Symptoms And Symptoms Of Anti Social Personality Disorder...

Question No. 1: (Diagnosis and Symptoms Anti-social personality disorder (ASPD) is a chronic mental condition in which a person s ways of thinking, perceiving situations and relating to others are dysfunctional — and destructive. Persons with ASPD are often referred to as sociopaths or psychopaths and fail to conform to the social norm. The typical onset of ASPD is before the age of 8 years old and is fully evident between your twenty and thirties. The symptoms that are related with ASPD are having little to no regard for right and wrong, disregard the rights, wishes and feelings of others. Persons with ASPD often are very persistent with lying and being deceitful as well as have poor relationships. Some of the causes of ASPD are believed to be genetic and environmental. Question No. 2: (Assessment Criteria) In the therapeutic recreation field you may come across individuals who have been diagnosed with ASPD and wonder what TR screening assessments can be used. One of the most common screening tools that can be used is the Cert Pysch /R and this assessment is used to evaluate the participant’s behaviors relevant to successfully integrate into society. Other assessments that can be used to gain a background of your patient are the Leisure Diagnostic Battery (LDB) and the Therapeutic Recreation Activity Assessment (TRAA). The LDB is an assessment used to assess the individuals leisure functioning and how they feel about leisure experiences. The TRAA can be used toShow MoreRelatedPsychopathy, Sociopathy And Anti Social Personality Disorder913 Words   |  4 PagesAre Psychopathy, Sociopathy and Anti-Social Personality Disorder the same? Psychopathy, sociopathy, and anti-social personality disorder, also known as ASPD, are three very similar disorders; so much so that it is a common question if they are the same disorder or not. All three of them are defined as people who have anti-social behaviours. All of these disorders are very common in people who disregard both the law and social norms, have no shame or guilt, and are occasionally violent; such asRead MoreAntisocial Persoanlity Disorder1398 Words   |  6 PagesIndividuals with Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD) are characterized as being deceitful, egocentric, and having little regard for rules or the feelings of others (Duggan, 2009). Individuals with ASPD have been found to be unable to correctly interpret emotional situations; they also experience negative feelings more often than positive feelings. They are also more likely to experience anger than fear, which can trigger violent behavior. Individuals with ASPD have a tendency to employ defenseRead M oreAntisocial Personality Disorder ( Adhd )1309 Words   |  6 Pages Antisocial Personality Disorder Kevin Adams Medgar Ever Collegeâ€Æ' Antisocial Personality Disorder is often wrongly called sociopathy or psychopathy although both sociopathy and psychopathy are not recognized professional labels for the diagnosis. Antisocial may not be the best way to describe the disorder because it implies shyness and people who suffer from the disorder tend to be more outgoing, charming and pragmatic. The term came about because the disorder is â€Å"anti-society. It’s behaviorRead MoreAnti Social Personality Disorder Is Categorized Under The Erratic Cluster Of Personality Disorders Essay1265 Words   |  6 PagesAnti-Social Personality Disorder is categorized under the erratic cluster of personality disorders. According to the DSM-V, ASPD is a pattern of disregard for, and violation of, the rights of others that begins in childhood or early adolescence and continues into adulthood. For ASPD diagnosis, the individual must be at least 18 years old. However, the individual must have displayed symptoms of conduct disorder before the age of 15. The main characteristic of conduct disorder is persistent patternsRead MoreNarcissistic, Antisocial, And Dependent Personality Disorders1535 Words   |  7 PagesDiscuss narcissistic, antisocial, and dependent personality disorders. Someone with narcissistic personality disorder would show an exaggerated sense of self-importance, a preoccupation with being admired, and a lack of empathy for the feelings of others (Hooley, p.349). Many studies support the fact that narcissism has two sub types: grandiose and vulnerable narcissism (cain et al.,2008; Ronningstam, 2005, 2012). The grandiose sub-type is manifested by traits related to grandiosity, aggressionRead MoreThe mere presence of antisocial behavior is not sufficient to diagnose a person with antisocial1800 Words   |  8 PagesThe mere presence of antisocial behavior is not sufficient to diagnose a person with antisocial personality disorder. In order to be diagnosed with this disorder one must display a pattern of violation of others rights and of disrespectful behavior, which appear after the age of 15. This individual will also display some behavioral problems so called before the age of 15 such as conduct disorder. The individual must be at least 18 year s old. The occurrence of antisocial behavior is not exclusivelyRead MoreAttention Deficit Disorder ( Adhd )1669 Words   |  7 PagesAttention Deficit Disorder (ADD), recently re-named Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), is a condition affecting many children, adolescents and adults (Resnick, 2005). ADHD manifests itself through behaviors of hyperactivity, impulsivity, inattention and a lack of stick-to-itiveness (Resnick). Initially, researchers believed ADHD impacted children throughout their young lives and subsided around puberty (Kern, Rasmussen, Byrd Wittschen, 1999). By the late 20th century, researchersRead MoreAnalysis Of Buffalo Bill1914 Words   |  8 Pages Disorders that Buffalo Bill Has Buffalo Bill suffered from various psychological disorders, the first disorder that I will focus on is Buffalo Bill’s Anti-Social Personality Disorder (ASPD). The text states that a someone who suffers from the ASPD as â€Å"a psychological condition exhibited by individuals who are basically unsocialized and whose behavior pattern brings them repeatedly into conflict with society† (Schmalleger, p. 132). Buffalo Bill would imprison the overweight woman victims that heRead MoreMental Health and the Criminal Justice System1884 Words   |  8 Pagesto achieve psychological stability. According to Medilexicon ( a medical dictionary), mental health is emotional, behavioral, and social maturity or normality; the absence of a mental or behavioral disorder; a state of psychological well-being in which one has achieved a satisfactory integration of ones instinctual drives acceptable to both oneself and ones social milieu; an appropriate balance of love, work, and leisure pursu its. There are factors that can affect a persons Mental health fromRead MoreEffective And Ethically Defensible Methods Of Reducing Crime2344 Words   |  10 Pagesquestionable and invasive procedures, e.g. frontal lobotomy, psychosurgery, chemical and surgical castration. Biological theories Positivism, in relation to criminology, can be separated into three types: Biological (Lombroso), Psychological (Freud), and Social (Park, Durkheim). The purpose of positivism is to find objective facts, based on a scientific approach, â€Å"requiring direct empirical evidence and its careful analysis†. A predecessor to Positivism was Classicism, formulated by Beccaria. The principle

The Person I Admire The Most Free Essays

Among the teachers who have taught me through my school life, Mr.Huyyt is the one that I most admire. He was the English teacher of mine during my school life at CWPPS. We will write a custom essay sample on The Person I Admire The Most or any similar topic only for you Order Now In contrast to some teacher’s apathy, his vitality always refreshed the atmosphere in our classroom. Moreover, his enthusiasm and thoughtfulness still warmed my heart to this day. James Huyyt won everyone’s spelling completion soon after he began teaching us. As he was not the first English teacher of us, everyone had a skeptical eye on him in his first class. Sensing our doubts, he began the class with a guessing-people game. he asked us to write about our characteristics on a small piece of paper, which afterwards was read to the class for us to identify the person. We had great fun that day due to his ingenuity to grasp what we wanted. Afterwards, the contempt students used to hold in him was nowhere to be seen. The energy and passion James possessed when teaching was unbelievable. With more and more days he spent with us, I noticed a distinctive quality of his that truly amazed me. No matter what the weather was like and how he was feeling, he was always in high spirits when he entered the classroom, as if he was ecstatic to see us. Besides, he encouraged us to interact with him; therefore, the class was by no means serious and tense, but very enjoyable and inspiring. James used clever techniques to arouse our interest in learning English. Quizzes are the indispensable element of a class, but James added them with his own illustrations to make them more fascinating. He also printed many handouts, adorned with him amusing drawings, to provide the information missing in the textbook for us. In short, he had the magic to transform something painstaking into pleasure. Furthermore; lots of English songs were introduced to us in his class. How to cite The Person I Admire The Most, Papers

Bruised But Not Broken free essay sample

When there is a loss in the family, a funeral is held. It is the ceremonial release of our beloveds that allows us to cope properly and move on with our lives. But I didnt just lose a family member, I lost an entire family. Three-hundred people suddenly gone from my life; it was an abandonment. This family I speak of was my church family. Three weeks into my high school career, my dad lost his job. He had been the associate pastor at Westminster Presbyterian Church. I can still recall every detail of the night that my dad broke the news to my mom, my brother, and me. Strangely enough, I didnt cry. I think part of me didnt want to believe what he was saying was true, or maybe it just hadnt sunk in yet. I slept little that night. A week later, I built up the courage to tell my friends what happened. We will write a custom essay sample on Bruised But Not Broken or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page The following weeks were full of questions and misunderstanding. I didn’t care about school, sleeping, or eating. My grades slipped and so did my health. My life had been in that church. I was practically raised there, and I thrived off of being the adored pastor’s daughter. Everyone knew me when I stood smiling at my dad’s side, shaking hands with the church members as they entered the narthex. With that gone, I didn’t know who I was. I was an outcast in what was supposed to be the most accepting of places. Although it took months before my family situation was on stable ground again, it finally came. As an outlet for my immense flood of emotions, I found a passion for writing. It became my identity, this quiet relationship with a pen and paper. I wrote countless poems in my notebook during the hours I spent burrowed away in my room. It became my new sanctuary. Unfortunately, my dad never did fully recover. For the last three years, he’s struggled to pay the bills, sometimes working four jobs, and my mom works two. Amidst this economic recession, a man close to completing his doctorate degree has been subjected to work for $9.50 an hour, only a dollar more than his teenage daughter. It has been a humbling experience for both of us. I have risen above the tragedy of my freshman year, and learned to accept that even religious institutions, which in theory are all loving and caring, have their flaws. We are all human, and we all make mistakes. Rejection is a painful experience, but I believe it is something every person needs to go through. Only by being forced to be on our own can we truly discover ourselves. If I hadnt been forced out of my comfort zone, I wouldnt have met so many new people, or tried new things. I am now open-minded towards the world around me, and the diversity it has to offer. I know that harsh realities are a part of life. Though I don’t fully understand why bad things have to happen to good people , I do know that one needs suffering to know compassion. This experience has allowed me to handle the trials I’ve gone through since then. Difficult relationships and trying friendships have left me confused and often discouraged. Nonetheless, I persevere. I did not allow adversity to get the best of me. Instead, I blossomed. I am proud of the person I am today.

