Thesis--Lund. / Summary in German. Bibliography: p. [243]-252.

Hamburg, Universiẗat, Diss., 1999.

Avhandling--Åbo, 1993. / Bibliogr. p. 292-303. Résumé en allemand.

This thesis deals with students’ views on respect as an element in their relationships with teachers and peers. The purpose of the thesis is to gain further knowledge of relationships in school by applying concepts of the theory of ethical demand in the analysis of students’ descriptions of respect in their relationships with their teachers and peers. The theoretical basis of the study is the theory of the ethical demand (Løgstrup, 1997) which is supplemented with Thomas Ziehe’s (1986/2003, 1993) theoretical concepts of proximity and distance in relationships. An important point of departure for the study is the meaning of relationships in education. According to Løgstrup, interrelationship is seen as a characteristic feature of human existence, and respect and trust as the natural basis in human relationships. The empirical material consists of 21 group interviews with 69 students aged 14 attending two Swedish schools. The interviews were conducted as semi-structured qualitative interviews aiming to understand the students’ perspective on respect in relationships in school. The results show that respect is described as a reciprocal phenomenon in the students’ relationships. The students’ starting-point was in experiences of disrespect, which indicates that it is difficult to describe respect. The students picture respectful relationships to teachers with a wish of being seen for who they are, e.g. by equal treatment, being listened to and existentially confirmed. The students’ disrespectful relationships to teachers deal with descriptions of teachers’ inability to listen, abuse of power, and teachers’ inability to teach with structure and planning. Respect in peer relations is described as allowing a person to be the way she or he is. Honesty is important in peer relations due to the students’ need to see the other person’s true self in order to get to know him or her, which is their starting point for respectful peer relations. The theoretical interpretation of these results gives an understanding of respect as an essentially human need to reciprocally affirming the life of one another. The overall conclusion is that respect is given a deeper understanding as a human phenomenon in relationships, something that goes beyond the students’ volition. Disrespectful relationships force the students to harbour mistrust and insecurity when interacting with peers and teachers. Respectful relationships in school are seen as necessary for the students’ possibilities to enjoy life.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of North Texas, 2006. / System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Includes bibliographical references (p. 185-192).

Texte remanié de: Diss.--Theologische Fakultät--Universität Oslo, 1994. / Bibliogr. p. 220-223. Index.

In the domain of music education philosophy there are, at present, two foundational systems that purport to be self-contained philosophies of music education. These are music education as aesthetic education, often referred to as MEAE, espoused by Bennett Reimer, and the praxial philosophy of music education posited by David Elliott. The debate between these two philosophies has been contentious and has had the effect of fracturing the philosophical underpinning of the music profession in an irreconcilable way. It is the purpose of this dissertation to introduce a third voice, that of the Danish philosopher Knut Løgstrup, to serve as a synergy between the philosophies of Reimer and Elliott and lead toward a framework of thinking for music education philosophy. I assert that the philosophies of Reimer and Elliott represent a modern articulation of an ancient dialectic between Platonic and Aristotelian ideals. Thus, the Reimer philosophy has its foundation in Platonic thought and Elliott has embraced an Aristotelian philosophical perspective. Løgstrup's position provides a third fundamental viewpoint that includes both Platonic and Aristotelian thinking and can therefore provide a synergy for these two music education philosophies. He refers to his philosophy as an ontological ethics. As a methodological approach, I utilize a metaphilosophical analysis in which I examine the Platonic tendencies of Reimer and the Aristotelian foundation of Elliott by examining both the content and the methodology of their prospective philosophies. I then make an application of Løgstrup's philosophical system, which is an ethical system, to music education philosophy and bring the most important aspects of Reimer's and Elliott's philosophies into a synergy using Løgstrup's ideas.

This dissertation examines Lennart Sjögren’s conception of life as revealed through his poetry and other written documents. Light is shed on his writings in three chapters, with an Introduction that opens the investigations, and a Conclusion that sums up the findings. His collection of poetry Ur männisovärlden (2008, From the world of the living) is commented upon in an epilogue. Chapter Two analyses the collection Havet (1974, The Sea), focussing on Sjögren’s view of nature and his imagery. A religious tone can be apparent throughout the poems. In earlier centuries, poems about migratory birds often gained in authenticity via their Christian context. In a secularised age, ecological insights add to the credibility of the poems. Chapter Three is an analysis and interpretation of Sjögren’s collection of poems Fågeljägarna (1997, The Bird Catchers), as well as of the intra- and intertexts that the reader meets in his writings and that, for various reasons, serve to make Sjögren’s poetic voice so distinctive. In a series of subsections the uniqueness of Fågeljägarna is defined by means of a comparison with ecology, secularisation (secularism), nihilism, religion and mythology. In addition, there is a discussion of the “poetry of place” and a final analysis of what unites and divides Sjögren and K. E. Løgstrup, regarding a poetic understanding of life. Independent of the ideological direction that is identi-fied, this cycle of poems is marked by an elegiac mood. The poem “Dagen före plöjarens kväll” (1984, “The Day before the Plough-man’s Evening”) from the eponymous collection of poems is an example of an ekphrasis (a transformation of images). Chapter Four makes a close reading of this poem, for which Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s picture “Landscape with the Fall of Icarus” is a model. Four interpretative hypotheses are advanced: a moral, ontological, theological and a folkloristic one. The interpretation of the poem points out that the dialogue is not merely the poet’s private affair – the reader is also invited to take an active part in the discussion, now with the picture and the ekphrasis as prerequisites. The chapter contains a further three analyses of ekphrasis dealing with other poems from the collection Dagen före plöjarens kväll.

I aim to show in this thesis that human beings are morally concerned to the core; that a concern for moral goodness is a necessary part of our humanity. Central to my account of the foundations of morality is what I call 'primary recognition', which I argue is the source of our moral thinking. By primary recognition, I mean our basic apprehension of other human beings as objects of some moral concern. I take this to be a 'basic moral certainty', in accord with the notion recently introduced by Nigel Pleasants in the debate on moral foundations, which he drew from the work of Ludwig Wittgenstein on the notion of basic empirical certainty, found in On Certainty (1969). Building on Pleasants' notion of 'basic moral certainty' I bring to bear Danièle Moyal-Sharrock's distinction between universal and local forms of basic certainty in an effort to make sense of the co-existence of universal moral beliefs and local, often conflicting, moral beliefs. I offer and defend two examples of universal basic moral certainties: 'At least some killings are wrong' and 'Some wrongs are more serious, more wrong, than others', which I take to be necessarily indubitable for any moral agent. I then examine examples of local moral certainties: the wrongness of pig sacrifice in ancient Judaism, the goodness of hospitality among the modern Pashtun, and the wrongness of cannibalism for the ancient Greeks. These examinations lead me to conclude that basic moral certainties come in both local and universal varieties in just the same way as basic empirical certainties, and that holding certain local moral beliefs is definitional for membership in certain epistemic communities. I go on to consider some challenges to the view that morality has its foundations in basic moral certainty, in particular that made by G.E.M Anscombe and Alasdair MacIntyre that modern moral thought lacks any foundations. I reply by reiterating the nonrational nature of the foundations of morality, modern or otherwise. I conclude the thesis by outlining some of the outcomes of this account of moral certainty for contemporary moral philosophy.