Philosophy and the Self Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Philosophy and the Self - Assignment Example Most people are confronted with hard decisions such as: what person is best to get married to? Should he relocate to another state (i.e. Illinois)? Should he buy a car or a penthouse? Do they intend to have kids? These hard decisions are usually termed as life changing decisions that shape someone’s destiny. Matters such as politics, religion, best ways to ensure human and civil rights are upheld, good procedures to ensure the nation’s security, procedures to realization of an equitable, just and free society are usually disagreeable by reasonable minds. Other critical issues that reasonable minds can disagree revolve around on if it is best to legalize early term abortion or legalize same-sex marriages. The scope of this paper will explore the issue of religion freedom based on beliefs, values and the theories of freedom that justify or contrast the varying perceptions of religious freedom (Scheinin, 2000). An important allegory of a person who made a life changing decision in the bible is Abraham. Trust was a key requirement that Abraham was supposed to have first. God needed him to follow God, be a loyal servant and in turn he would bless him and all his descendants. Also, his descendants would be as many as a million stars in the sky. Furthermore, Abraham was already old and had no kids. Abraham decision to truly and completely trust God with his heart was one such hard decision that transformed his life. God in turn fulfilled His promising by blessing Abraham and all of his descendants. Furthermore, He gave him a son at that old age which is impossible. The trust in God portrayed by Abraham is hard to find in the current society. Alternatively if there is, it may not be a full conviction from ones’ heart. Moreover, people sometimes question if God truly exists. Reasonable minds can argue such a case by various theorists such as the creation theory and

John Locke the State of Nature Essay Example for Free

John Locke the State of Nature Essay In the chapter five of The Second Treatise of Government and A Letter Concerning Toleration, John Locke expresses his opinion about property. According to the Bible, all human being is the descendants of Adam and Eve, which mean that this world is common to all humankind. However, in order to that the property is significant to people, the property must be your own private property. The individuals are different from the land and other properties. Everyone is entitled to the private rights; the personal private property may be obtained by the working, and the personal private property is out of the scope of the public property. Therefore, through manual labour, the public properties become privatization. Nevertheless, the privatization of public property is limited; the way to obtain the private property is only in the situation that does not damage others will be accepted by others. Only under such situation that people have provided appropriate resources to others, can they gain own properties to achieve their satisfactory goals through contribution and work. God gives treasure to humans, but does not look forward to seeing humans using it improperly. God expects humans to share and use the treasure in proper way and by their own work. How much treasure people should earn should be decided according to how much they contribute and need. However, it is not ethical to get properties by violating others. When people cannot implement or distribute natural resources in proper ways, others turn such resources into their own properties via ethically appropriate implementation. The right of gaining property from work is prior than lands public-owned status, since most of what people gain is via their hard work instead of natural resources. Above all, if people are willing to work on and properly implement public-owned resource properly, such work will give property as a return. In addition, John Locke indicates that the reason why currency came out was people was making efforts on storing some resource which tended easily to go bad, and making them better use and higher profits. Currency does not have actual value, but its value is from the exchange of other resources. It is pointless to occupy extra property which exceeds the actual need and ability of using it, and is not honest either.

Biography of Kurt Vonnegut Essay -- essays research papers

Kurt Vonnegut Jr. was born to third-generation German American parents in the city of Indianapolis, year 1922, November 11th. While at Shortridge High School in Indianapolis, Vonnegut was heavily involved with the school’s daily newspaper, the first and only daily high school newspaper in our nation. During his time at Cornell University, Vonnegut became the school paper’s senior editor. World War II then began, and so Vonnegut joined our nation’s armed forces. Mother’s Day came in 1944, and during this time while Vonnegut was home on leave, his mother committed suicide. Later on while in the army, Vonnegut was sent to Europe where he was captured and made into a POW by Germans. He witnessed the 1945 bombing of Dresden, which was later said to have killed more civilians than the bombing of Hiroshima. After the war Vonnegut studied anthropology at the University of Chicago and married his childhood sweetheart, Jane Marie Cox. In 1958, Vonnegut’s sister died of cancer, which was seemingly timely with her husband’s death-by-train-crash only hours earlier. Vonnegut adopted three of his sister’s four children, adding to his three biological ones at the time. Vonnegut is given a total of seven. In 1965 Vonnegut was the teacher of the University of Iowa’s Writer’s Workshop, and had separated himself from his family in order to support them. This may have contributed to him and his wife’s estrangement in 1970. Nine years later they made their divorce official to the state. Vonnegut promptly afterward married photographer Jill Krementz. In 1982, the new couple adopted a young daughter, bringing Kurt Vonnegut’s sum of children to an impressive seven. Although Kurt Vonnegut has always been a reader’s favorite, his works did not become cr... ...ldly, level. The central conflict of Any Reasonable Offer is instead one that focuses itself upon one man. Harrison Bergeron features a central and obvious antagonist, where after I finished reading Any Reasonable Offer I found the Peckhams to not be very antagonistic but instead clever. Lastly, Harrison Bergeron can be seen as speaking out against a totalitarian civilization. Any Reasonable Offer does not speak out against any types of dangerous government control. It is instead an interesting sequence of events from one man’s life. It may have taken him twenty years, but Vonnegut was finally able to make his name known to the world of literature. Today he is regarded as one of the most important writers of the 20th century. His career goes to show that becoming an accomplished author isn’t always easy or immediate, few authors are able to quickly jump to the top.