The Effect Of Symbolism On Character In The Glass Menagerie Essays

The Effect Of Symbolism On Character In The Glass Menagerie Symbolism is a major aspect in Tennessee William's famous play, The Glass Menagerie. On the surface, the short slice of life story seems to be simple. However, if the reader digs deeper they will find that there are several symbols that give each character a deeper meaning. Each character defines each symbol in a different way. Aside from character symbols, there is overall symbolism in this play. It is set in a memory, so it creates a soft, dream-like setting. This lends to the whole idea behind the play that the characters are unable to function in reality. There are some very noticeable symbols in The Glass Menagerie. The first is the actual glass menagerie that represents the fragility of the Wingfield's dreamlike existence. The second is the fire escape, which reflects each character's tendency to escape from reality in their own ways. The third is the yellow dress, which represents youth and the past. The gentleman caller, Jim O'Connor, represents change and also hopes for the future, as well as a reflection of Amanda's past. Tom also has his own symbols of escape. He uses his poetry and the movies to run from his problems at home. The actual animal collection, or glass menagerie, symbolizes each character and the story. Like the glass animals, the character's realities are very fragile and in danger of being shattered. It is also as though the characters are stuck in glass, unable to move or change, also like the glass animals. They are inanimate, as the characters have learned to be to hide and escape from the pain that life has given them. Laura loves the glass Schoendorfer 2 animals because her family is like them. It will not take much, like Tom leaving, to shatter their whole world. Laura is symbolized by her fragile collection of glass animals, the glass menagerie. Her favorite animal is the unique unicorn. The unicorn is different because it has a horn. When Laura was in high school, she wore a brace. The unicorn and Laura are alike in this way. When Jim dances with Laura, he knocks over the unicorn and the horn breaks off. Now it is like all of the other horses. The unicorn losing its horn is a symbol. The unicorn in its original state symbolizes something different. It is delicate, beautiful, and precious in it's own unique way. This could symbolize Laura has natural beauty in an unearthly way that is hidden by her shyness and limp. When Laura starts to talk to Jim, she gets more confidence in herself and realizes that she is not that different from everyone else in the world. The horn symbolizes a difference, an obstacle to be overcome and admired. Like Laura has to overcome her shyness and limp to become like everyone else, the unicorn loses its difference . The fire escape is a major symbol in this play. It represents a different symbol for each character. For Amanda, the fire escape is a way for her to be protected from the outside world, or reality. She cannot live in the present, and the lack of a front door makes it easy for her to avoid real life. She convinces herself that she isn't capable of leaving the safe haven she has created by locking herself inside the strange apartment. She has become trapped by her memories. Laura uses the fire escape as a symbol in a similar way. She, too, is protected from the outside world by the fire escape, and she is also limited by it because of her handicap. It will require an extra effort for Laura to overcome her limp and get out into the world using the fire escape, symbolizing how her life is more difficult because of her handicap and her delusional mother. Schoendorfer 3 Tom uses the fire escape as an escape to the outside world. He cannot live in the depressed delusions of his mother and sister's reality, so he goes out the fire escape to work, and to the movies. He even succeeds in bringing in a possible replacement for him, someone else to take care of his helpless family members, when he brings Jim O'Connor

Time and Place Professor Ramos Blog

Time and Place In â€Å"There was a Man, There Was a Woman†, Sandra Cisneros tells a short story about a man and a woman whose schedules are different but still have a chance in interacting. Every second and fourth Friday of the month, the man would get paid and the first and third Friday of every month, the woman would get paid. On their Friday’s, they would go to a Friendly Spot Bar to drink with their friends. The man would drink and drink in hopes of saying everything he was feeling, but that never happened. He simply just drank. The same exact thing happened with the woman. They would both laugh loudly in the bar. At night when they both went to their homes, they had different reactions while looking and thinking of the same moon. When the woman looked up at the moon with her pale eyes, she cried. When the man was observing the moon, he saw and thought of â€Å"those who had worshiped or loved died before that same moon, mute and lovely. The lives of these two people were the sa me but different timing. Assumptions are made and things are put into perspective for the reader. Will they ever meet? Are they soulmates? Do they already know each other but purposely have different schedules for a reason? A friend of the woman knew every side and expression the woman made. It was impossible to never figure out what the woman had been going through. The friend could read the woman so easily because of all the years of friendship they shared. The friend knew the woman better than her own self. The friend and woman met in high school because they had biology class together and didn’t know anyone else. They shared lots of personal information and happened to be neighbors so they spent a lot of time at each others houses. â€Å"You coming over?† â€Å"Yeah, I’m already on my way† were the lines they said everyday. When they graduated high school, the friend went to a university and the woman went to the army. They tried to stay in contact because the friendship they had was like no other. They always had topics to talk about because one story would lead to another and so on. When they met, their souls danced together and time went by so fast. When the moon would shine through the windows they knew it was time to go home. After six months in the army, the woman had come home but the friend did not recognize her. â€Å"What happened?† the friend would ask her. â€Å"Nothing, I’m fine† said the woman all serious. The woman was there but not entirely. The friend knew that she had seen horrible things because her eyes didn’t shine like they used to, she was quiet and she always came up with excuses to be alone. The friend helped her cope with the woman’s depression and after a couple of years, she was recovering. She got a new job, they moved to a different city, and went to a friendly bar twice a month with other friends just to have a break from everything going on. â€Å"I’m tired of not feeling like myself and I want to get back out there.† said the woman to her friends. They went to the bar for months and the woman still felt a little empty on the inside and wanted to let go of everything that was eating up her mind. She would drink in hopes of the wor ds being easier to come out but everytime she had the thoughts and images in her head all at once, she would swallow the words away. The woman hid that for the longest time that her friend didn’t even notice. When the woman would go home, she would stare up at the moon and think about all the things that she has gone through. Of course her friend always stuck by her side but the one thing that hit home was the intimate feeling she shared with the moon. The same moon every night, her whole life. She would vented to the moon because her secrets were safe and she liked the idea of the moon not judging, just listening. It would stay until she fell asleep so she found comfort knowing there was a form of good energy still with her. She would cry to the moon after coming home from the bar because those were the nights where she wants to say what she was feeling but couldn’t. A year later, the bar was having its tenth anniversary and to celebrate they were going to host a karaoke night along with the alcohol being at half price so you already know lots of people were going to show up. The woman and her friends got to the bar around nine at night. The man and his friends went as well and got to the bar around ten at night. The owner of the bar loved to bring people together to have a good time agnd to creative precious memories. Her bar was a break from reality to everyone. The bar was a whole different environment because of all the exotic culture and neon lights. The bar was underground so it was alive all night. The owner was always happy and said â€Å"Welcome darlings! Join and feel free!† The music moved everyone even if you didn’t consuming anything. The power of the atmosphere was real. On the night of karaoke, lots of people arrived and you could feel the energy flow throughout your body. The woman was feeling bliss and with her friends by her side, it was such a bittersweet moment because she was sad the moment was going to end but happy that it was happening. The man was not feeling very excited even with his friends by his side. He would drink until he thought he had the courage to express himself but sadly, that feeling of expression never came out. He had been feeling empty and alone for a while now. After ending a relationship of three years, he didn’t think he could find real love again. His significant other started to show some red flags and the man knew better to end the relationship although it was going to hurt. The man walked around the bar with his friends and when the man turned around to go back for another drink, there she was†¦ the woman. They locked eyes the moment they saw each other and everything was slow motion and the background suddenly appeared brighter like in the movies. They were like magnets because they were slowly walking towards each other without even knowing it. When they both snapped out of it they immediately started to converse. Of course they were a little shy at first and they even choked on their words. The man started off with â€Å"Sorry to creep on you like that† and the woman disagreed because she felt the same way. â€Å"No worries, are you from around here?† the woman said with a big smile on her face. The conversation took flight from here as you could imagine. They explained to each other their schedule and were moved because they had been going to the same places but different times for a long time. Already off to a good start, the man kindly said â€Å"You wanna go dance?† and the woman happily agreed.   After a long night of dancing and laughing, they both went home and without even knowing it, they were looking at the moon. Quietly speaking into existence and giving thanks for the day. The woman felt peace thinking maybe he’s the one. The man felt peace thinking maybe she’s the one.

