This study is a contribution to the bioethical debate about new and possibly emerging reproductive technologies. Its point of departure is the intuition, which many people seem to share, that using such technologies to select non-disease traits – like sex and emotional stability - in yet unborn children is morally problematic, at least more so than using the technologies to avoid giving birth to children with severe genetic diseases, or attempting to shape the non-disease traits of already existing children by environmental means, like education. The study employs philosophical analysis for the purpose of making this intuition intelligible and judging whether it is justified. Different ways in which the moral problems posed by reproductive technologies are often framed in bioethical debates are criticised as inadequate for this task. In particular, it is argued that the intuition cannot fully be made sense of in terms of harm to the children that such technologies help create. The study attempts to elaborate an alternative to that broadly consequentialist approach, by drawing on Martin Heidegger’s philosophy of technology, Hans Jonas’s ethics, and Aristotle’s practical philosophy, as it has been received and developed in the hermeneutical tradition. It is suggested that reproductive choices, unlike decisions for already born children, are characterised by a peculiar one-sidedness: the future child appears to the parents as something wholly theirs to decide about, not as a concrete other with whom they must interact in a responsive and attuned way. This is problematic because it means that such choices cannot call upon the particularised moral understanding only gained in interpersonal encounters. In particular, it makes them easily shaped by various tendencies, to which parents are always susceptible, to relate to children in instrumentalising ways, and at risk of reinforcing such tendencies. However, this does not mean that all uses of reproductive technologies are equally troubling. When selecting against severe disease the parents can rely on a widely shared illness experience to escape the dangers that one-sidedness involves. It is concluded that the intuition under discussion, thus explicated and in some ways qualified, makes sense morally. / Avhandlingen är ett bidrag till den bioetiska debatten om olika reproduktionstekniker som antingen nyligen blivit tillgängliga eller som kan komma att utvecklas i framtiden. Utgångspunkten är en intuition som många verkar dela, nämligen att användningen av sådana tekniker i syfte att välja icke-sjukdomsegenskaper – som kön och känslomässig stabilitet – hos framtida barn, är mer moraliskt problematiskt än både att forma sådana egenskaper hos redan existerande barn genom exempelvis utbildning och att använda teknikerna för att undvika att barn föds med svåra sjukdomar. Studien är ett försök att genom filosofisk analys begripliggöra denna intuition och avgöra om den är berättigad. Olika sätt på vilka man i den bioetiska debatten ofta gestaltar de moraliska problem som reproduktionstekniker ger upphov till kritiseras som otillräckliga för denna uppgift. I synnerhet framhålls att intuitionen inte helt kan förstås som en oro över att de barn som sådana tekniker sätter till världen kan komma till skada. Med avsikt att utveckla ett alternativ till detta konsekvensorienterade synsätt söker sig författaren till Martin Heideggers teknikfilosofi, Hans Jonas etik och Aristoteles praktiska filosofi, som den tolkats och utvecklats i den hermeneutiska traditionen. Med hjälp av dessa teorier betonas hur reproduktiva val, till skillnad från beslut gällande redan existerande barn, kännetecknas av en slags ensidighet. Det framtida barnet framstår för föräldrarna som föremål för beslut som är odelat deras, snarare än som en konkret andre som de måste interagera med på ett lyhört, noga avpassat sätt. Detta är problematiskt eftersom det innebär att sådana val inte kan ledsagas av det slags partikulära moraliska förståelse som bara uppnås i möten mellan människor. I synnerhet innebär det att valen lätt formas av, och i sin tur riskerar att underblåsa, olika för föräldraskapet karaktäristiska tendenser som ständigt riskerar förmå föräldrar att förhålla sig till sina barn på ett instrumentaliserande sätt. Men detta betyder inte att alla användningar av reproduktionstekniker är lika problematiska. Val som syftar till att undvika svåra sjukdomar kan undgå de faror som ensidigheten öppnar för genom att åberopa en gemensam mänsklig sjukdomserfarenhet. Avhandlingens slutsats är att intuitionen som diskuteras är berättigad, med vissa reservationer, om den förstås på detta sätt.