Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / This present work has as main objective to engage in the environmental and social im'pacts analysis caused bu the construction of the Dona Francisca hidroelectric power plant situated in the central region of the Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil. Initially, the work is based on reports of social impacts of the Dona Francisca hidroelectric power plant, to comprehend how the individuals that had chosen the rellocation based on great lot amount are studied and understood. Complementing this first analysis and the bibliographical review of authors that study general sociology, as Antony Giddens, Ignacy Sachs, Ulrich Beck and Amartya Sen to complement the same theories. These authors will help me to scope the tools used to analyse the social and environmental studies by stugying the effected individuals. The rationality was captured based on a structured questionário containing closed and opened questions. The closed questions part consisted in a description of the structual issue and social phenomenon that surroud the ressetled and its community. The opened questions explored issues that demanded a recall from the ressetlement, by considering the current social and economical life and also a projection of their future. The data showed that considering both closed and opened questions, it is clear some reflection points about the object. It was used the approach of Amartya Sen to make an analytical cleavage of the impacts in their lifes. The data demonstrated that in a general way, the individuals dont fit in the theory of human developing from Amartya Sen. Considering that, it is possible to comprehend that the ressetled individuals chase development trough the economical activities. The research demonstrates through epistemological data that it is necessessary to strengthen the social and environmental studies by using cases that exist already. These type of word would improve some solutions to those individuals. / Este trabalho tem por finalidade analisar os impactos socioambientais causados em decorrência da construção da Usina Hidrelétrica Dona Francisca, situada na região central do Rio Grande do Sul, Brasil. Esse trabalho conta inicialmente com a leitura detalhada dos relatórios de impacto ambiental, da usina em questão, para compreender como os indivíduos que escolheram o reassentamento por grandes lotes, são compreendidos pelos estudos. Complementando essa primeira análise, juntamente com a revisão bibliográfica dos autores que teorizam sobre uma sociologia geral, como Anthony Giddens, e através de autores selecionados para complementar a idéia do mesmo, como Ignacy Sachs, Ulrich Beck, Amartya Sen. Esses autores serão utilizados no empreendimento desse trabalho, que visa um refinamento das ferramentas utilizadas pelos estudos de impacto ambiental. Refinamento que é alcançado pelo pesquisador através da análise da racionalidade dos indivíduos que vivem nos reassentamentos. A compreensão é direcionada sobre as alterações e os impactos socioambientais que eles sentiram e que convivem, dez anos após o reassentamento. Alguns aspectos da racionalidade foram obtidos a partir de um questionário estruturado contendo perguntas fechadas e abertas. A parte fechada consistiu em uma descrição de questões estruturais e de fenômenos sociais que circundam o reassentado e sua comunidade. A parte aberta contou com questões que exigiam do entrevistado um exercício de rememoração do processo de reassentamento, através de sua situação social e econômica atual. Além disso, contou com uma atividade de projeção do que espera para seu futuro, frente suas expectativas de qualidade de vida. Constatou-se com essa pesquisa que a parte fechada, analisada descritivamente através do SPSS, e a parte aberta complementaram-se de modo a deixar claro alguns pontos de reflexão sobre o objeto. Utilizando a abordagem de Amartya Sen para realizar a clivagem analítica dos impactos socioambientais na qualidade de vida dos reassentados, foi possível compreender que os indivíduos analisados, de forma geral, não se encaixam na idealização de desenvolvimento humano de Amartya Sen. Sobretudo é possível compreender que outras formas de buscar o desenvolvimento, que não a econômica são pouco apontadas como saídas para seus problemas. A pesquisa assinala através do recorte epistemológico dado, o que é necessário fortalecer nos estudos de impacto ambiental, utilizando para isso, casos já existentes e análise dos problemas socioambientais, partindo do entendimento de quem o vive. A utilização deste saber local, juntamente com o resgate histórico das práticas sociais e econômicas no local de origem desses indivíduos são recursos mínimos para serem contemplados na formatação de medidas mitigadoras para indivíduos que vivem situações semelhantes.

