This thesis examines the intellectual environment in which Pope John Paul II's thought operates, especially as it pertains to his writings on the truth. The pontiff's thinking faces open hostility toward Christianity, as exemplified by Friedrich Nietzsche and Michel Foucault. The pope's theology pays attention and builds links to modern thought through its positive engagement with phenomenology and personalism, as well as through its opposition to materialism. Despite these connections, this theology fails to fit well with (post)modern thinking, as it takes a wider view of things in two ways: (1) By offering a spiritual sense of things, it goes beyond thought and takes into account supernatural sources of knowledge, sources which are both a one-time event (the Resurrection of Jesus Christ) and part of the ongoing journey of the Christian community; (2) By boldly referring to traditional, outmoded language, as with the words obedience and humility, with the same level of reverence and fullness of their sense as they were used before the secular-feminist era condemned these virtues. The strange and unique qualities of John Paul II's thinking issues from these two practices. It also arises from his bold ability to engage with modern thought without becoming defensive and without hiding behind the Bible or Catholic piety, though he uses both of these generously. John Paul II offers a clear alternative to the chaos and confusion of post-Enlightenment thought, in both his thought's style and substance. The Holy Father's words cause us to reflect more deeply than those of modern or postmodern thinkers, and call us away from the relativism of Richard Rorty, Foucault, and so many others. The pope's thought succeeds in part because he takes a much wider vista of things, in that he digs more deeply into Western and Christian thought and that he enters this heritage as an inheritor rather than as a skeptical scientist-researcher as in Foucault's case. The pope's thought also succeeds because he assigns spiritual meaning to this journey of Christian and world people. In this sense, his thought is also radically inclusive. / Systematic Theology & Theological Ethics / D. Th. (Systematic Theology)

This paper is devoted to a critical analysis of the book I and Thou in the attempt to identify the main points of the dialogical philosophy as presented by Martin Buber. The introductory passages present the background of the book in terms of time (the era after WWI), cultural background (the influence of Hasidism), or the history of philosophy (an opposition to immanentism, monism, idealism, transcendental philosophy etc.). The main goal of the following interpretation is to try to understand man as a person in his complex existential situation, i.e. through his potential relationships or objectifying attitudes to the world. Being is described as a dual structure either of the basic pair of words I-Thou or of the basic pair of words I-It. As opposed to the usual use of the term, dialogue is defined as a specific interaction of man and the remaining world metaphorically expressible by the structure of addressing-responding. By this scheme, the characteristic reciprocity and direct continuity is expressed. The dialogue is also placed in the area "between" I and Thou, which mediates the genuine, immediate and transcendental knowledge constituting the reality. Finally, the dialogical attitude is compared and contrasted to the monological comprehension of the world. Key words: personalism, dialogical...

This thesis examines the intellectual environment in which Pope John Paul II's thought operates, especially as it pertains to his writings on the truth. The pontiff's thinking faces open hostility toward Christianity, as exemplified by Friedrich Nietzsche and Michel Foucault. The pope's theology pays attention and builds links to modern thought through its positive engagement with phenomenology and personalism, as well as through its opposition to materialism. Despite these connections, this theology fails to fit well with (post)modern thinking, as it takes a wider view of things in two ways: (1) By offering a spiritual sense of things, it goes beyond thought and takes into account supernatural sources of knowledge, sources which are both a one-time event (the Resurrection of Jesus Christ) and part of the ongoing journey of the Christian community; (2) By boldly referring to traditional, outmoded language, as with the words obedience and humility, with the same level of reverence and fullness of their sense as they were used before the secular-feminist era condemned these virtues. The strange and unique qualities of John Paul II's thinking issues from these two practices. It also arises from his bold ability to engage with modern thought without becoming defensive and without hiding behind the Bible or Catholic piety, though he uses both of these generously. John Paul II offers a clear alternative to the chaos and confusion of post-Enlightenment thought, in both his thought's style and substance. The Holy Father's words cause us to reflect more deeply than those of modern or postmodern thinkers, and call us away from the relativism of Richard Rorty, Foucault, and so many others. The pope's thought succeeds in part because he takes a much wider vista of things, in that he digs more deeply into Western and Christian thought and that he enters this heritage as an inheritor rather than as a skeptical scientist-researcher as in Foucault's case. The pope's thought also succeeds because he assigns spiritual meaning to this journey of Christian and world people. In this sense, his thought is also radically inclusive. / Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology / D. Th. (Systematic Theology)

This thesis is aimed at the darker sides of assisted reproduction and it urges us to consider difficult questions related to the value of human life and human dignity. These two mentioned values are the methods of assisted reproduction. Scientific progress in the field of medical science evokes a lot of ethical, social and legal questions.The goal of the thesis is to identify and analyse ethical prolems of assisted reroduction and to present each solution to an ethical decision. The thesis is integral to my own wellfounded way of solution to the chosen ethical problems. This thesis deals with issues of social functioning of infertile couples and social consultancy.

