Buddhism and Christianity

Buddhist and Christians are among the world’s larges religions. They are characterized by different teachings and practices that they observe. They both have different origins and beliefs that form part of their structures. The two characteristics that I am going to look at are: the ethical teachings of both Christians and Buddhists and their religious scriptures. Ethical teachings: Ethics is one of the issues which stand out among the teachings of both religions. The two religions emphasize on the need for proper ethics through believes, practices and worship.Despite the emphasis that they both put on ethics, differences emerge between the two in their theoretical and practical aspects. There are several areas in which the differences can be evident such as: their ideas concerning sin, the notion and model of ethics together with the codes of ethics. Sin: in both religions, human beings are regarded as sinful beings. Sin is the basis of religious doctrines and without it: it is possible that ethical religious believes could not be there. According to both religions, human beings are characterized by sin, imperfection and guilty.It is only through moral religious principles that one can be made pure and perfect. The births of both Buddha and Christ were good news to both the Buddhist and Christians respectively. Jesus was born to bring salvation and love from God while Buddha was born to bring the message of wisdom and compassionate to mankind as well as show them the path to enlightenment (King, P. 3). Christians believe that all human beings are connected to the first sin in the Garden of Eden by the first parents: Adam and Eve. This sin has over the years been passed down from one generation to the other.This story explains the origin of sin which according to the story was human disobedience to God. Therefore, Adam and Eve went against God’s wishes when they decided to ignore the orders He had given them of not eating the fruit they ate. Becau se God is perceived as a model for perfect ethics, then going against his wishes will be the same as sinning. Therefore, according to Christians, sin is not only the original sin that has been passed down though generations but also the heart’s disobedience in following or practicing the divine morals, ethical codes and spirit.Hence the base of Christian ethics is not only believing in Christ but also living according to his teachings (Locke, P. 237). In Buddhism, there is no that kind of â€Å"original sin† as in Christianity. They instead believe that every individual is born of craving and ignorance which results to human beings being born in a cycle referred to as samsara: a birth and death cycle. It is only through enlightenment that an individual can overcome craving and ignorance. According to Buddha’s personal experiences, sin is originally caused by impunity, bad karmas and imperfection: there is no any other source.In the Buddhist structure, it is beli eved that sin originates from oneself and can therefore be overcome by oneself. Therefore, the basis of Buddhist’s ethical teachings is the mind: that sin originates from the mind and can only be overcome by the mind (Smart, p. 77). Model and ethical notion: both Christianity and Buddhism take the perfect model of ethics to be an important aspect of religious morality. Ethical teachings of both religion focus on Christ and Buddha because both of their lives were full of noble virtues and love that cannot be compared with any other.These models are the foundations of both religions although there are different ideas concerning ethics between them (Locke, P. 237). For Christians, love (agape) is the basis of moral life which is shown clearly in the life and teachings of Christ as well as in the bible. They believe that God is love and it is what constitutes his heart. Therefore, it is through his grace and forgiveness of human sins that ethical values can be cultivated in indiv iduals and salvation can be attained. Christian moral standards are basically established on sin, forgiveness, belief and the love of God.They also believe that belief must go with actions: a Christian can best be recognized by his/her deeds as compared to what he/she says. Contrary to the Christians, Buddhist morality is not based upon the power or the life of Buddha but instead it is based upon his teachings about â€Å"cause and effects†. They believe that an individual’s positive or negative attitude is determined by his/her actions and thoughts. Buddha taught people to: â€Å"make an island of yourself, make yourself your refuge; there is no other refuge. Make truth your island, make truth your refuge; there is no other refuge,† (King, P.3) Therefore, in both religions: human beings are perceived to be sinful. The mind’s purity is perceived to be the basic step in ethics through which suffering and impunity which has been created in individuals can b e overcome. If the overall aim is transformation from the evil nature to divine: then Christians could achieve it through uniting with Christ while Buddhist could achieve the same by observing Buddhahood. Religious scriptures: According to the interviews I conducted with a Christian and a Buddhist leader, I found out the following about their religious scriptures:Teachings concerning God: conservative Buddhists’ scriptures teach nothing about existence of God. It does not affirm or deny existence of God and does not state who is divine not even Gautama himself. Liberal ones do not put emphasis on this concept but they pay homage to Buddha, Buddhist teachers, deities and ancestors. They worship using images, bow before them, give offerings to them, chant and pray to them. Although earlier Buddhism did not recognize Buddha to be omniscient, they now consider him and other teachers to be omniscience.Contrary to Buddhist scripture teachings, Christians refer to the bible that tea ches them that God exists. It states that the fact that there is a universe is an indication that there is a God somewhere. Psalm 19:1 – â€Å"The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth his handiwork. † & Romans 1:20 – Though God is invisible, His power and divinity can be seen through the things that are made. The only way the universe could exist is because there is a supernatural being powerful and wiser than anybody else (Scott, p. 87).Purpose of religion: The purpose of religion was to better man’s relationship with God. Buddhism scriptures do not teach anything about God while the bible teaches that the whole purpose of humanity is to serve and have a better relationship with Christ. Ecclesiastes 12:13 – The whole duty of man is to fear God and keep his commands. Ephesians 1:7-9 – The will and purpose of God was to redeem man by the forgiveness of sins through the blood of Jesus. Teaching about a true and supreme G od: Buddhism teachings allow for worship of many gods while the biblical teachings forbid the worship of more than one God.Matthew 4:10 – â€Å"Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him ONLY shalt thou serve. † We are not to worship many gods, nor any god other than Jehovah [2 Corinthians 6:18; Colossians 1:19-22]. Destiny of man: Buddhist scriptures teach about reincarnation (rebirth), Karma which teaches that the future lives are influenced by current actions and that what happens currently is the result of previous actions and nirvana which teaches that the ultimate purpose of man is to get out of the birth and rebirth cycle characterized by suffering.While the bible teaches that: an individual only lives once and physically dies once after which there will be resurrection, judgment and eternal rewards. 1 Corinthians 15:22, 23 – All die as a result of Adam's sin; as a result of Jesus, all live again. Resurrection is the opposite of death; hence the spirit is reunited with the body. Matthew 25:31-46 – The wicked go to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life. Buddhist scriptures do not teach about death and resurrection (Scott, p. 87).Suffering: Buddhist scriptures teach that suffering is essential in life, it’s brought about by human desires and they can be eliminated by getting rid of earthly desires by not wanting to exist as an individual. The bible teachings teach that suffering is part of life; it is a consequence of sin physical desires are neither good nor bad, it depends on how you seek to satisfy them, an individual’s desire to exist is not bad and it’s through trust in God that you can be able to overcome suffering and not through defeating yourself.The Buddhist teaching of not to desire to be an individual can be considered to blasphemy God’s work by Christians. Works cited King, L. Winston. Buddhism and Christianity: Some Bridges of Understanding. Taylor and Francis. 2008, p . 3. Locke, A. Kenneth, â€Å"The Foundation for Ethical Behavior: A Christian perspective for a dialogue with Buddhism,† Hsi Lai Journal of Humanistic Buddhism 3 (2002): 327. Scott, Archibald. Buddhism and Christianity; A Parallel and a Contrast, Being the Croall Lectures for 1889-90. General Books LLC. (2009): p. 87. Smart, Ninian. Buddhism and Christianity: rivals and allies. University of Hawaii Press. (1993): p. 77.

