The debate on the nature and role of intuitions in contemporary analytic philosophy has led to a broader debate on the nature and justification of philosophical method in general. Through a discussion of an important methodological tool, the thought experiment, I analyze and defend of the use of thought experiments in philosophy proceeding from Wittgenstein's philosophy and Husserl's eidetic phenomenology. I argue that a concept of intuition that wants to explain difference of opinion needs to take into account what Witgenstein calls form of life and defend the claim that thought experiments need to be understood as tools revealing conceptual possibilities through a method of imaginative variation. Key words: thought experiment, intuition, imagination, Wittgenstein, Husserl, metaphilosophy, phenomenology

This thesis sets out to explore factors external to the individual that encourage creative idea generation in SME environments, understanding their importance in a variety of organisational contexts. The original contribution to knowledge made by this thesis is the creation of a framework which aids understanding by splitting the various factors into those responsible for initiating and sustaining idea generation. Literature concerning creative idea generation is continuously developing and contains a broad spectrum of topics and understandings. Key amongst these are leadership, the nature of creative idea generation, theories such as the ‘strength of weak ties’, collective creativity and the concept of ‘flow’. Fieldwork followed a primarily qualitative, inductive approach, using exploratory surveys, semi-structured interviews and participant observation to develop rich narrative ‘stories’ of idea generation for ten different organisations. Data was analysed in accordance with the principles of grounded theory and resulted in numerous novel findings such as the importance of internal organisational contacts to the development of ideas, the notion that organisational visions can be used to guide idea generation and the effect that physical distance has on the development of interpersonal ties. Leadership also featured heavily within the analysis process with it being found that a combination of transformational and servant qualities best enables idea generation in SME contexts. These and other findings were reflected in the final framework produced by this thesis. From a practical perspective findings from this study arguably have implications for both organisational and leadership development in SME contexts, although overall generalisability is hindered by the chosen sample. Future studies could potentially focus on applying quantitative methodologies to verify the final framework or extend understandings by interlinking organisational factors discussed by this thesis with individual characteristics, mental process and/or experiences that are also known to drive creative idea production.

This thesis explores how theatre informs Badiou's philosophy through detailed analysis of Badiou's theory of theatre and his six plays L'Écharpe rouge, Incident at Antioch and the Ahmed tetralogy . It argues that theatre has provided an ideal and material ground for Badiou to rehearse concepts he developed in his Logics of the Worlds (2006) and Second Manifesto for Philosophy (2009), such as that of ideation and incorporation. By placing theatre at the core of Badiou's work, this thesis provides a different point of entry into Badiou's philosophy: it demonstrates the overarching nature of Badiou's materialist dialectic, which leads to exploring the relationship between politics and theatre. By ultimately defining Badiou's theatre as a theatre of inexist[a]nce and insisting upon the ontological nature of theatre, this thesis heralds new approaches to the relationship between theatre and philosophy.

Over the past 10-15 years, the epidemiological research literature on juvenile delinquency has suggested that there is an over-representation of males and Hispanics within the juvenile justice system, and a disproportionate number of youths having an IDEA disability, including emotional disability, learning disability, and mental retardation. In addition, juvenile delinquents tend to perform lower academically than their peers, come from low socioeconomic status backgrounds, drop out of school more often, and frequently come into contact with law enforcement agencies. Moreover, low academic achievement, male gender, and drop out contribute to the increased chances that adolescents will become involved in delinquent activities. Characteristics of juvenile delinquents also tend to be stable over time and resistant to most types of intervention.The purpose of the present study was to examine whether there were significantly greater percentages of school drop out in adjudicated versus non-adjudicated delinquent high school youths with and without an IDEA disability diagnosis. Significant differences between standardized test scores of those adjudicated and non-adjudicated youths who dropped out versus remained in school were also examined. Other variables studied in conjunction with these included gender, minority, and free/reduced lunch status.Chi-Square Tests of Independence revealed a significant association between adjudication and drop out, regardless of disability, gender, minority, or free/reduced lunch status. Chi-Square results also showed a significant association between adjudication and disability, but for non-drop out delinquent youths only. Drop out and disability was found to be significantly associated for males only.Univariate Analyses of Variance revealed significant differences in AIMS Reading standard scores between delinquents who had, versus had not, been identified as having a disability. Significant differences in reading scores were also found between those identified, versus not identified as SLD. Furthermore, an interaction effect between disability and minority status was present. Similar differences were found with respect to AIMS Math scores. Limitations and implications of findings as well as future research directions were discussed.

