Team SuccessTeam Building Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Team SuccessTeam Building - Essay Example The Colts's leadership has stressed that the players are role models for youth and for the community. They participate in events to benefit children such as 'Coats for Kids' and toy drives during the holidays ("Coats" 2007). This aspect of leadership brings the team together in a common bond that transcends being simply teammates. Along with the players' role as leaders, Coach Tony Dungy uniquely makes his demands on the field. He does not scream, swear, or throw things to show his disappointment. He is quietly demanding and his demand is for excellence. These two aspects of the team are seen on the field in what Weaver (2004) calls, "...loyalty, charity and diligence". The team's strong Christian ethics have also contributed to their winning. They are humble in their success. This is illustrated in their holding back on premature celebrations, taunting, or personal fouls. The pragmatic result is fewer penalties. Along with this character comes the trait of humility. This may be the Colt's biggest intangible asset. When they win, they win as a team. And when they lose, they all lose. Peyton Manning has never taken the credit for a win. When they lose, he takes his blame and responsibility for it. All the players share in this attitude. There are no stars, only a team. This makes winning not only the most important thing, but also the only thing. The

Philosophy of Man Essay Example for Free

Philosophy of Man Essay â€Å"Man† seems to have been quite a neglected subject in the history of Western philosophy; more attention has been paid to God and universe than to man. Though there are many reputable histories of the specific branches of philosophy; and even of some of its special subjects such as logic ethics, aesthetics, politics, law and history, a â€Å"history of the philosophy of man† has yet to be written and even vet to be conceived. True â€Å"man† has sometimes been discussed as a part of this or that theory or system in ethics, politics or education, but such subsidiary discussions by their very nature remain controlled by the requirements and presuppositions of a particular theory or system. All this strikes rather ironical in view of the fact that, to the great Socrates; first of the founders of Western philosophy, the central theme of philosophy was not the world, but man. Socrates’ deep concern for the well-being of man makes him look like a prophet moving amongst the Greeks. In the celebrated Platonic Dialogue; the Apology, Socrates is reported to have gone to God, only to be graced with a special message for his fellow men. This Divine message exhorted the Athenians to â€Å" take the greatest possible care of their souls and not to ruin their lives by letting the care of the body and of the â€Å"possessions† take precedence over the good of the soul. Nay, they must make their souls as good as possible, making them like God†. Socrates is, however, better known to us for his detailed and meticulous analyses of the moral qualities of man; such as justice, goodness, courage, temperance and so on. But what is more important for us to note here is the woeful fact that nowhere in ‘all the twenty-eight platonic Dialogues, we find Socrates giving as a definition of man. Perhaps even for Socrates, man was too much of a mystery, and a veritable riddle to be comprehended through a philosophical definition. Both Plato and Aristotle, after Socrates, ventured to give us definitions of man; but these definitions, with due deference to these two great masters, unfortunately, are no longer tenable on empirical grounds. Plato’s definition of man as a political animal, perhaps, reflects only the intensely political atmosphere of the city-states of his days. We in our own days know fully well that man in the pre-literate and primitive societies has neither state nor politics. Aristotle’s definition of man as a social animal, very sadly, casts a slur on his otherwise well-established reputation as â€Å"the founder of a systematic and comparative Zoology†. Sociability cannot be said to be the real hallmark of man to distinguish him from the animals. Some of the animals, at quite a lower rung of the evolutionary ladder, manifest as much sociability in their behaviour as man. The social insects like termites, ants, bees and wasps live in colonies and give clear evidence of group-integration and division of lab our; they have their kings and queens and workers and soldiers much as the human beings have. The definition of man as a rational animal not only carries the formidable authority of Aristotle but also the weight of a long tradition running throughout the ages. This definition of man, to my mind, is more prescriptive than descriptive. It exhorts man to think rationally rather than describe the fact of man’s actually thinking rationally. But it is an imperative or a command, and a good command indeed but for that very reason not a definition. It may be insisted that Aristotle, in his definition has made an empirical statement of the kind that man by virtue of the quality of rationality (differentia) inherent in him, always thinks rationally. In that case this definition is not satisfactory, because it is an incomplete definition which has taken â€Å"rationality† as the sole distinctive quality of man as it differentiates him from the animals. There are, however, other similar unique qualities of man differentiating him from the animals, which have been completely by-passed in Aristotles definitionqualities, for example, of artistic imagination and numinous sense of the presence of the Divine to all things. Aristotle’s- definition could give us only a fragmented man as if a featherless biped. Aristotle’s definition of man in terms of genus and differentia, Plato’s in terms of the tripartite division of the soul, and the great scholastic philosophers’ in terms of the indivisible soul-substance which does nothing to us nor we do anything to it; all of them seem to be some of the blind alleys in the history of philosophy. These definitions, however, are not altogether meaningless; in any case they are better than Cartesians’ definition of man as an assembled organic machine ready to run, or behaviourists’ definition of him as a toy in the Watsonian box mercilessly caught between the stimulii and the responses. Classical philosophers’ definitions or conceptions of man are to be construed not through the detailed analyses of their philosophical terms but through a close and deep understanding of their whole philosophical perspective. In case their definitions continue to remain unacceptable to us, even then we are to change not the definitions but the philosophical perspective from which these definitions have emerged. This is much like moving from the