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[pt] A presente tese de doutorado realiza um estudo comparativo, no âmbito da teoria da justiça, envolvendo a teoria da igualdade complexa, formulada por Michael Walzer, autor inserido no rol dos comunitaristas, e a teoria da justiça como imparcialidade, formulada por John Rawls, autor inserido no rol dos liberais. Trata-se, portanto, de um estudo comparativo de autores baseado na categoria da justiça distributiva, conceito cuja formulação original remonta ao pensamento aristotélico. A tese - que contém elementos de filosofia moral, filosofia política e filosofia do direito - tem por objetivo verificar se a teoria da igualdade complexa, com sua metodologia particularista e seus princípios internos de distribuição, possibilita, como apregoa Michael Walzer, a crítica social ou se, de outra forma, esta crítica deve estar associada a uma moral universalista, como, por exemplo, a que nos é fornecida pelo modelo rawlsiano. / [en] The present doctorate thesis aims to make a comparative study, inthe context of the theory of justice, involving the theory of complexequality, formulated by Michael Walzer, author inserted in the communitarians list, and the theory of justice as fairness, formulated byJohn Rawls, author inserted in the liberals list. It s about, therefore, acomparative study of authors based on the category of distributive justice,whose concept was originally formulated by the aristotelic thought. Thethesis - that contains elements of moral philosophy, political philosophyand philosophy of law - aims to verify if the theory of complex equality,with its particularistic methodology and its internal principles ofdistribution, makes possible, as well as Michael Walzer proclaims, thesocial criticism or if, on the other hand, this criticism has to be associated toan universalistic moral, as, for example, that one provided by the rawlsianmodel.

In the first chapter of my doctoral thesis, entitled The Political Implications of Nietzsche's Perspectivism, I argue that due to conflicting passages present throughout his oeuvre, Nietzsche is best understood as a twofold metaphysical sceptic. That is, a sceptic about the existence of the external world, and consequently, as a sceptic about such a world's correspondence to our perspectives. Nietzsche presents a threefold conceptualization of 'nihilism' and a twofold one of the 'will to power.' Neutral nihilism is humanity's inescapable condition of having no non-humanly created meanings and values. This state can be interpreted positively as an opportunity to create one's own meanings and values, or negatively as a terrifying incentive to return to dogmatism. The will to power is life before and as it becomes life, the unqualified will to power, and all the realities in it, the qualifiable will to power. The combination of these ontological concepts brings me to my second chapter and to the determination of Nietzsche's general epistemology: perspectivism. Perspectivism is an admittedly created, ontologically derived interpretation of knowledge, which both entails and goes beyond relativism. Nietzsche's perspectivism is constructed to support any norm that allows for univocal evaluations, not just Nietzsche's. Moreover, it can be derived from any ontology that conceptualizes life as a unit of growth and decay and human beings as creators of all their perspectives. These two elastic concepts allow me to propose, in my third chapter, that, although his texts disavow an all-inclusive democracy in favour of a new spiritual aristocracy, on the one hand, the proper political implications of perspectivism allow for democracy, while on the other hand, Nietzsche can be read as disapproving of an all inclusive or representative democracy, yet as approving of the direct democracy that arises naturally among elite peers.

The error statistical account provides a basic account of evidence and inference. Formally, the approach is a re-interpretation of standard frequentist (Fisherian, Neyman-Pearson) statistics. Informally, it gives an account of inductive inference based on arguing from error, an analog of frequentist statistics, which keeps the concept of error probabilities central to the evaluation of inferences and evidence. Error statistical work at present tends to remain distinct from other approaches of naturalism and social epistemology in philosophy of science and, more generally, Science and Technology Studies (STS). My goal is to employ the error statistical program in order to address a number of problems to approaches in philosophy of science, which fall under two broad headings: (1) naturalistic philosophy of science and (2) social epistemology. The naturalistic approaches that I am interested in looking at seek to provide us with an account of scientific and meta-scientific methodologies that will avoid extreme skepticism, relativism and subjectivity and claim to teach us something about scientific inferences and evidence produced by experiments (broadly construed). I argue that these accounts fail to identify a satisfactory program for achieving those goals and; moreover, to the extent that they succeed it is by latching on to the more general principles and arguments from error statistics. In sum, I will apply the basic ideas from error statistics and use them to examine (and improve upon) an area to which they have not yet been applied, namely in assessing and pushing forward these interdisciplinary pursuits involving naturalistic philosophies of science that appeal to cognitive science, psychology, the scientific record and a variety of social epistemologies. / Ph. D.

