The Razors Edge Review Essay Example

The Razors Edge Review Paper Essay on The Razors Edge To be honest, I always prepare myself for the holidays vinaigrette. Well, I really like it when a lot of things are mixed tasty, and everything it has and Mego helpful. And it is with this dish I associate a razor blade. Philosophical treatise, psychological parable, adventure novel, fantastic fiction and simple age-old Soviet novel quite elegantly had intercourse under one cover. I have this book advised a friend with great taste, but anyway I issue from all sides, what it would be like It could not be determined. Even scrolling through several pages and examining the content was at a loss. Because the reading came to stir interest. Somewhere in the network I met the view that such a deep richness of the genre is not the lot of different directions of the author, but simply an attempt to bring some sense of beauty and truth to all. What is not particularly welcome in the sixties and whether it is set out in a different form simply had not had a chance of success. Whether conceived Efremov, il happened accidentally but because of this form of the novel read it even hard conservatives who were afraid to open your body to the new truths. Not for nothing that more and more people are now looking for something new, hit in NyuEydzh or vice versa totally immerse themselves in the past, which is essentially the same thing. And this novel a good kick in the new life. Approved in me an opinion a work of uncle conductive parallels between Yoga and the Stanislavsky system. It turns out the great playwright was not an innovator, but just could perfectly adapted to the Soviet society of ancient values. In short supporters th ey of Ephraim were. We will write a custom essay sample on The Razors Edge Review specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on The Razors Edge Review specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on The Razors Edge Review specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer A wonderful book, soul raduyu beautiful scenery, the brain is fascinating simple truth, well, the body just can not break away from reading. And if vinaigrette I cook purely the holidays, the holidays just come in reading such literature.

