The branches of philosophy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

The branches of philosophy - Essay Example The branches of philosophy This paper explores these ethical perspectives, reviews relevant perspectives on ethics as an academic discipline, reflects the relevance of ethics among individuals and society, and identifies the key ethical perspectives, values and principles that would most benefit individuals and society. The course content convinced me of the relationship between philosophy and ethics as well as their components. While philosophy deals with the analysis of fundamental ideas and logical examination of the basic concepts of life ethics deals with justification of morality in determining what is right and wrong. In fact, ethics is only one of the branches of philosophy while the other three branches are metaphysics (deals with the ultimate reality and structure of existence), epistemology (branch of philosophy that examines the nature, types, and limits of knowledge) and aesthetics (branch of philosophy that explores the nature of beauty). The course also showed me how metaphysics, epistemology, a nd aesthetics contribute towards the making of one’s ethical perspectives. The course has also thrown light on the major ethical perspectives such as deontological teleological, aretological. It is worthwhile to analyze and apply these ethical perspectives and their sub categories into ethical questions related to homosexuality, capital punishment, environmental ethics, euthanasia, and abortion. For instance, it is worthwhile to evaluate the ethics regarding the issue of homosexuality from utilitarian as well as egoist ethical perspectives. ... For instance, it is worthwhile to evaluate the ethics regarding the issue of homosexuality from utilitarian as well as egoist ethical perspectives. There are for and against utilitarian ethical arguments with regard to homosexuality. Utilitarian ethical theories ask what brings the greatest benefit or least harm for the greatest number, they look at how the effects of homosexuality either increase benefits or minimize harms for the greatest number of those affected. As such, utilitarians who argue for homosexuality regard it as an orientation rather than a choice. They also hold that once the society accepts homosexuals the homophobia of the society will diminish. On the other hand, utilitarians who are against homosexuality argue that it contributes to problems such as addiction and suicide and that greater societal acceptance of homosexuality will not bring about greater happiness to the homosexuals. Similarly, one can find considerable differences in the deontological perspectives towards ethical issues surrounding capital punishments while comparing the deontological perspectives with that of teleological, utilitarian, retributive, abolitionist and egoist approaches. In the same way, the content of the course has been instrumental in providing me insights into environmental ethics which very often go underreported and unnoticed. I came to understand that the conflict between anthropocentric concerns and bio-centric concerns are quite evident in environmental ethics. Similarly, the issues of euthanasia and abortion discussed in the module also raise many ethical questions based on ethical perspectives. While utilitarian ethics tend to recognize the patient’s autonomy in taking decisions as to what will benefit them most the deontological ethicists

Human Nature :: Sociology Sociological Papers

Human Nature A woman is screaming and the smell of a raging fire is in the air. There’s a group of people about fifteen yards away who are witnessing the event. They all stand there in awe of the destruction but not one of them has called the authorities. Jack, a businessman walking by himself, sees the fire and the woman trapped inside the building. Without hesitation he uses his cell phone to call the fire department. Once getting off the phone, this brave man runs into the smoldering building to try and save the woman. Coming out of the building without being harmed, he and the woman are safe. If one man could do this, why did the group of people watching not do anything? The explanation for the reactions of the people is due to what may be said as human nature. It seems that when in groups, people are less reactive when they are in the presence of danger or hazard. Carol Tavris, who received a Ph.D. in Social Psychology from the University of Michigan, is a widely published author. In her works, â€Å" In Groups We Shrink From Loner’s Heroics,† she talks about the human nature of people and how in groups, humans seem to â€Å"†¦think and act differently than they would on their own† (Tavris 17). When facing danger or disaster, groups of people do not run to the aid of others because of the nature of groups versus the nature of individuals (Tavris 18). Tavris is trying to reach everyone and have them be aware of what is human instinct versus what is moral. She is hoping that her readers will take something away with them from the article and hopefully react morally when seeing people in danger or in desperate need of help. Throughout her piece, Tavris uses two main structures: compare and contrast structure and the problem/solution structure. She uses these so that her readers can see the comparison or the solution right away. She very vividly shows the difference in the reactions of people when she uses the compare and contrast structure.

