Latin America News Review Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

Latin America News Review - Essay Example Cubans are portrayed as conservative people who are firmly attached to their cultures and practices. However, the young generation is embracing new and modern life. This results in a significant generation gap since the old still hold on to what they believe is their sovereignty. A country full of high economic growth potential is what Cuba portrays itself to be. Tourism is doing immensely strong with a record of 3.4 million visitors last year; the tourism sector represents only 10 percent of the economy thus it is apparent that this country has an enormous potential for economic growth. Positive returns can be seen for those who agree to leave and work elsewhere. Through an informative research conducted by Marla Dukharan (Mc Williams 2015), it is anticipated that the remittances of the Cubans working out of Cuba increases to more than 3.5 billion biannually. Cubans are appreciating involvement in small-scale trading, and this is manifested in increased small and medium enterprises such as cafes and bars (Mc Williams 2015).1 The political structure of Cuba has significantly evolved, comparing Fidel Castro regime, and the present time situation, changes such as an increase in the number of political parties are evident. Cubans feel that this is a revolution and an active political reform (Moore 2015). Previously, the country was categorized as a communist society. Critical analysis, however, portrays high levels of individual self-interest amongst the wealthy. Mc Williams, David. 2015. Irish Independent : Cuban Society Is Full Of Contradiction, Now The People Must Pick Their Part Of Change. Ireland, February 11,

Dont Change the World Essay Example for Free

Dont Change the World Essay Once upon a time, there was a king who ruled a prosperous country. One day, he went for a trip to some distant areas of his country. When he was back to his palace, he complained that his feet were very painful, because it was the first time that he went for such a long trip, and the road that he went through was very rough and stony. He then ordered his people to cover every road of the entire country with leather. Definitely, this would need thousands of cows’ skin, and would cost a huge amount of money. Then one of his wise servants dared himself to tell the king, â€Å"Why do you have to spend that unnecessary amount of money? Why don’t you just cut a little piece of leather to cover your feet?†The king was surprised, but he later agreed to his suggestion, to make a â€Å"shoe† for himself.There is actually a valuable lesson of life in this story: to make this world a happy place to live, you better change yourself your heart; and not the world. The Travelers and the Plane Tree Two men were walking along one summer day. Soon it became too hot to go any further and, seeing a large plane tree nearby, they threw themselves on the ground to rest in its shade.Gazing up into the branches one man said to the other: â€Å"What a useless tree this is. It does not have fruit or nuts that we can eat and we cannot even use its wood for anything.†Ã¢â‚¬Å"Don’t be so ungrateful,† rustled the tree in reply. â€Å"I am being extremely useful to you at this very moment, shielding you from the hot sun. And you call me a good-for-nothing!†All of God’s creations have a good purpose. Islam teaches us that we should never belittle Allah’s blessings.

Expanding Perception in Alan Lightman’s Einsteins Dreams :: Lightman Einsteins Dreams Essays

Expanding Perception in Alan Lightman’s Einstein's Dreams To attempt to describe Einstein's Dreams would be like trying to explain magic. For example, imagine that a magician holds a ping-pong ball playfully, transferring it from one hand to the other. The magician invites the audience to examine a red silk kerchief that had been neatly tucked into his jacket's front pocket. He then lays the kerchief flat in his left hand and places the ping-pong ball in that kerchief-covered palm. The magician gathers the four corners of the kerchief together, flings it into the air and lets it fall to the floor. He picks up the kerchief and presents it again to the audience for examination: The ping-pong ball is nowhere to be found. Can you say that, from reading this description, you were full of awe and wonder when you discovered the ping-pong ball's disappearance? I would wager that you were not. If you have ever read Einstein's Dreams, you can appreciate my dilemma. If you have not yet had the opportunity to experience this wonderful novel by Alan Lightman, I guarantee that after you read it you will expand your perception of the nature of time and of human activity. The novel is enchanting. It is a fictional account of what one of the greatest scientific minds dreams as he begins to uncover his theory of relativity. Whenever I suggest the novel to the uninitiated, they often say that they are not interested in the sciences. This novel is more like art and poetry, I reply. Einstein's Dreams is Lightman's first work of fiction, although he previously wrote at least six books and for several magazines. Lightman currently teaches physics and writing at M.I.T. From these two seemingly conflicting backgrounds come reviews like "A wonderfully odd, clever, mystical book of meditations on time, poetically spare and delightfully fresh" and "Endlessly fascinating. A beguiling inquiry into the not-at-all theoretical, utterly time-tangled, tragic and sublime nature of human life." Only sixteen of the 179 pages relate to Albert Einstein. The rest of the novel describes some of his "dreams" from April 15 to June 28, 1905. What if time were a circle? What if cause and effect were erratic? What if the passage of time brought increasing order? What if we had no memories? What if time flowed backward? What if we lived for only a day? What if time were measured by quality and not quantity?

Lawyer essay Essay

Teenagers at this age of their lives are not certain about what career path they want to take, because of economic problems and personal influences which they face. Regardless of the fact, I knew from the time I was 9 years old that I wanted to be a lawyer. I have chosen this career because I want to help many people with certain problems and protect their rights. Lawyers give people and companies advice and tell them what they can and can’t do under the law. The trick of being a lawyer is finding a job in a type of law that you enjoy, because there are so many different types of lawyers; from tax attorneys to criminal defense lawyers. In support of my research I have met with Andrew Forsythe and Christopher Gunter, they are both criminal defense attorney and they also have been practicing law for 14 years. In hopes of getting a better understanding of my career search. I realize that before pursuing this career, it is also important to learn that you must need three or more years of intensive study beyond a bachelor’s degree program. You are also likely to face steep competition from others attempting to enter the legal profession. However, the potential benefits of being a lawyer can make pursing a legal career worth the effort. Part 1- Reasons for choosing this career A career as a lawyer is an extraordinary calling. However becoming a lawyer is an enormous undertaking in terms of time commitment and financial investment. The beauty of a law degree is that it opens door for many paths. You could choose to practice so many types of laws, or take your qualifications and never ever seen the inside of a court room. Many lawyers end up becoming professionals in other fields, such as working in policy in the department of state, entering the military, working in corporations, eve the FBI. I always wanted to be the guy with the suit and fancy shoes, standing in front of the judge and defending my client. It seem as a pretty easy job with well earned pay, which requires a lot of knowledge. Becoming a lawyer is often one of the most difficult professions to enter due to the high competition and time require obtaining degrees. You need at least 4- year bachelor’s degree, 3 years of law school and passing a written bar examination. However, some requirements vary by state. In schools such as mine, there aren’t any programs that let you work on criminal cases until you hit college, and college is not free. If your school may not offer this, then that ruins your change to get a scholarship to help you pay for the debt. Part 2- What I learned After I did some research on this career, I learned that you must earn a Bachelor’s degree, and take the LSAT. The Law School Admission Test (LSAT) is a required standardized exam that applicants must take before entering a law school accredited by the American Bar Association. The exam is offered four times each year and measures an applicant’s reading and verbal reasoning skills. Last but not least, you must pass the Bar exam. Each state requires law school graduates to pass the bar exam in order to practice. Lawyers were able to accomplish their dream jobs based on passion and talent. â€Å"In a day and age when opportunity abounds, I’m surprised to find many people who give up on their dreams. Some want to learn how to become a lawyer but give in all too easily.† (Peter J. Loughlin) Becoming a Lawyer is very difficult. There are many fields that you could study for but to me, you should study the legal basis of law. It helps to interact with many people around you. (Lucille Ball) â€Å"If there were no bad people, there would be no good lawyers† (Charles Dickens) The most important thing I learned about this career is that their salaries range from $110,000- $113,000. (Occupational outlook†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.) This fact definitely made me happy. One of the best schools that offer job placement assistance after you have graduated, it’s ITT Tech. It’s a four year college and offers financial aid for those who need it. Part 3- Summary of my Interviews I interviewed Christopher Gunter. He is a criminal defense attorney and has practiced criminal law in Travis County since 1980, after earning his JD from ITT Tech. Mr. Gunter discusses his experiences prosecuting his first death penalty case when he was an Assistant District Attorney. Throughout my interview I’ve realized that he is very passionate about working as a lawyer. His salary starts at $75,000 and gets higher depending on the cases he takes. He suggested that â€Å"you must take this job seriously.† He also told me that â€Å"ITT Tech does not look at your experience, instead they look at all your grades, attendance to determine if you are a hard worker or not.† He earns a lot of money in every case he takes. He also enjoys defending his clients when they really need it. I felt very comfortable when he told me those things, I see lawyers as heroes, because they take their job seriously. Mr. Gunter taught that lawyers got their own way of doing things, some lawyers work different than others; however they all have something in common. They fight until the end and they share the same purpose; win their cases. Part 4- Reflection At the beginning of this I search project, I was shocked when I saw the mandatory 3-7 pages we had to do. It was really difficult to decide, at one point I decided to take the zero and do well on other tests. Now I am very thankful for having to do this project, because it taught me a lot in the area of my career. It also taught me to never give up on my dreams no matter how hard they are. I thought that I just go to college, get the degree and then get a job. I was completely wrong, that’s when I realized it was not that easy. I have learned a lot of stuff that I will need in the future I order to accomplish my goals, this project helped in many ways. I never knew that colleges looked at your attendance and judged you based on that. I am very happy at finding more about my choice of career; I know that being a lawyer is very difficult but not impossible, and I will never give up until I see myself standing in front of the judge, wearing a suit and fancy shoes.