The work Consists of a hermeneutic reflexion on the teaching image before the rationalist world, having as a starting point two critical studies by Theodor W. Adorno: Taboes that hover over the teaching profession and Philosophy and teachers. In such context, these mainly analyzed rectified phenomena, as well as contemplating an explanation of the subject-object scheme, are focused through the figurehead of professorial language and language as experience and revelation of world. In this sense, we seek to investigate how the figure of language of Eco and Narcissus can help in the pedagogical professorial understanding. Thus, we consider the systemic reason sprung from illuminism returns to the myth, by validating the tecnical-scientific world and the person s reification; action instrumental despite the professorial communicative action. This other rationality, which we seek here to approach, activates the premisse that efective comunication within the pedagogical relationship must transcend the metamorphosis of pathological languages such as those of Narcissus and Eco, as well as the overcoming of the same in hermeneutic texture. This way, through comprehension in the pedagogical relationship, involves more than mythical metalanguage, but an opening to comunicative action. If everything is language, even taboos, when crystalized in this world, dissolve along with the apory of the relationship subject-object. Finaly, in this way, we situate Jürgen Habermas' comunicative reason as another horizon to the pedagogical relation in contemporary times. / O trabalho consiste numa reflexão hermenêutica sobre a imagem docente perante o mundo racionalista, tendo como ponto de partida dois estudos críticos de Theodor W. Adorno: Tabus que pairam sobre a profissão de ensinar e A filosofia e os professores. Nesse contexto, os fenômenos que se reificaram, prevalentemente analisados, além de contemplarem uma explanação do esquema sujeito-objeto, são enfocados pelo viés da figura da linguagem docente e da linguagem como experiência e revelação de mundo. Nesse sentido, buscamos investigar o modo de como a figura da linguagem de Eco e Narciso pode auxiliar na compreensão pedagógica docente. Assim, consideramos que a razão sistêmica decorrente do iluminismo retorna ao mito, ao valorizar o mundo técnico-científico e a coisificação da pessoa; a ação instrumental em detrimento da ação comunicativa docente. Essa outra racionalidade, que aqui buscamos tematizar, aciona a premissa de que a comunicação efetiva na relação pedagógica deve transcender a metamorfoses de linguagens patológicas tais como as de Narciso e Eco, bem como à superação das mesmas nas tessituras hermenêuticas. Desse modo, pela via da compreensão na relação pedagógica, envolve mais do que metalinguagem mítica, mas uma abertura à ação comunicativa. Se tudo é linguagem, mesmo os tabus, quando cristalizados nesse mundo, dissolvem-se juntamente com a aporia da relação sujeitoobjeto. Por fim, nessa intencionalidade, situamos a razão comunicativa de Jürgen Habermas como um outro horizonte à relação pedagógica em dias contemporâneos.

La prémisse de la rationalité décisionnelle des agents, généralement définie comme la « prise de décision optimale sous l’information disponible », occupe une place centrale dans la théorie économique, à tel point que, lorsque la rationalité décisionnelle passe à la loupe, c’est souvent l’ensemble de la science économique qui l’est à sa suite. Pourtant, le quotidien abonde de cas ne se conformant pas à une certaine définition de l’optimalité; pour des décisions de faibles enjeux, les agents économiques pourront couper court à leur réflexion et se contenter d’une décision potentiellement sous-optimale afin de minimiser le coût de la prise de décision. Or, avec l’ubiquité d’Internet, l’information et la puissance de calcul sont plus disponibles que jamais, à tel point où le tri de l’information dans la surabondance d’Internet constitue une nouvelle forme de coût de décision. Ce mémoire s’intéresse donc à deux questions concernant la prise de décision avec échéances; la première est: à quels types de décisions, en fonction de la taille de leur enjeu, les agents économiques consacreront-ils le plus de temps de réflexion? La seconde est: à quels types d’informations les agents se fient-ils le plus? Essentiellement, nous testons si les individus optimisent l’effort qu’ils mettent à optimiser . Nous utilisons une méthodologie expérimentale basée sur un jeu-questionnaire, avec incitatifs financiers à la performance, simulant différentes décisions à caractère économique auxquelles des personnes sont appelées à être exposées au cours de leur vie. Comme résultats, nous trouvons une relation concave entre la taille de l’enjeu sur lequel porte une décision et les ressources allouées à la décision. Cette relation s’estompe lorsque les contraintes de temps se resserrent. Nous tentons également de vérifier s’il existe un lien entre et le choix de sources d’informations à des fins de décision et la familiarité de celles-ci pour l’agent, mais ne trouvons pas de relation significative. De plus, nous ne parvenons pas à établir de relation entre le temps consacré à prendre une décision et l’optimalité de celle-ci.

