A & P essays

A & P essays Have you ever disliked a job? The main character in the story is a 19-year-old boy named Sammy working behind the register of the convenient store; which hates his job. The story A In walks these girls in nothing but bathing suits(90). The girls disillusioned Sammy; he was awestruck by the way they were dressed. He had never seen anyone enter the convenient store dressed like that. The women that usually enter the store generally put on a shirt or shorts or something before they get out of the car into the streets. (91). Sammy is a very sarcastic individual, and passes judgment on what he thinks of them throughout the story. The first girl that Sammy notices is a plump girl with a soft looking can with those two crescents of white just under it one of those chubby berry-faces, the lips all bunched together under her nose(90). The sight of her made him mistakenly charge a woman standing in line twice for a box of crackers, I ring it up again and the customer starts giving me hell. Shes one of these cash register watchers, a witch about fifty with rouge on her cheek bones and no eye brows, and I know it made her day to trip me up(90). The second girl th at Sammy notices is much cuter than the first one, in his opinion. She was very tall and he thought to himself that she was the kind of girl other girls think is very striking and attractive but never quite m ...

Aggravated Assault essays

Aggravated Assault essays Aggravated assault is the unlawful threat of bodily violence or harm to somebody else, or an attempt to do such harm. The purpose of this paper is to inform the reader about all aspects of the personal crime of aggravated assault. It will illustrate the typical victim and offender and the situations that surround this crime from a citizen and criminologist perspective. Aggravated assault is more serious than assault because the offender inflicts an unlawful attack upon the victim for the purpose of inflicting severe or aggravated bodily injury. This type of assault is usually accompanied by the use of a weapon or by means likely to produce death or great bodily harm. In 1998, there were a total of 1,673,640 aggravated assault victimizations and 1,457,800 incidences. Victimizations indicate the number of people that were received the criminal offense. Incidences mean the scene and time of the assault. For instance, two people are robbed at gunpoint. It is counted as two robbery victimizations and one robbery incidence. Of all the criminal offenses measured by the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), 5.3 percent of them were aggravated assaults. On average, about eight people in every one thousand people were the victims of aggravated assault. Out of one thousand people, 10.5 males were assaulted and 4.7 females. Black males and females are more likely to be the victim of aggravated assault between the ages of twenty to twenty-four. Twenty-six urban, black males out of every one thousand people are the victims. White males are more likely to be the victim between the ages of twelve to nineteen. White females are more likely to be the victim between the ages of sixteen to twenty-four. In all, black males are most likely to be the victim between the ages of twenty and twenty-four. Thirty-three percent of the victims had an income less than $7,500 annually. Such a low income is probably due to the young age...

Apple Inc Case Study Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Apple Inc Case Study - Essay Example Considering the market, one can say that the buyer power of Apple is mediocre. Its operations are limited to geographic areas of Americas, Europe, Africa, Middle East and Japan. However, the impact of forgetting markets like India where IT flourishes has a considerable impact on the performance of Apple. In fact, the company addresses only a single category; those who are willing to pay a premium price for high-quality technology. One has to admit that the threat of substitutes is much higher in the case of Apple, especially because of the premium price the company has set for its products. In fact, according to Marino et al. Apple enjoys ultimate superiority in personal media player industry where it offers four products; the iPod Shuffle, iPod Nano, iPod Classic, and iPod Touch. However, as a response to iTune, Microsoft has started Zune brand which offers all the features of a flash player and in addition, it allows wireless connectivity and beaming of audio and video up to 30 fee t distance. 4) The buyer power Considering the market, one can say that the buyer power of Apple is mediocre. Its operations are limited to geographic areas of Americas, Europe, Africa, Middle East and Japan (ibid). However, the impact of forgetting markets like India where IT flourishes has considerable impact on the performance of Apple. In fact, the company addresses only a single category; those who are willing to pay a premium price for high quality technology. 5) The supplier power In

Politics in Pan's Labyrinth and Watchmen Movie Review

Politics in Pan's Labyrinth and Watchmen - Movie Review Example Ofelia's mother ties the knot with another person who is a captain in Franco's army. Ofelia takes a great inspiration from fairy tales and while going to her step father she experiences many strange events which link her as being the lost princess of the underworld. Ofelia's step father is assigned to a remote village where he is designated to throw out all the rebels from the territory. Ofelia gets closely related to the servants working with the captain and she comes to know that the servant Mercedes is linked with the rebels but due to her love for Mercedes she does not tell his father about Mercedes. The rebels try to evacuate the captain from their land and in the end of the movie they even get successful in burning the outpost of the captain and finally killing him. Ofelia gets deeply involved in the fairytales and she is asked to pass some tests to enter the world of the underworld where she is supposedly the princess. In the end one of the test leads to her death in which she has to sacrifice her brother. The captain reaches the spot and kills her to get the posession of the child. Politics is greatly involved in Pan's Labyrinth in the form of war and the actions of people. ... This is because of her defiance to live in the captain's world of brutality. The fantasies of Ofelia from one point of view are also political as she is running away from the captain's world and she figures out that she can live in her own world where the captain does not rule. She tries to find her allies in the rebels and Mercedes and thus she sides up with the rebels. The whole movie portrays a political environment in which everyone is fighting for his own cause i.e. the captain tries to defeat the rebels while Mercedes and Ofelia try to end the tyranny of the captain and run away from his world. The film describes the situation of tyranny and dictatorship and emphasizes on the fact that dictatorship can only be ended through political tactics. In the climax of the movie the captain shoots Ofelia while she is giving a test to be called the lost princess of the underworld. The climax of the movie also portrays a way of how Ofelia fought to get herself released from the world of ca ptain. Pan's Labyrinth is a book which shows both the tactics used by the rebels and the fantasies which were seen by Ofelia in the form of politics as they are both done do get away from the shadow of the captain. There have been many famous comic samples. The chain of keeping comics aside for totally unrealistic matters was broken by Alan Moore, who added political issues in his writings. 'Watchmen' is known to be a great piece of comic work by Alan Moore in 1986-87. Alan Moore is recognized as the best writer in comics after creating such a master piece. His impressive DC series tracks many caparisoned vigilantes, consisting of the inhuman, knowledgeable, crazy, and intelligent but