geocentric perspective to the heliocentric perspective in astronomy. But the change of a perspective in philosophy, as in other domains of human knowledge, usually entails a change in the methods of its study, like, for instance, studying the moon, through a telescope and studying it by landing on its surface, or more precisely, as Max Weber puts it, like studying the cultural phenomena through the usual methods of scientific explanation and studying them through the method of â€Å"interpretative understanding†. Quite a few new perspectives in philosophy and even the new methods of their study came to be keenly discussed and elaborated in some of the major universities in Germany such as Munich, Hamburg and Berlin, somewhere in the 1020’s. Some of these new perspectives or branches of philosophy and their methods may be roughly translated in English as: â€Å"Philosophy of Life†, â€Å"Study of the Human Sciences†, â€Å"Study of the Cultural Sciences†, â€Å"Method of Spiritual Interpretation†, Method of understanding (verstehn) in Human Sciences†, and â€Å"Method of Phenomenology†. From the very titles of.these new branches of philosophy, it becomes clear that they especially focus their attention on man. The method, that the proponents of the new sciences of philosophy employ in the study of man is a highly technical affair; broadly speaking, it may be characterized as an empirical method of the highest order. From the new undertakings and preoccupations of some of the distinguished German philosophers in the new philosophy, there emerged quite a few new disciplines such as a â€Å"Philosophy of Culture†, â€Å"Philosophy of Symbolism†, â€Å"Biographical Studies† and â€Å"Philosophy of the Human Sciences†. Among them was also the philosophy of man as a very specialized and independent discipline; named as Philosophical Anthropology or Anthropological Philosophy. By 1940 there were quite a few chairs for philosophy of man in some of, the renowned universities in Germany. After World War II interest in this discipline spread to Holland and France. Soon after it had its impact felt in the United States; possibly through the influence of the most distinguished German philosopher, Ernest Cassirer, who after having left Germany in 1933 had taught at Oxford and later chaired the Departments of Philosophy, at the universities of Yale and Columbia. He is perhaps the only German Philosopher to have been admitted to the distinction of the library of living philosophers. Without any pretentions to originality the philosophers of man have acknowledged their great indebtedness to many of the philosophers of the past; notably to Blaise Pascal, Goethe, Kant, Herder, Hegel, Kierkegaard, Feuerbach, Nietzsche. They have drawn their greatest inspiration, however, from the works of Wilhelm Dilthey (1833-1911); one of the greatest philosophers of history and culture. Dilthey is noted for his thoroughgoing empiricism and for the encyclopedic range of his academic interests. The most singular of his contributions to philosophy, however, is his construction of a new methodology for philosophy, and a Dew science of interpretation (Hermenutics) for the study of human sciences (Geisteswisseneschaften). He is reported to have worked on these major preoccupations of his for forty years. Dilthey’s works, prepared by a team of editors, have appeared in eighteen volumes with more to follow. A six-volume English translation of his selected works is being published by Princton University since 1984. Among the writers; specifically on the â€Å"philosophy of man† in Germany, by far the most active of its exponents, is Max Scheler whose work Man’s Place in Nature (Die Stellung des Mensehen in Kosmos. 1928) is perhaps the first ice-breaker. Scheler was also the first to employ an independent method of phenomenology to the study of religion. He, however, is better known in the Anglo-Saxon world for his pioneer work on Sociology of Knowledge, the great merit of which has been recognized by th Max Weber and Karl Mannheim. Ernest Cassirer, generally known to us for being one of the earliest writers on Einstein’s Theory of Relativity (1921), is in fact the most distinguished philosopher of symbolism. His very original theory of symbolism as exhibited variously in science, art, religion, myth and language, is elaborately expounded in his three-volume work: Philosophy of Symbolic Forms: (Philosophie der Symbolischen Formen, 1923-1929). This theory has given the new philosophy of man a firm empirical base; it has also given to it a definitive starting point. Man, according to Ernest Cassirer, is essentially a symbolizing animal. It is man’s unique ability to use symbols, or in the language of the Quran, the ability to name things that differentiates man from the pre-human animals. It is through this unique ability to use symbols that man learnt to assign to objects, persons and advents certain meanings such as could not at all be grasped through the sensations. So long as man did not become aware of symbols, he remained at a level of mental existence in which the world was dark and opaque and meant nothing. But the moment man started using symbols he was, as if through a magic wand, awakened to a new mode of consciousness; the consciousness of meanings. Man’s awareness of, so to say, capturing the things by assigning meanings to them through the use of symbols, lifted him literally to a new dimension of human existence. This exaltation of man to a new level of existence, verily because of his ability to use symbols; is referred to in the Quran i. e. verse: when Adam exhibited the ability to name things and this was beyond the angel’s spiritual dimensionangels prostrated themselves before him. It is interpreted sometimes to mean that it is verily through his ability to use words that man came to have a mysterious sway over everything that he touched or looked at. In the symbolic’ comprehension of meanings, the words dog, rat, rabbit, are not merely sounds but meaningful sounds. The meanings, however, are not inherent in the sounds (or in the shapes or the configurations of the letters in case of written words) as such, but are arbitrarily or conventionally assigned to them by human beings. The point to be noted here is that, in an articulate speech, the sensory sounds of the words have no intrinsic relations to the meanings intended by the speaker; sounds or patterns of sounds are used merely as symbolic instruments or vehicles for the meanings. This explains very largely that though the anthropoid apes, in the so-called great-ape-language-experiments, usually succeed in picking up short series of single words, they utterly fail to develop a sense of â€Å"contextual† relevance of words as also to acquire the ability to link the words syntactically or as the experimenters put it: â€Å"Apes are complete blank in