Fun with Education Essay

In a general sense, ‘education’ means a form of learning process in which knowledge, skills, and habits of a group of people are transferred from one generation to the next through teaching, training and research. Accordingly, education aims at the physical, intellectual, spiritual and moral development of man. Education merely does not give knowledge to a human being and enabling him to earn his livelihood. But it does much more than this. Nowadays, what we can see the society as a future teacher is the students do not have an interest in learning by the way of ‘chalk and talk’ anymore. They prefer something new from the teachers which are more interesting and fun. One of the most effective ways is including games in teaching and learning process. Education can be fun through games. As a sports teacher, we can build our student’s potential. Games are a mean of keeping the body healthy and fit. Indeed, good health is the first condition of happiness in life so those who play games generally maintain good health. For example, sports teacher can create interesting games that can help students in building up their critical thinking skills besides physical strength. They can learn different types of skills such as throwing, passing, and kicking in sports like basketball, football and others. On top of that, education can also include songs which are forms of entertainment. In this way, we can make our class more interesting and students will be entertained. From the song lyrics, we can polish our student’s language and vocabulary besides making learning more fun. They can also learn to express their emotions through songs as songs can be a good cure for stress. Furthermore, education can be fun through role playing. We can involve our students act out a drama which may help to improve their acting skills and self confidence. Indirectly, they will be able to express their thoughts through role-play in a form of voice projection, facial expression and also body language. Apart from that, they can strengthen their memorizing skills too. This is because they need to memorize their scripts. As we know, the world we are living today is technology dominated and everything can be done fast and furious. For examples, cell phones, instant coffee machine, one hour-photo shops and internet can help us to complete our task in a short time. In short, technology makes the world moves faster than the past. But, education does not have any shortcut for us to reach the destination. We must learn step by step. Practice makes perfect. So, we take time to achieve our goals in the field of education. In a nutshell, we can make education fun in many ways such as games and songs. Thus, we can make our classroom full of joy and students will not feel bored while learning from the teachers. Besides, students will be able to think out of the box. With this, the goals of ‘fun in education’ could be achieved.

