It is the individual and not art that is at the heart of Walter Pater’s philosophical aesthetics. Even as Pater realizes the ‘illusive inscrutable mistakable’ nature of the individual under the conditions of modernity, his aesthetics revolve around it. He boldly attempts to reconsider the kind of individualism that will be possible in the wake of modernity, searching within the chaos and ephemera of a Godless universe to seek Man’s raison d’etre within the imagination. Certainly, his idiosyncratic thought is not a system, nor even a consistent vision, so much as a faltering meditation on what kind of individualism is possible under the conditions of modernity. It is a discourse situated at a schism in humankind’s consciousness of itself: on one hand, looking to the philosophies Pater studied carefully -- those of Hume, Kant, Schiller and Goethe, amongst others -- and on the other hand, understanding that the emerging future will require its own conception of reality. With these issues in mind, my study has two main aims. First, it explores the troubled vicissitudes of Pater’s conception of the individual. Second, it argues that Pater has a significant position, not only in the history of literary style, but in the history of ideas, by tracing how his thought interacts with and reconceives the philosophical traditions of British empiricism, German Romanticism and Idealism. Its chapters are organized around six central concerns: the relationship between self and world, the nebulous conceptions of ‘spirit’ and ‘soul,’ sensuality, the body as subject and object, passing time and the eternal moment, and ethics. These issues are considered with reference to the full range of Pater’s essays and imaginary portraits, including his unpublished manuscripts, ‘The History of Philosophy and ‘The Aesthetic Life.’ Their significance is understood within the context of Pater’s intellectual milieu, his own life and their resonances through literary modernism.

With its slogan "the priesthood of all believers" and with efforts to place vernacular Bibles in the hands of the literate public, it has been long assumed that the Protestant Reformation aided the development of Western individualism. This dissertation reassesses this common and pervasive claim by examining dynamics in Geneva during the lifetime of its most famous minister, John Calvin. To lend new and illuminating lenses to this study, this dissertation not only examines Calvin's theology with enough complexity to note how his proto-individualistic notions were embedded within a larger context of authority and hierarchy, but it also gives consideration to the practical rhythms of daily religious life in Geneva as well as the responses which Genevans gave to his initiatives. This blend of thorough intellectual history and social history offers are more comprehensive image of the subtleties of the Genevan context and permit a more nuanced analysis into the topic. Certain proto-individualistic notions existed in Calvin's theology. Yet, these proto-individualistic notions were heavily circumscribed by other commitments to ministerial authority and hierarchy. For example, though he placed intense emphasis on the renovation of the individual's interior space in the process of developing piety, he feared individual and private tampering with personal interiority and instead mandated and policed Genevan attendance at public services where trained and authoritative ministers could give oversight to the shaping of Genevans' hearts and minds. Similarly, the rigid and invasive nature of Calvin's church disciplinary system was able to give surveillance to nearly every aspect of Genevans' lives, and they sensed that their development of piety was not their own affair. Though Calvin's reforms did not encourage Genevans to feel an emerging sense of religious individualism, it established and reinforced various differentiations within the community. At times, Genevans felt differentiated from the rest of the community as unique individuals, but in more cases, they perceived that differentiations were being enforced at a less individualistic level. Such dynamics distinguished pastors from the laity, sinners from the faithful, the honorable from the dishonorable, natives from foreigners, masters from servants, men from women, and so forth.