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-26T20:23:44Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Adriana Delboni Taricco.pdf: 724952 bytes, checksum: 4cdafb7b1d1a49b9c7a94d6acf129bbb (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-08-12 / The core of this work is the attempt to fix criteria that clarify the ex-officio judicial action in the evidence field. To do that, the philosophical theories of judicial activism and procedural guarantism are brought to discussion, taking into account the current situation of the evidentiary law in Brazil, always in an attempt to establish means to control the ex-officio evidence activity. It starts from the analysis of controversial issues in the field of judicial evidence, such as its concept, the definition of procedural truth, the delimitation of the nature of the rules on evidence, the rules concerning the application of the burden of proof, the role of atypical evidence in the legal system and the acceptance of illegal evidence through the application of proportionality. From this perspective, two philosophical theories, activism and guarantism, are considered, followed by the examination of the judge s figure in the new Civil Procedure Code. In the end, three ways to control the ex-officio evidence activity are fixed: the respect of the enjuizamento system, the judge s interpretation accountability and the viable, but still non-existent, figure of the investigating judge / O cerne deste trabalho é a tentativa de fixação de critérios que delimitem a atuação judicial de ofício no campo probatório. Para tanto, são trazidas à discussão as teorias filosóficas do ativismo judicial e do garantismo processual, levando em conta o panorama atual do direito probatório no Brasil, sempre na tentativa de se fixar meios de controle à atividade probatória de ofício. Parte-se da análise de temas polêmicos no campo da prova judicial, tais como a sua conceituação, a definição de verdade processual, a delimitação da natureza das normas sobre provas, as regras referentes à aplicação do ônus da prova, o papel das provas atípicas no sistema jurídico e a aceitação das provas ilícitas por meio da aplicação da proporcionalidade. Nessa perspectiva, são consideradas as duas teorias filosóficas, do ativismo e do garantismo, seguidas do exame da figura do juiz no novo Código de Processo Civil. Ao final, são fixados três modos de se controlar a atividade probatória de ofício: o respeito ao sistema de enjuizamento, o prestar contas do magistrado no campo da interpretação e a viável, mas ainda inexistente, figura do juiz instrutor

En prenant comme point de départ les débats célèbres des années 1970 et 1980 portés autour de l’universalité de l’herméneutique, des débats entraînant les grands acteurs de la pensée du XXe siècle comme Hans-Georg Gadamer, Jürgen Habermas et Jacques Derrida, cette thèse s’efforce d’identifier, derrière la revendication à l’universalité de l’herméneutique, la véritable problématique philosophique qui est, à nos yeux, celle de l’intelligibilité herméneutique du temps. Nous tâchons de saisir cette intelligibilité, qui traduit l’articulation paradoxale de l’être et du temps comme différence, par une lecture des configurations que « l’oubli du sens de l’être » et « la distance temporelle » connaissent dans la pensée de Martin Heidegger et de Hans-Georg Gadamer. En effet, cette lecture figurale de l’oubli et de la distance temporelle, qui forme les deux grandes sections de notre travail, se veut une modalité de comprendre la manière paradoxale du temps de susciter la différence herméneutique, notamment sa capacité simultanée à générer l’occultation et le dévoilement du sens, d’accorder d’un seul geste le surcroît de sens et la finitude de la compréhension. Suite à cette lecture, nous concluons que l’herméneutique ontologique a le grand mérite d’avoir interrogé le phénomène de la différence entre compréhension et mécompréhension et d’y avoir décelé, à la fois comme préalable et comme condition de son effectivité, l’intelligibilité herméneutique du temps. Finalement, l’universalité herméneutique même révèle sa nature essentiellement temporelle : comme « aspect productif de la temporalité », elle se confond en dernier ressort