Explain and Assess Descartes Trademark Argument

Explain and Assess Descartes Trademark Argument Descartes Trademark Argument came about when Descartes was in the process of trying to build up the knowledge he himself can know a priori (without experience) through pure reason. When doing this be began to think about where his idea of God came from and eventually Descartes concluded that the idea of God comes from God himself and he explained this through the Trademark Argument. The argument is an a priori argument meaning before experience.This sort of argument is the type that philosophers usually prefer because, unlike a posteriori or after experience, the evidence is not so open to interpretation because anyone could dispute the true meaning of an experience but its far more difficult to do that with pure reasoning. The origins and foundations of the Trademark Argument lie in the Causal Adequacy Principle. This states that any cause of something must have at least equal or greater properties than its effect, so in short it means that every cause must be sufficient enough to create the effect.For example, to break a window, the cause must have enough power in the speed and weight of the object in order for the window to shatter. So in this case a fly wouldn’t cause the window to shatter just by flying into because it does not possess greater or equal properties however a flying brick will possess these properties so the window can shatter. Descartes then applied this theory with out ideas. Ideas must be caused by something, but this something must have at least as much reality as the idea themselves.A complex way of saying this would be â€Å"Something (A) cannot exist unless it is produced by something that contains either formally or eminently everything to be found in (A). † To possess something formally is to possess equal properties while eminently is to possess properties greater. Let’s look at this with an example. Ideas of Angels can be made up ourselves just by using our ideas of material things and God. The idea of Angels, which is far greater than any sort of human, but not as great as God, can be thought of as a lesser version of God himself.Descartes was sure that these ideas existed in his own mind however he could not work out if they represented anything else in the real world even if he is led to think that by his instincts. Descartes believed that his ideas had degrees of â€Å"objective reality† so what they represent can be measured in terms of perfection. These ideas can’t be more perfect or contain more reality than the things that caused them so we cant be the cause of our ideas of God because we aren’t perfect enough to be able to do it even if we are the cause of other ideas such as substance which we cant be sure exists outside our own minds.So, if we can’t be the cause of our idea of God, who can? This can only be answered in one way for there is only one being, according to Descartes, that has at least as muc h perfection as God and that is God himself. So for us to have this idea of God there must have been a God to put it in us in the first place. As Descartes described it, it is â€Å"the mark of a craftsmen stamped on his work. † This can be simplified by using a series of points to structure the argument.The cause of anything must be at least as perfect as its effectMy ideas must be caused by somethingI am imperfectMy idea of God is of a perfect being so†¦I cannot be the cause of my idea of God and†¦Only a perfect being could cause such an idea so†¦God (a perfect being) placed the idea within us and exists.That is the argument in its simplest form. Over the many years since Descartes revealed his findings in his work â€Å"meditations† there have been many supporters and backers of the argument, most of whom are rationalists who as explained before, like the a priori style of the argument.Other supporters we can assume could be major religions for exampl e, such as Islam which would share the same view as Descartes that our idea of God is innate the implanted within us by God himself which can also be seen as a major strength of the argument. So, Descartes believes he has proved that in order for us to have the idea of God as a supremely perfect being it must be innate within us and must have been placed in us by God himself. However there are many critics to this argument which must be considered in order to assess the argument.Firstly, many philosophers have encountered problems with the Causal Adequacy Principle. Descartes considered this principle true for many reasons, one of the main ones we think that he believed in was you cant get more out of the effect than what was already in the cause, otherwise it would be something for nothing. This however may not be true because there are examples in the world which we can see as having more in its effect than what was in the cause. One of which is can we not light a large bonfire ju st with the aid of one match? Also can we start an avalanche with just the sound waves from one whisper?There are many other more scientific examples such as Chaos Theory, Quantum Physics and also Evolution. In the case of evolution, single celled organisms evolve into more complex beings just through the passage of time, once all life on earth was just single cell organisms but now there are millions of different species all more complex than what came before. Hume also criticised the causal adequacy principle by saying we cannot determine the cause of anything by looking just at the effect. Can we know what caused a window to shatter before inspecting the evidence to find the cause within?All we know it must have been big enough with enough power behind to smash through the window but we cant even know this a priori. Hume said that we learn a posteriori that for a window to shatter it must have been caused by a large object with lots of power behind it. From this Hume seems to sug gest that to know what actually caused our idea of God we much observe its cause. Hume also said that even if the principle is correct then how could Descartes assume that the principle can just be transferred from physical things to ideas without it changing?However there are philosophers who have defended the principle stating that lots of rules have exemptions and why, if a rule does need exemptions which were not originally set out, is it immediately untrue. Things such as evolution, chaos theory and my examples of lighting a large bonfire with a single match and causing an avalanche with a whisper may just be exemptions to the rule however it still applies to many other things. Some philosophers have also criticised Descartes for defining his idea of God and an incoherent God. For example, Descartes describes God as being Omnipotent, meaning that he is all powerful.This would seem to satisfy many peoples ideas of God however on close examination it is indeed incoherent. To illu strate this I shall use a paradox which undermines God’s power. Can God create a rock that he himself could not lift? Either way one thing he can not do for if he can create the rock then he can’t lift it but if he cant create the rock there is still something he cant do. This paradox suggests Descartes idea of God is flawed and imperfect so a perfect being can not be the only possible cause of the idea according to the causal adequacy principle.From this we can deduce that its far more likely that Descartes himself created this imperfect idea rather than a perfect being. The final criticism I shall look as it one formed collectively by the arch-rationalists: empiricists. This group of philosophers would consider themselves to rival rationalism as they believe that the mind at birth is blank and we gain all our ideas from experience, not reason or innate ideas. Hume, one of the leading empiricists, amongst others argued that we observe qualities in other people and so recognise there are degrees of certain qualities such as knowledge, power and benevolence.With these ideas in our head from the experiences we have had of other people, we can then extend these qualities until we arrive at infinite knowledge, power and benevolence. This way we have arrived at the idea of these things joining and making a perfect being with infinite qualities however we have arrived through it in a much less perfect way than through God. If this is correct then the origin of our idea is not innate and certainly not caused by God but just us manipulating what we have experienced to suit our needs as imaginative human beings. In conclusion there are many strengths and weaknesses to Descartes Trademark Argument.It is a compelling argument to follow because of the way it is structured and how it sets out to explain out idea of God in an untainted way, free of what can be misleading experiences and just work it out through the power of reason however once examining the po tential problems that have arisen since Descartes time it would be difficult to believe the argument is the truth, and for myself it is incredibly difficult to believe in it knowing that there is an equal and possibly more valid reason why we have an idea of God, as explained by the empiricists.