Reformed Epistemology is an influential view in contemporary philosophy of religion, according to which theistic beliefs that are the product of our native, non-inferential cognitive faculties often constitute knowledge if God exists. My aim in this thesis is to ascertain whether Reformed Epistemology is viable in light of contemporary scientific explanations of the mechanisms of religious belief- formation, especially the Cognitive Science of Religion (CSR). I argue for a qualified “yes.” To begin with, I attempt to carefully reconstruct and scrutinise some currently popular “debunking arguments” from CSR’s findings, which aim to show that non-inferential religious beliefs are not knowledge, even if true, given the causal origins that CSR ascribes to them. I try to show that in various ways these arguments fail. Subsequently, I attempt to find a better such argument. The strongest debunking argument, I contend, is one that focuses upon the diverse and mutually inconsistent outputs of the religious belief-producing mechanisms described by CSR. However, I go on to argue that even supposing that this argument succeeds in showing that religious beliefs that are partly the product of contingent cultural influences are not knowledge even if true, there remains a body of what I term “core propositions”—propositions concerning the existence of some kind of personal, supernatural creator and moral lawgiver, in which humans are naturally disposed to believe regardless of their particular cultural setting— that can be known if God exists. Finally, I try to show that merely having this core supernaturalistic knowledge would provide someone with the cognitive contact with God that is sufficient for having a personal relationship with God (if God exists), even if only de re relationship. I argue, moreover, that God would have positively good reasons for creating a world in which human beliefs about life’s most important matters, including religious matters, are significantly dependent upon testimony and hence subject to the ebbs and flows of cultural tides.

Les questions d’adaptabilité de la démocratie occidentale dans le contexte chinois ont toujours été une préoccupation importante. Cette recherche vise à étudier l’adaptabilité de la démocratie délibérative dans le contexte de la chine en termes de perspective normative. Tout d’abord, on s’est concentré sur la Théorie de discussion de droit et démocratie de Habermas, parce que c’est une des théories normatives de délibération démocratique les plus discutées en Chine aujourd’hui. Compte-tenu de la normativité et de l’idéalité de la théorie de Habermas, la théorie du discours des relations de pouvoir de Foucault est introduite pour illustrer la tension entre différentes théories de discours occidentaux. Puis, afin d’enquêter sur les adaptabilités de ces deux théories du discours dans le contexte chinois et d’équilibrer la tension entre les deux, un autre concept normatif, la rationalité confucéenne, est attirée sur des sources culturelles traditionnelles chinoises. En conséquence, trois dimensions de la théorie du discours, ainsi que les relations entre eux, sont présentés. Certaines descriptions empiriques sur les faits de la Chine historique et politique sont également nécessaires d’utilisation pour expliquer, compléter ou interroger ce cadre théorique. Deux perspectives de tension sont toujours critiques dans toute la recherche : la tension entre universalité et particularité et la tension entre les théories normatives et des faits socio-politiques. Grâce à l’approche des études de texte, ainsi que des études de conception et d’études empirique comme suppléments, la recherche est menée comme suit. Le premier chapitre traite de la tension entre la théorie du discours du droit et de la démocratie de Habermas et les faits sociaux. Le chapitre 2 analyse la tension entre la théorie du discours de Habermas et la théorie du discours de Foucault et plaide en faveur de la remise en question des problèmes de tension. Le troisième chapitre tente de rechercher les ressources dans les cultures politiques traditionnelles chinoises et de proposer une autre théorie normative de discours, la théorie du discours de la rationalité confucéenne, pour équilibrer la tension entre les deux précédentes théories normatives de discours. On fait valoir que le type idéal de rationalité confucéenne (un type normatif de rationalité de valeur) peut être utilisé comme un pont de communication entre les deux théories du discours opposées. Le chapitre 4, par des descriptions empiriques sur l’espace publique et les discussions politiques/juridiques dans la société traditionnelles chinoise, explique la théorie normative proposée au chapitre 3 et tente de réexaminer et de redéfinir les notions d’« espace publique » dans le contexte de la Chine