International Relations in modernity have undergone phases of nation-state struggle and, more recently, globalized conflict. Theorists have used the paradigms of idealism and realism to explain state actor motivations in such conflicts; yet in the early 21st century, the United States initiated regime change in Iraq with claims of necessity pertaining to morality and security that could not be adequately explained using either framework. This thesis postulates that a paradigm shift in International Relations, as described by John Vasquez via Thomas Kuhn, is occurring as evidenced by the conduct of United States foreign policy towards Iraq. This new paradigmatic approach, which Edward Weisband has titled Hegemonic Moralism, is analyzed in this thesis, explicating the ontological assumptions and policy initiatives made by the United States administration in the lead-up to the Second Gulf War. Hegemonic Moralism clashes with the realist beliefs underpinning Germany's foreign policy during the same time period: with the threat of Anglo- American neo-liberal dominance in the Middle East a distinct possibility, Germany realigned its allies to forestall and de-legitimize looming U.S. regime change in Iraq. An analysis of realist theory and its assumptions of human and nation-state behaviour leads into an explication of the paradigm of US Hegemonic Moralism, comparing it with the realist behaviour exhibited by Germany. I suggest that descriptions of German sociopolitical discourse after the September 11 2001 attacks on the US and prior to the Second Gulf War convincingly show Germany's social and political readiness to oppose the hegemonic neo-liberal Anglo-American paradigm. / Master of Arts

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The purpose of this study is to investigate the content and work processes regarding the values written in the curriculum for Swedish high schools and compare it with theories regarding the individualized society and political moralism. After the clarification of the content in the values of Swedish high schools and the work processes that are supposed to give students fundamental understanding about them, I analyze and compere it to the theories that are presented in the study. The main questions of the study are the following: What kinds of values are found in the curriculum for Swedish high schools? In general, how do Swedish high schools work with the written values when focus have gone from education and learning to instrumental knowledge, results, abilities and flexibility? The result showed that the content and work processes regarding the values in Swedish high schools are purely instrumental and moralistic. Due to the fact, that the individualized society and the neoliberal ideology do not require reflection and real understanding regarding the values. Therefore are the schools now more focused instrumental knowledge rather than universal knowledge based on understanding. This is not a surprising result, due to the fact that the public and the political discourse are colonized by moralism. This is the reaction individuals have to the fragmented society, where an alternative to the neoliberal ideology is nonexistent. The only kind of criticism in today’s society is based on moralism, which is affecting the work processes regarding the values in Swedish high schools.

How did Late Antiquity’s societies articulate their identities? This dissertation is a study of the construction of textual identities, as revealed by an analysis of Origen’s Paulinism which aimed to construct Christian identity in the third century CE. I have chosen extracts from Origen’s exegesis of Paul, found primarily in one text, his Commentary on Romans, as resources for my examination of identity issues. This text is an extremely helpful example of a deliberate fashioning of Christian identity through Origen’s joint use of Hellenistic paideia and the Bible. Pierre Bourdieu’s notion of habitus provides a helpful lens in decoding Origen’s and Hellenistic texts. Using habitus, the focus is on the rhetoric of identity formation through the fabric of the cultural, social, political, ideological, and literary contexts of Origen’s world. The study is more descriptive than polemical. The Greek paideia provides an immediate background to Late Antiquity’s concept of identity formation. The extant literature of the period comprised the fundamental vehicles of self–definition. This concept of fashioning identity through the construction of texts presents numerous difficulties for the contemporary reader. I will show that Origen used Greco–Roman moral philosophy and rhetoric in interpreting Paul. In seeking Origen’s notion of Christian identity, Origen’s reading of Romans is shaped by strategies of self–scrutiny and self–formation. Although Origen modifies the Greco–Roman moral philosophies—such as the notion of self–control, transformational narratives, and rhetoric deployment in his exegesis—much of the shared cultural and literary background remains. Using the Hellenistic nuances of self–control and rhetoric, Origen shows his audience a distinct picture of what a transformed, mature believer should look like, the humanitas. The transformation that a believer underwent resulted in a new or intensified form of piety with consequent changes in social affiliations, relations and loyalties. He also uses different descriptions —“new man,” “inner man” and “perfect”—to identify the mature transformed believers. This believer is the humanitas, the much sought after identity, with the milieu of the third century C.E. He attempted to create a body of knowledge and to utilize it for the preparation of a strong Christian identity in the midst of the pressures and temptations of the hegemonic Roman Empire and the pervasive Greco–Roman culture. Along with the paideia, the Roman Empire nurtured and challenged Origen’s Paulinism. The Roman Empire did not require individuals, or even communities, to adopt for themselves a distinctly Roman identity to the exclusion of all others. Yet, everyone was required to worship the genus of the Emperor. The Roman identity transformed the Greek–barbarian dichotomy into an imperial ideology which claimed Roman supremacy over all other cultures and people. This usurpation of other societies by the Romans is an inverted mirror image of Origen’s usurpation of Rome’s Romanitas or humanitas through his Paulinism. Thus, he is to be seen constructing identity through shared forms of symbolic and linguistic construction which were readily available within his socio–political reality. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Church and Dogma History))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2012.

