The Meaning of Literature - William J. Long

The Meaning of Literature - William J. Long from English Literature: Its History and Its Significance for the Life of the English Speaking World (1909) William J. Long uses the analogy of a boy and man walking along a seashore and finding a shell. Heres what he writes about books, reading, and the meaning of literature... The Shell and the Book A child and a man were one day walking on the seashore when the child found a little shell and held it to his ear. Suddenly he heard sounds,strange, low, melodious sounds, as if the shell were remembering and repeating to itself the murmurs of its ocean home. The childs face filled with wonder as he listened. Here in the little shell, apparently, was a voice from another world, and he listened with delight to its mystery and music. Then came the man, explaining that the child heard nothing strange; that the pearly curves of the shell simply caught a multitude of sounds too faint for human ears, and filled the glimmering hollows with the murmur of innumerable echoes. It was not a new world, but only the unnoticed harmony of the old that had aroused the childs wonder. Some such experience as this awaits us when we begin the study of literature, which has always two aspects, one of simple enjoyment and appreciation, the other of analysis and exact description. Let a little song appeal to the ear, or a noble book to the heart, and for the moment, at least, we discover a new world, a world so different from our own that it seems a place of dreams and magic. To enter and enjoy this new world, to love good books for their own sake, is the chief thing; to analyze and explain them is a less joyous but still an important matter. Behind every book is a man; behind the man is the race; and behind the race are the natural and social environments whose influence is unconsciously reflected. These also we must know, if the book is to speak its whole message. In a word, we have now reached a point where we wish to understand as well as to enjoy literature; and the first step, since exact definition is impossible, is to determine some of its essential qualities. Meaning: The Shell and the BookQualities of LiteratureImportance of LiteratureSummery The first significant thing is the essentially artistic quality of all literature. All art is the expression of life in forms of truth and beauty; or rather, it is the reflection of some truth and beauty which are in the world, but which remain unnoticed until brought to our attention by some sensitive human soul, just as the delicate curves of the shell reflect sounds and harmonies too faint to be otherwise noticed. A hundred men may pass a hayfield and see only the sweaty toil and the windrows of dried grass; but here is one who pauses by a Roumanian meadow, where girls are making hay and singing as they work. He looks deeper, sees truth and beauty where we see only dead grass, and he reflects what he sees in a little poem in which the hay tells its own story: Yesterdays flowers am I,And I have drunk my last sweet draught of dew.Young maidens came and sang me to my death;The moon looks down and sees me in my shroud,The shroud of my last dew.Yesterdays flowers that are yet in meMust needs make way for all to-morrows flowers.The maidens, too, that sang me to my deathMust even so make way for all the maidsThat are to come.And as my soul, so too their soul will beLaden with fragrance of the days gone by.The maidens that to-morrow come this wayWill not remember that I once did bloom,For they will only see the new-born flowers.Yet will my perfume-laden soul bring back,As a sweet memory, to womens heartsTheir days of maidenhood.And then they will be sorry that they cameTo sing me to my death;And all the butterflies will mourn for me.I bear away with meThe sunshines dear remembrance, and the lowSoft murmurs of the spring.My breath is sweet as childrens prattle is;I drank in all the whole earths fruitfulness,To make of it the fragrance of my soulTh at shall outlive my death. One who reads only that first exquisite line, Yesterdays flowers am I, can never again see hay without recalling the beauty that was hidden from his eyes until the poet found it. In the same pleasing, surprising way, all artistic work must be a kind of revelation. Thus architecture is probably the oldest of the arts; yet we still have many builders but few architects, that is, men whose work in wood or stone suggests some hidden truth and beauty to the human senses. So in literature, which is the art that expresses life in words that appeal to our own sense of the beautiful, we have many writers but few artists. In the broadest sense, perhaps, literature means simply the written records of the race, including all its history and sciences, as well as its poems and novels; in the narrower sense literature is the artistic record of life, and most of our writing is excluded from it, just as the mass of our buildings, mere shelters from storm and from cold, are excluded from architecture. A history or a work of science may be and sometimes is literature, but only as we forget the subject-matter and the presentation of facts in the simple beauty of its expression. Suggestive The second quality of literature is its suggestiveness, its appeal to our emotions and imagination rather than to our intellect. It is not so much what it says as what it awakens in us that constitutes its charm. When Milton makes Satan say, Myself am Hell, he does not state any fact, but rather opens up in these three tremendous words a whole world of speculation and imagination. When Faustus in the presence of Helen asks, Was this the face that launched a thousand ships? he does not state a fact or expect an answer. He opens a door through which our imagination enters a new world, a world of music, love, beauty, heroism,the whole splendid world of Greek literature. Such magic is in words. When Shakespeare describes the young Biron as speaking In such apt and gracious wordsThat aged ears play truant at his tales, he has unconsciously given not only an excellent description of himself, but the measure of all literature, which makes us play truant with the present world and