Interaction and influences of genetics Essay Example for Free

Interaction and influences of genetics Essay The current belief in biology disqualify the fact that it is only the genes that determine most of the complex traits of a human being. It is well appreciated that DNA interacts at the molecular level with the signals from the environment as well as from other genes. When this concept is considered at the individual level, certain genes do influence trait development in context to a specific environment (Parens et al. , 2006). In this regard therefore, the degree into which a particular trait is influenced by the environment in relation to the genes depends on the specific environment and genes that have been examined. In most of the cases, it has been discovered that genes do contribute to someone’s personality, intelligence and even the psychological traits. Some of these traits maybe highly influenced by the environment in such circumstances as the environmental deprivation (Baker 2004). Environment genes and family traits. It is virtually possible now to measure the heritability of a trait in a certain population when these traits are determined through the complex interaction of environment and genotype. There is evidence that environmental factors within a family set up do have an effect on childhood IQ but on late adolescence it has been observed that the adoptive characteristics in the family siblings are not in any more unique than in the IQ of strangers (McInerney and Rothstein2007). Personality to a certain extent is heritable (Baker 2004). To support this belief, it has been observed that biological siblings are usually more similar in personality as compared to the adoptive ones while identical twins that have been brought up apart show personality similarity than other people who are randomly selected from the population (Parens et al. , 2006). Adoption studies have thus attempted to measure the strength of traits shared in a family. Though some studies indicate that adopted siblings only share the family environment, other studies have shown that by adulthood, the shared family effect on someone’s personality is usually zero. The question of biological determinism thus becomes real. That is if the genes do have a substantial role in the development of personality and even intelligence, then the question remains if genes really determine who really we are (McInerney and Rothstein2007). Though heritability measures used refer to the degree in which there is a variation between individuals in a certain population, these kinds of statistics are not applicable at an individual level. If a heritability index of a certain personality is 6, it would be inappropriate to say that the individual has 40% of personality traits from the environment and 60% from the parents (McInerney and Rothstein2007). Environment is a key factor that cannot be assumed at any point since even the highly genetically determined trait such as the eye color still do carry with them the environmental influence (e. g. atmospheric oxygen and temperature range). Genes do not directly determine the behavior but depending on the environmental context, they influence such conditions and physical traits as blood pressure, height, digestive activities and weight among others (Parens et al. , 2006). The same could be true of the psych-social complex behaviors. Each of these traits is affected by certain multiple genes that interact with various environmental factors. Thus a gene cannot be plainly said that it controls a behavior trait but rather it maybe more appropriate to say that is has an influence on any observed character (Baker 2004). Conclusion Genes that carry the power of heritability in an individual should be considered as enablers of character traits and not as constrainers as it may have been in some cases. Genes carry the possibilities of the organism but do not on the other hand reduce its options as the environment also has a role in enhancing them or even suppressing their expression. The social scientist can thus conclude that these new possibilities are not necessarily scripted in the advance but rather open to the individuals experience.

Mass Media Violence and the Effect on Children :: Papers Argumentative

Violence in the media is a problem in American society today. The effect can be severe and widespread. The people exposed to this media violence are mostly children. They are very impressionable and imitate what they see, hear and are told by their friends. In this essay I will state my opinion and the opinions of several physiologists and other officials. Violence on television has been an issue that has plagued man from the day it was invented. Numerous shows depict violent acts such as rape, murder, and other such acts that many people consider inappropriate for adolescents. According to some studies the average child watches about 27 hours of television week. In some cases it is as much as 11 hours a day on a weekend. With the current amount of violence that is on television today these same studies estimate that the average child sees 8,000 murders and 100,000 acts of violence before finishing elementary school. In 1992, there were over 1,800 acts of violence shown on television a day, over 360 those showed an act involving guns. Mediascope's National Television Violence Study found that 57% of television programs aired in 1994 and 1995, contained some violence most of these were cartoons. So the question is, should we ban violence from the television or should we just leave it the way it is? Some people believe that it should be banned from stations that show children?s programs to prevent the exposure of those children. Sometimes children see a great amount of violence on television, they begin to think that this is right and start to imitate the acts that they see on television, which are not the things that the parents want the children to learn from. One example of this is a thirteen-year-old boy who shot his best friend?s father and then put salt in the wounds. When he was asked why he did this he said that he had seen the same thing on a movie the day before. Psychological research has shown three major effects of seeing violence on television: Children may become less sensitive to the pain and suffering of others. Children may be more fearful of the world around them.. Children may be more likely to behave in aggressive or harmful ways toward others. Children who watch a lot of TV are less aroused by violent scenes than are those who only watch a little; in other words, they're less bothered by violence in general, and less likely to anything wrong with it.