Business Case & Moral Case for Diversity-Free-Samples-Myassignment

There is a need to portray a moral case for diversity that has something to do with the different direction for improvement in the Woolworth organizational bottom line. There is a need for improvement in the profitability measures of the Woolworth organization that is nevertheless to be wrong in their bottomline. The diversity in the business case needs to have several ove ing in the rate of shortage of the skills that has a talent for the wars. There are markets that are eventually diverse in the course of the diversion of the markets. There is a need to create a promotional innovation that helps in the creativity of the team. In this report, the organization that has been chosen to be evaluated through the different business care processes is Woolworth. The Woolworths supermarkets is considered as the Australian supermarket that helps in the grocery and the different supermarket chains that helps in the chains owned (Woolworths .au 2017). The organization is a retail one that has its headquarters in the South Wales in Australia and has made some of the brand people like the Brad Banducci that is the Director of the Australian supermarkets, earns revenue upto $42.132 billion (2015), and has the employees until 111000. The Woolworth organization is engaged in mostly selling of the different groceries and sells different stationery items like the DVDs and the magazines (Ashikali and Groeneveld 2015). The current operating stores have different supermarkets like the 968 and have additional convenience in carrying out the same logos in the stores. The store was founded in 1924 in September that lies under the name of the Wallworths bazaar ltd that is internationally known. Later it was internationally known that helps in the name of the internationally renowned Woolworth market. Initially it had no plan for overseas expansion but later it did expand to different parts of the world (Klopf, et al. 2017). There is a need to accelerate on the growth of the trading events that helps in the growth of the brand that is initially instigated. The shareholders are interested in accepting this accelerated brand growth that are involved in trading at a continuous operational pace. The interest of the consumers started a year back that helps in analyzing the sales of the operations (Dennissen, Benschop and van den Brink 2016). The research on the Woolworth is a retail chain on a high street that has a high street retail chain on the different stores that is nationwide and that has almost 30,000 staffs employed. The organization method needs to be maintained that has a mixture of full time and part time employees (Harvey and Allard 2015). It has been maintained that the top of the hierarchy is the head of the branch and then es the different employees. The management system of the Woolworth can somewhat be removed by the staffs as an informal hierarchical system that needs to be in an informal structure. The heads hardly interacted with the different employees and hence they were both unaware of each other, which was of great affects. The affects were in the application of the poor motivational methods. There is always a need for motivation for the staffs at the time of the recession that helps in motivating the different staffs (Kulik 2014). The employers has a large budget that is used for the recruitment of the different staffs that eventually wants to be hanged on for. The employees of the organization have to have something in order to bring out the best of their ability. They are often driven by money (Madera, Dawsonand Neal 2017). The salary is often not enough to keep an employee motivated at work but definitively the quality and the productivity of their work will eventually make them deteriorate it. The ultimate employee motivation has to be how to keep someone motivated in work. The use of the number of theories in the will eventually effects the management that has a great deal of the employee motivation that will be applied in the Woolworth. Motivating staffs is the most important responsibility of an organization and is the most difficult thing to be managed (Martà ­n Alcà ¡zar, Miguel Romero Fernà ¡ndez and Sà ¡nchez Gardey 2013). There were a large number of part time employees in the Woolworth branch in order to make the mon young employees view this and make them improved in their work field. Just like other organizations, there is a need for impressing the management that will be the best of their ability to keep their job safe. The key factor of the opinion is to make a low quality in the services so that a key factor b es the ultimate failure in the Woolworth group of organizations. The staffs when are not motivated it will eventually affect the customers and their feedback will be poor. This will ultimately put a bad reputational mark on the growth of the pany. The emphasis was therefore imposed to change the management on the effected motivations (Olsen and Martins 2016). The moral case in thee Woolworth organization is that they are more aware of their particular reputation in the particular panies that they might will to serve and share as well. The Directorial boards have to be involved with the development of the vision that may be corporated in producing the different statements. These statements will be presented with the form of an image that can be used for the public good for being a caring employer in their caring organization (Olsen and Martins 2016). The best practices that can be used for managing the diversity can diversity that needs to be   incorporated in the different appropriate circumstances with the use of   the different techniques and the methods that will be formed. The leadership in the top mitment is a visionary demonstration of the different municative method that has a diversity strategic plan that is based on the development and the alignment (Pauly 2016). All these things need to be incorporated in the strategic plan of the organizations. There is a need to link the diversity with the performance that helps in understanding the diversity and the inclusive work environment that can yield a more great productivity that will help in the improvement in the performance of the Woolworth. The measurement can be a set of the different qualitative and the quantitative mode of the measurement that has an impact on the different aspects of the overall diversity plan (Soulat and Nasir 2017). Accountability ensures that the leader’s wide diverse plans that will help them to provide a linkage with their performance level of the assessment. The pensation programs have to have a diversity initiative. The planning has to have a succession that is a based on the strategies and the ongoing process that is identified with the talent pool (Trittin and Schoeneborn 2015). The Woolworth hence produces organizational potential leaders of the future. The Woolworth is a supermarket in Australia and is a food retailer that has a huge annual turnover.   The pany trades from different parts of the world and has an employment to thousands of people. There is a need for equal opportunity for the scope of employment (Vidal et al. 2013).   Many awards and recognition have been addressed to the organization. Woolworth has now taken up the approach that needs to be formulated in the pen and paper form in the pany (Pauly 2016).   The organization is also developing on the various factors that needs to bee modified. The result that has been treated in the Woolworth organization is somewhat similar to the policies of the business and the moral case studies. The result will be as same treated with the different organizational interest of the public's that has two different pillars, one is the long term relationship between the pany and the employee that needs to be built (Ashikali and Groeneveld 2015) The results that will be derived wil l eventually help in the developing approaches in the organization. This study is based on the different role and the diversity in the employment management that will help in the improvement of the Woolworths organization. This study will ultimately reveal the diversity management between the employees and their involvement in the impact of their innovation in their organization. A data was collected from the different 844 respondents who said that there are different large organizations that have applied in the SPSS version to analyze the data. The involvement and the diversity of the employee are to show the negative impact on the organizational employment and their innovation. There is a need to trigger the organizational innovational ou e so that it ultimately enhances the Woolworths organizations. The insight reflects that how the productivity can be increased through the innovational productivity by using the human resources properly. In the field of the HRM management research, an outline may be drawn on the different formal organizational practice programs. The research includes the different methodologies that need to be measured by the employee perceptions in the different diversity management activities. There is a need to demonstrate on the impacts of the diversity management that reflects primarily on the employee reactions and their identification with the different unit levels. A below line research has been made that do not directly answer the HR professionals that is mostly based on the HR activities that is required to be adopted. Eventually, it will explain the impacts of the different formal organizational diversity activities that need to be reported by the documented and the senior managers in the records of the organization. The Woolworth organization can easily be linked with this research paper based on the bottom line theory as per the basics of the HR management From this research paper it can be concluded that the role of the cultural and the employee diversity has a plete variation on the innovation of the organization. There is   a need of the human resource theories and their tenets that is primarily based on the resource based view of the Woolworth firm. There is a need for the influence of the racial diversity that is in the managerial ranks. A conceptualization of the different DEM practices needs to be made on the size of the moderating role in the relationship rank of the Woolworth organization. The theoretical and the practical implications for the different perspectives of the strategy is based on the future diversity management. Just like the other organizations the racial diversity is also practiced in Woolworths and that helps the employees to concentrate on their work more appropriately. The increasing globalization requires the interaction on the different diverse backgrounds that is present in an organisation. People now work as a part of the global economy, that has b e more diversified with time. So, here es the need of the various non profitable and profitable organisations to b e diversified in order to sustain in the global market of petition. The ultimate aim of an organization is to maximize their level of profit in the workplace diversity. This article is effectively designed that helps the managers to understand the effectiveness of the diversified workplace. The different benefits of the challenges of a workplace that also has different effective strategies needs to be well pointed. In the Woolworth organisation these diversity of the workplace is well maintained that has newly evaluated the different challenges and the benefits that will be of some use to the customers. The management is a social discipline that needs to be dealt   with the different types of the behavior of a person and that also includes the human insights. In this article the workforce management of the diversity is explained and also how it has positive and negative effects on the organisation. Woolworth is such a multi national super market organisation that needs to manage diversity in order to maintain peace and a good pace of the work environment in the organisation. This journal article is all about what are the benefits and the usefulness of the diversity management. Diversity training is required that is often a trigger in the conflict in the workplace area that has its lawsuits as well by making the employees pelled to make them talk to each other even. There are often the misinterpreted concepts that need to be well perceived that is based on the moral case of the different discriminatory intents in the organization. There is a need for prevention of this similar case and a linkage should be enhanced to make it for better works. From the above report, it can be well concluded that an initial linkage between the moral and the business case has been well evaluated. The chosen organization is the Woolworth, which is an Australian based pany that is primarily one of the top retail super markets. The role of the human resource management as a part of the integral part of the organization has been introduced but in a small portion.   At the end, it can be stated that there is a need for the different types of the diversity that will help in the prosperity of the organization. Ashikali, T. and Groeneveld, S., 2015. Diversity management in public organizations and its effect on employees’ affective mitment: The role of transformational leadership and the inclusiveness of the organizational culture.  Review of Public Personnel Administration,  35(2), pp.146-168. Benschop, Y., Holgersson, C., Van den Brink, M. and Wahl, A., 2015. Future challenges for practices of diversity management in organizations.  Handbook for Diversity in Organizations, Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp.553-574. Dennissen, M., Benschop, Y. and van den Brink, M., 2016, January. Diversity Networks: Networking for Equality?. In  Academy of Management Proceedings  (Vol. 2016, No. 1, p. 15950). Academy of Management. Harvey, C.P. and Allard, M., 2015.  Understanding and managing diversity: Readings, cases, and exercises. Pearson. Klopf, R.P., Baer, S.G., Bach, E.M. and Six, J., 2017. Restoration and management for plant diversity enhances the rate of belowground ecosystem recovery.  Ecological Applications,  27(2), pp.355-362. Kulik, C.T., 2014. Working below and above the line: The research–practice gap in diversity management.  Human Resource Management Journal,  24(2), pp.129-144. Madera, J.M., Dawson, M. and Neal, J.A., 2017. Managers’ psychological diversity climate and fairness: The utility and importance of diversity management in the hospitality industry.  Journal of Human Resources in Hospitality & Tourism,  16(3), pp.288-307. Martà ­n Alcà ¡zar, F., Miguel Romero Fernà ¡ndez, P. and Sà ¡nchez Gardey, G., 2013. Workforce diversity in strategic human resource management models: A critical review of the literature and implications for future research.  Cross Cultural Management: An International Journal,  20(1), pp.39-49. Olsen, J.E. and Martins, L.L., 2016. Racioethnicity, munity makeup, and potential employees’ reactions to organizational diversity management approaches.  Journal of Applied Psychology,  101(5), p.657. Pauly, L., 2016. The Challenge to Manage Variety. A Current Evaluation of Diversity Management in Germany. Soulat, A. and Nasir, N., 2017. Examining the Role of Employee Diversity Management and Employee Involvement Variation on Organizational Innovation: A Study from Pakistan.  Singaporean Journal of Business, Economics and Management Studies,  5(9), pp.62-69. Soulat, A. and Nasir, N., 2017. Examining the Role of Employee Diversity Management and Employee Involvement Variation on Organizational Innovation: A Study from Pakistan.  Singaporean Journal of Business, Economics and Management Studies,  5(9), pp.62-69. Trittin, H. and Schoeneborn, D., 2015. Diversity as polyphony: Reconceptualizing diversity Management from a munication-centered perspective.  Journal of Business Ethics, pp.1-18. Vidal, T., Crainic, T.G., Gendreau, M. and Prins, C., 2013. A hybrid genetic algorithm with adaptive diversity management for a large class of vehicle routing problems with time-windows. puters & operations research,  40(1), pp.475-489. Woolworths .au. (2017).  {{metaController.metaData.title}}. [online] Available at: https://www.woolworths .au/ [Accessed 19 Aug. 2017]. With a decade's experience in providing essay help,

Environment and famiy dynamics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Environment and famiy dynamics - Essay Example With respect to what factors constitute an environment, a simpler analysis would be to conclude that any and all outside forces that help to shape the development of the family should be considered the environment. With such an all inclusive meaning, it is readily understood that the environment has a profound effect on familial development as a function of the fact that it encompasses so many diverse factors. Likewise, familial communication is one of the most central mechanisms through which a family can hope to discuss, analyze, and work to ameliorate negative environmental factors. Without open communication within the unit, the environment itself becomes the determinant factor towards shaping the overall functionality/disfunctionality of the given family unit. In this way, the communication mechanism works to regulate the way in which the familial unit works to alleviate environmental pressures that exist upon

Management Decision Making Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Management Decision Making - Essay Example This paper elucidates the problems faced by organisations while preparing the budgets. Table of Contents Table of Contents 3 1.0 Introduction 4 2.0 Issue associated with consolidation of balance sheet items of subsidiaries for large organisations 4 3.0 Impact of errors in consolidation of multiple subsidiaries on performance of organisation 5 4.0 Issue of unrestricted use of top down or bottom up budgeting process 6 5.0 Impact of unrestricted use of top down or bottom up budgeting process on organization performance 8 6.0 Issues like the failure to follow up and analyze variances 8 7. Impact of the failure to follow up and a analyze variances on organisational performance 10 8. Issue of lack of clarity in the budgeting process 12 9.0 Impact of lack of clarity on organisational performance 13 14. Conclusion 14 Reference 15 1.0 Introduction Processes of budgeting and organisational performance are linked intrinsically. The budgets are like self restricted mechanism. This self restricti on limits the chances of exceeding the limits set of for expenses, investment and over head costs. Most of the time the organisations are far apart from achieving the target set in the budget. This may not be due to the incompetent nature of the organisation for which it is unable to stick to what is prescribed in the budget. The reason is due to the faulty budget estimates. More specifically due to inability to filter the various problems and issues that arise while preparing budgets. The present research study tries to explain the issues associated with budgeting process and its impact on the organisation performance. The issues are first identified and the impacts associated with that issue is explained with suitable examples. 2.0 Issue associated with consolidation of balance sheet items of subsidiaries for large organisations Large organizations which have various strategic business units and subsidiaries and spread across different countries face problem when consolidations oc cur. Large companies while preparing the annual budgets have to consolidate the annual statements of the various subsidiaries and the strategic business units (Binkert and Jose, 2006). This consolidation involves transferring the liabilities and the assets of the subsidiaries into the accounts of the mother company. Most of the errors occur in this consolidation process. The problem gets multiplied when the subsidiaries are located overseas and are dealing with different currencies. 3.0 Impact of errors in consolidation of multiple subsidiaries on performance of organisation When subsidiaries are located overseas, then the consolidation of the balance sheet items needs to be done in parlance with the exchange rate. Now the currency exchange rate is prone to change and not static in nature, so the actual budgeting process may commence 2 months ago (Folscher, 2006). By then the consolidated balance sheet is reflecting the value of the assets and liabilities calculated at the exchange rate then. Although the present exchange rate might have moved up or have gone down. If the projections need to be done about the future value of the assets and liabilities in the balance sheet in the coming 2 years, then the projection will have a large room for errors if they are done on the basis of the

