A Memory For All Seasonings Essay

Memory is one of the most important functions of the mind. Without our memories, we would have no identity, no individuality. The following article is about a mnemonist, a person with an extraordinary power of remembering. The title includes a pun, a form of humor based on a play on words. The usual phrase to describe something constant and dependable is â€Å"for all seasons†; here the phrase is changed to â€Å"for all seasonings.† (Seasonings is another word for spices, such as salt, pepper, and curry.) What hint does this give you about the mnemonist? (Early in the article you will find out.) One evening two years ago, Peter Poison, a member of the psychology department at the University of Colorado, took his son and daughter to dinner at Bananas, a fashionable restaurant in Boulder. When the waiter took their orders, Poison noticed that the young man didn’t write anything down. He just listened, made small talk, told them that his name was John Conrad, and left. Poison didn’t think this was exceptional: There were, after all, only three of them at the table. Yet he found himself watching Conrad closely when he returned to take the orders at a nearby table of eight. Again the waiter listened, chatted, and wrote nothing down. When he brought Poison and his children their dinners, the professor couldn’t resist introducing himself and telling Conrad that he’d been observing him. The young man was pleased. He wanted customers to notice that, unlike other waiters, he didn’t use a pen and paper. Sometimes, when they did notice, they left him q uite a large tip. He had once handled a table of nineteen complete dinner orders without a single error. At Bananas, a party of nineteen (a bill of roughly $200) would normally leave the waiter a $35 tip. They had left Conrad $85. Poison was impressed enough to ask the waiter whether he would like to come to the university’s psychology lab and let them run some tests on him. Anders Ericsson, a young Swedish psychologist recently involved in memory research, would be joining the university faculty soon, and Poison thought that he would be interested in exploring memory methods with the waiter. Conrad said he would be glad to cooperate. He was always on the lookout for ways to increase his income, and Poison  told him he would receive $5 an hour to be a guinea pig. Conrad, of course, was not the first person with an extraordinary memory to attract attention from researchers. Alexander R. Luria, the distinguished Soviet psychologist, studied a Russian newspaper reporter named Shereshevskii for many years and wrote about him in The Mind of a Mnemonist (Basic Books, 1968). Luria says that Shereshevskii was able to hear a series of fifty words spoken once and recite them back in perfect order fifteen years later. Another famous example of extraordinary memory, the conductor Arturo Toscanini, was known to have memorized every note for every instrument in 250 symphonies and 100 operas. For decades the common belief among psychologists was that memory was a fixed quantity; an exceptional memory, or a poor one, was something with which a person was born. This point of view has come under attack in recent years; expert memory is no longer universally considered the exclusive gift of the genius, or the abnormal. â€Å"People with astonishing memory for pictures, musical scores, chess positions, business transactions, dramatic scripts, or faces are by no means unique,† wrote Cornell psychologist Ulric Neisser in Memory Observed (1981). â€Å"They may not even be very rare.† Some university researchers, including Poison and Ericsson, go a step further than Neisser. They believe that there are no physiological differences at all between the memory of a Shereshevskii or a Toscanini and that of the average person. The only real difference, they believe, is that Toscanini trained his memory, exercised it regularly, and wanted to improve it. Like many people with his capacity to remember, Toscanini may also have used memory tricks called mnemonics. Shereshevskii, for example, employed a technique known as loci. As soon as he heard a series of words, he mentally â€Å"distributed† them along Gorky Street in Moscow. If one of the words was â€Å"orange,† he might visualize a man stepping on an orange at a precise location on the familiar street. Later, in order to retrieve â€Å"orange,† he would take an imaginary walk down Gorky Street and see the image from which it could easily be recalled. Did the waiter at Bananas have such a system? What was his secret? John Conrad would be the subject of Anders Ericsson’s second in-depth study of the machinations of memory. As a research associate at Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Ericsson had spent the previous three years working with William Chase on an extensive study of Steve Faloon, an undergraduate whose memory and intellectual skills were  considered average. When Ericsson and Chase began testing Faloon, he could remember no more than seven random digits after hearing them spoken once. According to generally accepted research, almost everyone is capable of storing five to nine random digits in short-term memory. After twenty months of working with Chase and Ericsson, Faloon could memorize and retrieve eighty digits. â€Å"The important thing about our testing Faloon is that researchers usually study experts,† Chase says. â€Å"We studied a novice and watched him grow into an expert. Initially, we were just running tests to see whether his digit span could be expanded. For four days he could not go beyond seven digits. On the fifth day he discovered his mnemonic system and then began to improve rapidly.† Faloon’s intellectual abilities didn’t change, the researchers say. Nor did the storage capacity of his short-term memory. Chase and Ericsson believe that short-term memory is a more or less fixed quantity. It reaches saturation quickly, and to overcome its limitations one must learn to link new data with material that is permanently stored in long-term memory. Once the associations have been made, the short-term memory is free to absorb new information. Shereshevskii transferred material from short-term to long-term memory by placing words along Gorky Street in Moscow. Faloon’s hobby was long-distance running, and he discovered that he could break down a spoken list of eighty digits into units of three or four and associate most of these with running times. To Faloon, a series like 4 , 0 , 1 ,2 would translate as four mi nutes, one and two-tenths seconds, or â€Å"near a four-minute mile†; 2, 1, 4, 7 would be encoded as two hours fourteen minutes seven seconds, or â€Å"an excellent marathon time.† When running didn’t provide the link to his long-term memory, ages and dates did; 1, 9, 4, 4 is not relevant to running, but it is â€Å"near the end of World War II.† Chase and Ericsson see individual differences in memory performance as resulting from previous experience and mental training. â€Å"In sum,† they write, â€Å"adult memory performance can be adequately described by a single model of memory.† Not every student of psychology agrees with Chase and Ericsson, of course. â€Å"I’m very suspicious of saying that everyone has the same kind of memory,† says Matthew Erdelyi, a psychologist at Brooklyn College. â€Å"In my research,† he says, â€Å"I find that people have very different memory levels. They can all improve, but some levels remain high and some remain low. There are dramatic individual  differences.† It is unlikely that there will be any agreement among psychologists on the conclusions that they have thus f ar drawn from their research. The debate about exceptional memory will continue. But in the meantime it is interesting to look deeper into the mind of a contemporary mnemonist. Ericsson and Poison, both of whom have tested Conrad over the past two years, believe that there is nothing intellectually outstanding about him. When they began testing Conrad’s memory, his digit span was normal: about seven numbers. His grades in college were average. Conrad himself says that he is unexceptional mentally, but he has compared his earliest memories with others’ and has found that he can recall things that many people can’t. His first distinct memory is of lying on his back and raising his legs so that his mother could change his diapers. As a high-school student he didn’t take notes in class—he says he preferred watching the girls take notes—and he has never made a list in his life. â€Å"By never writing down a list of things to do, and letting it think for me,† he says, â€Å"I’ve forced my memory to improve.† Conrad does believe that his powers of observation, including his ability to listen, are keener than most people’s. Memory, he says, is just one part of the whole process of observation. â€Å"I’m not extraordinary, but sometimes people make me feel that way. I watch them and realize how many of them have disorganized minds and memories and that makes me feel unusual. A good memory is nothing more than an organized one.’ One of the first things Conrad observed at Bananas was that the headwaiter, his boss, was â€Å"a very unpleasant woman.† He disliked being her subordinate, and he wanted her job. The only way he could get it was by being a superior waiter. He stayed up nights trying to figure out how to do this; the idea of memorizing orders eventually came to him. Within a year he was the headwaiter. â€Å"One of the most interesting things we’ve found,† says Ericsson, â€Å"is that just trying to memorize things does not insure that your memory will improve. It’s the active decision to get better and the number of hours you push yourself to improve that make the difference. Motivation is much more important than innate ability.† Conrad began his memory training by trying to memorize the orders for a table of two, then progressed to memorizing larger orders. He starts by associating the entree with the customer’s face. He might see a large, heavy-set man and hear â€Å"I’d like a big Boulder Steak.† Sometimes, Peter Poison says, â€Å"John  thinks a person looks like a turkey and that customer orders a turkey sandwich. Then it’s easy.† In memorizing how long meat should be cooked, the different salad dressings, and starches, Conrad relies on patterns of repetition and variation. â€Å"John breaks things up into chunks of four,† Ericsson says. â€Å"If he hears ‘rare, rare, medium, well-done,’ he instantly sees a pattern in their relationship. Sometimes he makes a mental graph. An easy progression—rare, medium-rare, medium, well-done—would take the shape of a steadily ascending line on his graph. A more difficult order—medium, well-done, rare, medium—would resemble a mountain range.† The simplest part of Conrad’s system is his encoding of salad dressings. He uses letters: B for blue cheese; /-/for the house dressing; 0 for oil and vinegar; F for French; T for Thousand Island. A series of orders, always arranged according to entree, might spell a word, like B-O-O-T, or a near-word, like B-O-O-F, or make a phonetic pattern: F-O-F-O. As Ericsson says, Conrad remembers orders, regardless of their size, in chunks of four, This is similar to the way Faloon stores digits, and it seems to support Chase and Ericsson’s contention that short-term memory is limited and that people are most comfortable working with small units of information. One of the most intriguing things about Conrad is the number of ways he can associate material. Another is the speed with which he is able to call it up from memory. Ericsson and Poison have also tested him with animals, units of time, flowers, and metals. At first, his recall was slow and uncertain. But with relatively little practice, he could retrieve these â€Å"orders† almost as quickly as he could food. â€Å"The difference between someone like John, who has a trained memory, and the average person,† says Ericsson, â€Å"is that he can encode material in his memory fast and effortlessly. It’s similar to the way you can understand English when you hear it spoken. In our tests in the lab, he just gets better and faster.† â€Å"What John Conrad has,† says Poison, â€Å"is not unlike an athletic skiil. With two or three hundred hours of practice, you can develop these skills in the same way you can learn to play tennis.† (1945 words) I Comprehension Quiz Choose the best way of finishing each statement, based on what you have just  read. 1. The psychology professor discovered John Conrad’s incredible ability to memorize: a. in school b. on a test c. in a restaurant 2. Conrad agreed to let the professor study his memory because: a. Conrad was interested in psychology b. Conrad wanted to increase his income c. Conrad needed to improve his memory 3. The famous Russian mnemonist Shereshevskii used a memory trick called loci to remember objects by: a. associating them with events in Russian history b. imagining them placed along a street in Moscow c. picturing each one in his mind in a different color 4. The memory trick used by Steve Faloon was the association of certain numbers with: a. running times b. important dates c. both the above d. none of the above 5. Conrad had been: a. a gifted student b. a below-average student c. an average student 6. Part of Conrad’s motivation for developing memory tricks to aid him as a waiter was: a. his desire to get his boss’s job b. his great admiration for the headwaiter c. his fear of not finding any work 7. Imagine that four customers have requested that their steaks be cooked in the following way: well-done, medium, medium-rare, rare. According to John Conrad’s â€Å"mental graph† technique, this order would be remembered as: a. a steadily ascending line b. a steadily descending line c. a mountain range 8. From this article a careful reader should infer that: a. everyone has about the same memory capacity and can develop a superior memory through practice and motivation b. a good or bad memory is an ability that a person is born with and cannot change to any great degree c. there is still no conclusive evidence as to whether outstanding memories are inborn or developed II Finding Support For or Against a Hypothesis As the article points out, some psychologists today believe that extraordinary memories are simply the result of development through hard work and the application of a system. According to them, an average person could achieve a superior memory if he or she tried hard enough. Find evidence from the article to support this hypothesis. Then find evidence from the article that goes against this hypothesis. What is your opinion of this controversial question?

