Anne Frank :: Free Essay Writer

Anne Frank In 1933, the Nazis began to execute their plan to round up all the Jews within Europe and relocating them into concentration camps. There, they would be executed or forced to labor until death. In 1942, when the Nazis began to invade their country, the Frank family, who were Jewish, went into hiding in an attic of a warehouse and office building. The Franks' daughter, Anne, kept a diary throughout their entire stay in the so-called "Secret Annexe." Although all the members of the Frank family, except Mr. Otto Frank, perished during the reign of the Nazis, Anne's diary is still in existence today. Minutes before the Frank's were captured in their hiding place after a two-year stay, Anne wrote in her diary the words, "In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart." How could a young girl who had endured so much torture say such a thing? The answer is in the story of her undying courage and hope. Before Anne Frank went into hiding, she lead a blissful and joyous life. She was always surrounded by friends and boys alike, and her family was well-to-do. She was torn away from her happiness and placed into the harsh and cruel reality of the Nazi's realm at only thirteen years of age. All this only because she was Jewish. She stayed locked up in the top level of the warehouse with her family and another for almost twenty-five months, never being able to step foot outside. Such repression and life of fear would make almost any teenager completely depressed and more miserable than words can say. However, Anne Frank managed to keep her hope for a better tomorrow and her respect for the human race — a feat so great for such a young girl. Anne made a very powerful statement in her last words in her beloved diary. To truly believe such a thing after being abused by the Nazis is quite remarkable, indeed. I am very sure that most people, including myself, would have thought that the world was completely corrupt and humans were naturally cruel if they'd have gone through such times. By saying that all people are really good at heart, she was also saying that the Nazis were truly good at heart. She didn't feel hatred for her abusers, but sympathy because they stooped so low and were so prejudiced and ignorant.

Ital is Vital :: essays papers

Ital is Vital Food is more than fuel for our bodies, it nourishes our souls and feeds our hearts. A significant part of Rastafarianism is eating Ital. Ital is a rastafarian term for a saltless and vegetarian diet. Not all rastafarians strictly follow this diet, however it is held as an ideal. In Nyabinghi ceremonies, eating Ital is part of the ritual protocol for all participants. There are many different aspects of an Ital diet, many different singular beliefs and philosophies on eating Ital, however, there are a few unifying beliefs that exist. Eating Ital makes one more pure. If one fills there body with whole foods from the earth, they will inevitably exist in a higher, purer state. They will run on divine fuel. Just the act of becoming aware of what one puts into their bodies is a consciousness raising experience. Rastafarians regard there bodies as temples for the Hola life-force (spirit). Therefore, they are determined to eat food which will balance not only the body but the spirit as well. "Eat of the TREE OF LIFE" The Rastafari I-talists avoid pork and shell fish, insects, creeping creatures, animal flesh, fowl and their juices. They avoid large fish and fish grown without scales and fins, and most eat no fish at all. Rastafarians also avoid added salt in their foods, vinegar, mayonnaise and all alcoholic beverages and liquor. They also avoid bleached white substances such as white sugar, white flour, white bread, white rice and chemicals and artificial additives and colouring. A particular branch of Rastafarians, called the Nazerites, eat no grapes or fruits-of-the-vine, such as pumpkins or cucumbers. Rastafarians avoid blending Ital foods with other food, as well. Rastafarians refrain from anything polluted with pesticides, or any type of packaged foods. Some rastas are serious enough to avoid using synthetic plastic countertops. Kitchens, therefore, are made with natural materials, like wood, and food is served only in bowls that have come from the earth, like gourds or wood. The reason for avoiding pork and shellfish is because they are environmental scavengers, and regarded as unclean. Large fish are avoided because they feed on smaller fish, and if one is going to eat flesh, it mush be the flesh of plant eaters. Most Rastafarians believe that in the beginning of creation it was not intended for man to eat flesh. "And Jah said, Behold I have given every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all earth, and every tree, in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed, to you it shall be for meat (food).

Philosophy Paper Essay

One of the most heated debates that troubled the church in the Middle Ages was the question of universals. This question goes back as far as Plato’s Forms. It has to do with the relationship between the abstract and general concepts that we have in our minds (what is the relationship between Chair with a capitol â€Å"C† and chair with a small â€Å"c†? ). And from this, two radical viewpoints emerged, realists and the nominalists. The realists followed Plato in insisting that each universal is an entity in its own right, and exists independently of the individual things that happen to participate in it. An extreme form of realism flourished in the church from the ninth to the twelfth centuries. Among its advocates were John Scotus, Erigena, Anselm and William of Champeaux. On the opposite side were the nominalists and they held that universals were just names, and therefore, have no objective status apart from that which is fabricated in the mind. Nominalists, such as Gabriel Biel and William of Occam (see O section), said that the individual is the only existing substance. Unfortunately, their treatment of nominalism removed religion almost entirely from the area of reason and made it a matter of faith beyond the comprehension of reason. 1 And here lies the significance of the French theologian Peter Abelard (1079-1142). Between the two extremes, Peter Abelard proposed a more moderate form of nominalism. Though critical of the idea of the separate existence of universals, he nevertheless believed that resemblances among particular things justified the use of universals for establishing knowledge. More specifically, Abelard proposed that we ground the similarities among individual things without reifying their universal features, by predicating general terms in conformity with concepts abstracted from experience. This resolution (which would later come to be known as conceptualism) of the traditional problem of universals gained wide acceptance for several centuries, until doubts about the objectivity and reality of such mental entities as concepts came under serious question. Thomas Aquinas favored a moderate realism which rejected the view that universals exist apart from individual entities in favor of the view that they do indeed exist, but only in actual entities. 2 Anaximander (Milesian School): Anaximander (610-547/6 B. C. ) was one of the three key figures that comprised the Milesian School (the three prominent figures associated with the Milesian School is Thales, Anaximander, and Anaximenes). Together, they worked on problems concerning the nature of matter and the nature of change, and they each proposed a different material as the primary principal. 