Racine County, Wisconsin Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Racine County, Wisconsin - Research Paper Example Racism and discrimination are significant aspects of life of non-native Americans, and they have to deal with it in their daily lives. There is growing evidence that racism and discrimination are not only emotionally harmful, but are potentially damaging to non-native Americans. Increased research on this topic applying innovative approaches is beginning to reveal the negative impacts arising from racism and discrimination (Collins & Williams, 2001). Racism and discrimination have been associated with a number of health complications such as chronic respiratory, cardiovascular, and pain related health complications. Racism and discrimination affect a person’s health in a number of ways. Considering child development, impacts of negative environment that are linked with racism and segregation produce serious effects on the health and development of a child. Intergenerational and life-long impacts of racism and discrimination reveal that the health impacts of racism are carried forward within individuals and across generation (Anderson et al, 1997). Racine County, Wisconsin According, to the 2012 population estimates, the county of Racine was estimated to have 194, 797 people. Half of the population lives in the city of Racine and over 90% of the county’s population live in the eastern side of the county. The county has much of its population made of non-native Americans. ... Minorities in Racine are prone to health risks arising from racism and discrimination, which lead to stressors that are worsened by residential segregation. As a point of consideration, residential segregation impacts negatively on the health of minorities in a number of ways. Segregation puts minorities in regions that have limited human and financial resources. These areas are characterized by inadequate health care, inadequate healthy food, toxic living conditions, poor public education, poor housing conditions, increased disorder and crime as well as high rates of incarceration. The chance for the minorities to improve their health status is hindered by the fact they live in segregation. This comes with lack of access to jobs, lack of economic investment, poor schooling, and inadequate public services, which are all crucial in improving a person’s health (Baquet et al, 2005). Non-natives continue to face significant discrimination relative to the natives in both access to health care and the nature of care they receive from health facilities. Increasing evidence supports that non-natives residing in Racine receive low quality and intensity health care as opposed to their native counterparts (Williams, 2000). This is evident even in situations where the non-natives are insured just like the natives and have health issues similar to those of the natives. Factors that contribute to the disparity in access to health care between the natives and the non-natives include policies and practices within the health care system, the behavior of people working in the health sector, and the legal and regulatory framework under which the health sector operates. Other contributing factors include language barriers, lack of adequate insurance coverage, and

Film Thesis paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Film Thesis paper - Essay Example In The Big Sleep, which is the first film version of the 1939 novel in the same title by Raymond Chandler, Humphrey Bogart stars as detective Philip Marlowe and Lauren Bacall plays the role of the female lead. Breathless (the French title bout de souffle literally means 'at breath's end'), which achieved international acclaim in the nouvelle vague along with other two movies, was highly recognized for its bold visual style and the innovative editing use of jump cuts. Howard Hawks' film is celebrated as an important Hollywood realist film which treats its subject, theme, and story in a realist manner, and it was highly appreciated by the U.S. Library of Congress, which preserved the film to the National Film Registry in 1997. Through its audacious visual style and the inventive editing use of jump cuts, Breathless is celebrated as a significant example of "anti-realist" film. A comparative analysis of these two essential films brings out significant facts about the various elements of the two genres. Therefore, this paper undertakes a reflective analysis of 'culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant' film The Big Sleep (a Hollywood "realist" film) by Howard Hawks and the French New Wave film Breathless (an "anti-realist" film) by Jean Luc Godard, in order to compare and contrast the theme, narrative, tone, acting, and genre of the two movies. The Howard Hawks film The Big Sleep is one of the most powerful and complex noir movies in the history of the genre and represents the rotten sweetness of corruption through the narration and themes. As the realist version of a celebrated novel, the film depends greatly on the narrative and themes to reflect the story in an effective manner. To several critics, the director has even excelled the author of the novel to represent various significant details of the plot and the narrative of the film is a reflection of this success. "Howard Hawks' The Big Sleep is one of the truly great Hollywood pictures: the Raymond Chandler novel is brought to the screen with panache and authority, and the chemistry between Bogart and Bacall is unsurpassed. While the protagonist lovers are good guys and there is no femme-fatale, the movie has a strong noir aura. The darkly lit atmosphere and strong sexual tension shape our response to a grim and dissolute nether world where PI Philip Marlowe doggedly solves an enigma within a mystery in a plot so convoluted not even the film-makers fully understood it." (The Big Sleep (1946): Love's Vengeance Lost) In the narrative of the film, the director presents a number of murders throughout the film which complicate the audience in easily figuring out the full plot of the story. Significantly, a careful spectator of the film feels that he is left in a world of ambiguity and chaos, similar to the case-hardened private detective Philip Marlowe. Therefore, the realist version of the film through its narrative helps the director in reaching the audience more efficiently. The director has been able to bring about his recurring romantic configuration through the n

Energy Industry Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Energy Industry - Essay Example Alaska, California, Louisiana succeedingly ranked in its respective slate in 1989 for generating 41% of oil but have degraded its supply contribution to 17% of total oil output recently (Styles, 2013). This decline is supplemented with the development of extractive industry at New Dakota which replaced Alaska in 2012and is contributed further by Colorado, Oklahoma and New Mexico’s rigs (Styles, 2013). The risk however is showed by oil generation reduction when the principal pipeline of onshore oil production became a funnel for oil importation (Styles, 2013). There is imminent reduction of New Mexico’s oil supply too following the Deepwater Horizon incident in 2010 (Styles, 2013). Economists recognized that the challenged nowadays is how the oil supplies from the upper part of the country to be distributed in the regions needing more of oil supply efficiency for domestic market demands (Styles, 2013). Such meant that the company therefore should be re-strategizing its w ays to balance the distribution of oil from region with crude surplus to other areas by transporting or shipping the refined products via multiple tankers to the Midwest (Styles, 2013). Recognizing that there is reduced supply after more than two decades of extraction, the challenge on oil production and efficiency distribution is doubled, notwithstanding fact that there are Oil Companies now eyeing oil resource in Monterey deposit (Styles, 2013). Suffice it to say, there is further challenges in the participation of the states in the west coast and hence, economist purviewed that California, Oregon, Nevada, and Washington will be primordially affected when oil production and distribution disruption happens (Styles, 2013). As an adviser to the consultant of the oil industry sector, the following vulnerabilities are therefore significant for consideration: 1. Improving quality control for oil generation and control.- Oil companies have been confronting problems on facilities and pipe lines safety amid issues that have happened on leakage or destruction in some significant part of the generation or oil refinery plants that caused and cost significant amount of destruction. 2. Problems involving social acceptability of tapping oil reserves- Strong sentiments on climatic changes, environmentalism and protection of indigenous peoples rights, as well as strong presence of armed elements over their lands are major causes of resistance from regions where proposed tapping of oil reserves are abound. Company managers must look into these concerns and seriously deal states and communities in rigorous dialogues. They must also be ready of measures to prevent potential outbreak of violence. 3. Future oil production and distribution efficiency for the Midwest states. The significance of this matter is highly elaborated in the preceding paragraphs of this paper. 4. Adaptation to renewal energy. Review the capacity of renewable energy production of the country and valuate its supplementary contribution to meet the demands for energy for Midwest states. Evaluate if the states can opt to maximize the potentials of renewable sources of power and its feasibility to double or triple it adaption (Department of Energy, 2013). Concerns relating to climatic changes and weather patterns must be accounted for serious consideration too on how renewable energy be maximized in accord to weather

How the media portrays African American women and african american Research Paper