Sentencing Paper

Sentencing Paper Deadrian Williams CJS/ 200 3/3/2013 Bryan Maglicco Six Forms of Punishment Fines are one of the oldest forms of punishment, the use of fines as criminal sanctions suffers from built in inequities and a widespread failure to collect them (Schmalleger, 2011). Fines can deprive offenders of the proceeds of criminal activity, and also promote rehabilitation by enforcing economic responsibility (Schmalleger, 2011).People have to pay fines when they break minor laws, such as driving while intoxicated, reckless driving, disturbing the peace, public drunkenness, and vandalism (Schmalleger, 2011). Capital punishment is the death penalty. Capital punishment is the most extreme of all sentencing options (Schmalleger, 2011). Capital punishment is sentenced when someone comments a capital offense. In 2008, for example, a twenty eight year old man was sentenced to death in the atrocious murder of a ten year old girl in what authorities said was an elaborate plan to cannibalize the girls flesh (Schmalleger, 2011).Today, the federal government and 35 of the 50 states permit execution for first degree murder, kidnapping, aggravated rape, the murder of a police or corrections officer, or murder while under a life sentence (Schmalleger, 2011). Probation is another form of punishment. Probation means testing the behavior or abilities. In a legal sense, an offender on probation is ordered to follow certain conditions set forth by the court, often under the supervision of a probation officer (Wikipedia, 2013).Offenders are ordinarily required to refrain from firearms, and may be ordered to remain employed, have a curfew, live in a decent place and not leave the jurisdiction (Wikipedia, 2013). Incarceration is another form of punishment. Jails are shorter lock up centers ran by counties and operated by sheriffs (Cliffnotes. com Types of Sentences, 2013). Usually inmates that are in jail are waiting to go to trial who were unable to make bail, people with misdemeanors , and felons who violated probation (Cliffnotes. com Types of Sentences, 2013). Also people re incarcerated in prisons who are convicted felons. Prisons are operated by the state (Cliffnotes. com Types of Sentences, 2013). Community service is another form of punishment. Community service is paying your debt back to society for the wrong doings that a person does, by doing work that benefits the community (Cliffnotes. com Types of Sentences, 2013). People doing community service clean up highways, cut grass, plant trees and flowers, and wash away graffiti. People who are punished with community service have a certain amount of hours they must do to complete the community service order.Failure to complete community service can lead to possibly jail time and more fines. Reducing recidivism Recommendations on how to modify the sentencing process would be to look at the record of the defendant and also the severity of the crime when sentencing. If someone has committed a murder or a rap e, or kidnapping then they should get the severest sentence possible even if it is their first time because those crimes are against people. Families have been destroyed because of what the person did. Good behavior should not play in the sentencing of these offenders.They did not think about the victims when they committed the crime so the courts should not give them a break because of good behavior. If the sentencing process was stricter and focused more on the offender punishment and not what other people would say and feel about the crime then it would be a lot less crimes. References Cliffnotes. com Types of Sentences. (2013, March 4). Retrieved from Cliffnotes. com: http://m. cliffnotes. com Schmalleger, F. (2011). Criminal Justice Today. Prentice Hall. Wikipedia, (2013).

Gender Discrimination on English Language

ABSTRACT Language plays an important role in society. As a phenomenon of society, language reflects all the sides of human society naturally. Sexism is a phenomenon that takes a male-as-norm attitude, trivializing, insulting or rendering women invisible. As a mirror reflecting the society, language images the social views and values. The causes of sexism in this thesis are not the language itself but due to the inequality between male and female in such areas as traditional culture, religious consciousness social status as well as social status.Language, which has a close relation with the society, could reflect the certain social custom and characteristic of a nation. In addition, social development and changes in turn will affect language and can input fresh blood to it. English, as one of the oldest languages, which has an extensive influence in the current world, has also experienced numerous impacts from the reforms and changes. These changes and trends constantly updated the us e of language as well.In the 1960s ,great changes have been made in modern English since the rise of the American feminist movement,namely, the women's liberation movement. That is, some of the original uses and meanings have been eliminated or become obsolete while some new expressions have emerged. On the one hand, it makes the English expressions and use more accurate, clear. On the other hand, however, it is hard to avoid bringing some new problems.The thesis summarizes the phenomena of sexism in English as well as traces the reasons for the occurrence of sexism in the English language. Then it concerns the feminist influence on language. The paper documents and discusses feminist language reform: the efforts, the initiatives and actions of feminists around the world to change the biased representation of the sexes in language Key Words: Sexism in language; Feminist movement; Language reform; Contents 0. Introduction†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. ,,,,,,,,1 1.. Sexism in Language †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 2 1. 1 The definition of language sexism†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 2 1. 2 The phenomenon of language sexism in English†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦6 1. 3The reason of language sexism in English†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 7 1. 3. 1The influence of socialized prejudice and traditional idea†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 7 1. 3. 2 The influence of religion consciousnessà ¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 7 1. 3. 3 The Psychological reason†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 2. The Development of the English Language Sexism viewed from the American Feminist Movements and its Effects†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 2. 1 The influence of feminist movement on Language Sexism†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 2. 3 The effects on English language after the language reform †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 2. 3 The Different Attitude towards the Reform of English Language Conclusion†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚ ¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦13 References†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦15 Acknowledgements†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 16

The Fugitive Slave Law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

The Fugitive Slave Law - Essay Example The rights of the citizen especially freedom should be upheld by such legislation in Massachusetts. However, there is higher prevalence of slavery ever since the beginning of the 19th century. The law is supreme and south Massachusetts is a free state. As a citizen, human being and a free member of the American society, just like Jim, therefore, has a right to fare trial and treatment as a human being and not as a property that someone can claim and possess without considering his own personal feelings. This is the quandary (Baker, 167). The Legal Defense Fund Based on the later relationship and existence of Jim among the free members of the state, He has enjoyed better living conditions where, his fundamental rights were upheld. He has thus realized himself, appreciated the role of the society more positively and has come to contribute positively and effectively to the development of the society in the state and America without fear of oppression (Baker, 146). The person claimed to be a property to someone has been enjoying this freedom and rights for over three years now and is happy to remain in this state. As a citizen, the law should allow him to make rightful choices of whether to get back to his original master, where he was the slave or live with his new employers as a free person of rights. The Hearing I have this case due to the fact that much is at stake with the previous ruling already delivered. We realize the supreme nature of the law and we also appreciate that human beings have their rights which the law should strive to protect in whatever circumstances. During the hearing of this case, we note that there was no jury as one of the legislations requirement for this country require. Further, we should note that North Massachusetts is a free state with specific legislations and principles on slavery though most of the time we have never had such complications to call on our state laws in regard to this matter but there is always precedence and thi s is one such circumstance (Baker, 210). It is therefore, highly significant that the above elements are considered in determining this case so as to ensure the slave, as we can not prove otherwise here in Massachusetts, can testify and make rightful propositions. The Procedures The procedures and legislations established by congress are legal and supreme as they form part of our constitution. We therefore realize that the Fugitive Slaves Act established by 1850 belongs to superlative laws, which this State must abide. As a free state, Massachusetts has established its own procedures aimed at ensuring that the rights of its citizenry towards fair legal processes are consistent. Though the Fugitive Slaves act govern the matters of slavery, the Massachusetts procedures should have been used to offer Jim a fair trial. We ask ourselves whether the rights of Jim to a jury trial were upheld and whether he was subjected to fair and due legal process. It is based on this that we can give a final verdict or ruling on this matter. Massachusetts is a free state and by purely abiding to the procedures outlined in the Fugitive Slaves Act, we undermine our own procedures and thus should reconsider this. The Fugitive Slave Laws Though the fugitive slaves Act only requires a hearing, which has been held so far, we should appreciate that this was not done according to the proced

Risk Management Literature review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

Risk Management - Literature review Example The nature of oil spillage risk in oil exploration program The oil industry is concerned with a long history of spills on the North Slope and the probability of future spills is high. Indeed, there has been an oil spillage once a day, on average, from the time when gas and oil development began on the North Slope. Many of the tragedy involved pipelines, and improvement in the Chukchi and Beaufort would result in setting a connection of pipelines from wells to shore, till 75 miles away. In order to make the subject worse, ocean currents move the chemicals and oil hundreds of miles. Further, in the Arctic Ocean, cleaning up oil spills would lead to enormous challenges. Suppression and recovery at sea hardly ever leads to the removal of more than a comparatively small fraction of a large oil spill, i.e. only 10-15% and often significantly less. Till date, no technology subsists in order to clean up oil in the sea ice circumstances and late-season spills would stay behind until the following year. Furthermore, cold water splits down oil much more slowly than the warm water. Another impediment is the lack of infrastructure for quick reaction to a spillage. Climate change has considerably weakened the basis on which Arctic ecosystems function. Most important industrialization would add to the challenges faced by phytoplankton, at the bottom of the food chain and would generate a series of other problems. Species mainly at risk include polar bear, walruses, ringed seals, beluga and bowhead whales and coastal birds.