3 Anaximander seemed to be quite modern in his view of reality. He believed that the world was cylindrical like a drum, and that the earth rested on nothing. He also invented an undefined non-substance, called the apeiron, a neutral, indeterminate stuff that was infinite in amount. Anaximenes (Milesian School): Anaximenes (546 B. C. ), the other member of the Milesian School, returned back to the idea that everything derives from a single substance, but suggested that substance was air. Though it is likely his choice was motivated by wanting to maintain a balance between the two views of his predecessors, Anaximenes did provide solid grounds for his choosing; first, air, has the advantage of not being restricted to a specific and defined nature as water, and therefore more capable of transforming itself into the great variety of objects around us. Second, air is a more likely source of this variety than Anaximander’s apeiron which seems too empty and vacuous a stuff to be capable of giving rise to such a variety and profusion. 4 Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury: In (452 A. D. ), twenty-two years after Augustine’s death, Rome fell, bringing on a period of conquest and chaos, and degree of order was ultimately realized through the emergence of feudalism. The church, which had managed to survive the social and political upheaval, gradually assumed responsibilities that previously had been relegated to the civil government. This involvement in government led in turn to the secularization of the church. Bishops became ministers of the state, and church dignitaries became warriors. In the tenth and eleventh centuries, many within the church were so involved with the secular world that a movement led to the emergence of the monastic life as a force within the church. Those who wanted to escape the temptations of the secular world and pursue holiness were naturally drawn to the monasteries and among those who followed was Anselm (1033-1109), the archbishop of Canterbury. The greatest Christian thinker between Augustine and Thomas Aquinas was Anselm (1033-1109). He was born to a wealthy family in northern Italy, whom, to their disappointment, left home in (1056) to fully dedicate his life to God. Following a period of travel, he arrived at the Norman Abbey at Bec, where he took his monastic vows in (1060). Within a few years, he became prior of the abbey, abbot in (1078), and then archbishop in (1093), which he held until his death. His writings range from treatises on logic to an explanation of the divine inner logic of the atonement in Cur deus homo. Anselm stood in the tradition of Augustine and Platonic realism. 5 Following the tradition of Augustine, he held that faith precedes and leads to understanding, and, like many other medieval thinkers he drew no sharp distinction between philosophy and theology. In his famous ontological argument for the existence of God, Anselm presents a defense based on the fact that it is self-contradictory to deny that there exists a greatest possible being. 6 He claims that the more universality, the more reality. And from here it follows that if God is the most universal being, he is also the most real; if He is the absolutely universal being, he is also the absolutely real being, ens realissimum. He has, therefore, according to the conception of Him, not only the comparatively greatest reality, but also the absolute reality. A reality in which no greater can be thought. 7 Aquinas, Thomas: By common consent the greatest philosophical theologian of the Middle Ages was Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274). Everything about him was big. In his later years his voluminous writings, massive in scope, won him the title of the Angelic Doctor. His life was dedicated to the intellectual defense and propagation of the faith, as he understood it. It was during his teaching career (1252) in Paris that Aquinas, being drawn into the critical debates of his day, started battling the objections posed against Aristotelianism and its place in the university. By this time, Plato was known only through the imperfect translations of the Timaeus, the Phaedo, and the Meno. Islamic Jewish thinkers were much better acquainted with Aristotle, and for nearly two centuries they had been wrestling with questions posed by Aristotelianism to religious faith. For Aquinas and his Christian contemporaries the issue was doubly acute. On the one hand, there were questions posed by Aristotle’s way of thinking. On the other hand, there were the answers already given by Islamic and Jewish scholars which were hardly acceptable to a Christian thinker. Aquinas decided to face the problem head on. He made his own study of Aristotle, on whom he wrote extensively. He also made his own study of non-Christian thinkers. He subjected all ideas to rigorous scrutiny, giving due recognition to the truth of ideas, wherever they came from, but giving his own evaluation of every issue, point by point. In all, Aquinas produced about a hundred different writings. His work ranged from philosophical commentaries to hymns. 8 Aquinas’ main works are two massive Summae or compends of theology and philosophy. The Summa contra Gentiles was designed as a textbook for missionaries, and the Summa Theologiae has been described as the highest achievement of medieval theological systematization and is still the accepted basis of modern Reformed theology. In Aquinas’ proofs (what later came to be known as the Cosmological and Teleological arguments), certain facts about nature are compelling evidences of God’s existence. He argues, accordingly, that nothing can adequately account for the fact of motion or change. Rejecting the idea that change or motion is simply an ultimate, mysterious fact of nature neither requiring nor permitting any explanation except God, its Unmoved Prime Mover. Furthermore, in his five arguments, Aquinas suggests that the Christian belief in God is completely consistent with the world as we know it. Aquinas’ arguments, known also as the Five Ways are sometimes referred to as the proofs of the existence of God. But this is not necessarily correct because Aquinas did not try to prove the existence of God by rational argument, but to provide a rational defense for an already existing faith in God. His primary reason for believing in the existence in God is God’s revelation of Himself. Aquinas expects his readers to share the same faith. He does not expect that he will have to prove anything to them first. This point is important because many critics accuse believers of grounding their faith in outdated arguments, such as Thomas Aquinas. It is proper, therefore, to respond to such criticisms by pointing out that they are based on a superficial reading and on a serious misunderstanding of how individuals come to faith. 