How did Late Antiquity’s societies articulate their identities? This dissertation is a study of the construction of textual identities, as revealed by an analysis of Origen’s Paulinism which aimed to construct Christian identity in the third century CE. I have chosen extracts from Origen’s exegesis of Paul, found primarily in one text, his Commentary on Romans, as resources for my examination of identity issues. This text is an extremely helpful example of a deliberate fashioning of Christian identity through Origen’s joint use of Hellenistic paideia and the Bible. Pierre Bourdieu’s notion of habitus provides a helpful lens in decoding Origen’s and Hellenistic texts. Using habitus, the focus is on the rhetoric of identity formation through the fabric of the cultural, social, political, ideological, and literary contexts of Origen’s world. The study is more descriptive than polemical. The Greek paideia provides an immediate background to Late Antiquity’s concept of identity formation. The extant literature of the period comprised the fundamental vehicles of self–definition. This concept of fashioning identity through the construction of texts presents numerous difficulties for the contemporary reader. I will show that Origen used Greco–Roman moral philosophy and rhetoric in interpreting Paul. In seeking Origen’s notion of Christian identity, Origen’s reading of Romans is shaped by strategies of self–scrutiny and self–formation. Although Origen modifies the Greco–Roman moral philosophies—such as the notion of self–control, transformational narratives, and rhetoric deployment in his exegesis—much of the shared cultural and literary background remains. Using the Hellenistic nuances of self–control and rhetoric, Origen shows his audience a distinct picture of what a transformed, mature believer should look like, the humanitas. The transformation that a believer underwent resulted in a new or intensified form of piety with consequent changes in social affiliations, relations and loyalties. He also uses different descriptions —“new man,” “inner man” and “perfect”—to identify the mature transformed believers. This believer is the humanitas, the much sought after identity, with the milieu of the third century C.E. He attempted to create a body of knowledge and to utilize it for the preparation of a strong Christian identity in the midst of the pressures and temptations of the hegemonic Roman Empire and the pervasive Greco–Roman culture. Along with the paideia, the Roman Empire nurtured and challenged Origen’s Paulinism. The Roman Empire did not require individuals, or even communities, to adopt for themselves a distinctly Roman identity to the exclusion of all others. Yet, everyone was required to worship the genus of the Emperor. The Roman identity transformed the Greek–barbarian dichotomy into an imperial ideology which claimed Roman supremacy over all other cultures and people. This usurpation of other societies by the Romans is an inverted mirror image of Origen’s usurpation of Rome’s Romanitas or humanitas through his Paulinism. Thus, he is to be seen constructing identity through shared forms of symbolic and linguistic construction which were readily available within his socio–political reality. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Church and Dogma History))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2012.

Although the literature in the field of criminal justice and philosophy is full of ideas of what constitutes "justice," little to nothing has been done to see where the average individual's opinion falls in relation to these ideas. This paper analyzes a cross-sectional convenience sample of students at UCF to determine their preference of six models of justice: utilitarianism, contractarianism, fairness, retributivism, moralism, and libertarianism. Correlating demographic factors are also discussed.