Logical Framework Analysis – Definition and Example

Logical Framework Analysis (LFA) LFA is an analytical, presentational and management tool which can help planners to: * analyse the existing situation during project preparation; * establish a logical hierarchy of means by which objectives will be reached; * identify the potential risks to achieving the objectives, and to sustainable outcomes; * establish how outputs and outcomes might best be monitored and evaluated; * present a summary of the project in a standard format; and * monitor and review projects during implementation.A distinction is usefully made between what is known as the Logical Framework Approach (LFA) and the Logical Framework Matrix (LFM). The approach involves problem analysis, stakeholder analysis, developing a hierarchy of objectives and selecting a preferred implementation strategy. The product of this analytical approach is the matrix, which summarises what the project intends to do and how, what the key assumptions are, and how outputs and outcomes will be m onitored and evaluated. The Logical Framework Approach consists of 2 phases – the Analysis Phase and the Planning Phase.The Analysis Phase consists of 4 steps – Stakeholder Analysis, Problem Analysis, Analysis of Objectives and Strategy Analysis whilst the Planning Phase consists of the LFM and Activity and Resource Scheduling. | Intervention logic| Indicators| Sources of verifications| Important assumptions| GOAL| Target groups’ health shall improve| 20% fewer cases of diarrhea, eye infections,malaria, blood parasites| Reports from health clinics inthe project area| | OBJECTIVE| Consumption of clean water shall increase from x to y and the use of latrines from a to b| | Project half –yearly reports| 1.Water sources remainunpolluted2. Primary health care andeducation are still provided| RESULTS | 1. 50% of the target group supplied with sufficient quantities of clean water2. 50% of existing water points in the target area repaired3. Hygienic habits of the target group improved| 1. water quality tested2. 50% of existing water points in working order3. All water points included in the maintenance programme4. Target groups’ habits more hygienic| 1. Project personnel who visit allconstruction sites when theinstallations are complete2.Reports from the District3. Half-yearly reports from theMin of Health 4. Examinations of the target group which is given training in health matters| 1. Maintenance system willcontinue to function2. Action to be taken: budget for current costs to be established at the healthauthority3. Target group is willing toadopt new habits in respectof water and sanitation| ACTIVITIES| 1. 1 Train xx personnel1. 2 Designate xx places for water points1. 3 Procure materials1. 4 Drill and construct xx wells2. 1 Train xx â€Å"water groups†2. Acquire materials2. 3 Repair xx old waterpoints3. 1 Survey present habits of hygiene3. 2 Train in hygiene| Project and costsForeign financingCapital goods ______ Operating costs ______Infrastructure ______Technical assistance (4)Total cost District 1 $_____Total cost District 2 $_____Total foreign cost ______Local financingPersonnel (unit at local health authority) ____Infrastructure _____Maintenance ______Operating costs Total cost District 1 $_____Total cost District 2 $_____Total local cost ____| 1.Necessary capital goods,materials and personnel areavailable2. Action to be taken: study tobe made3. Action to be taken: targetgroup participates in planning, implementationand follow-up4. Implementing organizationfulfils its obligations5. Action to be taken: healthauthorities sign anagreement| INPUT| | CONDITIONS| 1. Adequate supply of ground water of good quality2. Government continues to support the project|

My son is having a growth problem essays

My son is having a growth problem essays My assigned lot in life is that of the mother of a fifteen-year-old son. My son has not yet gone through the growth spurt that always accompanies I can imagine that as my son, I would feel extremely self-conscious at all times. Speaking from experience, its hard to be so different than all your classmates are. Many high-school students dislike having distinguishing features that set them apart from the rest, such as being short. These features can be the basis for a lot of teasing and humiliation. Being a female, I dont have any first-hand experience dealing with a males perspective, but I would think it would be even harder to be a short boy. Males in our society are stereotypically strong and muscular. Rarely do we see couples in which the wife is taller than the husband. My son must feel humiliated by his peers because he does not fit the Teenagers are very impressionable. They are still trying to form their own identity, separate from that of their parents. Most adolescents want to be a person that everyone else likes and accepts, and some will take drastic measures to be just that. It could get to a point where my son would try to take some sort of growth supplement from the back cover of a magazine, which would not be a healthy idea. Teenagers often have such a burning desire to fit in that they hate themselves when they cannot. I say all of this from experience, currently going through "the The thing to remember, though, is that everyone grows at a different rate, and not everyone is truly laughing at you. This information will be extremely hard for my son to believe, because I as a teenager myself still dont get it. When you walk into a room, it is impossible for everyone to be staring at you and laughing about your appearance, because th ...

Julius Casar Symbols essays

Julius Casar Symbols essays Symbols are used constantly in all kinds of literature. At times there can be an enormous number of symbols to be interpreted in just one story. A symbol is an object, character, figure, or color used to represent abstract ideas or concept. A great example of the usage of symbols is in Shakespeares play, Julius Caesar. There are numerous symbols and signs that are to be interpreted throughout the play. During the play, omens and symbols reveal themselves constantly. On the night of the conspiracy, several omens and sign are apparent. For example, there was a very violent storm on the night the conspirators met, which is a universal omen for doom or death. Until Caesars death, each time an omen or nightmare is revealed, the audience is reminded of Caesars fate. The audience of course understands that these portents simply announce what is destined to occur, or what could happen if characters choose not to change their behavior. Characters throughout the play repeatedly fail to interpret the omens correctly. This is a plain example of how the characters in the play seem to have no power to change their fate, or recognize the symbols that we do. There are several instances in the play where events or statements predict a very accurate future. Yet, the characters almost entirely ignore these warnings despite their significance. One of the most prevalent examples of omens in the play is the Soothsayer. The Soothsayer first appears to give Julius Caesar the famous warning, beware the ides of March. The Soothsayer appears two more times in the play in order to remind the audience that Caesar is indeed destined to die. The vagueness of the Soothsayer's warnings seems to provide Caesar with an excuse to ignore them. This shows the audience how Caesar had been blinded by his great power, and thought of himself as invincible. Calphurnias vivid dream of Caesars inevitable fate was just another omen...

Overview of the Second Opium War

Overview of the Second Opium War In the mid-1850s, the European powers and the United States sought to renegotiate their commercial treaties with China. This effort was led by the British who sought the opening of all of China to their merchants, an ambassador in Beijing, legalization of the opium trade, and the exemption of imports from tariffs. Unwilling to make further concessions to the West, the Qing government of Emperor Xianfeng refused these requests. Tensions were further heightened on October 8, 1856, when Chinese officials boarded the Hong Kong (then British) registered ship Arrow and removed 12 Chinese crewmen. In response to the Arrow Incident, British diplomats in Canton demanded the release of the prisoners and sought redress. The Chinese refused, stating that Arrow was involved in smuggling and piracy. To aid in dealing with the Chinese, the British contacted France, Russia, and the United States about forming an alliance. The French, angered by the recent execution of missionary August Chapdelaine by the Chinese, joined while the Americans and Russians sent envoys. In Hong Kong, the situation worsened following a failed attempt by the citys Chinese bakers to poison the citys European population. Early Actions In 1857, after dealing with the Indian Mutiny, British forces arrived at Hong Kong. Led by Admiral Sir Michael Seymour and Lord Elgin, they joined with the French under Marshall Gros and then attacked the forts on the Pearl River south of Canton. The governor of Guangdong and Guangxi provinces, Ye Mingchen, ordered his soldiers not to resist and the British easily took control of the forts. Pressing north, the British and French seized Canton after a brief fight and captured Ye Mingchen. Leaving an occupying force at Canton, they sailed north and took the Taku Forts outside Tianjin in May 1858. Treaty of Tianjin With his military already dealing with the Taiping Rebellion, Xianfeng was unable to resist the advancing British and French. Seeking peace, the Chinese negotiated the Treaties of Tianjin. As part of the treaties, the British, French, Americans, and Russians were permitted to install legations in Beijing, ten additional ports would be opened to foreign trade, foreigners would be permitted to travel through the interior, and reparations would be paid to Britain and France. In addition, the Russians signed the separate Treaty of Aigun which gave them coastal land in northern China. Fighting Resumes While the treaties ended the fighting, they were immensely unpopular within Xianfengs government. Shortly after agreeing to the terms, he was persuaded to renege and dispatched Mongolian General Sengge Rinchen to defend the newly returned Taku Forts. The following June hostilities recommenced following Rinchens refusal to allow Admiral Sir James Hope to land troops to escort the new ambassadors to Beijing. While Richen was willing to allow the ambassadors to land elsewhere, he prohibited armed troops to accompany them. On the night of June 24, 1859, British forces cleared the Baihe River of obstacles and the next day Hopes squadron sailed in to bombard the Taku Forts. Meeting heavy resistance from the forts batteries, Hope was ultimately forced to withdrawal with the aid of Commodore Josiah Tattnall, whose ships violated US neutrality to assist the British. When asked why he intervened, Tattnall replied that blood is thicker than water. Stunned by this reversal, the British and French began assembling a large force at Hong Kong. By the summer of 1860, the army numbered 17,700 men (11,000 British, 6,700 French). Sailing with 173 ships, Lord Elgin and General Charles Cousin-Montauban returned to the Tianjin and landed on August 3 near Bei Tang, two miles from the Taku Forts. The forts fell on August 21. Having occupied Tianjin, the Anglo-French army began moving inland towards Beijing. As the enemy host approached, Xianfeng called for peace talks. These stalled following the arrest and torture of British envoy Harry Parkes and his party. On September 18, Rinchen attacked the invaders near Zhangjiawan but was repelled. As the British and French entered the Beijing suburbs, Rinchen made his final stand at Baliqiao. Mustering over 30,000 men, Rinchen launched several frontal assaults on the Anglo-French positions and was repulsed, destroying his army in the process. The way now open, Lord Elgin and Cousin-Montauban entered Beijing on October 6. With the army gone, Xianfeng fled the capital, leaving Prince Gong to negotiate peace. While in the city, British and French troops looted the Old Summer Palace and freed Western prisoners. Lord Elgin considered burning the Forbidden City as punishment for Chinese use of kidnapping and torture, but was talked into burning the Old Summer Palace instead by other diplomats. Aftermath In the following days, Prince Gong met with the Western diplomats and accepted the Convention of Peking. By the terms of the convention, the Chinese were forced to accept the validity of the Treaties of Tianjin, cede part of Kowloon to Britain, open Tianjin as a trade port, allow religious freedom, legalize the opium trade, and pay reparations to Britain and France. Though not a belligerent, Russia took advantage of Chinas weakness and concluded the Supplementary Treaty of Peking which ceded approximately 400,000 square miles of territory to St. Petersburg. The defeat of its military by a much smaller Western army showed the weakness of the Qing Dynasty and began a new age of imperialism in China. Domestically, this, coupled with the flight of the emperor and the burning of the Old Summer Palace, greatly damaged the Qings prestige leading many within China to begin questioning the governments effectiveness. Sources victorianweb.org/history/empire/opiumwars/opiumwars1.html state.gov/r/pa/ho/time/dwe/82012.htm