Individualisation has become an ambiguous feature of late modern societies. It carries a sense of liberation, yet individuals are compelled to cope with a fragmented and pluralised social order largely by themselves. While the advance of individual freedoms is taken-for-granted, the seemingly unnoticed structural imposition to individually negotiate the boundaries between systemic and normative processes is portrayed as individual freedom and social integration. This thesis explores the ambiguities underpinning individualisation as they emerge from contemporary transformations of capitalism and work. As a result of a hyper-differentiated late modern social order the interface between functional and normative processes shifts from an institutional and organisational level to an individual one. Individualisation can no longer sufficiently be described as 'institutionalised individualism', either in respect to the realisation of a rather consistent normative infrastructure, or as mere individual responses to systemic dependencies. I argue that under the contemporary conditions of marketisation individuals increasingly become the focal point for the negotiation of systemic and normative processes. Substantiated by the theoretical argument of 'corporatisation' and the analysis of interviews with managers from international corporations, I contend that various workorganisational developments transform the subtle pressures to individually negotiate the demarcations between systems and lifeworld into an organising principle. I describe the emerging ambiguities with which individuals struggle, in particular at the workplace, as 'organised individualisation'. Individuals become 'active hubs' not only for the coordination but also for the reproduction of their own systemic dependencies which are organisationally pre-defined. While the responsibility to pseudo-negotiate systemic processes is put on individuals, the lack of opportunities to publicly debate and contest society's normative underpinnings generates deficiencies in social integration.

Thesis--Universität Kassel. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Th. M.)--Regent College, Vancouver, BC, 2001. / Abstract and vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 165-170).

Studien innefattar en jämförelse av beteende och attityder till miljöfrågor mellan studenter från Jönköping, en individualistisk kultur, och Quito, en kollektivistisk kultur. Syftet är att undersöka om studenternas kulturella och sociodemografiska bakgrund återspeglar skillnader i attityd och beteende till miljöfrågor. Studien använder sig av en enkätundersökning som är baserad på tidigare forskning, det ekologiska fotavtrycket och mätinstrumentet New Ecological Paradigm skalan. Resultatet diskuteras utifrån tidigare forskning inom området med utgångspunkt från teorier om individualistisk och kollektivistisk kultur och Theory of Planned Behavior. Studien visar att det finns signifikanta skillnader i studenternas angivna miljövänliga beteende inom ett flertal områden, exempelvis studenternas angivna resvanor och hur mycket de återvinner. Resultatet tyder på att det finns förklaringar till skillnaderna i de sociodemografiska faktorerna. Studiens sammanlagda resultat visar att studenter från Jönköping och Quito generellt har positiva attityder till miljöfrågor och att det inte finns några tydliga skillnader mellan grupperna när alla frågor sammanvägs. Däremot framkommer tydliga skillnader inom tilltro till människans uppfinningsrikedom, förmåga att styra över naturen samt naturens resiliens. Det kan argumenteras för att det finns förklaringar till dessa skillnader i kulturen. Studien visar att det finns skillnader mellan könen, där kvinnliga studenter från både Jönköping och Quito har generellt mer positiva attityder till miljöfrågor och har angivit en högre grad av miljövänligt beteende.

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No description available.

Individualisation has become an ambiguous feature of late modern societies. It carries a sense of liberation, yet individuals are compelled to cope with a fragmented and pluralised social order largely by themselves. While the advance of individual freedoms is taken-for-granted, the seemingly unnoticed structural imposition to individually negotiate the boundaries between systemic and normative processes is portrayed as individual freedom and social integration. This thesis explores the ambiguities underpinning individualisation as they emerge from contemporary transformations of capitalism and work. As a result of a hyper-differentiated late modern social order the interface between functional and normative processes shifts from an institutional and organisational level to an individual one. Individualisation can no longer sufficiently be described as 'institutionalised individualism', either in respect to the realisation of a rather consistent normative infrastructure, or as mere individual responses to systemic dependencies. I argue that under the contemporary conditions of marketisation individuals increasingly become the focal point for the negotiation of systemic and normative processes. Substantiated by the theoretical argument of 'corporatisation' and the analysis of interviews with managers from international corporations, I contend that various workorganisational developments transform the subtle pressures to individually negotiate the demarcations between systems and lifeworld into an organising principle. I describe the emerging ambiguities with which individuals struggle, in particular at the workplace, as 'organised individualisation'. Individuals become 'active hubs' not only for the coordination but also for the reproduction of their own systemic dependencies which are organisationally pre-defined. While the responsibility to pseudo-negotiate systemic processes is put on individuals, the lack of opportunities to publicly debate and contest society's normative underpinnings generates deficiencies in social integration.

Thesis (M.A.)--Columbia Biblical Seminary, 1988. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 107-109).