The health of the environment is integral to the health and wellbeing of the people. When the balance between Atua, whenua and tangata is disrupted, desecrated, disturbed or violated, it can have a detrimental impact on these relationships. This research study explored alternative indigenous paradigms for conceptualizing an environmental health framework that would improve the potency and health of all living things. A key question of the research study was to explore how Ngati Kuri sought to strengthen their relationship and connection with the natural world. The Hapu established Te Tai O Marokura health and social services as a vehicle to improve potency: healthy environments, healthy people. The specificity of Ngati Kuri experiences provided a broader context for researching and theorizing about restorative models that utilized traditional knowledge localized to a particular area. Another key question was to examine how Maori cultural values that were embedded within a worldview, could offer insights and constructs for new ways of being and thinking in the modern world. Kaupapa Maori philosophical positioning and theorizing informed the approaches and practices underpinning the study. The key aspects of the methodology were constructed around the tikanga principles of tinorangatiratanga, whakapapa and kaitiakitanga to provide a rationale for the collaboration formed with the Hapu. At the heart of the thesis is the validity given to the collective ownership of indigenous knowledge which challenges the fictional notion of a singular, temporally bound authorship. The thesis reflects the whakawhanaungatanga (reciprocal understanding) relationship between the Tuakana represented by Miriama Kahu and the Teina, Benita Wakefield working collaboratively with the Kaitiaki construct group formed to ensure that the use of indigenous knowledge and its transmission processes had honest transparency. The Tuakana was responsible for providing guidance, wisdom and mentoring to the Teina, the enrolled academic student responsible for producing the written thesis. These innovative collaborative Kaupapa Maori methods and practices in the study have tested the boundaries of conventional doctoral processes, breaking university academic regulations and challenging the western academy in the political nature of collective knowledge production and validity of indigenous knowledge. Qualitative and quantitative processes, approaches and methods were also utilized to inform the study and to ensure reflexivity of research practices. The key findings of the study were: • Improving potency requires a depth of intimacy and connection with all living things that involves a reciprocal understanding of the relationship between Atua, whenua and tangata. • Indigenous knowledge is localized to a spatial area and embedded within a worldview that validates and affirms cultural values and beliefs which continue to have relevance in more contemporary times. • The transformative nature of alternative indigenous paradigms must encompass the totality of creation, humanity and their genealogical and inter-generational linkages to all life. A major contribution of this PhD has been to create new knowledge, ways of thinking and meaning for restoring potency through the environmental health conceptual framework grounded in cultural and spiritual values. The specific focus on Ngati Kuri traditional knowledge authentic to the Hapu and their application, has significantly contributed towards constructing alternative indigenous approaches for meeting the challenges within the modern world.

The thesis "Ethical aspects in the New Year's speeches by Vaclav Havel" interprets and evaluates the content of the New Year's speeches by President Havel in the light of civil and political ethics. In the study part first deals with the theoretical background (the areas of ethical consideration; relationship of ethics, politics, freedom) and also represents Havel`s ethical and philosophical dimension (the philosophical roots and sources of inspiration - the ideas, personalities). The core of thesis analyzes the ethical content and the development of the main ideas New Year's speeches, as well as their contribution to value creation on the road to moral autonomy and a more mature political culture. From the perspective of a new relation and in the context of the former regime, the last chapter reflects on Havel's considerations of ethical topics that are necessary for meaningful functioning of person in society with regard to civil and political ethos. Keywords Vaclav Havel, New Year`s speeches, ethics, political ethics, truth, love, conscience, liberty, responsibility, morals, morality, values, democracy, totality, civil courage.

本文嘗試以和平問題與暴力問題為焦點，重新理解列維納斯道德形上學之梗概，並解決其政治蘊義所造成的疑難。列維納斯的哲學基本上是一種和平哲學，其所論之和平乃被界定為對暴力的非暴力抵抗，並在其前期作品中具體展現為倫理學對政治學的抵抗。但此一抵抗關係隨著列維納斯的思想進程而逐漸呈現出一種兩歧性，從而引發其思想是否前後不一致的批判，亦產生對和平之純粹性的質疑。筆者的努力即在於說明此一疑難的成因並構想一調和方案。筆者主張，應將列維納斯的思想進程視為一條闡發其倫理學之政治蘊義的思路，但這條從倫理學走到政治學的和平之路，須途經社會學的迂迴方才可能，而如此一種中介性的社會學之建構，惟在列維納斯的他勒目詮釋中獲得。因此，本文綜觀列維納斯的哲學作品與宗教作品，先是闡述責任倫理學的和平蘊義，再從其宗教詮釋學對以色列社群的刻畫得到那基於倫理學之社會學的基本模式，最後參照解構主義的批判，在對質疑政治學與回答社會學的構想中，統括列維納斯的倫理思想與政治思想。 / Peace, as the non-violence resistance to violence, is one of the main topics of Levinas's philosophy. In this dissertation, I attempt to summarize Levinas's moral metaphysics and reflect its political implications by investigating the relation of peace and violence. The relation which in Levinas's early works could be seen as an opposition between ethics and politics has some ambiguity in his later works that emerges in a dialectical way: ethics both opposes and demands politics. My opinion is that this problem can be solved by referring to his religious works, especially his interpretations of the Talmud. In brief, the path of argument is from ethics to politics through sociology. First, I describe the basic principles of Levinas's ethical metaphysics by illustrating the typology of the other and the genealogy of the same, i.e. the phenomenology of the face of the other and the transformation from the same in itself to the same for the other. Second, I find the basic political model in terms of the hermeneutics of Talmud, especially the texts about the people of Israel. Final, I try to appeal to the postmodern thoughts in order to reconcile the risk of violence in Levinas's religious works, and integrate Levinas's ethical thoughts and political thoughts by constructing the politics of questioning and the sociology of response.