Oral Film History Report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Oral Film History Report - Essay Example 8. Did you read any film magazines (which ones?) or write fan letters? 9. Is there anything special that they think you should know about the movies before 1990? 10. How did film-going differ then compared to now? Oral History Essay Few days ago I interviewed my friend’s mother Ms. Emma, who was born in 1967, and she has just celebrated her 46th birthday on May 30th 2013. Ms Emma is a very fun loving person. She was born in Chicago and had a fun filled childhood with her family and friends in her growing age. Now she stays in Manhattan with her husband and children. Ms. Emma tells about how she spent her teenage phase when going to movie was really fun and full of enjoyment. It was a pleasure to hear her become nostalgic about her teens and talk about how movies played a significant role during her young years. When I asked about her favorite film or actor that marked her adolescence, Ms. Emma replied that she loved this movie called â€Å"The Breakfast Club†. It has ma de a great impact during her adolescence period because this movie was all about five high school students from different origin and about their evolving friendship. The movie depicted friends who met in Chicago; all the occasions in it were just like the real incidents happening in Chicago at that time. She said that as on a growing up teenager this type of movies related to school and friends made a realistic effect on her life. Another movie she loved to watch that time was â€Å"High School† though it was little old one but she liked it a lot. She explained that this was documentary film by director Fredrick Wiseman that showed some cases from the usual days in Northeast High School, their teachers and students relationship. While growing up she watched this movie several times as it used to come on television and during that tender age it manifested her thoughts deeply. Ms. Emma while explaining all these seemed very happy and was thoroughly enjoying the conversation. Yo ung girls often have infatuation or an attraction towards, so I was eager to know if she had any such experience regarding any of the teen actors or actor of her age at that time. When I asked about her crush on any teen actor, she said actually she liked most of the movie actors which she watched and did not have crush on any particular teen actor. The main movie theaters were on the Division Street Road. Ms. Emma said when she was in her teens, she and her friends used to watch the movies in the morning shows because the ticket price cost less than evening and night shows at that time. Division Street Road where the theaters were located was in the downtown which was around 2hrs journey from Ms. Emma’s house. So if Ms. Emma and her friends wanted to watch a movie they need to make prior arrangements for that. They have things to eat and drink. Ms. Emma said sometimes they had group of friends and families who went for movies together. Going for movie was like a day outing f or them and they had lots of fun. I was curious to know if she watched movies just for fun or did she have a choice for any specific genre. I was interested to know whether she was interested more in thriller or horror or romantic comedies as the choice of genre sometimes determines a person’s nature and overall interests. So when I asked about her favorite genre, director or stars she was very excited and without any second thought she replied that she had a huge crush on Tom Hanks. Ms. Emma said Tom Hanks is among the highest paid all time box office star. I

Gay Rights Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Gay Rights - Research Paper Example This makes gays and lesbians undergo the pressure of being on the opposing side of the grain by being the odd ones out. Consequently, the rights of gays and lesbians in the Middle East are of little consequence following the fact that Islam is strongly against the practice, which is perceived as a vice that is not forgivable. In spite of this, the Middle East offers gays and lesbians other rights such as their basic human rights as presented in the universal bill of rights. As s such, these people are forced to practice their sexuality in privacy and secrecy so that only the gays and lesbians know one another, and in some cases, the nature of their sexuality is revealed to those close to them. The above include family members and close friends, who are likely to comprehend the gravity of their situation and accept them into their world as they have always done in spite of their known status. In the Middle East, human rights are a concern in the first place as one’s rights can easily be taken away the same way they can be grated. This is because the countries in the area are fully Islamism and concepts of same sex cohabitation are new trends from secular worlds. As a result, acceptance of such things is rarely taken seriously as it is perceived as corruption of the Islam way of life and a violation of sharia laws. Sharia laws in this case is used exclusively in middle eastern nations to govern relationships, which then brings up concerns about treatment of gays and lesbians under Islamic sharia laws. This is in addition to the role of clerics and other members of the society in guaranteeing the wellbeing and accordance of full rights of gays and lesbians in the Middle East. Evidence about gays and lesbians, in the Middle East, points to potentialities of severe consequences for being gay or lesbian because of kinship ties. As such, family honor is a thing valued in the Middle East, where bringing news of being gay or lesbian to one’s parents elicit s strong sentiments against such people despite being family members. This is perceived as bringing shame to the family for being bad Muslims who cannot follow sharia laws or even follow rules of social convention (Whitaker). As a result, rights of gays and lesbians are violated through discrimination and segregation such that one is not comfortable in society, which is part of why their sexual practices and preferences are carried out in secrecy to prevent such cases. In addition, there is no constitutional guarantee that gays and the regular rights that other citizens enjoy protect lesbians. This results in their blatant suppression and oppression, as public sentiments are always against them and ideas of inclusion into society are foreign calls against Islam. Another main rights issue for gays and lesbians in the middle east lies in the registration of citizens as participants or followers of a given sect or faith. This acts as an aspect or grounds for discrimination following th e refusal to join any faith or sect should one’s sexual orientation be discovered. As a result, discrimination becomes the key rights issue for gays and lesbians in the Middle East. Looking into the reasons for same sex sexual preferences reveals that there is not much to call gay or lesbian since there is adequate evidence of the double

Effect of Reducing the Production Defective Rugs Assignment

Effect of Reducing the Production Defective Rugs - Assignment Example Also, the president wondered whether the suggested program would have the desired effect of reducing the production of defective rugs. If each employee produced about 20 rugs per month, what statistical technique would you use to help answer these questions To answer these questions, we must create and analyze an appropriate statistical model. This model should give formalized and clear description of studied random processes with the most important factors and probabilistic parameters. First of all, it is necessary to note that the proposed policy has no effect on the quality of manufactured rugs. Indeed, a non-zero () probability of producing defective rugs is caused by the defects, which are due to factors beyond employees' control. Therefore, any stimulation of employees (receiving a citation, providing parties in the honor, getting a half day off, etc.) to make no defective rugs is ineffective because of an absence of real mechanisms for quality control by employees. Let's disclose this proposition. Let the probability of producing defective rug is formed by two additive probabilities, and: Here, the probability is caused by all factors beyond employees' control, e.g. malfunctions of automated equipment facilities. Another probability is caused by factors which can be controlled by employees, e.g. managing errors or keying mistakes when operating non-automatically.

The Story of an Hour Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

The Story of an Hour - Essay Example icted with a heart trouble, great care was taken to break to her as gently as possible the news of her husband’s death.†(213) I consider this as an important irony on which the entire superstructure of the story is built. Mrs. Mallard’s authentic reaction to the news of death is one of relief, though she begins to weep immediately as soon as she is told about it by her sister Josephine. This is the irony of her real state of mind and the state of mind which she wants the people around her to believe. Privately, she accepts the news of death as a matter of fact incident but immediately craves internally to live a long life. Thus the irony of the situation is, she considers Mr. Mallard as a constraint or a hurdle to her wellbeing and to live a fully contented life, according to her plan of actions. I see an element of irony in her ‘heart trouble’ that has double meaning. It is connected to her mental ailment. Her private world always craves for experien cing the joy of independence. With the breaking of the news of the death of her husband, latent joy engulfs her that she positively imagines that she has reached threshold of freedom. She feels liberated. It will be even correct to describe that she feels that she is born again. The excellence of Kate Chopin is evident in the manner in which she has succeeded in creating an ironic situation. Mrs. Mallard can’t be condemned for her private joy; rather her reaction is to be pitied, when Mr. Mallard walks back to her life again, hale and hearty. I see this ironic situation takes the full circle in the life of Mrs. Mallard. The greatest irony is, her death as a broken hearted woman, not because Mr. Mallard is alive, but her newfound dream of freedom is snatched away from her. Symbolism is the second literary element that has been used with telling effect in the story. The the story is full of symbols. Mrs. Mallard, on receiving the news of the death of her husband, moves to another room to experience the

Change Management Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Change Management - Research Paper Example It has its extensive presence in every domain of the society. In the context of modern day business scenario, change is an important part of operational process of the companies irrespective of the industry that they are operating in. In the healthcare sector, with the increased level of business market competition and altering nature of customer demands, change has become quite crucial by a certain degree. However, it cannot be ignored that there exist a proper process of change management, which helps in building a systematic framework and enabling proper implementation of the change proposed (Reiss, 2012). Contextually, this paper will work towards initiating change in a particular healthcare organization, which will comprise analyzing the need for change and the strategies for making that change successful. Identification of Change and Why Identifying the change, which is to be undertaken, is quite vital with regard to build a systematic process for the same. It can be stated tha t the change will be suggested with analyzing the clinical environment of a particular healthcare unit. ... ealthcare unit is observed to be below standards in conducting their certain operational activities in accordance with the norms along with the standards set for the overall industry. Observably, the healthcare unit is seen to be lacking in the practice of hand hygiene. According to the report of CHICA (2013), there are millions of people who often get infected from nosocomial infection due to having deficiency in this particular practice. Hand hygiene, in the healthcare sector provides certain guidelines to both healthcare patients and the professionals in the workplace, so that they mitigate with the rising problems arising from non-adherence to the same (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, n.d.). In this regard, change such as implementation of Infection Prevention and Control Guidelines will be initiated in the healthcare unit. It provides certain strict guidelines with regard to maintain hand hygiene in the unit to ensure enhancement in the performance of the organizatio n (CHICA, 2013). The healthcare unit is also seen to be lacking in providing quality services to the patients. It has been apparently observed that the healthcare organization possesses the responsibility to serve people with utmost integrity and responsibility. However, in analyzing the particular healthcare unit, it has been noted that the satisfaction level of the customers acquiring services from this unit is quite low, which further is a serious threat for the well being of the patients and the performance of the unit altogether. Hence, in this regard, proper implementation of NAHQ based Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice will be initiated as a change in the operation of the healthcare unit, further making sure that the healthcare unit work totally in compliance with the