run away to live awhile in the pleasant realm of fancy. The province of all art is not to instruct but to delight; and only as literature delights us, causing each reader to build in his own soul that lordly pleasure house of which Tennyson dreamed in his Palace of Art, is it worthy of its name. Permanent The third characteristic of literature, arising directly from the other two, is its permanence. The world does not live by bread alone. Notwithstanding its hurry and bustle and apparent absorption in material things, it does not willingly let any beautiful thing perish. This is even more true of its songs than of its painting and sculpture; though permanence is a quality we should hardly expect in the present deluge of books and magazines pouring day and night and to know him, the man of any age, we must search deeper than his history. History records his deeds, his outward acts largely; but every great act springs from an ideal, and to understand this we must read his literature, where we find his ideals recorded. When we read a history of the Anglo-Saxons, for instance, we learn that they were sea rovers, pirates, explorers, great eaters and drinkers; and we know something of their hovels and habits, and the lands which they harried and plundered. All that is interesting; but it do es not tell us what most we want to know about these old ancestors of ours,not only what they did, but what they thought and felt; how they looked on life and death; what they loved, what they feared, and what they reverenced in God and man. Then we turn from history to the literature which they themselves produced, and instantly we become acquainted. These hardy people were not simply fighters and freebooters; they were men like ourselves; their emotions awaken instant response in the souls of their descendants. At the words of their gleemen we thrill again to their wild love of freedom and the open sea; we grow tender at their love of home, and patriotic at their deathless loyalty to their chief, whom they chose for themselves and hoisted on their shields in symbol of his leadership. Once more we grow respectful in the presence of pure womanhood, or melancholy before the sorrows and problems of life, or humbly confident, looking up to the God whom they dared to call the Allfather. All these and many more intensely real emotions pass through our souls as we read the few shining fragments of verses that the jealous ages have left us. It is so with any age or people. To understand them we must read not simply their history, which records their deeds, but their literature, which records the dreams that made their deeds possible. So Aristotle was profoundly right when he said that poetry is more serious and philosophical than history; and Goethe, when he explained literature as the humanization of the whole world. Meaning: The Shell and the BookQualities of LiteratureImportance of LiteratureSummery So, why is Literature important? How does it show itself as indispensable to a culture? Heres what William Long has to say... Importance of Literature It is a curious and prevalent opinion that literature, like all art, is a mere play of imagination, pleasing enough, like a new novel, but without any serious or practical importance. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Literature preserves the ideals of a people; and idealslove, faith, duty, friendship, freedom, reverenceare the part of human life most worthy of preservation. The Greeks were a marvelous people; yet of all their mighty works we cherish only a few ideals,ideals of beauty in perishable stone, and ideals of truth in imperishable prose and poetry. It was simply the ideals of the Greeks and Hebrews and Romans, preserved in their literature, which made them what they were, and which determined their value to future generations. Our democracy, the boast of all English-speaking nations, is a dream; not the doubtful and sometimes disheartening spectacle presented in our legislative halls, but the lovely and immortal ideal of a free and equal manhood, preserved as a most precious heritage in every great literature from the Greeks to the Anglo-Saxons. All our arts, our sciences, even our inventions are founded squarely upon ideals; for under every invention is still the dream of Beowulf, that man may overcome the forces of nature; and the foundation of all our sciences and discoveries is the immortal dream that men shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. In a word, our whole civilization, our freedom, our progress, our homes, our religion, rest solidly upon ideals for their foundation. Nothing but an ideal ever endures upon earth. It is therefore impossible to overestimate the practical importance of literature, which preserves these ideals from fathers to sons, while men, cities, governments, civilizations, vanish from the face of the earth. It is only when we remember this that we appreciate the action of the devout Mussulman, who picks up and carefully preserves every scrap of paper on which words are written, because the scrap may perchance contain the name of Allah, and the ideal is too enormously important to be neglected or lost. Meaning: The Shell and the BookQualities of LiteratureImportance of LiteratureSummery So, to sum up, William Long explains that Literature is the expression of life... Summary of the Subject We are now ready, if not to define, at least to understand a little more clearly the object of our present study. Literature is the expression of life in words of truth and beauty; it is the written record of mans spirit, of his thoughts, emotions, aspirations; it is the history, and the only history, of the human soul. It is characterized by its artistic, its suggestive, its permanent qualities. Its two tests are its universal interest and its personal style. Its object, aside from the delight it gives us, is to know man, that is, the soul of man rather than his actions; and since it preserves to the race the ideals upon which all our civilization is founded, it is one of the most important and delightful subjects that can occupy the human mind. Meaning: The Shell and the BookQualities of LiteratureImportance of LiteratureSummery