traditionnelle. Enfin, le chapitre 5 se concentre sur les descriptions des discussions politiques et juridiques dans l’espace publique des nouveaux médias de la Chine d’aujourd’hui. C’est une réponse empirique pour toutes les études normatives antérieures, et aussi une enquête sur la tension entre les théories normatives et les expériences sociales. Je soutiens que, en raison des différentes structures cognitives et les différents modes de pensée dans les différentes cultures, il devrait y avoir différents paradigmes normatifs de la démocratie du discours dans les différents contextes culturels, et que la normativité et la réalité sont les deux faces d’une même médaille. Les théories normatives du discours sont des guides pour les pratiques de la démocratie délibérative et les pratiques de la démocratie délibératives peuvent vérifier, compléter ou améliorer les théories normatives du discours. Outre la démonstration des dimensions plurielles de théories du discours, une autre intention pratique de cette thèse est de plaider pour une approche de la démocratie délibérative, qui serait à la fois chinoise et moderne. / The adaptability issues of Western democracy in the context of China have always been an important academic concern. This research was intended to study the adaptability of deliberative democracy in the Chinese context in terms of a normative perspective. At the beginning, this research focused on Habermas‘s Discourse Theory of Law and Democracy, because it is one of the most discussed normative deliberative democratic theories in China today. Taking into consideration the normativity and ideality of Habermas‘s theory, Foucault‘s discourse theory of power relations is then introduced to illustrate the tensions between different Western discourse theories. In order to investigate the adaptabilities of these two discourse theories in the Chinese context, and to balance the tension between them, another normative concept, namely the Confucian Rationality, is then drawn upon from traditional Chinese cultural sources. Accordingly, these three dimensions of discourse theory, as well as the relations between them, are presented. The employment of some empirical descriptions of certain Chinese historical-political facts is also necessary to explain, to supplement, or to question this theoretic framework. Two tension perspectives are critical throughout the research: the tension between universality and particularity, and the tension between normative theories and social-political facts.Through the approaches of textual studies, aided by conceptual and empirical studies as complements, the research is conducted as following: Chapter 1 discusses the tension between Habermas‘s normative discourse theory of law and democracy and social facts; Chapter 2 analyzes the tension between Habermas‘s discourse theory and Foucault‘s discourse theory of power relations, and proposes to rethink the tension problems. Chapter 3 tries to search for the resources in traditional Chinese political cultures, and to put forward another normative discourse theory- the discourse theory of Confucian rationality- to balance the tension between the foregoing two normative discourse theories. It is argued that an ideal type of Confucian rationality (a kind of normative value rationality) can be used as a bridge between the two opposite discourse theories. Chapter 4 further explains the normative theory that was proposed in Chapter 3, and tries to reexamine and redefine the concepts of ―Public Sphere‖ and ―Deliberative Politics in the context of traditional China through empirical descriptions on the ―Public Sphere‖ and political/legal discussions in traditional Chinese society. Finally,Chapter 5 focuses on the descriptions of the political and legal discussions in China's new media public sphere today. It is an empirical response to all the normative studies mentioned above, and at the same time an investigation on the tensions between the normative theories and the social experiences. We argue that, because of the different cognitive structures and diverse modes of thinking in specific cultures, there should be different normative paradigms of discourse democracy in corresponding cultural contexts. Normativity and reality are the two sides of the same coin. Normative discourse theories serve as the guidance for the practices of deliberative democracy, which can, in its turn, verify, supplement, improve and challenge the normative discourse theories. Apart from demonstrating of the multiple dimensions of discourse theories, another practical intent of this thesis is to promote an approach leading to discourse democracy that would combine elements of both Chinese and modern, consistent with both the fundamental predilections of Chinese civilization, and the practical needs of a modern China.