Systematic Theology and Theological Ethics / D.Th. (Theological Ethics)

The world has seen gradual evolution of regional human rights arrangements. The adoption by the UN General Assembly of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on December 10, 1948, was followed by the creation of numerous regional instruments that address concerns of particular importance in the regional context. Three world regions, Africa, the Americas and Europe, have established their respective regional instruments together with the supervisory mechanism, such as commissions and courts. The African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, with its emphasis on group rights and individual duties challenges the Western liberal account of rights, as expressed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The cultural differences brought to the fore not only the tension between individual and group rights but also the question as to whether of the universalism of human rights is possible. The study advocates for a moderate universalism of human rights, which can only be achieved through a dialogue among different cultural approaches to the notion of human rights. This study examines the content and substance of human rights norms of the African system with a view to recommending the possible strategies for their reform. Its central thesis is, the system is rather weak and therefore needs to be reformed. Toward this end, the study analyses the provisions of the African Charter. Thereafter, it explores its weaknesses and proposes strategies for their reform. The African human rights mechanisms face a number of common and particular challenges. Prospectively, Africa is going through a tremendous and interesting phase. These challenges are not insurmountable. / Constitutional, International and Indigenous Law / LL.D.

Alan Sokal has questioned the postmodern assertion that 'science is ... a "myth'', a "narration" ... a "social construction'" (1998: x). This dissertation examines his reasons for rejecting this allegedly postmodern declaration. Firstly, it suggests that the basis for Sol'1ll's contention that a 'true' world exists beyond one's awareness of it extends to an attack on modem philosophy, and is not limited to its postmodern component. Then, it describes defences of the 'linguistic construction' of science as thinly veiled attempts at emulating scientific discourses. In a more speculative vein, the dissertation goes on to evaluate claims made against science in terms of its connection to warfare; its insensitivity to mythology, and its generally misdirected values. It is in terms of value that the dissertation detects an analogous relationship between the discourses of mythology and science. Finally, a playful 'postmodern' reading is attempted of Sol'1ll's use of fiction in establishing the truth of his assertions. / English Studies / M.A.(English)

L’approche des capabilités a été caractérisée par un développement fulgurant au cours des vingt-cinq dernières années. Bien que formulée à l’origine par Amartya Sen, détenteur du Prix Nobel en économie, Martha Nussbaum reprit cette approche dans le but de s’en servir comme fondation pour une théorie éthico-politique intégrale du bien. Cependant, la version de Nussbaum s’avéra particulièrement vulnérable à plusieurs critiques importantes, mettant sérieusement en doute son efficacité globale. À la lumière de ces faits, cette thèse vise à évaluer la pertinence théorique et pratique de l’approche des capabilités de Nussbaum, en examinant trois groupes de critiques particulièrement percutantes formulées à son encontre. / The capabilities approach has seen significant development over the past quarter century, branching out into a variety of fields and directions. Originally developed by Nobel Prize Laureate Amartya Sen, Martha Nussbaum has sought to extend this approach beyond its mainly instrumental role into a tangible foundation for a full-fledged ethical-political theory of the good. However, this move has attracted a great number of criticisms levelled against Nussbaum’s specific version of the capabilities approach. In this thesis, I identify three main groups of observations under which said criticisms can be classified, and assess their respective strength and tenability.