How To Convert Feet to Kilometers - Worked Example Problem

How To Convert Feet to Kilometers Problem This example problem demonstrates how to convert feet to kilometers. Feet To Kilometers Conversion Problem The average commercial jet flies around an altitude of 32,500 feet. How high is this in kilometers? Conversion Solution 1 foot 0.3048 meters1000 m 1 kmSet up the conversion to the desired unit will be canceled out. In this case, we want km to be the remaining unit.distance in km (distance in ft) x (0.3048 m/1 ft) x (1 km/1000 m)distance in km (32500 x 0.3048/1000) kmdistance in km 9.906 km Answer 32,500 feet is equal to 9.906 kilometers.Many conversion factors are difficult to remember. Feet to meters would fall into this category. An alternate method to perform this conversion is to use multiple easily remembered steps.1 foot 12 inches1 inch 2.54 centimeters100 centimeters 1 meterUsing these steps we can express a distance in meters from feet as:distance in m (distance in ft) x (12 in/1 ft) x (2.54 cm/1 in) x (1 m/100 cm)distance in m (distance in ft) x 0.3048 m/ftNote this gives the same conversion factor as above. The only thing to watch out for is for the intermediate units to cancel out.

An Experience Demonstrating the Leadership Essay

An Experience Demonstrating the Leadership - Essay Example My friend died three years ago. He was not my closest friend. He was not a genius. He was not an extraordinary person whose very absence resonates through the universe. Nor was he a person who was important to me during his life. He was an ordinary boy who left no mark on this good earth. He died in an accident, and is missed by his family and friends just like any other person would be. And yet his death left its impact on me.  He was, in every sense of the word, ordinary. When I saw his sister at the funeral, however, I realized how unordinary he had been. She was a complete wreck. Her whole body was convulsing from the sheer weight of her pain. I realized that day that we spend our entire lives being â€Å"ordinary† and yet there is always that one soul which forgets how to survive without us. And we never realize it. It’s a remarkable thing, to touch people so and be touched by them thusly. I decided then that I would stop living ordinary, and embrace extraordinar y.  By extraordinary I only mean that which is not routine, which taxes my efforts. The challenge has been the discovery of my path, and how I struggle each day to remain on it. It’s hard, not succumbing to ordinary. Only two weeks ago I had to force myself not to do what I would have done in my past. My family disapproves of my sister’s marriage. They hadn’t spoken in months. It was her second anniversary two weeks ago and I had two options; either to continue as I’ve been or to do something about it. I decided on the latter. I spoke with my parents about throwing a surprise party for her. Speaking proved to be entirely useless. I then spend a good part of an entire two days persuading them, blackmailing them, trying to coerce them. Nothing worked.

The play Lucky Spot Thesis Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The play Lucky Spot - Thesis Example It is obvious from the beginning of the play that the prospect of success for a dance hall in a poor, Southern town during the Depression, over the Christmas holidays, when people spend time with family, is unlikely. But it's Hooker's pipe dream that keeps him alive when he says, "Hey, look, it's Christmas Eve. People are so lonely out there you can smell it rotting on 'em. Here at The Lucky Spot we'll be selling hot music, fine dancing, and sweet solace of kind hearted women." The stakes are raised even higher when Whitt Carmichael, a wealthy, well-dressed man in his thirties, comes to town and informs Hooker that the property he won from his relative has a lien on it and unless he pays him three hundred and fifty dollars for it by January 1st, the property belongs to him. The prospect for success narrows even further when Lacey Rollins, 30ish with fading good looks, one of the Taxi Dancers Hooker hired to work at The Lucky Spot, emerges from the living quarters to inform the others that the rest of the dancers have fled on account of the news that Hooker's estranged wife, Sue Jack Tiller Hooker, has been released from prison early and is headed back there. Sue Jack's reputation precedes her having served time for throwing a woman over a second floor balcony when she found her in bed with her husband.