The current study examines judicial discourse about BDSM activities within decisions rendered in Canada during the past 20 years. A recent uprise in popular culture representation has resulted in a greater uptake of Bondage / Discipline / Dominance / Submission / Sadism / Masochism (BDSM) in the sexual lives of Canadians. Little research to date has been completed to analyze the implications that the uprise may have on the legal system when BDSM cases are presented. In particular, the legal system is being tasked with interpreting many different consent standards through the narrow affirmative-based definition found under Section 273.1 (1). The current study employed a qualitative analysis of all Canadian criminal court cases and appeals available in legal software that dealt with the issues of consent and BDSM (n=23) over a 20-year time frame. The study found that judges must interpret 4 different types of consent found within sexual relationships: affirmative consent, advanced consent to unconscious acts, consent to bodily harm and mistaken consent. Finally, the current study found that the way judges interpreted BDSM consent standards reflects a wider shift in governance from legal moralist thinking to a neoliberal paternalist governance.

The purpose of this essay is to investigate the opinions of pornography in the Swedish press 2016. To perform this, a quantitative method and discourse analysis on 139 published texts have been used. This study shows that the year of 2016 primarily is focused on a strong sence of concern about the effects of pornography rather than the industry itself, and the concerns are primarily rooted in anxiety of the effects on pornography-consumers, that is primarily young boys and men. The debate that is mainly represented by women with a great variety of work titles like scholars, criminologist, politicians, mothers, columnists, and film directors. The articles used for this study were found in newspapers and magazines from all over Sweden. When opinions about pornography is expressed it's usually a negative or critical opinions. If the opinion is positive or defending towards pornography it's usually a response to an already written negative or critical article. The critic is from different feminist theories, pro and counter arguments from both radical- and liberal feminism. Arguments that has its roots in the three counter waves during the 70's-, 80's- and 21's centrury is portrayed by the liberal feminist Petra Östergren in the publication Porr, Horor och Feminister. Some of the feminist arguments occur in contexts that describes the effects of pornography like something that inspire men and young boys to commit violent crimes. But there are also some arguments from the liberal feminist side that is more positive and that is arguing against the fact that women's pleasure is excluded from the male influenced debate. In the beginning of 2016 was the debate mostly focused on violence in pornography, that after a criminologist by the name Nina Rung published an article about sexuell crimes. During the summer the debate was mostly focused on sexual assaults due to the high numbers of assaults and harassments during the summer festivals. It will not be until october that the debate reached its heights, due to an article about the negative effects of pornography written by a group of politicians, tv-personalities and celebrities. Opinions that are possible to recognise during the rest of the year are adults and their concerns for kids and youths. A will to protect children and teenagers from pornography are strongly defined, but also a major discussion about sex norms and ideal in pornography are to be seen during 2016. The effect of pornography are also included in contexts like pornography- or emotional-impotence. An interesting part of the discourse analysis is the concept disclaimer. A linguistic discourse concept introduced by the researcher Teun A. van Dijk. The term have been used frequently by the counter porn critics. “I'm no moralist, but…” is an usual term used by the porn critics, something that could be used due to today's desire and habbit of building once’s own identity in our social media-opinion bubbles.

This dissertation engages French-language films in the 'moraliste' tradition. The French word 'moraliste' has no exact English equivalent. It does not evoke the didactic sense of “moralist;” rather a 'moraliste' is someone who explores the inner workings of the mind, rather than the outer actions of a character. Beginning with the publication of Montaigne’s Essays in 1580, 'moralistes' including Descartes, La Rochefoucauld, Pascal, and La Bruyère created moral literature – literature concerned with personal reflections and the feelings of an individual over the dogma of good society. The emergence of film in the late nineteenth century provided a new medium for raising questions in the 'moraliste' tradition. Éric Rohmer, for example, described his Six Moral Tales as “films in which a particular feeling is analyzed and where even the characters themselves analyze their feelings and are very introspective. That’s what 'conte moral' (moral tale) means.” I argue that the films of Bresson, Rohmer, and the Dardennes are narratively, thematically, and stylistically interrelated in their connection to the specifically French 'moraliste' tradition. I contend that these films surfaced in post-World War II France – growing out of the deep ambiguities that existed in French society in the aftermath of occupation and liberation – and continue to appear in the increasingly transnational landscape of contemporary European cinema. This new approach to film history offers a counterweight to the narrative of French New Wave cinema, which privileges the work of more explicitly political and experimental filmmakers such as François Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard.

The study on Liang Qichao¡¦s moralistic approach