9 The basic principal guiding Aquinas throughout the Five Proofs is the principal of analogy, which holds the world as we know it mirrors God, its creator. The structure of each of Aquinas’ proofs is quite similar. Each depends on tracing a casual sequence back to its ultimate origin and identifying this ultimate origin with God. The first begins with the observation that things in the world are in motion or change. Second is the concept of causation. The third concerns the existence of contingent beings. The fourth deals with human values, and lastly, is the teleological argument, in which Aquinas explains how the world shows clear traces of intelligent design. Natural processes and objects seem to be adapted with certain definite objectives in mind. They seem to have purpose. They seem to have been designed. Arguing from this observation, Aquinas concludes that it is rational to believe in God. 10 Aristotle: Aristotle’s thought, like his mentor Plato, embodied the concept of arete, which taught that human excellence in all things was an important goal that should direct human purposes. For Aristotle, that excellence ideally exemplified the defining quality of human nature, the pursuit of reason. Attracted by science and believing that the universe could be explained, Aristotle greatly valued the work of Thales of Miletus, and accepted his concept that the physical universe operated rationally and in a way that was knowable to human beings. From Anaximander, Aristotle took the view that a balance of force existed in nature that made things what they were. Aristotle was also knowledgeable about the atomic theory of Parmenides and was intrigued by the question of what was stable and what was changing. Indeed, these Greek scientists had a significant influence on Aristotle’s intellectual search to examine and explain reality. 11 For Aristotle, the world in which we live is the world that we experience through our senses. Unlike those who followed Plato, Aristotle believed that we live in an objective order of reality, a world of objects that exist external to us and our knowing of them. Through our senses and our reason, human beings can come to know these objects and develop generalizations about their structure and function. Truth is a correspondence between the person’s mind and external reality. Theoretical knowledge based on human observation is the best guide to human behavior. And, while human beings have various careers, they all share the most important factor, the exercise of rationality. Reason gives human beings the potentiality of leading lives that are self-determined. Congruent with his metaphysical and epistemological perspective, Aristotle’s ethical theory portrays the good life as that of happiness (eudaimonia). He believed that the ultimate good for the human being was happiness, activity in accordance to virtue. The virtuous life is one in which actions are part of a consciously formulated plan that takes a mean, a middle ground course, avoiding extremes. 12 For example, true courage would be the choice that avoids the extremes of cowardice and rashness. And what decides the right course to take is the virtue of prudence (phronesis). Good is the aim of every action but, given the fact that goods can be ordered in relation to one another, there must be a highest good to which practical wisdom directs us. And if the possession of any good is what makes us happy to some extent, the possession of the highest good is the highest happiness, the ultimate goal of all our actions. 13 At this point, it is difficult to resist the thought that Aristotle’s notion of the intellectual life being the gateway to happiness and virtue is not an shallow one. But, though there are some elements in his presentation that are unclear, this much is clear; that this happiness, which is the possession of the good, is ultimately an act of contemplation, or of  beholding, the good. But to contemplate the good is to enter into union with it. Therefore, if contemplating on god means entering into union with the life of the gods, this is the highest activity of man and his ultimate happiness. The conclusion of the Ethics is one with the Metaphysics, in which the â€Å"divine element† in a man coincides with the â€Å"possession† of god by an act of thought, called contemplation, which is the â€Å"most pleasant and best† we can perform. In Eudemian Ethics, Aristotle says, What choice, then, or possession of the natural goods – whether bodily goods, wealth, friends, or other things – will most produce the contemplation of God, that choice or possession is best; this is the noblest standard, but any that through deficiency or excess hinders one from the contemplation and service of God is bad; this man possess in his soul, and this is the best standard for the soul. 14 With statements like this one can’t help but wonder what Aristotle’s response would have been if he would have had the opportunity to serve the one true God, who is worthy of such adoration and praise. What’s more, Aristotle categorized virtues as either moral or intellectual. Moral virtue, though not easy to define, is a habit by which the individual exercises a prudent choice, one that a rational person would make. Moral virtues tend to moderation, falling between excess and inhibition. They focus on the concrete actions a person performs and the measured sense he has regarding them: â€Å"to feel them at the right times, with reference to the right objects, towards the right people, with the right motive, and in the right way. † A good action thus exhibits due proportion, neither excessive nor defective, but midway between them. This is Aristotle’s doctrine of the mean. Peculiarly, a virtuous action is one that lies between too much and too little. To give another example, in regard to the feeling of shame, modesty is the mean between bashfulness and shamelessness. Not every virtue, however, is a mean, and so not every action is to be measured in this way. Nonetheless, every action should and can at least be measured in its rightness by the virtue of prudence or, in a larger sense, by â€Å"practical wisdom. †15. Furthermore, one of Aristotle’s most significant contributions to the Western world is his Poetics. His earlier works, Physics and Metaphysics contain important statements about art and nature, and Rhetoric, written after Poetics, distinguishes rhetoric as a practical art and has had a strong influence on literary criticism. His Poetics, nonetheless, is particularly important because Aristotle is addressing Plato’s doctrines on ideas and forms he came to disagree with. In Poetics, it was Aristotle’s intention to classify and categorize systematically the kinds of literary art, beginning with epic and tragic drama. Unfortunately, not all of the poetics survived, and it breaks off before the discussion of comedy. Nonetheless, our sense of Aristotle’s method is established. He is the first critic to attempt a systematic discourse of literary genres. 16 Augustine (Saint), of Hippo: One of the greatest thinkers of not only the early church, but of all time is Augustine of Hippo (354-430 A. D. ). His writings laid the foundation not only for Western theology but for later philosophy as well. His three books On Free Will (388-395), set out a doctrine of creation, evil and the human will which was a superior alternative to the type of thinking that had attracted so many to Gnosticism and Manichaean dualism. His response to the Donatist schism in the church set the pattern for the Western doctrine of the church. His writings on the subject of Pelagianism clarified, as no one before him and few after him, the crucial issues in the question of grace and free will. His major theological writings include On the Trinity (399-419), which presented better models for thinking about the Trinity than those of the Greek fathers. Augustine’s book On the City of God (413-416) was a reply to those who blame the church for the fall of Rome, in which it gave both a panoramic view of history and a theology of history in terms of the basic conflict between the divine society and the earthly society. 