City and the Soul Plato Essays

City and the Soul Plato Essays City and the Soul Plato Essay City and the Soul Plato Essay How compelling is the city-soul analogy and to what extent does the picture of â€Å"Platonic justice† that emerges from it differ from conventional justice? Much has been written about the inadequacy of the city-soul analogy in establishing what justice is, and further about how Plato fails to adequately connect his vision of justice to the conventional one and so is unable to address the original challenge. I mean to show that the city-soul analogy is in fact compelling, or at least that is it sufficiently adequate to allow us to move on to a discussion of how Platonic justice compares to conventional justice. At that point I will attempt to show that Platonic justice is relevant to the challenge posed to Socrates, and that despite objections to the contrary the Platonic and conventional views are sufficiently aligned to allow Socrates to conclude that he has shown that it is better to be just than unjust. Vlastos, and others, argue that describing the city as just is simply a generalization about its members, and so the city is not just in the same way that a person is just. I wish to argue, as Wilson does, that there are other grounds for Plato to attribute justice to the city. As Wilson puts it, â€Å"[Plato’s] central question is not the analytical philosopher’s question ‘What does ‘justice’ mean? ’, but the substantial question ‘What is justice? ’†. Thus, it is wrong to criticize the Republic as one would criticize a formal argument towards a definition, as Plato is actually searching for what justice actually is. Wilson’s doctor metaphor is helpful: Plato is investigating the nature of justice just like doctors inquire into the nature of a disease. Doctors notice a variety of systems and become convinced they are caused by a single underlying condition, to which they attribute a name. Eventually someone discovers this underlying condition and the initial assumption is justified. In this way, something like polio can be understood, not by investigating the meaning of the word polio but by looking at possible examples of it and by studying its nature. Plato, Wilson argues, is doing something similar with justice. What is it that makes the connection between justice in a city and justice in an individual plausible? To avoid the objections to the city-soul analogy, it is important that justice and other virtues not be found in the city only in a derivative way, that is, only as a generalization about the city’s members. Luckily, Plato is able to avoid this method. Wilson proposes that Plato does so by equating the structural features of the soul and of the city. Then, when some virtue V is indicated by certain characteristics C of a city, and by those same characteristics C of a soul, and that after inquiry we find that the structural feature of both the city and the soul that gives rise to C is the same structural feature S, then like the doctor we can conclude with certainty that V is S. Whether or not Plato successfully equates the structural features of the soul and the city is a large question, but he certainly thinks that he does. I do not mean to go into a discussion of this separate question here, but just wish to have shown that the use of the city-soul analogy is perfectly reasonable, since it provides an adequate method for investigating the nature of justice. Another potential problem Plato faces is the connection of Platonic justice to conventional views of justice. The original challenge is to show that it is better for a man to be just than unjust, regardless of anything else. This question would certainly not be sufficiently answered by inventing a new definition of justice that was unconnected from conventional views of justice, for example if the new definition permitted acts that commonly would be considered unjust; it is necessary for Plato to demonstrate a connection between Platonic and conventional justice. This issue comes most pointedly from Sachs, who asserts that Plato has to prove two different things: ) A Platonically just person will always act in conventionally just ways b) Someone who is conventionally just will necessarily also be Platonically just In other words, Sachs is of the opinion that Plato must equate Platonic justice to conventional justice in both directions, so that anyone who is one will necessarily be the other. Sachs claims Plato is aware of the need to prove a), though does not do a great job of doing so, but never mentions any need to show that b) is also true. I would argue that proving b) is unnecessary to establish Plato’s argument. Plato wishes to show that it is always better to behave justly, and Sach’s point is that Plato needs to show that someone who is conventionally just will always be better off than someone who is conventionally unjust, and so that person who is conventionally just must be Platonically just. However, I think that this is not actually required of Plato, as it is possible to think of cases where someone who meets the definition of conventionally just is not actually a just person in the way Socrates and the group are considering. As Sachs describes, the vulgar or conventional conception of justice is the idea of not doing certain acts. According to this definition, it would be possible to act in a conventionally just way- not simply seem just, but actually act in a way that makes one just- while in fact being unjust so that even those who hold the conventional view of justice would agree that such a person was unjust. As an example consider an â€Å"incompetent evildoer†. Such a person might have horrible intentions, but every single time he does a bad thing he not only fails to complete the action but fails to do so at all. Every action he does is a just action, and he never does any actions that are considered unjust, yet he has terrible intentions and constantly desires to harm others. He not only seems conventionally just to everyone around him, he actually is conventionally just because this vulgar, conventional view of justice is simply concerned with how he acts. It seems, however, that he is not a just person. Plato does not need to show that this man is someone who is Platonically just, and he very clearly is not. Thus, Plato is not required to demonstrate b), because there are some people who meet the definition of conventionally just but are not just in the sense that Socrates and company are discussing- they want to establish that it is better to be just, and would all agree that the incompetent evildoer is not just although he technically meets the conventional definition. On the other hand, it is important that Plato prove a). At first glance, it seems entirely plausible that someone with inner psychic harmony may be capable of stealing, murdering, or committing other unjust actions. This would totally invalidate Plato’s argument, as it would do nothing to show that everyone should act in what Glaucon and Adeimantus think of as a right way. So it is necessary to demonstrate that someone who is Platonically just will also be conventionally just, that is, everyone who has a well-ordered soul must always act in ways that we think of as just. I argue that an adequate proof of a) does exist for Plato, even if he himself does not include it. As Demos says, â€Å"mathematicians often skip steps in an inference, thinking them obvious†, and even though Plato may fail to provide the proof of a) himself, he is still justified in believing it. Demos gives a good way of approaching the defense of this point. Basically, the soul of the Platonically just person is ruled by reason, which is both a desire and an appreciation of the truth and of the good. This good which reason aims at involves justice, and aiming at the good means also aiming at the production of good things. So, an individual aiming at justice cares not only for justice abstractly, but is concerned with justice being embodied in humans in general. For the soul to be healthy requires its reason to be fulfilled, and reason’s concern is that the good should be exemplified everywhere. Being inwardly just means wanting everyone to have his due, and that means not committing the types of actions that are thought of as conventionally unjust. While this does not thoroughly prove a), it seems to show that the aims of an inwardly, Platonically just person will require them to be externally, and thus conventionally, just as well. Annas follows Sachs in insisting that Plato fails to prove a), and further thinks that there is no possible link between Platonic and conventional justice. One particular criticism is Plato’s view of truth-telling, which she sees as devastatingly inconsistent. As she points out, Plato would allow for the Guardians to occasionally tell lies, but the working class may not. She sees a big issue with the fact that the Guardians â€Å"cannot bear to be deceived, but they sometimes deceive others†. This criticism, however, seems to rest on an apparently quite stringent deontological view. I believe that Plato’s idea of the occasional rightness of lying fits perfectly well with conventional morality. Consider: i) Truth-telling in general is good ii) Lying is occasionally acceptable I would argue that conventional morality would accept both i) and ii), or at the very least, since some people might not accept ii), that it is at least an open question of conventional morality of whether ii) is acceptable. Certain times, it seems, lying is an obviously right act, such as the case of the murderer at the door inquiring about the whereabouts of his victim. Plato, I take it, takes a more consequentialist view of morality and would agree with both i) and ii). Because of the difficulty of saying when it is acceptable to lie and when it is not (both ethically, as it is hard to define exactly in which cases it is acceptable, and logically, as if everyone knows lying is allowed in certain cases the lie won’t be believed anyway), it is better to encourage a general culture of truth-telling but to permit some exceptions, and for Plato the way that makes most sense to balance on that fine line is to state that people shouldn’t lie, but in some instances the Guardians may. Thus, it is not the case that it is an inconsistency, but in fact Plato’s idea of truth-telling fits in well with conventional views of morality. Platonic justice aligns with conventional justice. Another objection, raised by Annas and others, is to ask why the Platonically just philosophers Plato imagines might not steal in order to fund their intellectual pursuits. If these pursuits are so important to their lives, wouldn’t they feel it right to take money through any means necessary to allow themselves to continue with their life goals? One possible response, following from Demos’ argument, is that being Platonically just involves not being selfish. Someone with a well-ordered, just soul would put the general good above their own personal good, since the form of reason mentioned above would guide their actions. Selfishly stealing from others to pursue their own goals would contradict those very goals. Similarly, another objection is that philosophers would avoid ruling in favor of intellectual pursuits if society needed them and asked them to rule, but the same reasoning applies. The goal of pursuing intellectual reasoning would in fact be contradicted by so selfishly avoiding this duty. The very reason they would want to develop and explore would require them to do the (conventionally) just thing and take on the responsibility of ruling. In this way again, Platonic justice coheres with the more conventional form. I hope to shown that the city-soul analogy is at least adequate as a tool for exploring justice and discovering its nature. While it may not be very useful in giving a technical definition, it does its job as far as it needs to in understanding what justice is. Accepting this allows us to move on to discuss Platonic justice, which I hope I have demonstrated to entail conventional justice. Despite the irrelevance objections of Sachs, Annas, and others, I have argued that Plato’s account of justice is sufficient to respond to the challenge set out at the beginning of the Republic.