Change your daily routine and find happiness

Change your daily routine and find happiness It’s a new year, and like most of us you’re probably eager to get it started off on the right foot- which might include figuring out how to increase your daily happiness. After all, life is short and no one wants to spend their days needlessly unhappy, especially when you can make a few easy life adjustments to get you smiling again. Even making some small tweaks to your daily routine can make a world of difference. Is your usual routine relaxed and well organized, setting you up for a positive and productive day? Or is it more chaotic and anxious, setting you up for uncertainty and a greater likelihood that things will go wrong? Setting your day off on the wrong foot- and keeping it there with the wrong daily routine- is a clear recipe for unhappiness.Inc. recently published an article  that highlighted 7 easy-to-implement changes that you can make to your daily routine that can improve your overall mood, productivity, and health- key components of lasting and sustai ned happiness. Use the strategies presented here to make positive changes to your daily routine and increase your level of happiness.Write down your thoughts and feelings.Keeping a small notebook or journal to jot down your daily thoughts and feelings can make a world of difference. Not only is it an excellent way to calmly work through the tangle of ideas that continually fight for primacy in our crowded brains, it’s a good way to slow life down for a bit, relax, and allow some quiet time for thoughtful reflection. Beyond this, it’s also a good way to ensure that you don’t forget things, which can really ruin your day.Chat with a fellow commuter.Many of us go through significant portions of our day feeling isolated and disconnected from the world around us, which can be a real recipe for routine unhappiness. Forging a new, meaningful connection with someone you encounter each day- like a fellow commuter- can help reconnect you to the world at large, and with an y luck you’ll make a meaningful and lasting friendship. Who wouldn’t be happy about that?Take a beautiful photo on your way to work.When we get stuck in a rut, we become desensitized to things around us as we mechanically go through the motions of our daily routine. When we can no longer recognize the beauty in the world, it becomes increasingly difficult to stay happy. Do yourself a favor- take a moment to stop and find something beautiful around you each day and take a photo, which will serve as a lasting reminder that life is filled with wonderful moments. Chances are, those photos will make you smile whenever you look at them.Plan something joyful for tomorrow.In many ways, humans are predictable creatures- we feel happy when we have something to look forward to. Take advantage of this quirk of human nature by taking time each day to plan something joyful for tomorrow. It doesn’t have to be something big; even a small bit of future happiness can bring a smil e to our faces. Give it a try.Set one goal for the day.People also feel good when they achieve goals they set for themselves. Each day, set one achievable goal for yourself- and make sure you give an honest effort towards achieving it. Once again, the size of the goal isn’t the main thing here; even achieving a modest goal that you set for yourself can bring you a measure of happiness, not to mention help make your day productive.Consider outsourcing a chore.Life is full of responsibilities that we as adults must devote our time and energy to each day- whether we want to do them or not. That said, there are some chores in our lives that we don’t necessarily have to do ourselves. Try letting yourself off the hook for a chore you can just as easily pass along to someone else. Chances are, you’ll breathe a small sigh of relief and have a little extra time for something that makes you happy.List something you appreciate.Although it’s easy to take the good thi ngs in our lives for granted at times, it gets much harder to do so when we write them down. Try thinking of something you’re grateful for each day and write it down. The act of doing so can really solidify its importance and can serve as a powerful, tangible reminder that there are things in life worth being happy about.There you have it- ideas you can incorporate into your daily routine to make your life a little brighter. It may take a little effort, but isn’t your happiness worth it?

Critical Perspectives on Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

Critical Perspectives on Management - Essay Example Taking its roots from poststructuralism, which posits that there is "no central meaning in texts," deconstruction has been used as a new method to understand and interpret human resource changes and behavior in organisations today. Its usefulness stems from the fact that it generates multiple perspectives, or ways, in which the manager can best assess the nature of the organisation's human resources. The ability of deconstruction to look into a subject or object in different ways is useful not only in decision-making processes, but also in the implementation of these decisions within the organisation. This paper discusses the role that deconstruction plays in the contemporary organisation, influencing its very nature and processes. Drawing from both theoretical and practical applications of deconstruction as applied in the business perspective, specifically in business organisations, I discuss and analyze the presence of the "Other" in organisations when applied under the deconstructionist perspective. Moreover, in addition to identifying the presence of the Other, the development of the behavior of openness and uncertainty when the manager encounters a posstructuralist interpretation is also analyzed. Finally, the relevance and significance of deconstruction per se, and the application of deconstruction in the business organisation are integrated in the final part of the analysis, integrating both theory and application to understand the nature and dynamics of the contemporary organisation. II. The theoretical foundation of deconstruction To better understand the practical use of deconstruction in business organisations, its theoretical foundations must first be investigated. Deconstruction takes its root from poststructuralism. As a sociological thought, poststructuralism "deny that there is any central meaning in texts," a thesis that also adopts the assumption that there is no universal truth or way of interpreting objects or subjects that people experience in their everyday lives. Theoretically, deconstruction "shows that whatever meaning is derived is wrong. Since there is an unending set of possible meanings in any text, there can be no central or true meaning at all" (Littlejohn, 1999:223). These claims are developed from the increasing need of academicians and social scientists to know the limit at which knowledge-building and development have reached since the advent of modernism. Deconstruction as a new perspective in the schools of thought extant provides humanity with the opportunity to further improve and develop the knowledge that we have. The pursuit of "truth" is no longer achieved by gaining an in-depth knowledge of the phenomena that trigger humanity's curiosity, but rather, truth is now discovered by knowing the wide range of knowledge available to us humans, whether this knowledge is only at the most basic level. That is, knowledge production is no longer intensive, but rather extensive and diverse, as posited by deconstruction. Other theoretical explanations on deconstruction are, at best, descriptive in nature. Take as an example Bennington's elucidation of deconstru

King Saud University Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

King Saud University - Essay Example They offer a complete free tuition in addition of providing scholarships to both the International and Saudi Arabia students. The university is situated in vast state of modern art campus in addition of being equipped with the modern technological instructions. For Internal audit to remain important to the King Saud University management then it must always adapt to the ever changing expectations of the seven universities in addition of maintaining alignment with the objectives of the university. There should be a systematic and a structured process for developing the internal audit strategic plan for the university; the strategic plan will include the following in addition to the mission and vision of the university; For the three years strategic plan, the initial step should be â€Å"Planning to plan† it should represent the necessary work before the beginning of primary planning process. The university internal management should agree on the efforts of overall strategic planning and the significant planning steps that will be undertaken. The university organization should also consider, evaluate and review the legislative/constitutional mandate since this will determine their future as well as daily academic business. The mission and vision of the university should also be its considerations before coming up with strategic planning. For the three years strategic planning, the university should identify its purpose and mandate of existence to avoid unnecessary conflict that might arise, which can also help in channeling a productive discussion and activity. The vision statement will make the university identify how it will appear in the future after successfully implemented its strategies as well as achieving its full potentiality. The three year strategic plan should also include a developed internal audit’s strategic vision. It should identify the responsibilities functional roles, mandates, stakeholders’ needs and

