Monday, September 30, 2019

Medea: power of women a mythological context

Medea is the sorceress born to King Aeetes of Colchis and is said to be the granddaughter of Helios the god of Sun. Jason sought the golden ram’s fleece belonging to Aeetes’, in the process of earning the same as per conditions laid down by the King, Medea fell in love with Jason and assisted him in obtaining the fleece through her magical powers on the conditions that he married her. On obtaining the fleece, Jason fled the Kingdom with Medea and Absyrtis, her younger brother. To prevent Aeetes, from successfully pursuing them, Medea killed her younger brother and scattered his body in pieces so that her father’s men had to perforce stop to collect the pieces and give a decent burial to Absyrtis. The couple then settled in Corinth and Medea bore two sons to Jason. When Jason decided to marry the daughter of the king of Corinth, Creon, and Medea killed her as well as her own children borne from Jason to spite him in the harshest possible way. After the killing she took refuge with Aegeus, the king of Athens and bore him a son Medus, but finally failed in killing the elder son of Aegeus, thereby again having to flee from her husband. Medus later became the king of Media. The mythological tale of Medea provides a perspective of the role of women in Greek society and their pursuit to break away from a life given to serving the needs of men be it in the role of the daughter, sister, wife or mother. Viewing Greek Gender Role through the myth of Medea Medea’s struggle is that of a mythological woman in ancient times attempting to take control of her own life through a series of personal as well as public travails. The irony lies in it denoting, that to gain influence in society a woman has to be a force of evil, a sorceress with super natural powers granted as an exception rather than an emancipated position for all women folk. Medea thus embodies the opposite of the traditional gender role for women in Greek society rejecting the status quo, the stereo type of women being powerless and having to do the bidding of their male relatives and ultimately rules made by society for them. The traditional role granted to Greek women in mythology is that of a, â€Å"helper maiden† (Clauss and Iles (Ed), 1997, 13).   Some other views of gender roles indicate that women had a passive, domestic, emotional and somewhat irrational role to play while the male function was indicated as being active, reasonable, and rational and representing the public face. Medea attempts to carve an independent role not just for herself but for Greek women as a whole, however she is perhaps one of the few exceptions of her times and other women are unable to support her personal conviction. In assuming an independent role for herself, Medea highlights to Jason that had he perhaps told her about his intent of second marriage, things would have been different, though Jason naturally scoffs at this suggestion of hers as, â€Å"Oh yes, if I'd told you of the wedding, I'm sure you would have lent me fine support. Even now you can't stand to set aside that huge rage in your heart.† (Johnston, Nd) Medea highlights her fierce independence by rejecting the second non consensual marriage of Jason and also his offer to provide for her if she can only request him for help. She totally refuses to plead him, despite his generous offer, as Jason states, â€Å"All right, but I call the gods to witness I'm willing to help you and the children. But you reject my goods and stubbornly push away your friends, and that the reason you suffer still more pain.† (Johnston, Nd) Medea in relation to Peers Medea’s attempt to review the role of women has been epitomized in the struggle against the stereo type, feminine role in Greek mythology. This role confined women to being a wife, a bearer of children and one who continues to be miserable both before and after matrimony. Unlike other women, who perhaps accept their fate, Medea laments that, â€Å"First, we need a husband, someone we get for an excessive price. He then becomes the ruler of our bodies. ___ For a divorce loses women all respect, yet we can't refuse to take a husband. __ But if the marriage doesn't work, then death is much to be preferred. ___ We women have to look at just one man.† (Johnston, Nd) Medea detests the role of the female as a womb for the children of her husband; however she assumed these thoughts only after she has been scorned by her husband who has taken another women. She represents a women scorned, thus, â€Å"In other things a woman may be timid—in watching battles or seeing steel, but when she's hurt in love, her marriage violated, there's no heart more desperate for blood than hers.† (Johnston, Nd) But then women in Greek society are not supposed to complain against such injustice. And her lament bore no fruit as in the classical Greek tradition, the women who rebels is expelled from society, thus Creon says, â€Å"You there, Medea, scowling in anger against your husband. I'm ordering you out of Corinth. You must go into exile, and take those two children of yours with you.† (Johnston, Nd) To Medea this is dual injustice as she has lost her husband to another woman and for protesting has been expelled from Corinth. Women in Corinth as the King told Medea had to suffer in silence. They had to be redeemed by bearing children for their husbands, through charity, sober behavior and faith. This very lucidly highlights the Greek view that women have no right to protest in case their husband has abandoned them and have to suffer in solitude. The key issue is thus lack of choice to women while not for men. Medea however succeeds in gaining power through her role as a sorceress. Thus by her knowledge of herbs and health potions, she is able to gain control of her adversaries as well as her loved ones. These potions have power to heal, denoted as magic in mythology. This is one element of power which has been invariably granted to women in Greece, given their greater knowledge of the value and utility of different types of herbs. Another allusion to the power of women expressed by being a sorceress is Medea’s killings, first her brother, than Jason’s second wife and her own children. The power of causing death which is a negative influence is generally seen to be granted to the male in Greek mythology through his ability to wage war and victory. Medea aspires to and gains this power through her facility with potions, causing death with equanimity. This is the power of evil, so be it feels the scorned women, for perhaps in ancient Greece that is the only power that women could aspire for. By assuming an active role in each of her joint encounters with Jason, whether it is in assisting him in gaining hold of the golden ram’s fleece, getting away from her father, seeking a second marriage or in getting her son Medus a say in the kingdom of Athens, it is the active role played by Medea, rather than normal passivity which is associated with women in Greece which is significant. Medea is so dominantly active, that she even gives an impression to Jason that in case he had sought her consent to marry a second time; she would have perhaps accorded him the same. This active position is undertaken through the path of evil, as a sorceress.   This was perhaps natural given the times in which Medea lived, representing exception rather than the aspirations of a large proportion of her gender who were perhaps satisfied to remain within the confines of the traditional role granted to them by society of looking after the home and hearth. This route of evil to gain power as a woman may be faulted but perhaps it has to be placed in the context of Medea as a woman having no other option in ancient Greece. Reference 1. Johnston, Ian. (Translation). No Date (Nd). Euripides Medea. http://www.mala.bc.ca/~johnstoi/euripides/medea.htm 2.Clauss, James J. Johnston, Sarah Iles. Eds. 1997. Medea: Essays on Medea in Myth, Literature, Philosophy and Art. Princeton. Princeton University Press. 3. Foley, Helene P. 2002. Female Acts in Greek Tragedy. Princeton. Princeton University Press. ; ;

Sunday, September 29, 2019

Alexander the Great from Macedonia Essay

The cuisine of th Middle East has the same similarities as that of the Greeks for many reasons. According to history, Alexander the Great from Macedonia which is also known as Greece of today’s world came to the Middle East in the 300 BC. This brought about many Greco influences into the lives of the Middle East people. Moreover, during the Roman Empire, the Greeks brought sweets and fruits to th region. As a matter of fact, there has been a continued trade of spices between the two regions that it has become a the spice center of the world. At the same time, the religion of the Middle east has a dominant role to play in their food traditions. Christianity in particular came from the Greek tradition. In Israel, the cuisine is considered to be international because of the diverse immigrants in the country. These immigrants range from countries like Greece to Turkey to Spain and to North Africa which influenced the way Israelites cook and prepare their food. At the same time, the North African cuisine such as that of Libya, Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia share similarities with most the Arabic tradition because of the Islamic conquest that happened in the 7th century. Most of their cuisines are influenced by the Arabs and the aboriginal peoples of the the region which are called Berbers. In addition, Egypt has large influence geographically. It is situated in North Africa which carries with it an Arabic tradition and culture. North Africa has always been considered Middle Eastern and Mediterranean in nature because of its geographical location. 4. Four of the most famous food in West Africa are Yassa, Sauce Canny, Diebou Dien, and Yam. The Yassa is made out of chicken or lamb with a citrus or a lime in it as a flavoring. It could also be made with fish or vegetables. The saucy Canny is made out of onions, garlics, and shallots which is mainly used as an accompaniment to may of West Africa’s dishes. The Deibou Dien is composed of fresh and dried fish with onions and tomatoes. It also has as many vegetables as possible such as an eggplant, a manioc, turnips, white radish, cabbage, and carrots. In East Africa, the common foods are Niker Kebboh and Alecha. Niter Kebboh is made up of butter with spices like ginger, garlic, and cinnamon. Alecha on one hand is a stew made of chicken or beef or other kinds of meat. It is accompanied with bread. It is usually dipped into the spicy dishes and once its already soaked up the it is lifted into the mouth. 5.