17 Interestingly, Augustine put forth a theory of time that Bertrand Russell would later pronounce superior to earlier views and much better than the subjective theory of Kant. Augustine’s account of how we can learn language provided Wittgenstein’s starting point for his Philosophical Investigations. In answering skepticism Augustine put forth an argument which anticipated Descartes’ cognito ergo sum without falling into the pitfalls commonly associated with the argument. Furthermore, Augustine believed that philosophical reflection may correct mistaken notions, lead to a grasp of truth, and serve to clarify belief. But rational reflection is not a substitute for the beatific vision of God. For it is the apprehension of God alone which transforms human life and alone satisfies our deepest needs. Though Augustine was deeply influenced by Platonism and Neoplatonism, he never was simply a Platonist. His view of the soul stands in the Platonic tradition, but he repudiated the doctrines of pre-existence and transmigration. Augustine’s view of the transcendent spiritual reality might also be said to have affinities with Plato, but Augustine’s approach was not an attempt to erect an edifice of Christian theology on either Platonic or Neoplatonic foundations. Rather, it was to state the Christian worldview in a theological and philosophical system that cohered as a unified whole. 18 (B) (back to top) Bentham, Jeremy: In nineteenth century Victorian England two contrasting systems were developed by Jeremy Bentham and Herbert Spencer. Utilitarians Bentham and John Stuart Mill applied naturalistic presuppositions in their worldview. Herbert Spencer applied the concept of evolution. And Ernest Mach prepared the way for logical positivism in his strongly anti-metaphysical scientific approach. The antithesis of the Kantian ideal is utilitarianism, an ethical theory founded by Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832). Bentham was a hedonist. Taking the good to be pleasure, Bentham proposed a new model for morality in his principal of utility, which holds that â€Å"Actions are right in proportion to the amount of happiness it brings; wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness. 19 Utilitarianism is a form of consequentialism. The ends justify the means since actions are judged on the results they bring, not on the person’s intentions or motives. For Kant, the end result was not important in determining the rightness of an action, rather, it was motive. 20 In its simplest form utilitarianism teaches that the right action is the one that promotes the greatest happiness. Modern utilitarianism dates from Thomas Hobbes in the seventeenth century, but its antecedents date as far back as (341-270 B. C. ) to the philosophy of Epicurus of Samos. The theory of utilitarianism actually held little influence until John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) who popularized the term and produced the classical Victorian exposition of the doctrine. Mill used the principal of utility to critique all social, political, and religious institutions. Anything that did not promote the greatest happiness of the greatest number was to be challenged and reformed. For this reason social and religious institutions that curtail individual liberty should be reformed. This is necessary, argued Mill, in order for freedom of belief, association and expression to be safeguarded. 21. Different conceptions of happiness separated Mill’s version â€Å"Better a Socrates dissatisfied than a pig satisfied,† which recognized qualitative differences between different kinds of pleasure, from Bentham’s forthright attempt to reduce all questions of happiness to the mere presence of pleasure or pain. Bentham’s version aims to render the basic concepts of ethics susceptible of comparison and measurement, but this was not the goal in Mill’s presentation of the system. 22 A hedonistic utilitarian like Bentham would say that the sole consideration is the quantity of pleasure that an action produces. A problem with this approach, however, (as if it wasn’t obvious) is that it draws no distinction in principal between an evening spent at the bars or one spent having quality time with your spouse. It all depends upon the tastes of the person. Berkley, George: George Berkeley (Irish, 1685-1753) was one of the three greatest British empiricists of the eighteenth century (Locke and Hume being the other two). Though his father was an Englishman, Berkley always considered himself Irish. He was an early subjectivist idealist philosopher, who argued that all qualities of objects exist only in the mind of the perceiver. His famous theory is often summarized, esse est percipi, â€Å"to be is to be perceived,† and is still important to modern apologetics (due to the method he used in demonstrating the necessity of an eternal Perceiver). Berkley’s argument was that the phenomena of visual sensation can all be explained without presupposing the reality of the external material substances. Interestingly, Berkley was also a bishop of an Anglican church, and was the only important philosopher to visit America before 1900. He came hoping to start a missionary training college for evangelizing to the Indian tribes of New England. 23 Berkley disagreed with Locke in that there is a material substance lying behind and supporting perceptions. He also disagreed with his treatment of the representative theory of perception, that material objects are perceived mediately by means of ideas, and the mind does not perceive the material object directly, but only through the medium of the ideas formed by the senses and reflection on them. â€Å"If we know only our ideas,† reasoned Berkeley â€Å"then we can never be sure whether any of them are really like the material qualities of objects, since we can never compare the ideas with them. † For that reason, he denied the ultimate existence of material substance believing that the Spirit is the only metaphysical reality. 24 (D) (back to top) Derrida, Jacques: Jacques Derrida (1930-2004) was a French literary critic and founder of the school called deconstructionism. His (1966) lecture Structure, Sign, and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences delivered at Johns Hopkins University, played a significant role in ushering American critics into the era of poststructuralism. Particular influences on his thought include Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Freud. He wrote prolifically, and had a great influence on not only literary criticism but in sociology, linguistics, and psychology as well. Derrida regarded philosophical and literary texts as already containing the seeds of their own deconstruction. This means that in any work the author unwittingly includes contradictions, blind spots, and unjustified assumptions. The main purpose and task of the deconstructionist, according to Derrida, is to simply bring these contradictions to the surface. 