In order to assess the extent and quality of special education services in charter schools in north Texas, the researcher examined data submitted to Texa Public Education Information Management System (PEIMS), and conducted qualitative interviews with selected charter school administrators. Five cornerstones of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA): zero reject, individualized education program (IEP), appropriate assessment, free appropriate public education (FAPE), and least restrictive environment (LRE), were utilized in the assessment of quality. Levels of expertise in federal disability law and fiscal barriers were explored, as well.

The widely used vector model maintains its popularity because of its simplicity, fast speed, and the appeal of using spatial proximity for semantic proximity. However, this model faces a disadvantage that is associated with the vagueness from keywords overlapping. Efforts have been made to improve the vector model. The research on improving document representation has been focused on four areas, namely, statistical co-occurrence of related items, forming term phrases, grouping of related words, and representing the content of documents. In this thesis, we propose the idea-indexing model to improve document representation for the filtering task in IR. The idea-indexing model matches document terms with the ideas they express and indexes the document with these ideas. This indexing scheme represents the document with its semantics instead of sets of independent terms. We show in this thesis that indexing with ideas leads to better performance.

Since the Swedish Democrats established in 1988, debates and discussions have occurred regarding the party's ideological foundation and affiliation. This study is based primarily on a qualitative textual analysis, an idea- and ideology analysis and ideal types. The study's purpose is to discover which of the following political ideas and ideologies; fascism, populism, conservatism and socialism are most prominent in the Swedish Democrats election manifesto (2014) respectively principle program (2011). At my disposal, the study consists of two research questions; To what extent are there general features of socialism, populism, fascism and conservatism in the Swedish Democrats principle program respectively election manifesto? Which ideology is more prominent in the principle program respectively election manifesto? The theoretical section summarises the different ideologies central themes/discussions and view of democratic governance, the nation, the economic system respectively international governance. When conducting the analysis, the focus is on the Swedish Democrats central themes/discussions and view of democratic governance, the nation, the economic system respectively international governance and how the party's views relate to the political ideologies and ideas. The conducted analysis reveals features of all four ideologies, especially conservatism and populism.

The purpose of this study is to see how the nurseries are working around the pedagogical idea, how they have formulated their goals regarding science and how they evaluate whether they realized the goals. In this study , I have chosen to use qualitative methods , which then formed the basis for how the study was conducted - from planning, execution and analysis. As the investigation person I have found myself in the midst of the activities, to get an overall impression of the educational idea and thus gain insight into whether and activities and the educators thoughts match each other. In the local documents which examined it was seen that the goals of the curriculum were clear and the result was visible that the educators want to lay the foundations of science and give kids a better understanding about nature , recycling and the animals that live in our neighborhood. But what emerged was that the work of the pedagogical idea did not feel anchored , several of the teachers expressed that they have been told to design it and it is much to make it look good outwardly . / Syftet med den här undersökningen är att se hur några förskolor arbetar kring den pedagogiska idén, hur de har formulerat sina mål gällande naturvetenskap och hur de utvärderar om de förverkligat målen. I den här undersökningen har jag valt att använda mig av kvalitativa metoder, som sedan har legat till grund för hur studien utförts - från planering, genomförande och analys. Som undersökningsperson har jag befunnit mig mitt i verksamheten, för att få ett helhetsintryck av den pedagogiska idén och därmed få inblick i om verksamheten och pedagogernas tankar överensstämmer. I de lokala dokument som granskades såg man att målen från läroplanen fanns med mer eller mindre utförliga och pedagogerna vill lägga grunden i naturvetenskap och ge barnen ökad förståelse kring naturen, kretslopp och djuren som lever i vår närhet. Vidare visade resultaten och arbetet kring den pedagogiska idén inte var helt förankrat. Flera av pedagogerna uttryckte en osäkerhet kring uppdraget och uttryckte att man blivit tillsagda att utforma den och det är mycket för att det ska se bra ut utåt sett.

This project is about giving in to the impulse of ideas. My mind is a little messy and cluttered, swirling with bits of stimuli. The spark of an idea happens when the bits collide. I prefer not to initiate or control the process so much as keep it fed and active. Through graphic design, I bear witness to these ideas, giving them form as a series of visible, tangible objects. Viewed comprehensively, the work establishes an ongoing chronicle of my creative life and mind.

Forma jako prostor pro vyjádření hudební myšlenky Title of the Diploma Thesis: Form as a space for expressing musical ideas Abstract: The Diploma thesis deals with form as a meaningful space for expressing and developing musical ideas. The theoretical part describes various aspects of musical forms and elaborates the basic principles of musical forming. It also compares several books on the topic of musical forms concerning their use in pedagogical practice. Another part presents research on the topic of musical forms teaching. The chapter on pedagogical applications introduces ideas about presenting forms in music classes with the use of productive activities.