A Thematic Guide to Canadian Literature Essay

In Rabelais and His World, the formalist critic Mikhail Bakhtin makes the one reference to Canada that appears in the body of his work. Discussing the French humanist’s comic rendering of Pantagruel’s northwesterly journey to the icy underworld, he points to the various levels of correspondence between Rabelais’s text (itself a parodic reworking of Dante’s Divine Comedy) and Jacques Cartier’s journal account of his 1540 voyage to Canada. It was Cartier’s colonial venture, Bakhtin suggests, that had a particularly complex and important effect on the European imagining of otro mundo: the new world (397-400). For Bakhtin, this effect was felt most tellingly on what might be best described as the implications of the Word in the Old World imagination, for it was Cartier’s discovery of the New World that prompted an essential reconsideration of the intellectual and imaginative structures that had until this point guaranteed the Old World a confidence in its linguistic centrality and a certainty in its imaginative enterprise. So radical were the restructurings necessitated by this new information that throughout the earliest explorations of the New World whole editions of journals and maps were destroyed or bought up and hidden â€Å"because they were thought to disseminate the wrong kind of information† (Huggan, 7) or, in the more abstract sense, to speak the wrong language, spread the wrong Word. But as journeys and journals accumulated, so, too, did the notions of Canada as a problematic new land and new language, as a site at which Old World and traditionally worded certainties were confronted by an openness of place that refused to be fixed, refused to accommodate its particularities and paradoxes to the tropes or metaphors privileged by familiar verbal codes. Every journey across this new land became another imaginative â€Å"mapping† of what were at once the knowable and the radically unknowable realities of the place a number of the earliest cartographers had labeled, somewhat ominously, terra incognita: the unknown land. Such mappings were â€Å"not a luxury,† as Margaret Atwood has observed, â€Å"but a necessity,† for without the sense of certainty they provided, these early Canadians would â€Å"not survive† (Atwood, 18-9). Atwood’s observations were not in themselves particularly revolutionary but were building on echoes of such notable antecedents as Northrop Frye, who saw in this confrontation both the source of our deep terror regarding the imminence of Canadian geography and of our national myths and mythic patterns (626), and Desmond Pacey, who defined â€Å"the Canadian imagination† as â€Å"mainly a function of† a collision between an imagination grounded fixedly in Old World language and a geography â€Å"so various† and â€Å"inescapably impressive †¦ that in itself it offers an inexhaustible challenge† (437-44). More recently, W. H. New has invited a full rethinking of the most basic terms of this challenge, suggesting that from Cartier’s earliest contact the word â€Å"land† has to be seen as a particularly complex discursive terrain, â€Å"a ground of contestation† upon which â€Å"an ongoing history of [our] relations with place and space† plays out. As New suggests, Canada in this sense becomes a semiotic site at which â€Å"Fixity vies recurrently with fluidity, position with positionality, the place of social residence with the condition of being there. † For Sheila Watson, the condition of â€Å"being† in the her The Double Hook (1959) is very much a process of doubling back on the assumptions and Words that have traditionally been part of the foundation of Old World thought and action. Faced with an â€Å"inexhuastible challenge† to survive, Waton’s characters open the novel trapped in silence, the doubling back of the â€Å"spoken† into the lethal pits-and-snares of the â€Å"unspoken† or, worse still, into the morass of the â€Å"never said. † And is it is in this doubling back of language that Watson’s characters find themselves hooked not once (on the self-glorifications of protective silence) but twice, by the fear in which silence finds its most solid footing. The Double Hook opens with an act of matricide, an act that is itself a doubling back to (re)collect both classic (the story of Orestes, for instance) and biblical (1 Timothy) allusions for use in this new land. It is the most profoundly un-natural doubling, as son erases his own origin, his own naming, his own source. At the same time, it is an act that resonates deeply through a family that lives â€Å"suspended in silence† and that includes among its various acts of violence the suicide of Greta, who remains dumb despite her impulse to use â€Å"her voice to shatter all memory of the girl who had stayed too long† (32) and the blinding of Kip, a young boy who attempts to speak of and against the repressiveness shaping his valley home. But as Watson reveals, this Canadian place is a one in which any move to double away from the exhaustive struggle to find language is often a fatal slide. As the character known only as the Widow’s boy shouts in response to the violence erupting in the silences around him: Can a man speak to no one because he’s a man? Who says so?