Swedish childcare has undergone radical changes in the last 15 to 20 years. It has evolved from kindergarten to pre-school, in other words, gone from simple childcare to an active learning environment with the child as the center. Official documents, such as the pre-school curriculum and other guide documents, define the role and work ethics of the pre-school teacher. In my thesis I argue that it is essential to have an ongoing and continuous discussion at pre-schools on the practical applications of these frameworks and ambitious goals.What do you do when you simply cannot give every child the individual time they should have according to rules and regulations? How do you stay an active and present pedagogue in today?s pre-school with large classes and heavy workloads? How do you establish a common professional work ethics within a pre-school so that all children are treated equally? In my scientific essay, I examine these issues based on a real-life situation: Ellen in the hallway.A pedagogue must continuously make balanced decisions based on rules and regulations, on life- and work experience which, in many cases, contradict each other.

Rupert Smith (2006) menar att det har skett ett paradigmskifte inom krigföringen. Från ett industriellt krig till ett krig "amongst the People". De moderna konflikterna vi ser idag i Irak och Afghanistan går i linje med hans resonemang. Motståndaren är inte längre en annan nationalstat, utan en icke-statlig aktör som inte uppträder på ett militärt traditionellt sätt. Numera är andra entiteter än plattformar viktiga, till exempel klanstrukturer eller kultur.

The following essay or thesis is a study over scientific endeavors in the fringe. It is a study of Riksorganisationen UFO-Sverige, whose proponents aim to make the UFO phenomenon (or phenomena) a subject of scientific scrutiny. To achieve this, the ufologists first have to redefine common concepts of ufology as pseudo science or religion, mainly by challenging definitions given by scientific sceptics on the one hand, and proponents of conspiracy theories or the new age environment on the other. Thus UFO-Sverige seeks to construct an alternative scientific identity in contrast to adversaries on both sides, each unwilling to give the UFO phenomenon any further examination. Following the work of Tomas Gieryn's sociological grip on questions of epistemology, especially concerning the social boundaries of science from other cultural categories through what has been labelled as epistemic boundary work, during which proponents of a particular field aim to achieve epistemic authority and thus the legitimate right to define what is and what is not science, I seek to analyze how questions of science and legitimacy are actualized in an intellectual environment or culture not broadly accepted as scientific.

The purpose of the present study is to investigate mindfulness as a New Age phenomenon in the modern western society. Since a religious phenomenon does not exist in a vacuum, but is dependent on its historical and cultural context, my aim is to give a broad depiction of mindfulness and New Age in its wider context, the historical background and the societal implications of common values, themes and concepts that are frequent in the literature, how mindfulness is presented by the authors of popular literature and also how it is presented in science. In order to bring forward a deeper understanding of New Age and mindfulness? role in the modern western society, my intention is to see how the authors of mindfulness claim validity of their doctrines in the discourse. Mindfulness attracts a wide range of perpetrators and is used in many areas in the society today.

The following essay or thesis is a study over scientific endeavors in the fringe. It is a study of Riksorganisationen UFO-Sverige, whose proponents aim to make the UFO phenomenon (or phenomena) a subject of scientific scrutiny. To achieve this, the ufologists first have to redefine common concepts of ufology as pseudo science or religion, mainly by challenging definitions given by scientific sceptics on the one hand, and proponents of conspiracy theories or the new age environment on the other. Thus UFO-Sverige seeks to construct an alternative scientific identity in contrast to adversaries on both sides, each unwilling to give the UFO phenomenon any further examination. Following the work of Tomas Gieryn's sociological grip on questions of epistemology, especially concerning the social boundaries of science from other cultural categories through what has been labelled as epistemic boundary work, during which proponents of a particular field aim to achieve epistemic authority and thus the legitimate right to define what is and what is not science, I seek to analyze how questions of science and legitimacy are actualized in an intellectual environment or culture not broadly accepted as scientific.

This master?s thesis focus on Dewey Decimal Classification during the period 1932 to 2011, where the classification of the psychological knowledge domain is analyzed and discussed. In the light of the recent swedish switch from the swedish classification system SAB to DDC, this research area deserves prominence. The aim of this study is to investigate how DDC represents the historical development of the psychology subject with its underlying epistemology, to identify and analyze values and prejudice, and to analyze problems with DDC?s classification of psychology in relation to three other classification systems.

Syftet med studien är att genom en kvalitativ och komparativ textanalys granska kunskapsdiskurser i läroplanerna Lgy 70, Lpf 94 och Gy 2011 för att urskilja förändringar. Kunskapsdiskurserna är indelade följande: teoretisk, praktisk och ideologisk kunskap, och fokus är på läroplanernas allmänna del och kursplan för Svenska. I centrum står diskursteori, läroplansteori samt epistemologi vid tolkning av resultatet. Resultatet visar att det har skett en viss förändring av kunskapsdiskurser, främst mellan Lgy 70 och de två senare läroplanerna. Samtliga läroplaner innehåller till stor del ideologisk kunskap i allmänna delen, men Lgy 70 innehåller mer teoretisk kunskap jämfört med de andra läroplanerna.