How the media portrays African American women and african american families - Research Paper Example Actually, the problem of women rights can not be regarded as newly appeared. All women from different parts of the planet fought for their rights that should be equal to those gained by men. Of course, there is no need to mention those people who devoted their lives to fighting for the rights of black people. It is almost unbelievable that the Declaration of Independence by Thomas Jefferson that claimed for the rights of every citizen to be observed, technically served only the white citizens’ interests. Thus, being a nation of the nations, the USA turned to be unable to provide all the citizens with equal rights. And since the very start of the US history, black people were fighting at first for their freedom and then - for their rights. The attitude and public perception of black women still deserves speaking about. Living in a civilized society, where human rights must be observed and cherished, it is hard to believe that some people still suffer from intolerant treating an d have their right violated. Very few of us really pay our precious attention to the problem of stereotypical depiction of black people by contemporary mass media. Still, it does not mean that such problem doe not exist at all. It is an undeniable fact that every nation, every ethnic group are viewed through the prism of a set of social stereotypes that not always and, frankly speaking, almost never prove to be true. Black women are a special category which is very often becomes exploited by mass media in its own interests. The question of a famous journalist Jake Snow is very topical and sounds anxious, - â€Å"Think about how often you see an African-American woman being portrayed on the screen as brave, intelligent, and strong or playing a leadership role?†( Snow 2009). Maybe some of us would say we don’t have to focus our attention on such trifles and this problem is not very serious, but, nonetheless, it doesn’t become less abusive and humiliating. The very fact of arousing this issue is quite outspoken – if people talk about that, it means something is not OK here. Let’s recollect Mammy from a famous Hollywood movie â€Å"Gone by the Wind†. It is almost impossible to forget her awful manners, her constant grumbling and crudeness. Though it is hard to disagree that her character was a complete embodiment of positive and life-asserting values, the mass media has caught this stereotypic portraying immediately and proceeds exploiting it nowadays. Even when we take a look at her we see a big, overweight woman, and that does not correspond to our ideal of beauty. Mammy is an uneducated woman who is loyal to her masters, but still she is a slave. Though slavery has gone long ago, the image of Mammy remained unchanged, and such portraying of the black women, if put it mildly, lack tactfulness and respect. â€Å"The stereotypical woman being portrayed by the media is shallow, weak, unintelligent, and incapable of making decisions on her own, untrustworthy, materialistic, and promiscuous† (Snow, 2009). The black women are suppose to be narrow-minded, always unsatisfied with their own lives, they are rarely portrayed as successful business women, learned professors or simply reserved and well-educated member of society. Black big â€Å"mammies† are to provide the white people with comfort raise children and take care of them, but they are, as it was

Included in the description Research Proposal Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Included in the description - Research Proposal Example conflict is the family-to-work conflict where a person is not able to fulfill his work responsibilities due to family demands (Medalia & Jacobs, 2008, p.138). However, in today’s competitive and fast paced world, the most dominant and common type of work-family conflict that is found in people’s life is the ‘work-to-family’ conflict. However, the aspect of work life that is playing a major role in causing work-family conflict is the â€Å"long work hours†. Long work hours are not only disrupting the fulfillment of family responsibilities, but are also posing a strong threat to the unity, bonding and peace between the family members by causing lack of family time, dissatisfaction in need fulfillment, emotional distress and poor role performance by working adults (Medalia & Jacobs, 2008, p.138). To resolve the work-family conflict, it is highly important to understand how â€Å"long work hours† have become a major threat to the peace of the soci ety by affecting the family lives of professionals. Hence, the purpose of this research is to study and review the literature in the field of family psychology, industrial/organizational psychology and occupational psychology to explore the ways in which â€Å"long work hours† destroy the marriage lives and the family lives of the adults who work. The first and major types of work demands that causes the work-family conflict are the time based work demands (Medalia & Jacobs, 2008, p.138). Working on weekends, night shifts and non-standard work schedules are the different time based demands that disrupt the family routines and family roles of the adults who work (Medalia & Jacobs, 2008, p.138). However, the type of time based work demand that proves most hazardous to the family life of a person is the â€Å"long work hours†. â€Å"Long work hours† have various negative effects on the life of a person who works and hence, harms the peace of the family in many ways. This research is intended to find out in what ways do long

Proofs for God’s Existence Essay Example for Free

Proofs for God’s Existence Essay God’s existence can be proven in a multitude of ways. However, several introductory caveats are in order. First, by â€Å"God,† we mean the traditional Christian concept of an all-powerful and wise creator. Second, the project of â€Å"proving† anything is logic or science is nearly impossible. Even the best laid logical plans and the most iron clad arguments can be torn to pieces by a skilled logician. Such a state does not invalidate the proofs in question, just merely that the language of the discipline is such that any logical design can be manipulated and refuted by one who ardently desires it be refuted. What is being dealt with here is that faith in the God of the Christians is not an irrational, â€Å"blind faith,† but one that is eminently reasonable and defensible on metaphysical, logical and scientific grounds. 1. The proof of Aristotle, used by Thomas Aquinas later, is the â€Å"hylomorphic† proof and is very important to medieval thoughts about God and the nature of his existence. The theory centers around the distinction between first, form and matter which, second, corresponds to action and passion, or act and potency. The form of an object is it in act, or developing towards its natural telos, or end. The matter is passive, that which has non being, that which still needs to be developed. But the nature of reality is such that as one rises in knowledge, the form dominates over the matter. Mathematics, for example, is almost purely form, with only a minuscule amount of material stuff. But what is the origin of such things? Only the world of pure form, and hence, pure act, that is, God. God is pure act, pure perfection with no more need for development. It is the form of Forms that renders unchanging knowledge possible. The matter within its formal shell is not nly passive, but accidental, in that it is only the generator of sensations, colors, etc. But such things cannot exist without a substratum (there is no red, without it being a red something), and hence, form is the object of knowledge, not the matter, or the â€Å"accident† of the object. But knowledge only sees form, never matter. Matter might present form in the guise of a sensate object, but logical and mathematics does not work this way, these are separated from matter. Hence, the more universal the knowledge, the less matter. Hence, the ultimately form of knowledge is Pure form, hence God (Owens, 1980: 20-25). 2. Similarly, the proof of St. Augustine from the point of view of unchanging truth. Any such unchanging truth must have a cause. The truths of mathematics or logic never change regardless of time or place, and hence, there must be an entity in existence who could have brought such a world into being. Such an entity must never change or alter its being in any way, and hence, must be perfect (the only need for change is to improve, if no need for change, then there is no need for improvement). Therefore, God exists (Augustine, 1996: 19). 3. In terms of scientific proof, there is the entire question of natural law. The world is held together by a series of laws that never seem to change. They are regular and can be seen throughout nature, from its macro to its micro level. The â€Å"sensate† part of nature, logically, is anterior to the laws that allow it to exist. Hence, the laws of nature had to have come first, and are the form within which the sensate part of nature functions. Hence, an entity must exist that is capable of creating natural laws within which all created being can function in a regular and logical manner. Only God can be the cause of such things (Copleston, . 2006, 518). 4. The Russian philosopher Vladimir Solovyev uses the critique of nominalism to prove the existence of God in his Lectures on Godmanhood. First, the idea of empiricism is faulty since no real individuals exist (only God has this quality, but this is putting the cart before the horse). The objects seen in daily experience are themselves not particulars, but universals, ultimately reducible to pulses of energy. Force is the ultimate reality of being in terms of metaphysics. Hence, the empirical approach to the world is arbitrary, since the particulars we take for granted are in fact huge and complex collections of force and energy that appear to the senses as colors, sounds, textures, etc. Hence, energy is the source of being, and hence, retain the ontological status as universals. But this can not be sufficient, since the universal nature of forces must be accounted for. And this accounting can only be an entity powerful enough to have first created these forces that ultimately would register in human senses as objects, seemingly solid and singular, but in truth, complex and made up of universals (and in fact, representing universals in themselves). But this ultimately spiritual reality must have an equally spiritual cause, that is God. In other words, as the empirical qualities of objects exist only in the mind, the ultimate reality of the world is to be found in universals, and hence, the world of spirit. But all spiritual objects must have a cause that is equally creative and powerful (Solovyev, 1948: 60-63). 5. Spinoza’s concept of God is slightly different from the Christian view, but not entirely dissimilar. Spinoza argues for a single entity, Substance, that is the ultimate basis for all sensate objects. Substance is God, the ultimate basis (avoiding the word â€Å"cause† here) for all change and movement. Logically, there is only one ultimate Substance since there is no real reason for positing and more than one entity that, itself, can survive all change, but is not available to the senses. Spinoza’s Substance is not something that can be apprehended by senses, but only by the mind, and hence, is a spiritual being. While many writers have broken their backs trying to hold that nature is God for Spinoza, there is no reason to hold this: God is what is behind nature and is the ultimate basis for all being. Spinoza is not a pantheist, as nearly all commentators hold. Spinoza held that all change needs a basis, something that does not change. That which we see as changing is the modes of existence, the sensate objects in space and time (or mind and body). All of these sensate things can be reduced to that which is extended and that which is mental, ultimately one thing seen from two different points of view. But these two are merely two available modes for human comprehension of an infinite object that never changes, but is at the root of change, its basis, and that is Substance, or God, an infinite being who lies at the root of all change and the laws that govern change. It itself, does not change, but contains infinite attributes that only appear incompletely to human beings under two attributes only. Spinoza does not hold that there needs to be a cause of all things, but he does hold that there needs to be a basis of all things, that this is God (Della Rocca, 2008, 42-48) 6. The last proof or vision of God is to be found in Apostolos Makrakis, the little known 19th century Greek metaphysician. He was a Christian rationalist who held that Descartes butchered his own method. Makrakis holds that one can begin with Descartes ontological doubt. But the conclusion to this doubt, cogito ergo sum, is an arbitrary end point. When I engage in methodological doubt, I come up with several conclusions: first, the doubter exists, second, that the doubter is not the cause of his own existence, and third, that God exists necessarily. All of this derives from the single act of cognition: it is the true unpacking of the cogito. Since if the cogito is true, than the other propositions are equally true at the same time, known intuitively. Since the cogito is not self-created, then the outside world and God must exist necessarily in the same act of cognition as the original cogito. If one must strip away the outside world in order to reach the cogito, than the outside world is real, since in removing it, one reaches the truth of existence. The outside world cannot be a phantom then, if the doubter is not self-created. Something needed to have created and sustained the doubter, and this is as certain as the cogito itself. But since that outside world itself is not self-created (in other words, that the outside world does not know itself through itself, but through another), than God necessarily exists, and again, as true as the cogito itself. Hence, the cogito really says: I exist, the outside world exists, God exists, all at the same time all in the same act of cognition since the cogito itself implies it (Makrakis, 1956, 42-43). Again, none of these proofs are final, but the same can be said for all logic and science. But these do who that reason assents to the existence of God as infinite and all powerful. Spinoza’s approach is the most interesting, since it is compatible with mechanistic science, but holds that such science necessarily needs a basis for action, and this is Substance. The argument #3 above is also very difficult to refute, since one cannot hold to an ordered universe without holding to natural law, and if that, than the cause of natural law itself. If that is denied, then one is in the unenviable position of trying to argue that the material objects of nature can and did exist without a law to govern their actions. Hence, evolution is impossible. Natural laws (and a lawgiver) had to be before the actual sensate part of creation. But this, in an odd way, is very similar to the argument of Spinoza. It seems that science itself cannot function without recognizing natural law and it’s a priori existence with respect to the objects of science themselves. Bibliography: Owens, Joseph (1980) Thomas Aquinas on the Existence of God. SUNY Press Augustine (1996) â€Å"On The Free Choice of the Will† Readings in Medieval Philosophy. Ed. Andrew Schoedinger. Oxford. 3-24 Copleston, Frederick (2006) History of Philosophy: Medieval Philosophy. Continuum International. Solovyev, Vladimir (1948) Lectures on Godmanhood. Lindisfarne Press (this is sometimes called Lectures on Divine Humanity) Della Rocca, Michael (2008) Spinoza. Taylor and Francis Makrakis, Apostolos (1956) â€Å"The Tree of Life. † in Foundations of Philosophy. Chicago, OCES. 1-104