The Story of an Hour Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

The Story of an Hour - Essay Example icted with a heart trouble, great care was taken to break to her as gently as possible the news of her husband’s death.†(213) I consider this as an important irony on which the entire superstructure of the story is built. Mrs. Mallard’s authentic reaction to the news of death is one of relief, though she begins to weep immediately as soon as she is told about it by her sister Josephine. This is the irony of her real state of mind and the state of mind which she wants the people around her to believe. Privately, she accepts the news of death as a matter of fact incident but immediately craves internally to live a long life. Thus the irony of the situation is, she considers Mr. Mallard as a constraint or a hurdle to her wellbeing and to live a fully contented life, according to her plan of actions. I see an element of irony in her ‘heart trouble’ that has double meaning. It is connected to her mental ailment. Her private world always craves for experien cing the joy of independence. With the breaking of the news of the death of her husband, latent joy engulfs her that she positively imagines that she has reached threshold of freedom. She feels liberated. It will be even correct to describe that she feels that she is born again. The excellence of Kate Chopin is evident in the manner in which she has succeeded in creating an ironic situation. Mrs. Mallard can’t be condemned for her private joy; rather her reaction is to be pitied, when Mr. Mallard walks back to her life again, hale and hearty. I see this ironic situation takes the full circle in the life of Mrs. Mallard. The greatest irony is, her death as a broken hearted woman, not because Mr. Mallard is alive, but her newfound dream of freedom is snatched away from her. Symbolism is the second literary element that has been used with telling effect in the story. The the story is full of symbols. Mrs. Mallard, on receiving the news of the death of her husband, moves to another room to experience the

The Ethics of Samsung Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

The Ethics of Samsung - Research Paper Example New management encompassed the encouragement of employees to adopt changes in the company and strive to become more ethical for others. Therefore, qualitative performance at Samsung is preferred over the quantitative terms. In the presence of these efforts, Samsung Electronics admitted breaches of the labor regulations in the way of the excessive working hours. Repeated use of child labor at some factories of Samsung was also observed. However, Samsung takes measures to correct these violations including revising hiring policies, overtime practices and work hours. Welfare and health protection were among other measures (Mundy 2012). Compliance program of Samsung is intended to guarantee the legal compliance of self-governing and network of compliance officers supports and represents all departments. Compliance officers dispense advices and provide legal resources to employees. This compliance program is developed to ensure that Samsung’s employees comply with governmentâ€℠¢s regulations, laws and other policies to mitigate the risks of the unanticipated legal fallouts. Talking about vision and mission statement of Samsung, it is stated in the motto that creates the world by inspiring the world. Samsung is committed to inspire the communities by leveraging the key Samsung’s strength in the innovative products, new technology and creative solutions and also promoting the values of Samsung’s employees and partners. Samsung also declared that company responded to the internal changes as well as a new development. However, change in the mission statement was intended to keep the pace of growing international operations. New mission statement is focused to devote the technology and human resources to create services and superior products towards contributing the global society. Enhancing the well being of people all over the world is another point of Samsung’s mission statement (Lee, 2006). Code of ethics of Samsung did not mention the ethics office, but most companies of Korea had the ethics officer (Samsung Engineering, 2013). Samsung like other business companies requires the mechanism for transmission of practices and values on the corporate, social responsibility and ethical business. Samsung Engineering continues to educate and communicate the employees on the Samsung’s compliance management through training of employees and encourage employees to participate in the practices of the compliance program. The training contains the points of legal compliance and relevant laws on corruption prevention, and fair trade. In fair trade at Samsung, no employee is allowed to do unfair transactions and provide the improper influence to others. No employee in the future is allowed to provide the unfair and false information. Employees of Samsung cannot involve in acts of receiving the money, any service or benefits from undue advantages. They are also strictly prohibited to receive rebates or do doubtful transact ions. Cyber education has been provided to all Samsung’s employees on the understanding of ethical management. Samsung Electronics knows very well about the development of compliance culture and create core values for top management and employees. A zero tolerance principle is ensured in all cases of unethical and misconduct of business conducts. A pledge of compliance is signed by executives

Sound as Used in Film Essay Example for Free

Sound as Used in Film Essay Individual motion pictures are encompassed in a term called film. By recording actual people and objects, films are produced. Films are created by cultures that reflect these cultures in return. It is considered as an important form of art, a popular entertainment, and an effective means of indoctrinating the people. Individual photographs make up a film. A film may likewise be called as motion picture, movie, or flick. Cameras are used to capture images on rolls of film when recording a motion picture. Sound is a mechanical energy disturbance that is propagated as a longitudinal wave in matter. The sense of hearing help humans perceive sound. Medium is the matter that supports sound. Musical instruments, hearing aids, and broadcasting equipment are some of the equipment for propagating or using sound. Many of this equipment such as microphones and loudspeakers use electro-acoustic transducers. Silence is a total absence of sound. A person’s state of mind is often affected by silence. Most people will find silence uncomfortable. In modern Western society, people will talk even about nonsense things just to avoid moments of silence when meeting and talking with each other. Silence has played key roles in many musical works. Music is a form of artful arrangement of sounds. At times, it may likewise be used for purposes of aesthetics or ceremonies. Music may be enjoyed by people in different ways. Various societies take musical performances differently. The music that is produced by some creators can be heard using several media. Producing a sound for a performance is where some musical styles focus. Others focus on producing a recording which mix sounds together. Sound effects are artificial sounds that are created so that the artistic content of movies is emphasized. The sound effects in a movie are all other sounds that can be heard aside from the music and dialogue. It is referring to different levels of discipline with regards to movies. These disciplines include hard sound effects, background sound effects, foley sound effects, and design sound effects. Hard sound effects which can be exemplified by slamming doors are commonly seen by the audience that appears on screen. Background sound effects do not directly jive with the scenes on the screen but they provide the environment for the particular scene. Sounds that synchronize on screen like footsteps and movement of hand props are called foley sound effects. Last one is the design sound effects that are created from the creator’s imagination as it cannot be commonly heard in the environment. One of the essential elements of a film is music. It is not complete if there is no music (Coppola). A film is best enhanced by music when a specific emotional response is evoked in the audience to the story without the audience being aware of it (Corman). Film music is another weapon of the director. The mood of the theme is reflected by a score with a strong theme, thus any form of music may be used (Gilbert). In film making, music is a powerful tool. It can add emotion or even entirely change the impact of a sequence (Harding). Music either directs the audience’s attention or it subtly eludes a larger meaning of interpretation (Julien). The feeling that would not be present in the scene is created using music. By having music in a film, certain scenes can be expressed like tension and a feeling of suspense. It may likewise be used to procure or intensify the speed of certain scenes. Romance can be enhanced by a beautiful melody and bad music can enhance the opposite (Lynn). Without music, a movie is lifeless. Sound and silence is mixed together so as to arrive to a scene that the director of a film wants to portray. Likewise, a film can be better understood and enjoyed through the sounds that can be heard by the audience. A film that has no sound can be boring and may not sometimes be understandable. It is easier to enjoy a film where one can hear various sounds that may enhance his/her viewing enjoyment. Works Cited Sight and Sound. September 5, 2006. Because Films Inspire. April 24, 2007. http://www. bfi. org. uk/sightandsound/filmmusic/scoring. php