25 Beginning in the Victorian Age, a paradigm shift slowly spread throughout Europe that set the groundwork for modern theory. Unlike the revolutionary movements of the Renaissance and Romanticism, which were in part reactionary, this paradigm shift that marked a radical break from the past had little precedent. Nonetheless, it marked a rejection of long-held metaphysical and aesthetic beliefs that most theorists from Plato to Coleridge took for granted. Until the modern period, most of the great Western philosophers have been logocentric in their thinking, and Derrida is one of the ones responsible for this definite break from the past, bringing forth the notion that meaning is never fixed. Dr. Louis Markos, a Christian Professor at Houston Baptist University, made some interesting comments on Derrida in one of his lectures on deconstructionism. He said that Derrida reads the history of Western metaphysics as a continual search for a logos or original presence. This logos is sought because it promises to give meaning and purpose to all things, to act as a universal center. Behind this search is a desire for a higher reality (or full presence). Western philosophy since Plato has simply renamed this presence and shifted this center without breaking from its centering impulse. Even Saussure’s structuralism sought a center, and though he broke from the old metaphysic, he still used its terminology and binaries. Furthermore, Derrida deconstructs all attempts to posit a center or to establish a system of binaries. Instead, he puts in their place a â€Å"full free play of meaning. †26 Democritus (see Leucippus): Descartes, Rene: The first great continental rationalist27 was Rene’ Descartes (Frenchman, 1596-1650). For it was he who defined the terms and laid down the agenda for the continental rationalist school of thought. But in a sense, the world that Descartes produced, by the exercise of pure reason, was a fairly straight forward affair – Descartes does preserve â€Å"the self† in a recognizable form, as well as both â€Å"God† (even though it is not a terribly human sort of God) and the material world in a broadly speaking recognizable form (even though it might be a material world deprived of some of its more vivid and colorful attributes). Nevertheless, the worlds created by the application of the procedure of rationalism start from some self-evident propositions (like Euclid’s geometry) and then carry out processes of absolute, straight forward deduction from these self-evident propositions and what that led to in the case of Spinoza and Leibniz is something very far removed in both of them from the ordinary understanding of the world. To some extant, Descartes, by comparison with them, is in the business of saving the appearances. Whereas both Spinoza and Leibniz say that what the world is really like is very different from what it appears to the ordinary person to be. Nonetheless, there is still in both cases (Descartes and Spinoza and Leibniz) an underlying reality that philosophy can tell us something about reality even if common observation cannot. 28 His two chief philosophical works were Discourse on Method (1637) and his Meditations (1641). His ideal and method were modeled on mathematics. He is sometimes portrayed as the first modern philosopher due to his break with the traditional Scholastic-Aristotelian philosophy and for introducing a new mechanistic science. 29 In refurbishing the medieval proofs for the existence of God he was drawing upon the legacy of the Middle Ages. Like the Medieval philosophers, he was interested in metaphysics, and to the end of his life, Descartes remained a nominal Catholic. But there is a sense in which Descartes represents a new departure. Descartes (so it seems) was interested in God not for his own sake, but the world’s. God is invoked as a kind of dues ex machine to guarantee the validity of our thoughts about the world. 30 Nonetheless, Descartes takes his place as a Christian thinker by resting cognitive truth on the personal truth of God, and laying the blame for error not on God but on the exercise of the human will. Descartes successors eventually lost their reliance for truth. George Berkeley retains it by tracing directly to God all the ideas we receive from outside the mind and Leibniz by making each mind mirror eternal truths in the mind of God. But many Enlightenment thinkers, and many empiricists today who share some of Descartes’ rational ideals or the correspondence theory of truth, talk to truth independently of God as if it were a self-sustaining ideal and as if human reason were a purely objective and impersonal activity. Descartes’ failure was not in the relation he saw of truth to God, but in the lack of relation he saw between man’s rational capacity for knowing truth and his personality as a whole. 31 (F) (back to top) Fibonacci: His real name was Leonardo Pisano (Italian, 1170-1250) but he is better known by his nickname â€Å"Fibonacci† (filius Bonacci), which means â€Å"son of Bonacci. † A striking example of Fibonacci’s genius is his observation that the classification of irrationals given by Euclid in Book X of the Elements did not include all irrationals. Fibonacci is probably best known for his â€Å"rabbit problem. † Leonardo Fibonacci began the study of this sequence by posing the following problem in his book, Liber Abaci, â€Å"How many pairs of rabbits will be produced in a year, beginning with a single pair? †32 The analogy that starts with one pair of rabbits who give birth to a new pair from the first month on, and every succeeding pair gives birth to a new pair in the second month after their birth. Fibonacci shows that this leads to the sequences 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, 233, 377, and so on. As one can see, each term is the sum of the two previous terms. For example, 2 + 3 = 5 and 3 + 5 = 8, and the farther and farther you go to the right of this sequence, the ratio of a term to the one before it will get closer and closer to the Golden Ratio. Additionally, this same principal also applies to that of the Golden rectangle. The connection between the Golden Ratio and the Fibonacci series is fascinating, and is very simple to understand. If you take a Golden Rectangle, and cut off a square with side lengths equal to the length shorter to the rectangle side, then what remains is another Golden Rectangle. This could go on forever. You can just keep cutting off these big squares and getting smaller and smaller Golden Rectangles. Consequently, the idea with the Fibonacci series is to do the same thing in reverse. You start with a square (1 by 1), find the longer side, and then add a square of that size to the whole thing to form a new rectangle. Therefore, when we start with a (1 by 1) square the longest side is one, so we add another square to it. As a result, we have accumulated a (2 by 1) rectangle. Then the longest side is 2, so we connect a (2 by 2) square to our (2 by 1) rectangle to get a (3 by 2) rectangle. As this continues, the sides of the rectangle will always be a successive Fibonacci number, and eventually the rectangle will be very close to a Golden Rectangle. To translate in more illustrative terms, the ratio of two successive numbers in the Fibonacci series, as aforementioned, if divided by each number before it, will result in the following series of numbers; 1/1 = 1, 2/1 = 2, 3/2 = 1. 5, 5/3 = 1. 666, 8/5 = 1. 6, 13/8 = 1. 625, 21/13 = 1. 61538. The ratio that is settling down to a particular value is the golden ratio or the golden number, which has a value of approximately 1. 618034. 33 Fichte, Johann Gottlieb: Johann Gottlieb Fichte (German, 1762-1814) was one of the major figures in German philosophy in between Kant and Hegel. He was regarded as one of Kant’s most talented philosophers, but later developed a system of his own transcendental philosophy called the Wissenschaftslehre. Fichte had immense influence on his contemporaries, especially during his professorship at the University of Jenna, a position he held for five years (1794-1799) before taking up a profes.