Settling the Northern Colonies Essay Example for Free

Settling the Northern Colonies Essay The Protestant Reformation Produces Puritanism Martin Luther . He declared that the Bible alone was the source of Gods words. He started the Protestant Reformation. John Calvin He spelled out his doctrine in 1536 called Institutes of the Christian Religion. He formed Calvinism. King Henry VIII formed the Protestant Church. There were a few people who wanted to see the process of taking Catholicism out of England occur more quickly. These people were called Puritans. A tiny group of Puritans, called Separatists, broke away from the Church of England. King James I had them exiled from England. The Pilgrims End Their Pilgrimage at Plymouth Separatists in Holland settled in Plymouth Bay in 1620. Pilgrim leaders drew up and signed the Mayflower Compact. This was a simple agreement to form a crude government and to agree to the majority under the regulations agreed upon. It was signed by 41 males. It was the first attempt at a government in America. In the Pilgrims first winter of 1620-1621, only 44 of the 102 survived. In 1621, there was the first Thanksgiving Day in New England. William Bradford- elected 30 times as governor of the Pilgrims. The Bay Colony Bible Commonwealth Charles I dismissed Parliament in 1629 and sanctioned the anti-Puritan persecutions of the Archbishop William Laud. In 1629, a group of non-Separatist Puritans secured a royal charter to form the Massachusetts Bay Company During the Great Migration of the 1630s, about 70,000 refugees left England for America. Most of them were attracted to the warm and fertile West Indies. John Winthrop- the Bay Colonys first governor. Building the Bay Colony Governor Winthrop of the Bay Colony did not like Democracy. The freemen annually elected the governor and his assistants and a representative assembly called the General Court. Visible Saints was another name for the Puritans. John Cotton- a very devoted Puritan. Trouble in the Bible Commonwealth Anne Hutchinson- challenged the Puritan orthodoxy; was banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony because of her challenges to the Church. Roger Williams- Salem minister who challenged the Church; Separatist; banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The Rhode Island Sewer Roger Williams fled to the Rhode Island area in 1636. He then established religious freedom for all kinds of people. New England Spreads Out Hartford and Connecticut founded in 1635. A group of Boston Puritans came to the Hartford area lead by Reverend Thomas Hooker. In 1639, the settlers of the new Connecticut River colony drafted a document known as the Fundamental Orders. New Haven was established in 1638. In 1641, New Hampshire was taken by the Massachusetts Bay. The king took it back and made New Hampshire a royal colony in 1679. Seeds of Colonial Unity and Independence In 1643, 4 colonies banded together to form the New England Confederation Each colony had 2 votes, regardless of size. King Charles II gave rival Connecticut in 1662 a sea-to-sea charter grant, which legalized the squatter settlements. In 1663, the outcasts in Rhode Island received a new charter, which gave kingly sanction to the most religiously tolerant government. In 1684, the Massachusetts Bay Colonys charter wastaken away by London authorities. Andros Promotes the First American Revolution In 1686, the Dominion of New England was created by royal authority. In 1688 it was expanded to New York and East and West Jersey. Sir Edmund Andros He established headquarters in Puritanical Boston. Andros stopped the town meetings In 1688-1689, the people of old England engineered the Glorious (or Bloodless) Revolution. They dethroned Catholic James II and enthroned the Protestant rulers of the Netherlands, the Dutch-born William III and his English wife, Mary, daughter of James II. In 1691, Massachusetts was made a royal colony. There was unrest in New York and Maryland from 1689-1691. Old Netherlands at New Netherland Late in the 16th Century, the Netherlands fought for and won its independence from Catholic Spain with the help of England. In the 17th Century, the Dutch (the Netherlands) became a power. Golden Age. It fought 3 great Anglo-Dutch naval battles. The Dutch Republic became a leading colonial power, with by far its greatest activity in the East Indies. The Dutch East India Company was nearly a state within a state and at one time supported an army of 10,000 men and a fleet of 190 ships, 40 of them men-of-war. This company hired an English explorer, Henry Hudson, to seek great riches. He sailed into the Delaware Bay and New York Bay in 1609 and then ascended the Hudson River. He filed a Dutch claim to a wooded and watered area. The Dutch West India Company was less powerful than the Dutch East India Company, and was based in the Caribbean. It was more interested in raiding than trading. In 1628, in raided a fleet of Spanish treasure ships and stole $15 million. The company established outposts in Africa and Brazil. In 1623-1624, the Dutch West India Company established New Netherland in the Hudson River area. It was made for its quick-profit fur trade. The company also purchased Manhattan Island from the Indians for worthless trinkets. The island encompassed 22,000 acres. New Amsterdam, later New York City, was a company town. The Quakers were savagely abused. Dutch Residues in New York In 1664, the Dutch were forced to surrender their territory (New Netherland) to the English when a strong English squadron appeared off the coast of New Amsterdam. New Amsterdam was named New York, after the Duke of York. Penns Holy Experiment in Pennsylvania A group of dissenters, commonly known as Quakers, arose in England in the mid-1600s. Officially, they were known as the Religious Society of Friends. Quakers were especially offensive to the authorities, both religious and civil. They refused to support the Church of England with taxes. William Penn was attracted to the Quaker faith in 1660. In 1681, he managed to secure from King Charles II an immense grant of fertile land, in consideration of a monetary debt owed to his deceased father by the crown. The king called the area Pennsylvania. The Middle Way in the Middle Colonies The middle colonies New York, New Jersey, Delaware, and Pennsylvania, were known as the bread colonies because of their heavy exports of grain. These colonies were more ethnically mixed than any of the other colonies. The people were given more religious tolerance than in any other colonies. Benjamin Franklin was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1706. He moved to Philadelphia at the age of 17.