What an education means to me Essay Example for Free

What an education means to me Essay â€Å"Education is a progressive discovery of our ignorance† says Will Durant (1885-1981) Education liberated me from ignorance and placed me in a high pedestal to wine and dines with the intellectuals and not mere men. Sometimes I wonder what my life would have been, without being educated. Like they say education is expensive, then why don’t you try ignorance? A life without education is a passive one. In everything I believe â€Å"basics are the mother of all knowledge† hence, societal development is highly dependent on the literacy level of its citizen. Education to me can either be an informal education or formal education. Informal education is a type of education which is outside the school premises while those of formal are within the school settings. Informal education given to me by my parents helped me a lot and equipped me with basic skills in human relationship and communication skills on which I was able to build upon. This gave me a starter dose. As a child, the elementary school introduces me to the basic skills, information and attitude necessary to thrive in my society. I was also introduce to the principles of reading, writing and spelling and even to some basic arithmetic. I was also introduced to some forms of fine arts, elementary science and some forms of handicraft. Education taught me the creative use of my mind and how to make it work for me in all aspect of my life. It gave me the capacity and ability to evaluate information and to predict future outcomes. I can also effectively recognize and evaluate different points of view even when arguing with my colleagues or friend and not creating a kind of enmity. Education also trained me to seek out alternative solutions and evaluate them when there is need for such, this I called problem solving skills. Education gave me a better understanding of my culture and environment and also helped me to learn history of my country, and an insight into that of others. With all the knowledge and wisdom from such learning I was able to integrate that with some aspect of my life. Acquisition of information about the past and present: including traditional disciplines such as literature, history, science, mathematics was as a result of education and this influence the development of every community. Without education knowledge and history can not be passed from one generation to the other. Education also influences my religion and this has guided my beliefs and actions. The influence of education on self esteem can not be underestimated. Taking my life as a case study, I used to be someone with a low self esteem until I got to realize what self esteem is all about and its effect my actions, life in totality. The sense of well-being, i. e. my mental and physical health has greatly improved. I’m now able to acquire some values and attitude that is highly essential in the competitive and dynamic worlds of ours. The role of education in personal values is very important, because this gave me an opportunity of self-realization and self reflection which is germane to the awareness of my innate abilities and goals. Educations taught me â€Å"morals† which simply means acting in a right manner and knowing how to deal with people. Knowledge of moral practices and ethical standards acceptable by society and culture can only be achieved via education. Everything my religion taught me about morals was as a result of my ability to read, think and takes actions, which are all by-products of education. It’s often said that where there’s no law there’s no sin, hence people can only behave well when they are taught the benefits of acting right towards their fellow citizen. This simply gives capacity and ability to be a good citizen. Education is a prerequisite for an intellectual pursuit. From mine point of view is education simply makes people respect you and recognize you and your achievements. I believe there can be a professor without education and there can’t be a civilized society without education. Culture which is a way of life can only be acquired through education and exposure to the arts. Formation of healthy social and or formal relationships among and between students, teacher, others are some of the importance of education to my life. Culture is also maintain and kept from one age to the other as a result of education. My utmost view of education is that I will be able to earn a living, make the right choice, strengthening my character, becomes strong, develop my body soul and spirit and live a fulfill life. With my career I will be of use to my immediate environment. Above all education makes a better leader. I will conclude this piece by quoting the words of B. F skinner and Jack Stack which says â€Å"Education is what survives when what has been learnt has been forgotten†. – B. F. Skinner â€Å"When you appeal to the highest level of thinking, you get the highest level of performance†. -Jack Spack Reference Teachers mind resource. (2008). The meaning of education. Teacher’s mind resource. Retrieved July 9, 2008. From www. teachersmind . com

Atomsphere Of Jester Affecting Students :: essays research papers fc

Atmosphere of Jester Affecting Students Do you see moody students at the University of Texas walking around? They probably live in Jester, the largest public dormitory in the nation. Why the long face you ask? Well, the need for a high-density dorm caused the University of Texas to build a dormitory with the atmosphere of a prison. Jester’s resemblance to a prison affects the mood of students and the overall well-being of students.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Waking up to loud, obnoxious banging and screaming are the mornings of an overcrowded prison. Small windows allow for just a glimpse of the reality of the world. The built-in furniture adds to the uniformity that is present in all prisons. The width of the hallways prohibits much space between neighbors. All of these attributes plague prisons as well as Jester.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Beauford H. Jester Center, built in 1969, is a co-educational residence hall that houses 2,912 students in two towers referred to as Jester West and Jester East (Jester Center 1). The large dormitory was built by William Clark Craig. The need for student housing was high because of the demand to want to attend the University of Texas. Since a prison holds a lot of people in a small area, it is not a mystery on how Jester obtains its prison-like appeal. The lack of lighting in Jester causes a melancholy type of mood which gives the impression of a dark, sullen area. The University of Texas campus does not have room to spare since it only consists of 40 acres. Little did the UT Board of Regents know the construction of Jester would eventually lead to an overcrowding and the largest enrollment in the country.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  As a result of the largest enrollment in the country, the sizes of the rooms of Jester are very similar to those of a prison. In an interview with Lindsey Jones, a resident of Jester, explains, â€Å"I can’t study in Jester. It feels like I am trapped. I like being able to move around.† The measurements of the Jester rooms compared to that of a prison cell are very similar. A Jester room is 13’2† x 16’ with built-in furniture (Jester Center 2). A prison cell is about 14’x 14’6† with built-in furniture (CAD drawings). Below is a diagram of a Jester room: (Jester Center 2) The hallways in Jester are barely large enough for one person to walk through.