†¦ I’ve held my tongue†¦ when I should have used my voice like an axe to cut down the wall between us† (116). The boy’s emphasis here is crucial, for what Watson demands to here in her Canadian place is not the language of another or the displacing silence of the fearful but a radical and potent questioning of the potentialities of a language that can articulate the freedoms that Cartier and others had (en)visioned for this place. As Barbara Godard explains, Watson remains â€Å"[s]ensitive always to the thinness and inarticulateness of modern language† (153) and is always in search of ways â€Å"to disturb the reader’s conventional consciousness of words and their so-called corresponding realities† (153). Watson’s warning, and her practice in The Double Hook, is for the need to interrogate language in the modern world, to bring language back doubled onto itself as a act of demythologizing and dismantling; Watson’s novel proposes in its own writing an understanding of language and reality that finds its most profound articulation in the doubling onto itself of language itself. In this doubling back of language upon itself, another act of murdering one’s origins, â€Å"Watson signals her departure from realistic verisimilitude† (154) and from the strictures that bound, not freed, Cartier and subsequent explorers, to the language of their realities and their worlds. â€Å"In the fold of the hills / under Coyote’s eye† (11) language begins to redouble its energies, unfold its potentials to mean beyond the literal into the circular encounterings of allusion and echo and irony. When James flees his ranch on horseback following the murder of his own mother, he becomes, briefly, a perverted image of the classic Western hero riding off into the sunset and silence of the horizon. But as he soon recognizes, his is not a semiotic site located in that system; in his place, in his language, â€Å"a person only escapes in circles no matter how far the rope spins. † In other words (in new words), he must double back and begin to fill the silence, to dismantle the double back language (silence) that has reified around the edges of his folded valley. In his doubling back, he must meet again with Felix, a character whose own languages — the vernacular of the valley, the ritualized formality of religion, the silken transcendence of music — has itself been emptied of meaning, reduced to cliche: He wondered: If a bitch crept in by my stove would I let her fall on the hot iron of it? I’ve got no words to clear a woman off my bench. No words except: Keep moving, scatter, get-the-hell-out. His mind sifted ritual phrases. Some half forgotten. You’re welcome. Put your horse in. Pull up. Ave Maria. Benedictus fructus ventris. Introibo. Introibo. The beginning. The whole thing to live again. Words said over and over here by the stove. His father knowing them by heart. God’s servants. The priest’s servants. The cup lifting. The bread breaking. Domine non sum dignus. Words coming. The last words. (41) Doubling back into his own languages through words â€Å"ritualized† and words â€Å"said over and over,† Felix lives, in this moment, trapped like James, forever in the ellipses of the â€Å"half forgotten† and in the promise, always frustrated, of â€Å"[w]ords coming. † In the end, though, it is Felix, with the assistance of Kip, who brings the novel back from the creases of its own doubling, back to the glory of language made meaningful with its own resonant doubleness, allowing it to be both glory and fear, articulation and reflection, the said and the unsaid. It is Felix, who steps to the side of Angel in the moment of her deliverance to assist in the miracle, and who, even the new mother admits, â€Å"didn’t do bad for a man†¦ Especially for a man who never raised a hand to help one of his own mares in foal† (116). Fishing with Kip in the now meaningful silence that follows the birth, there is a conversation between the two generations of valley men during which the older man’s sense of responsibility and wonder serves as a corrective to the younger one’s suspicion and fear: When a house of full of women, Kip said, and one of them Angel, it’s best for a man to take his rest among the willows. When a house is full of women and children, Felix said, a man has to get something for their mouths. (117) Caught again in a silence, Kip pauses to reflect on Felix’s refocusing of the valley, his doubling of the â€Å"reality† of the presence in the house (â€Å"and children†) that effectively reinscribes community over isolation, family over individual. When Kip speaks again, it is to accept his role in the â€Å"branding† that had scarred his face: â€Å"I keep thinking about James, Kip said. I kept at him like a dog till he beat around the way a porcupine beats with his tail† (117). Pausing momentarily before he answers, Felix slips past the ritual responses, the formulaic platitudes that have defined him in the past. Rather than parable or vulgar dismissal, he engages the younger man with a reflection upon James’s burden and, more importantly, a question that at once engages Kip but also looks to his future in the valley: â€Å"Jame’s got more than a porcupine has to answer for, he said. How’re you going to pick up a living now? † To pick up living in the valley is, as Angel makes clear when she names her new baby Felix, is through the model of the older man, who passes on the will to speak and the will to be heard to a valley. Moving beyond language into love, and through love back to harmony and rebirth, Felix reimagines the silence of the valley, shaping its contours with words and allowing the connecting moments of quiet to reverberate with meaning, to double back into the words of the father-figure in order to find a path to the future. Works Cited Atwood, Margaret. Survival: A Thematic Guide to Canadian Literature. Toronto: Anansi, 1972. Frye, Northrop. Literary History of Canada. Toronto: U of Toronto P, 1965. Godard, Barbara. â€Å"’Between One Cliche and Another’: Language in The Double Hook. † Studies in Canadian Literature 3 (1978): 149-65. Huggan, Graham. Territorial Disputes: Maps and Mapping Strategies in Contemporary Canadian and Australian Fiction. Toronto: U of Toronto P, 1994. New, W. H. Land Sliding: Imagining Space, Presence, and Power in Canadian Writing. Toronto: U of Toronto P, 1997. Pacey, Desmond. â€Å"The Canadian Imagination. † The Literary Review 8 (1965): 437-44. Watson, Sheila. The Double Hook. 1959. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1989.