Ľubica Guindon :Universalism of Human Rights in the Light of pluralism of African cultural values The purpose of this thesis is to analyze actual discourse in international law terms about universal or culturally determined characters of human rights. This theoretical problem is introduced with the focus on legal qualification of female circumcision (FC/ FGM ) in international human rights protection. The study goes beyond the scope of international law and reaches cross-disciplinary analysis related to the African context and its cultural, political and social factors. Chapter One addresses the theoretical issues of the notion of human rights, its sources and models in international law. This passage challenges an African approach to human rights bills including a catalogue of individual duties towards family, state and society as a whole. This concern about collective identity of a person within his or her community is a very important feature of African understanding of human rights and human dignity, and can enrich the universal consensus in this field. Within the theoretical issues of the international human rights protection it is necessary to look at the global, regional and local dimension of legal regulation. The most influential strategies on the global level are universal treaties with...

Nombre de « scandales éthiques » ont émaillé l’actualité de la recherche clinique dans les pays du Sud. Face à ce constat, il semble que les principes fondateurs de l’éthique de la recherche biomédicale admis et promulgués par les déclarations et les conférences de consensus internationales ne suffisent pas à protéger au Sud les volontaires participant à des essais cliniques. Nécessitant une adaptation hors du contexte qui a permis leur consolidation, bien que soit donné à voir à chaque nouveau scandale à quel point tout infléchissement des cadres normatifs peut être porteur de dérives inadmissibles, ces principes s’avèrent pour partie remis en question par la situation économique, sanitaire, sociétale des pays du Sud.Le concept de « double standard éthique » décrivant le double écueil auquel l’éthique de la recherche doit faire face, celle-ci s’avère captive d’une forme d’impérialisme des principes et des valeurs ou bien vouée au relativisme moral. La première alternative semble devoir conduire inexorablement à l’arrêt des recherches cliniques dans les pays ne permettant pas l’application stricte des normes qui les encadrent au Nord. La deuxième semble quant à elle mener à l’acceptation d’une réalisation irresponsable,dérégulée, d’essais cliniques aux finalités variables. Face à ce constat, se pose la question de savoir si cette alternative entre absolutisation de la norme et dérégulation peut être dépassée afin de penser une éthique de la recherche au Sud à la fois universelle et singulière.L’exploration de cette question permettra de redéfinir l’éthique comme processus de discussion et de priorisation des principes universels guidé par une compréhension de situations toujours singulières. De ce point de vue, l’adaptation des « conceptions internationalistes » de l’éthique de la recherche à la singularité des contextes apparaîtra non comme une nécessité externe, provoquée par un élément extérieur,mais comme un devoir inhérent à la nature même de la visée éthique. Plus encore, les questions posées par les contextes des pays du Sud à l’éthique de la recherche clinique serviront de révélateur en contribuant à montrer le bien fondé d’une remise encause des interprétations normatives de ses principes, au Nord y compris.7 / Number of “ethical scandals” have punctuated the news of clinical research in developing countries. Given this fact, it seems that the founding principles of the ethics’ biomedical research accepted and promulgated by declarations and international conferences are not enough to protect the volunteers participating in clinical trials in South’s countries. Out of context enabling their strengthening, ethical principles require adaptation. If each new scandal shows how any shift in regulatory frameworks may carry unacceptable abuses, these principles are nevertheless found challenged by South’s economic, state of health and social organizations. The concept of “double standard ethics” describes the twin dangers to which the biomedical research ethics faces. Indeed, biomedical research is captive to a form of imperialism of principles and values, or devoted to moral relativism. The first alternative seems to lead inexorably to the cessation of clinical research in developing countries do not allow the strict application of the standards that govern the North. The second appears to lead to the acceptance of irresponsible and unregulated clinical trials.Given this situation, the question arises whether this alternative may be exceeded in order to assume a research ethics in the South at once universal and unique. The exploration of this issue will redefine ethics as a process of discussion and priorization of universal principles guided by an understanding of situations always singular. From this point of view, the adaptation of “internationalist conceptions” of research ethics to unique contexts appear not as an external necessity but as a duty inherent in the nature of the ethical aim. Moreover, questions asked by the contexts of the South’s countries to the ethics’ clinical research will serve as a contributing developer to show the merits of a challenge to normative interpretations of its principles, including in North’s countries.