My thesis is an attempt to clarify the purpose and workings of art in relation to the artist, his/her fellows and society. Can art be considered as a uniting force? If so, where does its unifying quality lie? How does art connect with the individual, the community and society? My interpretation of the political climate regarding the arts has resulted in an exploration of the question: What role does art have in society today?The artistic ego as an altruism ? within the title of this thesis lies an absolute paradox ? a paradox that through this paper is tested, reviewed and demonstrated as a way of describing art and its workings. The thesis is problematized and studied from several angles: Through the inner artistic process, both reflective and empirical, and through philosophical studies..

Background: Since the early 60?s, the CAPM or Capital Asset Pricing Model, has been an invaluable tool for assessing an asset's expected return, assuming that the asset is added to an already well-diversified portfolio of assets. CAPM theory assume that the unsystematic risk can be diversified and that the systematic, market-specific, risk is determined by the Beta value, from the Greek ?. An investor who takes big risks expect higher returns.One of the CAPM?s basic assumptions is that disruption in the market is not taken into account.

The current planning philosophy is based on a political utopic modernism founded during the first part of the 20th century. The focus is, in planning a defined area, to maximize the internal efficiency and to create a competitivesociety. During the latter part of the former century globalization changed the context, thus creating the need for a new way of approaching physical planning. This paper shows that the historical and philosophicalmetaphor of flow can be applied to meet the demands in the global city. It also shows how the edge, as where interaction takes place, is an important part of the content that has to be defined.

All since Thomas Kuhn?s strongly influential The Structure of Scientific Revolutions the Philosophy of Science and ?even more so ?the Social Sciences have contained a greater amount of theories that could be described as more or less relativistic, meaning that the standards of justification or truth thereafter more often were said to be relative to language, culture, or biological makeup. One of the more elaborate ways of developing Thomas Kuhn?s theories in a more relativistic direction ismade by the philosopher Richard Rorty. Rorty, mainly a supporter of Thomas Kuhn, is also a philosopher who has been seen as a main exponent of a so called Postmodern philosophy.My intention in this thesis is to evaluate whether Kuhn's and Rorty's theories of science and knowledge could be regarded as relativism, in respects of their view of incommensurability, rational argumentation, and of their position vis-á-vis the more conventional picture of scientific knowledge and truth.

The aim of this study is to examine if Kenneth, a character in the novel Nyår by Stig Larsson, takes his ethical responsibility for one of the characters that appears in one section of the book, Ann. Nyår has often been related to morality. This study shows that Levinas philosophy of ethics is a supplement to the discussion of morality. According to Levinas, a person that acts in a non-moral way still can act in a righteous ethical way. With this starting point, it is possible to be close to the text and to bring out new perspectives on the novel.

This report concentrates on why more people do not choose an environmentally friendly car instead of a conventional car. To find this answer we have used theories that include decision - behavior and environment - philosophy. We have also made four surveys, which includes several interviews. The results of these interviews, together with the secondary data we have found, have been analyzed against the theories made by our choice. We have found that the stimulus that we have today isn?t enough to make more people choose an environmentally friendly car instead of a conventional car.

In recent years, Lean has been implemented in a variety of companies with focus areas that differ from the conditions that characterizes manufacturing. This transfer has contributed to fairly superficial results because companies almost exclusively focus on Toyotas methodology and not on the goal of Lean. The effort of transforming Lean from manufacturing to any organization requires a definition on a general level and a view of Lean as a system. One of the core principles of Lean and the foundation of continuous improvements is standardized work. In product development there is a negative view on standardized work, where the engineers state that the principle is not applicable for knowledge processes that include non-repetitive and creative work.In the framework of this master thesis literature has been studied to find support that standardized work is applicable for product development and areas that include knowledge processes.

This essay describes the phases of funeral rituals between the Syrian/Assyrian, and compares the homeland with Sweden. It describes the stage of rituals according to Victor Turner schema of separation, margin or limin, and aggregation. The rituals religious significance agrees with Clifford Geertz?s theory about the importance of religious beliefs for the human being.

Sekularisering fortsätter att drabba kyrkan i både öst och väst. Uppsatsen behandlar sekulariseringsteorier utifrån ett bibliskt perspektiv. Hypotesen är att Jesus Kristus är kyrkan som kropp. Detta kyrkobegrepp har förändrats. Även budskapet och pedagogiken har påverkats.Fältarbete har genomförts i både Egypten och i Sverige.

Happiness is often considered our ultimate goal in life. This essay explores the political im- plications of this view, through the critique of happiness found in the works of Simone de Beauvoir and Sara Ahmed. Ahmed and Beauvoir consider happiness to be harmful as a po- litical goal, since it tends to diminish dimensions of power and conflict in favor of harmony, and is not compatible with a political philosophy based on freedom or liberation. Happiness is often confused with the ethical Good, but this essay argues that happiness does not ne- cessarily entail good things. Indeed, happiness can be used to justify oppression and unjust political systems..

Vilken grundläggande idé utgår vi ifrån när vi talar om förnuft och rationalitet och vilka konsekvenser får detta för synen på individen, individen i samhället samt individen i datasystemet? Uppsaten belyser problematik rörande den icke-situerade individen, vilken inte är en individ utan snarare en skenbar produkt utav homogena värderingar. .

Today, a large proportion of wood supplied for the Swedish forest industry is bought from private forest owners while forest companies at the same time provide the forest owners with services such as logging services and transportation. Today, forest companies work extensively with keeping the time used for transport and logging short. But what does the private forest owners think about the time required for the timber deal, also called lead time, and the different parts of the timber deal. In this thesis, the forest owners? perception of the different lead times in their contracts with Stora Enso and their communication with the purchasers is examined.

The aim with this paper is to study Karl Popper?s view on realism and relativism. Further aim is to see whether those ideas have been consistent over the years. The paper argues that Popper since his first interest in philosophy has taken a realistic and antirelativistic attitude. Only his arguments for this position have been developed to meet his critics.Common sense speaks for realism but can neither be proven nor refuted.

The aim of this thesis is to study Stadshuskällaren?s operational processe flow and identify their operational characteristics. The uniqueness of Stadshuskällaren is that they are breaking the law of trade-offs regarding volume/variety, much like Toyota managed to do ? which spawned the entire field of research of the ?Lean Philosophy?. In the thesis the characteristics we identify through analysis, which enables Stadshuskällaren to break the trade-off, are compared with the principles of Lean service theory, which ultimately stem from Toyota.

Uppsatsen behandlar frågan om hur ämbetsbärare inom Svenska kyrkan använder timbreringar i deras heraldiska vapen. Detta bruk jämförs sedan med bruket Church of England samt Romersk katolska kyrkan, vilka har en reglerad heraldik, i motsats till Sverige, och Svenska kyrkan.I uppsatsen lämnas även förslag till timbreringar för Svenska kyrkan..