Immanuel Kant Essay

1 Introduction Have you ever watched a group debate an ethical decision given a particular case study with several different variations to the story? It is fascinating to watch. Some of the individuals feel so strongly about being â€Å"right† they will argue until they get their point across. Others waffle and try to look at the situation from a variety of perspectives. Given a particular Case Study based on terms of confidentiality, this paper compares the basis of morality under two alternative ethical systems — Utilitarianism and Kantianism. We will explore the theory behind each ethical system, describe the facts of the Case, and interpret a course of ethical action using both ethical systems, and the significance of this dilemma. I chose to examine the Utilitarianism and Kantianism ethical systems because at times they seem diabolically opposed based on the theoretical reasoning behind choosing a particular action. Yet, in many cases the chosen action is the same. For this particular case on confidentiality, a personal relationship attempts to complicate how to determine the morally correct action. I explore this correlation by comparing Utilitarianism and Kantianism. Utilitarianism uses a relatively straightforward cost-benefit analysis where the calculation is â€Å"indifferent to persons and relationships (Dombrowski 2000:248). † Consequently, when using a Utilitarian system to examine what ethical action is appropriate everyone is â€Å"on equal footing (Dombrowski 2000:248). † This is somewhat of a simplistic view of how individuals make decisions; however, it is a simple view that allows you to make a somewhat unbiased decision. A decision not based on â€Å"rank, status, wealth, race, gender, or personal relationship (Dombrowski 2 2000:248). â€Å"Similar to Utilitarianism, Kantianism would also negate the significance of any personal relationships. The Kantian would do unto others, as they would consent to treating you. The one universal way to act should carry from person to person regardless of your personal relationship to that person. Let us explore the similarities and differences between these two ethical theories. Next, we will take a close look at the facts of one particular Case Study where personal relationships do come into play. Then, we will compare how a Utilitarian and a Kantian might act and why. What motivates the decision-makers under each moral system? 2 Comparing Theory 2. 1 Theory: Utilitarianism 2. 1. 1 Pleasure versus Pain: Utilitarianism is a somewhat general term for a variety of perspectives that all generally fall under the guise of this theoretical stance. In any case, I will attempt to summarize the major theoretical viewpoints of this ethical system. For the most part, Utilitarianism recognizes two absolutes in the world: pain and pleasure. Moral law follows the Principle of Utility, in other words, what motivates human beings. They found that Good has priority over the Right (Justice) (Griffin 2005, personal communication) and they make ethical decisions by determining â€Å"the greatest useful goodness for the greatest number of people (Dombrowski 2000:54). † Good equals happiness (pleasure) and alternatively bad equals pain or displeasure and has no value. Utilitarianism determines the right or correct action based on a formula that shows which action results in maximized good (happiness/pleasure). Maximized good takes into account all those individuals affected by the actions under consideration. 2. 1. 2 Cost-Benefit Analysis: Utilitarianism simplifies moral law to a quantitative calculation that determines ethical choice: Total Pleasure – Total Pain = Total Utility (Griffin 2005: personal communication). Utilitarianism uses a cost-benefit analysis to decide whether we tell or do not tell. We determine what is ethically 3 correct through an objective and quantitative measure of utilitarian goodness. â€Å"measure it for the appropriate number of people, compare it to measures of ill effects for the remaining people, plug it all into an algorithm, and calculate the solution (Dombrowski 2000). † Utilitarianism, born out of the technological and scientific revolution, uses a scientific approach to ethics. Theoretically, Utilitarianism does not take into account whose happiness is at stake and the action with the highest total utility is the correct action. 2. 2 Theory: Kantianism 2. 2. 1 Sense of Duty: A sense of duty is the guiding principle to Kantian theory. Ethics does not come from a higher authority nor does it rely on the individual to weigh the competing interests of the participants in an ethical dilemma. Unlike Utilitarianism, Kant’s ethical system represents a universal categorical imperative rule of ethics. The Categorical imperative is an expression of the moral law. The imperative is the correct, right, or good action taken in a particular situation. A categorical imperative â€Å"denotes an absolute, unconditional requirement that allows no exceptions, and is both required and justified as an end in itself, not as a means to some other end; the opposite of a hypothetical imperative (www. wikipedia. org). † In Kant’s Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals, he outlines the Categorical Imperative in three different ways (www. wikipedia. org): 2. 2. 1. 1 Universal Law formulation: â€Å"Act only according to that maxim by which you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law. † 2. 2. 1. 2 Humanity or End in Itself formulation: â€Å"Act in such a way that you always treat humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of any other, never simply as a means, but always at the same time as an end. † 2. 2. 1. 3 Kingdom of Ends formulation: â€Å"All maxims as proceeding from 4 our own [hypothetical] making of law ought to harmonize with a possible kingdom of ends. † 2. 2. 2 Reason versus Happiness: Kantianism recognizes Reason, not happiness or pleasure, is the foundation of moral law. Reason is the faculty of humans, which enables us to choose the principle, or rule on which we act (Griffin 2005, personal communication). The categorical imperative is an underlying moral system based on Reason, the integral link independent of a particular context — it is universal. To understand the basis of morality (the existence of a moral law) you must look for it in the capacity for reason and not in the capacity for pleasure and pain. The very foundation of Kantianism is that you must treat people the way they would consent to you treating them the same way. Your act is universal with no contradictions. Kant considers immorality as the product of individuals trying to create a different standard for themselves compared to the rest of humanity. Immorality ignores the categorical imperative. The Right comes before the Good (happiness); in other words, there are moral constraints on what one may do to promote happiness. One has a duty to obey the moral law, and the moral law is not determined by figuring out what promotes happiness (Griffin 2005, personal communication). You cannot reduce humans to meer means — treating someone is a way in which they would not consent. 3 Case Study Facts 3. 1 Case Study Overview: â€Å"You are employed as a technical communicator by Caduceus Company, a major provider of software systems for the health care industry. Currently, you are working on help-desk instructions for a new software system that operates from a database accumulated from all the records of all the hospitals, clinics, HMOs, laboratories, and physicians in your state. These records carry a good deal of highly personal information on patients and are, of course, private and confidential. The revelation of some of this information to the wrong people could be seriously damaging for those patients. Improper release of this information could, for example, limit their employability, damage their reputations, or restrict their access to health 5 insurance at affordable rates. Part of your job, in fact is to ensure that confidentiality is maintained by all who use the system while preventing access to those who might misuse it. Just yesterday, you learned of some shocking information. While observing the typical daily operation of the help-desk staff in resolving users’ questions, you recognized the name of one of the clients called up on a screen. It is the name of your cousin’s fiance, and the entry indicates that he has tested positive for HIV and has received counseling about HIV and AIDS from a local clinic. You and your cousin are very close, and you are certain that she is unaware that her intended spouse has tested positive for HIV. The marriage is only a few weeks away. She would be highly endangered after marriage but also in their current relations without this knowledge. Do you reveal this information to your cousin but violate the privacy and confidentiality that you have sworn yourself to and are legally obliged to maintain? Or do you keep the information to yourself but jeopardize the health and life of your cousin by preserving the deception by her fiance (Dombrowsky 2000:238). † 3. 