Rationalism: Empiricism and Knowledge Essay

First published Thu Aug 19, 2004; substantive revision Thu Mar 21, 2013 The dispute between rationalism and empiricism concerns the extent to which we are dependent upon sense experience in our effort to gain knowledge. Rationalists claim that there are significant ways in which our concepts and knowledge are gained independently of sense experience. Empiricists claim that sense experience is the ultimate source of all our concepts and knowledge. Rationalists generally develop their view in two ways. First, they argue that there are cases where the content of our concepts or knowledge outstrips the information that sense experience can provide. Second, they construct accounts of how reason in some form or other provides that additional information about the world. Empiricists present complementary lines of thought. First, they develop accounts of how experience provides the information that rationalists cite, insofar as we have it in the first place. (Empiricists will at times opt for skepticism as an alternative to rationalism: if experience cannot provide the concepts or knowledge the rationalists cite, then we don’t have them.) Second, empiricists attack the rationalists’ accounts of how reason is a source of concepts or knowledge. 1. Introduction The dispute between rationalism and empiricism takes place within epistemology, the branch of philosophy devoted to studying the nature, sources and limits of knowledge. The defining questions of epistemology include the following. 1. What is the nature of propositional knowledge, knowledge that a particular proposition about the world is true? To know a proposition, we must believe it and it must be true, but something more is required, something that distinguishes knowledge from a lucky guess. Let’s call this additional element ‘warrant’. A good deal of philosophical work has been invested in trying to determine the nature of warrant. 2. How can we gain knowledge? We can form true beliefs just by making lucky guesses. How to gain warranted beliefs is less clear. Moreover, to know the world, we must think about it, and it is unclear how we gain the concepts we use in thought or what assurance, if any, we have that the ways in which we divide up the world using our concepts correspond to divisions that actually exist. 3. What are the limits of our knowledge? Some aspects of the world may be within the limits of our thought but beyond the limits of our knowledge; faced with competing descriptions of them, we cannot know which description is true. Some aspects of the world may even be beyond the limits of our thought, so that we cannot form intelligible descriptions of them, let alone know that a particular description is true. The disagreement between rationalists and empiricists primarily concerns the second question, regarding the sources of our concepts and knowledge. In some instances, their disagreement on this topic leads them to give conflicting responses to the other questions as well. They may disagree over the nature of warrant or about the limits of our thought and knowledge. Our focus here will be on the competing rationalist and empiricist responses to the second question. 1. 1 Rationalism To be a rationalist is to adopt at least one of three claims. The Intuition/Deduction thesis concerns how we become warranted in believing propositions in a particular subject area. The Intuition/Deduction Thesis: Some propositions in a particular subject area, S, are knowable by us by intuition alone; still others are knowable by being deduced from intuited propositions. Intuition is a form of rational insight. Intellectually grasping a proposition, we just â€Å"see† it to be true in such a way as to form a true, warranted belief in it. (As discussed in Section 2 below, the nature of this intellectual â€Å"seeing† needs explanation. ) Deduction is a process in which we derive conclusions from intuited premises through valid arguments, ones in which the conclusion must be true if the premises are true. We intuit, for example, that the number three is prime and that it is greater than two. We then deduce from this knowledge that there is a prime number greater than two. Intuition and deduction thus provide us with knowledge a priori, which is to say knowledge gained independently of sense experience. We can generate different versions of the Intuition/Deduction thesis by substituting different subject areas for the variable ‘S’. Some rationalists take mathematics to be knowable by intuition and deduction. Some place ethical truths in this category. Some include metaphysical claims, such as that God exists, we have free will, and our mind and body are distinct substances. The more propositions rationalists include within the range of intuition and deduction, and the more controversial the truth of those propositions or the claims to know them, the more radical their rationalism. Rationalists also vary the strength of their view by adjusting their understanding of warrant. Some take warranted beliefs to be beyond even the slightest doubt and claim that intuition and deduction provide beliefs of this high epistemic status. Others interpret warrant more conservatively, say as belief beyond a reasonable doubt, and claim that intuition and deduction provide beliefs of that caliber. Still another dimension of rationalism depends on how its proponents understand the connection between intuition, on the one hand, and truth, on the other. Some take intuition to be infallible, claiming that whatever we intuit must be true. Others allow for the possibility of false intuited propositions. The second thesis associated with rationalism is the Innate Knowledge thesis. The Innate Knowledge Thesis: We have knowledge of some truths in a particular subject area, S, as part of our rational nature. Like the Intuition/Deduction thesis, the Innate Knowledge thesis asserts the existence of knowledge gained a priori, independently of experience. The difference between them rests in the accompanying understanding of how this a priori knowledge is gained. The Intuition/Deduction thesis cites intuition and subsequent deductive reasoning. The Innate Knowledge thesis offers our rational nature. Our innate knowledge is not learned through either sense experience or intuition and deduction. It is just part of our nature. Experiences may trigger a process by which we bring this knowledge to consciousness, but the experiences do not provide us with the knowledge itself. It has in some way been with us all along. According to some rationalists, we gained the knowledge in an earlier existence. According to others, God provided us with it at creation. Still others say it is part of our nature through natural selection. We get different versions of the Innate Knowledge thesis by substituting different subject areas for the variable ‘S’. Once again, the more subjects included within the range of the thesis or the more controversial the claim to have knowledge in them, the more radical the form of rationalism. Stronger and weaker understandings of warrant yield stronger and weaker versions of the thesis as well. The third important thesis of rationalism is the Innate Concept thesis. The Innate Concept Thesis: We have some of the concepts we employ in a particular subject area, S, as part of our rational nature. According to the Innate Concept thesis, some of our concepts are not gained from experience. They are part of our rational nature in such a way that, while sense experiences may trigger a process by which they are brought to consciousness, experience does not provide the concepts or determine the information they contain. Some claim that the Innate Concept thesis is entailed by the Innate Knowledge Thesis; a particular instance of knowledge can only be innate if the concepts that are contained in the known proposition are also innate. This is Locke’s position (1690, Book I, Chapter IV, Section 1, p. 91). Others, such as Carruthers, argue against this connection (1992, pp. 53–54). The content and strength of the Innate Concept thesis varies with the concepts claimed to be innate. The more a concept seems removed from experience and the mental operations we can perform on experience the more plausibly it may be claimed to be innate. Since we do not experience perfect triangles but do experience pains, our concept of the former is a more promising candidate for being innate than our concept of the latter. The Intuition/Deduction thesis, the Innate Knowledge thesis, and the Innate Concept thesis are essential to rationalism: to be a rationalist is to adopt at least one of them. Two other closely related theses are generally adopted by rationalists, although one can certainly be a rationalist without adopting either of them. The first is that experience cannot provide what we gain from reason. The Indispensability of Reason Thesis: The knowledge we gain in subject area, S, by intuition and deduction, as well as the ideas and instances of knowledge in S that are innate to us, could not have been gained by us through sense experience. The second is that reason is superior to experience as a source of knowledge. The Superiority of Reason Thesis: The knowledge we gain in subject area S by intuition and deduction or have innately is superior to any knowledge gained by sense experience. How reason is superior needs explanation, and rationalists have offered different accounts. One view, generally associated with Descartes (1628, Rules II and III, pp. 1–4), is that what we know a priori is certain, beyond even the slightest doubt, while what we believe, or even know, on the basis of sense experience is at least somewhat uncertain. Another view, generally associated with Plato. (Republic 479e-484c), locates the superiority of a priori knowledge in the objects known. What we know by reason alone, a Platonic form, say, is superior in an important metaphysical way, e. g. unchanging, eternal, perfect, a higher degree of being, to what we are aware of through sense experience. Most forms of rationalism involve notable commitments to other philosophical positions. One is a commitment to the denial of scepticism for at least some area of knowledge. If we claim to know some truths by intuition or deduction or to have some innate knowledge, we obviously reject scepticism with regard to those truths. Rationalism in the form of the Intuition/Deduction thesis is also committed to epistemic foundationalism, the view that we know some truths without basing our belief in them on any others and that we then use this foundational knowledge to know more truths. 1. 2 Empiricism Empiricists endorse the following claim for some subject area. The Empiricism Thesis: We have no source of knowledge in S or for the concepts we use in S other than sense experience. Empiricism about a particular subject rejects the corresponding version of the Intuition/Deduction thesis and Innate Knowledge thesis. Insofar as we have knowledge in the subject, our knowledge is a posteriori, dependent upon sense experience. Empiricists also deny the implication of the corresponding Innate Concept thesis that we have innate ideas in the subject area. Sense experience is our only source of ideas. They reject the corresponding version of the Superiority of Reason thesis. Since reason alone does not give us any knowledge, it certainly does not give us superior knowledge. Empiricists generally reject the Indispensability of Reason thesis, though they need not. The Empiricism thesis does not entail that we have empirical knowledge. It entails that knowledge can only be gained, if at all, by experience. Empiricists may assert, as some do for some subjects, that the rationalists are correct to claim that experience cannot give us knowledge. The conclusion they draw from this rationalist lesson is that we do not know at all. I have stated the basic claims of rationalism and empiricism so that each is relative to a particular subject area. Rationalism and empiricism, so relativized, need not conflict. We can be rationalists in mathematics or a particular area of mathematics and empiricists in all or some of the physical sciences. Rationalism and empiricism only conflict when formulated to cover the same subject. Then the debate, Rationalism vs. Empiricism, is joined. The fact that philosophers can be both rationalists and empiricists has implications for the classification schemes often employed in the history of philosophy, especially the one traditionally used to describe the Early Modern Period of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries leading up to Kant. It is standard practice to group the major philosophers of this period as either rationalists or empiricists and to suggest that those under one heading share a common agenda in opposition to those under the other. Thus, Descartes, Spinoza and Leibniz are the Continental Rationalists in opposition to Locke, Berkeley and Hume, the British Empiricists. We should adopt such general classification schemes with caution. The views of the individual philosophers are more subtle and complex than the simple-minded classification suggests. (See Loeb (1981) and Kenny (1986) for important discussions of this point.) Locke rejects rationalism in the form of any version of the Innate Knowledge or Innate Concept theses, but he nonetheless adopts the Intuition/Deduction thesis with regard to our knowledge of God’s existence. Descartes and Locke have remarkably similar views on the nature of our ideas, even though Descartes takes many to be innate, while Locke ties them all to experience. The rationalist/empiricist classification also encourages us to expect the philosophers on each side of the divide to have common research programs in areas beyond epistemology. Thus, Descartes, Spinoza and Leibniz are mistakenly seen as applying a reason-centered epistemology to a common metaphysical agenda, with each trying to improve on the efforts of the one before, while Locke, Berkeley and Hume are mistakenly seen as gradually rejecting those metaphysical claims, with each consciously trying to improve on the efforts of his predecessors. It is also important to note that the Rationalist/Empiricist distinction is not exhaustive of the possible sources of knowledge. One might claim, for example, that we can gain knowledge in a particular area by a form of Divine revelation or insight that is a product of neither reason nor sense experience. In short, when used carelessly, the labels ‘rationalist’ and ‘empiricist,’ as well as the slogan that is the title of this essay, ‘Rationalism vs. Empiricism,’ can retard rather than advance our understanding. Nonetheless, an important debate properly described as ‘Rationalism vs. Empiricism’ is joined whenever the claims for each view are formulated to cover the same subject. What is perhaps the most interesting form of the debate occurs when we take the relevant subject to be truths about the external world, the world beyond our own minds. A full-fledged rationalist with regard to our knowledge of the external world holds that some external world truths can and must be known a priori, that some of the ideas required for that knowledge are and must be innate, and that this knowledge is superior to any that experience could ever provide. The full-fledged empiricist about our knowledge of the external world replies that, when it comes to the nature of the world beyond our own minds, experience is our sole source of information. Reason might inform us of the relations among our ideas, but those ideas themselves can only be gained, and any truths about the external reality they represent can only be known, on the basis of sense experience. This debate concerning our knowledge of the external world will generally be our main focus in what follows. Historically, the rationalist/empiricist dispute in epistemology has extended into the area of metaphysics, where philosophers are concerned with the basic nature of reality, including the existence of God and such aspects of our nature as freewill and the relation between the mind and body. Major rationalists (e. g. , Descartes 1641) have presented metaphysical theories, which they have claimed to know by reason alone. Major empiricists (e. g. Hume 1739–40) have rejected the theories as either speculation, beyond what we can learn from experience, or nonsensical attempts to describe aspects of the world beyond the concepts experience can provide. The debate raises the issue of metaphysics as an area of knowledge. Kant puts the driving assumption clearly: The very concept of metaphysics ensures that the sources of metaphysics can’t be empirical. If something could be known through the senses, that would automatically show that it doesn’t belong to metaphysics; that’s an upshot of the meaning of the word ‘metaphysics. ‘ Its basic principles can never be taken from experience, nor can its basic concepts; for it is not to be physical but metaphysical knowledge, so it must be beyond experience. [1783, Preamble, I, p. 7] The possibility then of metaphysics so understood, as an area of human knowledge, hinges on how we resolve the rationalist/empiricist debate. The debate also extends into ethics. Some moral objectivists (e. g. , Ross 1930) take us to know some fundamental objective moral truths by intuition, while some moral skeptics, who reject such knowledge, (e. g. , Mackie 1977) find the appeal to a faculty of moral intuition utterly implausible. More recently, the rationalist/empiricist debate has extended to discussions (e. g. , Bealer 1999, and Alexander & Weinberg 2007) of the very nature of philosophical inquiry: to what extent are philosophical questions to be answered by appeals to reason or experience? 