And Learning English With The Help Of Computers Education Essay

And Learning English With The Help Of Computers Education Essay This study attempts to explore and analyse the role of computers in the process of teaching and learning English in an Argentinean private school of English. The main aim is to investigate and understand the use of computers in the classroom and to discover whether they contribute to foster the process of learning English. The different teaching situations are examined as well as the activities carried out in the classroom and the students and teachers roles. The environments in which students learn and the ways in which people work and live are constantly being transformed by existing and emerging technologies. Hence, technological changes appears to influence everyone in society and challenge the traditional process of teaching and learning, as well as the way in which education is managed. The emergence of the radio, television, tape players and videos became important resources for teachers to support their lessons and the same occurred in the seventies and eighties when personal computers reached the markets. It seems to be useful to carry out this research in order to find the advantages that technology, especially computers, offers to education considering two groups of learners from two different school of English in Olavarrà ­a, which is a city in the Province of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Many theories have been presented by various researches and there is still controversy among this topic. Thus, delving into such important aspects is essential to be experimented in order to formulate our own conclusions. This paper will be aimed at gathering meaningful findings which may help teachers in general to start considering the use of computers and the Internet in the different classrooms. (change or accommodate) Warschauer (1996) suggests that technology turned out to be an essential tool in education as it provides students with valuable connections with teachers, other schools and pupils, as well as a wide network of professionals around the globe. Nowadays, these significant technologies are used in education in order to improve it and make students take full advantage of them. Nevertheless, fostering the use of computers seems to be complex issue to be implemented in Argentineans classrooms due to the lack of resources. As a result, few schools have the possibility to take advantage of the available technology and teachers tend to avoid this new tool. The purpose of this work is to show whether the use of computers and the Internet stimulates students to learn a foreign language and help them to develop the different macro skills efficiently. Expectations are directed towards the activities that learners are able to do with technology that they would not be able to do without it. The findings of this research will bring valuable foundations to reflect upon the advantages of introducing computer assisted language learning (CALL) in the process of teaching and learning a foreign language. Literature review The roles of computers in the classroom The integration of computers in education has been discussed widely and much attention has been devoted to their role in the classrooms. The first implementation of computers in education was around the 1960s but their use was very limited. From that time onwards, the developments of computers grew and the role it has in education nowadays is that of an instructional tool for delivering information that can stimulate teaching and learning. Computer assisted language learning (CALL) is becoming a relevant area and might help teachers to motivate students to learn through technology. Bergel and Gonzà ¡lez (2009) states that web-based tools might cater for real life communicative needs, and they allow students to become more autonomous and to interact with other learners, teachers and society in general. It has also been stated that à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ certain types of learners may be better suited to some CALL materials than other students (Chapelle Jamieson, 1986, p. 27). The authors assured that students who are not field independent, for example, show a significant preference for using CALL. There are three stages of Computer assisted language learning identifiable in recent years. According to Warschauer (1996), there exists three phases of CALL: Behaviouristic: is based on behaviourist learning theory, and it focuses on repetitive language drills. In this stage, the computer is viewed as a tutor acting as a medium for sending instructions and materials to students. Communicative: The second phase of CALL emerged in the !970s and 1980s when the communicative approach to the teaching of a foreign language was in vogue. This stage emerged when educators felt that the drilling approach did not allow enough authentic communication. The computer is used for skill practice, but there no drilling techniques are used. There is more learner choice, control and interaction. Now, the emphasis is on learning as a creative process of discovery, expression and development. In this case, the purpose of the CALL activity is not so much to have students discover the right answer, but rather to stimulate students discussion, writing, or critical thinking (Warschauer, 1996, p. 3). Integrative: it focuses on a social o socio-cognitive view of learning. The use of language in a more authentic context is emphasised, which encourages students to construct meaning using computers. This phase is based on two important technological developments: multimedia and the Internet. Multimedia technology, brings many advantages and it can only be found in a computer. What makes multimedia even more powerful is that it also entails hypermedia. That means that the multimedia resources are all linked together and that learners can navigate their own path simply by pointing and clicking a mouse (Warschauer, 1996, p. 4). The Internet with the Web 2.0 offers all users the possibility to create, upload and edit texts, besides other interactive tools. Learners can create and exchange information freely. The development from one stage to another does not mean the rejection of the previous stage. All of them are integrated and complement to each other. At present, CALL is in vogue and many researchers have agreed on the advantages it gives to learn a foreign language. It is noticeable that CALL might give the possibility to learn a language as it can be a tutor which offers language drills or skill practice; a stimulus for discussion and interaction; or a tool for writing and research. With the advent of the Internet, it can also be a medium of global communication and a source of limitless authentic materials (Warschauer, 1996, p. 7). As said by Garret (1991), computers can serve a variety of uses for language teaching but the use of the computer does not constitute a method but a medium in which a variety of methods, approaches, and pedagogical philosophies may be implemented (p. 75). Teachers appear to be the ones who are responsible for introducing new technological methods to their classes and guide students towards a better learning. Computers as teaching and learning tools Reading and vocabulary: using computers in the classroom for reading, which include articles taken from the Internet, might support the development of reading skills among students. Kasper (2000) states that these reading materials which are taken from the Internet supply a variety of modern, authentic texts if compared to materials sourced from textbooks. As some researchers have conducted various studies on the use of technology in foreign language teaching, there is one empirical study which showed that two dissimilar group of students were given the same language activity, but in different modes: in the traditional pen-and-paper format and using computers. After the activity, Bruce Levin (1997) were able to identify the different degrees of motivation towards both tasks arguing that computer-assisted version of the activity was found more highly motivating and beneficial for the group of learners which were observed. The skill of writing, for example, is at present the subject of a considerable amount of research. Mills (1996) affirms that writing is mainly a social act concerned first and foremost with cognition and always associated to context. In general, writing seems to be a solitary act in which students generally fulfil an assignment either at home or at school to be handed in to their teachers. The social aspects of writing are diminished when there is a restriction on the social space where readers and writers come together (Mills, 1996, p. 2). Thus, using the tools that the internet is offering might help to abridge the distance between writers and readers. Communication with native speakers allows learners to practise specific skills such as discussing, asking for clarification, negotiating meaning, persuading others, clarifying different aspects, asking for information, etcetera. Warschauer and Meskill (2000) state that Computer based discussion which takes place outside the classroom increases students opportunities to communicate in another forum, affording both general language practice and practice in writing (p. 8). According to Larson (1999), the transactional nature of the Internet and the pedagogical relevance of state-of-the-art web-based interactive technologies make web-based instruction a viable vehicle for foreign language education. There could more research done in this area to further investigate the option of using the Internet to facilitate foreign language learning and thus, main findings will serve as sharing research-based knowledge which will enrich the different investigations that have been done so far. Bergel and Gonzà ¡lez (Ibid.) argues that word-processors, blogs, wikis and emails among others seem to contribute to the learning of a foreign language and increase students motivation promoting contact with authentic language. Computers ought to be integrated in the school environment as it has become an increasingly important feature of the learning situation for students in general, as well as a significant element to the teaching of a foreign language and that is the reason why teachers should find a way to introduce it in the teaching-learning situation The invention of the printing press has transformed the intellectual life of the world and has improved the learning conditions. By the same token, computers have done a similar work nowadays for, with the click of a mouse, we are able to see what is taking place in the world. Therefore, Larson (Ibid.) claims that it is extremely significant to consider these opportunities that technology offers to the educational system taking account of the students level that is the most suitable in each situation. In the present study, the advantages of using technology for learning a foreign language will be discussed, trying to demonstrate such advantages upon a group of learners. What role does the instructor (teacher) play in this aspect, and how important is the instructors presence? What is the technologys effect on the learning of the foreign language and skills? Do students enjoy the experience and feel motivated? Do students perceive that they improved their skill or performance in learning with the help of technology? The answers to these questions will be examined in the present research.

Corruption as a Consequence of Colonialism - as portrayed in Achebe’s T

Corruption as a Consequence of Colonialism - as portrayed in Achebe’s The African Trilogy All quotations are taken from the 1988 Picador edition of Chinua Achebe’s The African Trilogy " He has put a knife on all the things that held us together and we have fallen apart" (Things Fall Apart, 145) The things that held the Igbo tribe together were their close bonds of clan kinship, unified allegiance to their gods, and their democratic society. These were the very things that the English set out to attack, to ‘put a knife on’. Once they began this process, Igbo society was never to be the same again. Chinua Achebe’s The African Trilogy, while an excellent piece of literature in its own right, can also be read as an excellent historical account of this process. This essay concerns the responses of Achebe’s fictional characters to the very real actions taken by the British in their efforts to ‘pacify’ Nigeria, focusing on one aspect of this effort - the policy of creating ‘Warrant Chiefs’ and the subsequent era of corruption. The instigation of Warrant Chiefs in Nigeria was a matter of necessity for the British and a source of bewilderment for the Nigerians. The British could not have governed in any other way - English officials demanded high salaries and frequent leave, and were emotionally and psychologically ill-equipped to deal with this new culture. The colonial budget could only afford a limited number of them. The success of colonization depended to a large exten...

Ethics implications of production facilities

Being in a rural location, Facility A has ethics implication if it would provide tax incentives and exempted restrictions to a large and hi-tech firm (Herley Industries 2007).   The local population may demonstrate rallies and lobbying that would gradually lead to Manychip having equal-footing with similar companies.   Manychip must verify if the location provides incentives for manufacturing in equal footing rather than arbitrarily. When the firm decided to locate in Facility B, it will expose its labor practices to international organizations due to practice of child labor.   Although cost efficient, Manychip will confront a whole new operating environment and culture that can undermine its quality and efficiency derived in developed countries.   Manychip must identify if laborers in this facility are qualified to meet their present quality criteria, potential reduction in value from the market when identified as using child labor and value-added in tariff-free distribution. Similar essay: Disadvantages of Ethical Business Practices In Facility C, Manychip can acquire its quality standards however with higher labor costs, tax and restrictions.   The company’s margin can be narrowed which can affect funding in its research and development.   On the other hand, Manychip has ample experience in operating in metropolitan environments and local regulations that it can used to minimize business risk. There are three location analysis techniques to aid Manychip in choosing the best alternative; namely, location factor rating, center of gravity and load-distance (Bose 2002).   Load factor rating is a technique that closely resembles location evaluation above.   The difference is that it attached weights to location factor totaling to 100% (e.g. labor pool and climate, proximity to suppliers, wage rates, community environment, etc.) depending on their important to a company (i.e. wage rates = 30%). The location that will be chose is the one that has the highest rank.   The second and third technique focus on providing the minimum transportation costs to a firm.   For example, center of gravity computes for straight-line coordinates where the company must locate its facility.   In contrast, load-distance combines the aspect of load where the location facility will be appraised based on its capacity to offer minimum load and minimum distance.   This technique will also compute specific coordinates where the firm will construct its facility. References Bose, R. (2002).A model for location analysis of industries. Esri. Retrieved August 6, 2007 from http://gis2.esri.com/library/userconf/proc02/pap0449/p0449.htm Herley Industries (2007). Two Herley Industries, Inc. Manufacturing Facilities Suspended by the U.S. Federal Government. Yahoo! Finance. Retrieved August 6, 2007 from http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/070627/new050.html?.v=12