Marketing for financial services (Research project)-HSBC Bank Research Paper

Marketing for financial services ( project)-HSBC Bank - Research Paper Example The company has significant presence in the world of internet and this essay is mainly attempted to analyze this aspect of HSBC. The principle reason behind choosing HSBC for this essay is the fact that it is one of the most respected organizations among the global banking and financial companies. Furthermore, data regarding HSBC is likely to be obtained conveniently as compared to any other financial organization. This essay aims to provide a clear understanding regarding the online presence of HSBC, main reasons behind such presence and various online marketing activities that are undertaken by the company. HSBC has robust presence in the world of internet through its different websites. The company has separate portals that are developed for several of its important markets. For instance, the website that is developed for UK (www.hsbc.co.uk) is significantly different from the site that is made for Indian market (www.hsbc.co.in). Each of these websites are linked to the corporate website (www.hsbc.com) of the main holding company i.e. HSBC plc. In addition to these websites, HSBC is also present online through several of its advertisements. Such advertisements are placed in different websites of other organizations that are usually relevant to banking and financial sector. Major objectives of such internet presence of HSBC are to introduce its products and services to the target customers and promote the brand ‘HSBC’. The websites of HSBC contain all the important information regarding the company and its products. Most importantly these websites provide all the facilities of internet banking. Furthermore each of the websites includes the detail contact information so that the customers can interact with the bank and its stuffs conveniently. HSBC promotes its brand and products in the world of internet through different marketing strategies like creating special website for corporate banking and

Individual Savings Account Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Individual Savings Account - Essay Example Good thing about ISA's is that Fred does not have to pay tax on the income earned from the savings fund. Fred Murray can try Barnsley BS. It offers 2.65% rate for savings from 1, 2.85% from 10,000, and 3% from 20,000. There is also the fixed rate ISA from Northern Rock which offers 3.5% interest for a minimum balance of 500. C. It would be better if Henry Murray would buy the three-bedroom terraced house since there is a benefit from it if it were rented for 800 a month. In addition to that, the value of the house may increase in time. Costing 117,000, the house could be paid in a year or two with the income from the students' rent. A buy to let mortgage suitable for him is First Direct. It is a fixed type of mortgage, meaning that monthly repayments will remain constant regardless of the standard variable interest rate. With this, he will know exactly what the repayments are. D. Bill Murray could start paying while he is still studying. He must make sure to save an amount of money every month. This will lower the interest he will have to pay. Getting a job right after school will surely help too. It is advisable to look for a job in a government institution. They could offer assistance with payment of student loans. He could also look for student assistance programs and search for options for payment and find the one most suitable for him. He must ensur

Israel, Iraq and the USA in Middle East Politics Analysis Essay

Israel, Iraq and the USA in Middle East Politics Analysis - Essay Example Religious issues have also been a constant cause of conflict in these regions†.1 These problems of the region do not originate solely from the Middle East countries alone, as external interventions have contributed largely in the past and prevailing affairs in the region. These intervening outsiders do interject because of vested interest in the oil sources. Interventions of countries like the United States of America and Russia among others have led to the unending squabble and unrest in the region. In most cases, the intruders could easily set the Arabs up in arms as regions like in Israel had internal religious disparities between Christians and Arabs/Muslim. Focusing on middle East and the US relation, this paper will not only seek to unravel the relationship between these three countries, but will also deliberate on their contribution to the politics of the middle east. The Middle East has for a long time now suffered from Socio-economic and political problems. The problems in this region blossoms from the citizens of the region, as well as other countries. The interventions have both exacerbated uprisings, and led to loss of millions of lives in wars and unrest. Other than the resources that entice external countries, terrorist groups that thrive in the Middle East have attracted global attention as countries join hands in fighting terrorism. The mere mention of the word terrorist instills fear to any country or individual, as many countries have experienced terrorist attacks in the past. The relationship between Iraq, Israel and USA emanate from either of those connecting factors. Iraq Iraq has been for a long time pivotal in shaping of the Middle East politics. Other than the recently known invasion by the United States of America, Iraq has experienced decades of political and social economic issues. Baker, Shareen and Ismael3 demonstrates clearly and precisely the events of the American invasion in detail. They analytically reveal the causes of the invasion, the economic, social and political factors that are wrapped around the history of Iraq. The most empirical purpose or invasion of Iraq by the US militia emanated from the belief that Iraq was a terrorist country, a factor that led to the invasion in the attempts to wipe out terrorism completely both in Iraq and other targeted nations. All middle east countries that were suspected to condone the development of terrorist groups. This invasion, religious fanaticism and the long time conflicts with the neighbouring countries acted as pivotal determinant factors concerning the country’s political stature and its effects in the region.i Before and after t he cold war, America and the Russian governments sought to control the oil and water sources in the Middle East. These resources became an issue of conflict in the region leading to numerous political upheavals. Since the times of imperialism, America had convinced Muslims to adopt secular methods of governance and legal systems in order for modernization to take place in the Middle East. Reforms to the former Sharia government and legal systems became a fundamental issue when the secular methods failed (Cleveland and Marti). These reforms led to lengthy political squabbles for many years to the present time. Israeli also played a major role in the politics of Iraq as its neighbor and the fact that Israel collaborated with the Americans in the Anti-Arab movements. This relationship connects the three countries in a

Comparative study of Mergers and Acquisitions processes in France and Essay

Comparative study of Mergers and Acquisitions processes in France and in the United States - Essay Example Research results reveal that the M&A transactions are generally cheaper in France than in the US. According to Alkhafaji, by the above ruling it is meant that the financial assets that are used to execute the M&A transactions together with the duration that is required. The only situation that presents the US as being at par with France, as far as the number of person-days needed to execute M&A are concerned, is when there is seen to be a phase (9a) that portends the execution of the Dispute Without Formal Litigation. This is because the person-days are almost the same in France and US. As far as cost is concerned, M&A transactions in America are significantly of exorbitant cost than France. However, Phase 9(b) Dispute with Formal Litigation in France requires more asset input than in US. In this situation, the transaction cost in the US and in France remains equal. Similarly, economic pundits, such as Terrence, point out that there is a dearth of uniformity between the US and Franc e M&A as far as the results for step-time and satisfaction are concerned. The satisfaction for steps that begins with the exchanging of preliminary information during the drafting of ancillary documents is said to be also considerably the same between US and France. Sweet and Larsson observes that the France’s step (9b) Dispute with formal litigation also remains comparably the same to that of the US. However, it is pointed out that in the US, satisfaction remains higher as far as the Dispute without Formal Litigation is concerned.

The difference between alternative and conventional medicine Thesis

The difference between alternative and conventional medicine - Thesis Example It is very interesting to know that the number of individuals who visit alternative therapies is already higher than those individuals who visit the Western-based physicians. (Eisenberg et al., 1998) Even though some people make use of CAM as a substitute for a conventional medicine (Druss & Rosenheck, 1999), several studies believe that the use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) could complement the use of a conventional medicine (Egede et al., 2002; Druss & Rosenheck, 1999). In line with the use of CAM, there are also several studies suggesting that the patients’ use of CAM is a major factor that makes some people avoids the use of conventional medicine (Robinson et al., 2002; Astin, 1998). Despite the significant increase in the use of CAM, there are still many people who remain unclear with regards to the differences between alternative and conventional medicine. To enable the readers have a better understanding with regards to the differences between the two types of medicine, the definition of alternative and conventional medicine will first be provided followed by discussing some general information about the use of CAM and conventional medicine. This study will gather some past and present academic literature that discusses and differentiate alternative medicine from a conventional medicine. After discussing the major factors behind the shift from conventional medicine to the use of CAM, the effectiveness between CAM and conventional medicine will be compared and contrast. As part of the conclusion, whether or not alternative medicine is better than a conventional medicine will be justified. Alternative medicine is â€Å"a form of healing arts that is not taught in a traditional Western medical schools that could promote options to the use of conventional medicine† (MedicineNet.com, 2007). It is basically â€Å"a group of diverse medical and health care systems, practices, and products that are not currently considered

Examination the differences between the ethical and conventional Research Paper

Examination the differences between the ethical and conventional investment mutual funds - Research Paper Example This led to investors’ social awareness; thus, the concept was to make sure that any form of investment followed ethical criteria. This led to the creation of ethically managed investment funds that have been steadily increasing and represent a large amount of money invested in a country like the United States. About 12% of funds that are being professionally managed are part of a socially responsible mutual fund or of other private portfolios. The fact that there is a very large amount of money invested in this manner has led researchers to attempt to answer the question whether these ethical investment mutual funds are more expensive to run and perform better than the other conventional investment mutual funds. Initial research shows that the ethical investment mutual funds do not invest as widely as the conventional ones. However, there is no major difference between the amounts of money earned by the ethical investment mutual funds when compared to the conventional ones (D iltz, 1995). Statistics also showed that there is no difference in the areas that the two types of investment mutual funds tend to invest in (Sauer, 1997). Most of the evidence necessary to make the important comparisons between the two types of investment mutual funds is mostly found in the United States and the United Kingdom. Additionally, there is no pattern of investment that can conclusively determine the differences between the two types of investment mutual funds. However, when the ethical investment mutual funds are compared according to investment in small companies with the other non-ethical ones, a bias is found (Luther & Matatko, 1994). It showed that the ethical funds were the better performing and earned more than the conventional ones in these small companies. A different study that was conducted by Mallin et al. (1995) attempted to erase the problem of the benchmark that was set on the small companies and the investment by the ethical investment mutual funds. In thi s study, they considered the size of the ethical fund and the date that it was created. A method of statistics referred to as the Jensen’s alpha was used to analyze their findings. They concluded that ethical funds outperform the other funds using this criterion. The small cap bias that was cited by Luther and Matatko (1994) and that Mallin et al. (1995) attempted to correct led to further research by Luther and Matatko which concluded that using the size of the fund and applying the 2-factor Jensen’s alpha method; there was no conclusive evidence that reflected a difference in the financial performance of both investment mutual funds and that the small cap bias still existed. The study of the differences between the two types of investment mutual funds was complicated at this point. It was further complicated when Dibartolomeo (1996) and Kurtz (1997) claimed that the better performance of the ethical investment mutual funds was due to â€Å"large-cap growth exposures † and not due to the social factors essentially considered. This presented further biases attributed to sector and style. The purpose of this paper is to examine subsequent research in order to uncover the differences between the ethical investment mutual funds and the conventional investment mutual funds in order to determine whether the former performs better than the latter. This paper will not aim to discredit any research conducted, nor will it seek to be investigative but it will simply