Effects of Social Media and ROI for Small Businesses Research Paper

Effects of Social Media and ROI for Small Businesses - Research Paper Example So if there were one term that could be used to grasp the ubiquity of social media, it would be ‘instant dissemination’. Going by this versatility of social media, the way people research, access and purchase products and services around the world is fast changing (Cass, 2007, p. 11). Hence, as expected and would be deemed to be commonsensical, businesses, whether big or small simply could not expect to thrive and survive competition if they do not customize their approach in consonance with these pressing consumer trends and practices (Cass, 2007, p. 9). Especially in case of the small businesses, which have fewer resources to spend on infrastructure, consumer education, communication, and marketing and after sales service, social media offers a range of salubrious opportunities and possibilities. However, it does need to be mentioned that the positive advantages facilitated by the social media to the small businesses are qualified and subject to an array of initiatives , choices, precautions, objectives and constraints. Before delving on the effect of small media on small businesses, it is imperative to gauge the extent to which the small businesses are turning to social media for accomplishing a range of objectives and activities. As per a report published in Forbes, nearly 54 percent of the small and midsize businesses do actively ascribe to social media to advance their scope and this figure is expected to soar every year (Diana, 2010). What is even more impressive is that the engagement of small businesses with social media is not lethargic and intermittent, but rather happens to be really prompt and regular, considering the fact that nearly 35 percent of them have been found to be posting regular inputs and updates on social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn (Diana, 2010). Indeed, social media must be doing something good to these small businesses as 60 percent of them have acknowledged that social media has positive ly and propitiously influenced their business prospects (Diana, 2010). In a British study focusing on 269 small and midsize businesses, 46 percent accounted that an active engagement with social media has enhanced their brand awareness and 36 percent agreed that they have been able to grab much new business owing to social media (Diana, 2010). However, one simply cannot trust the positivity of social media for small businesses by merely considering only those who succeeded. As could be considered to be a commonsensical premise, there must be many small businesses which must have failed to considerably benefit from social media owing to a variety of mistakes and flaws in their strategy. As already mentioned that small businesses are marked by limited resources, they could only benefit from social media if they could use it to leverage business in a cost effective way and assure a favorable return on investment. In that context it would be pragmatic to delve on the varied benefits tha t social media offers to small businesses and how the small businesses could glean these benefits while assuring an optimal return on investment. One salient advantage of social media to the small businesses is that it could be easily used to reach a diverse and widely scattered customer base as social media as compared to the conventional media has a larger reach and a higher sharing potential (Coleman, 2012). One direct and immediate advantage of soci