A Reflection On Modern Medicine Essay

The Hippocratic Oath is a promise in essence â€Å"to do no harm† made by a new doctor before becoming a practicing physician. The oath has been a standard of the medical community for several centuries. It remains just as meaningful and valid today as when Hippocrates wrote it in 400 BC. Medical ethics in today’s modern society has become very blurry and hard to understand (Price 1). It is not the oath that has acquired a more complicated meaning. It is the practice of medicine that has become more complex. Presently, it is becoming increasingly more difficult for doctors to discern good medicine from bad medicine. In our current society political correctness, policy, and politics have come to define good medicine as opposed to what is best for the patient. Over a century ago, H. G. Wells was criticized for his novel The Island of Doctor Moreau written in 1896. Literary critics and the general public were appalled by the atrocities depicted in the text. Contemporary authors, physicians, and scientists could not fathom the cruel behavior of Doctor Moreau. And it was easy to see that Dr. Moreau was practicing bad medicine and had broken his vow ‘to do now harm. ’ The Island of Doctor Moreau was a novel written late in 1896 by H. G. Wells. The plot seems relatively simple and typical of a science fiction novel. A young civil servant is the sole survivor of shipwreck. He is found floating along side the island of Doctor Moreau who rescues him. The young man has no knowledge that Doctor Moreau has fled from his home nation fearing charges of animal cruelty. Upon first impressions, the young man falls in love with the island. Slowly he remembers stories about Dr. Moreau and the horrors he created. The lush fauna and sandy beaches are exciting and new to him. To paraphrase John S. Partington, in The Death of the Static: H. G. Wells and the Kinetic Utopia, Dr. Moreau’s island was like Eden, Dr. Moreau was God, and Prendick was like Adam. When curiosity gets the best of him he wanders deep into the overgrowth and what he finds there is deeply shocking. Doctor Moreau is using a process called vivisection to create a hybrid of animal and human. His research goal is to make man be absent of evil. In the end Moreau is killed and the young man, Prendick, escapes and lives to tell the tale. To gain a better understanding of the novel and the beliefs of H. G. Wells it is important to look at the prevailing scientific knowledge of the time in which the novel was written. The late 19th century was when Darwin first made known his theories of evolution and survival of the fittest. Darwin believed that all species including humans, change with time. In time when God was the creator of all, the idea of evolution and our link to other species was very disturbing to the general public. H. G. Wells was a contemporary writer of this time. In two of his most famous novels, The Time Machine and The Island of Doctor Moreau, he investigates the conflict between nature and God. In summary, H. G. Wells was not just an author but also a trained biologist. What could be more frightening than an island of beasts butchered by a mad scientist. Dr. Moreau does not just alter the bodies but using plastic surgery to make them appear human but also their minds (Mclean). He has them recite the laws he created. The gather together and chant â€Å"Not to go on all-fours; that is the Law. Are we not Men? † But that is not the worst of it. After the chanting of the Law comes the hymn of praise to their Creator: His is the House of Pain. His is the Hand that makes. His is the Hand that wounds. His is the Hand that heals. His is the lightning-flash. His is the deep salt sea. His are the stars in the sky†¦. To summarize Freeman Dyson point in his book titled Disturbing the Universe, a biologist like Wells has had to confront the idea, can the scientific community play god and if so, can they stay sane (Dyson 111). Can the scientific community remain objected and no let the power of life, death, and creation which is left in their hands go to their heads. If the answer is no, than the lesson is learned, and Dr. Moreau is what will be produced. A man who knows no ethical boundaries, who believes he is more powerful than God. Much of H. G. Wells writing explores the idea of what are the implications of modern biology gone wrong. By allowing people and animals to be altered, even if it is treatment for their â€Å"own good† the human race will loose two important anchors- our sense of identity, and the brotherhood of mankind. These two things keep us sane and of course any visitor to The Island of Dr. Moreau looses these completely. Certainly, Prendick does, he must fight for his life and kill, an activity he would never do had he not wandered upon the Doctor’s Island. The scientific community has come a long way since 1896. The knowledge of DNA, we know in detail how life is produced and reproduced. Whoever can read the DNA language can also learn to write it. Whoever learns to write the language will in time learn to design living creatures according to his whim. Presently, the public should fear not the crude Dr. Moreau’s with knives but the young, bright zoologist sitting at his computer cloning an extinct animal, or splicing genes in and out the human genome to create a superior human. Though it was science-fiction in 1896, Wells’ novel is frighteningly close to science today. The issues he pressed in this novel are still current. Even more so because the lines of what constitutes harm are very blurry. What Doctor Moreau did was wrong but aren’t plastic surgeons modern versions of Doctor Moreau? Except clients actually pay them to slice them up and make them more perfect humans. In 2003 there were 8. 7 million cosmetic plastic surgeries. This number is up 32% from 2002 (Hill). What Doctor Moreau did was wrong but aren’t therapists taking advantage of a nation’s worth of people who are â€Å"emotionally underdeveloped, psychically frail, and requiring the ministrations of mental health professionals to cope with life’s vicissitudes. Being â€Å"in touch with one’s feelings† and freely expressing them have become paramount personal virtues. Today-with a book for every ailment, a counselor for every crisis, a lawsuit for every grievance, and a TV show for every conceivable problem-we are at risk of degrading our native ability to cope with life’s challenges. † (Sommers). Is that any worse then Doctor Moreau solution of having his pseudo humans chant the rules of being human? Sally Satel who wrote Victimizing the ‘Victims’, which is the commentary exploring how political correctness in the medical profession is hindering the quality of patient care people receive. In summary Satel says, the goals of the public health sector have changed from using science to improve people’s lives to a â€Å"global ideology to manipulate the way people think about disease and its remedies. † The change is not for the better. Today, she argues, victimology is one of the biggest trends in medicine. There is a trend in the medical world to look at connection as the cause and make diagnoses accordingly. For example, it’s true that wealthier people tend to be healthier. But can you assume that poverty is responsible for higher levels of disease among the poor? Are the poor incapable of helping themselves? Well, yes, argue leading â€Å"indoctrinologists,† as Satel calls the backers of poltically correct medicine. Which is why two health experts could write in the American Journal for Public Health, â€Å"we must address the social inequalities that so reliably produce† these inequalities in health (Satel). HMO’s offer a similar problem. To paraphrase Sarah Cay Bradley viewpoint with the increase of HMO’s there has been a drastic decrease in how much Americans spend on healthcare, also decreasing is the quality of healthcare people are receiving. Doctors are forced to follow the rules of their demanding HMO partners. Even if what is in the best interest of the patient does not follow those rules. There are several cost effective policies that physicians are required to follow today. One concept is time is money, the quicker a doctor gets a patient out the more money that is saved. Doctors always seem to be in a hurry spending very little time actually speaking to their patients. Which can lead to misdiagnosis or overlooked health problems. Political correctness, policy, and politics drive the current scientific and medical communities. Instead of producing healthcare professionals who are compassionate and reflective, they produce professionals can simply follow instructions. Just because doctors today are following the rules set forth for them by insurance companies, and the government does not mean they are practicing good medicine. Perhaps they too, like Doctor Moreau, have forgotten their oath ‘to do no harm’ and replaced it with the creed ‘make more money. ’ In 1896 H. G. Wells, pondered in text, the â€Å"what ifs† of what could go wrong with modern medicine and science. The public rebuked his rather blunt commentary as foolishness and vulgarity. A hundred years later, Dr. Moreau has become the norm. Works Cited Dyson, Freeman. Disturbing the Universe. New York: Basic Books, 1979. Questia. 10 Dec. 2005 . Hill, Theresa. â€Å"More Than 8. 7M Cosmetic Plastic Surgeries in 2003, Up 32 Pct. Over 2002; For 12th Year, American Society of Plastic Surgeons Reports Statistics. † US New Wire Service. 8 March 2004. 09 Dec. 2005 . Mclean, Steven. â€Å"W. Warren Mclean. H. G. Wells: Traversing Time. † Utopian Studies 16. 2 (2005): 320+. Questia. 10 Dec. 2005 .