Saturday, September 28, 2019

Ethical Boundaries and Practices Essay

Follow the directions below to write a paper of 1,500-1,750 words on counselor ethical boundaries and practices. For this paper, write from the perspective that you are a professional counselor in the field. Provide a thoughtful response to each of the following three sections, including specific, concrete examples to illustrate your ideas. Use the section headings provided below to separate each section of your paper. Your final deliverable should be one cohesive paper addressing all three sections along with an introduction and conclusion. Section 1: Boundary Issues and Dual Relationships Part A – Decision-Making Model and Counseling Examples How would you determine if a boundary-crossing or dual relationship is ethical and appropriate? What criteria would you consider when making your decision? Present examples of how you would apply this criteria to at least four counseling situations in which you believe the dual relationship issues are complex and ambiguous. One of your examples should address the issues of physical attraction between clients and counselors. Part B-Ethical Issues and Dimensions In addition, examine these issues in terms of former clients. Address the following: Do the ethical issues (and your opinion about appropriateness) change, depending on how long after the termination of therapy a dual relationship is initiated? What are the key ethical dimensions that might change, after the termination of therapy? Present an example of a situation that you believe would constitute a boundary violation with a current client but might be acceptable with a former client. Section 2: Professional Collaboration in Counseling Part A – Working with a Multidisciplinary Team Explain why counselors frequently collaborate with other stakeholders regarding a client’s care in order to maintain professional and ethical boundaries and practices. For example, professional counselors frequently work with clients with addiction issues. Addiction counselors may work with  clients who also have a co-occurring disorder. The specific roles of each of these counselors are well defined; straying into an area outside your scope of practice is unethical. How would you work independently as a counselor within your scope of practice as well as collaboratively with other mental health professionals to ensure quality client care? What is the role of a counselor in a multidisciplinary team? Part B –Relationships with Supervisors and Colleagues Describe the ethical issues involved in the supervisor-counselor relationship. How is this relationship similar to the counselor-client relationship? How is it different? Outline a series of criteria and describe how you would integrate the criteria into an ethical decision-making model to respond to issues of incompetence and/or unethical conduct by fellow counselors. Section 3: Development of Your Thinking about Ethics Clearly describe what you consider to be the most important developments in your thinking about ethical practice that have occurred during this course. This may include areas in which you have clarified your views and beliefs, modified your thinking on a given issue, gained new insights, or acquired a new perspective. It may include issues whose complexity you now appreciate more fully or difficult issues that you now understand you must grapple with, as a counselor. What have you most learned about yourself and/or about what constitutes becoming an ethical practitioner and how has your thinking about ethics and legal issues changed? Be sure that you include specific examples to illustrate general statements.

Friday, September 27, 2019

Source Analysis Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Source Analysis Paper - Essay Example To the family and other Englishmen, this brought about a reality check in terms accepting Eunice’s choice to stick with the Indians out of her own consent. To the father, John Williams who professed a puritans faith, Eunice’s refusal to come back, called for a concerted prayer for redemption. In this context, the redemption meant freeing Eunice from harm or distress. While, Eunice does not view her action as wrong, the puritans remain adamant for redemption to save her from the Native Americans. The action by Eunice presents a pattern of trying to assimilate into another culture. This choice, results in pain and anguish to John Williams, the father. Among the English, the choice by Eunice then, was viewed as a lost cause. However, there is need to consider fact that, Eunice decided live according to how she sees it fit. In essence, Eunice’s case in this story brings to light how choices and liberty manifested in 1700s United States. Among the custom was, having f reedom to make own choices (Demos 37). As part of exercising one’s own liberty, Eunice deviated from her English roots. This involved converting to Catholism and disowned her name (Demos 107). Such events clearly indicate dissatisfaction with her previous roots. During 1700s, colonialists explored the Americas to practice religious freedom. There was freedom in terms of practicing own religion without disapproval from the King. However, regions such as New England adopted protestant faith, and was regarded more superior than other faith. This is evident when John Williams assert that, â€Å"Eunice should not loss her protestant faith in the hands of the captives† (Demos 37). The book further, reflects on a lack of respect to French Jesuits by the English Protestants. However, Demos assert that, â€Å"the Native Americans were not easily swayed to alien model† (Demos 171). The lack of religious tolerance forced John Williams to spend only a few moments talking to Eunice. It might seem that, Eunice disliked the over dependence on God among the English and her family in New England. Despite the disapproval by John Williams regarding her daughter’s choice, Eunice displayed one of the pinnacle American choices, which is, individual freedom and choice. The Native Americans regard Eunice as an equal, compared to limited liberty allowed by the English at that period in history. In reality, Eunice experienced two conflicting civilizations (Demos 175). In this story, and particular, a focus on Eunice, reflects on the freedoms instituted in the American society. Further, this story picture a period in America when religious tolerance was gaining momentum. Religious tolerance is today identified by all Americans as a vital possession. The choices made by Eunice, reflects on the Bill of Rights. Despite the story being petite histoire, illustrations about liberty are evident in a large way. In addition, the choices by Eunice have established a pr ecedent for future generations of the American society. The precedent, involves freedom to make own choices. The ideals that shape the American society today, reflects back to the journey taken by Eunice in pursuit for choice and liberty (Demos 255). In a review of Demos and Cronon’s arguments, both focuses on history related to New England. Cronon on one hand focuses on ecological changes by comparing Indians and the Europeans. Demos on the other hand, highlights on the puritans roots compared to French Jesuit and the Native American

Thursday, September 26, 2019

Biblical creation story in reference to science Essay

Biblical creation story in reference to science - Essay Example The second is the day age view that states that the days in the book of Genesis are indefinite periods and not the normal twenty four- days. The restoration theorists come up with a different view that the days in genesis are indeed the normal days, but a lot time elapsed between the first and second verses of the book of Genesis when God was recreating the earth. The fourth view that is the literary framework view states that the author of the book of Genesis did not intend to indicate the order of creation nor the number of days and it is therefore not in order to go into this line. Science and the biblical story of creation can only be linked if the Genesis days are viewed as indefinite periods. Theologians use other verses in the Bible to explain the other verses. It is this explanation that shows that the days in Genesis could only be explained in the form of periods that are indefinite. When looking at the Hebrew Bible, the word yom is used to explain the days in the creation story. In Hebrew, the word yom represents the normal days with twenty-four hours. This can be misleading, but when we look at other scriptures, the word yom represents periods of time. For example, in the book of Hosea 6:2 where Hosea tells the people that after two days God would revive them and on the third day, raise them up.( New King James Version) Taken in this context, it cannot mean the ordinary twenty-four hours of the day. One would argue that the days in Genesis chapter one are normal days because God commanded man to work for six days and rest on the seventh day. The aspect being brought in here is that man should dedicate some of his time to worship his creator: it is the idea of rest being brought in. In Exodus 23: 10-11, the Sabbath rest is a yearlong and also in Leviticus 5: 8-17, the Israelites were commanded to take a rest of jubilee after fifty years. The author of Genesis chapter one states that vegetation was created before the sun. This statement

THE IMPACT OF DRESSING ROOM LIGHTING DIRECTIONS ON CONSUMER Essay

THE IMPACT OF DRESSING ROOM LIGHTING DIRECTIONS ON CONSUMER - Essay Example It is the dressing room where the consumer decides to purchase and not to acquire the clothing items. The retailer should realize the dressing room importance and this would help in increasing the sales. A lot of research works have been made in the last few years regarding the dressing room lighting. All the researches have given importance how the dress room lighting influences the consumer’s emotional states and personal evaluations. Many researchers believe that the buying decision at the clothing store depends upon the impression carried by the consumer at the dressing room. If the dressing room scenario is not good, it may negatively affects the shopping experience and results in a lost sale. If the store environment is not proper, it may affect the consumer mode on shopping. If there is good atmosphere, it motivates the shopper to do shopping. As a result, lightening of the store and the dressing room in the clothing store have a great role to play in the clothing busin ess.A Review of LiteratureTill today many studies have been made about the lighting of the main show room, however, fewer studies have been made about the lighting of the dressing room. Researchers have found that when lighting is used as a stimulus, it enhances product evaluation as well as the stores atmospheric conditions.(Obermiller & Bitner, 1984: Areni & Kim, 1994; Donovan & Rossiter, 1982; Donovan, et.al., 1994; Park & Farr, 2007; Summers & Hebert, 2001). This also creates a forgetable shopping experience for the consumer (Hegde, 2000) , though the effects of lighting on the main sales floor have been studied in some depth, nothing is known about how dressing room lighting influences the experience of the consumer. Mang, 2008 and Underhiil,1999 reveals that the clothing store dressing rooms are where consumers try on clothes and make their final evaluations and it is one of the most critical aspects of the sales

Wednesday, September 25, 2019

Experimental design on how to investigate the innate behaviour of Essay

Experimental design on how to investigate the innate behaviour of woodlice Introduction - Essay Example On the other hand, taxis behaviour is a behaviour in which an animal orients itself in an absolute direction in response to environment stimulus.2 Woodlice belong to the crustacean class. Most of these animals are terrestrial species and aquatic. It is believed that they exhibit an innate behaviour in that they tend to stay in wet and dark environment because they lack the characteristic waxy skeleton on their ex-skeleton like does most of the arthropods, thus tend to lose water easily when in dry conditions ()3. Woodlice are also good examples of organisms that orient themselves to humidity through kinesis. Woodlice also exhibit negative phototaxis. They have ocelli (light receptors). As a result, they do make directed movement away from illumination into the dark areas. They increase their locomotory activity in dry areas. However, this activity is decreased in humid conditions and for this reason they tend to accumulate in areas of high humidity.4 As indicated earlier, woodlice prefer wet and dark environment. Consequently, they increase their locomotory activities in dry areas and reduce their movement in humid areas. For this reason it would be expected that the number of woodlice will be greater int the more humid and dark areas. Then, the tray will be covered to exclude natural light and retain the humid moisture. The tray will be placed in a sheltered location free from direct sunlight. The lighting will be achieved through the use of a stand lamp placed at the same position and distance from the trays throughout the experiment. The distance will be reasonable to prevent transferring heat to the trays. Repeat the above procedures, but this time covering the tray with a perforated aluminium foil in order to create a dark environment, remove the stand lamp and then record the results after 30 minutes Table

Tuesday, September 24, 2019

Suitability of a relational database structure rather than a Essay

Suitability of a relational database structure rather than a spreadsheet table - Essay Example This research is about determining the suitability of a relational database structure over a spreadsheet table for storing and accessing data for a local arts centre. The local arts centre wants to store and access the information on the various classes and/or workshops offered, the tutors, their specialist areas and the people who sign up for the classes. In this scenario there are two main technology options; we can build a spreadsheet structure for managing these operations or we can develop a relational database system to deal with the operations of the local arts centre. The database can be developed using the spreadsheet and relational database structures. In case of effective development and handling of data and its effective manipulation we have seen that relational database structure offers more facilities and functions. However, the spreadsheet structure is also effective in case of small data management because it is easy to produce and manage. But, in case of huge or complex data management and handling we will surely require the relational database structures. Thus, the local arts centre should choose relational database structure for storing the data.