Deciduous and Temperate Evergreen Forest Essay Example for Free

Deciduous and Temperate Evergreen Forest Essay Tropical evergreen forest Tropical forests are characterized by the greatest diversity of species. They occur near the equator, within the area bounded by latitudes 23. 5 degrees N and 23. 5 degrees S. One of the major characteristics of tropical forests is their distinct seasonality: winter is absent, and only two seasons are present (rainy and dry). An  evergreen forest  is a  forest  consisting entirely or mainly of  evergreen  trees that retain green foliage all year round. Such forests reign the tropics primarily as  broadleaf  evergreens, and in  temperate  and  boreal  latitudes  primarily asconiferous  evergreens Tropical deciduous forest Deciduous  means falling off at maturity or tending to fall off, and is typically used in reference to  trees  or  shrubs  that lose theirleaves  seasonally, and to the shedding of other plant structures such as  petals  after flowering or  fruit  when ripe. In a more general sense, deciduous means the dropping of a part that is no longer needed, or falling away after its purpose is finished. In plants it is the result of natural processes. Deciduous has a similar meaning when referring to animal parts, such as deciduous  antlers  in  deer,[1]  ordeciduous teeth, also known as baby teeth, in some mammals (including human children). Temperate deciduous forests Temperate deciduous forests  or  temperate broad-leaf forests  are dominated by trees that lose their leaves each year. They are found in areas where warm moist summers alternate with mild winters. Mediterranean vegetation Mediterranean vegetation,  any scrubby, dense vegetation composed of broad-leaved evergreen shrubs, bushes, and small trees usually less than 2. 5 m (about 8 feet) tall and growing in regions lying between 30 ° and 40 ° north and south latitudes. These regions have a climate similar to that of the Mediterranean area, which is characterized by hot, dry summers and mild, wet winters. Around the Mediterranean Sea this vegetation is called macchie, maquis, or garigue; it is known as chaparral in southwestern North America, as Cape flora in southern Africa, and as mallee in southwestern Australia.

Types Of Operating Systems Computer Science Essay

Types Of Operating Systems Computer Science Essay An operating system, or OS, is a software program that enables the computer hardware to communicate and operate with the computer software. Without a computer operating system, a computer would be useless. In computing. operating system (OS) linked between hardware and user, which is responsible for the management and coordination of activities and the sharing of the resources of a computer, that acts as a host for computing applications run on the machine. One of the purposes of an operating system is to handle the resource allocation and access protection of the hardware. This relieves the application programmers from having to manage these details. Explanation At the simplest level, an operating system does two things: It manages the hardware and software resources of the system. In a desktop computer, these resources include such things as the processor, memory, disk space and more (On a cell phone, they include the keypad, the screen, the address book, the phone dialer, the battery and the network connection). It provides a stable, consistent way for applications to deal with the hardware without having to know all the details of the hardware. Operating systems offers many services to application programs and usersApplications access these services through application programming interfaces (APIs) or system calls. By invoking these interfaces, the application can request a service from the operating system, pass parameters, and receive the results of the operation. Users may also interact with the operating system with some kind of software user interface like typing commands by using command line interface (CLI) or using a graphical user interface. For hand-held and desktop computers, the user interface is generally considered part of the operating system. On large multi-user systems such as Unix-like systems, the user interface is generally implemented as an application program that runs outside the operating system. Types of Operating Systems As computers have progressed and developed so have the types of operating systems. Below is a basic list of the different types of operating systems. Within the broad family of operating systems, there are generally four types, categorized based on the types of computers they control and the sort of applications they support. The categories are: 1.Real-time operating system (RTOS) Real-time operating systems are used to control machinery, scientific instruments and industrial systems. An RTOS typically has very little user-interface capability, and no end-user utilities, since the system will be a sealed box when delivered for use. A very important part of an RTOS is managing the resources of the computer so that a particular operation executes in precisely the same amount of time, every time it occurs. In a complex machine, having a part move more quickly just because system resources are available may be just as catastrophic as having it not move at all because the system is busy. 2. Single-user, single task As the name implies, this operating system is designed to manage the computer so that one user can effectively do one thing at a time. The Palm OS for Palm handheld computers is a good example of a modern single-user, single-task operating system. 3. Single-user, multi-tasking This is the type of operating system most people use on their desktop and laptop computers today. Microsofts Windows and Apples MacOS platforms are both examples of operating systems that will let a single user have several programs in operation at the same time. For example, its entirely possible for a Windows user to be writing a note in a word processor while downloading a file from the Internet while printing the text of an e-mail message. 4. Multi-user A multi-user operating system allows many different users to take advantage of the computers resources simultaneously. The operating system must make sure that the requirements of the various users are balanced, and that each of the programs they are using has sufficient and separate resources so that a problem with one user doesnt affect the entire community of users. Unix, VMS and mainframe operating systems, such as MVS, are examples of multi-user operating systems. Examples of most popular operating systems : Windows XP is an operating system produced by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops, and media centers. It was released in 2001. The name XP is short for eXPerience.[3] Windows XP is the successor to both Windows 2000 Professional and Windows Me, and is the first consumer-oriented operating system produced by Microsoft to be built on the Windows NT kernel and architecture. Windows XP was first released on October 25, 2001, and over 400 million copies were in use in January 2006, according to an estimate in that month by an IDC analyst.[4] It was succeeded by Windows Vista, which was released to volume license customers on November 8, 2006, and worldwide to the general public on January 30, 2007. Direct OEM and retail sales of Windows XP ceased on June 30, 2008. Microsoft continued to sell XP through their System Builders (smaller OEMs who sell assembled computers) program until January 31, 2009.[5][6] XP may continue to be available as these sources run through their inventory or by purchasing Windows Vista Ultimate or Business and then downgrading to Windows XP. MS-DOS MS-DOS is an operating system for x86 based personal computers, which was purchased by Microsoft. It was the most commonly used member of the DOS family of operating systems, and was the main operating system for personal computers during the 1980s[citation needed] and 1990s. It was preceded by M-DOS (also called MIDAS), designed and copyrighted by Microsoft in 1979. MSDOS was written for the Intel 8086 family of microprocessors, particularly the IBM PC and compatibles. It was gradually replaced on consumer desktop computers by operating systems offering a graphical user interface (GUI), in particular by various generations of the Microsoft Windows operating system. MS-DOS developed out of QDOS (Quick and Dirty Operating System), also known as 86-DOS . Several versions were released under different names for different hardware.[3] MS-DOS had eight major versions released before Microsoft stopped development in 2000. Unix UNIX is an operating system which was first developed in the 1960s, and has been under constant development ever since. By operating system, we mean the suite of programs which make the computer work. It is a stable, multi-user, multi-tasking system for servers, desktops and laptops. UNIX systems also have a graphical user interface (GUI) similar to Microsoft Windows which provides an easy to use environment. However, knowledge of UNIX is required for operations which arent covered by a graphical program. The UNIX operating system is made up of three parts; the kernel, the shell and the programs. The kernel of UNIX is the hub of the operating system: it allocates time and memory to programs and handles the filestore and communications in response to system calls. The shell acts as an interface between the user and the kernel. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operating_system http://www.howstuffworks.com/operating-system.htm/printable