U.S. Criminal Justice System Essay -- legal reform, social issues, cir

Before proposing a reform to the American criminal justice system, we must first examine the problems that plague the process of justice on all levels. American society plays an important role in shaping the criminal justice system. Their beliefs and values determine the type of deviants and the consequences of the crimes. Often their beliefs contradict each other. Americans believe that the more serious a crime is, the longer a person should spend in a prison. In reality it means that a law at discretion can sometimes just set a number of years that a person should spend in the jail, regardless of the situation. The time in the prison is often very long (Randall, Brown, Miller& Fritzler, p.216) because some states have definite sentence or mandatory sentences which leave little room for the judge to decide on the merits of the person. For example, California favors â€Å"Three Strikes and You’re Out†(Randall & et al., p.216) stance on the laws which means after third felony crime, a person must spend 25-year-to-life sentence in the prison. They believe that the deprivations of basic needs, isolation from the society, and in extreme cases, death are consequences of committing a crime. The process of the court in America values efficiency and tough punishments. Since there are a lot of arrests, the court is overburdened and pressed for time. The prisoners are processed through like animals for the slaughter, quickly and with no mercy. The inequality in the terms of power and money influences the court. People with deep pockets are able to bail out or negotiate for a lesser term than a person assigned to a free lawyer by the state. Those consequences Americans believe will serve as deterrence or warning to people to obey the law... ...not the answer to all of the problems that America is experiencing in the criminal justice system, but however it may take the pressure off the state to provide the help to people. The reduction and the reform in the prisons are strongly recommended before using this new model. Works Cited Shelden, R.G., Brown, W.B., Miller, K.S., & Fritzler, R.B. (2008). Crime and criminal justice in american society. Long Grove, Illinosis: Waveland Press, INC. Bohet, A.K. & Wadhwa, T. Beyond the prison walls: reforming through silence. Indian Psychology Institute. http://ipi.org.in/texts/nsip/nsip-full/toolika-tihar.html Doleschal, E. (1977). Rate and length of imprisonment: how does the united states compare with the netherlands, denmark , and sweden?. Crime & Delinquency, 23(1), p. 51 -56 http://cad.sagepub.com/content/23/1/51 doi: 10.117/001112877702300105

Ethical Dilemma Essay

The situation at hand involves an ethical decision between two possible courses of action relating to the promotion of tobacco as a product in the market. R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. is a corporation that earns huge amounts of money in selling tobacco and is concerned about keeping its profits despite the negative image now associated with tobacco. Therefore, R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. hired Acme Global Advertising to again promote the product in the market. Being recommended by the company’s Director for Global Accounts as the new head of the R.  J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. account, I am constrained to decide whether to accept the position or not. There is no doubt that this is a once in a lifetime career opportunity, as the last manager to handle the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. account had already retired after receiving a huge sum of money after his successful campaign. Indeed, a successful promotional campaign would result in huge profit for both R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. and Acme Global Advertising, which would translate into big earnings for me. On the other hand, a simple refusal on my part would mean another eager person would immediately be taking my place and my big opportunity. The problem is not as simple as it looks, however. This is because the World Health Organization already declared tobacco as the second major cause of death in the world. Therefore, any effort on my side in promoting the consumption of tobacco would mean that I am personally exerting effort in favor of a product that causes death to millions of people arounf the world. It is clear, therefore, that the present situation presents an ethical dilemma that needs serious consideration. I have to make a decision between personal success and the health of innumerable people. In order to solve this dilemma, I turn to the philosophical writings of Aristotle in his work entitled Nicomachean Ethics, as well as utilitarian ethical philosophy as explained by well-known ethical philosophers John Stuart Mill and Jeremy Bentham. Based on these ethical principles, I shall explain why it would be ethical for me to accept the challenge and exert my best effort in promoting the sales of tobacco products of R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. this paper shall discuss the relevant principles characteristic of each theory, and then apply such principles to the facts of this particular scenario. In Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, he expounded on the notion called virtue, which to him is that which determines the character or nature of anything, be it a person or a specific thing (Ross). Virtue is that thing which makes a knife a good knife, and it is also that which makes a man a good person (Ross). Aristotle makes a distinction between two kinds of virtue, namely natural virtue and moral virtue (Kilcullen). For him, the former relates to characteristics that humans possess from birth, such as a particular temperament (Kilcullen). On the other hand, the latter kind of virtue refers to the act of submitting one’s acts to reason (Kilcullen). It is in the latter kind of virtue that habit, an essential part of Aristotle’s ethical philosophy, enters the scene (Kilcullen). Aristotle posits that moral virtue is developed through habituation, whereby the exercise of reason results in a specific course of action (Kilcullen). Applying Aristotle’s ethical philosophy based on virtue and habit, I conclude that accepting the challenge would determine my character as a person in general, and as a leader in an advertising firm in particular. Accepting a project such as the one in the case would help me develop habits that would hone my leadership and creative skills, which would increase my competence as a leader. The other ethical philosophy that supports my decision is utilitarianism, which is a notion that belongs to the normative ethics tradition. Since the late 18th- and 19th-century, utilitarianism had been in existence to attempt to answer the question, â€Å"What ought a man to do? (West). † Utilitarian philosophers Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill were the foremost believers in the school of thought, and their main thesis was that an action would only be considered morally right if it tends to promote happiness for the greatest number of people. This has been popularly known as the â€Å"Greatest Happiness Principle. † John Stuart Mill explained said ethical principle in 1863, when his published work entitled Utilitarianism came out. He explained, thus: The creed which accepts as the foundation of morals, Utility, or the Greatest Happiness Principle, holds that actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness. By happiness is intended pleasure, and the absence of pain; by unhappiness, pain, and the privation of pleasure (Mill). It appears therefore, that utilitarianism attaches moral value, not on the motive behind man’s actions, but on the effect that such action makes on people. Bentham and Mill assumed that pleasure and pain are the basic motivations of man, such that he avoids pain and seeks pleasure (West). Applying this principle to my ethical dilemma, I deduce that accepting the project would promote the happiness of many people, namely, myself and the executives of the two corporations that would derive monetary benefits from the success of the project. The people who could be consuming tobacco would likewise find happiness in the availability of a product that they enjoy having, albeit this happiness comes with the danger of disease or even death. Nevertheless, I leave such choice to the holders of the lives concerned, namely, the consumers. It is, after all, ultimately their choice whether to remain healthy or otherwise. In sum, two ethical principles, namely Aristotelian and utilitarian ethics, support the decision to accept the position as head of the project and promote tobacco products.