Monday, September 23, 2019

Journal Entry Week 4 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Journal Entry Week 4 - Essay Example Due to these challenges, shifting their manufacturing base back to the North America seems better option. The most obvious gains would be in the form of savings in labor costs compared to present Chinese trend; savings in transportation, duties, supply chain risks, industrial real estate and other such costs. Automation and other such measures to reduce costs will further depreciate Chinese labor economy. Rising demand markets in the Asian and Chinese regions can be advantageous to the North American manufacturers. Considering the challenges posed by the Chinese labor market, shifting outsourcing base to other developing countries would be beneficial, but these countries lack required resources, skill, capacity, infrastructure, security, government support etc. The US adopted outsourcing culture many decades ago, which caused serious challenges for its citizens; yet, they emerged from these challenges only to be better innovators and, thus, rule the world. During last decade, China dominated the world nations in exports and manufacturing industry owing to its low labor cost and availability of high-end technology. However, the author argues that manufacturing potential in the US still remains higher than visible and its flexibility adds greater potential to its future. Analysts suggest that the cost of production in the US is likely to be same as that in China, or slightly higher. In order to meet profitability from their production industry, China may shift some work to its interior cities that offer lower labor costs; however, differential skill set will be scarce. Many evidences exist to believe about shift of production base from China and other countries back to America; however, large scale production still continues to be undertaken in China. Production competitors to China include other low-cost labor countries: Thailand, Vietnam, and Cambodia. Researchers