Effects of humor in advertising

Effects of humor in advertising Humor in advertising is like a gun in the hands of a child. You have to know how to use it. Otherwise, it can blow up on you. (Miller, 1992) According to Marc G. Weinberger and Charles S. Gulas (1992), Humor is by no means a guarantee of better ads, but its effect can be enhanced with careful consideration of the objectives According to Fugate D. (1998), Advertising humor refers primarily to the ability of audiences to respond positively when one or others are portrayed in a playful manner. Employ of humor in advertising propose that as much as 30.2% of prime time television advertising is planned to be humorous (Weinberger and Spotts 1989). Numorous researches conducted by others has also indicated similar high (or still higher) levels of practice of humor in television ads (Kelly and Solomon 1975; Markiewicz 1972; Speck 1987) and in radio (Weinberger and Campbell 1991).whereas the use of humor is high, the effectiveness of humor as a interactions device remains doubtful. In attempts to describe its impact, humor has confirmed to be extremely indefinable. This lack of information has led advertising managers and researchers similar to both honor and criticize the usefulness of humor in advertising as explained in the opening quotes. The truth is that humor is a difficult theme that has been experimentally deliberate by advertisers in numerous dozen studies over the past few years. Humor is a diverse idea that is affected by a wide range of factors. As an outcome of the many contingencies forced by preferred aim, style of humor, medium, placement and viewers , generalizations about the effect of humor are filled with pitfalls (Stewart-Hunter 1985). However the open question of humors usefulness in advertising is unanswerable, we can bring together the accounts of humor research in the perspective of suitable constraints to increase insights about its belongings. For that reason, the more suitable questions to ask are: 1) What communications objectives are mainly expected to be accomplished through the utilization of humor?; 2) What communication factors are likely to influence the result?; 3) For what audience is humor most suitable?; and 4) What product factors advise the use or non-use of a humorous approach? The intention of this paper then is to analytically observe the research that has been conducted to increase insight into the belongings of humor with respect to these questions.The extensive use of humor, attached with the unsettled questi ons regarding it, has drawn the attention of several communication researchers. In a commonly cited analysis of the early literature in the field, Sternthal and Craig (1973) drew some uncertain conclusions about the use of humor on a number of communications objectives. These conclusions must be viewed as uncertain because, although based on a thorough analysis of the existing literature in 1973, this literature base was fairly small and consisted about completely of non-advertising studies as there was merely slight previous work in advertising to review. In the years since the Sternthal and Craig work, humor has established widespread extra analysis in over 30 studies that have appeared in the marketing literature, and a vast many more studies that have appeared in the literature streams of education, communication and psychology. This paper has the relevant aspects of this literature in order to modernize and broaden on the Sternthal and Craig work. Thus, the design to be followe d will be to observe the result of humor as it applies to a variety of communications objectives and then to broaden on this work by including implementation, placement, audience, and product factors that have come to light in the past few years. The nature of the communication objective plays a main role in the suitability of the use of humor. Sternthal and Craig (1973) scheduled advertising objectives and the impact of humor on each of these objectives. Revisited after few years of prevailing research some of these conclusions remain logical, while others come out to be in need of modifications. Humor and Attention Studies have revealed that 94% of advertising practitioners see humor as an useful way to increase attention. Moreover, 55% of advertising research executives find humor to be better to non-humor in gaining attention (Madden and Weinberger 1984). Whereas the special views of advertising executives should not be equated with accurate hypothesis testing, these views do mirror a knowledge base built on years of day to day understanding with proper research outcome. Furthermore in the case of attention, these practitioner views find to be well supported by the available experimental proof. inside studies of real magazine ads (Madden and Weinberger 1982), television ads (Stewart and Furse 1986), and radio ads (Weinberger and Campbell 1991) in average industry ad testing situations, humor has been found to have a positive effect on attention . Likewise, this attention effect has also been verified in the laboratory. In a detailed test of attention effects in the adverti sing field, Speck (1987) compared humorous ads with non-humorous controls on four attention measures: early attention, constant attention, predictable attention and on the whole attention. He found humorous ads to do better than non-humorous ads on each of the attention measures. The attention attracting capability of humor has also been verified in education research (Powell and Andresen 1985; Zillmann et al. 1980). In a review of the education literature, Bryant and Zillmann (1989) conclude that humor has a positive effect on attention, the advisory attitude taken by Bryant and Zillmann is suitable for all the humor attention studies. While the outcome seem to point out a positive impact on attention, and in common the past few years of research mainly supports the conclusion drawn by Sternthal and Craig (1973) , future researchers should be attentive that all humor is not shaped equal. Associated humor, that is, humor directly associated to the product or problem being promoted, appears to be more thriving than unassociated humor (Duncan 1979; Lull 1940; Madden 1982). In detail, controlling for the associated factor makes the result of the investigational studies in advertising undeniable in their support for a positive effect of humor on attention. This explains that the mere inclusion of canned humor into a given ad is not likely to have the same impact on attention as the use of a more incorporated humor cure. Humor and Understanding The literature is assorted on the outcome that humor has on understanding. In a study of 1000 broadcast commercials, Stewart and Furse (1986) found humorous substance to enhance the understanding of an ad. Other studies have found alike positive outcomes (Duncan, Nelson and Frontczak 1984; Weinberger and Campbell 1991; Zhang and Zinkhan 1991). On the other hand, these studies distinguish sharply with the outcomes of other advertising researchers who have found a negative association between humor and understanding (Cantor and Venus 1980; Gelb and Zinkhan 1986; Lammers et al. 1983; Sutherland and Middleton 1983). This negative outlook of the effect of humor on understanding is shared by the group of research executives (64%) at U.S. ad agencies. While findings indeed fail to determine the true effect of humor on understanding, they do call into question the reality of a global negative effect hypothesized by Sternthal and Craig (1973). It is important to look f or factors that may sort out these findings. To this extent, it appears that some other factors seem to explain much of the lack of conformity in the studies. First, there is a lack of a reliable definition of understanding among studies. Depending on the exact measure used, recall may be an signal of understanding or it may merely draw attention. More significantly, the measures engaged may have an impact on the outcomes found. Those studies that use several measures of understanding (Speck 1987; Weinberger and Campbell 1991) are more expected to discover positive or mixed positive effects on understanding than those studies that utilize solitary measures (Cantor and Venus 1980; Lammers et al. 1983), representing that a positive understanding effect may be missed by comparatively narrow measures. Further confirmation of the significance of measures is found in the work of Murphy and his colleagues (Murphy, Cunningham and Wilcox 1979). Their study of framework effects demonstrates t hat diverse measures of recall may create different recall outcomes. Secondly, humor styles may be an important determinant in understanding effects. In one study which directly compared the effects of various humor styles on understanding, Speck (1987) found major differences due to styles. His findings point out that some humorous ads do better, and some do worse than non-humorous ads on expressive and message understanding and that this differential act was attributable to humor styles. Comic wit was found to under perform non-humorous treatments while all other humor styles(i.e., satire, full comedy, sentimental humor and sentimental comedy) out performed the non-humor treatment. Lastly, the nature of product advertised appears to play a vital role in the impact of humor on understanding. This product factor is collected of two dichotomies, high involvement vs low involvement products. Those studies employing high involvement products (Speck 1987; Stewart and Furse 1986; Weinber ger and Campbell 1991; Zhang and Zinkhan 1991) in general indicate a positive effect of humor on understanding. On the other hand, studies employing low involvement products (Cantor and Venus 1980; Gelb and Zinkhan 1986) have found a negative effect of humor on understanding. we believe that these studies do present a thorough test of the association between humor and understanding that can present insight into the impact that humor may have on advertising understanding. An study of the related non-advertising studies shows eight studies that report a positive effect of humor on understanding and eleven studies that indicate a null or mixed effect. None of the non-advertising studies reports a negative effect of humor on understanding, which again challenges the conclusion drawn in 1973 by Sternthal and Craig. Of the education literature, possibly the strongest support for a positive relationship between humor and understanding appears in work conducted by Ziv (1988). This study ind icates that humor can drastically improve learning. Humor and influence Sternthal and Craig (1973) concluded that the interruption effect of humor may lead to influence. However, they note that the influential effect of humor is at paramount no superior than that of serious appeals. These conclusions seem to agree with the opinions of U.S. ad executives. Madden and Weinberger (1984) found that only 26% of these practitioners approved with a statement claiming humor to be more influential than non-humor. whereas U.S. advertising executives mainly agree with the conclusion of Sternthal and Craig (1973), this opinion is in sharp distinction to that of their British counterparts, 62% of whom found humor as more influential than non-humor and only 7% of whom were found to conflict with this claim (Weinberger and Spotts 1989). Audience Factors The majority of practitioners consider that humorous ads are best appropriate to a target audience composed of better educated younger males (Madden and Weinberger 1984). The advertising literature usually supports this faith. Quite a few studies have indicated an communication between gender and humor efficacy (Gorham and Christophel 1990; Lammers et al. 1983; Madden and Weinberger 1982; Stewart- Hunter 1985; Whipple and Courtney 1980,1981). The effect of gender may be moderately explained by obvious differences in humor admiration. In a review of the literature, Whipple and Courtney (1981) conclude that men appear to enjoy aggressive and sexual humor more than women do, and women emerge to have a better admiration for nonsensical humor. However, they warning that the results are not convincing and that these preferences may be shifting as society changes. Additional, the perception of the initiator of the humor may be an key mediator, as will be discussed. Contrary to the hold of the findings in marketing, research in education generally has not found major gender effects on humor response. Both in an broad educational experiment discussed earlier (Ziv 1988), and in other experiments (Davies and Apter 1980; Weaver, Zillmann and Bryant 1988; Zillmann et al. 1980), the positive effect of humor on learning was not found to be different by gender. The dichotomy of outcome of gender effects on humor raises some attention-grabbing issues. Humor is very closely attached into the culture, experiences, and points of suggestion that are shared between the humor creator and the humor receiver. For instance, research has recommended that the gender response to sexual humor is reversed when the creator of the humor is female (Gallivan 1991), and the individuality of the joke may persuade which audiences discover the joke funny (Gruner 1991). If this is certainly the case, then much of the distinction based on gender, and maybe race and age as well, may be explained by different perspectives of the creator of the humorous treatment and the receiver of that treatment. Thus, the shared point of view between the initiator of a humorous ad and the target of the ad is a potentially significant dominant variable in humor effectiveness. This problem has been largely ignored by researchers. In addition to gender, race, and age, other audience factors may impact the competence of humor and are worthy of thought. Humor is a common human practice exhibited by people of all cultures and throughout all of recorded history (Alden, Hoyer and Lee 1993). Though, the research that has examined humor in advertising cross-culturally indicates degree of difference in use of humor among countries, equally in humor types employed and in supreme levels of humor used (e.g. Alden, Hoyer and Lee 1993; Weinberger and Spotts 1989). Moreover, experimental proof indicates that people of diverse cultural backgrounds respond to humor in a different way. In an experi ment that compared Israeli Jews of Eastern and Western descent, Weller and his colleagues found significant differences in the admiration for ridiculous jokes between the two groups (Weller, Amitsour, and Pazzi 1976). They conceive that these differences are due to habits of thought and mental attitudes ingrained in cultural backgrounds. These findings entail that even when language differences are uninvolved, jokes may not be easily exchangeable among cultures. An additional audience factor of note includes audience and product relations such as prior brand attitude. Chattopadhyay and Basu (1989) indicate that humor has better positive effect, with regard to influence, for those audience members with a prior positive brand attitude. These and other audience factors should be reserved in mind in the blueprint of humorous ads and upcoming humor study.

Free Essays: Literary Sources of Frankenstein :: Frankenstein essays

Literary Sources of Frankenstein Frankenstein is considered to be the greatest Gothic Romantic Novel. It is also generally thought of as the first science fiction novel. I have always been impressed and amazed by the fact that Mary wrote this novel when she was eighteen years old. What experiences and powers of imagination led to such an innovative and disturbing work? The idea for the novel arose in the summer of 1816 when Mary Shelley was staying at Lord Byron's villa in Geneva Switzerland. Not only did Mary incorporate experiences from that summer into her novel, she also utilized the sources that she had been reading and studying. Two in particular were the Metamorphoses by Ovid and Paradise Lost by Milton. It is believed that Mary studied Ovid in April and May of 1815. The major element that Ovid supplied to the theme of Frankenstein, was his presentation of the Prometheus legend. This is acknowledged in the subtitle: Frankenstein, Or the Modern Prometheus. The creation of the monster is similar to this passage from Ovid: Whether with particles of heav'nly fire, The God of Nature did his soul inspire; Or earth, but new divided from the sky, And, pliant, still retain'd th'ethereal energy; Which wise Prometheus temper'd into paste, And, mix't with living streams, the godlike image cast... From such rude principles our form began; And earth was metamorphos'd into man. Lines from Frankenstein that reflect the above passage are; "I collected the instruments of life around me, that I might infuse a spark of being into the lifeless thing that lay at my feet." (p.51) "...that I may extinguish the spark which I so negligently bestowed." (Frankenstein p.101) The second important literary influence was Paradise Lost by Milton. ( If you have not read this, it is really worth the time. It is difficult, but is well worth the effort. I find that it is helpful to have a copy of Bullfinch's Mythology when reading it. Almost all of Milton's mythological references are explained in Bullfinch.) The influence of Milton's Paradise Lost can be seen directly from the epigraph of the 1818 edition of Frankenstein. "Did I request thee, Maker from my clay to mould me man? Did I solicit thee, from darkness to promote me?" The spirit of Paradise Lost permeates Frankenstein throughout the novel.