Vad som kanske kan kallas den traditionella förklaringsmodellen för metaforer inom filosofin, hänvisar till metaforisk mening, en mening som sägs uttryckas av metaforer parallellt med deras bokstavliga mening. Det har också gjorts försök att skissera system för hur den metaforiska meningen kan vaskas fram ur den bokstavliga.I ?What Metaphors Mean? kritiserade Donald Davidson sådana teorier och försök, och sa att man måste överge föreställningen om den metaforiska meningen. Metaforer, skrev Davidson, betyder inget utöver det de betyder bokstavligen, och alla effekter de har som ?vanligt? språk inte har, åstadkommer de med andra medel än de lingvistiska.

William G. Lycan undersöker i sin bok Philosophy of Language: a Contemporary Introduction möjligheten att förklara lingvistisk mening utifrån verifikationismen. Han lägger fram en mängd invändningar som tillsammans skall omkullkasta projektet. Då jag läst Lycans argument några gånger slås jag av det attraktiva med verifikationismens idé och av att jag vill syna kritiken lite närmre. Sammanfattningsvis skriver Lycan att verifikationismen utesluter en mängd uppenbarligen meningsfulla satser, inkluderar några som borde vara meningslösa och att den tillskriver satser fel mening.

The thesis examines the view of reality as expressed in the subject structure of the web directory Open Directory Project. This is analyzed in comparison with library classification systems, regarded as products of the modern library movement. The question is raised whether the world view of the directory, in contrast to the modern classification systems, can be seen as an expression of postmodernity. Postmodernity is then understood as a radical critique of the modern belief in neutral science and technology as ways of objectively describing the universe of knowledge. The theoretical and methodological approach adopted is borrowed from a poststructuralist reading of Michel Foucault's archaeology and sociologically coloured classification research.

Abstract This study aims with a pragmatic approach to investigate the learning about how to solve simple equations, and what the teacher can do to help the student. Four questions asked are: (i) How and why will learning take place? (ii) What will complicate learning? (iii) How to support and facilitate learning? (iv) Is it possible to identify an influence between identity and learning? To answer these questions a qualitative study in elementary school is done. The results of the investigation are compared with previous research, and an interview with the teacher is presented. The recorded lessons are analyzed with PEA (practical epistemology analysis), and letters from the students with the Ecological Systems Theory of Bronfenbrenner.

In this essay I have aimed to examine how the theology of Paul Tillich relate to modern views of reality, both the way it was expressed in his contemporary time and the way I see it today. Reality I have defined as an entirety of the physic- and metaphysic reality. A so called panentism where God is reality and the world is a part of this reality.With Tillichs Systematic Theology as my principal material, I have first made a brief presentation of his theology, of its construction and main concepts. Then I have chosen to further examine the way he describes being, reason and revelation to see how this particular concepts of Tillich agree with my definition of reality. In this I have consulted the books Tillich in Dialogue by Mackenzie-Brown and Natural Theology Versus Theology of Nature, a book edited after the forth international Tillich symposium 1992, which had "Tillichs thinking as impetus for a discourse among theology, philosophy and natural sciences" as a theme.I have tried to point out the possibilities opened up by the ontology and epistemology of Tillich for the dialogue between theology and natural sciences.

Först presenteras metafysisk funktionalism. En Ramseysats för smärta spelar en central roll som en implicit definition av ett mentalt tillstånd över sensorisk input och beteendemässig output. Därefter presenteras reliabilismen som en teori om kunskap. Några allmänna kunskapsteoretiska problem, samt några av reliabilismens problem presenteras. De mest relevanta problem är följande: fallet med en elak demon, klärvoajans samt Mr.

Abstract In order to work with historical sites, there must be an understanding of the complexity around the preservation of parks, gardens and landscapes and the approach to be used in the rebuilding and renewal. These issues are an important starting point of this essay. Historical environments give us as individuals an insight in who we are and from where we come, which is an important part of our need of identity as human beings. Without them, our roots in the past will be non-existent. The importance of this support base lies not only in the garden conservation, but also in the picture of developments, which we have through of as time mirrors of our living environment.

Idag är det inte helt ovanligt att tala om datorer som att de förstår eller på ett eller annat sätt lever sitt eget liv. Idén om att datorer kanske kan tänka och vara medvetna har sina rötter i det arbete som Alan Turing utförde under 1900-talets första hälft. Han brukar anses ha lagt grunden till det som idag kallas artificiell intelligens (AI) (Preston, 2002). Man började fundera över om datorer kunde ha egenskaper som kan likställas med människors mentala tillstånd och därför användas för att förklara dessa. Ett sådant påstående förs fram i en teori kallad ?datorfunktionalism?.