grammar. † How and when did man learn to use symbols or words continues to remain an open question. Plato was perhaps the first to broach the subject of the origin of language in his Dialogue The Cratylos. His discussion of the matter, however, was inconclusive as also were the speculative theories of many classical philosophers who ventured into unravelling the mystery of language. Inquiries into the origin of language are now quite out of fashion with the modern philosophers and linguists. We must, however, note here  the position on this issue taken by Edward Burnett Tylor. He was, admittedly, one of the most distinguished of the British anthropologists. He tells us that â€Å"at some point in the evolution of primates, a threshold was reached in some line, or lines, when the ability to use symbols was suddenly realized and made explicit in overt behaviour. There is no intermediate stage, logical or neurological, between symbol ling and non-symbolling: an individual or a species is either capable of symbolling or he or it is not. â€Å" All that Tylor means to tell us here is that the ability to use symbols emerged through a kind of mysterious leap and is not the product of gradual and continuous process of evolution. This is clearly indicated by the, expression â€Å"suddenly realized† in the above passage. Instead of openly confessing his ignorance on the issue of the origin of symbolling, i. e. , language, Tylor seems here to cloak this ignorance by using the doubtful and debatable doctrine of leaps or jumps so popular with the Emergent and Creative Evolutionists. If both philosophy and science fail us in this matter, why not then accept the view given in the Scriptures that man learnt the names of things from God Himself and call it the divine theory of language. Even as scientists we are not to say that there are only perceptual symbols and completely ignore a whole class of symbols called the religious symbols. The religious symbols constitute a peculiar language of their own which is quite as meaningful as scientific language; only like the language of art, it has its own unique method of interpretation or in Dilthey’s words a unique Hermenutics. Having acquired the capacity to use symbols a bit more freely and having built up a sizable working lexicon of these symbols, man started his journey away from the physical world (merely a sensory world of the animals), created by the Lord, to a non-physical world, created by man himself as the Deputy of the Lord. Very briefly this new world of the Deputy is the world of, meanings and values; giving a broad classificatory description of it, it is the world of language, myth, art, religion, philosophy, and science. It is however more convenient to call it the world of culture. It is to be noted here that animals cannot possibly be admitted to man’s world of culture as earlier they could not be admitted to man’s world of symbols. Culture and symbols indeed are like soul and body to each other. Hence it would not be inappropriate to say that culture, born of the inmost passions of man’s psyche or spirit (Geist), always manifests itself in and through the dress of symbols. Much more important, however, is the fact that it is only through its symbolic dress that culture receives a tangible form so that it can be safely stored in libraries, galleries, museums, and places of worship. Soon, culture assumes a personality of its own, independent of man, its creator. It then begins to move from generation to generation, and from epoch to epoch and manages to stalk in man’s history as a power by itself. Culture thus comes to change its position with man and claims to be creator of man. The way culture is transmitted from one generation to another is the most wondrous of all the cultural phenomena. Nietzsche observed in his usual inclisive way that culture could be possessed by man alone for man alone is born as an unfinished animal. The human infant as compared to the infants of other animals is biologically much less formed as if it were born premature and certainly it is too much of a weakling to face the slightest blows of nature. Moreover this creature has to go a long way before it can lay claims to be on its own if ever it would! On the other hand the parents of this weakling are irresistibly attracted to it and extend to it the most affectionate care and love. The weakling’s helplessness for a long stretched period of its infancy and the corresponding intense attachment of the parents (particularly of the mother) are some of the important constituents of a new phase of the human weakling’s life. This phase has been termed as the second gestation or the extra-uterine gestation. It seems as if the infant at the time of its birth was released from the biological confines of the mother only to be thrown into the socio-cultural confines of the world. It has sometimes been said that most human animals move from the confines of one shell into those of another and never really are born, unless, of course, if they are helped through some kind of cultural maiuetics or spiritual midwifery. It is a well-known fact that a child learns his native language in the shortest possible span of time. By the age of six and even five most children would have learnt not only more than 90% of the basic vocabulary of their language but also its grammar, the correct form of its a lot of idioms, the right pronunciation, the proper accent or intonation, the appropriate choice of words to be addressed variously to parents, a sibling, a playmate, or a servant. This is amazing! How does the child learn all this? ‘I he simple and perhaps correct answer is: The child learns all this through its skin. The child starts being sensitized right from the early days of its birth by a deeply emotionalized inter-personal involvement with a number of persons around it. The most important of these persons, of course, is the mother who starts teaching the child a new scheme of conditioned reflexes, soon to be developed into an elaborate system of symbols, not merely through the words of mouth but also through the soft and warm touches of her body, her hugs, her fondlings, her caresses, and her one and hundred kisses. The language as if it were, was being injected into the child. As the child grows up through boyhood and adolescence right into adulthood this language stays with him and becomes the veritable part of his personality. It would not be for wrong to assert that the child gets enclosed for ever within the shell of its native language which it cannot possibly break through unless it chances to be a Ghalib or an Iqbal. It is exceedingly important to note here that the child imbibes its native culture through the same emotionally sensitized, subjectivized, internalized way as becomes available to it in learning the native language. Culture and language (scheme of symbols) are so closely tied to each other that it is well-nigh impossible to imagine a culture without its peculiar language; nor is it possible to think of a language without its culture. To have a language without a culture is tantamount to having words without meanings, which makes no sense. Thus child’s learning its native culture, and its learning the native language are not two processes but one in which the two are interwined with each other for their very existence. Some leading modern psychologists, however, are of the view that the child learns the whole value and belief-system embodied in its culture much quicker than he learns the language. The process of imbibing the culture they hold is comparatively more sensitized, more subjectivized and more internalized; than that learning the language. Language on the other hand, is a bit more of a cognitive and schematic affair. Language further has more of an instrumental value to serve as a symbolic medium, while culture carries all the intrinsic meanings and values which are closest to the child’s heart. The child internalizes all the cultural meanings and values of his milieu and they become real powerful ingredients of his personality. In other words the child gets snugly enclosed in a fully fortified, double-walled shell of language and culture for the rest of his life. The notion of the second, i. e. , the socio-cultural gestation of man is, thus, not to be labelled a mere speculation of the philosophical anthropologists but a doctrine well-rooted in the empirically grounded evidence. The above process of acculturation through which every human child has to pass has led some American psychologist, notably Benedict Ruth and Margaret Mead, to advance their doctrine of cultural determinism. According to this doctrine, even though individuals think that they make personal choices, at least, in such trivial matters as buying an article of clothing or eating or not eating a particular food in the restaurant, their choices are, in fact, fully determined by the socio-cultural milieu in which they have . been brought up. However bleak, gloomy or disheartening by this view of stark determinism might be, It is not easy to refute it. It carries weight in so far as it explains some important socio-cultural phenomena. Take, for instance, the strifes and conflicts between socio-cultural groups, small or big, belonging to this or that piece ,of land, in the south or the north, in the east or the west, subscribing to this or that religious view or ideological shiboleths. These social psychologists and culturologists tell us, are very largely due to the fact that the socio-political behaviour of the individuals and more particularly of their leaders is dertermined in the final analysis by the forces residing within their respective socio-cultural shells. Cultural determinism as viewed by Ruth and Mead and even as conceived earlier by the behaviourists, the psycho-analysts and the historical materialists poses a real serious challenge to any philosophy of man. Philosophers like Dilthey and Scheler, however, insist that the solution to this apparently impossible problem is not theoretical but entirely practical and experiential. Culture, according to them, owes its origin, essentially to the extraordinary experiences and arduous creative work of the great prophets, the great artists, and the great philosophers and other great geniuses who have given new meanings and new dimensions to human life. These torch-bearers of life cannot be said to be passive product of socio-cultural forces of their milieu. The very fact that they have the capacity to take these socio-cultural forces into their own hand and direct them into new channels in the light of their Geist falsifies any such view. Dilthey, however, goes farther and urges us to absorb and internalize the extraordinary experiences of these lumanaries of humanity to the best of our abilities; so that these may be re-lived to the maximum possible extent in our own humble souls, Thus alone shall we be born again and be released from the bondage of cultural determinism. This is, however, by no means, an easy, affair. Nevertheless, it is a real uphill task. It may be recalled that Dilthey worked for full forty years on the sciences of human spirit (Geisteswissenscha ften ); then he could arrive at their methodology. This is a methodology, primarily, about transferring or transmitting the experiences of the great founders of human culture to the generality of mankind. Among other things, Dilthey has insisted on the experiential rather than the barely intellectual or academical interpretations (Hermeunities) of the great texts. It is through the former type of interpretation alone that we are enabled to have true intuitive comprehension (Verstchn) of the inner import of these texts. It is heartening to note that Allama Iqbal has advocated a method for the comprehension of the text. of the Quran which is almost identical with that of Dilthey. The Allama says in his Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam : â€Å"No understanding of the Holy Book is possible until it is revealed to the believer just as it was revealed to the Prophet†. This most remarkable statement, unique in the history of Islamic thought, is to be found in the opening’ passage of Lecture VII of the Reconstruction, a, lecture addressed originally to the very learned audience of the Aristotelian Society in London (on the 5th of December, 1932). Though the Allama has ascribed this statement to an unnamed Muslim Sufi (sic), I, on the basis of my study of the Reconstruction and experience of expounding its text to a few generations of students for the last more than 20 years, beg to differ with him and aver that the said statement is positively his own. The Allama has ascribed it to an unknown Sufi, to my mind, only because he had great misgivings about the way it might be received by the traditional scholars of Islam. Let me add that the statement is purely prescriptive and not descriptive in the usual sense; it does not refer to a fact, here a credal fact, i. e. , a belief; it only exhorts us to do something in a certain way if we want to have a desired end. So, as a prescriptive statement, it strongly recommends to us a method for the true comprehension of the meanings of the Quran. It tells us that a true believer must so deeply interiorize the meanings of the Holy Book that he starts almost re-living certain â€Å"experiences† on account of which, these meanings were comprehended by or revealed to the Prophet. Thus, the reference here is essentially to a spiritual process or method through which alone (and the true believers have no choice in this matter) a true believer would comprehend the meanings of the Quranic text closest possible to the comprehension of the Prophet. This