Is It A Chocolate Sale...Or A Chocolate War..?? Essay example -- Engli

Is It A Chocolate Sale...Or A Chocolate War..?? Chocolate "sale" or.....chocolate "war"? Although you describe this novel as being mainly based on simply the chocolate sale, the correct answer is more like the war of the chocolate sale. Already from the opening page of this exclusive book, where quarterback Jerry Renault is clobbered by a relentless defense, The Chocolate War is relentless in its portrayal of the vicious, sometimes violent world of high school. Through Jerry Renault, Robert Cormier who is the author of this book, thrusts us into the tormenting world of Trinity High, an all boys prep school. The Chocolate War isn’t all about the schoolwide chocolate sale Brother Leon presented to Trinity. The sale is part of the "war" going on through the school, but even before the sale was put out, problems already were occurring. The theme in their school was always "the students vs. the teachers". It then lowered down to "the Vigils vs. the teachers", particularly talking about Archie Castello, head and assigner of the Vigils, and Brother Leon, assistant headmaster of Trinity. These conflicts were already existing before the sale was given by Brother Leon. The characters are guided by peer pressures and the desire to please (or displease) their teachers. All of this is just a piece of the war at Trinity. The real chocolate war all started out just as Brother Leon announced and introduced the chocolate sale that all the students were supposed to participate in. Everyone was perfectly fine about the idea of the sale since it is held as one of the biggest fund-raisers all year to help the school. But once Leon changed around the expectations on the sale, conflicts around the school began to form. This year, Brother Leon wants the entire school to sell up to 20,000 boxes of chocolate, which means every single student is needed to sell 50 boxes each. Some of the students were excited and motivated to sell their set of chocolates, while some only sold them because they feared Brother Leon. Many of the students didn’t want to sell the chocolates, but they were all afraid of what Brother Leon might do if they weren’t involved in the fund-raiser. They all knew about the unexplained failures Leon gives out to the students in his class. The reasons of these F’s are usually something that is related to the sale. Archie Castel... ...ing match controlled by Archie. In order for him to get the chocolates sold, he needed to get money. Although Archie hates the sport boxing, and any other activities that involve violence, as smart as he was, he knew that all the students at Trinity would love it. Jerry Renault and Emile Janza were the two who were going to be the ones fighting in the match. Just about everyone in the school bought a raffle ticket, and the profit of the tickets was what Archie was planning to use to pay off the rest of the chocolates. This whole boxing match idea of Archie’s definitely doesn’t show much about the chocolate sale, but of its war. It showed the war against Brother Leon and Archie Castello. It showed the war against Leon and Jerry Renault, the war of Jerry vs. Emile Janza, and definitely the war of just the criticizing world of high school. The word "war" doesn’t always have to be a physical war, as in deaths or literally fighting. It can mean internal war, where not a single show of violence has to be involved. This whole novel, The Chocolate War, takes the reader into the underworld of Trinity, where justice is ruled by just one powerful concept...intimidation. Is It A Chocolate Sale...Or A Chocolate War..?? Essay example -- Engli Is It A Chocolate Sale...Or A Chocolate War..?? Chocolate "sale" or.....chocolate "war"? Although you describe this novel as being mainly based on simply the chocolate sale, the correct answer is more like the war of the chocolate sale. Already from the opening page of this exclusive book, where quarterback Jerry Renault is clobbered by a relentless defense, The Chocolate War is relentless in its portrayal of the vicious, sometimes violent world of high school. Through Jerry Renault, Robert Cormier who is the author of this book, thrusts us into the tormenting world of Trinity High, an all boys prep school. The Chocolate War isn’t all about the schoolwide chocolate sale Brother Leon presented to Trinity. The sale is part of the "war" going on through the school, but even before the sale was put out, problems already were occurring. The theme in their school was always "the students vs. the teachers". It then lowered down to "the Vigils vs. the teachers", particularly talking about Archie Castello, head and assigner of the Vigils, and Brother Leon, assistant headmaster of Trinity. These conflicts were already existing before the sale was given by Brother Leon. The characters are guided by peer pressures and the desire to please (or displease) their teachers. All of this is just a piece of the war at Trinity. The real chocolate war all started out just as Brother Leon announced and introduced the chocolate sale that all the students were supposed to participate in. Everyone was perfectly fine about the idea of the sale since it is held as one of the biggest fund-raisers all year to help the school. But once Leon changed around the expectations on the sale, conflicts around the school began to form. This year, Brother Leon wants the entire school to sell up to 20,000 boxes of chocolate, which means every single student is needed to sell 50 boxes each. Some of the students were excited and motivated to sell their set of chocolates, while some only sold them because they feared Brother Leon. Many of the students didn’t want to sell the chocolates, but they were all afraid of what Brother Leon might do if they weren’t involved in the fund-raiser. They all knew about the unexplained failures Leon gives out to the students in his class. The reasons of these F’s are usually something that is related to the sale. Archie Castel... ...ing match controlled by Archie. In order for him to get the chocolates sold, he needed to get money. Although Archie hates the sport boxing, and any other activities that involve violence, as smart as he was, he knew that all the students at Trinity would love it. Jerry Renault and Emile Janza were the two who were going to be the ones fighting in the match. Just about everyone in the school bought a raffle ticket, and the profit of the tickets was what Archie was planning to use to pay off the rest of the chocolates. This whole boxing match idea of Archie’s definitely doesn’t show much about the chocolate sale, but of its war. It showed the war against Brother Leon and Archie Castello. It showed the war against Leon and Jerry Renault, the war of Jerry vs. Emile Janza, and definitely the war of just the criticizing world of high school. The word "war" doesn’t always have to be a physical war, as in deaths or literally fighting. It can mean internal war, where not a single show of violence has to be involved. This whole novel, The Chocolate War, takes the reader into the underworld of Trinity, where justice is ruled by just one powerful concept...intimidation.

The Immature Love of Romeo and Juliet :: Literary Analysis, Shakespeare

Just as the Friar says in the beginning of the Shakespeare play, Romeo and Juliet, â€Å"Wisely and slowly, they stumble that run fast.† (II.iii.94). this was a sign of foreshadowing for for the death of the lovers, Romeo and Juliet. Even though fate was a factor that had contributed to a tragic end, there was also personal choice involved, and ultimately, the story may have had a different ending if it weren’t for the flaws of the lovers and their inability to have a grip on reality in dire circumstances. Over the course of the play, the lovers from the conflicting households have not matured and remain rather static in development. Furthermore, in this tragedy, the only son of the montages remains rather childlike, Juliet still seems immature and their relationship over all seems more like a play act on lover rather then something mature and sustainable. Overall, from start to finish, Romeo and Juliet were living in the moment, being absurd and silly rather then focus ing on the future and trying to work problems out effectively. Although the lovers are both fairly impudent throughout the play, Romeo, the male lead, is even more so. Through out the play of Romeo and Juliet, the Montague heir has ceased maturity over the course of the Shakespearean tragedy. First of all, it was â€Å"Rosaline† (II.iii.67). whom Romeo â€Å"didst love so dear† (II.iii.67). at the beginning of the play as he â€Å"groaned . . . woes for Rosaline† (II.ii.74-78) however, he easily fell out of lover with her and in love with the â€Å"fair daughter of the rich Capulet† (II.iii.58) like he was changing his mind on a meal he’d order. Also, he fell out of love with Rosaline because she did not â€Å"doth grace for grace and love for love allow.† (II.iii. 85-88) which basically meant that Romeo didn’t love Rosaline because she didn’t love him back, which is very childish in hindsight. Another way that Romeo is immature is that he doesn’t have a sense of reality fore, heâ₠¬â„¢s always either extremely depressed, like when Rosaline wanted to remain chaised for life or extremely elated like when he met Juliet, while having no real middle ground for his emotions. These are all reasons why Romeo is immature: he’s always heads over heels in love for trivial reasons and he has no to little sense of reality. Although Romeo is immature, it’s unexcused since he’s well onto being an adult by society’s standards, however, Juliet is 14, so for her to be acting like a child is to be expected.