Home School or School House Essay Example for Free

Home School or School House Essay What do George Washington and the Hanson brothers have in common? Do you give up? Well, the answer is that both of them were educated in their homes. Queen Elizabeth, Thomas Edison, and Theodore Roosevelt were also educated at home. According to the Home Education Research Institute, 1. 5 million students are staying home for class today. This number is five times more than ten years ago (Kantrow and Wingert 66). This trend leads to many questions. Does home school education work? Do students receive a proper education? How does a home school students education compare to that of public school student? Does home schooling isolate a child socially? These questions are concerns of parents, educators, and politicians alike. The future of America rests on the academic and social education of our youth, and home school education should be considered as an effective alternative to public school education. In the past, parents mainly chose to educate their children at home because of religious preference. These parents viewed the public school system as a source of negative influence on children. Violence, sex, drugs, and peer pressure were influences these parents sought to avoid. However, today parents have other reasons for home school education, which primarily all point to a lackluster public school system. Other reasons include a desire to build a strong family closeness, safety, and a handful of parents chose home school for their children because of special needs such as disabilities or special talents. However, no matter how good the reasons, the home school education system must prove to be an acceptable alternative to public schools. There are many advantages to giving a student a home school education. First, parents can make direct decisions concerning what their children are taught. According to the Home School Statistics and Reports in 1997, written by founder and President Dr. Brian D. Ray, seventy-one percent of the parents who educate their children hand pick the curriculum from a variety of books, videos, and educational manuals. Another twenty-three percent order entire cirriculum packages (Ray 14). With the technology of today, parents have an unlimited source for information via the Internet, which can be easily integrated in home school education. The study also shows the education level of the parent supervising and administering the curriculum has little or no effect on the  quality of education received by a student. Home-educated students whose parents did not have college degrees scored equally high on tests compared to students whose parents had college degrees(Ray 56). In addition to students own parents teaching them, groups are formed among home school families. These groups allow students to be taught a variety of subjects by different parents that have a better understanding of subjects such as algebra, chemistry, and biology. These groups also take field trips, participate in sports, and do volunteer projects together. Another advantage of home schooling is the quality of education received by the student. How do home school students compare with public school students? This is a very important question to answer, but the answer can never be a concrete one. However all of the research I did shows that students educated in their homes have an equal or higher level of academic skills compared to the public school students. In the 1997 and 1998 ACT test scores, home school students averaged a score of 23; meanwhile the public school students averaged a score of 21(Farris 8). Also, on nationally standardized achievement exams home students again outscored public school students by at least thirty percentile points(Ray 7). While these numbers cant truly reflect the comparison, an equal percentage of students from both groups seek college education(Ray 9). The government on all levels faces problems concerning the public school system. Funding for schools tops the problem list; local school boards and city governments are continuously fighting for tax proposals, meanwhile students in the schools suffer because of poor facilities and low salaries for teachers. The cost for taxpayers to send one student to a public school for one year is approximately $5325, while a home school student costs a parent $546 per year (Ray 11). Could an increase in home schools cut taxes? Could the money allotted for education now be used more effectively if there were fewer students? Maybe or maybe not, but if fewer students were in public schools, the chances of giving the public school student a better educational environment would increase. Many people who oppose home school programs claim interactions with other children at school are vital to their education. However, this argument usually does not work because parents who home school do not want to release their children into the negative influences that infect the public school system. After an interview with Beverly Decateau, a mother who taught her children at home for over seven years; I found that home school students participate in equally as many or more activities than public school students do. Her children and many others she knew of were active in church groups, Four-H groups, sports teams, and dance squads. All of these activities can be considered social interactions. I dont believe the public school system has a responsibility to socialize students; that job belongs to parents. In a public school system, some students can be pinpointed and teased, and these images can damage children for life. Despite the several advantages of the home school system, many people still oppose home schooling. Home school students may not miss interactions with other students, but they will miss the experience. Certain experiences at school are considered an important part of the American way of life. Public school students will never forget experiencing homeroom parties, pep rallies, and finding classes on the first day of high school. Can a home school students experience compare? Probably not, but to what importance these experiences play in the education and socialization skills of a student depends on each individual student. Home school education can cause problems among children and parents. Children who have parents constantly looking over their shoulders may have difficulty breaking away from home to attend college or enter the workplace. Children might also have trouble respecting their own parent as an educator, and this lack of respect may have a negative effect on the students education. In order for home school education to work, the parents must be willing to sacrifice time and patience above and beyond the average parents. The parents must also be willing to give up their own careers for the future of their children. Furthermore, not all children can be successful home school students. The children must be able to make friends in informal settings, and see home school education as a way of exploring different avenues of learning. Not everyone can educate their children at home, but the more students who can receive a solid education at home would improve the education given to students at public schools. Fewer students would lead to smaller classrooms where higher paid teachers could give more attention to public school students. Funds and taxes could be used more effectively because there would be fewer students to accommodate. In the future we should support home school programs and public school education to interact with each other for the benefit of all students. Regardless of where the education of Americas youth takes place, it is vital that parents have a major role in the education of their children in order to build strong families and a strong America. WORKS CITED Decateau, Beverly. Personal interview. 2 NOV 1998. Farris, Micheal. Home Schooling Today. The Washington Times 27 OCT 1998: E8. Kantrowitz, Barbara, and Pat Wingert. Learning At Home: Does It Pass The Test? Newsweek 5 OCT. 1998: 64-70. Ray, Brian D. Home School Statistics and Reports Home School Legal Defense HomePage. Dec 1997 http://www. hsdla. org//.

