D. Litt. et Phil. / This dissertation is an exegetical study of the book of Ruth in which there is a clear indication that the concept of יראת יהוה is used in the book to function as a practical illustration of this particular wisdom motif. The investigation is mainly concerned with four text units from the book of Ruth, namely Ruth 1:16-17 (as part of pericope 1 and the unit 1:15-17); 2:12 (as part of pericope 2 and the unit 2:11-13); 3:9 (as part of pericope 3 and the unit 3:9-16a); and 4:11-13 (as part of pericope 4 and the units 4:3- 12 and 4:13).

Plato´s Republic is maybe the most widely read philosophical work of all times. It is the earliest surviving, systematic utopia in Europe´s history and continues to inspire people today. But who did Plato want to address with his work and why? In this paper I will discuss these issues. My thesis is that Plato wanted to direct his Republic to people, men and women, who have a good character and love wisdom in order to make them to think radically differently from the traditional norms. If these would-be philosophers could challenge the old-fashioned way of seeing things they could take the lead to establish a just society. I will also discuss critically two alternative approaches from other philosophers.

Chatham Islands are part of a small archipelago, Tl’chés, off the City of Victoria, southeastern Vancouver Island (British Columbia, Canada), in the Salish Sea, territory of the Songhees First Nation. Chatham and adjacent islands comprise nationally endangered Garry oak ecosystems, supporting a wide diversity of habitats for plant and wildlife communities. Chatham Islands are childhood home of Songhees elder Joan Morris [Sellemah], raised by grandparents and great-grandparents. Tl’chés has been uninhabited and untended for over 50 years now, entering in a process of rapid environmental change and degradation after Songhees residents left to live in the main Songhees Reserve in late 1950s. Sellemah longs to see the traditional gardens and orchards she remembers at Tl’chés restored, as well as her people’s relationship with their environment, for healthier and more sustainable ways of life. This thesis honours Sellemah’s vision by exploring best approaches for intervention in heavily degraded cultural landscapes in order to promote ecological and cultural integrity and long-term sustainability for people and ecosystems in Tl’chés, combining conventional ecological approaches with traditional ecological knowledge and wisdom (TEKW), cultural and participatory investigations, in the context of ethnoecological restoration. Ultimately, this research aims to provide assistance in the restoration of ecological and cultural features in Chatham Islands and within the Songhees First Nation, revitalizing traditional ecological knowledge on the landscape and reversing trends of biodiversity and cultural losses. / Graduate

Contemporary Christian ethical decision making includes a move toward responsibility, that is, ways in which responsibility should qualify Christian ethics in general. Linking the ways in which responsibility should qualify Christian ethics with the process of ethical decision making itself as an ideal type, it clarifies the prejudices which make for responsible use of the Bible in Christian ethical decision making. When the prejudices influencing the hermeneutical task in Christian ethical decision making are conformable to the ways in which responsibility should qualify Christian ethics, the Bible is used in a responsible way in Christian ethical decision making. Responsible use of the Bible is linked with the hermeneutical notion that prejudices constitute the link between past text and current interpreter. This lead to the text being understood in new way(s) in each new historical situation. In this way it is able to undo the notion that the link between past text and current interpreter can be had from historical objectivism, with its prejudice against prejudices in Biblical interpretation, and which holds that the meaning of a text is restricted to what the original author intended. Once this original meaning has been uncovered it becomes valid for all times and under all circumstances, and can therefore be closed. This closure is then linked with an ethics of conviction, as opposed to the ways in which responsibility should qualify Christian ethics. In exegeting Romans 1: 26-27, as an example, within an ideal type of Christian ethical decision making, it is shown how the interpretation of the text is influenced by the ways in which responsibility should qualify Christian ethics in general. This makes for a new understanding of the text related to the context in which the interpretation happens. As an example it is thus able to show how prejudices can influence the hermeneutical task in Christian ethical decision making. It makes for a responsible reading of the text for the prejudices which are allowed to influence the hermeneutical task are conformable to the ways in which responsibility should qualify Christian ethical decision making. In this way the exegesis of the text is able to show that the understanding of a text, in an ideal type of Christian ethical decision making, is subject to prejudices as that which makes all understanding, also understanding for moral action possible. Copyright / Dissertation (MA(Theol))--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Dogmatics and Christian Ethics / unrestricted