Research Ethics Stanford Prison Experiment Summary Essay

The Stanford Prison Experiment (SPE) was conducted in 1971 at Stanford University in the basement of the psychology building. Philip Zimbardo as lead researcher headed the research team to study the impact of situational variables on human behaviour. Zimbardo and his team advertised for volunteers to a social experiment offering $15 in payment per day. Wanting to examine the â€Å"dark side† of human nature, applicants were required to have no criminal record, no psychological issues and no major medical conditions. Each of the 70 applicants were psychologically tested and the 24 most â€Å"normal† were selected to take part in the SPE. The 24 selected participants were then divided into two groups randomly, with one half being prisoners and the other half being guards. The guards were taken to the mock prison before the prisoners arrived to help in the final stages of the prison’s construction and to help select their military style uniforms, this was to give the guards a sense of ownership over the prison environment. Alternatively the prisoners were surprised with real police and authentic processing before being incarcerated into the prison. Despite it being an artificially created environment the guards and prisoners quickly altered their behaviour in response to the situational variables of the experiment. Prisoners were dehumanized and their individuality stripped away, while the guards became increasingly more sadistic and degrading towards the prisoners. After the guards crushed an early attempted rebellion by the prisoners, one prisoner was released for acting irrationally to a point that seemed pathological. After this some of the prisoners became super-conformist, following rules to the letter. While other prisoners began to act crazy in an effort to passively escape like the first released prisoner. The guards fell into three categories with some acting sadistically and degrading towards the prisoners, others going completely by the book and some guards acting kindly and doing small favours for the prisoners. None of guards ever intervened or questioned the actions of other guards however no matter what kind of guard they were. The experiment was terminated early after just six days when an outsider, a recent PhD graduate came in from the outside and saw how out of control the experiment had become. Ethical issues that arose during the SPE were the harm done to the participants. Guards were allowed to inflict real pain and humiliation on the prisoners over an extended period of time. The experiment was allowed to continue for longer than it should have because the participants and observers fell too deeply into their roles. There was also little or no regard for the participants’ confidentiality during the SPE.

Free Essays on Scientology As A Deviant Group

The Church of Scientology is a progressive religious philosophy that was founded in the 1950’s by L. Ron Hubbard. Unlike most other religions of the world, Scientology is not faith-based. It does not expect its members to believe anything that they do not have empirical evidence for. They do believe, that matters of religion are just as scientific as matters of biology. According to the mission statement on their website, the purpose of the religion is to get man back in touch with his spiritual side. Man has advanced a great deal in its knowledge of the physical world around it, but has failed to advance in its knowledge of the self and the spirit. Scientology is supposed to help individuals regain knowledge of themselves. It also proposed to rid man of his earthly troubles – â€Å"to replace ignorance with knowledge, doubts with certainty, and misery with happiness.† There are many testimonies about the effectiveness of the church’s program, incl uding from celebrities like Kirstie Alley and Kelly Preston. The website is very vague about specifics of practices and rituals, although there is continuous mention of a â€Å"purifying† program that is supposed to detoxify one’s body before starting the spiritual journey. Aside from small snippets of information about the philosophy of the church, there is little theoretical content on the website. It is rumored that this cult-like religion won’t reveal anything to outside sources. People must become members in order to learn about the actual philosophy of the church. Probably the aspect of the Church of Scientology that sticks out the most is its disregard for the role of faith in religion and the image of a god as a supreme being. All major world religions, including Christianity, Judaism, Hindu, Islam, and Buddhism acknowledge the existence of a god, a creator. On its website, Scientology boasts to have â€Å"millions of members,† a figure that is not only vague,... Free Essays on Scientology As A Deviant Group Free Essays on Scientology As A Deviant Group The Church of Scientology is a progressive religious philosophy that was founded in the 1950’s by L. Ron Hubbard. Unlike most other religions of the world, Scientology is not faith-based. It does not expect its members to believe anything that they do not have empirical evidence for. They do believe, that matters of religion are just as scientific as matters of biology. According to the mission statement on their website, the purpose of the religion is to get man back in touch with his spiritual side. Man has advanced a great deal in its knowledge of the physical world around it, but has failed to advance in its knowledge of the self and the spirit. Scientology is supposed to help individuals regain knowledge of themselves. It also proposed to rid man of his earthly troubles – â€Å"to replace ignorance with knowledge, doubts with certainty, and misery with happiness.† There are many testimonies about the effectiveness of the church’s program, incl uding from celebrities like Kirstie Alley and Kelly Preston. The website is very vague about specifics of practices and rituals, although there is continuous mention of a â€Å"purifying† program that is supposed to detoxify one’s body before starting the spiritual journey. Aside from small snippets of information about the philosophy of the church, there is little theoretical content on the website. It is rumored that this cult-like religion won’t reveal anything to outside sources. People must become members in order to learn about the actual philosophy of the church. Probably the aspect of the Church of Scientology that sticks out the most is its disregard for the role of faith in religion and the image of a god as a supreme being. All major world religions, including Christianity, Judaism, Hindu, Islam, and Buddhism acknowledge the existence of a god, a creator. On its website, Scientology boasts to have â€Å"millions of members,† a figure that is not only vague,...

