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Too often we forget that culture is not a social fact but a concept. In this article it will be argued that cultures do not exist, in spite of their apparent pervasiveness within the social sciences and in daily life. A question will be raised as to the ideological role of the idea of culture, that is, what effects does it produce in the social construction of reality? To do that, the concept and its uses will be criticized, noting that the very concept and its use in daily life represents practices of classification and segregation. Finally, it is suggested that the concept of culture should be abandoned and that we should look forward to new ways of conceiving human diversity more suitable to a situated ethical thinking.

Esipuhe – 7 Foreword– 10 I KANT, FICHTE, SCHELLING, HEGEL, MARX Hartwig Frank, Zur Bedeutung von Kants Ethik für den gegenwärtigen Ethikdiskurs – 14 Jussi Backman, Äärellisyyden loppu: Kant, Heidegger, Meillassoux – 23 Jari Kaukua, Fichten alkuperäisestä oivalluksesta – 42 Susanna Lindberg, Elämän käsite saksalaisessa idealismissa – 56 Carl-Göran Heidegren, Dialectic of Categories, Dialectic of Experience in Hegel – 65 Arvi Särkelä, A Restless Spirit. Immanent Critique as Inquiry into Inquiry in Hegel and Dewey – 74 Arne Overrein, Forsoning, Fremmedgjøring og Filosofi . Bemerkninger om Hegel – 96 Heikki Ikäheimo, Persoonien tunnustaminen, inhimillinen elämänmuoto ja Marxin James Mill-muistiinpanot – 113 Kari Väyrynen, Kaupunki-maaseutu –antagonismi marxilaisessa ekologiassa ja historiallisessa materialismissa – 136 Vesa Oittinen, Diderot neuvostofi losofi en silmin – 151 II FILOSOFINEN ANTROPOLOGIA, PERSOONUUS, MIELI JA RUUMIS Michael Quante, Die Perspektiven der Anthropologie – 169 Johannes Lehtonen, Olemassaolon tunteesta ihmismielen pohjalla – 189 Mikko Yrjönsuuri, Minä ja minun ruumiini. Kolme 1200-luvun teoriaa kehollisuudesta – 207 Matias Slavov, Sensualismi mielenfi losofi assa: Hume ja Condillac Descartesin vastapelureina – 220 Onni Hirvonen, Funktionalistinen mieli ja persoonan rajat – 233 Vili Lähteenmäki, Ajattelu ja ajatteleva olio – 253 Juhana Toivanen, Ihmisenkaltainen eläin. Näkökulmia rationaalisuuteen, ihmisyyteen ja eläimyyteen – 264 Joona Henrik Taipale, Itsen ja toisen välisestä jatkuvuudesta ja epäjatkuvuudesta – 287 Mika Ojakangas, Jacques Lacan: yliminä, halu ja asia – 307 Pessi Lyyra, Mitä halu esittää? – 316 III YHTEISKUNTAFILOSOFIA, KRIITTINEN TEORIA, TUNNUSTUKSEN POLITIIKKA Markku Mäki, Montesquieu ja Englanti – 337 Gorm Harste, From Kant to Clausewitz – An investigation of war systems with Luhmann's systems theory – 375 Kia Lindroos, Valta, kritiikki ja Walter Benjamin – 411 Mikael Carleheden, On Theorizing: C.S. Peirce and Contemporary Social Science – 428 Eerik Lagerspetz, Hans Kelsen's Defence of Democracy – 460 Joonas Pennanen, Limittyvät kontekstit, käytännöllinen järkeily ja harkintatasapaino – 483 Sari Roman-Lagerspetz, Althusser: Between Marx and Lacan – 513 Petteri Niemi, Social Work and Recognition – 534 Jacob Dahl Rendtorff, The Ethics and Politics of Recognition: A Critique of Critical Theory – 560 Arto Laitinen, Michael Walzer on Recognition as a Dominated Good – 586 IV ESTETIIKKA, ETIIKKA JA ELÄMÄSSÄ SUUNNISTAUTUMINEN Bernadette Banaszkiewicz, Intensität, Deutlichkeit, enargeia. Antike Ekphrasis-Konzeptionen bei Theon, Quintilian und Longos – 623 Jussi Antti Saarinen, Taidemaalareiden ykseyden kokemuksista – 651 Henrik Enckell, Carlos Saura's Blood Wedding – 665 Werner Stegmaier, Die Bedeutung der Philosophie von Emmanuel Levinas für die Orientierung des Menschen – 678 Olli Pitkänen, Mitä tarkoittaa pahan selittäminen? Huomioita Jussi Kotkavirran kirjoituksesta Hyvän ja pahan lähteillä – 688 Rauno Huttunen & Leena Kakkori, Moraalin kehitys ja täysi-ikäisyys – Gilligan–Kohlberg –kiista – 709 Ludwig Siep, Ethische Kriterien für medizinische Forschung in Entwicklungsländern – 730 Miira Tuominen, Stoalainen fi losofi nen terapia: elämä sarjana valintoja – 756 Sami Pihlström, Viljely ja aika: Maa, puutarha ja elämän arvo(t) – 770 Juha Räikkä Itsepetos ja uskonto – 797 Olli-Pekka Moisio, Uskonto kritiikkinä ja kriittinen teoria täysin toisen kaipuuna – 805 Risto Eräsaari Viimeiset sanat – 817