Sunday, September 22, 2019

Personality psychology Essay Example for Free

Personality psychology Essay Freud said that the goal of therapy was to make the unconscious conscious. He certainly made that the goal of his work as a theorist. And yet he makes the unconscious sound very unpleasant, to say the least: It is a cauldron of seething desires, a bottomless pit of perverse and incestuous cravings, a burial ground for frightening experiences which nevertheless come back to haunt us. Frankly, it doesnt sound like anything Id like to make conscious! A younger colleague of his, Carl Jung, was to make the exploration of this inner space his lifes work. He went equipped with a background in Freudian theory, of course, and with an apparently inexhaustible knowledge of mythology, religion, and philosophy. Jung was especially knowledgeable in the symbolism of complex mystical traditions such as Gnosticism, Alchemy, Kabala, and similar traditions in Hinduism and Buddhism. If anyone could make sense of the unconscious and its habit of revealing itself only in symbolic form, it would be Carl Jung. He had, in addition, a capacity for very lucid dreaming and occasional visions. In the fall of 1913, he had a vision of a monstrous flood engulfing most of Europe and lapping at the mountains of his native Switzerland. He saw thousands of people drowning and civilization crumbling. Then, the waters turned into blood. This vision was followed, in the next few weeks, by dreams of eternal winters and rivers of blood. He was afraid that he was becoming psychotic. But on August 1 of that year, World War I began. Jung felt that there had been a connection, somehow, between himself as an individual and humanity in general that could not be explained away. From then until 1928, he was to go through a rather painful process of self-exploration that formed the basis of all of his later theorizing. He carefully recorded his dreams, fantasies, and visions, and drew, painted, and sculpted them as well. He found that his experiences tended to form themselves into persons, beginning with a wise old man and his companion, a little girl. The wise old man evolved, over a number of dreams, into a sort of spiritual guru. The little girl became anima, the feminine soul, who served as his main medium of communication with the deeper aspects of his unconscious. A leathery brown dwarf would show up guarding the entrance to the unconscious. He was the shadow, a primitive companion for Jungs ego. Jung dreamt that he and the dwarf killed a beautiful blond youth, whom he called Siegfried. For Jung, this represented a warning about the dangers of the worship of glory and heroism which would soon cause so much sorrow all over Europe and a warning about the dangers of some of his own tendencies towards hero-worship, of Sigmund Freud! Jung dreamt a great deal about the dead, the land of the dead, and the rising of the dead. These represented the unconscious itself not the little personal unconscious that Freud made such a big deal out of, but a new collective unconscious of humanity itself, an unconscious that could contain all the dead, not just our personal ghosts. Jung began to see the mentally ill as people who are haunted by these ghosts, in an age where no-one is supposed to even believe in them. If we could only recapture our mythologies, we would understand these ghosts, become comfortable with the dead, and heal our mental illnesses. Critics have suggested that Jung was, very simply, ill himself when all this happened. But Jung felt that, if you want to understand the jungle, you cant be content just to sail back and forth near the shore. Youve got to get into it, no matter how strange and frightening it might seem. Biography Carl Gustav Jung was born July 26, 1875, in the small Swiss village of Kessewil. His father was Paul Jung, a country parson, and his mother was Emilie Preiswerk Jung. He was surrounded by a fairly well educated extended family, including quite a few clergymen and some eccentrics as well. The elder Jung started Carl on Latin when he was six years old, beginning a long interest in language and literature especially ancient literature. Besides most modern western European languages, Jung could read several ancient ones, including Sanskrit, the language of the original Hindu holy books. Carl was a rather solitary adolescent, who didnt care much for school, and especially couldnt take competition. He went to boarding school in Basel, Switzerland, where he found himself the object of a lot of jealous  harassment. He began to use sickness as an excuse, developing an embarrassing tendency to faint under pressure. Although his first career choice was archeology, he went on to study medicine at the University of Basel. While working under the famous neurologist Krafft-Ebing, he settled on psychiatry as his career. After graduating, he took a position at the Burghoeltzli Mental Hospital in Zurich under Eugene Bleuler, an expert on (and the namer of) schizophrenia. In 1903, he married Emma Rauschenbach. He also taught classes at the University of Zurich, had a private practice, and invented word association at this time! Long an admirer of Freud, he met him in Vienna in 1907. The story goes that after they met, Freud canceled all his appointments for the day, and they talked for 13 hours straight, such was the impact of the meeting of these two great minds! Freud eventually came to see Jung as the crown prince of psychoanalysis and his heir apparent. But Jung had never been entirely sold on Freuds theory. Their relationship began to cool in 1909, during a trip to America. They were entertaining themselves by analyzing each others dreams (more fun, apparently, than shuffleboard), when Freud seemed to show an excess of resistance to Jungs efforts at analysis. Freud finally said that theyd have to stop because he was afraid he would lose his authority! Jung felt rather insulted. World War I was a painful period of self-examination for Jung. It was, however, also the beginning of one of the most interesting theories of personality the world has ever seen. After the war, Jung traveled widely, visiting, for example, tribal people in Africa, America, and India. He retired in 1946, and began to retreat from public attention after his wife died in 1955. He died on June 6, 1961, in Zurich. Theory Jungs theory divides the psyche into three parts. The first is the ego,which Jung identifies with the conscious mind. Closely related is the personal unconscious, which includes anything which is not presently conscious, but can be. The personal unconscious is like most peoples understanding of the unconscious in that it includes both memories that are easily brought to mind and those that have been suppressed for some reason. But it does not include the instincts that Freud would have it include. But then Jung adds the part of the psyche that makes his theory stand out from all others: the collective unconscious. You could call it your psychic inheritance. It is the reservoir of our experiences as a species, a kind of knowledge we are all born with. And yet we can never be directly conscious of it. It influences all of our experiences and behaviors, most especially the emotional ones, but we only know about it indirectly, by looking at those influences. There are some experiences that show the effects of the collective unconscious more clearly than others: The experiences of love at first sight, of deja vu (the feeling that youve been here before), and the immediate recognition of certain symbols and the meanings of certain myths, could all be understood as the sudden conjunction of our outer reality and the inner reality of the collective unconscious. Grander examples are the creative experiences shared by artists and musicians all over the world and in all times, or the spiritual experiences of mystics of all religions, or the parallels in dreams, fantasies, mythologies, fairy tales, and literature. A nice example that has been greatly discussed recently is the near-death experience. It seems that many people, of many different cultural backgrounds, find that they have very similar recollections when they are brought back from a close encounter with death. They speak of leaving their bodies, seeing their bodies and the events surrounding them clearly, of being pulled through a long tunnel towards a bright light, of seeing deceased relatives or religious figures waiting for them, and of their disappointment at having to leave this happy scene to return to their bodies. Perhaps we are all built to experience death in this fashion. Archetypes The contents of the collective unconscious are called archetypes. Jung also called them dominants, imagos, mythological or primordial images, and a few other names, but archetypes seems to have won out over these. An archetype is an unlearned tendency to experience things in a certain way. The archetype has no form of its own, but it acts as an organizing principle on the things we see or do. It works the way that instincts work in Freuds theory: At first, the baby just wants something to eat, without knowing what it wants. It has a rather indefinite yearning which, nevertheless, can be satisfied by some things and not by others. Later, with experience, the child begins to yearn for something more specific when it is hungry a bottle, a cookie, a broiled lobster, a slice of New York style pizza. The archetype is like a black hole in space: You only know its there by how it draws matter and light to itself. The mother archetype The mother archetype is a particularly good example. All of our ancestors had mothers. We have evolved in an environment that included a mother or mother-substitute. We would never have survived without our connection with a nurturing-one during our times as helpless infants. It stands to reason that we are built in a way that reflects that evolutionary environment: We come into this world ready to want mother, to seek her, to recognize her, to deal with her. So the mother archetype is our built-in ability to recognize a certain relationship, that of mothering. Jung says that this is rather abstract, and we are likely to project the archetype out into the world and onto a particular person, usually our own mothers. Even when an archetype doesnt have a particular real person available, we tend to personify the archetype, that is, turn it into a mythological story-book character. This character symbolizes the archetype. The mother archetype is symbolized by the primordial mother or earth mother of mythology, by Eve and Mary in western traditions, and by less personal symbols such as the church, the nation, a forest, or the ocean. According to Jung, someone whose own mother failed to satisfy the demands of the archetype may well be one that spends his or her life seeking comfort in the church, or in identification with the motherland, or in meditating upon the figure of Mary, or in a life at sea. Mana You must understand that these archetypes are not really biological things, like Freuds instincts. They are more spiritual demands. For example, if you dreamt about long things, Freud might suggest these things represent the phallus and ultimately sex. But Jung might have a very different interpretation. Even dreaming quite specifically about a penis might not have much to do with some unfulfilled need for sex. It is curious that in primitive societies, phallic symbols do not usually refer to sex at all. They usually symbolize mana, or spiritual power. These symbols would be displayed on occasions when the spirits are being called upon to increase the yield of corn, or fish, or to heal someone. The connection between the penis and strength, between semen and seed, between fertilization and fertility are understood by most cultures. The shadow Sex and the life instincts in general are, of course, represented somewhere in Jungs system. They are a part of an archetype called the shadow. It derives from our prehuman, animal past, when our concerns were limited to survival and reproduction, and when we werent self-conscious. It is the dark side of the ego, and the evil that we are capable of is often stored there. Actually, the shadow is amoral neither good nor bad, just like animals. An animal is capable of tender care for its young and vicious killing for food, but it doesnt choose to do either. It just does what it does. It is innocent. But from our human perspective, the animal world looks rather brutal, inhuman, so the shadow becomes something of a garbage can for the parts of ourselves that we cant quite admit to. Symbols of the shadow include the snake (as in the garden of Eden), the dragon, monsters, and demons. It often guards the entrance to a cave or a pool of water, which is the collective unconscious. Next time you dream about wrestling with the devil, it may only be yourself you are wrestling with! The persona The persona represents your public image. The word is, obviously, related to the word person and personality, and comes from a Latin word for mask. So the persona is the mask you put on before you show yourself to the outside world. Although it begins as an archetype, by the time we are finished realizing it, it is the part of us most distant from the collective unconscious. At its best, it is just the good impression we all wish to present as we fill the roles society requires of us. But, of course, it can also be the false impression we use to manipulate peoples opinions and behaviors. And, at its worst, it can be mistaken, even by ourselves, for our true nature: Sometimes we believe we really are what we pretend to be! Anima and animus A part of our persona is the role of male or female we must play. For most people that role is determined by their physical gender. But Jung, like Freud and Adler and others, felt that we are all really bisexual in nature. When we begin our lives as fetuses, we have undifferentiated sex organs that only gradually, under the influence of hormones, become male or female. Likewise, when we begin our social lives as infants, we are neither male nor female in the social sense. Almost immediately as soon as those pink or blue booties go on we come under the influence of society, which gradually molds us into men and women. In all societies, the expectations placed on men and women differ, usually based on our different roles in reproduction, but often involving many details that are purely traditional. In our society today, we still have many remnants of these traditional expectations. Women are still expected to be more nurturant and less aggressive; men are still expected to be strong and to ignore the emotional side of life. But Jung felt these expectations meant that we had developed only half of our potential. The anima is the female aspect present in the collective unconscious of men, and the animus is the male aspect present in the collective unconscious of women. Together, they are referred to as syzygy. The anima may be personified as a young girl, very spontaneous and intuitive, or as a witch, or as the earth mother. It is likely to be associated with deep emotionality and the force of life itself. The animus may be personified as a wise old man, a sorcerer, or often a number of males, and tends to be logical, often rationalistic, even argumentative. The anima or animus is the archetype through which you communicate with the collective unconscious generally, and it is important to get into touch with it. It is also the archetype that is responsible for much of our love life: We are, as an ancient Greek myth suggests, always looking for our other half, the half that the Gods took from us, in members of the opposite sex. When we fall in love at first sight, then we have found someone that fills our anima or animus archetype particularly well! Other archetypes Jung said that there is no fixed number of archetypes which we could simply list and memorize. They overlap and easily melt into each other as needed, and their logic is not the usual kind. But here are some he mentions: Besides mother, their are other family archetypes. Obviously, there is father, who is often symbolized by a guide or an authority figure. There is also the archetype family, which represents the idea of blood relationship and ties that run deeper than those based on conscious reasons. There is also the child, represented in mythology and art by children, infants most especially, as well as other small creatures. The Christ child celebrated at Christmas is a manifestation of the child archetype, and represents the future, becoming, rebirth, and salvation. Curiously, Christmas falls during the winter solstice, which in northern primitive cultures also represents the future and rebirth. People used to light bonfires and perform ceremonies to encourage the suns return to them. The child archetype often blends with other archetypes to form the child-god, or the child-hero. Many archetypes are story characters. The hero is one of the main ones. He is the mana personality and the defeater of evil dragons. Basically, he represents the ego we do tend to identify with the hero of the story and is often engaged in fighting the shadow, in the form of dragons and other monsters. The hero is, however, often dumb as a post. He is, after all, ignorant of the ways of the collective unconscious. Luke Skywalker, in the Star Wars films, is the perfect example of a hero. The hero is often out to rescue the maiden. She represents purity, innocence, and, in all likelihood, naivete. In the beginning of the Star Wars story, Princess Leia is the maiden. But, as the story progresses, she becomes the anima, discovering the powers of the force the collective unconscious and becoming an equal partner with Luke, who turns out to be her brother. The hero is guided by the wise old man. He is a form of the animus, and reveals to the hero the nature of the collective unconscious. In Star Wars, he is played by Obi Wan Kenobi and, later, Yoda. Notice that they teach Luke about the force and, as Luke matures, they die and become a part of him. You might be curious as to the archetype represented by Darth Vader, the dark father. He is the shadow and the master of the dark side of the force. He also turns out to be Luke and Leias father. When he dies, he becomes one of the wise old men. There is also an animal archetype, representing humanitys relationships with the animal world. The heros faithful horse would be an example. Snakes are often symbolic of the animal archetype, and are thought to be particularly wise. Animals, after all, are more in touch with their natures than we are. Perhaps loyal little robots and reliable old spaceships the Falcon are also symbols of animal. And there is the trickster, often represented by a clown or a magician. The tricksters role is to hamper the heros progress and to generally make trouble. In Norse mythology, many of the gods adventures originate in some trick or another played on their majesties by the half-god Loki. There are other archetypes that are a little more difficult to talk about. One is the original man, represented in western religion by Adam. Another is the God archetype, representing our need to comprehend the universe, to give a meaning to all that happens, to see it all as having some purpose and direction. The hermaphrodite, both male and female, represents the union of opposites, an important idea in Jungs theory. In some religious art, Jesus is presented as a rather feminine man. Likewise, in China, the character Kuan Yin began as a male saint (the bodhisattva Avalokiteshwara), but was portrayed in such a feminine manner that he is more often thought of as the female goddess of compassion! The most important archetype of all is the self. The self is the ultimate unity of the personality and is symbolized by the circle, the cross, and the mandala figures that Jung was fond of painting. A mandala is a drawing that is used in meditation because it tends to draw your focus back to the center, and it can be as simple as a geometric figure or as complicated as a stained glass window. The personifications that best represent self are Christ and Buddha, two people who many believe achieved perfection. But Jung felt that perfection of the personality is only truly achieved in death. The dynamics of the psyche So much for the content of the psyche. Now lets turn to the principles of its operation. Jung gives us three principles, beginning with the principle of opposites. Every wish immediately suggests its opposite. If I have a good thought, for example, I cannot help but have in me somewhere the opposite bad thought. In fact, it is a very basic point: In order to have a concept of good, you must have a concept of bad, just like you cant have up without down or black without white. This idea came home to me when I was about eleven. I occasionally tried to help poor innocent woodland creatures who had been hurt in some way often, Im afraid, killing them in the process. Once I tried to nurse a baby robin back to health. But when I picked it up, I was so struck by how light it was that the thought came to me that I could easily crush it in my hand. Mind you, I didnt like the idea, but it was undeniably there. According to Jung, it is the opposition that creates the power (or libido) of the psyche. It is like the two poles of a battery, or the splitting of an atom. It is the contrast that gives energy, so that a strong contrast gives strong energy, and a weak contrast gives weak energy. The second principle is the principle of equivalence. The energy created from the opposition is given to both sides equally. So, when I held that baby bird in my hand, there was energy to go ahead and try to help it. But there is an equal amount of energy to go ahead and crush it. I tried to help the bird, so that energy went into the various behaviors involved in helping it. But what happens to the other energy? Well, that depends on your attitude towards the wish that you didnt fulfill. If you acknowledge it, face it, keep it available to the conscious mind, then the energy goes towards a general improvement of your psyche. You grow, in other words. But if you pretend that you never had that evil wish, if you deny and suppress it, the energy will go towards the development of a complex. A complex is a pattern of suppressed thoughts and feelings that cluster constellate around a theme provided by some archetype. If you deny ever having thought about crushing the little bird, you might put that idea into the form offered by the shadow (your dark side). Or if a man denies his emotional side, his emotionality might find its way into the anima archetype. And so on. Heres where the problem comes: If you pretend all your life that you are only good, that you dont even have the capacity to lie and cheat and steal and kill, then all the times when you do good, that other side of you goes into a complex around the shadow. That complex will begin to develop a life of its own, and it will haunt you. You might find yourself having nightmares in which you go around stomping on little baby birds! If it goes on long enough, the complex may take over, may possess you, and you might wind up with a multiple personality. In the movie The Three Faces of Eve, Joanne Woodward portrayed a meek, mild woman who eventually discovered that she went out and partied like crazy on Saturday nights. She didnt smoke, but found cigarettes in her purse, didnt drink, but woke up with hangovers, didnt fool around, but found herself in sexy outfits. Although multiple personality is rare, it does tend to involve these kinds of black-and-white extremes. The final principle is the principle of entropy. This is the tendency for oppositions to come together, and so for energy to decrease, over a persons lifetime. Jung borrowed the idea from physics, where entropy refers to the tendency of all physical systems to run down, that is, for all energy to become evenly distributed. If you have, for example, a heat source in one corner of the room, the whole room will eventually be heated. When we are young, the opposites will tend to be extreme, and so we tend to have lots of energy. For example, adolescents tend to exaggerate male-female differences, with boys trying hard to be macho and girls trying equally hard to be feminine. And so their sexual activity is invested with great amounts of energy! Plus, adolescents often swing from one extreme to another, being wild and crazy one minute and finding religion the next. As we get older, most of us come to be more comfortable with our different facets. We are a bit less naively idealistic and recognize that we are all mixtures of good and bad. We are less threatened by the opposite sex within us and become more androgynous. Even physically, in old age, men and women become more alike. This process of rising above our opposites, of seeing both sides of who we are, is called transcendence. The self The goal of life is to realize the self. The self is an archetype that represents the transcendence of all opposites, so that every aspect of your personality is expressed equally. You are then neither and both male and female, neither and both ego and shadow, neither and both good and bad, neither and both conscious and unconscious, neither and both an individual and the whole of creation. And yet, with no oppositions, there is no energy, and you cease to act. Of course, you no longer need to act. To keep it from getting too mystical, think of it as a new center, a more balanced position, for your psyche. When you are young, you focus on the ego and worry about the trivialities of the persona. When you are older (assuming you have been developing as you should), you focus a little deeper, on the self, and become closer to all people, all life, even the universe itself. The self-realized person is actually less selfish. Synchronicity Personality theorists have argued for many years about whether psychological processes function in terms of mechanism or teleology. Mechanism is the idea that things work in through cause and effect: One thing leads to another which leads to another, and so on, so that the past determines the present. Teleology is the idea that we are lead on by our ideas about a future state, by things like purposes, meanings, values, and so on. Mechanism is linked with determinism and with the natural sciences. Teleology is linked with free will and has become rather rare. It is still common among moral, legal, and religious philosophers, and, of course, among personality theorists. Among the people discussed in this book, Freudians and behaviorists tend to be mechanists, while the neo-Freudians, humanists, and existentialists tend to be teleologists. Jung believes that both play a part. But he adds a third alternative called synchronicity. Synchronicity is the occurrence of two events that are not linked causally, nor linked teleologically, yet are meaningfully related. Once, a client was describing a dream involving a scarab beetle when, at that very instant, a very similar beetle flew into the window. Often, people dream about something, like the death of a loved one, and find the next morning that their loved one did, in fact, die at about that time. Sometimes people pick up he phone to call a friend, only to find that their friend is already on the line. Most psychologists would call these things coincidences, or try to show how they are more likely to occur than we think. Jung believed the were indications of how we are connected, with our fellow humans and with nature in general, through the collective unconscious. Jung was never clear about his own religious beliefs. But this unusual idea of synchronicity is easily explained by the Hindu view of reality. In the Hindu view, our individual egos are like islands in a sea: We look out at the world and each other and think we are separate entities. What we dont see is that we are connected to each other by means of the ocean floor beneath the waters. The outer world is called maya, meaning illusion, and is thought of as Gods dream or Gods dance. That is, God creates it, but it has no reality of its own. Our individual egos they call jivatman, which means individual souls. But they, too, are something of an illusion. We are all actually extensions of the one and only Atman, or God, who allows bits of himself to forget his identity, to become apparently separate and independent, to become us. But we never truly are separate. When we die, we wake up and realize who we were from the beginning: God. When we dream or meditate, we sink into our personal unconscious, coming closer and closer to our true selves, the collective unconscious. It is in states like this that we are especially open to communications from other egos. Synchronicity makes Jungs theory one of the rare ones that is not only compatible with parapsychological phenomena, but actually tries to explain them! Introversion and extroversion Jung developed a personality typology that has become so popular that some people dont realize he did anything else! It begins with the distinction between introversion and extroversion. Introverts are people who prefer their internal world of thoughts, feelings, fantasies, dreams, and so on, while extroverts prefer the external world of things and people and activities. The words have become confused with ideas like shyness and sociability, partially because introverts tend to be shy and extroverts tend to be sociable. But Jung intended for them to refer more to whether you (ego) more often faced toward the persona and outer reality, or toward the collective unconscious and its archetypes. In that sense, the introvert is somewhat more mature than the extrovert. Our culture, of course, values the extrovert much more. And Jung warned that we all tend to value our own type most! We now find the introvert-extravert dimension in several theories, notably Hans Eysencks, although often hidden under alternative names such as sociability and surgency. The functions Whether we are introverts or extroverts, we need to deal with the world, inner and outer. And each of us has our preferred ways of dealing with it, ways we are comfortable with and good at. Jung suggests there are four basic ways, or functions: The first is sensing. Sensing means what it says: getting information by means of the senses. A sensing person is good at looking and listening and generally getting to know the world. Jung called this one of the irrational functions, meaning that it involved perception rather than judging of information. The second is thinking. Thinking means evaluating information or ideas rationally, logically. Jung called this a rational function, meaning that it involves decision making or judging, rather than simple intake of information. The third is intuiting. Intuiting is a kind of perception that works outside of the usual conscious processes. It is irrational or perceptual, like sensing, but comes from the complex integration of large amounts of information, rather than simple seeing or hearing. Jung said it was like seeing around corners. The fourth is feeling. Feeling, like thinking, is a matter of evaluating information, this time by weighing ones overall, emotional response. Jung calls it rational, obviously not in the usual sense of the word. We all have these functions. We just have them in different proportions, you might say. Each of us has a superior function, which we prefer and which is best developed in us, a secondary function, which we are aware of and use in support of our superior function, a tertiary function, which is only slightly less developed but not terribly conscious, and an inferior function, which is poorly developed and so unconscious that we might deny its existence in ourselves. Most of us develop only one or two of the functions, but our goal should be to develop all four. Once again, Jung sees the transcendence of opposites as the ideal. Assessment Katharine Briggs and her daughter Isabel Briggs Myers found Jungs types and functions so revealing of peoples personalities that they decided to develop a paper-and-pencil test. It came to be called the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, and is one of the most popular, and most studied, tests around. On the basis of your answers on about 125 questions, you are placed in one of sixteen types, with the understanding that some people might find themselves somewhere between two or thre.