2. The Intuition/Deduction Thesis The Intuition/Deduction thesis claims that we can know some propositions by intuition and still more by deduction. Many empiricists (e. g. , Hume 1748) have been willing to accept the thesis so long as it is restricted to propositions solely about the relations among our own concepts. We can, they agree, know by intuition that our concept of God includes our concept of omniscience. Just by examining the concepts, we can intellectually grasp that the one includes the other. The debate between rationalists and empiricists is joined when the former assert, and the latter deny, the Intuition/Deduction Thesis with regard to propositions that contain substantive information about the external world. Rationalists, such as Descartes, have claimed that we can know by intuition and deduction that God exists and created the world, that our mind and body are distinct substances, and that the angles of a triangle equal two right angles, where all of these claims are truths about an external reality independent of our thought. Such substantive versions of the Intuition/Deduction thesis are our concern in this section. One defense of the Intuition/Deduction thesis assumes that we know some substantive external world truths, adds an analysis of what knowledge requires, and concludes that our knowledge must result from intuition and deduction. Descartes claims that knowledge requires certainty and that certainty about the external world is beyond what empirical evidence can provide. We can never be sure our sensory impressions are not part of a dream or a massive, demon orchestrated, deception. Only intuition and deduction can provide the certainty needed for knowledge, and, given that we have some substantive knowledge of the external world, the Intuition/Deduction thesis is true. As Descartes tells us, â€Å"all knowledge is certain and evident cognition† (1628, Rule II, p. 1) and when we â€Å"review all the actions of the intellect by means of which we are able to arrive at a knowledge of things with no fear of being mistaken,† we â€Å"recognize only two: intuition and deduction† (1628, Rule III, p. 3). This line of argument is one of the least compelling in the rationalist arsenal. First, the assumption that knowledge requires certainty comes at a heavy cost, as it rules out so much of what we commonly take ourselves to know. Second, as many contemporary rationalists accept, intuition is not always a source of certain knowledge. The possibility of a deceiver gives us a reason to doubt our intuitions as well as our empirical beliefs. For all we know, a deceiver might cause us to intuit false propositions, just as one might cause us to have perceptions of nonexistent objects. Descartes’s classic way of meeting this challenge in the Meditations is to argue that we can know with certainty that no such deceiver interferes with our intuitions and deductions. They are infallible, as God guarantees their truth. The problem, known as the Cartesian Circle, is that Descartes’s account of how we gain this knowledge begs the question, by attempting to deduce the conclusion that all our intuitions are true from intuited premises. Moreover, his account does not touch a remaining problem that he himself notes (1628, Rule VII, p.7): Deductions of any appreciable length rely on our fallible memory. A more plausible argument for the Intuition/Deduction thesis again assumes that we know some particular, external world truths, and then appeals to the nature of what we know, rather than to the nature of knowledge itself, to argue that our knowledge must result from intuition and deduction. Leibniz (1704) tells us the following. The senses, although they are necessary for all our actual knowledge, are not sufficient to give us the whole of it, since the senses never give anything but instances, that is to say particular or individual truths. Now all the instances which confirm a general truth, however numerous they may be, are not sufficient to establish the universal necessity of this same truth, for it does not follow that what happened before will happen in the same way again. †¦ From which it appears that necessary truths, such as we find in pure mathematics, and particularly in arithmetic and geometry, must have principles whose proof does not depend on instances, nor consequently on the testimony of the senses, although without the senses it would never have occurred to us to think of them†¦ (1704, Preface, pp.150–151) Leibniz goes on to describe our mathematical knowledge as â€Å"innate,† and his argument may be directed to support the Innate Knowledge Thesis rather than the Intuition/Deduction Thesis. For our purposes here, we can relate it to the latter, however: We have substantive knowledge about the external world in mathematics, and what we know in that area, we know to be necessarily true. Experience cannot warrant beliefs about what is necessarily the case. Hence, experience cannot be the source of our knowledge. The best explanation of our knowledge is that we gain it by intuition and deduction. Leibniz mentions logic, metaphysics and morals as other areas in which our knowledge similarly outstrips what experience can provide. Judgments in logic and metaphysics involve forms of necessity beyond what experience can support. Judgments in morals involve a form of obligation or value that lies beyond experience, which only informs us about what is the case rather than about what ought to be. The strength of this argument varies with its examples of purported knowledge. Insofar as we focus on controversial claims in metaphysics, e. g.that God exists, that our mind is a distinct substance from our body, the initial premise that we know the claims is less than compelling. Taken with regard to other areas, however, the argument clearly has legs. We know a great deal of mathematics, and what we know, we know to be necessarily true. None of our experiences warrants a belief in such necessity, and we do not seem to base our knowledge on any experiences. The warrant that provides us with knowledge arises from an intellectual grasp of the propositions which is clearly part of our learning. Similarly, we seem to have such moral knowledge as that, all other things being equal, it is wrong to break a promise and that pleasure is intrinsically good. No empirical lesson about how things are can warrant such knowledge of how they ought to be. This argument for the Intuition/Deduction Thesis raises additional questions which rationalists must answer. Insofar as they maintain that our knowledge of necessary truths in mathematics or elsewhere by intuition and deduction is substantive knowledge of the external world, they owe us an account of this form of necessity. Many empiricists stand ready to argue that â€Å"necessity resides in the way we talk about things, not in the things we talk about† (Quine 1966, p. 174). Similarly, if rationalists claim that our knowledge in morals is knowledge of an objective form of obligation, they owe us an account of how objective values are part of a world of apparently valueless facts. Perhaps most of all, rationalist defenders of the Intuition/Deduction thesis owe us an account of what intuition is and how it provides warranted true beliefs about the external world. What is it to intuit a proposition and how does that act of intuition support a warranted belief? Their argument presents intuition and deduction as an explanation of assumed knowledge that can’t—they say—be explained by experience, but such an explanation by intuition and deduction requires that we have a clear understanding of intuition and how it supports warranted beliefs. Metaphorical characterizations of intuition as intellectual â€Å"grasping† or â€Å"seeing† are not enough, and if intuition is some form of intellectual â€Å"grasping,† it appears that all that is grasped is relations among our concepts, rather than facts about the external world. Moreover, any intellectual faculty, whether it be sense perception or intuition, provides us with warranted beliefs only if it is generally reliable. The reliability of sense perception stems from the causal connection between how external objects are and how we experience them. What accounts for the reliability of our intuitions regarding the external world? Is our intuition of a particular true proposition the outcome of some causal interaction between ourselves and some aspect of the world? What aspect? What is the nature of this causal interaction? That the number three is prime does not appear to cause anything, let alone our intuition that it is prime. These issues are made all the more pressing by the classic empiricist response to the argument. The reply is generally credited to Hume and begins with a division of all true propositions into two categories. All the objects of human reason or inquiry may naturally be divided into two kinds, to wit, â€Å"Relations of Ideas,† and â€Å"Matters of Fact. † Of the first are the sciences of Geometry, Algebra, and Arithmetic, and, in short, every affirmation which is either intuitively or demonstratively certain. That the square of the hypotenuse is equal to the square of the two sides is a proposition which expresses a relation between these figures. That three times five is equal to half of thirty expresses a relation between these numbers. Propositions of this kind are discoverable by the mere operation of thought, without dependence on what is anywhere existent in the universe. Though there never were a circle or triangle in nature, the truths demonstrated by Euclid would forever retain their certainty and evidence. Matters of fact, which are the second objects of human reason, are not ascertained in the same manner, nor is our evidence of their truth, however great, of a like nature with the foregoing. The contrary of every matter of fact is still possible, because it can never imply a contradiction and is conceived by the mind with the same facility and distinctness as if ever so conformable to reality. (Hume 1748, Section IV, Part 1, p. 40) Intuition and deduction can provide us with knowledge of necessary truths such as those found in mathematics and logic, but such knowledge is not substantive knowledge of the external world. It is only knowledge of the relations of our own ideas. If the rationalist shifts the argument so it appeals to knowledge in morals, Hume’s reply is to offer an analysis of our moral concepts by which such knowledge is empirically gained knowledge of matters of fact. Morals and criticism are not so properly objects of the understanding as of taste and sentiment. Beauty, whether moral or natural, is felt more properly than perceived. Or if we reason concerning it and endeavor to fix the standard, we regard a new fact, to wit, the general taste of mankind, or some other fact which may be the object of reasoning and inquiry. (Hume 1748, Section XII, Part 3, p. 173) If the rationalist appeals to our knowledge in metaphysics to support the argument, Hume denies that we have such knowledge. If we take in our hand any volume–of divinity or school metaphysics, for instance–let us ask, Does it contain any abstract reasoning concerning quantity or number? No. Does it contain any experimental reasoning concerning matter of fact and existence? No. Commit it then to the flames, for it can contain nothing but sophistry and illusion. (Hume 1748, Section XII, Part 3, p. 173) An updated version of this general empiricist reply, with an increased emphasis on language and the nature of meaning, is given in the twentieth-century by A. J. Ayer’s version of logical positivism. Adopting positivism’s verification theory of meaning, Ayer assigns every cognitively meaningful sentence to one of two categories: either it is a tautology, and so true solely by virtue of the meaning of its terms and provides no substantive information about the world, or it is open to empirical verification. There is, then, no room for knowledge about the external world by intuition or deduction. There can be no a priori knowledge of reality. For †¦ the truths of pure reason, the propositions which we know to be valid independently of all experience, are so only in virtue of their lack of factual content †¦ [By contrast] empirical propositions are one and all hypotheses which may be confirmed or discredited in actual sense experience. [Ayer 1952, pp. 86; 93–94] The rationalists’ argument for the Intuition/Deduction Thesis goes wrong at the start, according to empiricists, by assuming that we can have substantive knowledge of the external world that outstrips what experience can warrant. We cannot. This empiricist reply faces challenges of its own. Our knowledge of mathematics seems to be about something more than our own concepts. Our knowledge of moral judgments seems to concern not just how we feel or act but how we ought to behave. The general principles that provide a basis for the empiricist view, e. g. Hume’s overall account of our ideas, the Verification Principle of Meaning, are problematic in their own right. In various formulations, the Verification Principle fails its own test for having cognitive meaning. A careful analysis of Hume’s Inquiry, relative to its own principles, may require us to consign large sections of it to the flames. In all, rationalists have a strong argument for the Intuition/Deduction thesis relative to our substantive knowledge of the external world, but its success rests on how well they can answer questions about the nature and epistemic force of intuition made all the more pressing by the classic empiricist reply. 3. The Innate Knowledge Thesis The Innate Knowledge thesis joins the Intuition/Deduction thesis in asserting that we have a priori knowledge, but it does not offer intuition and deduction as the source of that knowledge. It takes our a priori knowledge to be part of our rational nature. Experience may trigger our awareness of this knowledge, but it does not provide us with it. The knowledge is already there. Plato presents an early version of the Innate Knowledge thesis in the Meno as the doctrine of knowledge by recollection. The doctrine is motivated in part by a paradox that arises when we attempt to explain the nature of inquiry. How do we gain knowledge of a theorem in geometry? We inquire into the matter. Yet, knowledge by inquiry seems impossible (Meno, 80d-e). We either already know the theorem at the start of our investigation or we do not. If we already have the knowledge, there is no place for inquiry. If we lack the knowledge, we don’t know what we are seeking and cannot recognize it when we find it. Either way we cannot gain knowledge of the theorem by inquiry. Yet, we do know some theorems. The doctrine of knowledge by recollection offers a solution. When we inquire into the truth of a theorem, we both do and do not already know it. We have knowledge in the form of a memory gained from.