Great Depression

Mrs. Russell Cause and Effect Essay English 101-80 Great Depression What caused the Great Depression, the worst economic depression in US history? It was not just one factor, but instead a combination of domestic and worldwide conditions that led to the Great Depression. The causes aand effects of the Great Depression was huge across the world, here are three top causes and effects of the Great Depression. Stock Market Crash of 1929 was one of the major causes that led to the Great Depression.Two months after the original crash in October, stockholderzs had lost more than $40 billion dollars. By the end of 1930, the stock market tried to regain some of its losses but it was not enough and America truly entered the Great Depression. Throughout the 1930s, over 9,000 banks failed. Bank deposits were uninsured and thus as banks failed people simply lost their savings. Surviving banks was unsure of the economic situation and concerned for their own survival, stopped being as willing to cr eate new loans.This exacerbated the situation leadig to less and less expenditures. When the stock market crashed, and the banks failed and unemployment levels reached higher and higher pointsw people understandably stopped spending money, which also deeped the economic crisis as demand for products and services slowly stopped. First effect is Stock Market and Banking regulations, after the stock market crash of 1929 and collapse of more then 40% of American banks, strict trading and banking regulations put in place.For financial protection newly formed Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation for financial protection. Second effect is when Franklin D. Roosevelt’s introduced programs between 1933 and 1930, designed to help America pull out of the Great Depression by addressing high rates of unemployment and poverty. FDR and Congress introduced regulationzs and subside: the cornerstones of the New Deal wetre the Public Works Administrati on and the National Recovery Administration.Third effect is when many people learned some valuable things about managing their money and doing the best they could with what they had. Children grew up to be very imaginative and inventive. They appreciated the things they had access to in their life because they never forgot just how little they once had. The Great Depression ended in the 1939 as the world increased the production of the war materials with the outbreak of WWII. War production increased jobs and hence large amounts of money were reintrodu ced to circuklate in the economy. Great Depression Steinbeck teaches us that as humans, loneliness and the desire for companionship is inevitable and in this cruel world where we are all set again t one another as rivals for the resources needed to survive, true friendships are to be cherisher d for they are hard to come by. As humans, we are all subject to loneliness at some points in our lives, and we all desire companionship, no matter how indifferent we may act to mask that desire. In by John Steinbeck, Curler's wife is incredibly lonely as the only woman on the ranch and is often isolated from the ranch hands who view her as trouble.She is often see n prancing around the ranch in the pretense of searching for her husband and often attempts to engage other ranch hands in friendly conversation. During her conversation in the stables with Car kooks, Candy, and Leonie, she remarked, ‘Effendi I don't like to talk to somebody ever' once in a w hill? Think like to stick in that house all time? â€Å"‘ (Steinbeck, 77). This was particularly imp rotary as it displays her loneliness and desire for companionship. However, her friendly sees is often seen as flirtatiousness to the other men, and this results in their view of her as an unfed dutiful and dangerous woman.Crooks, just like Curlers wife, suffers from loneliness as w ell, though his isolation results from his race instead of his words and actions. As shown during Eng his conversation with Leonie in the stables, Crooks remarks that â€Å"if he sees something', he don't know whether its right or not† and he has no one to ask and â€Å"nothing to measure by† (Steinbeck 73). He had also cried that if â€Å"a guy gets too lonely an' he gets sick† (Steinbeck 73). This was IM portent as well for it showed just how desperately we desire companionship.If we had no on e besides us, we get so lonely and desperate that we became sick due to the lack of company. The desire for companionship and loneliness are inevitable parts of human li fe that we all ex pertinence from time o time, though we may all deal with it in various methods, with some acting more indifferent than others. In this world with a population of around 7 billion and extremely limited ores urges, we are born into a dotage world. The competition for resources took a turn f or the worse when the Great Depression hit in the asses. Futures this harsh reality in which men are set against each other in a competition for the sparse jobs and machined De money, which was then used to purchase a piece of land. This was the dream of every men, but alas, in a world of worsening economy, very few saw their dream to fruition. As Curlers wife had observed in the novella, if she engaged one man in a conversation, they'd get along just if en and have a nice chat. However, if she attempts to engage a group of men in a conversation, the eyed all be too scared of each to talk to her, they'd be too scared that the others may â€Å"get so meeting' on them.This observat ion shows the hostility hidden beneath the pretense of friendly sees the men have with one another. The minute the rest â€Å"gets something† on one of the men, the eyed eliminate him so they'd have less competition for the resources, in this case, money and job s. When Candy, George, and Leonie were first entertaining the idea of owning a stake together r, George had warned them not to tell a soul for ‘they liable to can us so we can't make no SST aka† (Steinbeck 61 This warning displays the distrust among the men.Perhaps this is why true e friends pips are cherished and mourned when lost, for in this hostile world, it is difficult to co me by, but a great blessing in times of hardship. The world is cruel and hostile, and men are all says out to get one another. Loneliness and the desire for companionship is inevitable, we will all expire once it in our bedtime at one point or another, and it will only teach us to cherish our comma onions more.After all, true com panions are hard to come by in this harsh reality in which we are all born as rivals battling for the same limited resources we need to survive. Steinbeck had, thro cough his profound use and command of the English language, taught us, to put it in the simplest way, how to understand one another better. The key to communication and relations ammo Eng people is the understanding of each other, and through , Steinbeck has taught us just how we can begin to understand one another. Great Depression Mrs. Russell Cause and Effect Essay English 101-80 Great Depression What caused the Great Depression, the worst economic depression in US history? It was not just one factor, but instead a combination of domestic and worldwide conditions that led to the Great Depression. The causes aand effects of the Great Depression was huge across the world, here are three top causes and effects of the Great Depression. Stock Market Crash of 1929 was one of the major causes that led to the Great Depression.Two months after the original crash in October, stockholderzs had lost more than $40 billion dollars. By the end of 1930, the stock market tried to regain some of its losses but it was not enough and America truly entered the Great Depression. Throughout the 1930s, over 9,000 banks failed. Bank deposits were uninsured and thus as banks failed people simply lost their savings. Surviving banks was unsure of the economic situation and concerned for their own survival, stopped being as willing to cr eate new loans.This exacerbated the situation leadig to less and less expenditures. When the stock market crashed, and the banks failed and unemployment levels reached higher and higher pointsw people understandably stopped spending money, which also deeped the economic crisis as demand for products and services slowly stopped. First effect is Stock Market and Banking regulations, after the stock market crash of 1929 and collapse of more then 40% of American banks, strict trading and banking regulations put in place.For financial protection newly formed Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation for financial protection. Second effect is when Franklin