Saturday, September 21, 2019

Media globalisation

Media globalisation What do we understand by media globalisation? Make an assessment of the arguments for and against globalisation processes. Globalisation can be defined according to (Lodge cited in Ali, 2000:6) as â€Å"the process whereby the worlds people are becoming increasingly interconnected in all facets of their lives- cultural, economic, political, technological, and environmental†. Since (Dominick,2002:513) noted that information is being produced at a rate that is four times faster than the consumption of information. And media globalisation has contributed to increasing media production and consumption, this essay will outline the different views about the advantages and dis advantages of global television (TV). There is a general tendency to believe that most of the traditional definitions of globalisation focus primarily on economics issues,however, (Giddens, 2003,10) refuted that saying â€Å"[to see] the phenomena almost solely in economic terms is a mistake. Globalisation is political, technological, and cultural, as well as economic†. However, he was not straight in articulating the relation between globalisation and media, he rather described it as â€Å"the intensification of world-wide social relations, which link distant localities in such a way that local happenings are shaped by events occurring many miles away and vice versa† (Giddens,1990:64). Even though he does not directly refer to media globalisation but it can be understood from the context. ( Rantanen,2005:6) commented that â€Å"although[Giddens] does not mention media and communication, it is obvious that the worldwide social relations are intensified by them†. Media globalisation includes many means such as internet, television,cinema, radio, and other digital media. Television can considered to be a main medium in life. (Schneider and Wallis,1988:7) claimed that â€Å" television could united the world†. However, television has been affected considerably by globalisation(Sinclair, Elizabeth, and Stuart, 1996:1) stated that a sea-change in television systems around the world began in the late 1970s. An integral element in the various complex phenomena usually captured under the rubric of globalisation. There has been a highly-charged debate on determining the benefits and drawbacks of global satellite TV. Some scholars say that there are many advantages that come along with global TV, for instance, (Curtin,2005:156) contended that during the satellite era, electronic media can easily transmit images and information from one locale to any given combination of points around the world at relatively the same cost and velocity. It is noteworthy that, Communication media play a crucial role in the global epoch. Satellite TV, for instance, has enabled viewers worldwide to access diversified information and images. Therefore, it has contributed to widen their knowledge about other cultures in the world. Moreover, the producers of the most closed global TV has changed their policy in order to extend their audience base outside their regions. Arab global television networks producers,for example, convinced, according to(Sinclair,Jacka, and Cunningham, 1996:124), that â€Å"satellite services are essential to project Arab culture internationally†. Further, (kim,2005:449) suggested that â€Å" television stands as the dominant representation of global culture†. To put that in other words, in satellite era, information monopolisation has been eliminated, as a result of that, localisation has been undermined and national peoples culture become available for everyone to look at. That has led, on some occasions, to reduction of some local malpractices (Curtin,2005:157) asserted that national regimes no longer have information monopolies nor can they justify their actions by reference to tradition or to divine cosmologies. Fate no longer governs human existence, as media encourage more active and reflexive citizenries. Moreover, media globalisation has decreased the differences of ethnicity, religion, gender or literacy between people. As a consequent, their expanded experience and knowledge about others cultures have contributed to encourage them to evolve and modernize themselves. As (Curtin,2005:289) put it: Satellite television figures prominently in scholarly speculation about globalization, since it has the potential to cross boundaries of class, gender, ethnicity and literacy,in addition to nation. Scholars furthermore suggest that satellite TV moves audiences towards a shared repertoire of images and ideas, thereby encouraging modernization. Furthermore, reflexivity is considered to be the nucleus of global media, to be more precise, the knowledge that people have been obtained about other cultures would consequently reflex on their lives and enable them to compare and criticize their own lives . It would resulted also in shifting their perceptions about life which has led predominantly, to improve their standard of livings, (Kim,2005:447) manifested that â€Å"people have a reflexive and critical engagement with the new global television culture, which involves learning to deal with their life conditions in a new light†. In addition, satellite TV has given the worldwide audience a broaden chance to choose between a myriad of international satellite channels which cater to the diversity of linguistics regions all over the world.(Sinclair,Jacka, and Cunningham, 1996:3) said that â€Å" new satellite and cable delivery systems permitted the opening up of viable international channels†. Undoubtedly, English is the most dominant language in the world which most of the channels have spoken in. (Kim,2005:455) considered â€Å"English, as a language of global modernity†.Therefore, many people have endeavored to learning it. Global television is well-regarded and beneficial medium to acquire and master it. listening to news, drama, entertainment programmes, movies, for example, has introduced a practical way to listening practice. (Kim,2005:455) contended that â€Å" learning English and involving [ourselves] with wider Western culture through travel and global television† is a construct ive way to learn it. Besides, Global television has brought out financially profits to many worldwide media corporations, for instance, (Sinclair, Elizabeth, and Stuart, 1996:5) mentioned that â€Å"the existence of sizeable Arab populations outside the Middle East, mainly in Europe, North America, and Asia, opens up new markets for Arab-language programming†. Media globalisation has provided substantial opportunities for many media companies to rise their profits; even though, the domination of the largest media companies on the world media communication markets, according to(Dennis and Merrill,1996:225) The main benefits of global media is that people are better informed and get a wider range of information and entertainment than ever before. people worry that a few companies will dominate world communication, but many small entrepreneurs are also flourishing, and entry into the communication market is easier than it has ever been in human history. On the other hand, media globalisation has been criticised by many media communication scholars due to its negative effects on people and countries. It has been postulated that the prevalence of satellite channels has been accused of invading peoples life, customs , traditions or cultures because those channels have shown what do not aligned with some peoples way of living resulting in changing their lifestyle and manner.. In Arab world, serious steps have been taken toward eliminating the harmful effects of some TV programmes which do not suit with the Islamic communities. (Sinclair,Jacka, and Cunningham, 1996:122) claimed that â€Å" most of the programming available from satellite services contains material that is not acceptable in Islamic societies. Sex, nudity, obscenity, and violence are considered offensive by Islamic leaders†.