avec la dynamique du ce qui est à comprendre. / By taking as starting point the famous debates from the 70s and the 80s around the universality of hermeneutics, which had inflamed some of the 20th century greatest thinkers, such as Hans-Georg Gadamer, Jürgen Habermas et Jacques Derrida, this PhD thesis attempts to identify the actual philosophical question behind the hermeneutics’ claim of universality: the time’s hermeneutical intelligibility. I strive to express this intelligibility, which translates the paradoxical articulation of time and being as difference, by proposing an interpretation of two essential “figures” for the thinking of Martin Heidegger and Hans-Georg Gadamer: “the forgetting of being” and “the temporal distance”. More precisely, this interpretation or, as I call it, “figural reading” intends to understand the time’s paradoxical way of engendering the hermeneutical difference, that is: its capacity to generate simultaneously the occultation and the revealing of meaning, its potential to give the surplus of meaning and, at the same time, the finitude of comprehension. As a result of this figural reading, I conclude that the hermeneutics has its worth in interrogating the phenomenon of the difference between understanding and misunderstanding, and more precisely in identifying, as a foregoing condition of this difference’s effectivity, the time’s hermeneutical intelligibility. Finally, the hermeneutical universality reveals its genuine temporal nature: taken as a “productive aspect of the temporality”, it merges into the dynamics “of what is to be understood”.

This is a qualitative and context-specific study into the meaning and value attributed by older people to learning a foreign language in their own time and for reasons mainly unconnected to attainment and qualifications. There appear to be two common misconceptions of the British as language learners. The first is that they are ‘language barbarians’ (Tomlinson, 2004), ever ready to rely on the global dominance of English as a lingua franca and unwilling to learn other languages. The second is that learning a language voluntarily and for leisure purposes (‘leisure language learning’) is regarded as essentially frivolous and of little value. Equally much scholarly research, especially concerning second language acquisition (SLA), implies that language learning is a relatively unsuccessful and difficult endeavour for adults. This study challenges these views. Far from being reluctant ‘language barbarians’, who find learning another language onerous and unrewarding, the findings suggest otherwise. The older (aged 45+) adult learners in this enquiry are not only resoundingly positive about ‘leisure language learning’ but they derive significant benefits in many areas of their lives from learning, of their own volition, and seemingly against the odds. These benefits include but extend beyond functional transactions, such as ordering food when abroad. Participants’ perceptions of the personal value of ‘leisure language learning’ include its role in providing and facilitating: mental stimulus and wellbeing; improved communication; fewer risks when travelling; a repositioning of the self; a purposeful pastime; cultural enrichment; awareness of the ‘other’, as well as the various benefits of social interaction. Wider advantages for society in general are also implied. Empirical data were collected by means of in-depth, conversational interviews, exploring participants’ personal histories of encounters with and learning foreign languages. A hermeneutic ‘fusion of horizons’ (Gadamer, 2001) has then allowed for a more comprehensive and multi-faceted interpretation and understanding of the experience of adult ‘leisure language learning’ in community settings. The resulting text describes the nature and essence of the phenomenon of ‘leisure language learning’ embracing its meaning for, and impact upon, older adults. This incorporates a way of thinking regarding language pedagogy which goes beyond the usual ‘commonplaces’ and ‘discourses of performance, competency and skills’ (Phipps, 2007:2), common to much SLA and linguistic research. At the same time a deeper appreciation of the adult language learning experience is more likely to engender a ‘tactful’ and ‘action-sensitive pedagogy’ (van Manen, 1997:168-169): responsive to learners’ expectations and motivation, and taking their backgrounds and routes to learning into account.