Religious Health Care Essay

The engagement of spiritual dimension within the healthcare system has shaped the way through which patients recover and show more positive results within the health organizations. Over the past years, the goal of religion in medicine and spirituality encompass diverse medical practices like pastoral counseling, use of prayer and meditation in healing, evoking compassion and forgiveness and also health professional who work with them. Therefore, it is seen that Religious Health Care gives much emphasis on importance of bringing spirituality into the healing process. This paper identifies and discusses matters from the reaction that must be put into further consideration by the consultant team and the discussion made by governing board and the CEO. 2.0 Description of important element of the governing board’s agenda for areas of improvement in core functions Nurses, as the core professionals in Religious Health Care should have the following job skills and carry out the following duties as it was discussed by the board’s governing agenda (Optimizing Performance and Quality, 2012). The assumptions made was that: i. The resident/patient population complex in nature, frail and experiences many dysfunctions and illness. ii. It is imperative when it comes to identification of essential mix of management/administrative skills, decision making skills, ethical principles and fiscal management knowledge that nurses must have in order to manage and administer long-term care facility. The following five agenda’s was discussed about the tasks and the responsibilities of Nursing Home Administrators who will be ensuring that nurses work effectively at Religious Healthcare (Quality of care, 2006): (a) Quality of Life and Resident Care Ensure that all the nursing services are thoroughly evaluated, planned and  implemented so that it could maximize both quality of care and resident quality of life. Ensure that programs related to social services are thoroughly evaluated, planned and subsequently implemented so as to meet social and psychological preferences and the needs of residents with the aim of maximizing quality of care and quality of life. Macke sure that programs related to food services is thoroughly evaluated, planned and implemented to meet nutritional needs of the patients within health organization for the sake of maximizing both quality of care and quality of life. Ensure that programs related to therapeutic activities are thoroughly evaluated, planed and implemented so as to meet the interests of the patients so as to maximize the quality of care amid the quality of life. The nurse in leadership will be responsible for ensuring that information management programs is evaluated, planned and implemented so as to arrive at documentation requirements. Make sure that Residential Rights are integrated with every aspect of resident care. Always ensure that the facilities within the health organization comply with local, state, as well as federal regulations and stipulated standards. Monitor, identify and ensure that the quality indicators are utilized with the aim of maximizing effectiveness in services delivery to patients. Ensure review, development and implementation of the resident procedures and policies. Make sure that the health facilities within the organization are in par with local state and federal regulations and standards (Long Term Care, 2010). (b) Human Resources Nursing Home Administrators within Religious healthcare shall facilitate the process of communication between the staff and management through counseling and coaching. Shall be ensuring that all the programs pertaining human resources are evaluated, planned and implemented to meet cultural diversity of the patients. Responsible in monitoring of programs, development and implementation of programs with the sole aim of benefitting the staff. Carry out investigations to make sure that human resource management programs and policies are planned and implemented in accordance with the federal laws regulations and entities. Developing and implementing of employee safety and health programs so as to provide good working environment Developing, monitoring and implementing, recruitment, evaluation, development, provision of resident services to the nurses within the health organization so as to  ensure job satisfaction. (c) Finance Utilizes f fiscal resources through effective management and development of annual operation and development of capital budgets. Extensive implementation and development of financial system, procedures and policies to monitor and evaluate financial performance for instance resident trust and account payable. Implement, interpret and with financial aspects of any contractual agreement such as consultative services, vendor, managed care and organized labor. Management of reporting systems and financial audit such as information systems, charitability and cooperate compliance. Ensure that all the facilities records are highly protected for instance risk management and insurance coverage. Facilitate the education and training of staff in areas related to the financial management. (d) Atmosphere and Physical Environment Shall be ensuring hat systems for improving and maintaining buildings, equipment and grounds are evaluated, planed and implemented accordingly. Provision of attractive and clean facilities and conducive environment for patients and the staff. Monitoring the environment to ensure that safety programs are implemented for safety, welfare and health for visitors’ staff and patients who attend health organization. Residents right integration with much emphasis on facility environment. Ensuring that the policies, implementation and developments comply with the environmental procedures and policies. Making sure that the facilities within the health organization complies with the local, state, as well as federal regulations and standards such as the Life Safety Code, CMS, OSHA and ADA. Implementation and development of comprehensive preventative maintenance programs. (e) Management and Leadership Ensuring that all the policies and procedures are developed in compliance with the governing entities and directives. Ensuring that all the policies and procedures are in compliance with the local, state, as well as federal rules and regulations. Evaluate, monitor and observe the impacts of the entire facility’s programs, procedures and policies so as to fulfill administrative responsibility such as license and professional  responsibility. Carry out administrative review of survey impacts so as to come up with appropriate impacts such as Informal Dispute Resolution documentation, plan for correction and no response. Carry out education of nursing home board in respect to their responsibilities and roles and pay attention to their daily actions to ensure that they adhere to the regulations and by-laws. Carry out the administrative oversight of the entire survey process. Be a team leader in professional development activities. Provide leadership skills for key staff and management team. Manage the resources and ensure that they are adequate so as to promote quality of life and comprehensive marketing. 