How To Do A Competitive Analysis In Three Easy Steps + Free Template

How To Do A Competitive Analysis In Three Easy Steps + Free Template So your boss has come to you and said you need to do a competitive analysis. Maybe youve never done one before, or maybe its been a while and you need to brush up on your skills before you conduct another one. Either way, weve got your back. By the end of this post, you’re going to Learn what a competitive analysis is (and why you should care) Easily be able to conduct your own competitive analysis (because I’m breaking it down into three easy steps) Get an example of what one looks like (for easy reference later) AND be able to download your very own competitor analysis template down below. Let’s get to it. Learn How To Do A Competitive Analysis In Three Easy Steps + Free TemplateWhat Is A Competitive Analysis? If you've never done a competitive analysis before, this is a good place to start. Every business that I know of has competitors. (This isn't just for the Nike's of the world, because the smaller you are, the more vulnerable you are to the competition.) The smaller you are, the more vulnerable you are to competition, so get to that competitive...Understanding the strengths and weaknesses of your competition is important to the success of your business. Besides better understanding the environment your business operates in, conducting regular competitive analyses also helps you: Understand how you can improve your own promotional tactics†¦ Forecast the future of the market (especially related to the economic climate)... Better target current customers†¦ AND helps you read new audiences. Said another way - conducting a competitor analysis is crucial to how you decide to operate your entire  business. Recommended Reading: How to Complete a Social Media Audit in 9 Steps (Free Template) Competitive Analysis Definition According to Entrepreneur, the competitive analysis definition is this: â€Å"Identifying your competitors and evaluating their strategies to determine their strengths and weaknesses relative to those of your own product or service.† Competitor analyses are more complex than just figuring out what your competitors are (or are not doing). They're about taking what you learn and improving your own business. After all, data that doesn't drive change is just a number. Data that doesn't drive change is just a number. Here's how to do a competitive analysis right.So without further ado†¦ Let’s jump into how to do a competitor analysis! How To Do A Competitive Analysis Performing a competitive analysis might seem like just  another task on your ever-increasing to-do list. And, while it might seem daunting at first, they're not that complicated and they are really beneficial. And to prove it - I’ve broken down how to do a competitive analysis in THREE (yes, just three) easy steps. Step 1: Identify Your Competitors This is an obvious first step. To start, perform a Google search of the products/services YOUR business offers, and take note of the results. For example, if you sell camping materials, you would type â€Å"camping tents, lantern, camping equipment, etc.† into the search engine, and then review the results, and compile a list of companies who also sell camping materials. It's important to be realistic about who your actual competitors are. Here are a couple of examples: If you’re a small business owner with a local brick-and-mortar women's clothing boutique, your competition is not the men’s retail store across the street (even though they are also selling clothing). The competition you should really focus on would be another women’s clothing store who is selling the exact same product as you. They are the ones who will have the largest impact on your success. OR If you’re a marketing agency in Minneapolis, Minnesota, your direct competition is other similar-sized marketing agencies in the area - not Ogilvy (a major advertising agency) in New York City. And once you feel confident about your pool of competitors, it’s on to the next step! Recommended Reading: 90 of the Best Marketing Quotes to Prove Every Point Step 2: Research Your Competitors After you’ve identified who your direct competitors are, it’s time to research them! This step is often the most time-consuming of the three, but it's also is the MOST important step. The data you collect here will directly impact the outcome of your analysis. The first phase of the research should be focused on the business of your competitors. Things you should look for include: Pricing strategies. Sales format. I.e. online or physical location? Product offering Next - you need to figure out why a customer would choose to purchase from your business and not one of your competitors. The best way to do this is to survey new /current customers. Recommended Reading: The Best Free Marketing Proposal Template That Will Get a Yes Here are a few questions you could ask new/current customers: What other business were you considering before you picked us? What do we have that our competitors did not have? Is there anything you wished we did have that our competitors do have? This honest feedback is one of the best ways to figure out how you stack up against your competitors in the eyes of your customers. Finally, you need to dig into their marketing materials and comb nearly every aspect of their website, social media and email communication. Here are the major things you need to consider: What are they doing with their marketing content? What are there overall strategies when it comes to demand generation, PR / social media, and product marketing? Who is their target audience? (I.e. Young professionals? College students? Professional marketers?) How many followers do they have on all the social networks? How are they positioning themselves in the market? (I.e. Are they the highest / lowest $$$ option?) Recommended Reading: The 30 Best Content Research Tips That Will Make You More Influential Step 3: Compare Your Business The last step is to compare yourself with your competitors. The best way to do this is by performing a SWOT analysis for each competitor, which helps you identify your own strengths and weaknesses, and in turn, identify your future opportunities and threats (this is where the term SWOT comes from). Once you’re done, you will have a clear picture of how you stack up against your competitors, and have all the information you need to decide what changes need to be made to optimize your business.