En 1960, Fernand Cadieux et Pierre Juneau créent le premier Festival international du film de Montréal. Chaque année le Festival a lieu au mois d’août jusqu’à l’Expo 67, événement qui marque à la fois le point culminant et final de cette aventure culturelle. L’histoire de cette institution touche à la culture, au personnalisme, au nationalisme, à la cinéphilie ainsi qu’à l’institutionnalisation et à l’industrialisation du cinéma au Canada et au Québec pendant les années cinquante et soixante. Conçu sous le régime politique de Duplessis par d’anciens membres de la Jeunesse étudiante catholique qui deviendraient presque tous fédéralistes, le Festival constitue un objet idéal d’histoire culturelle propice à étendre la compréhension des origines catholiques de la Révolution tranquille. Au plan culturel, il permet aussi de comprendre plus finement la resynchronisation du Québec dans la trajectoire de la modernité, ainsi que les répercussions du choc entre nationalistes et gauchistes québécois contre libéraux fédéralistes. Ce mémoire permet aussi de découvrir le FIFM comme institution cinématographique québécoise, le réseau d’acteurs et d’établissements qui le soutiennent et l’objet de leur passion : les films. La présente analyse explore la manifestation dans ses dimensions à la fois cinématographique et politique, artistique et historique. / In 1960, Fernand Cadieux and Pierre Juneau founded the first Montreal International Film Festival. This great cultural adventure was held each August, up until what became its culminating and final year: that of Expo ’67. The history of the festival is intrinsically linked to culture, personalism, nationalism, and cinephillia, as well as the institutionalization and industrialization of cinema in Canada and Quebec during the 1950s and 60s. Created under the political regime of Duplessis by former members of the Jeunesse étudiante catholique (Young Christian Students), who would almost all become federalists, it became apparent to me that the festival constituted a cultural-historic event conductive to expanding our understanding of the Catholic origins of the Quiet Revolution. It also allowed for a finer understanding of the resynchronization of Quebec with modernity and the shock waves that emanated from this change, in particular, between leftists Quebec nationalists against federal Liberals. Moreover, this paper allows us to discover the FIFM in its role as a Quebec cinemagraphic institution, as well as the community of actors and establishments that supported it and the object of their passion: film. The wager is therefore, to analyze in one hundred or so pages, the multiple facets of these issues: the cinemagraphic, political, artistic and historic.

This study investigates the impact of motivations, personal values and managerial skills of managers on the performance of Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in South Africa. The failure rate of SMEs in South Africa is very high and it is of great importance to investigate the factors that can impact on the performance of SMEs. Financial and non-financial methods were used to measure SMEs performance. Data was collected through self-administered questionnaires. Exploratory factor analysis was used to improve the research problems and enhance the validity of the research. Data analysis for this study includes descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation and regression analysis. Reliability was tested using the Cronbach‟s Alpha while validity was ensured by using a statistician and by pre-testing the research instrument in a pilot study.

Title: The Human Embryo in the Perspective of Reproductive Medicine. Since when one begins to be a human person? In this work, we take into account the issues, which in most cases lead many people to resort to the reproductive medicine, which generally is referred to as the infertility problems. But in some techniques, the reproductive medicine loses up to 80% of human embryos. In the minds of many people, the human embryo is seen only as a cluster of cells. However, is it really just a cluster of cells, or is it already a person at an early stage of development? As far as one is already man, is he now also the human being, of whom are in our Western culture related rights, especially the right to life? Could we then say with a clear conscience that with these techniques we are acting ethically? We dividend our work into six chapters. In the first and second chapter, we will be briefly acquainted with the issues of infertility, of the reproductive medicine techniques, with the development of the human embryo and with handling of the embryos in the course of these techniques. In the third charter, we will present the two major ethical models in our cultural area that have a different point of view on the status of the human embryo. In the fourth chapter, we will look at how to the question of the...

This thesis re-evaluates a positive reply given by the majority of existing secondary literature on the question of whether J. L. Fischer was a democrat and a theorist of democracy. On the other hand, some features of the author's work can cast doubts on his political orientation, and the existing secondary literature does not provide a clear disapproval of these doubts. The core of this thesis then lies in forging a newly designed interpretation of the author's compositional philosophy foregoing the Second World War. We are using the existential "bloody disjunction" of the author as our interpretational key with the hope that it can allow us to explain even the most difficult parts of J. L. Fischer's work constructively to the "uninformed reader". We are recognizing the specificity of this work as an author's-actor's creative expression. Therefore its internal expressional structure should not be reduced solely to the theoretical component without attention paid to the strong philosophical, artistic, and charismatic ambitions of the creator. This thesis interprets indicated components of Fischer's philosophy and his existential fight, which, even though manifested through breaches of argumentation, is at the same time giving to the compositional philosophy a whole new level of coherency. The...

Annotation This thesis deals with the issue of education for Christian ideals and its original concept in the framework of Schönstattské pedagogy of P. Josef Kentenicha. The centre of the thesis lies in Schönstatt Educational System with a special emphasis on {\clq}qpedagogy of ideals`` and its specification in {\clq}qpersonal ideal``. The thesis next focuses on Schönstatt movement, predominantly as a educational movement and movement of educators, and its educational theory. More concretely the thesis firstly tries to grasp the impotance of the Christian ideal for human generally and mainly in education, secondly it tries to ``translate`` theological, philosophical, psychological and pedagogical terms of educational theory of Schönstatt with its roots in German cultural background into the terminology of modern Czech general pedagogy.