Bakgrund: Varje dag gör människor val som har större eller mindre påverkan på framtiden. I takt med att hållbarhet påverkar en större del av vår vardag, kommer även beslut kring sparande bli mer påverkat av aspekter som hållbarhet och socialt ansvarstagande. Det är långt ifrån alla konsumenter som tenderar till att vara medvetna om hur stor påverkan deras fondval kan ha på bolagen som fonden investerar i och även hur stor påverkan det kan ha på vår hållbara framtid. Beslut rörande hållbara fonder påverkas inte bara av förväntad avkastning och hållbarhet utan även psykologiska faktorer. Hur informationen presenteras för fondspararen kommer därför påverka hur investeringen uppfattas och hur beslutet argumenteras för av investeraren. Det framgår att det finns ett informationsgap mellan fondbolagen och privatpersoner kring hur hållbara fonder kan påverka bolagen fonden investerar i. Lite kunskap finns även om hur privatpersoner resonerar kring hållbara fonder. Genom att undersöka privatpersoners beslutfattande kring hållbara fonder bidrar studien till en kunskapsspridning och kartläggning om hur beslut inom hållbara fonder fattas. Syfte: Studiens syfte är att kartlägga hur privatpersoner fattar beslut som leder till investeringar i hållbara fonder och vilka faktorer som kan påverka beslutsfattandeprocessen. Genomförande: Studien är tentativ och karaktäriseras av ett kvalitativt tillvägagångssätt. Empirin har samlats in genom ett bekvämlighetsurval med inslag av såväl målstyrt- och kvoturval. Sammanlagt har 72 privatpersoner intervjuats under en tidsperiod på tre veckor. Slutsats: Studien resulterar i att faktorerna referenspunkt, rationalitet, socialt dilemma samt framing påverkar beslutsfattandeprocessen vid val av hållbara fonder och vissa av dessa är påverkningsbara. Studiens författare har, genom empirin, även skapat olika investeringsprofiler beroende på hur privatpersoner fattar beslut inom hållbara fonder. Vidare har ett analysverktyg utvecklats för att tydliggöra när de ovan presenterade faktorerna påverkar beslutsfattandeprocessen. Analysverktyget kan användas av fondförvaltare som arbetar med hållbara fonder för att förstå vad som påverkar beslutsfattandeprocessen samt vad de kan göra för att påverka investerares beslut. / B Background: Every day, people make choices that have an impact on their future. As sustainability affects a greater part of our daily lives, savings decisions will also be more affected by sustainability and social responsibility. It tends to be far from all consumers who are aware of the impact of their funds on the companies the funds invests in and even less the impact it may have on our sustainable future. Sustainable investment decisions are affected not only by expected returns and sustainability but also psychological factors. Therefore, how the information is presented to the investor will affect how the investment is perceived and how the decision is being argued. It appears that there is an information gap between fund companies and individuals regarding how sustainable funds can affect sustainability and how individuals make sustainable investment decisions. By studying individuals’ decision-making in sustainable funds, the study contributes to the dissemination of knowledge and mapping of how sustainable investment decisions are carried out. Purpose: The purpose of the study is to describe how individuals make decisions that lead to sustainable fund investments and, which factors can affect the decision-making. Completion: The study is tentative and based on a qualitative approach. The empirical data has been collected through a convenience sample with elements of both target and quota sample. A total of 72 interviews with private individuals have been conducted during the time period of three weeks. Conclusion: The study conclusion is that reference points, rationality, social dilemma and framing affect the decision-making process when deciding about sustainable funds, some of which are influential. Through the empirical study, the authors have also created different investment profiles depending on how individuals make decisions in sustainable funds. Furthermore, an analysis tool has been developed to clarify when these factors presented above has an effect on the decision-making process. The analysis tool can be used by fund managers working with sustainable funds to understand what affects the decision-making process and what they can do to influence investors' decisions.