Friday, September 20, 2019

How Self-Motivation can Create a Positive Impact on Your Life?

How Self-Motivation can Create a Positive Impact on Your Life? Introduction Self-motivation is a process wherein a person develop ways on how to keep his or her self motivated at all times despite challenging times and without direct help from other people. Experts say that self-motivation is a very important factor in a persons life because this will help him or her see things in a positive way. This will also enable him or her to overcome challenges by developing an attitude that could withstand trials and failures.If one is able to develop a good outlook in life, everything will start falling into their proper places. In fact, he or she might even be surprised of the things that were able to accomplished in that span of time. THE ABCs OF SELF MOTIVATION If you are one of those who have just realized the importance of self-motivation and would want to start it but you just dont know how, here are some of the things that can help you: Re-assess yourself. Many people think that they know themselves already that is why they decline to do self-assessment regularly. Experts say that these people dont realize that the more that they decline doing self-reassessment, the more that they get stuck to their own routine which leaves them lesser room for improvement. If you want to start with constant self-motivation, it is best that you know yourself very well. If you know yourself well, you will know your weaknesses as well as your strengths. Once you were able to identify all of these, it will be easier for you to set goals for yourself that are within your reach and your capabilities. Knowing ones self will also enable you to take note of your weaknesses and find ways on how to overcome, manage, and deal with them. The same works for your strengths because you might even find a way on how to improve them. Start with small and simple goals. Dont put too much pressure on yourself. If you are just starting with self-motivation, it will be best if you start small and simple so you wont feel defeat when you werent able to meet the standards you have set for yourself. If you start with small and simple things, you are giving yourself the chance to accomplish bigger things ahead. Keep track of your progress. Monitoring how well or bad you are doing will help you maneuver things that find ways that would best work for you. For a person who is just starting with his or her self-motivation process, it is best to keep track of how you are doing so you will know where are the areas that you should improve on and what are the things that you should continue doing. Find time to share and help others. Self-motivation is a process that indirectly involves other people for it to be successful. If you think you are doing well at your own pace, it would help if you find time to share the experience as well as the ideas to others so you will influence them. If the people-especially those that matter to you-see that you are doing good and self-motivation is creating a big impact in your life, they would even might want to try the same thing that you are doing.

Thursday, September 19, 2019

Bridge Design Concept :: essays research papers

Bridge Design Concept Our bridge consists of three levels supported by 1" high cylinders to support each level. On each level we will have rows of both three and four cylinders extending across the middle. Each cylinder will be stacked on another, evenly offset and centered to gain support. Our bridge will be 28" X 2 -7/8". The length of our bridge is probably the biggest and most significant contributor to our outcome. The desk table gap is 14" long, while our bridge length is 28" long. This shows that we would only be testing a small portion of our long bridge. It is significant because we have the advantage of having twice the amount of supporters, while we will be only testing a small portion of our bridge. With all of our cylinders we know that this bridge will evenly distribute weight. Our bridge will span 28" long. Our main supporting system is in the shape of a cylinder. We chose the cylinder because it is capable of supporting a large amount of weight. Each cylinder will brushed with an outer coat of Elmer's Glue to increase the cylinder's strength. The bridge will consist of three levels. Each level will be supported by evenly spaced 1" X Â ½" cylinders. The cylinders on the second level will be offset from the cylinders above and below it. This design will ensure the weight on the bridge will be evenly distributed. The bridge will be incased on all sides with an outer sheet of paper to increase weight distribution. In our design, we feel that the geometric shapes and the dimensions we chose will greatly affect the outcome of our bridge. We expect this bridge to hold a great amount of weight because our cylinders will be reinforced and backed up by one another. Since our bridge has stacks and multiple levels, we expect it to be strong. When we stack the weights onto our bridge, the offset cylinders will act like triangles, evenly distributing weight in a fine pattern.

Wednesday, September 18, 2019

The Historical Progression of African Americans Essay -- American Hist

Permanent struggle for civil rights by the African Americans accompanied the historical progression of the African American society (Booker T. and Fitzhugh W. 2002). The African Americans had struggled for many years to have the same opportunities as the white Americans. During this time, there was a civil war aimed at liberating the African Americans who had been made slaves by the principal white Americans. However, the civil war did not improve the lives of the African Americans in America. The struggle for equal liberties was a journey that began in the year 1865 and ended in the year of 1876. Today, America is a powerful nation with a difficult past that holds a bright future. People of diverse ethnicities and backgrounds can share the same rights, positions of power, education, and all other functions that were once only for the white people of America. Though African Americans suffered tough injustices in previous years, their commitment and determination enabled them overcome the adversities that they faced on a daily basis and win their battle. Many aspects of African American life such as politics, culture and social development allowed African Americans to gain power in the United States over time. They had displayed much of the same qualities as the white workers in America and would prove that their former life as a slave would not deter them from becoming economically independent and successful in America. Although this did not happen immediately, it shows that they were determined and ready to lead normal lives and take their rightful places in society and in th e economy. Several factors had contributed to the historical progression of African Americans. Many social, cultural, eco... ...Nazarene movements. The African Americans built many churches and schools that further expanded their religious faith. Several changes took place during the historical progression of the African Americans. During the historical progression that started in 1865, changes occurred in social, political, economic and religious aspects of the African Americas. These changes took place at different times and each had different impacts to the lives of the African Americans. At first, African Americans were facing political, economic and social oppression from the white Americans. After a long period of struggle and determination, changes appeared in different aspects that made the lives of African Americans better. Oppression ended and the economic position of the African Americans improved since they had gained high literacy levels and could access better paying jobs.

Tuesday, September 17, 2019

Midterm Congressional Elections

On 7 November 2006, the United States midterm elections were held. Results of the said elections show that the Democratic Party got the majority in the gubernatorial seats as well as the United States House and Senate seats. This feat was dubbed as the â€Å"Democrat Revolution† as the Democratic Party mustered enough seats in both houses of the legislature for the first time since 1994. Traditionally speaking, the US midterm elections was seen as an assessment of the incumbent political leaders – whether their political and economic policies are acceptable to the American people, whether conditions of living has markedly improved during the President’s administration. This 2006 elections is no different from that traditional viewpoint. In fact, social critics did hope for a Democrat victory as a clear and concrete manifestation of the disgust of the public on how President Bush administers his office. In a sense, it concretized the past negative net satisfaction that America has been giving the incumbent president. Given that the recently held elections was an assessment of the Republican President and its supportive Republican Congress, let us take a look at how the voters appraised their leaders. I agree at how political analysts gave the remark that the Americans voted through the issues of national and international import rather than of the local affect. The global image of America was at stake with the manner of handling of the Bush administration with Iraq. Yes, the US invasion of Iraq proved to be a quagmire for President Bush. Two years after he had declared that the war was over and we have brought â€Å"democracy† to that side of the middle east and even after the capture of Saddam Hussein, US troops continue to be maimed and die in the fronts of Iraq. Though until now, the supposed weapons of mass destruction are yet to be found in Iraq while its neighbors and other countries are the obvious ones that harbor these weapons. Honesty is an issue here as the public believes that they were led to support a war that could prove to be a bigger blunder in the contemporary world history. Americans felt they were deceived,  and this perception was shown in the past surveys. Only, it was concretized in the recent midterm elections. The Democrats promised reforms in the Iraq policy, and it also mirrored their platform for changes in the present international policies of the US government, i.e. war on terror. However, this is just one side of the idea running in the heads of Americans on Election Day. The other half, which stems from the â€Å"war on terror† policy, is homeland security. The haphazard management of President Bush on the Iraq war, including war crimes and economic costs, did trickle down to the manner of homeland administration. The people can very well remember how the Bush administration mismanaged its disaster and security measures during Hurricane Katrina. Still related with the national and international policies, the immigration policy of the Bush administration has been highly criticized. Though the Americans understand that the issue of security is a factor in the hard-line immigration policy, most believe also that it must not go overboard to even create an environment that fueled anti-America. To the general public, that is a no-no, of course. Homeland security policies must not fuel another rage of racial discrimination in this free country. What then should we expect with a Democrat Congress and a Republican President?   Some pessimists say: not much. While the more optimists say that there will be marked changes built on the former, but the running current may most likely pull the same efforts as before. Clashes between the Iraq issues will have to happen, and this might be good for a democratic country in the name of the highly-regarded principle of check-and-balance. The situation, though, is that President Bush still has the final say in the arena of international security policies like that of Iraq.   In the end, we are always hopeful that this will improve the lives of the Americans here and abroad. We are always hopeful that the changes will be done.