Poetics by Aristotle Essay

Aristotle’s most famous contribution to logic is the syllogism, which he discusses primarily in the Prior Analytics. A syllogism is a three-step argument containing three different terms. A simple example is â€Å"All men are mortal; Socrates is a man; therefore, Socrates is mortal. † This three-step argument contains three assertions consisting of the three terms Socrates,man, and mortal. The first two assertions are called premises and the last assertion is called the conclusion; in a logically valid syllogism, such as the one just presented, the conclusion follows necessarily from the premises. That is, if you know that both of the premises are true, you know that the conclusion must also be true. Aristotle uses the following terminology to label the different parts of the syllogism: the premise whose subject features in the conclusion is called theminor premise and the premise whose predicate features in the conclusion is called the major premise. In the example, â€Å"All men are mortal† is the major premise, and since mortal is also the predicate of the conclusion, it is called the major term. Socrates† is called the minor term because it is the subject of both the minor premise and the conclusion, and man, which features in both premises but not in the conclusion, is called the middle term. In analyzing the syllogism, Aristotle registers the important distinction between particulars and universals. Socrates is a particular term, meaning that the word Socrates names a particular person. By contrast, man andmortal are universal terms, meaning that they name general categories or qualities that might be true of many particulars. Socrates is one of billions of particular terms that falls under the universal man. Universals can be either the subject or the predicate of a sentence, whereas particulars can only be subjects. Aristotle identifies four kinds of â€Å"categorical sentences† that can be constructed from sentences that have universals for their subjects. When universals are subjects, they must be preceded by every, some, or no. To return to the example of a syllogism, the first of the three terms was not just â€Å"men are mortal,† but rather â€Å"all men are mortal. † The contrary of â€Å"all men are mortal† is â€Å"some men are not mortal,† because one and only one of these claims is true: they cannot both  be true or both be false. Similarly, the contrary of â€Å"no men are mortal† is â€Å"some men are mortal. † Aristotle identifies sentences of these four forms—â€Å"All X is Y,† â€Å"Some X is not Y,† â€Å"No X is Y,† and â€Å"Some X is Y†Ã¢â‚¬â€as the four categorical sentences and claims that all assertions can be analyzed into categorical sentences. That means that all assertions we make can be reinterpreted as categorical sentences and so can be fit into syllogisms. If all our assertions can be read as premises or conclusions to various syllogisms, it follows that the syllogism is the framework of all reasoning. Any valid argument must take the form of a syllogism, so Aristotle’s work in analyzing syllogisms provides a basis for analyzing all arguments. Aristotle analyzes all forty-eight possible kinds of syllogisms that can be constructed from categorical sentences and shows that fourteen of them are valid. In On Interpretation,Aristotle extends his analysis of the syllogism to examine modal logic, that is, sentences containing the words possibly ornecessarily. He is not as successful in his analysis, but the analysis does bring to light at least one important problem. It would seem that all past events necessarily either happened or did not happen, meaning that there are no events in the past that possibly happened and possibly did not happen. By contrast, we tend to think of many future events as possible and not necessary. But if someone had made a prediction yesterday about what would happen tomorrow, that prediction, because it is in the past, must already be necessarily true or necessarily false, meaning that what will happen tomorrow is already fixed by necessity and not just possibility. Aristotle’s answer to this problem is unclear, but he seems to reject the fatalist idea that the future is already fixed, suggesting instead that statements about the future cannot be either true or false. Organon: The Structure of Knowledge Summary The Categories, traditionally interpreted as an introduction to Aristotle’s logical work, divides all of being into ten categories. These ten categories are as follows: Substance, which in this context means what something is essentially (e. g. , human, rock) * Quantity (e. g. , ten feet, five liters) * Quality (e.g. , blue, obvious). * Relation (e. g. , double, to the right of) * Location (e. g. , New York, home plate) * Time (e. g. , yesterday, four o’clock) * Position (e. g. , sitting, standing) * Possession (e. g. , wearing shoes, has a blue coat) * Doing (e. g. , running, smiling) * Undergoing (e. g. , being run into, being smiled at) Of the ten, Aristotle considers substance to be primary, because we can conceive of a substance without, for example, any given qualities but we cannot conceive of a quality except as it pertains to a particular substance. One important conclusion from this division into categories is that we can make no general statements about being as a whole because there are ten very different ways in which something can have being. There is no common ground between the kind of being that a rock has and the kind of being that the color blue has. Aristotle’s emphasis on the syllogism leads him to conceive of knowledge as hierarchically structured, a claim that he fleshes out in the Posterior Analytics. To have knowledge of a fact, it is not enough simply to be able to repeat the fact. We must also be able to give the reasons why that fact is true, a process that Aristotle calls demonstration. Demonstration is essentially a matter of showing that the fact in question is the conclusion to a valid syllogism. If some truths are premises that can be used to prove other truths, those first truths are logically prior to the truths that follow from them. Ultimately, there must be one or several â€Å"first principles,† from which all other truths follow and which do not themselves follow from anything. However, if these first principles do not follow from anything, they cannot count as knowledge because there are no reasons or premises we can give to prove that they are true. Aristotle suggests that these first principles are a kind of intuition of the universals we recognize in experience. Aristotle believes that the objects of knowledge are also structured hierarchically and conceives of definition as largely a process of division. For example, suppose we want to define human. First, we note that humans are animals, which is the genus to which they belong. We can then take note of various differentia, which distinguish humans from other animals. For example, humans walk on two legs, unlike tigers, and they lack feathers, unlike birds. Given any term, if we can identify its genus and then identify the differentia that distinguish it from other things within its genus, we have given a definition of that term, which amounts to giving an account of its nature, or essence. Ultimately, Aristotle identifies five kinds of relationships a predicate can have with its subject: a genus relationship (â€Å"humans are animals†); a differentia relationship (â€Å"humans have two legs†); a unique property relationship (â€Å"humans are the only animals that can cry†); a definition, which is a unique property that explains the nature or essence of the subject; and an accident relationship, such as â€Å"some humans have blue eyes,† where the relationship does not hold necessarily. While true knowledge is all descended from knowledge of first principles, actual argument and debate is much less pristine. When two people argue, they need not go back to first principles to ground every claim but must simply find premises they both agree on. The trick to debate is to find premises your opponent will agree to and then show that conclusions contrary to your opponent’s position follow necessarily from these premises. The Topicsdevotes a great deal of attention to classifying the kinds of conclusions that can be drawn from different kinds of premises, whereas the Sophistical Refutations explores various logical tricks used to deceive people into accepting a faulty line of reasoning. Physics: Books 1-4. The Physics opens with an investigation into the principles of nature. At root, there must be a certain number of basic principles at work in nature, according to which all natural processes can be explained. All change or process involves something coming to be from out of its opposite. Something comes to be what it is by acquiring its distinctive form—for example, a baby becomes an adult, a seed becomes a mature plant, and so on. Since this the baby or the seed were working toward this form all along, the form itself (the idea or pattern of the mature specimen) must have existed before the baby or seed actually matured. Thus, the form must be one of the principles of nature. Another principle of nature must be the privation or absence of this form, the opposite out of which the form came into being. Besides form and privation, there must be a third principle, matter, which remains constant throughout the process of change. If nothing remains unchanged when something undergoes a change, then there would be no â€Å"thing† that we could say underwent the change. So there are three basic principles of nature: matter, form, and privation. For example, a person’s education involves the form of being educated, the privation of being ignorant, and the underlying matter of the person who makes the change from ignorance to education. This view of the principles of nature resolves many of the problems of earlier philosophers and suggests that matter is conserved: though its form may change, the underlying matter involved in changes remains constant. Change takes place according to four different kinds of cause. These causes are closer to what we might call â€Å"explanations†: they explain in different ways why the change came to pass. The four causes are (1) material cause, which explains what something is made of; (2) formal cause, which explains the form or pattern to which a thing corresponds; (3) efficient cause, which is what we ordinarily mean by â€Å"cause,† the original source of the change; and (4) final cause, which is the intended purpose of the change. For example, in the making of a house, the material cause is the materials the house is made of, the formal cause is the architect’s plan, the efficient cause is the process of building it, and the final cause is to provide shelter and comfort. Natural objects, such as plants and animals, differ from artificial objects in that they have an internal source of change. All the causes of change in artificial objects are found outside the objects themselves, but natural objects can cause change from within. Aristotle rejects the idea that chance constitutes a fifth cause, similar in nature to the other four. We normally talk about chance in reference to coincidences, where two separate events, which had their own causes, coincide in a way that is not explained by either set of causes. For instance, two people might both have their own reasons for being in a certain place at a certain time, but neither of these sets of reasons explains the coincidence of both people being there at the same time. Final causes apply to nature as much as to art, so everything in nature serves a useful purpose. Aristotle argues against the views both of Democritus, who thinks that necessity in nature has no useful purpose, and of Empedocles, who holds an evolutionary view according to which only those combinations of living parts that are useful have managed to survive and reproduce themselves. If Democritus were right, there would be as many useless aspects of nature as there are useful, while Empedocles’ theory does not explain how random combinations of parts could come together in the first place. Books III and IV examine some fundamental concepts of nature, starting with change, and then treating infinity, place, void, and time. Aristotle defines change as â€Å"the actuality of that which exists potentially, in so far as it is potentially this actuality. † That is, change rests in the potential of one thing to become another. In all cases, change comes to pass through contact between an agent and a patient, where the agent imparts its form to the patient and the change itself takes place in the patient. Either affirming or denying the existence of infinity leads to certain contradictions and paradoxes, and Aristotle finds an ingenious solution by distinguishing between potential and actual infinities. He argues that there is no such thing as an actual infinity: infinity is not a substance in its own right, and there are neither infinitely large objects nor an infinite number of objects. However, there are potential infinities in the sense that, for example, an immortal could theoretically sit down and count up to an infinitely large number but that this is impossible in practice. Time, for example, is a potential infinity because it potentially extends forever, but no one who is counting time will ever count an infinite number of minutes or days. Aristotle asserts that place has a being independent of the objects that occupy it and denies the existence of empty space, or void. Place must be independent of objects because otherwise it would make no sense to say that different objects can be in the same place at different times. Aristotle defines place as the limits of what contains an object and determines that the place of the earth is â€Å"at the center† and the place of the heavens as â€Å"at the periphery. † Aristotle’s arguments against the void make a number of fundamental errors. For example, he assumes that heavier objects fall faster than lighter ones. From this assumption, he argues that the speed of a falling object is directly proportional to an object’s weight and inversely proportional to the density of the medium it travels through. Since the void is a medium of zero density, that would mean that an object would fall infinitely fast through a void, which is an absurdity, so Aristotle concludes that there cannot be such a thing as a void. Aristotle closely identifies time with change. We register that time has passed only by registering that something has changed. In other words, time is a measure of change just as space is a measure of distance. Just as Aristotle denies the possibility of empty space, or void, Aristotle denies the possibility of empty time, as in time that passes without anything happening. Physics: Books 5-8 Summary There are three kinds of change: generation, where something comes into being; destruction, where something is destroyed; and variation, where some attribute of a thing is changed while the thing itself remains constant. Of the ten categories Aristotle describes in the Categories (see previous summary of the Organon), change can take place only in respect of quality, quantity, or location. Change itself is not a substance and so it cannot itself have any properties. Among other things, this means that changes themselves cannot change. Aristotle discusses the ways in which two changes may be the same or different and argues also that no two changes are opposites, but rather that rest is the opposite of change. Time, space, and movement are all continuous, and there are no fundamental units beyond which they cannot be divided. Aristotle reasons that movement must be continuous because the alternative—that objects make infinitesimally small jumps from one place to another without occupying the intermediate space—is absurd and counterintuitive. If an object moves from point A to point B, there must be a time at which it is moving from point A to point B. If it is simply at point A at one instant and point B at the next, it cannot properly be said to have moved from the one to the other. If movement is continuous, then time and space must also be continuous, because continuous movement would not be possible if time and space consisted of discrete, indivisible