Dissociative Identity Disorder and Legal Ramifications

Dissociative Identity Disorder and Legal Ramifications Robert Munro Law and Psychology Considering Dissociative Identity Disorder and  Legal Ramifications Dissociative identity disorder (DID) formerly known, as multiple personality disorder is a controversial psychopathology involving complex disturbances of the self and memory wherein multiple identities are said to coexist within the same person. The first known case of DID was recorded in the 1600s and experienced a steady spike in prevalence during the 19th century (Farrell, 2011, pp. 402406). The separate identities and periods of profound memory disturbance seen in DID lead to important questions when determining criminal responsibility in court proceedings. Defendants have claimed to commit serious crimes while in a dissociated state and under the guise of an alternate identities (Farrell, 2011, pp. 402-406). DID is typically associated with severe childhood trauma and abuse but its origins are hotly debated bringing into question issues of malingering and false memories (Piper and Merskey, 2004, pp. 592-600). The National Institute of Mental Health (Nimh.nih.gov, 2014) reports that although occurring in only 1.5% of the general population, DID is about as common as bipolar (2.6%) and schizophrenia (1.1%). In popular culture, DID has been depicted in horror films such as â€Å"Identity†, comedy movies like â€Å"Me, Myself Irene† and even the recent children’s film â€Å"The Lego Movie†. It is these factors of low but significant rate of occurrence of DID, amnesiac elements of the pathology, high comorbidity with other disorders and the myths created and portrayed by popular media, that form many challenges to having a critical understanding of DID. In this paper, I will discuss the scientific literature surrounding DID to dispel the myths surrounding the disorder and to provide an accurate account of the disorder. I will look at how DID is handled in court proceedings as a legal defense. Finally, I will argue that the topic of DID although involving a number of non-trivial problems should have a trajectory of further understan ding and a drive to create new policy when dealing with DID in the courtroom setting. In this argument, I call upon the importance of the false memory debate involving the children of abuse and posit that DID has similarly challenging issues and is just as worthy of serious discussion. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) describes DID as having the defining characteristic of the individual having two or more distinct personality states or an experience of possession (American Psychiatric Association, 2013, pp. 292-298). The average number of personality states reported is 10 but cases have been observed of as few as 2 to as many as 100 distinct personality states (Nami.org, 2014). The degree to which these personality states are evident or hidden varies with the psychological state of the person and the environment in which they operate. Prolonged periods of identity disruption or amnesia may occur when under extreme stress. Individuals that experience non-possession like symptoms on average do not have overtly evident identity disruption. However, individuals that do experience possession like symptoms do typically display overt identities and personality changes. It is important to note that whether the disorder presents with observa ble identity disruption or not, the disorder is still diagnosable through reported discontinuities in the sense of self and sense of agency and recurrent dissociative amnesias. People with DID report experiences of depersonalization where they feel as if they are observing themselves. They also report feelings of being powerless to stop their actions. Similar to Hollywood scripts, some sufferer’s experience changes in the voices of their inner dialogue or multiple bewildering independent conversations taking place in their mind involving these foreign voices. Individuals have also reported changes in preferences, attitudes and the somatic changes as if their body was suddenly a different shape. Observers of these individuals report outward changes to affect and behavior along with sudden breaks in speech as if cut off mid-sentence. Episodes of amnesia and memory disruption are very prevalent in cases of DID and present themselves in three ways according to the DSM. The first is through amnesia of important life events such as periods of childhood or the death of a relative. The second is through difficulties remembering what happened today or how to execute previously learned skills. Lastly, is the confusing discovery by the individual of evidence that points to periods of dissociation and amnesia that occurred at some unknown point in their recent past. This may come in the form of discovering injuries, written texts, or other bits of evidence that come as a surprise to the individual. Dissociated fugues involving dissociated travel are common, resulting in the individuals finding themselves somewhere they do not remember traveling. Awareness of these memory problems varies with the individual. These symptoms are commonly under reported or ignored by the individual from social pressure, lacking awareness or ou t of embarrassment at having a faulty memory. Already, we can see that DID is much more nuanced than popular media would lead us to believe. DID sufferers do not always present with obvious and flashy symptoms found in the movies. They also are likely to not know they are suffering from DID or to hide their symptoms in a bid to â€Å"not look crazy† (Tartakovsky, 2011). They are likely to be in the mental health system for several years before reaching a proper diagnosis. However, there is some overlap between our cultural understanding of DID and science’s understanding of DID. Memory gaps, voices and depersonalization do seem to occur frequently. We clearly have a powerful psychopathology but an insidious one that is hard to develop a treatment history for with memory gaps and variable awareness. This disorder is therefore hard to prove in court. This is only the beginning of the controversy surrounding DID though. The central controversy surrounding DID is how the disorder is caused. One side of the debate believes that DID comes about as a reaction to trauma (Farrell, 2011, pp. 402406). The other claims that DID is produced by improper psychotherapy (Piper and Merskey, 2004, pp. 592-600) and a heightened hypnotic suggestibility found among DID sufferers. Both sides of the debate suffer from a lack of research with the National Institute of Health funding not a single treatment study (Tartakovsky, 2011). Individuals with DID commonly report having experienced extreme abuse in early childhood. When abuse is not reported, other extreme traumas are cited (Simeon, D. 2008). However, these claims of abuse are disputed in much of the same ways that are involved in the false memory debate (Frances, 2000). The hypothesis for a trauma creation model of DID is that the mind of the child experiencing severe trauma may try to shield itself from experiencing said trauma. In this defense mechanism, separate identities with different memories and experiences may result. It is further hypothesized that DID may be a form of post-traumatic stress disorder as it presents itself in children, mixing with a more frequent use of imagination and fantasy as a coping mechanism (Gillig, 2009, p. 24). The suggestibility involved in imagination and fantasy often debated when children are involved is at the heart of the competing cause for DID. As a part of the recovered memories movement, it is hypothesized that DID may be created through improper use of recovered memory techniques. In favor of the argument are claims that dissociative symptoms and memory gaps are seldom reported before in-depth therapy. The theory proposes that malingering and heightened suggestibility (found to be highest in DID followed by PTSD) can combine with attempts at hypnosis to form the role of a DID sufferer. The questions raised are important to consider in a legal context but it should also be noted that the DSM-5 contains information on the nature of malingering most often seen in DID diagnosis. In this respect, popular culture helps to differentiate malingering from actual pathology. Malingering individuals will rarely report subtle symptoms of the disorder and will over report well-known symptoms. This can be seen in an under reporting of comorbid symptoms and sometimes an enjoyment of having the disorder rather than being ashamed as genui ne sufferers often are. Unfortunately, there are reports of stereotyped alternative identities that are â€Å"all-good† or â€Å"all-bad† in a bid to escape punishment for crimes (American Psychiatric Association, 2013, pp. 297). Lastly, the validity of DID diagnosis and its use in the courtroom is challenged on the basis that is it very rarely diagnosed in children (Piper and Merskey, 2004, pp. 678-683 Boysen, 2011, pp. 329-334). Proponents of the therapy-induced DID theory claim that this lack of DID diagnosis in an age range where DID alternate identities are known to occur may point to the diagnosis being a role played result of therapy and not a genuine pathology. The counter to the traumatic model of DID also points out that most research studies on DID rely on self-report of abuses and not on independently verified abuse by outside parties. In addition, outside of case studies, the same four researchers have published the majority of research involving groups. It is these several methodological shortcomings along with the potential for malingering and the dubious nature of proving amnesia beyond the shadow of a doubt that presents significant hurdles to genuine sufferers of DID and as a defense in the court of law. Today, among the field of psychology there is a consensus that that DID is closely related to PTSD and Borderline Personality Disorder and is probably the result of an employed survival strategy with maladaptive results. However, this is a completely different story in the courts. When DID is used as a defense in court it is typically brought up as an affirmative defense of not guilty by reason of insanity (NGRI). The defense is responsible for proving mental illness and meeting the requirements of insanity in that state. The first time DID was recognized as a mental illness that could excuse criminal responsibility was in State v. Milligan in 1978 (Farrell, 2011, pp. 402-406). In this case, it was argued that the defendant was insane and not guilty of several counts of rape because they did not possess an integrated personality. Instead, the defendant was said to have within himself both identities that were criminally responsible and non-responsible. The public was outraged at this successful defense and the multiple personality defense failed notably in the trials that followed (State v. Milligan, State v. Darnall, State v. Grimsley, State v. Kirkland, etc). During this period the conversation raised several important questions on what criminal responsibility entails in a person with multiple personalities and several instances of expert testimony being inadmissible but we now turn to the strategies utilized in DID defense (NGRI) cases. The defense in DID cases usually utilizes one of three tactics in proving insanity with DID (Farrell, 2011, pp. 402-406). The first and most prominent tactic is the idea that one of the other identities was in control at the time that the crime was committed. A second tactic is to try to prove to the jury that a particular personality of the defendant may meet the standards for insanity. Lastly, the defense may attempt to prove that the main personality or dominant identity of the defendant meets the standards for insanity. In other legal proceedings outside of DID, the dissociative state itself is hotly debated and it is not well established whether dissociation alone can provide reason for NGRI. Part of this debate concerns the question of whether personal control is removed during dissociation or if memories are simply not encoded for future retrieval (Kennett and Matthews, 2002, pp. 509-526). DID is unique in this sense in that it involves the idea of agency and personal identity. In the case of DID, an argument can be made for the level of autonomy and self-control being altered during dissociative and amnesiac states. Critics of this position counter that acquittal should rest on whether the criminal behavior is involuntary, regardless of the state of consciousness. However, as evident from case reports and the DSM-5, some suffers of DID do experience a frightening loss of control or being unable to self-direct action while in a depersonalized state. In more recent times, DID evidence has been rej ected in proceedings for failing to meet the requirements of reliability that expert testimony must possess. The controversies discussed earlier and difficulty in reliably diagnosing DID create a significant challenge to satisfying Daubert criteria. In addition to the hurdles of meeting Daubert criteria the court must consider the low base rate of DID prevalence and the high possibility of false positive diagnosis in the face of a malingering defendant. A multidisciplinary and multitechnique approach is taken to carefully diagnose DID but is criticized for relying on self-reported data and being susceptible to malingering. Some of the tools for diagnosing dissociative identity disorder include the ‘Structured Clinical Interview for Dissociative Disorders’ (SCID-D), the ‘Dissociative Disorder Interview Schedule’, the ‘Dissociative Experiences Scale’ and the ‘Childhood Trauma Questionnaire’ (Farrell, 2011, p. 33). Although the SCID-D has been tested comprehensively and has been shown to have excellent reliability and validity, the fact still remains that dissociation alone does not necessarily denote lack of self-control. Despite the cynicism and incredulity of DID NRGI defenses, the experts in the field of psychology and law agree that there do exist genuine cases of dissociative amnesia and that the criminal culpability under these circumstances raises hard questions (Farrell, 2011, pp. 402-406). In cases in which the defendant pleads not guilty by reason of mental illness, the legal policy makers and the attorneys of these cases face great challenges in undertaking this defense. However, I believe that these debates must be had in order to assure justice and humane treatment. Despite the obstacles involved in controversial clinical and legal issues, the field must press onward at all times in an effort to fully understand DID and bolster reliability in forensic expert testimony. There does exist a very real danger in the concept of false positives and malingering defendants but the practice of justice is not aimed at perfection and instead is aimed at the ethical and rational management of human fa ctors. One compelling argument to move in this direction instead of ruling all DID expert testimony inadmissible is that psychology is an evolving science and constructs such as DID may see major revision as more research is performed (Take the changes from DSM-IV to DSM-5). As this slow process matures the legal world will need to understand the full picture of DID, the most effective forensic tools for detecting malingering in DID suspected defendants and the degree to which criminal responsibility is thought to apply given challenges to self-control and autonomy present in some, but not all DID cases. Similarly to the false or recovered memory debate involving children, DID is a nuanced condition involving vulnerable populations and disturbances of memory with a high susceptibility to malingering and influences of the culture, the professionals and the court process. The law must engage with these difficult problems and move the profession towards a deeper understanding of all factors involved in dissociative identity disorder as a part of due diligence and to preserve justice.