[pt] A Constituição de 88, elaborada no processo de democratização do Brasil no final da década de 80, estabeleceu matrizes para a formulação de uma política criminal consentânea com o novo quadro democrático. O texto constitucional fornece os eixos desta orientação político-criminal que podem ser resumidos nas seguintes vertentes: as garantias fundamentais de inspiração liberal, a abertura do direito penal para a proteção de bens jurídicos de caráter coletivo e supraindividual e a manutenção do espaço tradicional e histórico de proteção penal. O objetivo deste trabalho é analisar de que forma as leis penais produzidas no quadro democrático se orientaram a partir das diretrizes trazidas pela Constituição. Da mesma forma, pretendemos estudar como a interpretação deste direito posto se deu na jurisprudência, especialmente aquela proveniente do STF. Nossa premissa foi a de que o Poder Legislativo encontrou dificuldades em formular uma política criminal racional para o Brasil, neste período, pois ficou no centro de tensões internas e externas, de onde emergiram direções antagônicas e oscilantes. No quadro de crise de racionalidade do sistema de leis penais, intensificou-se o papel do judiciário e especialmente do STF, pendendo para o ativismo judicial, de maneira que as diretrizes político-criminais brasileiras, hoje, vêm sendo ditadas pelo STF. O quadro teórico que se formou como pano de fundo destas tensões institucionais tendeu para um determinado reducionismo. O garantismo penal engloba hoje, no Brasil, boa parte das vertentes críticas do sistema penal, embora sua grade de categorias e princípios seja insuficiente para a readequação da política criminal em moldes mais racionais. Tomando por base os dois atores eleitos - o Legislativo e o STF, estudamos a produção legislativa em matéria penal e a evolução da jurisprudência do Supremo em torno de alguns temas que representam e desdobram os eixos constitucionalmente traçados. Sobre estas trajetórias, buscamos identificar as conexões com o pensamento teórico subjacente. A constatação de que as lacunas de racionalidade do legislador não podem ser supridas satisfatoriamente pelo judiciário em um quadro democrático e que a superação destas deficiências requer escolhas que vão além da adoção do garantismo penal, fizeram com que fossem delineadas algumas propostas políticocriminais e que passam pela revalorização do papel da lei penal e pela recuperação de seus níveis de racionalidade. / [en] Brazilian Constitution of 1988, written in the middle of the democratization process, in the end of 80s, established some axes for the formulation of a criminal policy according to the new scenario. The text of the Constitution gives the directions of this policy, that can be resumed in the following senses: the fundamental guarantees of liberal inspiration; the opening of criminal law for the protection of collective and supraindividual rights, and the maintenance of the traditional and historical profile of criminal law. The work aims to analyze if the laws that were produced in criminal subject, after de democratization of the country, were oriented by the directions brought by Constitution. Equally, we intend to analyze the judicial interpretation of this law, especially by Brazilian Supreme Court – STF. With that in mind, we assumed that Legislature had difficulties in formulating a rational criminal policy to Brazil, during this period, because it stayed in the center of internal and external forces, from which the choices emerged in an antagonic and swinging way. In a situation of crisis of rationality in the law system, judiciary has increased its role, tending to a judicial activism, in a way that we can conclude that criminal policy has been determinated by STF, instead of Legislature. The theories behind this scenario of institutional tensions were reduced to a narrow space. The penal guarantism summarizes great part of the critical positions in Brazil, although its categories and principles don’t satisfy the needs for a new criminal policy in rational frames. Taking into consideration these two elected actors: Legislature and STF, we studied the legislation in penal subject and the evolution of the STF interpretation about some themes which represent the axes determined by Constitution. Over these substract, we tried to identify the connections with the theories behind. The conclusion around the lacks of rationality of Legislature, and moreover, the assumption that these lacks can’t be supplied entirely by Judiciary, without sacrifices in democratic system, as well as the conclusion that the adoption of guarantist standards don’t give us all the possible directions, lead us to outline some proposals on criminal policy, taking into account the necessity of improving the role of penal law, and to recover the levels of rationality.