2 Choices or Ethical Action: As I understand the case, there are really only three different courses of action to choose from. 3. 2. 1 Do not say anything at all 3. 2. 2 Reveal the truth to your cousin 3. 1. 1. 2. 1 Talk to your cousin 3. 1. 1. 2. 2 Write an anonymous letter to your cousin 3. 2. 3 Confront the potential fiance 3. 1. 1. 3. 1 Talk to the fiance and explain why he needs to tell your cousin 3. 1. 1. 3. 2 Threaten fiance — if you do not tell my cousin I will tell 4 Comparing the Application between Ethical Systems 4. 1 To compare the moral significance of the above stated fact, I will look at the theory behind Utilitarianism and Kantianism to determine which action is the correct action. 4. 1. 1 Application: Utilitarianism 4. 1. 1. 1 According to Dombrowski (2000), he suggests Utilitarianism is the most reasonable ethical approach to take due to the simplistic nature of the principles of the Utilitarian moral law. However, he also recognizes how it is hard to apply measurable, objective costs to the loss of the technician’s job, professional reputation, â€Å"pain, suffering, violated trust, and a broken relationship (Dombrowski 2000:248). † In any case, I attempt to illustrate through the following Table (Table 1) what the Utilitarian application may look like. Table 1. Utilitarianism Cost-Benefit Analysis Choices TOTAL PLEASURE – TOTAL PAIN = TOTAL UTILITY 1. Do not say anything at all Keep job Cousin gets HIV and dies Cousin’s kids get HIV Cousin’s marriage dissolves Lots of pain by cousin = low utility 2. Reveal the truth to your cousin Cousin does not contract HIV and lives Lose job Company loses credibility You can not get a job Lots of pain by technical communicator but cousin does not die = medium to high utility 3. Confront the potential fiance Keep job Cousin does not contract HIV. Fiance is upset by having to discuss with cousin Happiness for technical communicator and cousin, a little pain for fiance = high utility 4. 1. 1. 2 Examining the Table, you can see I have outlined three separate 6 choices, determined the total pleasure, total pain, and total utility. I was unable to determine an objective, absolute number to measure each factor, however, I did rank the total utility by low, medium, and high. As you can see, if the technical communicator chooses not to say anything at all, she would keep her job, but her cousin would most definitely contract HIV and her cousin could die from it or one of her kids could contract the disease. In any case, the cousins’ marriage is most definitely going to dissolve once she finds out that her husband was not open with her from the beginning. Consequently, I ranked the total utility to LOW UTILITY due to the extensive pain the cousin would ultimately endure. The second choice was for the technical communicator to reveal the truth to her cousin either directly or anonymously. The pleasure obtained from this decision would result in the technical communicator’s cousin not contracting HIV and living (as a result of this situation). However, the technical communicator would probably lose her job, the company could lose its credibility and that could effect the jobs of other company employees, and the technical communicator may not be able to find another job because she breached her trust with the client and her company. The total utility, therefore, results in a lot of pain for the technical communicator. Fortunately, the cousin would not contract HIV and increase her risk of dying. Due to the nature of the utility — death versus life, I ranked this decision at MEDIUM to HIHGH UTILITY because the cousin would experience a great deal of happiness that would far exceed the unequal but opposite pain of the technical communicator. The third choice, confront the potential fiance, would result in 7 pleasure for the technical communicator because she could keep her job. In addition, the cousin is able to protect herself from contracting HIV. In contrast, the fiance would be upset by having to discuss this difficult issue with his new wife. Due to these circumstances, I ranked this choice as having VERY HIGH UTILITY. The technical communicator is happy, keeps her job, and does not lose her cousin. Her cousin does not contract a life threatening disease. Yet, the fiance experiences discomfort with having to discuss this relatively important issue with his new wife. Consequently, a Utilitarianist would find this last choice to be the best and most ethically correct choice. Dombrowski (pg. 248) points out how difficult it is to reduce this case to a simple cost-benefit utility analysis for a number of reasons. Yet, the most poignant reason is the inability to neutralize the scenario and avoid the personal relationship the technician has with her cousin. Theoretically, the entire cost-benefit ratio should be the same no matter the personal relationship. However, I suspect your ethical action would tilt in a different direction should your motivations be driven by the patient’s partner. If you do not know the patient’s partner why would you risk your job, home life, and economic security for someone you do not even know. Is it really for the greater good? If so, why not find out everyone who has AIDS and post it on street corners? I am baffled by this strict compliance with the Utilitarian perspective. 4. 1. 2 Application: Kant 4. 1. 2. 1 Kant would argue that we â€Å"should act as we would expect others to act toward us and in way that should have universal applicability (pg. 247). † You must treat people the way they would consent to you treating them the same way. Given that this decision could 8 result in a life-threatening situation, Dombrowski argues that of course the cousin would want to know and would consent to treating them the same way. Dombrowski suggests that this is quite probably a universal ethical law. Yet, Dombrowski also recognizes that â€Å"most people probably would agree that the seriousness of the stakes so heavily tip the ethical scales against the side of blind compliance with the law that the ethical judgement to disclose should be binding on all people in such situations (pg.247). † In this interpretation, the seriousness and/or life threatening properties of the case motivate the Kantian. This interpretation suggests that the Kantian is obligated to the cousin and not to the patient — not because the cousin is a relative or has a special personal relationship to the technician. The technician is obligated to the moral universal law and would tell anyone should they find out. However, Kantian Moral law also says a promise should be kept. So then, the technician’s promise to her profession could take precedence over what appears to be the obvious categorical imperative. Kant might also agree with an ethical course of action where the technician approaches the potential fiance and makes it clear that if he does not tell, she will tell her cousin. In this variation, the categorical imperative recognizes that revealing this information to the cousin is in clear violation with the law. By approaching the potential fiance it also reduces the possible consequences because the outcome will ultimately result in your cousin finding out — but not through you. As a result, the Kantian does not violate the law but also does what is ethically correct. 9 5 Conclusion To summarize, Utilitarianism is an ethical system that proposes that â€Å"the greatest useful goodness for the greatest number of people† should be our guiding principle when making ethical decisions. In contrast, Kantianism suggests that the morally correct action is † an absolute, unconditional requirement that allows no exceptions, and is both required and justified as an end in itself, not as a means to some other end (www. wikipedia. org). † In the Case of Confidentiality, both Utilitarianism and Kantianism found that the best and most correct choice was to confront the fiance. In this scenario, â€Å"the presumed authority for methods & solutions is the profession meaning that personal ethics & religion do not have prima facie authority. † Yet, for the Kantian I think it is hard to figure out how to prioritize the relationships between competing duties (expression of law) — professional promise versus an individual ethics. I also wonder how your promise to your family to protect them and keep them safe plays into this account. However, the Utilitarianism cost-benefit analysis revealed how this ethical tradition takes into account all who are affected by the actions under consideration. As for the Kantian conclusion, the choice represented a universal expression of moral law. In both cases, the personal relationship did not and should not come into play as a significant fact. But I wonder, how this could possibly ever be the case. REFERENCES 2000 Dombrowski, Paul. Ethics in Technical Communication. The Allyn & Bacon Series in Technical Communication: Boston & London. 2005 Griffin, Chris (friendly neighbor Professor of Philosophy). Gratefully summarized Utilitarianism and Kantianism one night at the dinner table. 2005 www. wikipedia. org. Discussions posted on July 25, 2005. 10.