Wisdom, though ancient in concept, has only recently grown in empirical research. Often seen as the pinnacle of human development, wisdom includes the key aspects of exceptional insight, reflection, discernment, knowledge, and judgment, which are required for guiding the long-term future of an organization. Wisdom is believed to enhance an organization's ability to work towards multiple goals simultaneously, assist in appropriately assigning priorities, and lessen the organization's reliance on guidance or rules. Utilizing simultaneous regression analysis, available through partial least squares modeling, this research study included 230 full time non-instructional staff from both a traditional university setting and numerous branch offices. The collective wisdom of individuals in a business setting, measured as a composite of the three dimensions (cognitive, affective and reflective), significantly increased team cohesiveness, cognitive-based and affective-based interpersonal trust, and intrinsic job satisfaction. The reflective wisdom factor of lack of self-pity or resentment provided the largest effect upon all three organizational measures. Perspective-taking significantly increased both team cohesiveness and all four aspects of emotional intelligence. Though emotional intelligence did have many significant relationships with wisdom, it was not determined to serve as a mediating variable.

Dans l’exercice de son office, le juge est en permanence aux prises avec la loi et sa conscience. Cette réalité n’est pas propre à notre temps. Elle est une donnée constante de l’histoire judiciaire. Et selon les époques, la conscience du juge n’a pas toujours occupé la même place. Cette oscillation de la place de la conscience dans l’acte de juger témoigne à la fois d’un souci de justice et d’un souci éthique. Malgré les tentatives des doctrines positivistes et légicentristes d’atténuer, voire d’évacuer la question de la conscience du juge de la sphère judiciaire, elle demeure entière, et bien plus encore aujourd’hui avec la complexité de plus en plus grande de certaines affaires judiciaires. Le droit et la conscience sont un couple viscéralement lié mais malheureusement un couple en « difficulté », où le droit ne triomphe pas toujours et où la conscience n’a pas toujours bonne presse au regard de la dimension subjective qui la caractérise et à laquelle elle est très souvent réduite. Si cette question a fait l’objet jusqu’ici d’une abondante littérature tant en droit français qu’en droit canonique, il nous semble qu’elle a été essentiellement abordée soit sous l’angle du droit séculier soit sous l’angle exclusivement du droit canonique. A notre connaissance aucune étude comparative n’a été faite sur ce sujet. D’où l’intérêt de notre étude. Nous proposons donc dans cette investigation une étude comparée de la conscience du juge en droit pénal français et en droit canonique à travers respectivement les concepts d’intime conviction et de certitude morale. En droit pénal français, les juges et les jurés conformément à l’art. 353 CPP, doivent juger en se référant à leur intime conviction tandis que dans la législation canonique le juge ne peut, quel que soit le litige, prononcer sa sentence qu’après avoir acquis conformément au c. 1608, CIC/83 la certitude morale sur la vérité des faits. L’« intime conviction » en droit français et la certitude morale en droit canonique sont deux formes de la manifestation de la conscience du juge. Nous nous interrogeons donc de savoir si la certitude morale est en droit canonique ce que l’intime conviction en droit pénal français. À travers cette étude comparée nous voulons soustraire le jugement selon la conscience des caricatures dont il fait l’objet et mettre en évidence la complexité de l’office du juge. Au cœur du débat sur la conscience du juge c’est l’office tout entier du juge qui est en jeu. Juger est un art qui mobilise toute la personne du juge et met en évidence son autorité à travers une perspicacité et une prudence ritualisées. La conscience du juge – dont la manifestation se décline sous les vocables d’intime conviction et de certitude morale respectivement dans les systèmes juridiques français et canonique et dont le risque d’arbitraire est si communément appréhendé par l’opinion – est un gage de justice et de vérité pour autant qu’elle soit soumise à l’épreuve du rituel judiciaire. Si notre société contemporaine se rebiffe à l’idée de conscience – renvoyée d’emblée à la sphère exclusivement morale et subjective – notre investigation a pour finalité de démontrer que la conscience du juge telle que comprise dans les législations canonique et française revêt un sens technique précis qui ne saurait être enfermé dans une quelconque normativité. / In the exercise of his office, the judge is constantly struggling with the law and his conscience. This reality is not peculiar to our time. It is a constant in judicial history. According to the times in history, the judge's conscience has not always occupied the same place. This oscillation of the place of consciousness in the act of judging shows both a concern for justice and an ethical concern. Despite the attempts of positivist and law-centrist doctrines to mitigate or even dispel the question of the judge's consciousness of the judicial sphere; it remains intact, even more so today with the increasing complexity of certain cases. The ‘righteous’ and the ‘conscientious’ are a viscerally linked couple but unfortunately it is a couple in "difficulty", where the law does not always triumph and where the conscience does not always have good press with regard to the subjective dimension which characterizes it and to which it is very often reduced. If this question has so far been the subject of an abundant literature in both French and Canon law, I believe that it has been essentially approached either from the angle of secular law or exclusively Canon law. To our knowledge, no comparative study has been made on this subject. Hence the interest of our study. We therefore propose in this investigation a comparative study of the judge's conscience in both French criminal law and Canon law through respectively the concepts of ‘intimate conviction’ and ‘moral certainty’. In French criminal law, judges and jurors, in accordance with art. 353 CPP must judge by referring to their intimate conviction whereas in the Canon law the judge cannot; whatever the litigation pronounce in his sentence that after having acquired according to c. 1608, CIC/83 "moral certainty" about the truth of the facts. "Intimate conviction" in French law and "moral certainty" in Canon law are two forms of manifestation of the judge's conscience. We therefore wonder whether "moral certainty" is in canon law what the "conviction" is in French criminal law. Through this comparative study we wish to subtract the judgment according to the consciousness of the caricatures of which it is the object, and to highlight the complexity of the office of the judge. At the heart of the debate about the conscience of the judge is the entire office of the judge that is at stake. Judging is an art that mobilizes the whole person of the judge and highlights his authority through a ritualized perspicacity and prudence. The conscience of the judge - whose manifestation is expressed under the terms of intimate conviction and moral certainty respectively in the French and canonical legal systems and whose risk of arbitrariness is so commonly apprehended by the public - is a pledge of justice and truth as much as it is subject to the test of judicial ritual. If our contemporary society rebels to the idea of consciousness – seen as an outset to the exclusively moral and subjective sphere -, our investigation aims to demonstrate that the conscience of the judge as understood in the canonical and French legislation has a precise technical meaning, which cannot be locked in any normativity.