perhaps is the only, though very arduous, way of deepening or intensifying our Islamic consciousness. The statement, however, is open to the misinterpretation that in so far as it recommends the believer to do something which is very close to Prophet’s very unique way of doing it, it implies or suggests that the believer is raised to the status of the Prophet and this is sacrilegeous. It is to be noted that the true believer’s being raised in his status is purely and entirely epistemic or experiential which is a blessing, not ontic, real, or actual which is impossible, or, as James Wards puts it, the most impossible of all things in the world. We cannot be a Plato or a Shakespeare, how can we be an Abraham, a Moses or a Muhammad? May God forgive us for any such thoughts. At the time of writing Lecture VII which embodies the above statement, i. e. , September 1932, the Allama was very busy and much preoccupied in so many things Javid Nama was to come soon in December; in October he was to leave for Third Round Table Conference and so on. He did not want to be disturbed just because the great traditional scholars would not renderstand him on an important academic statement of his; so in haste he foisted it on a Muslim Sufi. Please note the rather unusual expression â€Å"the Muslim Sufi†, most unexpected of Iqbal, as perfect a master of English diction- as that of Persian. â€Å"The Muslim Sufi’, as if there could be also Christian or Hindu Sufis, betrays the very divided feelings or moments of hesitation at the time of thinking of this expression and tacitly nodding to it: â€Å"Let it go! † He was keenly aware of the profound religious meanings embodied in the above statement but also painfully aware of the spiritual opacity of his co-religionists who might be displeased with it. He was divided between pleasing his eo-religionists and pleasing himself. So he chose to father the statement on a â€Å"Muslim Sufi† he would not name, and thus please both himself and his brethren in faith nobody would know that the â€Å"Muslim Sufi† was he himself. It is generally narrated that somewhere in early November, 1933, on way back from Afghanistan Iqbal told Syed Sulaiman Nadvi that the Sufi referred to in the above statement was no other than his own father. The very fact that the name of the author of the statement â€Å"popped up† signifies that the statement must have struck the Syed extraordinary. More notable, however, is the fact that the great Syed accepted Iqbal’s assertion as it was and did not comment on it nor added anything to it not even later. He did not say, for example: â€Å"I am so pleased to know this†. But my dear friend, it is nothing very original, it may as well be found in Ghazali, Rumi, Ibn Arabi, Jili, Mujaddid Alit Thani, or any name like them. It looks rather odd that the Iqbal scholars have quietly agreed to foist such an important and methodologically most significant statement on a Sufi, who never had any pretensions whatsoever in the Sufi-lore nor in the subtle and profound ways of the Sufis. Would it be better to be rich and ugly, or poor but beautiful? The Philosophy of Man is another name for mans study of philosophy. Philosophy is defined as the study of general and fundamental problems. These problems are typically related to fields such as knowledge, existence, reason, mind, values and language. The approach that philosophers take is different from other ways of addressing the problems due to it being critical and systematic. It also carries a heavy reliance on rational argument. There are a number of different of branches of the Philosophy of Man, some of these are listed below. †¢ Metaphysics. This considers the study of the nature of reality. This can include the relationship between body and mind as well as substance and accident and causation and events. Within metaphysics there are other branches including ontology and cosmology. †¢ Ethics. This is sometimes referred to as moral philosophy. Ethics deals mainly with the question about what is the best way to live and whether this is a question that can actually be answered. Ethics can be subdivided into normative ethics, applied ethics and meta-ethics. †¢ Epistemology. This is concerned with the scope and nature of knowledge. It also poses the question about whether knowledge is possible. It is often concerned with the challenge posed by skepticism and studies the relationships between truth, justification and belief. †¢ Logic. Within philosophy the study of logic is that of valid argument forms. The subject of logic can be separated into two branches, mathematical logic and philosophical logic. †¢ Political philosophy. The study of the government and the relationship of individuals to states is something that is becoming more popular within the philosophical world. Questions are posed about justice, law, rights and obligations and it is often closely linked with ethics. Philosophy A philosophy is a system of beliefs about reality. It is ones integrated view of the world. It includes an understanding of the nature of existence, man, and his role in the world. Philosophy is the foundation of knowledge. It is the standard by which ideas are integrated and understood. Philosophy is a necessary product of mans rational mind. To live, man must gain knowledge of the world. To understand the world, man must form conclusions about its very nature. For instance, to gain knowledge of particular objects, man must recognize that objects have identity. He must recognize that conclusions are possible because the world does exist, and exists in a particular way. Philosophy provides the framework for which man can understand the world. It provides the premises by which man can discover truth, and use his mind to support his life. Every man has an understanding of the world. Every man must have a philosophy, even if it is never made explicit. Philosophy of the Human Person’s Selected Theses The following are the five (5) selected theses that I shall endeavourto explicate and exemplify: 1. â€Å"Philosophy is the science of knowledge. But the outcome of any philosophical inquiry is determined by its starting place . †Ã¢â‚¬â€œ Michael Novak (Belief and Unbelief); 2. â€Å" The intrinsic objectivity of humancognitional activity is its intentionality. † Bernard Lonergan, SJ (CognitionalStructure); 3. â€Å" Reflection is one of the life’s ways of rising from one level of being to another† Gabriel Marcel (Primary and Secondary Reflection: TheExistential Fulcrum); 4. â€Å"Each symbol gives rise to comprehension by meansof interpretation . † Paul Ricoeur (The Symbol : Food for Thought); and 5. â€Å" Wehave the existential presence which is a common spiritual bond in virtue of which each is present in the other and participates in the being of another† -Engelbert Van Croonenburg (Man and Fellow- Man). â€Å" Philosophy.