buy custom Causes of Domestic Violence essay

buy custom Causes of Domestic Violence essay Domestic violence is a conflict that takes place at home. It is a conflict that is perpetuated by one member of the family against the other. It may be perpetuated by the father towards the mother and children. Alternatively, it may be perpetuated by the mother against the father and children. Sometimes, even children become sources of violence, which they direct towards their parents. Domestic violence may arise as a result of social causes and emotional causes (Anderson, 1997). There are many social causes that result in domestic violence. These social causes include: In most cases, problems in relationships bring about conflicts within a family. These problems may arise out of lack of communication. When family members do not communicate that aspirations, wishes, ambitions, hopes and fears, other family members fail to understand what motivates them to behave in the manner that they do. In some families, the spouses are too busy in the workplace to make time for their family members. For this reason, problems arise as far as the task of creating social bonds is concerned. In most cases, it is parents who fail to give their children the attention the need in order to provide them with guidance. At other times, it is one of te spouses who fail to nurture a serious love relationship with her wife in order for their relationship to be strengthened. In this situation, one of the spouses can easily feel out of touch with the family, causing dissent, conflict and violence. Lack of trust can also lead to domestic violence. A family is the most basic organizational unit. For it to function, the husband and wife have to live in harmony. These two people cannot live in harmony without a build-up of a bond of trust between them. Each partner should always be sure of the other persons trust and loyalty. Decisions should involve all parties. Unfortunately, this sometimes does not happen, leading to conflicts. Sometimes, children also cause conflicts when they feel that their parents no longer trust their abilities and aspirations. If their needs are not being taken care of, they may think that the parents do not trust these childrens abilities although this may not be the case. Some parents direct their trust to some children and they deny it to others mainly because of perceived weaknesses and strengths. In this way, they pity these children against each other, a situation that leads to a bitter conflict that lasts for a very long times. Misunderstanding is another social probleem that manifests itself through problems in a relationship. Sometimes, the actions of one family member are misunderstood by the other family members. For instance, all family members may fail to understand why the father has decided to spend all the previous years savings to pay for his advanced education while the children have been sent home from school for lack of school fees. Although the father may mean well for the family by taking this action, no one may realize this since there is a misunderstanding of his actions. When misunderstandings occur, it is easy for every person in the family to blame the person next to him, especially if this misunderstanding has caused a major blunder, an accident or damage to the reputation of the family in the eyes of the public. Misunderstanding may lead to lack of trust, something that leads to serious problems in relationships. Clarification is needed all the time in order to avoid misunderstandings from taking place. Infidelity is another major cause of domestic violence. Infidelity means lack of faithfulness by one spouse. A spouse may decide to commit adultery when the other not around or is looking the other side. When this spouse comes around or turns towards that other side and finds the spouse committing adultery, domestic violence arises. Buy custom Causes of Domestic Violence essay

US Immigration Act of 1917

US Immigration Act of 1917 The Immigration Act of 1917 drastically reduced US immigration by expanding the prohibitions of the Chinese exclusion laws of the late 1800s. The law created an â€Å"Asiatic barred zone† provision prohibiting immigration from British India, most of Southeast Asia, the Pacific Islands, and the Middle East. In addition, the law required a basic literacy test for all immigrants and barred homosexuals, â€Å"idiots,† the â€Å"insane,† alcoholics, â€Å"anarchists,† and several other categories from immigrating. Details and Effects of the Immigration Act of 1917 From the late 1800s to the early 1900s, no nation welcomed more immigrants into its borders than the United States. In 1907 alone, a record 1.3 million immigrants entered the U.S. through New York’s Ellis Island. However, the Immigration Act of 1917, a product of the pre-World War I isolationism movement, would drastically change that. Also known as the Asiatic Barred Zone Act, the Immigration Act of 1917, barred immigrants from a large part of the world loosely defined as â€Å"Any country not owned by the U.S. adjacent to the continent of Asia.† In practice, the barred zone provision excluded immigrants from Afghanistan, the Arabian Peninsula, Asiatic Russia, India, Malaysia, Myanmar, and the Polynesian Islands. However, both Japan and the Philippines were excluded from the barred zone. The law also allowed exceptions for students, certain professionals, such as teachers and doctors, and their wives and children. Other provisions of the law increase the â€Å"head tax† immigrants were required to pay on entry to $8.00 per person and eliminated a provision in an earlier law that had excused Mexican farm and railroad workers from paying the head tax. The law also barred all immigrants over the age of 16 who were illiterate or deemed to be â€Å"mentally defective† or physically handicapped. The term â€Å"mentally defective† was interpreted to effectively exclude homosexual immigrants who admitted their sexual orientation. U.S. immigration laws continued to ban homosexuals until the passage of the Immigration Act of 1990, sponsored by Democratic Senator Edward M. Kennedy.   The law defined literacy as being able to read a simple 30 to 40-word passage written in the immigrant’s native language. Persons who claimed they were entering the U.S. to avoid religious persecution in their country of origin were not required to take the literacy test. Perhaps considered most politically incorrect by today’s standards, the law include specific language barring the immigration of â€Å"idiots, imbeciles, epileptics, alcoholics, poor, criminals, beggars, any person suffering attacks of insanity, those with tuberculosis, and those who have any form of dangerous contagious disease, aliens who have a physical disability that will restrict them from earning a living in the United States..., polygamists and anarchists,† as well as â€Å"those who were against the organized government or those who advocated the unlawful destruction of property and those who advocated the unlawful assault of killing of any officer.† Effect of the Immigration Act of 1917 To say the least, the Immigration Act of 1917 had the impact desired by its supporters. According to the Migration Policy Institute, only about 110,000 new immigrants were allowed to enter the United States in 1918, compared to more than 1.2 million in 1913. Further limiting immigration, Congress passed the National Origins Act of 1924, which for the first time established an immigration-limiting quota system and required all immigrants to be screened while still in their countries of origin. The law resulted in the virtual closure of Ellis Island as an immigrant processing center. After 1924, the only immigrants still being screened at Ellis Island were those who had problems with their paperwork, war refugees, and displaced persons. Isolationism Drove the Immigration Act of 1917 As an outgrowth of the American isolationism movement that dominated the 19th century, the Immigration Restriction League was founded in Boston in 1894. Seeking mainly to slow the entry of â€Å"lower-class† immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe, the group lobbied Congress to pass legislation requiring immigrants to prove their literacy. In 1897, Congress passed an immigrant literacy bill sponsored by Massachusetts Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, but President Grover Cleveland vetoed the law.    Be early 1917, with America’s participation in World War I appearing inevitable, demands for isolationism hit an all-time high. In that growing atmosphere of xenophobia, Congress easily passed the Immigration Act of 1917 and then overrode President Woodrow Wilson’s veto of the law by a supermajority vote. Amendments Restore US Immigration The negative effects of drastically reduced immigration and the general inequity of laws like the Immigration Act of 1917 soon become apparent and Congress reacted. With World War I reducing the American workforce, Congress amended the Immigration Act of 1917 to reinstate a provision exempting Mexican farm and ranch workers from the entry tax requirement. The exemption was soon extended to Mexican mining and railroad industry workers. Shortly after the end of World War II, the Luce-Celler Act of 1946, sponsored by Republican Representative Clare Boothe Luce and Democrat Emanuel Celler eased immigration and naturalization restrictions against Asian Indian and Filipino immigrants. The law allowed the immigration of up to 100 Filipinos and 100 Indians per year and again allowed Filipino and Indian immigrants to become United States citizens. The law also allowed naturalized Indian Americans and FilipinoAmericans to own homes and farms and to petition for their family members to be allowed to immigrate to the United States. In the final year of the presidency of Harry S. Truman, Congress further amended the Immigration Act of 1917 with its passage of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, known as the McCarran-Walter Act. The law allowed Japanese, Korean and other Asian immigrants to seek naturalization and established an immigration system that placed emphasis on skill sets and reuniting families. Concerned by the fact that the law maintained a quota system drastically limiting immigration from Asian nations, President Wilson vetoed the McCarran-Walter Act, but Congress garnered the votes needed to override the veto. Between 1860 and 1920, the immigrant share of the total U.S. population varied between 13% and nearly 15%, peaking at 14.8% in 1890, mainly due to high levels of immigrants from Europe. As of the end of 1994, the U.S. immigrant population stood at more than 42.4 million, or 13.3%, of the total U.S. population, according to Census Bureau data. Between 2013 and 2014, the foreign-born population of the U.S. increased by 1 million, or 2.5 percent. Immigrants to the United States and their children born in the U.S. now number approximately 81 million people or 26% of the overall U.S. population. Fast Facts The Immigration Act of 1917 reduced the flood of immigrants entering the U.S. in 1913 to a trickle by banning all immigration from British India, most of Southeast Asia, the Pacific Islands, and the Middle East.The law also required all immigrants to pass a basic literacy test in their native language and barred certain â€Å"undesirable† individuals, such as â€Å"idiots,† the â€Å"insane,† alcoholics, â€Å"anarchists† from entering the United States.The impetus behind the Immigration Act of 1917 was the isolationist movement seeking to prevent the United States from becoming involved in World War I.Though President Woodrow Wilson initially vetoed the Immigration Act of 1917, Congress overwhelmingly overrode his veto, making the act a federal law on February 5, 1917.