Media Bias in the Election of 2008

Connie Zhang Media Bias Against Hilary Clinton in the Election of 2008 The election of 2008 was monumental in many respects, the most significant being the fact that there was a chance that the first woman or African American would become president of the United States. After Obama won the nomination, claims that the media had been negative and unfair to Clinton were examined. In earlier studies conducted by D’Alessio and Allen, it was concluded there were no significant biases in most forms of media. However, from the focus of her marriage to the questioning of her social conduct, Clinton was definitely treated differently than Obama was.It is very evident that there was, in fact, negative bias towards Clinton, although it was not as numerous and severe as it seemed to be due to historical, situational, and personal matters. Using meta-analysis, a method that allows for the combination of many studies from relatively few media outlets, D’Alessio and Allen revealed no s ignificant net amount of gatekeeping bias and no significant coverage bias. However, statement bias found in newsmagazines was pro-republican, and those found on TV were pro-democrat. The key here is that the â€Å"net† amount of gatekeeping bias was equal to zero.What this meant was that the number of conservatively biased forms of media was equal to the number of liberally biased forms of media. If someone only read a republican-favoring newspaper, then individually, he would be experiencing media biases which would impact his voting choices despite the fact that â€Å"net† amount of gatekeeping biases was equal to zero. Another important fact demonstrated in this study is that Americans are increasingly relying on TV for campaign information, so they are increasingly exposed to liberal biases, further affecting their political choices.Although D’Alessio and Mike Allen are certainly correct in their claim that the identities of the presidential candidates chan ged many times, biases most definitely existed in the election of 2008. Using a positive versus negative coverage analysis, Moldovan found substantial evidence that Clinton received less coverage than Obama did. Historically, this trend has been recorded, and in 2008, it held true even when the female candidate, Clinton, was a front runner.Six top newspapers ran 59 stories with Obama being mentioned in the headline, while only 36 mentioned Clinton. Between January 2007 and June 2008, 343 articles were written about Obama, while only 293 were focused on Clinton. In Time magazine, 2 covers featured Clinton, 2 covers featured both Clinton and Obama, and a whopping 25 covers featured Obama only. Clearly, there is a bias favoring Obama in the case of agenda setting. Additionally, Moldovan found that coverage of Clinton was more negatively framed than Obama’s was, in both specific cases and in general.When Clinton cried after winning the New Hampshire primaries, there was plenty of coverage deeming her a phony trying to rally emotional support as a woman, whereas her victory was extremely likely due to her administration’s superior organization in that state. In contrast, Obama’s condescending â€Å"You’re likeable enough, Hillary†, remark, received substantially less time and focus. Another example where treatment of Obama was not was not as harsh or prolonged as it could have been was in regards to Michelle Obama’s remark about being proud of her country â€Å"for the first time in her life†.Furthermore, the treatment towards Obama’s connections to anti-American individuals, such as his former reverend Jeremiah Wright, was softer in comparison to criticism of Clinton’s fashion, lack of womanly characteristics, and marriage. Overall, Clinton’s coverage was more negative than Obama’s, from the amount the media covered her weaknesses to the way it framed them. But all the biases claimed to h ave existed may not really have been actual biases, as Moldovan further explains. Some may have only been believed to been there as a result of historical, situational, and personal situations.The year 2008 was a crucial time. The country was in the worst recession since the Great Depression, with foreign tensions only aggravating the situation. Despite Clinton’s political prowess, her marriage to Bill Clinton and its scandalous complications gave her a very â€Å"yesterday† feeling that Americans did not need in such a dire time. Additionally, her refusal to disclose her tax returns increased the feelings of secrecy that retrogressively reminded people of the Nixon and Bush administration. Furthermore, coming out of George W.Bush’s rule, the fact that she was a Clinton added to the feeling of the persistence of a family dynasty that Americans did not want again. Finally, Clinton’s approach to the campaign itself was not only perceived negatively, but was in fact negative. Clinton’s method to winning focused on questioning Obama’s foreign policy experience, military capabilities, and economic policies. Her offensive remarks about Obama’s kindergarten essay and her red phone call ad were things that didn’t need the media’s framing or bias for people to recognize that they were disrespectful and unappealing.Although the press unnecessarily focused on these negative aspects, it cannot be denied that most of Clinton’s campaign was, in fact negative in itself due to the fact that it had been an attack on Obama’s flaws as a person, rather than a logical and fair assessment of his abilities and potential as a leader (Moldovan, 2009). When coupled with the fact that Obama revealed his maturity and professionalism by focusing on substance rather than resorting to mud-slinging, the situation worsened for Clinton.Additionally, the most negative coverage about Obama may have emphasized a trait th at would have been unattractive in other times, but in this situation, served to help him. The media revealed Obama’s â€Å"elitism†, from his food choices, to his education, to his up-scale Chicago neighborhood. Normally, this would have harmed a candidate’s campaign, but in 2008 when Americans really needed a talented and intelligent president, it seemed to make sense to want more than just an average American candidate.Despite his race and lack of professional experience, in contrast to Clinton’s feelings of backwardness and her attack tactics, Obama’s youthful charisma and focus on hope were simply more appealing to the American people, and although the media did give him an unfair amount of attention in his positive traits and was biased in focusing on his image rather than his experience, Obama didn’t need the media’s framing for it to be known that the way he approached the campaign was much more mature and professional then Cl inton.Because people tend to react much stronger to emotional appeals rather than dense, political facts, the fact that Obama handled the campaign better as a person really assisted him to victory (Moldovan, 2009). Clinton’s circumstances may have been further exacerbated not by the media’s bias, but by the fact that in general, people are just harsher when judging a woman. In a representative national sample, 51 percent of the surveyed believed that Americans were not â€Å"ready to elect a woman into high office† (Lawless 74).In general, women are more likely to receive media coverage based on their appearance, feminine traits, and ability to handle women’s issues. The situation was worsened by fact that Clinton was not the average female candidate. From the perceived lack of affection towards her pets to her hard, tough demeanor, Clinton lacked many of the stereotypical womanly characteristics people expected from her. But as soon as she cried after he r New Hampshire victory, the press had an unnecessarily generous and negative focus on these womanly qualities.Although there is a general and accepted consensus that Clinton did not lose the race because she was a woman, she was forced to operate in a sexist environment and deal with different expectations and standards. Thus, her campaign in general was more difficult as voters relied on stereotypical ideas of women and men’s attributes, affecting the way people judged and viewed her differently from Obama. In this case, the media may not have been biased against Clinton, but simply reinforcing these sexist norms (Lawless 2009).A further reason why these biases may not be as strong as they are claimed is demonstrated by Watts, Domoke, Shah, and Fan. After examining shifts in public perception of media bias, press coverage of media bias, and coverage in presidential campaigns, they concluded that the rise in the belief of media bias is a result of increasing news self-covera ge focusing on the topic of news content bias itself. These authors discovered that a lot of people’s evaluation of media credibility is misinformed, especially when comes to political news and campaign coverage.In presidential campaigns, candidates may merely be attempting to generate support for themselves and opposition for their opponents, not intentionally wanting to create bias. With the increase in these patterns, allegations of biases may now be a part of the presidential campaign rhetoric, and journalists feel increasing pressure to make these claims of the existence of biases to prove that they are not biased themselves.The rise in media sources has further contributed to the pressure traditional media sources have felt to reinforce their reliability by supporting claims of biases. Doing so not only generates credibility from their audience, but their peers as well. In consequence, a cyclic effect has taken place in which news media find their attention as sources o f information in political campaigns to be of increasing importance.In these ways, biases that are claimed to exist may not be as severe—or even existent—as people believe them to be. Due to these historical, situational, and personal matters, the negative biases against Clinton may not have been as frequent and harsh as they seemed, although biases against her existed for sure. In both agenda setting and framing, the media seemed to be against her as she received less coverage overall, and the coverage she did received tended to be harsher than the coverage on Obama.Other biases that were claimed to exist, however, such as emphasis on her marriage to Bill Clinton, however, may not really have been biases, but true, negative facts that just didn’t help her campaign. In addition, she was operating under a sexist environment, so it cannot be said that the media was being biased against her gender since everyone else was too. Finally, assertions of biases may not h ave actually arisen from real biases, but could have been a result from increasing news self-coverage focusing on the topic of news content bias.Overall, as Moldovan points out, the press’ true biases lay in conflict, because conflict generates both viewers and revenue. It just happened to be that out of the two candidates, Hilary Clinton had more problems to talk about. Works Cited Lawless, Jennifer L. â€Å"Sexism and Gender Bias in Election 2008: A More Complex Path for Women in Politics. † Politics & Gender (2009): 70-80. Print. â€Å"Media Bias in Presidential Elections: A Meta Analysis. † Journal of Communication 50. 4 (2000): 133-56. Print. Miller, Melissa K. , Jeffrey S. Peake, and Brittany Anne Boulton. Testing the Saturday Night Live Hypothesis: Fairness and Bias in Newspaper Coverage of Hillary Clinton's Presidential Campaign. † Politics & Gender (2010): 169-98. Print. Raluca, Moldovan. â€Å"A TALE OF TWO CLINTONS: MEDIA BIAS IN THE COVERAGE O F HILLARY CLINTON'S 2008 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN1. † Studia Universitatis Babes-Bolyai. Studia Europaea (2009): 41-59. Print. Watts, Mark D. , et al. â€Å"Elite Cues and Media Bias in Presidential Campaigns – Explaining Public Perceptions of a Liberal Press. † Communication Research 26. 2 (1999): 144-75. Print.

