This thesis examines the relation between the conception of an act as the original ground of all knowledge and the conception of the I as self-limiting in the philosophies of Johann Gottlieb Fichte and Benjamin Höijer. By relating the philosophical project of these two thinkers to Kant’s definition of enlightenment it argues that, while both Fichte and Höijer seek to find a satisfactory refutation of scepticism, their motive for doing this is chiefly a practical rather than a theoretical one: their ambition is to show how knowledge is only possible through human freedom and independence. Thus, the scep-tical doubt about whether true knowledge of the external world is possible is transformed into a ques-tion about how the fundamentally free and infinite I can stand in a relation to a “not-I” posited beyond itself. Both Fichte and Höijer try to answer this question by arguing that such a limit of the I’s subjec-tivity must be a product of an original free act, and that it is therefore only thinkable in relation to the infinite nature of the concept of action. The main difference between their respective philosophies lies in their characterisations of this original, limit-imposing act: for Fichte, it is synonymous with the I, while for Höijer, it must necessarily precede any agent.

This thesis investigates the development and formation of new ideals for the city and its citizens which emerged in the wake of the economic crisis of the late 1970s to the early 1990s. This period of time is often identified as the end of the industrial society and the beginning of what is generally known as the information society. By studying how the city was perceived in the context of a new societal form and, through that, was given a new economic function, this thesis shows a different understanding of why and how Swedish cities adopted new and completely different strategies in a relatively short period of time. As opposed to similar research in the same field, this thesis studies the early development of these new strategies and ideals of the city by focusing on two previously overlooked concepts: samhällsform [societal form] and livsform [life form]. As this thesis will show, these two concepts were paramount to the agents own understanding of the connection and co-dependence between the city, the citizen and the order of production. By using theories concerning the importance of time as a way for the agents to structure their own understanding of events, this thesis shows how the image of crisis created ruptures in time and thereby enabled new possible actions for the agents. By making the industrial society and industrial city a thing of the past, new strategies could be implemented and old norms and practices were challenged. The new ideal city catered to the imagined needs and demands of a new life form, namely karriärbunden livsform [career bound life form], which was considered to contribute to growth in the new information society. As this thesis points out, this life form was made into a template of how a city should be planned and thereby has gained great advantage in comparison to other groups in Swedish society.

Denna uppsats undersöker ett filmmaterial med ett okänt ursprung, där det enda som går att klarlägga är att den är ett kompilat av filmer inspelade under åtminstone ett decennium, under 1930-talet. Utgångspunkten är att två av Sveriges ledande psykiatriker under denna tid, Bror Gadelius och Viktor Wigert, medverkade i skapandet av en del av detta kompilat på det tidigare mentalsjukhuset Konradsberg. Genom en undersökning av sjukhusets direktionsprotokoll och årsberättelser visar författaren att det kan ha presenterats i utbildande syfte. Detta material producerades då filmmediet fortfarande var förhållandevis nytt, i en tid då svensk psykiatri stod inför utmaningar att tydligt urskilja psykiska sjukdomars symtom. Det tillsammans med dess okända ursprung gör det således till ett unikt historiskt källmaterial. Författaren har utifrån ”Useful cinema”-perspektivet analyserat filmmaterialet och jämfört det med två verk av svensk psykiatris tidigare ledande gestalter. Författaren argumenterar för att det filmmaterialet vill framställa är patienternas reaktioner, vilket innebar att associationen mellan en patients reaktion och dennes psykiska symtom tydliggjordes. Därigenom uppnåddes en specificering av mentalsjukdom. Det innebär enligt författaren att ett nytt sätt att utnyttja mediet film etablerades under 1930-talet.

My thesis problematizes the simplistically and widely accepted idea of a Victorian ‘crisis of faith’ or religious ‘decline.’ Most historical and critical narratives of nineteenth-century Britain portray the Victorian Age as a period marked by a crisis of faith and a gradual secularization through (Darwinian) scientific developments. My work questions this by examining the late-Victorian novels of colonial India and the British New Woman novels. My first chapter deals with Victorian popular fiction that presents the invasion of Victorian London by colonial idols. The idols, overdetermined as both Hindu and Theosophist in inspiration, force the British legal system to recognize the limits of its own materialist perceptions of reality, so that it finally arrives at a deeper understanding of spirituality. My second chapter deals with Victorian New Woman novels where I study how the British New Woman as a literary figure, despite apparent unbelief and disempowerment, embodies a deep-seated religious power that can be assumed only by a woman and that helps challenge the assumption of declining faith. My final chapter examines the shift of scene to India, where once again the English men and women inadvertently express their fears of British secularization in the context of their encounter with Oriental faiths, but ultimately arrive at a richer appreciation of the religious ‘impossible’ through this encounter with colonial ‘otherness.’

