är personliga intervjuer och ett se-lektivt urval av intervjuade har gjorts. En litteraturgenomgång stöder de metoder och synsätt som lärarna framhåller. Resultatet visar att alla intervjuade har ett aktivt förhållningssätt till de värden som läroplanen lyfter fram. Det genomsyrar hela deras undervisning och arbetet pågår mer eller mindre ständigt.

This essay tries to investigate the possibility to reconstruct the concept of mimesis in Martin Heidegger’s hermeneutical phenomenology in Sein und Zeit. Paul Ricoeur’s interpretation of the concept of mimesis in Aristotle’s Poetics, develops a new temporal understanding of the mimetic activity, which Ricoeur in his work Time and Narrative, claims to have the possibility to overcome the aporias in the phenomenology of time. With this criticism as the background context for the present study, seeks this essay to pick up Ricoeur’s new conception of mimesis, and use that in a comparative philosophical reflection on the basic concepts in Heidegger’s Sein und Zeit. The main thesis in this essay is that Ricoeur’s concept of mimesis can be rethought and reconstructed as a possibility within Heidegger’s thinking.

<p>The aim of this thesis is to characterize and discuss two kinds of influences on the outcome of a toxicological risk assessment. One kind of influencehas to do with values and the role played by value-based judgment. Currently, many toxicological risk assessments are characterized byscientific uncertainties. When this is the case, risk assessors are to some extent dependent on assumptions and judgment, and this has consequences for the outcome of the assessment. Another other kind of influence comes from the quality and accuracy of the empirical studies that risk assessments are based on. If toxicological research and testing are affected by systematic errors (bias), this will influence the ensuing risk assessment. In order to improve toxicological risk assessments work must be done both on understanding and dealing with the impact of values and on getting better and more efficient methods for gathering facts. The two papers that make up this licentiate thesis may be seen as a contribution to each of these objectives.</p><p><i>Article 1: Values in science and risk assessment </i></p><p>It is a widely accepted claim that scientific practice contains valuejudgments, i.e. decisions made on the basis of values. This paper clarifies the concepts involved in this claim and explains its implications for risk assessment. It is explained why values are necessarily a part of science and of risk assessment. A certain type of values that contribute to the aim of science, so-called epistemic values, are identified as rationally justified as basis for judgment in science. It is argued that the aims of pure science and risk assessment differ in some aspects and that consequently pure science’s epistemic values are not sufficient for risk assessment. I suggest how the epistemic values may be supplemented in order to align better with the aim of risk assessment.</p><p><i>Article 2: Bias in toxicology </i></p><p>In this article, the potential for bias in toxicological research and in the performance of standardized toxicological testing in discussed. Due to the lack of empirical studies of bias in toxicology, very little is known aboutits prevalence and impact. Areas to consider for such studies are pointed out, and it is suggested that such investigations should be given priority.</p>

<p>The present thesis is based on a scientifically informed reading of Fleck. In addition to the monograph, the material includes his additional philosophical writings and also his internationally published scientific articles. The sources provided by Fleck have been traced back to the time of their origin. Based on the above material, it is argued that rather than relativizing science, and thereby deeply influencing Kuhn, Fleck, attempting to participate in the current debates, is an ardent proponent of science, offering an internal account of its pursuit that accords with his often-contested epistemic concepts. The exposure of his description of the Wassermann reaction discloses a highly selected reading of the, at the time, available sources, but also its relation to the current debate on Einzelwissenschaften, or the standing of new emerging disciplines versus age-old ones, all occasioned by the remarkable progress of science that also affected philosophy. The divide between philosophers and scientists on the philosophical implications of modern physics is exposed as well as Fleck’s heuristic use of the latter topic in his epistemology. A more realistic account of his scientific accomplishment is provided that includes the unfeasibility of the manufacturing of an anti-typhus vaccine based on urine. It is finally argued that the modern interpretation, or the received humanist view of Fleck, is based on the, at the time of the rediscovery of the monograph, already endorsed program of STS writers opposing a scientifically informed reading of his texts.</p>

<p>The study analyzes the ethical implications of human gene transfer technology for enhancement. Although human gene transfer technology is widely accepted on therapeutic grounds the non-therapeutic use of gene transfer technology remains to be a gray zone for moral deliberation. The present discussion addresses several ethical issues concerning the impacts of human gene transfer technology on individuals, the society, and future people. Accordingly, the study examines major ethical issues concerning the use of human gene transfer technology in general and genetic enhancement in particular, and reliability of the putative demarcation between therapy and enhancement, and further proposes ethical guidelines for non-therapeutic application of human gene transfer technology. A special attention is given to three major ethical issues, such as our obligation to future generations, problems concerning justice, fairness, and equality, and the problem of uncertainty.</p>