Free Essays on Poem By Witman

1. â€Å"Apart from the pulling and hauling stands what I am, stands amused, complacent, compassionating, idle, unitary†¦ (Whitman 38) .† This line expresses Walt Whitman’s philosophy on life and is an almost perfect description of the poet. He was a man, who in his poetry, expressed independence, interdependence with other living things, and the struggles that are dealt with by him and others in order to gain that independence. He felt and wrote that it is important to stand up for the things in which one believes in. Walt Whitman gives much insight into himself and others in his poetry, and gives his readers a great deal to think about. In general, it could be said that Whitman very much believed in the individual and felt that one’s strengths, whatever they may be, could be utilized and manipulated into something meritorious. Walter Whitman was born and raised in New York City, and spent most of his adult life in that area. At the age of twelve, Whitman b egan his journalism career as a printer’s apprentice and very quickly worked himself up to the top. In 1846, at the age of 23, was hired as the editor of the Brooklyn Daily newspaper; however, two years later he was fired because he was an adamant supporter of the Free Soil faction of the Democratic party. He moved to New Orleans to work for the Crescent, a local paper, only to move back to New York three months later. Whitman dabbled around in free soil journalism for awhile, but that didn’t work out and this brought him to the close of his career as journalist (â€Å"Whitman, Walt† 639) . At this point his life took a very significant turn and he began developing into the poet he would soon become. For five years Walt Whitman followed in his father’s footsteps, and began building houses and investing in real estate. Whitman became a 2. very promising businessman and began to have more time on his hands. He attended the opera and theater, and began to re ad and write tremend... Free Essays on Poem By Witman Free Essays on Poem By Witman 1. â€Å"Apart from the pulling and hauling stands what I am, stands amused, complacent, compassionating, idle, unitary†¦ (Whitman 38) .† This line expresses Walt Whitman’s philosophy on life and is an almost perfect description of the poet. He was a man, who in his poetry, expressed independence, interdependence with other living things, and the struggles that are dealt with by him and others in order to gain that independence. He felt and wrote that it is important to stand up for the things in which one believes in. Walt Whitman gives much insight into himself and others in his poetry, and gives his readers a great deal to think about. In general, it could be said that Whitman very much believed in the individual and felt that one’s strengths, whatever they may be, could be utilized and manipulated into something meritorious. Walter Whitman was born and raised in New York City, and spent most of his adult life in that area. At the age of twelve, Whitman b egan his journalism career as a printer’s apprentice and very quickly worked himself up to the top. In 1846, at the age of 23, was hired as the editor of the Brooklyn Daily newspaper; however, two years later he was fired because he was an adamant supporter of the Free Soil faction of the Democratic party. He moved to New Orleans to work for the Crescent, a local paper, only to move back to New York three months later. Whitman dabbled around in free soil journalism for awhile, but that didn’t work out and this brought him to the close of his career as journalist (â€Å"Whitman, Walt† 639) . At this point his life took a very significant turn and he began developing into the poet he would soon become. For five years Walt Whitman followed in his father’s footsteps, and began building houses and investing in real estate. Whitman became a 2. very promising businessman and began to have more time on his hands. He attended the opera and theater, and began to re ad and write tremend...

Understanding Expressive Roles and Task Roles

Understanding Expressive Roles and Task Roles Expressive roles and task roles, also known as instrumental roles, describe two ways of participating in social relationships. People in expressive roles tend to pay attention to how everyone is getting along, managing conflict, soothing hurt feelings, encouraging good humor, and take care of things that contribute to one’s feelings within the social group. People in task roles, on the other hand, pay more attention to achieving whatever goals are important to the social group, like earning money to provide resources for survival, for example. Sociologists believe that both roles are required for small social groups to function properly  and that each provides a form of leadership: functional and social. Parsonss Domestic Division of Labor How sociologists understand expressive roles and task roles today is rooted in Talcott Parsons development of them as concepts within his formulation of the domestic division of labor. Parsons was a mid-century American sociologist, and his theory of the domestic division of labor reflects gender role biases that proliferated at that time and that are often considered traditional, though theres scant factual evidence to back up this assumption. Parsons is known for popularizing the structural functionalist perspective within sociology, and his description of expressive and task roles fits within that framework. In his view, assuming heteronormative and patriarchally organized nuclear family unit, Parsons framed the man/husband as fulfilling  the instrumental role by working outside the home to provide the money required to support the family. The father, in this sense, is instrumental or task-oriented he accomplishes a specific task (earning money) that is required for the family unit to function. In this model, the woman/wife plays a complementary expressive role by serving as the caregiver for the family. In this role, she is responsible for the primary socialization of the children  and provides morale and cohesion for the group through emotional support and social instruction. A Broader Understanding and Application Parsons conceptualization of expressive and task roles was limited by stereotypical ideas about gender, heterosexual relationships, and unrealistic expectations for family organization and structure, however, freed of these ideological constraints, these concepts have value and are usefully applied to understanding social groups today. If you think about your own life and relationships, you can probably see that some people clearly embrace the expectations of either expressive or task roles, while others might do both. You might even notice that you and others around you seem to move between these different roles depending on where they are, what they are doing, and who they are doing it with. People can be seen to be playing these roles in all small social groups, not just families. This can be observed within friend groups, households that are not composed of family members, sports teams or clubs, and even among colleagues in a workplace setting. Regardless of the setting, one will see people of all genders playing both roles at various times. Updated  by Nicki Lisa Cole, Ph.D.

Green criminology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 1

Green criminology - Essay Example In addition to causing severe environmental damage, it also affects the basic right of human beings to a healthy environment (Ajunwa, 2007). Illegal dumping of toxic wastes, which are generated in developed countries such as Europe and America, in to third world countries such as Africa, South-east Asia, India and China has become a routine in the recent past. This is mainly due to the huge quantities of toxic wastes such as electronic and petrochemical wastes, asbestos and wastes from refineries and shipping industries that are being generated. Such illegal dumping has had an enormous impact on the health of people living in the developing nations especially in countries such as Africa. Reports suggest that there is an increase in the number of deaths and diseases caused by such illegal dumping of toxic wastes. Following increased dumping of waste products in the developing world, the Basel convention laid down regulations to control the transboundary movement of hazardous wastes wh ich prevented the export of toxic wastes from the developed nation to the developing world. However, subsequent inspection of ports in the European nations reveled that nearly 47% of wastes that was destined for illegal export a recent incident being the dumping of about 550 tones of toxic wastes in the Abidjan port by the firm Trafigura Beheer BV. This situation calls for stricter policies which are required in order to prevent the use of developing nations as a dumping ground (Godoy, 2010). Hazardous wastes include solids, liquids or gases that may cause harm to both humans and the environment. Increased production of such wastes by certain multinational companies initiated the export of such wastes to countries such as Africa. This led to serious environmental damage by affecting the water and air quality that killed many children and adults. Estimates show that nearly 300 million tones of