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<p>The aim of this thesis is to analyse and problematize the concept of culture and its changes during the 1960s. By examining articles out of the periodical Ord&Bild 1962-1972, I show how an aesthetically marked concept, closely related to the concept of art, changes into an anthropological perspective where attention is drawn to the social, economical, political and ideological aspects. This change is viewed in relation to the works of three prominent cultural theorists from the 1960s: Raymond Williams, Marshall McLuhan and Herbert Marcuse.</p><p>The change that the concept of culture undergoes can be illuminated in several ways. Epistemologically questions of art, its objectivity and relation to reality, are replaced by questions of the function of art and of its role as reproducing ideas and norms of a bourgeois society. Economical and social aspects are used as critical factors in discussing the role and conception of culture, a perspective that gives the discussion a political and ideological edge. Another related track of change is that attention is brought to the relationship between culture as norms and values and culture as art, also known as “high culture”. This means that the idea of an universal culture is criticized for its excluding tendencies. By the end of the decade, the concept of culture has lost its universal meaning and is, among other things, used to endorse and emphasize a specific identity. Culture is key concept in a critical discussion about society and is also seen as a way of changing this society. Culture can then be viewed as a “concept of struggle”.</p><p>The change that the concept of culture goes through is related to changes in the society as a whole, as well as to underlying ideas and visions about the society. The change must not be understood as a consequence of the political escalation during the 1960s, but is to be seen as a development parallel to this radicalization of society.</p>

This paper concerns the ideas on society, policies and economic thoughts on Ireland before the cataclysmal famine of the 1840s. Senior, classified as one of the classical economists, elaborated these in the period 1829 – 1836, thus during the period of Parliamentary reform. As a trusted counsellor of the Whig governments, Senior advocated measures opposite to the common notions of laissez-faire. His basic ideas are contrasted to those of Malthus concerning economics and, in particular, the population doctrine that Senior never believed in and in its crudest form refuted. Senior regarded Malthus’ doctrine as devastating to governmental policies. Senior wanted an efficient and strong government. Moreover, Senior evolved ideas, in fact a strategy, for raising Ireland out of her common destitution instead of institutionalizing poor laws. This strategy embraced Catholic emancipation, education, public investments in infrastructure and emigration. His ideas, and proposals akin to Senior’s, are related to the political discourse of the day, which took a more common view of laissez-faire during the period considered. Nevertheless, there is consistency in his ideas on government, public investments and laissez-faire. Senior cannot be described as anything other than an early liberal and a classical economist and, hence, an advocator of economic laissez-faire. This paper underlines the need for a clear distinction between economic laissez-faire as a concept and the concept of political laissez-faire, whereas the former concerns thoughts on economics and the latter is related to the notion of the impassivity of the period of today’s discourse.

The aim of this thesis is to analyse and problematize the concept of culture and its changes during the 1960s. By examining articles out of the periodical Ord&amp;Bild 1962-1972, I show how an aesthetically marked concept, closely related to the concept of art, changes into an anthropological perspective where attention is drawn to the social, economical, political and ideological aspects. This change is viewed in relation to the works of three prominent cultural theorists from the 1960s: Raymond Williams, Marshall McLuhan and Herbert Marcuse. The change that the concept of culture undergoes can be illuminated in several ways. Epistemologically questions of art, its objectivity and relation to reality, are replaced by questions of the function of art and of its role as reproducing ideas and norms of a bourgeois society. Economical and social aspects are used as critical factors in discussing the role and conception of culture, a perspective that gives the discussion a political and ideological edge. Another related track of change is that attention is brought to the relationship between culture as norms and values and culture as art, also known as “high culture”. This means that the idea of an universal culture is criticized for its excluding tendencies. By the end of the decade, the concept of culture has lost its universal meaning and is, among other things, used to endorse and emphasize a specific identity. Culture is key concept in a critical discussion about society and is also seen as a way of changing this society. Culture can then be viewed as a “concept of struggle”. The change that the concept of culture goes through is related to changes in the society as a whole, as well as to underlying ideas and visions about the society. The change must not be understood as a consequence of the political escalation during the 1960s, but is to be seen as a development parallel to this radicalization of society.

This thesis presents an analysis of Edmund Burke's place in intellectual history by examining his commentary on the French Revolution as well as his role in the Enlightenment itself. In doing so, it brings to bear the previously unexplored ideas of the twentieth-century historian Roy Porter. The thesis proposes that Burke's indictment of French philosophy as the cause of the French Revolution created enduring historiographic connotations between radicalism and the notion of enlightenment. Consequently, British thinkers of the eighteenth-century were invariably dismissed as conservative or reactionary and therefore unworthy to be regarded as enlightened figures. Porter's reconsideration of the British Enlightenment reveals Burke to be a staunch defender of hard-won enlightened values which British society had already long enjoyed.<p>The source material is, for the most part, primary. For Edmund Burke, his correspondence and his Reflections on the Revolution in France. For Roy Porter, his most relevant essays, journal articles and monographs.

This thesis presents an analysis of Edmund Burke's place in intellectual history by examining his commentary on the French Revolution as well as his role in the Enlightenment itself. In doing so, it brings to bear the previously unexplored ideas of the twentieth-century historian Roy Porter. The thesis proposes that Burke's indictment of French philosophy as the cause of the French Revolution created enduring historiographic connotations between radicalism and the notion of enlightenment. Consequently, British thinkers of the eighteenth-century were invariably dismissed as conservative or reactionary and therefore unworthy to be regarded as enlightened figures. Porter's reconsideration of the British Enlightenment reveals Burke to be a staunch defender of hard-won enlightened values which British society had already long enjoyed.<p>The source material is, for the most part, primary. For Edmund Burke, his correspondence and his Reflections on the Revolution in France. For Roy Porter, his most relevant essays, journal articles and monographs.