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This thesis aims to explore the topic of wisdom and its effect on coping in sample of young adults in the context of COVID-19 pandemic. First, the theoretical part provides an overview of important theories of wisdom, which are dominant in the contemporary psychological research. Afterwards, it introduces theories of coping and coping strategies, it presents existing research concerning the relationship between wisdom and coping and finally, it describes the situation of the COVID-19 outbreak as a potential source of stress. The practical part includes an exploratory and confirmatory part. The exploratory part presents results of detailed mapping of subjective experiences and responses of xoung adults to situation of pandemic. Results show that young adults perceive negative influence of the pandemic on different spheres of their lifes - the most commonly on finances, job and their psychological state. The level of fear of COVID-19 seems to be lower in the Czech samble than in the Iranian or Italian sample. Results of the confirmatory part present relationship between ways of coping and particular wisdom dimensions. Regression analysis revealed that wisdom, coping and perceived control are significant predictors of perceived stress during the pandemic. KEYWORDS Wisdom, Three-Dimensional Wisdom...

No description available.

Conventional wisdom is that fiscal policy at the regional level is ineffective. Recent concern about stability of bond-financed fiscal policy imposes an additional constraint on the effectiveness of interregional fiscal policy. In the conventional macroeconomic model, regional public sectors are ignored, or are at most a subset of the national model. Fiscal and financial interrelationships among different levels of government have not been investigated thoroughly in the literature. The purpose of this dissertation is to provide a theoretical framework for the analysis of interregional fiscal policy. We argue that all government budget constraints must be explicitly included in the model, and regions become the major building blocks of the system. Stability of the system then defends on the fiscal and financial interrelationships among different levels of government. We examine a once-and-for-all fiscal policy change in the interregional model with and without the federal sector. The simulated results based on an acceptable range of parameter values show that the system cannot generate a stable long-run equilibrium. At best, a quasi-equilibrium is attainable in that only the overall government budget constraint is satisfied. A once-and-for-all policy change is not only irrelevant in reality since public sectors react to actual economic situations, but also becomes a source of instability in an interregional model. The final version of the interregional model incorporates an endogenous fiscal policy. Government expenditure becomes an endogenous variable and fiscal policies are target-oriented. The income level and balanced-budget are the main targets. A system of government expenditure reaction functions is built into the model with each governnent adopting an active fiscal policy in order to achieve income and balanced-budget targets. The public sector adjusts its fiscal policy according to the last period' s economic situation. The extent of these government expenditure changes is governed by the target-adjustment parameters. Each government has its own priority or objective in determining the target-adjustment parameter values. The simulated results show that the interregional model can generate a stable long-run equilibrium, regardless of the mode of federal financing policy. The effectiveness of an active fiscal policy and the critical limits of these target-adjustment parameters are investigated. Of prime importance is the finding that an independent regional fiscal policy cannot generate a stable long-run equilibrium. Only when all governments cooperate actively in fiscal managanent can the system achieve the targets. Thus, the final version of the interregional model not only rejects independent regional fiscal policies, but requires coordination and cooperation among all governments in devising a viable fiscal policy. Our simulation findings therefore strengthen the case for fiscal federalism. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)