3.0 Performance dimension that Religious Health Care could use to improve overall institutional performance The major goal of improving individual or institutional performance in the healthcare organization is to provide sustainable and quality services for the clients. Health system in this regard is a large umbrella, which covers people, organizations and the measures, which is strived for maintaining, restoring, or promoting health. Therefore, improving of the performance of such general elements of the health system will ultimately contribute to positive health outcomes. Performance dimension is the process within the health organization through which the performance of system, organizations and workers are set up with the aim of improving quality and performance or success and strength of the healthcare system. It is the continuous and systematic process through which the outside stakeholders judge the performance of a given health institution. The stakeholders (external environment, health workers, organization, community and clients) identify strengths and gaps so as to identify root causes using tools for exploration of factors, which in essence determine performance. There are various strategies through which the Religious Healthcare could do to improve the overall institutional performance (Everybody’s business, 2007): Consider context- clients, health workers, organization, and community and external environment The management team of Religious Healthcare must understand that the community and external environment plays a vital role towards the success of the organization. This includes the perspective of health workers or employees, the community, the clients and the organizational structure  served by the organization. As the managers get familiar with such external and community factor, the desired performance will be contributed. Research shows that there are many variables, which determine the ability of health organization individual employees and teams to perform within an organization. While some of the factors are beyond control, the positive steps by the healthcare groups or organizations however can improve most of them. Some of the factors include the following: Social norms such as the ethnicity, religion, class culture and gender Accreditation or Licensing processes or requirement. Local and national infrastructure such as sanitation, water, telecom, energy and transportation. Unpredicted change in political in local and national government. National standards, regulation, policies and the scope of work. Identification of strengths and gaps This involves the process through which the Religious Healthcare can possibly improve the performance by defining the desired performance, assessment of quality and performance and comparison of the various levels with the intention of establishing the strengths and weaknesses. Successful organization usually uses international or national standards and guidelines for setting up the desired standards. Such cooperative work for definition of performance is necessary especially when it comes to building consensus amongst stakeholders and the achievement of the desired goals. It also acts as an initial stage of the evaluation plan that determines lies out to be rated before and after interventions (Everybody’s business, 2007). Identifying performance of the health care organization will adequately become simpler when compared using different levels of performance. Evaluation and monitoring of the progress The Religious Healthcare can steadily monitor the progress of the performance through evaluation and monitoring so as to spot any changes in the performance gap. It is however necessary to spot changes at each and every step of the process so that any adjustment can be made in the course of the progress. For example, if a certain employee does not perform, as she/he is required, appropriate measures can be taken to rectify the situation. To  achieve such, the management should develop an evaluation plan which will then be integrated into the workplace process to act as a continuous feedback tool used to measure changes and quality within the Religious Health Education. Final judgment should measure against the level performance amongst the workers and specifically determine the gaps in gender equality have been strengthen and closed due to intervention. It should also delineate the broader outcomes like increased productivity or improved health outcomes (Competing Values of Emergen cy Department Performance, 2004). 4.0 Performance Measures Religious Healthcare could use to Evaluate Nursing Staff Performance in its Emergency Room The effectiveness of emergency department to responds to critical needs of the patients is very important. To respond to the current dynamic environmental changes in the healthcare system, emergency departments should be very flexible and ready to adapt flexible changing models of health care delivery. Cross-sectional survey methods can be used to analyze and describe the performance of the nurses in the Religious Healthcare. Two groups (of stakeholders) will be necessary during the evaluation: community stakeholders (paramedics and homecare) and hospital stakeholders (managers, nurses and physicians). Estimates of the design effect and sample size will be used in determining the realistic number of the prospective sampling units. Descriptive statistics will then be used to analyze characteristics and to make the comparisons of the outcomes in each section. 5.0 Strategies Religious Health Care could implement to enhance its public image and increase market share To increase its performance and win the market share, there are number of steps, which the Religious Healthcare could use. Foremost is the strategic planning. Strategic planning provides the basis of good foundation to the entire health program. Effective planning will ultimately help the Religious Health organization to improve performance. (Making Health Communication Programs Work, 2010): Become aware of the critical health issues, which need to be addressed. Set priorities which will be the foundation of the progress of the organization Derive communication programs which is crucial for the smooth running of the organization Establish the role, which the communication plays in the health communication. 