Can Fiction be Philosophy? Essay -- Literature Papers

This paper examines the relation between philosophy and literature through an analysis of claims made by Martha Nussbaum regarding the contribution novels can make to moral philosophy. Perhaps her most controversial assertion is that some novels are themselves works of moral philosophy. I contrast Nussbaum’s view with that of Iris Murdoch. I discuss three claims which are fundamental to Nussbaum’s position: the relation between writing style and content; philosophy’s inadequacy in preparing agents for moral life because of its reliance on rules; and the usefulness of the moral work engaged in by readers of novels. The evaluation of these claims requires a discussion of the nature of philosophy. I find that Murdoch and Nussbaum agree on the ability of literature to contribute to moral understanding, but disagree on the issue of what philosophy is. Therefore, they disagree on the question of whether certain works of fiction are also works of philosophy. I argue tha t the task Nussbaum assigns philosophy is too broad. Through the use of critical and reflective methods, philosophy should examine and sort moral claims. Literary, philosophical and religious texts contribute to moral eduction; keeping them separate helps us appreciate their distinct contributions, as well as respect their distinct aims and methods. Therefore, I conclude that Nussbaum’s inclusion of certain novels in philosophy cannot be sustained. In a recent article, Richard Posner examines the notion, advanced by scholars in the law and literature movement, that "...immersion in literature ... make[s] us better citizens or better people." (1) The focus of his discussion is a set of assertions, including a number made by Martha Nussbaum, concerning the moral influenc... ...h draws the following distinctions: literature does many things, philosophy does one thing (has one aim); literature is natural, philosophy is counter-natural; literature arouses emotion, philosophy tries to eliminate emotional appeal; literature is indirect, philosophy is direct; literature has no problem to solve, philosophy seeks to solve a few technical and abstract problems; literature is concerned with aesthetic form, philosophy does not aim at formal perfection. Murdoch says that she sees "no 'general role' of philosophy in literature" (p. 242). (15) See Frank Palmer, Literature and Moral Understanding (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992), chapter 8. (16) In considering what is characteristic of philosophy, I was helped by reading Derrida and Wittgenstein, by Newton Garver and Seung-Chong Lee, (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1994), chapter 6.

Drugs Essay -- essays research papers

I was powerless over drinking and using... Imagine a cold, unheated apartment in the middle of Hollywood. A bachelor sized apartment. No pictures hanging on the wall, a mattress in the middle of the floor, a hard back folding chair sitting in the middle of the room, a few kitchen utensils and some old pots and pans laid on and around the kitchen stove with no place to go. You could hear the traffic zooming by on Franklin Avenue. When you opened the door with your key, you could see cockroaches running about on the walls and the floors. It felt was cold and smelled awful. The first time I was visited by my then boyfriend, I watched him shoot cocaine, and kept a careful eye on where all the cockroaches were headed. It wasn't long before I allowed him to shoot me up also. It happened in that apartment, the place two sick, suffering addicts, my boyfriend and I, called home. This is the place I remember when I think about taking another drink again. By God's grace, I will never have to go back there again. Thirteen years later, I am still so grateful for my sobriety and abstinence from all mind-altering drugs. I'd like to tell a bit of my story and a bit of my recovery. The feeling I got after cocaine went through my veins, into my brain was like nothing I'd ever felt before. It was sure ecstasy. My body convulsed as the drug took its effect. Time was no longer a part of my world. Who knows how long we spent in that awful apartment. I hallucinated and felt things touch me that weren't real clear to the naked eye. I was truly in another world, an evil, dark world. He always provided the drugs and alcohol. When the drug would start to wear off, panic would set in. I remember wishing I had a gun to kill myself. The pain that set in when my body began to crave more was again like no other feeling I've ever experienced, or want to experience again. I couldn't sleep, I felt extremely hopeless, my body couldn't sit still and my mind would not stop racing. It was absolute hell. Thank God there wasn't a loaded gun ar ound. This is what it was like. I was prey to misery and depression, did not have any real friends, and most of all I hated myself. I knew I could not take any more cocaine. If I did, I wouldn't be writing to you today. However, this is a disease that affects the body, mind and spirit. My mind was gone. If I was offered cocaine, I could not turn it down. I mi... ... me if I ever injected into my neck veins. I thought-I'll stop before it gets that bad. Later on in my addiction I collapsed veins in both sides of my neck. I said I would NEVER sell my body, but Sept. of 1997 I started doing just that. While in my current program, I made the difficult decision to have the family that adopted my first child adopt Amanda as well. I know it was the right choice. I have held the same job at a dog grooming shop for a year, and will graduate this program this year. I am saving my money to get a car. I have found some self esteem and forgiveness of myself. I like myself for the first time since early childhood. Next Fall I plan to go to college to get certification to be a Substance Abuse Counselor, or go to school to learn computer animation or computer graphics. I haven't decided yet. I just know that I want to help other addicts. I attend 12-Step meetings, and spend most weekends with my parents or birth mother. I have learned a sense of responsibility and have learned to take care of myself. I still have hard times, but they are a luxury compared to my problems I faced while on drugs. Just having a nice safe clean bed at night makes me grateful!

Marcus Garvey Essay -- Garvey biography Biographies bio Essays

Marcus Garvey "We declare to the world that Africa must be free, that the Negro race must be emancipated (p. 137 Altman, Susan. Extraordinary Black Americans.)" are the famous words delivered by Marcus Mosiah Garvey. Born a West Indian, he later became a powerful revolutionary who led the nation into the Civil Rights Movement. Garvey dedicated his life to the "uplifting" of the Negro and to millions of Black people everywhere, he represented dignity and self-respect. Like Malcolm X of a later generation, he believed that Negroes could never achieve equality unless they became independent-founding their own nations and governments, businesses and industrial enterprises, and their own military establishments which are the same institutions by which other peoples of the world have risen to power. Marcus Gravey was the eleventh child of Marcus and Sarah Gravey. He was born in 1887 in St. Ann’s Bay, a rural town on the north coast of Jamaica in the British West Indies. Garvey learnd at a young age about the differences between the races. Being one of the few Blacks on the island, Garvey often played with the children of his white neighbors. The little girl who lived next to the Garvey’s home informed Marcus that she was being sent away to school in Scotland and that she was instructed by her parents "never to write or try to get in touch with me, for I was a ‘nigger.’" Although he was a good student, financial problems forced him to leave school at fourteen and become an apprentice. After helping organize a strike, Gravey was fired from his job. Garvey’s mind was clearly on politics and the need for organization rather than on his vocation. In 1910 Garvey helped to found a political organization named the Nation Club. He created the Watchman, the first of his many newspapers. The failure of both ventures made evident the need for money to fun his political activities and Garvey joined the stream of West Indian workers migrating to Central and South America in search of better opportunities. He worked briefly on a banana plantation in Costa Rica and for a newspaper in Panama and then went to London, England. While there, he worked for an Egyptian scholar, and learned much of the history of Africa, particularly with reference to the exploitation of black peoples by colonial powers. After reading "Up From Slavery," ... ...her leader had before him. From a more historically viewpoint, Marcus Garvey must be regarded as an incredible visionary. Marcus Garvey was a man who undertook enormous and grandiose ideas and goals to empower and rise Black people all over the world. A man literally driven by the notion that the Negro's sole means for achieving a unique culture in the 20th century was through the foundation of a unified, separatist empire in Africa. Although his ideas, in their ultimate form, may have been rejected by some of the people of his day, it is clear that, since then, these very same ideas in a different perspective have had a favorable influence on the policies of many Negro leaders throughout history. BIBLIOGRAPHY Altman, Susan. Extraordinary Black Americans. ©1989. Childrens Press: Chicago. pp. 137-138 Cronon, David E. Great Lives Observed (Marcus Garvey). ©1973, Prentice-Hall: Englewood Cliffs. Franklin, John H. Black Leaders of the Twentieth Century ©1982, University of Illinois Press: Chicago. pp. 105-138 Ploski, Harry A. The Negro Almanac. ©1971, Bellwether Publishing Company: New York. pp. 135-138 & 232