Oliver Cromwell

How and why has the rule of Oliver Cromwell been interpreted differently? There are lots of opinions about Cromwell and they have differed a lot. Historians still disagree about him even today! ‘His cruelty and ruthlessness have left a mark and a memory that the last 300 years have not been able to wipe. ’ C V Wedgwood mentioned in the 1950’s-60. He wrote many books about the life of Charles I and this shows that his opinion of Cromwell wasn’t a very nice one. He has stated that Oliver Cromwell has scarred life and they have not been able to get rid of that nasty memory.Although Wedgwood disagrees about Cromwell, there are others that differ. ‘Cromwell was the national hero†¦the greatest because the most typical Englishman of all time. ’ S R Gardiner stated in 1902. Gardiner was a descendent of Cromwell and supported the idea of a Puritan Revolution. This source shows that he was a great fan of Cromwell and he believed that he was the most typical Englishman of all time. I think he might have supported the Puritan Revolution idea because he might be a puritan himself and respected the ideas Cromwell had.I think both of these statements are biased as Gardiner was a descendant of Cromwell and Wedgwood wrote many book about Charles; Cromwell agreed to execute Charles. In this essay I am going to explain how and why his rule has been interpreted in different ways and why he was such a controversial man? Oliver Cromwell was a military and political leader who overpowered the English monarchy and temporarily turned England into a republican, and served as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland. He was born at Cromwell House in Huntingdon on the 25 April 1599 to Robert Cromwell and Elizabeth Steward and he was a puritan.Cromwell was a commander of the New Model Army which defeated the royalists in the English Civil War. He was elected Member of Parliament for Huntingdon in 1628 and for Cambridge in 1640. He entere d the English Civil War on the side of the â€Å"Roundheads† or Parliamentarians and became a key military leader. Nicknamed â€Å"Old Ironsides†, he was quickly promoted from leading a single cavalry troop to command of the entire army. Lots of people turned against Cromwell; and he turned against people to. The levellers were the most famous people who turned against Cromwell and his ruling.The levellers were a political group during the civil war. The levellers list developed with growing conflict within the New Model Army in the wake of the First Civil War. The leveller’s believed in religious freedom, end to imprisonment for dept and that all male population should be able to vote for parliament and this should happen every 2 years. But Cromwell didn’t think this. â€Å"What the levellers say is that the poorer people should have as much riches as richer people. Either you must cut them in pieces or they will cut you in pieces† is what Cromwel l is reported to say.But is this what the levellers wanted? No, it wasn’t. Cromwell made out that they were making the poorer people be as rich as the richer people when all they wanted was for all male population to vote every 2 years etc. This might add on to the reason people still disagree with the choices he made today. John Lilburne was the leader of the levellers and had much support. The Levellers made full use of the printing press to circulate pamphlets and petitions, effectively developing the first mass political propaganda techniques to be used in Britain.In 1649, Lilburne was imprisoned in the tower of London. Whilst he was there he wrote a letter, â€Å"we have much cause to distrust you; for we know how many broken promises that you have made to the kingdom. † He sent this letter as Cromwell met up with the leveller group every week to discuss ideas. For a long time Cromwell agreed with them, and after the king was executed the levellers thought they co uld change. But then Cromwell turned against them. I know this from the sources I have seen in class. On the other hand many people agreed with the choices Cromwell made.People may think that the idea of not going to prison for not paying dept is wrong and religious freedom is wrong as you are not respecting god. On the way down to London a group of 400 men in the leveller group was captured by the new model army. They were imprisoned in Burford church and the 4 leaders (Cornet Thomson, Private Church, Corporal Perkins and Chaplin Henry Denne) were up for execution. All 4 of them were given a chance to agree that there ideas were wrong and they would get killed. 3 refused to but Chaplin Henry Denne agreed and was saved from execution.Even today Burford celebrate leveller’s day every year. Cromwell and Ireland didn’t really get on in them days. Most of Ireland still doesn’t agree with us now. At the time of Cromwell there were lots of Protestants living in Irelan d. This is strange because Ireland was a catholic country. But this happened because King Henry and Queen Elizabeth I started to encourage English Protestants to go and take over land in catholic Ireland. They did this by either pushing the Irish off their land or by making the Irish work for them. But in 1641, the Irish Catholics rebelled against the English rule!At this point the king was still alive and in was in the middle of the civil war so Cromwell couldn’t possibly do anything about it but as soon as the king was executed and the war was over, that’s when Cromwell made a stop to the Irish Catholic rebellion. In 1649, Cromwell landed in Ireland with 12,000 men to invade, his first target was Drogheda! As he landed, Cromwell proceeded to take the other port cities on Irelands east coast. The first town to fall was Drogheda. â€Å"Cromwell’s soldiers promised to spare the lives of any who laid down their arms.But