Monday, September 16, 2019

Marketing Mix (4 P’s) of Milo Essay

Milo: In Greek mythology there was a Roman athlete named MILOn who was famous for his feats of strength. Legend has it that he once carried a four-year-old bullock through the stadium in Olympia, Greece! You may not grow as strong as Milon by drinking MILO, but it is a very tasty way to get many of the nutrients you need to grow strong. Product: ‘Milo’ the energy drink nestled into the Indian market in 1996. The responsibility of launching the drink in a market dominated by time tested Bournvita and Boost was no easy task for Nestle. Being the fifth player in the brown beverage market, the drink was up against Bournvita which had an enviable market share of 40% and SmithKline Beecham, a strong contender, especially in the south. After establishing Milo as the world’s number one energy drink and its taste benefits, the attention shifted to presenting its emotional benefits too. The focus was now on revamping the brand image from being a tasty energy drink to one that provided extra energy to ‘win’. New Milo is for active, growing children its energy releasing B vitamins give them the extra energy, vitality and stamina that make them winners. Milo, the chocolate milk beverage targeted essentially at teenagers in the urban marketplace is the fastest selling product here. The only surprise finding being that instead of growing up kids, senior citizens like to have it everyday with their glass of milk. Milo now has Actigen – E which consists of Vit B1 (Thiamin)helps the body release energy from carbohydrates during growth and muscle Vit B2 (Riboflavin)helps body release energy from protein, fats and carbohydrate metabolism, helps improve athletic Vit B3 (Niacin)associated with the catabolism of nutrients and the production of energy Vit B5 (Pantothenic acid)essential in the metabolism of protein, fats and carbohydrates release of energy Vit B6 (Pyridoxine)together with related compounds, cofactor the enzymatic conversion of amino-acids and  glycogen Vit B8 (Biotin)required for specific enzymes involved in energy metabolism to function Vit B12 (Cobalamin)helps keep cells in the circulatory, nervous and digestive system in good working condition, regulates the body’s oxygen at a level that promotes release of energy Vit C (Ascorbic Acid)increases the absorption of dietary iron from the intestine to the body Ironessential for transporting oxygen from the lungs to the tissues for storage: significant in the oxidative p roduction of energy Calciumessential in cellular metabolism, involved in muscle contraction, transmission of impulses in nerves, blood clotting mechanisms and enzyme activation Magnesiumneeded for over 30 enzyme system in the body to function effectively, necessary in both anaerobic and aerobic energy generation Phosphorouscrucial in the metabolism of all major metabolic substrates; co-factor in a variety of enzymes and is the reservoire for metabolic energy Promotion: Using the consumer insight that mothers are driven by a need to support their sons’ hard work and help them succeed when under pressure, the agency launched an impressive ad campaign. The research following the campaign revealed the need for Milo to be perceived as a drink with 2 strong deliverables- Energy and Taste. Thus a strategy was adopted wherein the agency targeted children belonging to the age group of 7-12 years and through them their mothers. The strategy worked and led to a 40% volume growth, with the market share growing to 8.8%. The agency came up with commercials addressed to children as the target audience and mothers as the secondary audience. The campaign proved to be successful with the drink emerging as the No. 2 brand in 3 out of 4 zones, and its market share growing to an impressive 11.4%. Not satisfied, the agency undertook another research, which revealed two issues that needed to be addressed immediately. Firstly the pester power, which in this category was not very high and secondly, the fact that Milo’ s brand promise of winning was unfortunately being perceived as an advertising/ marketing claim. Hence Nestle embarked into yet another campaign, this time with the intention of improving the brand image by overcoming a mother’s apprehensions and getting her to subscribe to the brand promise. Other than that it takes an active part in the sponsorship of sports event at both school & colleges, they also  distribute T-Shirts having Milo logo and other such apparel. This helps company to promote their product as well as build their Brand Awareness. Place: Distribution is the most important thing next to sales. Sales are not possible if the distribution network is not effective. If the product is not available in the market at the right time & at the right place the customer may switch to another product which can be a great loss the company. Distribution Pattern followed by Milo: Price: Taking competition into consideration Milo provides its product at an affordable price to the customer than any other HFD in the market and no compromise on quality is made. Because of such competitive price it is also catering to the middle class & lower middle-class. Milo Weight(gm)Box pack (Rs) 20045 50099 1000180 Packing: Milo comes in an attractive Box pack which is green in color which is very attractive and eye catching other than that it is light weight as compared to the bulky glass jars of other companies, and it is also convenient to store & handle. With glass jar there is always a chance of breaking and harming the child if he tries to have milk on his own. But the packaging of Milo is so convenient that a child can easily prepare his own milk preparation and have it whenever he wants.

Sunday, September 15, 2019

Narendra Modi Essay

1. Showing concern about the dwindling importance of teaching profession in the eyes of youth, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that there is need to find out why the value of a teacher has lost its sheen and why students don’t want to be teachers when they grow up. 2. The Prime Minister said there is a great demand for good teachers in the world, and India being a young country should be able to produce good quality teachers for the world. 3. PM Modi talked about the importance of teachers and called for the need of creating good quality teachers in the country who could be ‘exported’ to the world. He said people who had achieved something in life and taken to a profession such as doctors and engineers should teach students in a school for one period in a week. 4. Talking about the significance of Teachers’ Day, PM Modi remembered Dr Radhakrishnan and said serving the nation does not only mean doing grand things; doing small things is a big service to the nation. 5. PM Modi reiterated what he had said on his Independence-Day speech of having toilet facilities for girl students in every school. 6. Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that nation building should become a national movement and every individual should be associated with it. 7. Giving encouragement to girl-education, PM said an educated girl further educates at least two more families. 8. Inspirational lives of great personalities help in shaping our character, PM Modi called the students to read biographies to explore about the lives of great people. 9. Describing himself as a ‘taskmaster’, PM Modi said he worked hard and expected the same from others. He added he expected work to be completed on time. 1O. Modi concluded his speech by saying that a teacher must play an important role through a person’s life. A teacher-student relationship must always be nurtured. Keep the child in you alive. Keep smiling and playing.