Potential Environmental Impacts of Utilization of ConocoPhillips Fuel E

Potential Environmental Impacts of Utilization of ConocoPhillips Fuel Efficient High Performance (FEHP) Lubricant Applications in the Automotive Industry In some shape or form, nearly all aspects of American life contribute to unnecessary exploitation of natural resources. The automobile is a staple of American life and culture, and perhaps best exemplifies Americans’ dependence on gross quantities of raw materials. On any given day, over 235 million vehicles travel 11 billion miles on U.S. highways, consuming nearly 20 million barrels of oil daily 1,2,3. Worldwide, oil consumption has reached a 16-year high of 80.6 million barrels per day 17. Most important of all, proven oil reserves around the world only provide roughly 40 years of production at these current rates 18. Oil consumers ignore this reality either through lack of education or simple apathy, because right now there are no immediate consequences to consuming such vast volumes of a polluting, non-renewable resource. Numbers like those mentioned above are so large it is difficult for one to fathom their true magnitude, however they still convey the reliance aver age Americans have on their automobiles and oil. By and large, the automobile is the only way most Americans travel. Without getting into the details of problems with public transportation, people simply do not consider other options to personal transportation. This becomes especially significant when one considers that cars are the single largest emitter of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The U.S. produces nearly 24% of the world’s CO2 emissions, a third of which comes from gasoline combustion in cars 4,5. Many scientists cite rising oil consumption as the leading cause... ...F-150 at a glance, 2004, Ford Motor Company, 11 May 2004, 15. New Report: Reducing Vehicular Global Warming Pollution Saves California Drivers Money, 2004, Union of Concerned Scientists, 11 May 2004, 16. Innovations: High-efficiency axle system, 2003, Visteon Corp., 1 May 2004, 17. Reuters, World oil consumption seen at 16-year high, 2004, MSNBC News, 12 May 2004, 18. Worldwide Oil and Gas Production and Reserves, Phillips, 2000, U.S. Energy Information Administration, 3 May 2004,

Character Essay

Hope, Tenacity, and Ingenuity are all important things everyone must have in order to survive in life, however, when you are placed in danger, these character traits can be the most valuable thing you can have. In the sport of rock climbing/ hiking, people put themselves in harms way in order for the thrill of the sport, but also to push their limits to reach the end. However, sometimes, these dangers you believe that could not happen strike and can change your life entirely. In Danny Boyle’s â€Å"127 Hours,† Aron Ralston is going on a little hike around a canyon were he slips and gets is arm stuck under a rock.Ralston is an excellent example of the 3 key character traits because he uses them all in order to help his escape. In the film, it showed many hallucinations Ralston would see because while he was stuck in the crevice with little to no chance of survival, he still hoped for a miracle and never gave up. His attitude to never give up, or his tenacity, was another important key element to his survival because whenever he would fail with one attempt, instead of getting depressed and giving up, he would think of another way to get out and stayed strong, even in the hardest times.The last element would be his ingenuity because he used all his knowledge of making a pulley, about amputation, and many other things, which aided him in his escape of the crevice. There is one scene where it shows a montage of images with Ralston attempting to throw rope over a ledge in order to make a pulley system, and it showed him fail many times but it showed him using all of the character traits because he never gave up, hoped for a way out, and used his knowledge of a good way to get out of the rock.In the myth of a Sisyphus however, the man stuck on the cliff has a bit of a different attitude then Ralston had. He man stuck on the hill, who is forced to move a rock to the top, only to fail and have to try again. Although all hope of him escaping has died, he st ill stays strong and attempts to achieve the goal. The man does not use any of these traits because he only does one thing; rather then find other ways that could help him achieve his goal.As you can see, the difference between with someone with these characteristics and someone without show completely different outcomes. This is just another example of why it is good to have these traits and shows the pain you will have to go through if you are stuck in a dangerous type of situation. The last example about how these traits are important would be in Krakauer’s story of â€Å"Into Thin Air. † This story is about a group of people venturing up Mt Everest, however on the decent down, a horrible storm hits and basically ends up killing most of the people on the hike.Although some people died in this story who showed good qualities and the character traits, it was not enough for the dangers that lurked in the novel. Even though all of the survivors were people who never gav e up, and hoped o get down, people like Krakauer did not have to much experience and his ingenuity was of not as much help as either fFcher or halls ingenuity would be. Without these traits, Krakauer may not have made it down because if were to of just given up, then he would have just died like the rest of his friends.

Swot Analysis College

SWOT Analysis Lauren Fischer October 29, 2012. SWOT Analysis Strengths: Location Low student to teacher ratio Weaknesses: Crime College Mission/Vision Lack of Diversity Threats: Economy Peer Insitutions Opportunities: Economy External fundraising efforts Strengths: Location Low student to teacher ratio Weaknesses: Crime College Mission/Vision Lack of Diversity Threats: Economy Peer Insitutions Opportunities: Economy External fundraising efforts Strengths: Location The college may bene? t most from it’s location.The location may have little to do with the inner workings of the college, but it is one of the most attractive features about the college. The campus aesthetics, historical surroundings and proximity to the beach makes it an attractive location for prospective college students and helps increase enrollment. The quality of life here is rated highly which not only draws students to enroll, but leads to high retention rates amongst the student body. Student to Teacher Rat io The student faculty ratio stands at 16:9:1 which allows an intimate learning environment for the students.The The faculty is bright and genuinely care about the students. Students get to experience an availability to their professors and a personalized learning experience. This bene? ts the students and allows them to excel academically throughout their time at the college of charleston and establishes a mutual respect and good relationship between the students and faculty. Students come here seeking that level of attention and leave the school receiving more than they expected. Weaknesses Crime The College lies in the heart of downtown Charleston, which neighbors North Charleston.North Charleston is regarded as one of the most dangerous cities in the nation. Crime draws bad publicity and damages student morale. While many students who are expecting an urban environment and have an understanding that there are dangers with living in a city, the crime level may hinder perspective students from enrolling. Theft is an issue on campus for many of the students. College Mission/Vision According to Charleston’s strategic plan for the year of 2012, the college has failed to assert itself in the community. Internal and external constituents are often computed about the College’s missions, questioning whether it is the state’s liberal art’s college or a comprehensive university, private or public, a teaching or a research institution. † (Strategic Plan, p. 2) Two- thirds of the students at the College of Charleston are earning degrees in the liberal arts and sciences and most of the faculty and students regard the school as a liberal arts college. The state of South Carolina considers College of Charleston to be one of the ten comprehensive institutions.Lack of Diversity The College of Charleston has increased it’s academic quality and quality of life signi? cantly over the years. â€Å" It’s student body remains overw helmingly white, female, middle class. The college’s current strategic plan says that percentage of students from diverse ethnic groups at the College of Charleston is the lowest of any of the state’s four-year