Critique of Pure Reason Essay

Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) is the central figure in modern philosophy. He synthesized early modern rationalism and empiricism, set the terms for much of nineteenth and twentieth century philosophy, and continues to exercise a significant influence today in metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, political philosophy, aesthetics, and other fields. The fundamental idea of Kant’s â€Å"critical philosophy† — especially in his three Critiques: the Critique of Pure Reason (1781, 1787), the Critique of Practical Reason (1788), and the Critique of the Power of Judgment (1790) — is human autonomy. He argues that the human understanding is the source of the general laws of nature that structure all our experience; and that human reason gives itself the moral law, which is our basis for belief in God, freedom, and immortality. Therefore, scientific knowledge, morality, and religious belief are mutually consistent and secure because they all rest on the same foundation of human autonomy, which is also the final end of nature according to the teleological worldview of reflecting judgment that Kant introduces to unify the theoretical and practical parts of his philosophical system. 1. Life and works Immanuel Kant was born April 22, 1724 in Konigsberg, near the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Today Konigsberg has been renamed Kaliningrad and is part of Russia. But during Kant’s lifetime Konigsberg was the capitol of East Prussia, and its dominant language was German. Though geographically remote from the rest of Prussia and other German cities, Konigsberg was then a major commercial center, an important military port, and a relatively cosmopolitan university town. [1] Kant was born into an artisan family of modest means. His father was a master harness maker, and his mother was the daughter of a harness maker, though she was better educated than most women of her social class. Kant’s family was never destitute, but his father’s trade was in decline during Kant’s youth and his parents at times had to rely on extended family for financial support. Kant’s parents were Pietist and he attended a Pietist school, the Collegium Fridericianum, from ages eight through fifteen. Pietism was an evangelical Lutheran movement that emphasized conversion, reliance on divine grace, the experience of religious emotions, and personal devotion involving regular Bible study, prayer, and introspection. Kant reacted strongly against the forced soul-searching to which he was subjected at the Collegium Fridericianum, in response to which he sought refuge in the Latin classics, which were central to the school’s curriculum. Later the mature Kant’s emphasis on reason and autonomy, rather than emotion and dependence on either authority or grace, may in part reflect his youthful reaction against Pietism. But although the young Kant loathed his Pietist schooling, he had deep respect and admiration for his parents, especially his mother, whose â€Å"genuine religiosity† he described as â€Å"not at all enthusiastic. † According to his biographer, Manfred Kuehn, Kant’s parents probably influenced him much less through their Pietism than through their artisan values of â€Å"hard work, honesty, cleanliness, and independence,† which they taught him by example. [2] Kant attended college at the University of Konigsberg, known as the Albertina, where his early interest in classics was quickly superseded by philosophy, which all first year students studied and which encompassed mathematics and physics as well as logic, metaphysics, ethics, and natural law. Kant’s philosophy professors exposed him to the approach of Christian Wolff (1679–1750), whose critical synthesis of the philosophy of G. W. Leibniz (1646–1716) was then very influential in German universities. But Kant was also exposed to a range of German and British critics of Wolff, and there were strong doses of Aristotelianism and Pietism represented in the philosophy faculty as well. Kant’s favorite teacher was Martin Knutzen (1713–1751), a Pietist who was heavily influenced by both Wolff and the English philosopher John Locke (1632–1704). Knutzen introduced Kant to the work of Isaac Newton (1642–1727), and his influence is visible in Kant’s first published work, Thoughts on the True Estimation of Living Forces (1747), which was a critical attempt to mediate a dispute in natural philosophy between Leibnizians and Newtonians over the proper measurement of force. After college Kant spent six years as a private tutor to young children outside Konigsberg. By this time both of his parents had died and Kant’s finances were not yet secure enough for him to pursue an academic career. He finally returned to Konigsberg in 1754 and began teaching at the Albertina the following year. For the next four decades Kant taught philosophy there, until his retirement from teaching in 1796 at the age of seventy-two. Kant had a burst of publishing activity in the years after he returned from working as a private tutor. In 1754 and 1755 he published three scientific works — one of which, Universal Natural History and Theory of the Heavens (1755), was a major book in which, among other things, he developed what later became known as the nebular hypothesis about the formation of the solar system. Unfortunately, the printer went bankrupt and the book had little immediate impact. To secure qualifications for teaching at the university, Kant also wrote two Latin dissertations: the first, entitled Concise Outline of Some Reflections on Fire (1755), earned him the Magister degree; and the second, New Elucidation of the First Principles of Metaphysical Cognition (1755), entitled him to teach as an unsalaried lecturer. The following year he published another Latin work, The Employment in Natural Philosophy of Metaphysics Combined with Geometry, of Which Sample I Contains the Physical Monadology (1756), in hopes of succeeding Knutzen as associate professor of logic and metaphysics, though Kant failed to secure this position. Both the New Elucidation, which was Kant’s first work concerned mainly with metaphysics, and the Physical Monadology further develop the position on the interaction of finite substances that he first outlined in Living Forces. Both works depart from Leibniz-Wolffian views, though not radically. The New Elucidation in particular shows the influence of Christian August Crusius (1715–1775), a German critic of Wolff. [3] As an unsalaried lecturer at the Albertina Kant was paid directly by the students who attended his lectures, so he needed to teach an enormous amount and to attract many students in order to earn a living. Kant held this position from 1755 to 1770, during which period he would lecture an average of twenty hours per week on logic, metaphysics, and ethics, as well as mathematics, physics, and physical geography. In his lectures Kant used textbooks by Wolffian authors such as Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten (1714–1762) and Georg Friedrich Meier (1718–1777), but he followed them loosely and used them to structure his own reflections, which drew on a wide range of ideas of contemporary interest. These ideas often stemmed from British sentimentalist philosophers such as David Hume (1711–1776) and Francis Hutcheson (1694–1747), some of whose texts were translated into German in the mid-1750’s; and from the Swiss philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778), who published a flurry of works in the early 1760’s. From early in his career Kant was a popular and successful lecturer. He also quickly developed a local reputation as a promising young intellectual and cut a dashing figure in Konigsberg society. After several years of relative quiet, Kant unleashed another burst of publications in 1762–1764, including five philosophical works. The False Subtlety of the Four Syllogistic Figures (1762) rehearses criticisms of Aristotelian logic that were developed by other German philosophers. The Only Possible Argument in Support of a Demonstration of the Existence of God (1762–3) is a major book in which Kant drew on his earlier work in Universal History and New Elucidation to develop an original argument for God’s existence as a condition of the internal possibility of all things, while criticizing other arguments for God’s existence. The book attracted several positive and some negative reviews. In 1762 Kant also submitted an essay entitled Inquiry Concerning the Distinctness of the Principles of Natural Theology and Morality to a prize competition by the Prussian Royal Academy, though Kant’s submission took second prize to Moses Mendelssohn’s winning essay (and was published with it in 1764). Kant’s Prize Essay, as it is known, departs more significantly from Leibniz-Wolffian views than his earlier work and also contains his first extended discussion of moral philosophy in print. The Prize Essay draws on British sources to criticize German rationalism in two respects: first, drawing on Newton, Kant distinguishes between the methods of mathematics and philosophy; and second, drawing on Hutcheson, he claims that â€Å"an unanalysable feeling of the good† supplies the material content of our moral obligations, which cannot be demonstrated in a purely intellectual way from the formal principle of perfection alone (2:299). [4] These themes reappear in the Attempt to Introduce the Concept of Negative Magnitudes into Philosophy (1763), whose main thesis, however, is that the real opposition of conflicting forces, as in causal relations, is not reducible to the logical relation of contradiction, as Leibnizians held. In Negative Magnitudes Kant also argues that the morality of an action is a function of the internal forces that motivate one to act, rather than of the external (physical) actions or their consequences. Finally, Observations on the Feeling of the Beautiful and the Sublime (1764) deals mainly with alleged differences in the tastes of men and women and of people from different cultures. After it was published, Kant filled his own interleaved copy of this book with (often unrelated) handwritten remarks, many of which reflect the deep influence of Rousseau on his thinking about moral philosophy in the mid-1760’s. These works helped to secure Kant a broader reputation in Germany, but for the most part they were not strikingly original. Like other German philosophers at the time, Kant’s early works are generally concerned with using insights from British empiricist authors to reform or broaden the German rationalist tradition without radically undermining its foundations. While some of his early works tend to emphasize rationalist ideas, others have a more empiricist emphasis. During this time Kant was striving to work out an independent position, but before the 1770’s his views remained fluid. In 1766 Kant published his first work concerned with the possibility of metaphysics, which later became a central topic of his mature philosophy. Dreams of a Spirit-Seer Elucidated by Dreams of Metaphysics, which he wrote soon after publishing a short Essay on Maladies of the Mind (1764), was occasioned by Kant’s fascination with the Swedish visionary Emanuel Swedenborg (1688–1772), who claimed to have insight into a spirit world that enabled him to make a series of apparently miraculous predictions. In this curious work Kant satirically compares Swedenborg’s spirit-visions to the belief of rationalist metaphysicians in an immaterial soul that survives death, and he concludes that philosophical knowledge of either is impossible because human reason is limited to experience. The skeptical tone of Dreams is tempered, however, by Kant’s suggestion that â€Å"moral faith† nevertheless supports belief in an immaterial and immortal soul, even if it is not possible to attain metaphysical knowledge in this domain (2:373). In 1770, at the age of forty-six, Kant was appointed to the chair in logic and metaphysics at the Albertina, after teaching for fifteen years as an unsalaried lecturer and working since 1766 as a sublibrarian to supplement his income. Kant was turned down for the same position in 1758. But later, as his reputation grew, he declined chairs in philosophy at Erlangen (1769) and Jena (1770) in hopes of obtaining one in Konigsberg. After Kant was finally promoted, he gradually extended his repertoire of lectures to include anthropology (Kant’s was the first such course in Germany and became very popular), rational theology, pedagogy, natural right, and even mineralogy and military fortifications. In order to inaugurate his new position, Kant also wrote one more Latin dissertation: Concerning the Form and Principles of the Sensible and Intelligible World (1770), which is known as the Inaugural Dissertation. The Inaugural Dissertation departs more radically from both Wolffian rationalism and British sentimentalism than Kant’s earlier work. Inspired by Crusius and the Swiss natural philosopher Johann Heinrich Lambert (1728–1777), Kant distinguishes between two fundamental powers of cognition, sensibility and understanding (intelligence), where the Leibniz-Wolffians regarded understanding (intellect) as the only fundamental power. Kant therefore rejects the rationalist view that sensibility is only a confused species of intellectual cognition, and he replaces this with his own view that sensibility is distinct from understanding and brings to perception its own subjective forms of space and time — a view that developed out of Kant’s earlier criticism of Leibniz’s relational view of space in Concerning the Ultimate Ground of the Differentiation of Directions in Space (1768). Moreover, as the title of the Inaugural Dissertation indicates, Kant argues that sensibility and understanding are directed at two different worlds: sensibility gives us access to the sensible world, while understanding enables us to grasp a distinct intelligible world. These two worlds are related in that what the understanding grasps in the intelligible world is the â€Å"paradigm† of â€Å"NOUMENAL PERFECTION,† which is â€Å"a common measure for all other things in so far as they are realities. † Considered theoretically, this intelligible paradigm of perfection is God; considered practically, it is â€Å"MORAL PERFECTION† (2:396). The Inaugural Dissertation thus develops a form of Platonism; and it rejects the view of British sentimentalists that moral judgments are based on feelings of pleasure or pain, since Kant now holds that moral judgments are based on pure understanding alone. After 1770 Kant never surrendered the views that sensibility and understanding are distinct powers of cognition, that space and time are subjective forms of human sensibility, and that moral judgments are based on pure understanding (or reason) alone. But his embrace of Platonism in the Inaugural Dissertation was short-lived. He soon denied that our understanding is capable of insight into an intelligible world, which cleared the path toward his mature position in the Critique of Pure Reason (1781), according to which the understanding (like sensibility) supplies forms that structure our experience of the sensible world, to which human knowledge is limited, while the intelligible (or noumenal) world is strictly unknowable to us. Kant spent a decade working on the Critique of Pure Reason and published nothing else of significance between 1770 and 1781. But its publication marked the beginning of another burst of activity that produced Kant’s most important and enduring works. Because early reviews of the Critique of Pure Reason were few and (in Kant’s judgment) uncomprehending, he tried to clarify its main points in the much shorter Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics That Will Be Able to Come Forward as a Science (1783). Among the major books that rapidly followed are the Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals (1785), Kant’s main work on the fundamental principle of morality; the Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Science (1786), his main work on natural philosophy in what scholars call his critical period (1781–1798); the second and substantially revised edition of the Critique of Pure Reason (1787); the Critique of Practical Reason (1788), a fuller discussion of topics in moral philosophy that builds on (and in some ways revises) the Groundwork; and the Critique of the Power of Judgment (1790), which deals with aesthetics and teleology. Kant also published a number of important essays in this period, including Idea for a Universal History With a Cosmopolitan Aim (1784) and Conjectural Beginning of Human History (1786), his main contributions to the philosophy of history; An Answer to the Question: What is Enlightenment? (1784), which broaches some of the key ideas of his later political essays; and What Does it Mean to Orient Oneself in Thinking? (1786), Kant’s intervention in the pantheism controversy that raged in German intellectual circles after F. H. Jacobi (1743–1819) accused the recently deceased G. E. Lessing (1729–1781) of Spinozism. With these works Kant secured international fame and came to dominate German philosophy in the late 1780’s. But in 1790 he announced that the Critique of the Power of Judgment brought his critical enterprise to an end (5:170). By then K. L. Reinhold (1758–1823), whose Letters on the Kantian Philosophy (1786) popularized Kant’s moral and religious ideas, had been installed (in 1787) in a chair devoted to Kantian philosophy at Jena, which was more centrally located than Konigsberg and rapidly developing into the focal point of the next phase in German intellectual history. Reinhold soon began to criticize and move away from Kant’s views. In 1794 his chair at Jena passed to J. G. Fichte, who had visited the master in Konigsberg and whose first book, Attempt at a Critique of All Revelation (1792), was published anonymously and initially mistaken for a work by Kant himself. This catapulted Fichte to fame, but he too soon moved away from Kant and developed an original position quite at odds with Kant’s, which Kant finally repudiated publicly in 1799 (12:370–371). Yet while German philosophy moved on to assess and respond to Kant’s legacy, Kant himself continued publishing important works in the 1790’s. Among these are Religion Within the Boundaries of Mere Reason (1793), which drew a censure from the Prussian King when Kant published the book after its second essay was rejected by the censor; The Conflict of the Faculties (1798), a collection of essays inspired by Kant’s troubles with the censor and dealing with the relationship between the philosophical and theological faculties of the university; On the Common Saying: That May be Correct in Theory, But it is of No Use in Practice (1793), Toward Perpetual Peace (1795), and the Doctrine of Right, the first part of the Metaphysics of Morals (1797), Kant’s main works in political philosophy; the Doctrine of Virtue, the second part of the Metaphysics of Morals (1797), a catalogue of duties that Kant had been planning for more than thirty years; and Anthropology From a Pragmatic Point of View (1798), based on Kant’s anthropology lectures. Several other compilations of Kant’s lecture notes from other courses were published later, but these were not prepared by Kant himself. Kant retired from teaching in 1796. For nearly two decades he had lived a highly disciplined life focused primarily on completing his philosophical system, which began to take definite shape in his mind only in middle age. After retiring he came to believe that there was a gap in this system separating the metaphysical foundations of natural science from physics itself, and he set out to close this gap in a series of notes that postulate the existence of an ether or caloric matter. These notes, known as the Opus Postumum, remained unfinished and unpublished in Kant’s lifetime, and scholars disagree on their significance and relation to his earlier work. It is clear, however, that these late notes show unmistakable signs of Kant’s mental decline, which became tragically precipitous around 1800. Kant died February 12, 1804, just short of his eightieth birthday. 2. Kant’s project in the Critique of Pure Reason. The main topic of the Critique of Pure Reason is the possibility of metaphysics, understood in a specific way. Kant defines metaphysics in terms of â€Å"the cognitions after which reason might strive independently of all experience,† and his goal in the book is to reach a â€Å"decision about the possibility or impossibility of a metaphysics in general, and the determination of its sources, as well as its extent and boundaries, all, however, from principles† (Axii. See also Bxiv; and 4:255–257). Thus metaphysics for Kant concerns a priori knowledge, or knowledge whose justification does not depend on experience; and he associates a priori knowledge with reason. The project of the Critique is to examine whether, how, and to what extent human reason is capable of a priori knowledge. 2. 1 The crisis of the Enlightenment To understand the project of the Critique better, let us consider the historical and intellectual context in which it was written. [5] Kant wrote the Critique toward the end of the Enlightenment, which was then in a state of crisis. Hindsight enables us to see that the 1780’s was a transitional decade in which the cultural balance shifted decisively away from the Enlightenment toward Romanticism, but of course Kant did not have the benefit of such hindsight. The Enlightenment was a reaction to the rise and successes of modern science in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The spectacular achievement of Newton in particular engendered widespread confidence and optimism about the power of human reason to control nature and to improve human life. One effect of this new confidence in reason was that traditional authorities were increasingly questioned. For why should we need political or religious authorities to tell us how to live or what to believe, if each of us has the capacity to figure these things out for ourselves? Kant expresses this Enlightenment commitment to the sovereignty of reason in the Critique: Our age is the age of criticism, to which everything must submit. Religion through its holiness and legislation through its majesty commonly seek to exempt themselves from it. But in this way they excite a just suspicion against themselves, and cannot lay claim to that unfeigned respect that reason grants only to that which has been able to withstand its free and public examination (Axi). Enlightenment is about thinking for oneself rather than letting others think for you, according to What is Enlightenment? (8:35). In this essay, Kant also expresses the Enlightenment faith in the inevitability of progress. A few independent thinkers will gradually inspire a broader cultural movement, which ultimately will lead to greater freedom of action and governmental reform. A culture of enlightenment is â€Å"almost inevitable† if only there is â€Å"freedom to make public use of one’s reason in all matters† (8:36). The problem is that to some it seemed unclear whether progress would in fact ensue if reason enjoyed full sovereignty over traditional authorities; or whether unaided reasoning would instead lead straight to materialism, fatalism, atheism, skepticism (Bxxxiv), or even libertinism and authoritarianism (8:146). The Enlightenment commitment to the sovereignty of reason was tied to the expectation that it would not lead to any of these consequences but instead would support certain key beliefs that tradition had always sanctioned. Crucially, these included belief in God, the soul, freedom, and the compatibility of science with morality and religion. Although a few intellectuals rejected some or all of these beliefs, the general spirit of the Enlightenment was not so radical. The Enlightenment was about replacing traditional authorities with the authority of individual human reason, but it was not about overturning traditional moral and religious beliefs. Yet the original inspiration for the Enlightenment was the new physics, which was mechanistic. If nature is entirely governed by mechanistic, causal laws, then it may seem that there is no room for freedom, a soul, or anything but matter in motion. This threatened the traditional view that morality requires freedom. We must be free in order to choose what is right over what is wrong, because otherwise we cannot be held responsible. It also threatened the traditional religious belief in a soul that can survive death or be resurrected in an afterlife. So modern science, the pride of the Enlightenment, the source of its optimism about the powers of human reason, threatened to undermine traditional moral and religious beliefs that free rational thought was expected to support. This was the main intellectual crisis of the Enlightenment. The Critique of Pure Reason is Kant’s response to this crisis. Its main topic is metaphysics because, for Kant, metaphysics is the domain of reason – it is â€Å"the inventory of all we possess through pure reason, ordered systematically† (Axx) — and the authority of reason was in question. Kant’s main goal is to show that a critique of reason by reason itself, unaided and unrestrained by traditional authorities, establishes a secure and consistent basis for both Newtonian science and traditional morality and religion. In other words, free rational inquiry adequately supports all of these essential human interests and shows them to be mutually consistent. So reason deserves the sovereignty attributed to it by the Enlightenment. 2. 2 Kant’s Copernican revolution in philosophy To see how Kant attempts to achieve this goal in the Critique, it helps to reflect on his grounds for rejecting the Platonism of the Inaugural Dissertation. In a way the Inaugural Dissertation also tries to reconcile Newtonian science with traditional morality and religion, but its strategy is different from that of the Critique. According to the Inaugural Dissertation, Newtonian science is true of the sensible world, to which sensibility gives us access; and the understanding grasps principles of divine and moral perfection in a distinct intelligible world, which are paradigms for measuring everything in the sensible world. So on this view our knowledge of the intelligible world is a priori because it does not depend on sensibility, and this a priori knowledge furnishes principles for judging the sensible world because in some way the sensible world itself conforms to or imitates the intelligible world. Soon after writing the Inaugural Dissertation, however, Kant expressed doubts about this view. As he explained in a February 21, 1772 letter to his friend and former student, Marcus Herz: In my dissertation I was content to explain the nature of intellectual representations in a merely negative way, namely, to state that they were not modifications of the soul brought about by the object. However, I silently passed over the further question of how a representation that refers to an object without being in any way affected by it can be possible†¦. [B]y what means are these [intellectual representations] given to us, if not by the way in which they affect us? And if such intellectual representations depend on our inner activity, whence comes the agreement that they are supposed to have with objects — objects that are nevertheless not possibly produced thereby? †¦[A]s to how my understanding may form for itself concepts of things completely a priori, with which concepts the things must necessarily agree, and as to how my understanding may formulate real principles concerning the possibility of such concepts, with which principles experience must be in exact agreement and which nevertheless are independent of experience — this question, of how the faculty of understanding achieves this conformity with the things themselves, is still left in a state of obscurity. (10:130–131) Here Kant entertains doubts about how a priori knowledge of an intelligible world would be possible. The position of the Inaugural Dissertation is that the intelligible world is independent of the human understanding and of the sensible world, both of which (in different ways) conform to the intelligible world. But, leaving aside questions about what it means for the sensible world to conform to an intelligible world, how is it possible for the human understanding to conform to or grasp an intelligible world? If the intelligible world is independent of our understanding, then it seems that we could grasp it only if we are passively affected by it in some way. But for Kant sensibility is our passive or receptive capacity to be affected by objects that are independent of us (2:392, A51/B75). So the only way we could grasp an intelligible world that is independent of us is through sensibility, which means that our knowledge of it could not be a priori. The pure understanding alone could at best enable us to form representations of an intelligible world. But since these intellectual representations would entirely â€Å"depend on our inner activity,† as Kant says to Herz, we have no good reason to believe that they conform to an independent intelligible world. Such a priori intellectual representations could well be figments of the brain that do not correspond to anything independent of the human mind. In any case, it is completely mysterious how there might come to be a correspondence between purely intellectual representations and an independent intelligible world. Kant’s strategy in the Critique is similar to that of the Inaugural Dissertation in that both works attempt to reconcile modern science with traditional morality and religion by relegating them to distinct sensible and intelligible worlds, respectively. But the Critique gives a far more modest and yet revolutionary account of a priori knowledge. As Kant’s letter to Herz suggests, the main problem with his view in the Inaugural Dissertation is that it tries to explain the possibility of a priori knowledge about a world that is entirely independent of the human mind. This turned out to be a dead end, and Kant never again maintained that we can have a priori knowledge about an intelligible world precisely because such a world would be entirely independent of us. However, Kant’s revolutionary position in the Critique is that we can have a priori knowledge about the general structure of the sensible world because it is not entirely independent of the human mind. The sensible world, or the world of appearances, is constructed by the human mind from a combination of sensory matter that we receive passively and a priori forms that are supplied by our cognitive faculties. We can have a priori knowledge only about aspects of the sensible world that reflect the a priori forms supplied by our cognitive faculties. In Kant’s words, â€Å"we can cognize of things a priori only what we ourselves have put into them† (Bxviii). So according to the Critique, a priori knowledge is possible only if and to the extent that the sensible world itself depends on the way the human mind structures its experience. Kant characterizes this new constructivist view of experience in the Critique through an analogy with the revolution wrought by Copernicus in astronomy: Up to now it has been assumed that all our cognition must conform to the objects; but all attempts to find out something about them a priori through concepts that would extend our cognition have, on this presupposition, come to nothing. Hence let us once try whether we do not get farther with the problems of metaphysics by assuming that the objects must conform to our cognition, which would agree better with the requested possibility of an a priori cognition of them, which is to establish something about objects before they are given to us. This would be just like the first thoughts of Copernicus, who, when he did not make good progress in the explanation of the celestial motions if he assumed that the entire celestial host revolves around the observer, tried to see if he might not have greater success if he made the observer revolve and left the stars at rest. Now in metaphysics we can try in a similar way regarding the intuition of objects. If intuition has to conform to the constitution of the objects, then I do not see how we can know anything of them a priori; but if the object (as an object of the senses) conforms to the constitution of our faculty of intuition, then I can very well represent this possibility to myself. Yet because I cannot stop with these intuitions, if they are to become cognitions, but must refer them as representations to something as their object and determine this object through them, I can assume either that the concepts through which I bring about this determination also con.