6.0 Critical management  issues, purpose, functions, and performance measures of different departments within healthcare organizations The recent changes in the nature of the healthcare organizations like meeting strict guidelines, improving the quality of care and pressures to reduce cost has forced many health organizations to reconsider how they evaluate their performance. The most effective systems in the organization align organizational resources and units as well as integrate the initiatives. Therefore, three areas that needed to be addressed in the organization’s needs (Casta,1999): To guide a given health organization to a particular direction To effectively manage all the resources needed to travel in such direction To operate all the processes which make the particular health organization work. References Casta, K. (1999). Performance Measurement in Healthcare. Retrieved on November 29, 2013, from http://www.qualitydigest.com/may99/html/body_health.html Competing Values of Emergency Department Performance: Balancing Multiple StakeholderPerspectives. (2004). Retrieved on November 29, 2013, fromhttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1361037/ Everybody’s business: strengthening health systems to improve health outcomes: WHO’sframework for action. (2007). Retrieved on November 29, 2013, fromhttp://www.who.int/healthsystems/strategy/everybodys_business.pdf White, K. R., & Griffith, J. R. (n.d.). The Well-Managed Healthcare Organization Seventh Edition. Chicago, Illinois: Health Administration Press. Etheridge, L. (n.d.). Long Term Care. (2010). Retrieved on November 29, 2013, fromwww.achca.org/content/pdf/LTCPLC_Core_Func-R_6-07lw.pdf Making Health Communication Programs Work. (2010) Retrieved on November 29, 2013, fromhttp://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/cancerlibrary/pinkbook/page5 Martin, J. (2001). Team Performance in the emergency room: assessment of inter-disciplinaryattitudes. Retrieved on November 29, 2013 fromhttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11334690 Optimizing Performance and Quality. (2012). Retrieved on November 29, 2013, fromwww.intrahealth.org/ files/ media/ optimizing-performance-and-quality/OPQ_FINAL.pdf Quality of care: a process for making strategic choices in health systems. (2006). Retrieved onNovember 29, 2013 from http://www.who.int/management/quality/assurance/QualityCare_B

Challenges in the Security and Privacy in the IoT Domain - Samples

The primary purpose of the report is to discuss about a brief of the various challenges related to the security and confidentiality in the Internet of Things (IoT). The IoT has been influencing various organizations as it has the potential to change the lives of the people and the various processes in the business systems. With the rapid growth in the number of devices that are connecting with the help of Internet, they have also presented a number of challenges to the security of the IoT systems. The IoT systems have to recognize the security standards of the devices that are connected with the environment and thus develop standards and policies, which can form a secure and standard platform. The sensors that are present in the network framework of IoT generally lack the basic competencies, which are required in order to encrypt and decrypt the vital data. Since the process of encryption is a bit low, hence the sensors are sometimes unable to transfer the data in a real time environment with the help of the process of direct encryption. As a result of a low standard of data encryption, many of the IoT devices are sometimes susceptible to side-channel attacks. For example, an attack due to a power analysis could be used to reverse the performance of an algorithm. This would directly exploit the loopholes in the algorithm. This report focusses on the limited capabilities of encryption technology within the systems of IoT and thus discuss various networks and firewall systems, which should be used in order to prevent the IoT systems against such attacks.   Bertino, E., 2016, March. Data Security and Privacy in the IoT. In  EDBT  (Vol. 2016, pp. 1-3). Sicari, S., Rizzardi, A., Grieco, L.A. and Coen-Porisini, A., 2015. Security, privacy and trust in Internet of Things: The road ahead.  Computer networks,  76, pp.146-164.

Understanding and Remembering Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Understanding and Remembering - Essay Example Nonetheless, it is worth noting that there are some cultures that are considered humanistic that are usually characterized as the study of man. Therefore, music may not define man and his daily habits; thus, it may be difficult to study it as a culture that defines a people or society. Nonetheless, it is worth noting that music and musical study requires a double specialization that is including anthropology and musical studies, a combinational that is usually never found. Nearly 85 percent of the Americans know that music has four fundamental categories or the academic music that is usually discussed under misleading terms namely the classical that includes folk music that is manly associated with the white community, the popular music that is usually differentiated from the jazz music in aspects including hit tunes, and the Negro music. The other 15 percent do not know the distinction of music other than the hip-hop, jazz, classical, and blues, among other peripheral classifications. To my understanding from numerous research works on the music and its consideration in cultural classification, there are needs to conduct more research to determine what levels and entry point should music to be taught elaborately in schools among other learning institutions. To certain degree those who study music never get into the history of music and distribution of music has a culture but they are only concern with ways music can be perfected along the direction or genre they are interested (Merrian 1173). Therefore, there are needs to address music along anthropologic line. This will help in understanding music and its different application along different cultures and types. In other words, understanding music as a culture in America among other nations, people, and continents will only be achieved when a specific interest through study incorporated in the study curriculum. Additionally, there is the concept of the double

CULTURAL AND ETHICAL VALUES Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

CULTURAL AND ETHICAL VALUES - Essay Example 28). He uses this as the basic framework from which he developed the idea of virtue as mean – the golden mean – where ethical virtue remains "located on a map that places the virtues between states of excess and deficiency" (Kraut, 2007). In The Politics, Aristotle expands this idea by asserting that a "government is good when it aims at the good of the whole community, bad when it cares only for itself" (Russell, 2005, p. 183). Therefore, the ethical virtue of governments lies in the common good. Aristotle engaged in an extensive comparison of the governments of Greek city-states, and concluded that there were three "pure" forms of government: monarchy, aristocracy (rule by a few), and polity (rule by many). Each had a corresponding "perverted" form: tyranny, oligarchy, and democracy (Aristotle, Sinclair, & Saunders, 1992, pp. 238-240). Within the framework of virtue as mean, the pure forms signify excess and the perverted forms expound deficiency. So, if ethical virtue entailed good governance, the doctrine of the mean would demand that the ideal form of government should be located between the pure and perverted ones. For Aristotle, the ethical qualities of sovereigns, not the nature of constitution, determine the virtue of governments: "it is impossible for those who do not do good actions to do well, and there is no such thing as a man’s or a states good action without virtue and practical wisdom" (Aristotle, Sinclair, & Saunders, 1992, p. 393). Hence, moderate competence in performing the functions of government is identified with virtue, and virtue with the pure forms of government. Aristotle says that the "correct conception of justice is aristocratic, assigning political rights to those who make a full contribution to the political community, that is, to those with virtue as well as property and freedom" (Miller 2002). To