when they had all in their power, the word, ‘no quarter’ went round. † This was from a letter written by Marquis of Ormonde, the leader of the Irish Catholics, on 29th September 1649. The word quarter meant that if the enemy surrendered and gave up their weapons, it was then wrong to kill them. This was one of the two important 17th century rules of warfare. So, this quote shows that Oliver Cromwell recklessly killed innocent people. This is probably why people still disagree with him today; especially people in Ireland as it might be there ancestors who got murdered. But am I being a bit biased here?This was Marquis of Ormonde interpretation of what happened, so what about the other half of the story. Oliver Cromwell wrote a letter reporting what happened. The letter stated that he offered surrender four times. Here are two examples, â€Å"†¦ a summons (order) to deliver (surrender) the town, receiving no satisfactory answer†¦Ã¢â‚¬  and â€Å"†¦ were summoned, but they refused to yieldâ € ¦Ã¢â‚¬  Both of these examples do show that Cromwell was cooperative and gave a chance for them to surrender. These quotes might be the ones that make people support him as he gave them lots of chances to surrender but they refused.The massacre of the garrison in Drogheda, including some after they had surrendered and some who had sheltered in a Church was received with horror in Ireland, and is remembered even today as an example of Cromwell’s decisions. Many people in them day thought that the only way to bring back law and order was to bring back monarchy. But the problem was, they couldn’t possibly bring back Charles II as Cromwell agreed with the execution of Charles I and ran Charles II off to France. The only man who could, was Cromwell. In February 1657, he was offered the crown but he rejected the offer.This could have been for many reasons. One reason could have been that hi army might turn against him. â€Å"Cromwell tried all possible means to persuad e the army officers to approve his plan. He invited himself to dine with General Fleetwood and Colonel Desborough, where he began to go on about monarchy. They told him that those who offered it were friends of Charles Stuart. † This was written at the time by Edmund Ludlow. This show that maybe Cromwell did want monarchy but his army warned him off by saying â€Å"they told him that those who offered it were friends of Charles Stuart. Also, â€Å"one hundred officers said to His Highness that he should not take the title of king because it was not pleasing to his army†¦Ã¢â‚¬  this backs up the quote from Edmund Ludlow as it is saying that the army advise him not to take the title of king. Also they call Cromwell â€Å"His Highness† which shows that they already think he is powerful and loyal. This might have been a reason why people agree with Cromwell as he did want monarchy back but it was the army who stopped him. On the other hand, Lord Clarendon quoted â⠂¬Å"this man, against the desires of all noble persons, took the throne of three kingdoms.Without the name of king, but with a greater power and authority than had been claimed by any king. † He is saying that he does not deserve the title of king as he already has more power than any other king and he wrongly rules three kingdoms. People may agree with this and don’t think that Cromwell should have ruled all three kingdoms and made people obey them when he wasn’t even king. But is this quote biased? Well, it might be as Lord Clarendon was a supporter of the Stuarts. When Cromwell became lord protector, all the opinions about him differed.Lots of people agreed with him becoming lord protector, for example, â€Å"Cromwell would have rather taken a shepherds staff than the Protectorship. Nothing went more against his feelings than show of greatness. But he saw it was necessary at the time, to keep the nation from falling into extreme disorder. † This shows t hat he wasn’t too keen on the lord protector but he accepted it to help the nation. This could be a reason why people look up to him as he didn’t do it for his own likings but to help other people.Another quote from a Bristol Baptist says, â€Å"The days of Oliver Cromwell were marvellous days of prosperity, liberty and peace. † This quote is saying that because of Cromwell becoming Lord Protector, the nation became a better place. On the other hand some people disapprove him and see him as a devil. For example, there was a cartoon titled ‘Cromwell’s Chariot’. This cartoon shows a chariot drawn by two dragon like creatures, Cromwell at the back with the devil. In the chariot there are three ladies which represent the three Kingdoms. Cromwell is holding the scales of liberty and an angel is in a cage.The chariot is running over parliament and in the background two wolves are chasing five sheep. I think these animals represent Cromwell’s men are the wolves chasing the town’s people. This painting shows that the artist thinks that Cromwell is already ruling too much and has locked away all freedom. But this goes against the other quote which stated that when Cromwell was in rule it was marvellous days of prosperity, liberty and peace. There has always been lots of different views about Cromwell and they have all differed through time.In the Victorian period people thought that Cromwell was a great man who helped to make Britain a fairer, stronger and more religious country. The Victorian were proud of being ruled by an elected parliament and in 1899they built a statue of him outside houses of parliament to mark the 300th anniversary of his birth. But in the 1930- 40s many historians thought he was a cruel military dictator. â€Å"†¦ Historians have given us many Cromwell’s. † Christopher Hill said in 1970 and he is basically saying that there is lots of different view of Cromwell.