The aim of this study is to investigate the 1993 reform and the process where control and management philosophies, systems of rules and regulations are assumed to apply both to the centuries of academic tradition of specific characteristics of organisation and cultural norms. Based on documents, educational political intentions and the plans of action which hereby arise I attempt to analyse the impact of the reform. New planning and control systems and goal and achievement-related allocation of resources are being introduced at the same time as the country's seats of learning are becoming independent authorities with the right to create their own internal organisation. The new government wants to achieve a decentralisation of decisions-making, responsibility and authority, and to follow up and evaluate operations and results. A particular enquiry has been set up, RUT-93, with the aim of studying the position the individual establishments of higher education take in practice towards the aims of the reform, intentions and to the new possibilities for freedom that are provided. From a qualitative point of view I analyse how the country's seats of learning react and act in relation to these new preconditions on the basis of a questionnaire and a referral from the RUT-93 enquiry, as well as my own additional empirical material in the form of personal interviews. I reach the conclusion that the state authorities use the concept of freedom to explain a moving away from a centrally controlled system at the same time that strengthened central control is perceived at the country's seats of learning, as connections are made between allocation of resources and demands for achievement, follow-up and results attained. The strategy behind the RUT-93 enquiry is to ensure that a process of reform survives even if the right-wing government were to lose power after one mandate period. The activities for which initiative is taken, however, acquire the nature of predictability as the aims of the reform and the directives of the report are viewed as being indeterminate and unclear for the country's seats of learning. I feel I have discovered at least four different horizons of interpretation for how the country's seats oflearning view the reform: the discourse of tradition, an organisational perspective, a power perspective and an undergraduate education perspective. It also appears to be the case that the traditional academic exercise of power is expected to be replaced by a model of control and management of a 'top-down' nature which applies to society as a whole and where control of aims, economy and results is the guiding principle. There also seems to be a connection between the concepts of fraternity, management and democracy, where the concept of classic academic is often associated with and even used synonymously with concepts such as fraternal, democratic, nonhierarchical and 'bottom-up' -Ollented, while the concept of management-oriented is often used as an explanation of a hierarchy or a 'top-down' philosophy of some kind. I have tried to describe how the 1993 reform of higher education must be understood on the basis of the existential, societal, historical and gender-dependent fabric so that it does not hang loose and floating. A summarising conclusion contains the plausible fact that both state authorities and tax-payers have an interest in the fact that the operations which are run at higher education establishments is in concord with what is happening in society in general, which, however, does necessarily mean that operations must be run or controlled on the basis of the same principles or rules as other state authorities and even less on the basis of what applies to organisations and companies. ; Licentiatavhandling framlagd vid Lärarhögskolan, Stockholmsuniversitet den 12 mars, 1997. Opponent: Agneta Linné, Lärarhögskolan i Stockholm.