D. Roosevelt’s introduced programs between 1933 and 1930, designed to help America pull out of the Great Depression by addressing high rates of unemployment and poverty. FDR and Congress introduced regulationzs and subside: the cornerstones of the New Deal wetre the Public Works Administrati on and the National Recovery Administration.Third effect is when many people learned some valuable things about managing their money and doing the best they could with what they had. Children grew up to be very imaginative and inventive. They appreciated the things they had access to in their life because they never forgot just how little they once had. The Great Depression ended in the 1939 as the world increased the production of the war materials with the outbreak of WWII. War production increased jobs and hence large amounts of money were reintrodu ced to circuklate in the economy. Great Depression If someone went to prison in 1989 and was released in the year 2000, he would probably be surprised by how drastic change can be in ten years can bring. When 1990 started, people were still communicating through letters and the telephone. The Bible was still the greatest bestseller and people used the word â€Å"terror† to describe how scared they were of their neighbor’s dog. By the end of 1999, however, children were engrossed with a new book. People were sending e-mails to their loved ones, and our idea of terror has been redefined.The 90s was shaped by things we could not have imagined, things that have brought about major changes in our lives. Though the decade was made of numerous and note-worthy events, this paper will zero in on three factors that best define the 1990s in America: the story that mattered to the young, the technology that changed the face of communication, and the heartbreak that we suffered as a nation. In trying to define the 1990s in America, it is important that we take a look at the decade’s popular literary works. Literature is an important indicator of the times.By reading the popular literature of the early 1920s, we see a generation dried out by the. If we read the poetry and fiction of the Beat writers, we see a carefree generation of the late 50’s ready to break into the sexual revolution of the 60s. I’ve always thought of literature as a reflection of a people’s state of mind. It is, after all, the collection of stories of people. And people only write stories of the things that truly matter to them. Ironically, in the 90s, the most popular story ever told could not have happened to anyone.That would just be silly. No 11-year-old boy could have found out that he was a wizard and then went off to wizardry school. But that is exactly the premise of the most popular book of the 90s —Harry Potter. The premise does sound pretty simple, but author JK Rowling managed to craft intricat e storylines of various adventures, with mysteries being deliciously unraveled along the way. The result? The highest selling children’s book in history. No other children’s book has ever made much of an impact as â€Å"the boy who lived†.From then on there were several other books written about magic, wizards, vampires, robots, things not of this earth. And I think this is indicative of what we as a people are ready for. We are a generation ready to be bewildered, to consider things outside our immediate reality. Wiktorin, in his paper about how the Harry Potter books relate to contemporary life, states that â€Å"constructing a world different to the ordinary one and marketing this, can certainly be a very lucrative enterprise† (2). This is exactly what Harry Potter and all the fantasy books of the nineties have offered us.A constructed world so different from our own, but governed by the rules and emotions that are quintessentially human. This readines s to consider things outside our realm went hand in hand with the explosion of the internet in the nineties. In 1984, if you were a lonely kid in school, you went home and dealt with it. In 1998, a nerdy 13-year-old who probably feels ill at ease with his schoolmates can log in on the internet after school and find an online community of people to talk to. In the 1990s, the internet was really primarily used for communication.The e-mail and the chat functions were the most popular internet activities. A study conducted by Axel Franzen shows that email increases social involvement and regression analysis shows that Internet users have 24% more friends (Lesnard, 4). The world got a lot smaller, and getting in touch was just a few clicks away. The amount of information that the World Wide Web has brought to individuals cannot be emphasized enough. If Harry Potter led us to believe or consider things that are outside our realm, the internet allowed us to think of the things that existed beyond our personal reality.It allowed us to be tolerant of differences, because these differences are no longer miles away from us. We hear about it a few clicks away. The things that we can see on the internet can also be seen by people with internet in China. It equalizes us somehow and allows us to interact in astounding ways. As much as Harry Potter brought about a considerable amount of whimsical escape and the internet allowed us to be more aware of others’ cultures and differences, certain events of the 90s unfortunately gave us first-hand experience of evil.In the middle of the decade, America experienced its first terror attack through the Oklahoma Bombing. Despite the number of wars that have been fought by our country, a terror attack was so surprising because it just didn’t make sense. The Oklahoma bombing wasn’t an unfortunate result of any military operation. It wasn’t the work of some psychotic man. It wasn’t an accidental occurren ce. Rather, it was a carefully calculated plan with the sole purpose of terrorizing people. The perpetrators were apprehended and convicted, and the reasons behind their actions was said to be disappointment with how the U.S government handled past issues. Instead of letting their opinions known through protests, they took a course of action as arbitrary as it is terrorizing. The Oklahoma Bombing killed 108 people, including babies on daycare. This terrorist attack reminded us of the need for security, to protect our nation from people who are on the mission to destroy it. When it comes to vigilance against terrorism, â€Å"unlike most other enterprises, success and failure are measured according to the number of lives saved and lost† (Manzi, et. al. , 10).We cannot afford to lose the war against terror, as it will mean losing precious lives. After the Oklahoma bombing, the government implemented tighter security measures and that has stopped numerous other terror attempts. H owever there still continues to be groups of people who vehemently disagree with what America stands for as a nation. So much so, that they are willing to kill thousands of people just to show their hatred and defiance. Sadly, they succeeded again in 2001, when we found ourselves dealing with the horror that is 9/11.Every year we learn something new. Every decade stands for something. But during 1990s, aside from learning the Macarena and wearing baby doll dresses with high cut boots, aside from thinking that boy bands were actually cool, we grew a lot as a nation. The internet has shown us that the world as we know it could be perceived as an entirely different world for others. And it is important to be tolerant of differences, to respect differences. Terror attacks have shown us the extreme effects of our intolerance.Even the preferred choice of reading material shows that we are ready to tolerate changes, unlike Harry Pottter’s human family who can’t accept the fac t that he’s a wizard. There is still so much to be learned, so many virtues to put into practice, and knowledge to be put in use. But I’d love to believe that the experiences we had in the 90s helped us a lot. And in retrospect, I hope that I will also consider this decade as great as the one it preceded. Works Cited: Lesnard, L. †Social Change, Daily Life, and the Internet†, Chimera Working Paper, 2005-07: Retrieved on 17 November 2008, http://hal.archives-ouvertes. fr/docs/00/04/46/29/PDF/CWP-2005-07-Lesnard-Social-Change. pdf Wiktorin, Pierre. â€Å"Constructing a Distinct Other: Harry Potter and the Enchantment of the Future† 17 May 2005. Retrieved on 17 November 2008, http://www. anpere. net/2007/12. pdf Manzi, Powers, & Zetterlund. â€Å"Critical Information Flows in the Alfred P. Murrah Building Bombing: A Case Study†. The Terrorism Studies Series. Retrieved on 17 November 2008. http://www. mipt. org/pdf/murrahcasestudy. pdf