Environmental economics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Environmental economics - Essay Example According to Berlin, steps are underway to enable Germany meet its target to cut down carbon emissions by the year 2020 (Thomas n.p). The emissions will be down by 40% and later will do away with fossil and nuclear form of energy. The plan will affect companies’ profits from power plants as the government subsidizes the renewed energy. However, there is a rise in the cost of electricity, as consumers have to meet the costs of the subsidies for renewable sources of energy. The economy of Germany is growing well despite the rising costs of energy and has managed to reduce the energy intensity. Germany has become the largest exporter of solar inverters by the help of its renewable energy Act passed in 2000.Solar photovoltaic cells have provided cheap energy for the residents reducing the cost of electricity (Thomas n.p). Germany is aiming at the smart energy management concept by creating smart homes to create more comfort. Economics is an area that focuses on the growth of the economy in various ways such as job creation and other forms of developments. Renewable energy industry creates many jobs in Germany as highlighted in the article with individuals working in the industries that manufacture cells and another gadget that use solar, the wind, or wave energy. Employment is one of the major factors affecting the economy and since it leads to high incomes and a high standards of living. Development of the renewable energy facilitates and promotes developments in Germany with many people buying shares in the power generating companies (Thomas n.p). Since the renewable energy sector is labour intensive, many people are employed and can save for further investments. The payments received by the landowners in Germany after the company installs windmills in their land increases their income. Adoption of strong policies for the renewable energy will enable

FIVE short seminar Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

FIVE short seminar - Essay Example The texts were available before in the local orthodox language and beliefs of the Church which were given new expression in the print media and led to more openness of the expression. The target segment for receiving the benefits of print revolution already existed. The paper and block printing was first invented in China in the first century which spread to Europe in the twelfth century (Eisenstein, 2012, p.53). The spread of Martin Luther’s ideas and the lessons of the Church found channels of expression. In the nineteenth century, the print presses were power driven and faster dissemination of information happened among the masses. Development in investment scenario of the countries like Australia, etc is also a contribution of the print media. Radio days The emergence of radio as a mass medium happened long back from the days of Marconi. Marconi invented ways of decoding the communication codes used in a telegraph and transmitting useful information through a radio. In the early days, the use of radio was an amateurish activity by the audiences who used crystal radio sets. People also pursued hobbies of using radio as a communication medium. In 1920, the corporate radio broadcasting centres stared to operate for reaching out to the masses. With time the desire and the need for radios developed. This gave rise to subsequent developments of the radio communication through the introduction of vacuum tube radio and loudspeakers for better communication. During the time of depression in 19298, radio became the mass medium of communication. Thus for the stages of hobby, radio developed into a wired mass medium for distant communications. Messages and information starting from emergency to entertainment were spread through the radio. The sinking of Titanic and messaging for SOS happened through telegraphic system. However, the news of the world wars was more wide spread with the help of radio. In the field of entertainment, radio started to broadcast new on films, broadcasted musical events and commentaries on live sporting events like Olympics, Football world cup, etc. Image Technologies and Mass Society The image technologies came into vogue during the end of the nineteenth century. The image technologies marked the emergence of the mass society in the twentieth century. In the twentieth century, the communication in the world circulated through wired media like telegraph and telephone. The advent of the image technology brought about the spread of news and entertainment to a wider section of the society. Almost all the spheres of life that include urbanisation of the regions, transportation and public works, information on the time zones were all the more accessible with the help of image technologies. Consumerism developed rapidly with the formation of departmental stores, exhibitions and fairs, e.g. Paris Exposition of 1901. Numerous small theatres developed along with the stardom of the celebrities also grew. The spread of pictu res led to change in lifestyles of the population with more interest to the world of eminent personalities. The Paris Exposition of 1901 received overwhelming responses on sensual pleasures as compared to the knowledge part. The heritage properties like the Crystal Palace of 1950 were designed for the awareness of the masses. The manufacturers started to apply