Plots and structure of Fiction, Drama Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Plots and structure of Fiction, Drama - Essay Example The pet propels into Bailey’s, her son, shoulder causing a dramatic accident. However no one dies. The Misfit appears with two buddies, orders Baileys and John Wesley into the woods were they are shot by his cronies. The grandmother witnesses the mother, the baby and June star follow. She pleads with Misfit in vain and ultimately being shot three times in the chest (Group, p. 82). In the short play ‘A marriage proposal’, the writer describes the weird engagement of Lomov, who seeks to marry his neighbor’s daughter. Lamov fights with the woman he wants to marry before he can make his proposal, fights he is proposing and fights again after she agrees to marry him. They tend to fight whenever the converse to one another, and when this alarms her father at first, he decides that let them fight to one another. Ultimately, the father believes their last fight is actually the beginning of a happy family, though it is doubtful if the couple can conflict every time and attain anything like bliss. The meeting between Lomov and Tchubukov implys one sort of neiboughhood pact for Tchubukov, and more positive about lomov’s prospects. Allen Ginsberg describes his fanciful night walk to a supermarket In California were he imagine he sees Whit man (a 19th century poet) and one of his idol. As Ginsberg discerns the artificial and mass produced state of the post modern supermarket, he muses that Whitman might think this new era of people who are so removed from the nature. He uses symbolism to express his dejection on mass produced modern consumerist culture (Group, p. 122). On the opening lines of the poem advance the aforesaid journal - like quality and also presents the central crucial point of the poem at large. The first line explicitly expresses a tone of wistfulness or even sorrow. The evocation of Whitman‘s name is an obvious symbol of optimism or idealism. Because of the wide-ranging qualities of Whitman’s own writings, the logic of