View of rational choice in coherence with ultimatum game. Rational choice theory adjusted by joining behavioral economics to better comprehend decision-making processes. In this thesis I focus on researching strong influences using multiple simple games. Namely: ultimatum game, dictator game and modifications of previous. They will be carried out by online questionnaire. Next step will be analysis of components to determine significant ones and impact of game's modifications. I assume that decision-maker's rationality will be disproven. This thesis will continue with assessing influence of risk and fear of loss. Goal is to gather enough of detailed data about motivations and participants in order to perform analysis and establish statistically significant influences.

Epistemology in its contemporary post-modern ethos is generally believed to be inseparably hinged upon language. This of course ensures a major paradigm shift in the disciplined human conceptions of reality. It has been stated and is widely acknowledged that the Kantian Noumenal barrier has, in this recent shift, been proved to be looming far closer than it was ever previously considered. This new barrier to the world of ‘objective absolutes’ comprises a barrier of semantics and syntax, and calls for a radical restructuring of all the human sciences. There is surely no discipline in the humanities that can claim immunity to this colossal shift in epistemology, and theology (particularly of the Evangelical variety) is no exception to the rule. The impact of post-modern epistemological assumption upon contemporary Evangelicalism presents to those who adhere to this school’s position, a profound challenge. Conservative Christians, who hold to the propositional universality and the objectivity of biblical truth, find in the post-modern ethos little sympathy and no rational justification granted for their ‘metaphysical objectivity’. A major challenge therefore to Evangelical Christianity at the present time is this: Is there, in the light of the challenge of post-modern epistemology, any reasonable justification for continuing to adhere to the evangelical claim that God has spoken in unchanging propositional terms that are universally valid and binding? It would seem that in this regard many evangelicals are feeling pressured. Evidence of the pressure of this challenge can readily be found either in the growing contemporary evangelical tendency towards advocating a more cooperative attitude to the post-modern ethos, or in the reactionary theology of schools of thought like the Spiritual Warfare Movement. The writings of Clive Staples Lewis (1898 – 1963) have been proven effective in the countering of negative challenges to Christian faith for the past sixty years. Lewis, as an apologist, in the opinion of many intellectual searchers, positively and convincingly countered modernistic objections to faith in his own time. Modernistic assumptions prevailed in the Western world in Lewis’ day that tended to discredit a rational belief in the supernatural. Lewis was widely held to be an effective apostle to counter this modernistic scepticism. It is the conviction of the present writer that C. S. Lewis apologetics can be just as effectively utilised today in addressing post-modern challenges, as it was fifty years ago used to answer the questions raised by modernism. Lewis in all of his Christian writings, reveals an underlying epistemology that I believe (because it is based firmly upon Christian orthodoxy), has stood the test of time. The apologetics of C. S. Lewis may serve to answer post-modern challenges just as rationally as it did modernism. In this thesis, Lewis’ underlying epistemology will be examined. This will comprise the first part of my work. The second part of the thesis deals with the post-modern epistemological challenge to Evangelicalism as a world-view. The final part of this thesis consists of a dialogue between the most common post-modern challenges to evangelical thinking, and rationally compelling answers thereto that are found in Lewis’ writings. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Dogmatics and Christian Ethics / Unrestricted

This paper proposes an agency model for headquarters subsidiary relationships in multinational organizations with headquarters as the principal and the subsidiary as the agent. As a departure from classical agency theory, our model is developed for the unit level of analysis and considers two root causes of the agency problem - self-interest and bounded rationality. We argue that in the organizational setting, one cannot assume absolute self-interest and perfect rationality of agents (subsidiaries) but should allow them to vary. We explain subsidiary level variation through a set of internal organizational and external social conditions in which the headquarters-subsidiary agency dyad is embedded. We then discuss several agency scenarios reflecting various levels of selfinterest and rationality that lead to different manifestations of the agency problem. The proposed framework can inform more relevant applications of the agency perspective in organizational studies and motivate future research.