Martin Hägglunds kristendomstolkning i boken Vårt enda liv analyseras och jämförs med teologen och existentialisten Paul Tillichs kristendom uttryckt i boken The Courage to be. Frågan om vilka livsåskådningsförutsättningar och premisser som ligger till grund för Hägglunds religionskritik och frågan om hans kritik är rationellt berättigad behandlas.Analysen som ligger till grund för kritiken görs i huvudsak utifrån religionsfilosofen Mikael Stenmarks teoretiska ramverk för livsåskådningsforskning samt Carl-Henrik Grenholms beskrivna metoder för att genomföra en idéanalys.Studien bekräftar tidigare forskning som pekar på att Hägglund går för långt i sin kristendomskritik, när han kritiserar kristendomen. En viktig förutsättning som identifierats i studien är att Hägglunds tidsbegrepp inte innehåller någon dynamisk komponent som ger ett här och nu en särställning. Det innebär att religionstolkningen inte heller öppnar för en religiös upplevelse av existentiell ångest eller ett personligt möte med Gud här och nu. Härigenom begränsas utrymmet för religiösa uttryck samtidigt som Hägglunds eget sekulära trossystem blir mindre dynamiskt. Dynamiken i den sekulära livsåskådningen hänförs snarare till osäkerheten om framtiden som vi alla bär.I stället för att, som Hägglund gör nu, helt avfärda det eftersträvansvärda i evigheten, och därmed missa målet med sin religionskritik, pekar studiens resultat mot möjligheten till att öppna upp det föreslagna sekulära trossystemet för den genuina osäkerhet som finns i livsåskådningsfrågorna. Det kan skapa nyfikenhet och en förändrad attityd i mötet med andra trosuppfattningar. Dynamiken i det sekulära trossystemet skulle kunna skapas genom att bekräfta existentiella (sekulära) brister och därmed ge utrymme för att spegla människors kamp, upplevelser av misslyckanden och känslor av existentiell meningslöshet. Budskapet om andlig frihet står starkt i sig självt och skulle kunna kombineras med en mjukare hållning mot andra livsåskådningar.

It is the purpose of this thesis to select for examination the novels and short stories of Willa Cather which illustrate -thenature and outcome of the idealistic individual's struggle with his environment and from the evidence to discover what solution she saw to modern disillusionment.

The scholarly study of materialism is becoming more common in a variety of disciplines. This thesis provides an empirical review of this burgeoning body of literature by conducting a meta-analysis of the relationship between materialism and psychological well-being. A weighted overall effect size from 47 published and unpublished samples indicated that materialism was significantly related to lower psychological well-being. This effect size was modest in strength (r = .159). Materialism scale, psychological scale valance, age of sample, and publication status of the study did not moderate this relationship. Culture did moderate the relationship, with a stronger relationship in individualistic cultures than in collectivist cultures. Implications for individuals, professionals, and organizations are discussed, and critiques of the extant literature, as well as suggestions for future research, are offered.

Historical dress as a museum theater and research process encompasses material, technological, and cultural experiences from the past in the present. This research examines how intimate experiences with heritage materials, processes, and environments may impact development of educator pedagogy. Historical attractions in the US draw visitors due in part to providing guests with context for the objects and built environments displayed. New Materialist theory offers insights into how inanimate objects and environments "teach" human and non-human entities in their own right. Using a New Materialist lens, I observed, interviewed, and conducted participant observations through a novel research methodology, intra-active narrative inquiry, with costumed museum educators to better discern how relations between humans and historical materials intra-act as embodied experiences of object knowledge in museum pedagogy.

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Yes / This paper develops a performative theory of resistance. It uses Judith Butler’s and Karen Barad’s theories of performativity to explore how resistance (to organisational strategies and policies) and resistants (those who resist such strategies and policies) co-emerge, within and through complex intra-actions of entangled discourses, materialities, affect and space/time. The paper uses empirical materials from a case study of the implementation of a talent management strategy. We analyse interviews with the senior managers charged with implementing the strategy, the influence of material, non-sentient actors, and the experiences of the researchers when carrying out the interviews. This leads to a theory that resistance and resistants emerge in moment-to-moment co-constitutive moves that may be invoked when identity or self is put in jeopardy. Resistance, we suggest, is the power (residing with resistants) to say ‘no’ to organizational requirements that would otherwise threaten to render the self abject.

It is natural to suppose that mental and physical properties are importantly distinct. Yet whatever this difference is, it has to be compatible with interaction between the mind and the body. Satisfaction of these desiderata leads to a paradox. If you make the mind strongly separate from the body, then there is the problem of bringing them together. If you unite them, then there is the problem of preserving their distinctiveness. It is the aim of this thesis to resolve the paradox. From the outset, it is assumed that the nature of interaction is most satisfactorily explained by an account of mental properties in monistic terms. For reasons for space, the arguments of Materialism are concentrated upon at the exposure of Idealism. Three strategies are examined, and found wanting. First, an instance of a non-reductive account provided by Davidson's 'Anomalous Monism'. Here, mental properties seem to be left with no role in influencing behaviour. Second, a review of reductionist accounts, ranging from Identity Theories to Representationalism. Criticism focuses upon the failure of reductionism to explain the connection between the function of a conscious state and its particular character. A Materialist treats mental states as if they were part of the physical universe. This implies that the nature of these states may be understood through scientific investigation, in the same manner as all other phenomena. The third strategy is to deny the above implication: that is, deny the assertion that, by existing, all aspects of an object are thereby knowable. The ideas of Colin McGinn are discussed as an example of this position. Since his arguments are equally suitable for non-Materialist purposes, they do not constitute an exclusively Materialist solution to the above paradox. This thesis offers an alternative way of pursuing the above strategy. It argues that the relation between mental states and our ways of understanding phenomena, is such that we should not expect our theories about the nature of 'mind' and the 'physical world' to employ the same terms. These properties appear distinct, not because they are different substances, but because they occupy different sides of the ‘process of understanding’ - ‘thing understood’ relationship. For convenience, this position is referred to as ‘Agnostic Materialism’. As interaction between the mind and the body is compatible with the mind having no influence upon our behaviour, it is incumbent upon the thesis to defend Materialism against the claim that mental properties are epiphenomenal. This is achieved by teasing out two ways in which such properties are considered inert: either because the workings of the mind are independent of the body; or because the mind’s processes are irrelevant to those of the body. The first claim is seen arise from the difficulty of seeing the mind as part of the physical world - a difficulty removed by the arguments in the previous paragraph. The second claim gains plausibility through a mistaken adherence to certain models of scientific explanation.

This dissertation is about new materialism as it relates to art education. It is a speculative inquiry that seeks to illuminate the interconnectivity of things by considering the ways in which things participate in generative practices of perceiving and making. To do so, the dissertation pioneers an arts-based methodology that allows for broad considerations about who and what can be considered an agent in the process of art making. In this inquiry, the researcher is an artist-participant with other more-than-human and human participants to construct an (im)material autohistoria-teoría, a revisionist interdisciplinary artwork inspired by the work of Anzaldúa. The term w/e is developed and discussed as new language for expanding upon Braidotti's posthumanist subjectivity. New theories called thing(k)ing (including found poetry) and (im)materiality are discussed as movements towards better understanding the contributions of the more-than-human in artmaking practices.