Tax Havens or Offshore Financial Centre Research Proposal

Tax Havens or Offshore Financial Centre - Research Proposal Example You can have tax havens that charge virtually no tax at all or which just charge annual administrative sums of money for companies using its shores as a base for their operations, and you can have nations that simply charge a lower rate of taxation than competitor havens". (Barber, 2006) Recently some countries have emerged as evident tax havens and are attracting hefty capital inflow. Singapore, Hong-Kong, Barbdos etc are only a few to name. "In Asia, offshore interbank markets began to develop after 1968 when Singapore launched the Asian Dollar Market (ADM) and introduced the Asian Currency Units (ACUs). The ADM was an alternative to the London euro-dollar market, and the ACU rule enabled mainly foreign banks to engage in international transactions under a favorable tax and regulatory environment" (International Monetary Fund, 2000) Similarly in Europe, Luxembourg attracted investors from Germany, France and Belgium in the early 1970s (IMF, 2000) due to its low income tax rates, the lack of withholding taxes for nonresidents on interest and dividend income, and banking secrecy rules. On the same ground The Channel Islands and the Isle of Man provided very similar opportunities. Moreover Bahrain began to serve as a collection center for the region's oil surpluses during the mid 1970s, after passing banking laws and providing tax incentives to facilitate the incorporation of offshore banks. In the Western Hemisphere, the Bahamas and later the Cayman Islands provided similar facilities. Following this initial success by other countries, a number of other small countries tried to attract this business. Many had little success, because they were unable to offer any advantage over the more established centers. This did, however, lead some late arrivals to appeal to the less legitimate side of the business. "By the end of the 1990s, the attractions of offshore banking seemed to be changing for the financial institutions of industrial countries as reserve requirements, interest rate controls and capital controls diminished in importance, while tax advantages remain powerful. Also, some major industrial countries began to make similar incentives available on their home territory. For example, the U.S. established in 1981, in major U.S. cities, the so-called International Banking Facilities (IBFs). Later, Japan allowed the creation of the Japanese Offshore Market (JOM) with similar characteristics. At the same time, supervisory authorities, and to some extent tax authorities were adopting the principle of consolidation which reduced the incentives for banks to carry on business outside their principal jurisdiction. As a result, the relative advantage of OFCs for conventional banking has become less attractive to industrial countries, although the tax advantages for asset management appear to have grown in importance. In fact, reported bank intermediation on the balance sheet in IFCs has declined over the period 1992-1999, thus contributing to the overall decline in the share of bank cross-border assets intermediated through OFCs from 56 percent of total bank cross-border