Most current studies of suffering are based upon an existential approach which focuses on suffering itself. Theodicy has mainly been concerned with people's attitudes and communication within themselves and with others about religious symbols and ideas. Particularly, this study examines the Korean attitude to suffering using its cultural dimension in a contextual hermeneutics. The researcher was interested in two notions: personal identity in its cultural dimension and the hermeneutics of suffering. The research questions addressed were as follows. a) How to define Korean personhood? b) What is cultural identity? c) How do people create personal identity? d) How does a person cope with suffering? The chief findings were as follows. a) A study of Korean self-understanding can be accomplished by exploring their lifeworld to describe and understand this people's language for daily communication, popular cuJtural myths, and spirituality. b) Cultural identity in this thesis means indigenous Korean self-understanding using the socio-cultural framework in its own terms and ideas. This self-knowledge mediates history, culture, and language. c) Personal identity is constructed by a narrative identity. d) Suffering can be coped with by communication with and through oneself, others, and God. / Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology / D.Th. (Practical Theology)

Most recent studies of Cassian and his writings have examined the monk’s historical contexts, the theology expressed in his texts or his role in the development of monasticism. This dissertation examines the spirituality of Cassian and assesses its value to contemporary Christian communities. By applying a hermeneutical approach to the study of Cassian’s texts, the investigation distinguishes between the spirituality of Cassian, the historical person; the spirituality Cassian conveys in his writings; and Cassian’s spirituality as lived experience. The dissertation argues that Cassian’s spirituality as lived experience, as elicited by Gadamer’s hermeneutical model of conversation between text and interpreter, is valuable to contemporary Christian communities. It offers a spiritual ‘route map’ that can inspire, encourage and guide members of such communities on a spiritual journey that leads to greater intimacy with, and faithfulness to, Christ. The hermeneutical process necessary to appropriate the spirituality of Cassian as lived experience has the potential to dismantle prejudgements and attitudes of superiority and triumphalism often displayed by Christian communities and encourage fresh engagement with the history, traditions and Scriptures of the Church. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / M. Th. (Christian Spirituality)

Most current studies of suffering are based upon an existential approach which focuses on suffering itself. Theodicy has mainly been concerned with people's attitudes and communication within themselves and with others about religious symbols and ideas. Particularly, this study examines the Korean attitude to suffering using its cultural dimension in a contextual hermeneutics. The researcher was interested in two notions: personal identity in its cultural dimension and the hermeneutics of suffering. The research questions addressed were as follows. a) How to define Korean personhood? b) What is cultural identity? c) How do people create personal identity? d) How does a person cope with suffering? The chief findings were as follows. a) A study of Korean self-understanding can be accomplished by exploring their lifeworld to describe and understand this people's language for daily communication, popular cultural myths, and spirituality. b) Cultural identity in this thesis means indigenous Korean self-understanding using the socio-cultural framework in its own terms and ideas. This self-knowledge mediates history, culture, and language. c) Personal identity is constructed by a narrative identity. d) Suffering can be coped with by communication with and through oneself, others, and God. / Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology / Th.D. (Practical Theology)

This study examines the impact of rapid and multi-faceted change (both domestically and inter-nationally over the past four decades) on the Dutch Reformed Church. 2 February 1990 is taken as a water shed date in the history of South-Africa: a speech in parliament of former president FW de Klerk put South-Africa on a course of fundamental change in all spheres of society. The research problem deals with loss the Afrikaans community experiences as a result of societal change. The result of change and loss is long-lasting, collective grief. Grief is defined as the nor-mal, spontaneous reaction to change and loss. Unresolved grief and nostalgia saps a lot of energy and tends to turn a congregation’s attention to itself, thereby contradicting the sound reformed ecclesiology. There is no appropriate practical theological theory to help congregations address unresolved grief. Change, loss and grief are made focus points for theological reflection and empirical study. The guiding hypothesis states that efforts to build up the local church are more likely to succeed, once the “black holes” of unaddressed grief have been dealt with by a collective and on-going process of mourning. Mourning is defined as an intentional and