Collective Bargaining in Wisconsin Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Collective Bargaining in Wisconsin - Essay Example uments on the constitutionality of a 2011 law that eliminated collective bargaining for most public employees after the legislation led to huge protests across the nation (Yaccin, 2013). The policy of collective bargaining sought to give most public workers collective bargaining rights through union membership. This paper explores federalism and collective bargaining in Wisconsin Legislation. It will demonstrate how this policy raises issues of federalism that stretches across state and local government to the federal government level and even the Supreme Court. The collective bargaining in Wisconsin Legislation has been drawing fundamental national attention since Wisconsin’s Republican-majority legislature passed it into law during Mr. Walker’s first year in office. The law sparked major protests in Capitol building and many Senate Democrats left the state to delay a vote on the bill. The policy limited collective bargaining for teachers and most local government workers where they would only bargain for their wages and no other matters concerning their welfare (Yaccin, 2013). These matters were earlier subject to collective bargaining agreements. The policy also barred municipal employers from deducting union dues from employee paychecks. The policy raised issues of federalism where it divided the state into partisan lines for two years as the Republicans and Democrats took opposing sides. It also threatened the Republican administration as hundreds of thousands citizens appended their signatures seeking to remove Mr. Walke r from power where he survived with 53 percent of the vote (Yaccin, 2013). Moreover, about seven public unions have been challenging this policy since its enactment. Indeed, a teachers union in Madison and a labor group representing employees of the city of Milwaukee challenged this policy claiming that it violates freedom of association and the right to equal protection of the law by subjecting unionized public employees to burdens not

Educational Technology Proposal Research Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Educational Technology - Research Proposal Example It is known as the â€Å"Little School Across the River.† Lafarque Elementary enrollment is roughly 736 students with a population consisting of 75% white students and 25% black students, grades ranging from Pre-Kindergarten to Sixth grade. As the only 6th grade math teacher, I teach a total of 98 students in four 90 minute blocks. My students are seated in groups of four in order to incorporate cooperative learning, as well as complete group assignments. I have pertinent math material posted throughout my classroom as well. I have 15 special needs students (1 IEP and 14 IAP’s). A certified Special Education teacher does come into my room daily for a total of 30 minutes to assist as needed. The reason for choosing my classes for the study is to see how technology can improve their ability to learn and comprehend 6th grade mathematical concepts and practices. Their strengths are, hopefully, the cooperative learning that has been instituted in the classroom from Day 1. I hoped that by using cooperative learning that the students would be able to help one another in the learning of Math. This grouping of four also allows me top teach them through group assignments. Their challenges are the ability to get along with one another while attempting to complete the group assignments or help one another through cooperative learning. ... However, the research shows the positives heavily outweigh the negative aspects when it comes to using technology in the classroom. A lot of the sources found for this research show us that many of the research studies used in the sources themselves are the same. Most of those particular studies shows us that technology affects the students’ ability to learn in positive ways. On the website Education World there is an article, entitled Technology in Schools: Does it Make a Difference, written by Glori Chaika back in 1999, which was originally from the website TechnicalSchool.org, but placed on this site in 2006. This article opens up with the information of the Clinton administration back in 1998 setting aside an additional $25 million for integrating technology into the schools and instructing the teachers in the use of technology for the classroom. Furthermore, this article quotes Darla Waldrop, a junior-high computer lab coordinator in Louisiana. She states, â€Å"Children who don’t do anything in class will work if it’s on the computer. It takes that ‘I’m not working for an authority figure’ out of it. They’re working at their own pace, and they love the multimedia effect.† This article also tells what makes some programs more successful than others. And it gives the pro resources for technology in schools. Best Evidence Encyclopedia released a booklet in July of this past year that was written by two members of Johns Hopkins University, Alan C.K. Cheung and Robert Slavin. This booklet was entitled, The Effectiveness of Educational Technology Applications for Enhancing Mathematics Achievement in K -12 Classrooms: A Meta-Analysis. This meta-analysis shows us that technology in mathematics classrooms help the students