Jfk Life And Death Essays - Kennedy Family, John F. Kennedy

Jfk Life And Death Essays - Kennedy Family, John F. Kennedy Jfk Life And Death His Life and Legacy On November 22, 1963, while being driven through the streets of Dallas, Texas, in his open car, President John F. Kennedy was shot dead, allegedly by the lone gunman, Lee Harvey Oswald. John Fitzgerald Kennedy was the 35th President of the United States, the youngest person ever to be elected President, the first Roman Catholic and the first to be born in the 20th century. Kennedy was assassinated before he completed his third year as President therefore his achievements were limited. Nevertheless, his influence was worldwide, and his handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis may have prevented the United States from entering into another world war. The world had not only lost a common man, but a great leader of men. From his heroic actions in World War II to his presidency, making the decisions to avert possible nuclear conflict with world superpowers, greatness can be seen. Kennedy also found the time to author several best-selling novels from his experiences. His symbolic figure repres ented all the charm, vigor and optimism of youth as he led a nation into a new era of prosperity. From his birth into the powerful and influential Kennedy clan, much was to be expected of him. Kennedy was born on May 29,1917 in Brookline, Massachusetts. His father, Joe, Sr., was a successful businessman with many political connections. Appointed by President Roosevelt, Joe, Sr., was given the chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission and later the prestigious position of United States ambassador to Great Britain (Anderson 98). His mother, Rose, was a loving housewife and took young John on frequent trips around historic Boston learning about American Revolutionary history. Both parents impressed on their children that their country had been good to the Kennedys. Performing some service for the country must return whatever benefits the family received from the country they were told. (Anderson 12). The Kennedy clan included Joe, Jr., Bobby, Ted and their sisters, Eunice, Jean, Patricia, Rosemary, and Kathleen. Joe, Jr., was a significant figure in young John's life as he was the figure for most of John's admiration. His older brother was much bigger and stronger than John and took it upon himself to be John's coach and protector. John's childhood was full of sports, fun and activity. This all ended when John grew old enough to leave for school. At the age of thirteen, John left home to attend an away school for the first time. Canterbury School, a boarding school in New Milford, Connecticut and Choate Preparatory in Wallingford, Connecticut completed his elementary education (JFK 98). John graduated in 1934 and was promised a trip to London as a graduation gift. Soon after, John became ill with jaundice and would have to go to the hospital. He spent the rest of the summer trying to recover. He was not entirely well when he started Princeton, several weeks later in the fall of 1 935. Around Christmas the jaundice returned and John had to drop out of school. Before the next school year began, he told his father he wanted to go to Harvard (JFK 98). On campus, young people took interest in politics, social changes, and events in Europe. The United States was pulling out of the Great Depression. Hitler's Nazi Germany followed aggressive territorial expansion in Europe. It was at this time that John first became aware of the vast social and economic differences in the United States. In June 1940, John graduated cum laude (with praise or distinction) from Harvard. His thesis earned a magna cum laude (great praise) ( JFK 98). After graduation, John began to send his paper to publishers, and it was accepted on his second try. Wilfrid Funk published it under the title Why England Slept. It became a bestseller. John, at twenty-five, became a literary sensation. In the spring of 1941, both John and Joe, Jr., decided to enroll in the armed services. Joe was accepted as a naval air cadet but John was turned down by both the army and navy because of his back trouble and history of illness (JFK 98). After months of training and conditioning, John reapplied and on September 19, John was accepted into the

What are the conditions that must be met for an economy to make the transition form being a planned to a market economy essays

What are the conditions that must be met for an economy to make the transition form being a planned to a market economy essays World market economies are comprised of two different types of markets. Those markets are free market economy and planned market economy. Free market economy is an economic system which resolves the basic economic problem through the market mechanism. Planned market economy is an economic system where the government, through a planning process allocates resources in society. Countries such as Russia and China whose markets are based on planned economy, have being experiencing problems such as the incentive offered buy the profit motive maybe replaced by personal ambition or a political ideal, and people have little to say in what is provided directly by the state and the purchasing shops is likely to be limited.(cato.org/pubs/joural/cj16n2-3.html). Therefore they have decided to change to a market economic system from a planned economic system. There are several conditions that have to be met to make a transition from a planned to a market economy. Those conditions are stabilisation privatisation and price liberalisation. The first of the conditions for transition to a market economy is stabilisation. Stabilisation requires a flexible, functioning product and hard working labour markets to be able to have a successful transition. If the operation for the state enterprises are being subsidise by the government or there have been loan taking from national banks as happens in planned economies, from neither the enterprise nor the workers will have an incentive to decrease the wage or employees from the effect of the aggregate demand. Aggregate demand is the total of all demands or expenditures in the economy at any given price. Aggregate demands will fall if the consumption , investment, government spending or net exports decrease on the a constant level will lead to a fall. As in the diagram below shows how the aggregate demand curve is shifted to left from the effect it happens. The failure of the transition process i...