courageous process of letting go of different losses. It is hard work, but the result of deliberate mourning is growth – and eventually a more appropriate, new identity. Unresolved grief causes congregations to get stuck in survival mode, in stead of reaching out to the nations with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Mourning is an antidote (Hamman 2005:35). The research model of G Heitink (1993) is employed to generate fresh practical theological thinking on the research problem: that congregations fail to live according to their missional identity. The hermeneutical cycle explores the “new” practical theology in the framework of a post-Einstein epistemology, as well as the theory of building up the local church in the framework of an ecosystemic meta-theory. The hermeneutical cycle is concluded with the study of contemporary theories of loss, grief and mourning. The empirical cycle reports the results of a qualitative empirical study in three local congregations of the Northern Synod of the Dutch Reformed Church. A rich description is given of 31 respondents’ experience of loss and grief in the new South-Africa. It is established that unresolved grief indeed impacts negatively on efforts to build up the local church. The strategic cycle searches for practical theological wisdom and for a theory that can guide congregations to more productive responses to change and loss. The research boils down to twelve strategic suggestions for local congregations on how to make collective mourning a normal and on-going part of their ministry. The study concludes with the hypothesis that practical theology can serve the church by developing a theory that integrates intentional mourning and grief work as a necessary and normal aspect of ministry. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2011. / Practical Theology / unrestricted

Like many denominations in the secularized West, the Canadian Baptists of Ontario and Quebec have been engaged in debates regarding sexuality and marriage over the past decade. As these debates have developed, it has become increasingly clear that at their center are differences in biblical interpretive practice. Yet it is my experience that, by and large, many evangelicals, particularly in the Canadian Baptist context, do not know how to discuss their interpretive practice. In order to work through difficult topics, such as the one mentioned above, Christians need to develop the ability to reflect both on how they are interpreting Scripture and how they see others interpreting Scripture, so that they can coherently and constructively discuss their interpretations with others with whom they disagree. In this dissertation, I utilize a hermeneutic theory, metamodern cultural theory, and a proposed revision of an integrative theological method, the Wesleyan Quadrilateral, to develop a a paradigm for observing and describing differences in biblical interpretive practice. Using the aforementioned debates concerning sexuality and marriage as an illustrative example, the project reveals that metamodern interpretations of scripture are complex and tension-filled, and that amidst this complexity, the prioritization (or lack thereof) of theological reflection sources prompts particular interpretive applications. When they are able to perceive the multivalent nature of interpretation, readers are better equipped through this work to think carefully and critically about how they come to their interpretive conclusions and how those conclusions draw them towards faithful living in Christ via situational application of the biblical text.

Recent years have seen a plethora of research accomplished with respect to OT poetic prayers, predominantly in relation to the Psalter, with a least one ramification being a lack of engagement with the full spectrum of expressions especially within OT prosaic prayers. In addition to this, contemporary pastoral literature continues to exhibit an underdevelopment with respect to the full anthropological spectrum of expressions amidst grief especially within intercultural contexts. Observing both lacunas in scholarship, this dissertation operationalizes a Revisionist Method of Mutual Critical Correlation as its metamethod while incorporating Renewed Form Criticism, Hermeneutical Phenomenology, annd a Liberative Intercultural Praxis as it pursues a twofold objective: 1) an examination of the multivalent expressions (i.e., verbal, physical, and emotional) that leading Israelites pray-ers within the ancient context of OT prosaic prayers communicated to/before God while in the crux of disorientation, and 2) an investigation into the multivalent expressions (i.e., verbal, physical, and emotional) that leading Christian pray-ers wtihin an intercultural context (i.e., among Canadian immigrants from Guyana and Vietnam) communicated to/before God amidst the phenomenon of grief. At the heart of attending to this twofold mission is the configuration of an expressive domain of anthropological expressive modalities of disorientation communicated to/before God, along with their essence or meaning. Sensitized to such an expressive domain with its multivalent significance, contemporary pastoral caregivers would thus be better equipped to foster compassionate, liberative intercultural pastoral care for intercultural Christian communities coping with grief.