atoms. Among the connected discussions of change, rest, and continuity, Aristotle considers Zeno’s four famous paradoxes. The first is the dichotomy paradox: to get to any point, we must first travel halfway, and to get to that halfway point, we must travel half of that halfway, and to get to half of that halfway, we must first travel a half of the half of that halfway, and so on infinitely, so that, for any given distance, there is always a smaller distance to be covered first, and so we can never start moving at all. Aristotle answers that time can be divided just as infinitely as space, so that it would take infinitely little time to cover the infinitely little space needed to get started. The second paradox is called the Achilles paradox: supposing Achilles is racing a tortoise and gives the tortoise a head start. Then by the time Achilles reaches the point the tortoise started from, the tortoise will have advanced a certain distance, and by the point Achilles advances that certain distance, the tortoise will have advanced a bit farther, and so on, so that it seems Achilles will never be able to catch up with, let alone pass, the tortoise. Aristotle responds that the paradox assumes the existence of an actual infinity of points between Achilles and the tortoise. If there were an actual infinity—that is, if Achilles had to take account of all the infinite points he passed in catching up with the tortoise—it would indeed take an infinite amount of time for Achilles to pass the tortoise. However, there is only a potential infinity of points between Achilles and the tortoise, meaning that Achilles can cover the infinitely many points between him and the tortoise in a finite amount of time so long as he does not take account of each point along the way. The third and fourth paradoxes, called the arrow paradox and the stadium paradox, respectively, are more obscure, but they seem to aim at proving that time and space cannot be divided into atoms. This is a position that Aristotle already agrees with, so he takes less trouble over these paradoxes. Aristotle argues that change is eternal because there cannot be a first cause of change without assuming that that cause was itself uncaused. Living things can cause change without something external acting on them, but the source of this change is internal thoughts and desires, and these thoughts and desires are provoked by external stimuli. Arguing that time is infinite, Aristotle reasons that there cannot be a last cause, since time cannot exist without change. Next, Aristotle argues that everything that changes is changed by something external to itself. Even changes within a single animal consist of one part of the animal changing another part. Aristotle’s reflections on cause and change lead him ultimately to posit the existence of a divine unmoved mover. If we were to follow a series of causes to its source, we would find a first cause that is either an unchanged changer or a self-changing changer. Animals are the best examples of self-changers, but they constantly come into being and pass away. If there is an eternal succession of causes, there needs to be a first cause that is also eternal, so it cannot be a self-changing animal. Since change is eternal, there must be a single cause of change that is itself eternal and continuous. The primary kind of change is movement and the primary kind of movement is circular, so this first cause must cause circular movement. This circular movement is the movement of the heavens, and it is caused by some first cause of infinite power that is above the material world. The circular movement of the heavens is then in turn the cause of all other change in the sublunary world. Metaphysics: Books Alpha-Epsilon Knowledge consists of particular truths that we learn through experience and the general truths of art and science. Wisdom consists in understanding the most general truths of all, which are the fundamental principles and causes that govern everything. Philosophy provides the deepest understanding of the world and of divinity by pursuing the sense of wonder we feel toward reality. There are four kinds of cause, or rather kinds of explanation, for how things are: (1) the material cause, which explains what a thing is made of; (2) the formal cause, which explains the form a thing assumes; (3) the efficient cause, which explains the process by which it came into being; and (4) the final cause, which explains the end or purpose it serves. The explanations of earlier philosophers have conformed to these four causes but not as coherently and systematically as Aristotle’s formulation. Aristotle acknowledges that Plato’s Theory of Forms gives a strong account of the formal cause, but it fails to prove that Forms exist and to explain how objects in the physical world participate in Forms. Book Alpha the Lesser addresses some questions of method. Though we all have a natural aptitude for thinking philosophically, it is very difficult to philosophize well. The particular method of study depends on the subject being studied and the inclinations of the students. The important thing is to have a firm grasp of method before proceeding, whatever the method. The best method is that of mathematics, but this method is not suitable for subjects where the objects of study are prone to change, as in science. Most reasoning involves causal chains, where we investigate a phenomenon by studying its causes, and then the cause of those causes, and so on. This method would be unworkable if there were infinitely long causal chains, but all causal chains are finite, meaning that there must be an uncaused first cause to every chain. Book Beta consists of a series of fifteen metaphysical puzzles on the nature of first principles, substance, and other fundamental concepts. In each case, Aristotle presents a thesis and a contradicting antithesis, both of which could be taken as answers to the puzzle. Aristotle himself provides no answers to the puzzles but rather takes them as examples of extreme positions between which he will try to mediate throughout the rest of the Metaphysics. Book Gamma asserts that philosophy, especially metaphysics, is the study of being qua being. That is, while other sciences investigate limited aspects of being, metaphysics investigates being itself. The study of being qua being amounts to the search into first principles and causes. Being itself is primarily identified with the idea of substance, but also with unity, plurality, and a variety of other concepts. Philosophy is also concerned with logic and the principles of demonstration, which are supremely general, and hence concerned with being itself. The most fundamental principle is the principle of noncontradiction: nothing can both be something and not be that same something. Aristotle defends this principle by arguing that it is impossible to contradict it coherently. Connected to the principle of non-contradiction is the principle of the excluded middle, which states that there is no middle position between two contradictory positions. That is, a thing is either x or not-x, and there is no third possibility. Book Gamma concludes with an attack on several general claims of earlier philosophers: that everything is true, that everything is false, that everything is at rest, and that everything is in motion. Book Delta consists of the definitions of about forty terms, some of which feature prominently in the rest of the Metaphysics, such as principle, cause, nature, being, and substance. The definitions specify precisely how Aristotle uses these terms and often distinguish between different uses or categories of the terms. Book Epsilon opens by distinguishing philosophy from the sciences not just on the basis of its generality but also because philosophy, unlike the sciences, takes itself as a subject of inquiry. The sciences can be divided into practical, productive, and theoretical. The theoretical sciences can be divided further into physics, mathematics, and theology, or first philosophy, which studies first principles and causes. We can look at being in four different ways: accidental being, being as truth, the category of being, and being in actuality and potentiality. Aristotle considers the first two in book Epsilon and examines the category of being, or substance, in books Zeta and Eta, and being in actuality and potentiality in book Theta. Accidental being covers the kinds of properties that are not essential to a thing described. For example, if a man is musical, his musicality is accidental since being musical does not define him as a man and he would still be a man even if he were not musical. Accidental being must have a kind of accidental causation, which we might associate with chance. That is, there is no necessary reason why a musical man is musical, but rather it just so happens by chance that he is musical. Being as truth covers judgments that a given proposition is true. These sorts of judgments involve mental acts, so being as truth is an affection of the mind and not a kind of being in the world. Because accidental being is random and being as truth is only mental, they fall outside the realm of philosophy, which deals with more fundamental kinds of being. Metaphysics: Books Zeta-Eta Summary Referring back to his logical work in the Categories, Aristotle opens book Zeta by asserting that substance is the primary category of being. Instead of considering what being is, we can consider what substance is. Aristotle first rejects the idea that substance is the ultimate substrate of a thing, that which remains when all its accidental properties are stripped away. For example, a dog is more fundamental than the color brown or the property of hairiness that are associated with it. However, if we strip away all the properties that a dog possesses, we wind up with a substrate with no properties of its own. Since this substrate has no properties, we can say nothing about it, so this substrate cannot be substance. Instead, Aristotle suggests that we consider substance as essence and concludes that substances are species. The essence of a thing is that which makes it that thing. For example, being rational is an essential property of being human, because a human without rationality ceases to be human, but being musical is not an essential property of being human, because a human without musical skill is still human. Individual people, or dogs, or tables, contain a mixture of essential and inessential properties. Species, on the other hand—for instance, people in general, dogs in general, or tables in general—contain only essential properties. A substance can be given a definition that does not presuppose the existence of anything else. A snub, for example, is not a substance, because we would define a snub as â€Å"a concave nose,† so our definition of snub presupposes the existence of noses. A proper definition of a thing will list only its essential properties, and Aristotle asserts that only substances have essential properties or definitions. A snub nose, by contrast, has only accidental properties—properties like redness or largeness that may hold of some snubs but not of all—and per se properties—properties like concavity, which necessarily holds of all snubs but which is not essential. Physical objects are composites of form and matter, and Aristotle identifies substance with form. The matter of an object is the stuff that makes it up, whereas the form is the shape that stuff takes. For example, the matter in a bronze sphere is the bronze itself, and the form is the spherical shape. Aristotle argues that form is primary because form is what gives each thing its distinctive nature. Aristotle has argued that the definitions of substances cannot presuppose the existence of anything else, which raises the question of how there can be a definition that does not presuppose the existence of anything else. Presumably, a definition divides a whole into its constituent parts—for example, a human is defined as a rational animal—which suggests that a substance must in some way presuppose the existence of its constituent parts. Aristotle distinguishes between those cases where the parts of an object or definition are prior to the whole and those cases where the whole is prior to the parts. For example, we cannot understand the parts of a circle without first understanding the concept of circle as a whole; on the other hand, we cannot understand the whole of a syllable before we understand the letters that constitute its parts. Aristotle argues that, in the case of substance, the whole is prior to the parts. He has earlier associated substance with form and suggests that we cannot make sense of matter before we can conceive of its form. To say a substance can be divided by its definition is like saying a physical object can be divided into form and matter: this conceptual distinction is possible, but form and matter constitute an indivisible whole, and neither can exist without the other. Similarly, the parts of a definition of a substance are conceptually distinct, but they can only exist when they are joined in a substance. Having identified substance with essence, Aristotle attacks the view that substances are universals. This attack becomes effectively an attack on Plato’s Theory of Forms, and Aristotle argues forcefully that universal Forms cannot exist prior to the individual instances of them or be properly defined and so cannot play any role in science, let alone a fundamental role. He also argues against the suggestion that substances can be genus categories, like â€Å"animal† or â€Å"plant. † Humans and horses, unlike animals, have the property of â€Å"thisness†: the words human and horse pick out a particular kind of thing, whereas nothing particular is picked out by animal. Genuses are thus not specific enough to qualify as substances. Book Eta contains a number of loosely connected points elaborating Aristotle’s views on substance. Aristotle associates an object’s matter with its potentiality and its form with its actuality. That is, matter is potentially a certain kind of substance and becomes that substance in actuality when it takes on the form of that substance. By associating substance with form and actuality, Aristotle infers a further connection between substance and differentia: differentia are those qualities that distinguish one species in a genus from another. Book Eta also contains reflections on the nature of names, matter, number, and definition. Metaphysics: Books Theta-Nu Summary Book Theta discusses potentiality and actuality, considering these concepts first in regard to process or change. When one thing, F, changes into another, G, we can say that F is G in potentiality, while G is G in actuality. F changes into G only if some other agent, H, acts on it. We say that H has active potentiality and F has passive potentiality. Potentiality can be either rational or irrational, depending on whether the change is effected by a rational agent or happens naturally. Aristotle distinguishes rational potentiality from irrational potentiality, saying that rational potentiality can produce opposites. For example, the rational potentiality of medicine can produce either health or sickness, whereas the irrational potentiality of heating can produce only heat and not cold. All potentialities must eventually be realized: if a potentiality never becomes an actuality, then we do not call it a potentiality but an impossibility. A potentiality is also determinate, meaning that it is the potential for a particular actuality and cannot realize some other actuality. While irrational potentialities are automatically triggered when active and passive potentialities come together, this is not the case with rational potentialities, as a rational agent can choose to withhold the realization of the potentiality even though it can be realized. Aristotle identifies actuality with form, and hence substance, while identifying matter with potentiality. An uncarved piece of wood, for example, is a potential statue, and it becomes an actual statue when it is carved and thus acquires the form of a statue. Action is an actuality, but there are such things as incomplete actions, which are also the potentiality for further actions.