Literary Writing A Discourse On Literature - 870 Words

In â€Å"Letter in Reply to Li Yi,† Han Yu reflects on the nature of literary writing, while Cao Pi discusses his literary theory in â€Å"A Discourse on Literature.† Both Han and Cao emphasize the vital energy of writers and the cultural immortality of literary writing, but their definitions of literature differ in their arguments about the purpose of writing and their criteria for the content. The synthesis based on their theories may provide some uniquely Chinese insight into the definition of literature. Both Han Yu and Cao Pi point out that literature is culturally immortal and is associated with the vital energy or the nature of writers. First, both Han and Cao argue that the vital force of writers is an important factor contributing to literature. In â€Å"Letter in Reply to Li Yi,† Han Yu argues, â€Å"If there is an abundance of vital energy then one’s words will be fitting (141).† Similarly, in â€Å"A Discourse on Literature,† Cao Pi points out, â€Å"Qi, ‘vital force’ or ‘breath,’ is the most important factor in literature.† He further compares qi with flute music and demonstrates how â€Å"inequality in drawing on a reserve of qi or breath† could differentiate â€Å"a skillful player from a clumsy one (361).† Although Han Yu and Cao Pi might conceptualize vital force differently, their definitions of literature are similar in a way that Han and Cao consider writers’ nature or qi as an important factor manifested by literature. 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