colleges and universities. The lack of diversity may hinder enrollments, especially those students looking for a unique urban experience. The school should try to develop strategies or programs that might attract more students from diverse backgrounds.Opportunities Economy While for many reasons the economy can be seen as a threat, and in today’s world it is a threat for many colleges across the nation, it is an opportunity in disguise. Because of the economic downfall, many adults have been let go from there jobs. Many people who have become unemployed over the last few years have made the decision to return to school. Enrollments are up, and people are ? nishing their degrees and receiving new ones. In result, the college is receiving more money from ne w enrollments and helping adults continue their future.External Fundraising Efforts The college has a strong presence and history in the city of charleston. The school needs to utilize that presence and seek out external fundraising efforts and support. According to College of Charleston’s strategic plan, the college’s external resources have been historically weak and remain signi? cantly behind the level of of success in peer institutions. There seems to be an issue of underfunding throughout the college, but increased relations with external resources can enhance endowment resources and continue on with future growth of the college.Threats Economy While the current economy could lead to possible opportunities for the college, it stands as an obvious threat the the college and its operations. State appropriation combined with other operating revenues make up only 20 percent of the budget, making the College Substantially dependent on tuition revenues. The college can not depend on state sources alone to fund future growth. In our current economy, people are pinching their pockets and saving money in any way that they can.In result, many are opting out of college or going to community colleges instead. There is a higher demand for loans and scholarships than ever before. The College is currently unable to offer all deserving students competitive scholarships and ? nancial aid. People are hurting everywhere, usual donors and alumni are cutting their costs and providing less donations to the college or none at all. This causes in shortages for technology, facilities, and athletics. Peer Institutions Peer institutions have always and will always be a threat to the College of Charleston.People are going to less urban schools where the cost of living is cheaper. The College is not well known for their sports and does not have a football team, so many schools with strong athletics draw in more students who desire the camaraderie big athletics brings to a university. Salaries and bene? ts for faculty and staff has not kept pace with our competitors. This could cause lowered retention and recruitment among the staff and faculty at the college and College Of Charleston could risk losing their strong reputation.All of these weaknesses in the college’s internal and external workings stand as a bene? t for other institutions and pose as a threat to the success of the College of Charleston. Sources: The College of Charleston http://www. cofc. edu/strategicplan/ The Princeton Review http://www. princetonreview. com/schools/college/CollegeAcademics. aspx? iid=1022 883 College Prowler http://collegeprowler. com/college-of-charleston/ Post & Courier http://www. postandcourier. com/article/20121016/PC05/121019443/1010/conde-nast-charleston-top-tourist-cityin-the-world

Burka Essay Essay Example

Burka Essay Essay Example Burka Essay Essay Burka Essay Essay The Burka: Controversies over women all around the World In present society there seems to be more and more controversies with Muslim women wearing the burka. The burka is a traditional piece of clothing used by women of Islamic religion. This piece of clothing is a type of veil attached to the head and covers the face and entire body, which the eyes uncovered, so women can see through it (Cody Daily, 2010). In this way, it is known that the burka has become a symbol of terrorism or a form of discrimination of women in the society, causing even more controversies. In the other hand, this piece of clothing erases the Muslim women’s identity and it is a symbol of faith and traditionally conservative Afghan society (Asamblea General Plenaria del Consejo de Estado frances, 2009). So now, although many countries consider that the use of the burka has negative effects on society and women, the burka has a positive effect if it is seen as a symbol of tradition and respect for the right to free development of personality. First of all, the burka represents an important symbol of tradition in the Afghan society. The use of the burka seen as something traditional between the Muslim women is characterized because this use represents a behavior of cultural and religious origins and its prohibition cannot be protected by the secularism notion (Motilla, 2009). Secularism notion means the view that religious considerations should be excluded from civil affairs and a religious skepticism. Despite this, there are several European countries that are trying to forbid the use of the burka in public places because they argue that these religious expressions involve problems of public order and the safety of people; so these cultural minorities must leave their religious identities to adopt the common tradition in other countries (Cody Daily, 2010). It is important to mention that the use of veils should not be a prohibition, but a decision that women can freely make to defend their religion and their beliefs, and it is true there are rules in every country but the government should not interfere in the way in which each person chooses their clothing or their beliefs. For these reasons, Muslim women can use their veils in other countries while it is used without damage to others and only through the decision to follow their beliefs. For example, countries like France and Belgium have established that women who use the burka in public should be arrested, because they represent a danger o society, while the United States have chosen to respect the religious beliefs (Munoz, 2003). Moreover, the right to free development of personality is a right of each person of every culture in a country and it includes the way Muslim women live. The burka prohibition would affect several rights and freedoms principles like: individual freedom, p ersonal liberty, freedom of speech and expression of opinions, especially religious; thus women can use this piece of clothing when they have attributed a meaning that produces wellness, belonging and attachment to their identity (Motilla, 2009). In the other hand, several countries argue that the use of the burka do not respect the principle of gender equality, also that its wearing is an element that shows the lack of integration of women and it affects their right to identity as a person (Cody Daily, 2010). However, as people know, every person has the right to the free development of personality, so women will be free to use their veil whenever they want, while they feel comfortable and in that way the can freely express their decision, personality and beliefs. For example, in Spain the state have a social perception that is trying to demonstrate through â€Å"The wilderness that is the Islam with womenâ€Å" that there is a conflict between modernity and the world of the Islam; however, there is a Muslim Womens Network in Spain that seeks to respect the rights of women and their personal liberty (Red de Mujeres Musulmanas en Espana, 2010). In conclusion, tradition and the right to free development of personality represent enough reasons to do not develop the prohibition of the use of veils in several countries. The first one represents the attachment and belief in their religion of all Muslim women, so they can use the burka to express freely their religious identities as long as there is not an abuse that affects other people in the society. In the second place, every person in each culture has de right to free development of personality, so if women want to use this veil is because they have attributed a meaning that produce in them a feeling of wellness, belonging and identity and they are free to do that as long as it does not affect others. In this way, although all over the world the burka has become a subject of controversy and discussion, I think it is not justified the prohibition of the use of this veil between the Muslim women because it is common that they use this piece of clothing because they are respecting their beliefs and values taught by the culture that gave them a particular identity all over the world.