Saturday, September 14, 2019

Regulatory Bodies

ROLE OF REGULATORY BODIES INTRODUCTION Health Professionals such as nurses doctors, Pharmacist and many others are regulated and licensed by regulatory bodies as required by provincial legislation. All nurses are required to be licensed to practice with their designated provincial nursing regulatory body. Legal responsibility in nursing practice is becoming of greater importance as each year passes. In order to provide safe and competent nursing care an understanding of legal boundaries is very essential. It is important to know the law in one state and the authorities enforcing these laws. VITAL ROLE OF REGULATORY BODIES * To ensure the public’s light to quality health care service. * To support and assist professional members. * Set and enforce standards of nursing practice. * Monitor and enforce standards for nursing education. * Monitor and enforce standards of nursing practice. * Set the requirements for registration of nursing professionals. Nursing regulatory bodies also known as colleges or associations, are responsible for the licensing of nurses with in their respective provinces territory. The Nursing Regulatory bodies receives their authority from legislation. MAJOR TYPES OF REGULATORY BODIES * The central government. * The state government * Institutional Rules * Trained Nurses Association of India * International council for Nurses * American Nurses Association * Canadian Nurses Association * National League for Nursing ROLE OF CENTRAL GOVERNMENT The central government is a source of regulatory body in three ways, through. 1) Government service conduct rules 2) The Indian Nursing council Act 3) The English law THE GOVERNMENT SERVICE CONDUCT RULES These are detailed rules of conduct for are government employees. Examples of these are the requirement to maintain absolute integrity, devotion to duty and high standards of moral behaviour. Only a few are applicable to the nursing practice, but all would be applicable to the practice of a nurse employed by the government. INDIAN NURSING COUNCIL ACT The Indian Nursing Council, which was authorised by the Indian Nursing Council Act of 1947, was established In 1949 for the purpose providing uniform standards in nursing education and reciprocity in nursing registration throughout the country. The only national legislation directly related to nursing practice, also provides a basis from which rules for nursing practice can be developed. Among other responsibilities, this Act gives authority to the Indian Nursing Council for prescribing curricula for nursing education and recognising qualifications of institutions with teaching programmes for nursing. This means that the INC has authority to control nursing education and what the nurse is prepared to do. It is important because legal responsibility does finally depend upon what you should be able to do and how you should do it as well as what you are not prepared to do. The INC uses this authority in nursing education but it delegates authority for control of nursing practice to the State Nurses’ Registration Councils. INDIAN NURSING COUNCIL The Indian Nursing Council was authorized by the Indian Nursing Act of 1947. It was established in 1949 to providing uniform standards in nursing education and reciprocity in nursing registration through out the country. Nurses registered in one stat were not necessarily recognized for registration in another state before this time. The Condition of mutual recognition by the state Nurses Registration Councils, which is called reciprocity, was possible only if uniform standards of nursing education were maintained. FUNCTIONS OF INC 1) It provide uniform standards of in nursing education and reciprocity in nursing registration. 2) It has authority to prescribe curriculum for nursing education in all states. 3) It has authority to recognize programme for nursing education or to refuse recognition of a programme if it did not meet the standards required by the council. ) To provide the Registration of foreign nurses and for the maintance of the Indian Nurses Register. 5) The INC authorizes State Nurses Registration Council and Examining Board to issue qualifying certificates. The INC has been given heavy responsibilities for nursing practice and nursing education but it has not been able to exert enough power to support high standards in nursing. ENGLISH LAW The law based upon the English Pattern is the third way in which the Central Government is a source of legal authority. These laws are very specific and make you â€Å"liable for negligence† or answerable to the laws for acts of carelessness. The laws summarised below are given for medical practitioners including nurses. 1) The right to refuse to the treat a patient expect in an emergency situation. 2) The right to sue for fees. (Applicable only to private duty nurse or private practitioners: other nurses are salaried. ) 3) The right to add a titile descriptions to one’s name. Any title, description, abbreviation or letter which implies nolding a degree, diploma, license or certificate showing particular qualifications may be added. (Improper use of these is often prohibited by State Nurses Registration Acts. The right to wear the Red Cross Emblem is given only to members of the Army medical service. 4) Unregistered practitioners are not allowed to hold positions or appointments in public and local hospitals 5) Fundamental duties. a) To exercise a reasonable degree of skill and knowledge in treating patients. The standard held is that exercised by other reputable members of the same profession in similar circumstan ces. b) Once a relationship to a patient has been established, there is an obligation to attend the patient as long as necessary unless the patient requests withdrawal or notice is given of intention to withdraw. ) A practitioner must give personal attention to his cases and answer calls with reasonable promptness. d) Children must be protected from harming themselves. e) Special precautions must be taken in the case of adults who are incapable of taking care of themselves. 6) The Indian Penal Code demands that poisonous drugs be kept in separate containers properly labeled and marked. Care must be taken not to mix with nonpoisonous drugs. 7) There is a duty of secrecy to the patients. Records must be treated as confidential unless the practitioner is called upon to give evidence in court. 8) Dangerous diseases must be reported. (Theses will vary in different parts of the country. ) 9) Nurses as considered solely responsible for their own professional acts irrespective of the employing authority. A fine is the usual penalty imposed for disobeying the law stated above, although imprisonment is also possible. The central responsibility consists mainly of Policy making, palnning, guiding, assisting evaluating and Co. ordinating the work.

Friday, September 13, 2019

Death Penalty Issues Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4250 words

Death Penalty Issues - Essay Example However, the death penalty was revived in the year 1978. By the year 1998, the state legislature provided another choice for executing the condemned prisoners. This was by means of lethal injection. In March 2000, legislation was enacted in this state that made death by lethal injection the primary procedure for executing those condemned to death (Tennessee Department of Correction, n.d.).   With the reintroduction of capital punishment in 1916, the prison wardens were required to maintain an official ledger that provided details of the executed. During the period 1916 to 1960, executions were conducted exclusively at the Tennessee State Penitentiary in Nashville. The execution of Coe by lethal injection, in the year 2000, was this state’s first execution, after nearly four decades (Tennessee Department of Correction, n.d.).   The Tennessee Code  § 39 – 13 – 202 describes the offenses that merit the capital punishment. These are; first, the intentional and premeditated killing of another. Second, the killing of another during the perpetration or attempted perpetration of first-degree murder; terrorist act; rape; robbery; arson; burglary; aggravated child abuse, neglect or rape; rape; rape of a child; or aircraft piracy. Third, the killing of another individual resulting from the unlawful discharging, placing or hurling of a bomb or destructive device (Palmer, 2013, p. 335).   Code  § 39 – 13- 204(i) of Tennessee stipulates that the prosecutor has to prove the existence of one of the following statutory aggravating circumstances, during the penalty stage of the proceedings. First, the murder was perpetrated against a person who was not older than 12 years of age and the accused was 18 years or older. Second, the accused had been convicted, previously, of one or more felonies that had involved violence to the person (Palmer, 2013, p. 335).

Thursday, September 12, 2019

Modernist artist Man Ray and the Dada movement Research Paper

Modernist artist Man Ray and the Dada movement - Research Paper Example Man Ray and Dada Movement Biography Man Ray (Emmanuel Radnitzky), born in August 27, 1890 was of an immigrant Russian-Jewish family in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His parents were Melach Radnitzky and Manya Radnitzky. In 1897, Melach and his family moved to Brooklyn, New York. As he familiarized with Brooklyn, Emmanuel developed greater curiosity towards his surroundings. His interest widened to include ballistics, male and female anatomy, as well as mathematics (Baldwin 34).2 At the age of seven, Man Ray received first, as a birthday gift, a box of crayons from one of his cousins. He from then spent much of his time creating and drawing colorful pictures. At his early age of 14, Emmanuel Radniztky's high school equipped him with free hand and mechanical drawing. He gained much perspective of art and impressive fame through his studies and devotion to drawing. In his second year, his classmates frequently taunted him because of his name. This led to his adoption of the pseudonym Man Ray (Baldwin 48).2 Man Ray and the formal world of art The movement by Man Ray led to his joining Marcel Duchamp’s revolt towards aesthetic tradition. ... Independent men living beyond nationalism and war lived for other ideals. In his multiplicity nature, Man Ray needed escape from the insularity caused by his ethnicity. His emergence responded to the anti-individual and the collective experience of the First World War. Dada allowed Man Ray practice his art in enhancing acceptance and independence of his framework. Dada failed in sustaining itself within New York. Man Ray wrote a letter to the Dadaist Tristan Tzara before entry into Paris. This nihilist Tristan Tzara was of an avant-garde Romanian performance artist, journalist, playwright, film director, art critic and poet (Dachy & Michael 14).4 His heated personality, as well as the uncompromising activism, caused many conflicts in the Dada movement, in France 3and Romania. Despite of him not leaving Dada, Tristan Tzara took up Surrealism eventually (Masters 14).5 He developed his painting career as an apprentice in an engraving studio after completing his studies. He also served a s an illustrator and a draftsman in an advertising agency. Man Ray started taking drawing classes in Manhattan’s Ferrer Modern School where he learnt the world of photography and Alfred Stieglitz. The artist's creation by Pablo Picasso and Paul Cezanne tremendously inspired him. Dada and Surrealism encouraged Ray’s artistic work. Artistic ideas motivated him more than the artistic work itself. Despite his abstract paintings, Man Ray disregarded traditional superiority on photography. He used photography in documenting sculptures with no independent life and capturing activities by the avant-garde friends (Bardis 215).6 In 1915, his first solo exhibition happened at the Daniel Gallery.

Wednesday, September 11, 2019

Life After Death by Terence Penelhum Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Life After Death by Terence Penelhum - Essay Example The article opens with a brief history of the belief in immortality. Immortality of the soul predates Christianity, and therefore Christianity’s belief in life after death. Plato first describes the immortal soul in Phaedo, which details the death of Socrates. Before Socrates dies, he contemplates whether or not the soul can live without the body and if death is something to be feared. Socrates arrives to the conclusion that not only does the soul live on, but death should be embraced as it means that the soul is released from the prison of the body. Through moral reflection, people are able to tend to their soul, gradually releasing it from its physical form, but death ultimately completes this release. The aforementioned belief of death being embraced is what separates Plato’s belief of immortality with Christianity’s belief. Plato believes that death should be embraced, but Christianity, when using Jesus’ agonizing death as an example, suggests that death should be feared. Christianity perceives death as the most horrifying experience that someone can face because it is the destruction of a person. This goes against Plato’s theory that death is a release; Socrates did not fear death, but Jesus did. This concept is elaborated further when the Christian belief of resurrection is considered, which also goes against Plato’s theory of the immortal soul. Christians hope that God will completely re-create what he has permitted death to destroy. Penelhum focuses less attention on the soul and resurrection. He points out the fact that if the new body is drastically transformed from the original body, the concept of survival is defeated. The soul may be th e same, but if the new body is significantly different from the old body, resurrection is not as much of a success as people are led to believe. One’s soul cannot be identified by someone else, and if a transformed body cannot be recognized, the person did not necessarily survive. The soul living on without a body has sparked more controversy and speculation. Human intelligence, such as seeing, hearing, and being emotionally expressive, are all physical aspects and cannot be accessed with a body. If this is the case, survival is pointless and the soul would just simply exist. It is considered that disembodied survivors might have mental lives, that their thoughts can materialize in the world, but they would still lack the ability to perceive, which further points to a pointless existence. A disembodied soul may not even know if there are others nearby, nor would it be able to perceive a living human being. Self-identity of a disembodied soul is an even more difficult concept to grasp. Without physical characteristics, it becomes almost impossible to recognize a disembodied soul. There would have to be substitute for the feature that establishes an identity. We would have to use mental features instead of physical to identify someone, which may or may not be a possibility. Hume believes that humans retain some form of identity in terms of mental factors, as opposed to physical factors, which would be useful in the possibility of resurrection. He looks to memory as a method to identify a soul. Unfortunately, unless a person has concrete memories, nobody could survive a disembodied form. People are capable of remembering events that they were never part of or witnessed, which makes memory as a means of identity an uncertain method. For it to work, there would have to be something more stable beneath the thoughts, images, and feelings. Penelhum concludes that all of the theories of life