All about Être, a French Super Verb

All about Être, a French Super Verb Être  is an irregular French verb that means to be. The multitalented verb  Ãƒ ªtre  is omnipresent in the French language, both written and spoken and appears in a multitude of idiomatic expressions, thanks to its utility and versatility. It  is one of the  most-used  French verbs. In fact, of  the thousands of French verbs, it is among the top 10, which also include:  avoir, faire, dire, aller, voir, savoir, pouvoir, falloir  and  pouvoir. Être is also an auxiliary verb in  compound tenses and the passive voice. The ThreeMain Uses of'Être' The many forms of  Ãƒ ªtre  are busy binding together the French language in three essential ways: 1) to describe a temporary or permanent state of being, 2) to describe someones profession, and 3) to indicate possession.   1. Être is used with adjectives, nouns, and adverbs to describe a temporary or permanent state of being. For example:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Il est beau. He is handsome.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Je suis Paris. Im in Paris.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Nous sommes franà §ais. Were French.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Il est l-bas. Hes over there. 2. Être is used to describe someones profession; note that in French the indefinite article is not used in this type of  construction. For example:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Mon pà ¨re est avocat. My father is a lawyer.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Je suis à ©tudiant. Im a student.  Ã‚  Elle à ©tait professeur. She used to be a professor. 3. Être can be used with the preposition plus a stressed pronoun to indicate possession. For example:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ce livre est moi.   This is my book.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   qui est cet argent  ? Cest Paul. Whose money is this?  Its Pauls. Être as an Auxiliary Verb 1. For Compound Tenses: While avoir is the auxiliary for most verbs in the French  compound tenses,  Ãƒ ªtre  is the auxiliary for  some verbs  as well. The conjugated auxiliary verb is used with the past participle of the main verb to form the compound tense. For example:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Je suis allà © en France.   I went to France.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Nous à ©tions dà ©j sortis.   We had already left.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Il serait venu si...   He would have come if... 2.  For the  Ã¢â‚¬â€¹Passive Voice:  ÃƒÅ tre  in the present tense and the past participle of the main verb forms the passive voice. For example:   Ã‚  Ã‚  La voiture est lavà ©e.  - The car is washed.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Il est respectà © de tout le monde.   He is respected by everyone. Expressions With'Avoir' That Mean 'to Be' When does to have (avoir) mean to be (à ªtre) in French? In several idiomatic expressions, which are governed by the laws of use over time, as odd as the  use may seem.  For this reason, there are a number of state of being idiomatic expressions with avoir that are translated as  to be in English:   Ã‚  Ã‚  avoir froid to be cold  Ã‚  Ã‚  avoir raison to be right  Ã‚  Ã‚  avoir xx ans to be xx years old Weather Expressions Use 'Faire,' Not 'Être' Weather is another instance of odd  idiomatic usage. When talking about the weather, English uses a form of the verb to be. French uses the verb faire (to do or make) rather than à ªtre:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Quel temps fait-il  ? Hows the weather?  Ã‚  Ã‚  Il fait beau. It is nice out. / The weather is nice.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Il fait du vent. It is windy. Idiomatic Expressions with'Être' A multitude of idiomatic expressions using  Ãƒ ªtre exist.  Here are a few of the better-known expressions: à ªtre cà ´tà © de la plaque  Ã‚  to be way off the mark, to not have a clueà ªtre bien dans sa peau  Ã‚  to be at ease/comfortable with oneselfà ªtre bouche bà ©e  Ã‚  to be flabbergastedà ªtre dans le doute   to be doubtfulà ªtre dans la mouise  (familiar) to be flat brokeà ªtre dans la panade  (familiar) to be in a sticky situationà ªtre dans son assiette  Ã‚  to feel normal, like oneselfà ªtre de   to be at/in (figuratively)à ªtre en train de   infinitive   to be (in the process of) present participleà ªtre haut comme trois pommes  Ã‚  to be knee-high to a grasshopperà ªtre sur son trente et un  Ã‚  to be dressed to the ninesen à ªtre   to take part inà §a mest à ©gal  Ã‚  its all the same to meà §a y est   thats it, its donecest   it is (impersonal expression)cest   date  Ã‚  its (date)cestdire  Ã‚  that is, i.e., I meancest moi / toi / Paul   thats mine / yours / Paulscest à §a   thats it, thats rightcest cadeauà ‚  Ã‚  Its free, on the housecest dans la poche  Ã‚  Its in the bag, a sure thing, a done dealcest grà ¢ce   Ã‚  its (all) thanks to cest la vie!  Ã‚  thats life!cest le pied  Ã‚  its greatcest parti  Ã‚  here we go, here goes, and were offce nest pas de la tarte  Ã‚  its not easyce nest pas grave  Ã‚  it doesnt matter, no problemce nest pas la mer boire  Ã‚  Its not the end of the worldce nest pas mardi gras aujourdhui  Ã‚  what youre wearing is ridiculousce nest pas terrible  Ã‚  its not that greatce nest pas tes oignons!  Ã‚  none of your business!ce nest pas vrai!  Ã‚  no way! I dont believe it! Youre kidding!est-ce que  Ã‚  no literal translation; this expression is used to ask  questionssoit... soit...   either... or... Conjugations of'Être' Below is the useful present-tense conjugation of  Ãƒ ªtre.  For  a complete conjugation of  tenses, see  all tenses. Present tense je suistu esil estnous sommesvous à ªtesils sont