E Commerce Advantages and Disadvantages

E Commerce Advantages and Disadvantages Electronic commerce comprises of the selling and buying of the items, products and services through internet or intranet medium. Internet is most helpful and reliable medium to generate revenue and to attract potential customers. E-Commerce is a greatest invention in the field of trade as it has made the trade easy and customer friendly. E-Commerce is mostly depends upon virtual items to access websites. A huge proportion of E-commerce is carry out totally automatically for virtual items such as admission to finest satisfied on a website, but the majority electronic commerce involves the carrying of substantial items in some means. Almost all large retailers have E-commerce occurrence on the website. Electronic business that is carried out among selling is referred to as business-to-business or B2B. B2B can be unlocked to all concerned parties (e.g. commodity exchange) or incomplete to exact, pre-determined contributors. Electronic trade that is conducted among trade and customers, on the other hand, is referred to as business-to-consumer or B2C. This kind of E-Commerce is carried out through internet and other electronic medium. Online shopping is a shape of electronic trade where the purchaser is straight online to the sellers computer usually via the internet. E-Commerce is providing the business and the owners more benefits because it is the easiest and cheaper way to promote and boost up the products. ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF ELECTRONIC COMMERCE: ADVANTAGES OF E- COMMERCE: E-Commerce is the easiest and the quickest way to boost up the business. E-commerce is gratifying the just alternative and electronic mail is a computer application which transmits the messages to the email boxes of other people using data communication which is called as email. There are a lot of internet sites which provide free email services related to the E-Commerce and business to the internet users and the customers. Computer softwares are used to promote the Electronic business. The computer softwares refer to the collective set of instructions called programs that can be interpreted by the business computers and cannot be touched by the humanà ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢s The program causes the computer to perform desired functions such as flight simulation, the generation of business graphics or word processing. Following re the basic types of business software: System Software Application Software Utility Programs Whereas an operating system is an integrated set of programs that is used to manage the various resources and overall operations of a business. T s designed to support the activities of a computer installation. Its primary objective is to improve the performance and efficiency of a computer system and increase facility and ease with a system can be used. It also makes computer system user friendly. Business operating systems are used by many of business computers at this era. Operating systems include the disk operating system, windows, macintosh system from apple computer and Warp of IBM, and UNIX and Linux are using in the Electronic Business now a days. Business computer can only understand the machine or hardware language. It is necessary to convert the instructions of a program written in high level language to machine instructions before the program can be executed by the computer. A complier carries out this business job. Thus a complier is a translating program that translate s the instructions of a high level language into machine language. A complier is called as business complier because the complier a set of business activities for every program instruction of a high level instruction. Complier can translate only those sources program which have been written in the language for which the computer is meant. For example, FORTAN complier is only capable of translating source programs which have been written in FORTAN, and therefore each requires a separate complier for each high level language. While interpreter is another type of business high level languages into machine codes. It takes one statement of a high level language and translates it into a machine instruction which is a useful technique for the business. DISADVANTAGES: E-Business is only dependent to the internet based advertisement and business which is a big drawback for the specific company in those cities where the people are not too much educated and then those people cannot access the internet and computer media. This factor can be a big loss for the company and its business. Some of the internet sites are charging too much from the customers and therefore customers and clients feel hesitation to go and view for those sites and this creates a major hindrance to enhance and boost up the business and the trade of the company. E-Business s not too much useful for the illiterate people and thus those people remain unaware by the policies and strategies of the big and well named companies. No doubt, E-Business has many advantages for the company and the trade for the company but we cannot neglect the disadvantages of the E-Business. MEANING OF SOME E-BUSINESS TERMS AUTHENTICATION: Authentication is a phenomenon to declare the surety and validity of the things to be occurred. Authentication is occurred due to the logon of the password. While that Knowledge of the code word or password describes the validity and authentication of the user. Every user has its own and unique password. It is essential that the user must know the previous password to create the new password. The flaw in this system for transactions that are important (such as the swap of cash) is so as to passwords can often be stolen, by chance exposed, or elapsed. ACCESS CONTROL: It I the scheme or system through which one can control and access the specific and desired task. Admittance systematize system, inside the pasture of the code word, is more often than not seen as the subsequently coat in the sanctuary of a bodily arrangement. Access control is a real and daily process and phenomenon. A bolt on a car access is really a form of access control. A PIN on an ATM scheme at a bank is another means of access control. Bouncers standing in front of a night club is perhaps a more primitive mode of access control (given the evident lack of information technology involved). The control of access manage is of major significance when persons seek to secure significant, confidential, or responsive in sequence and gear. Item manage or electronic key management is an area inside (and possibly integrated with) an access manage system which concerns the managing of control and position of small assets or bodily (mechanical) keys. (Sometimes known as Conditional Access System) A safety system assuring that only those who have paid for the services will get those services. The scheme is often made up of 3 parts: (1) signal scrambling, (2) encryption of electronic keys which the viewer will need, and (3) the Subscriber Management System. DATA INTEGRITY: Integrity, in terms of data and network security, is the assurance that information can only be accessed or modified by those authorized to do so. Measures taken to ensure integrity include controlling the physical environment of networked terminals and servers, restricting access to data, and maintaining rigorous authentication practices. Data integrity can also be threatened by environmental hazards, such as heat, dust, and electrical surges. Practices followed to protect data integrity in the physical environment include: making servers accessible only to network administrators, keeping transmission media (such as cables and connectors) covered and protected to ensure that they cannot be tapped, and protecting hardware and storage media from power surges, electrostatic discharges, and magnetism. Network administration measures to ensure data integrity include: maintaining current authorization levels for all users, documenting system administration procedures, parameters, and main tenance activities, and creating disaster recovery plans for occurrences such as power outages, server failure, and virus attacks.

Fields of Battle: The Wars for North America :: Essays Papers

Fields of Battle: The Wars for North America John Keegan, the author of Fields of Battle: The Wars for North America (334 pgs), is a very distinguished military historian. Keegan attended Oxford University, in England, his place of birth. He was Delmas Distinguished Professor of History at Vassar in fall 1997. He was a Fellow of Princeton University in 1984 and Lecturer in Military History at Cambridge, 1986-87. From 1960-1986 he was Senior Lecturer in Military History at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst. Since 1986 he has been Defense Editor of The Daily Telegraph. He was awarded the OBE in the Gulf War honors list, 1991. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and a Doctor of Laws of the University of New Brunswick. He is a Visitor of Hugh Sexey's Hospital, Bruton, and is a Trustee of the National Heritage Memorial and Heritage Lottery Funds. He was the BBC Reith Lecturer for 1998, and has lectured at countless other places around the world. John Keegan is also the aut hor of many other military-history books like The Face of Battle, The Second World War, Who’s Who in Military History, and A History of Warfare, to name a few. Despite being English, Keegan professes his love for America, but interestingly, not for Americans. Keegan says that he has visited America more than fifty times, whether for business or pleasure, but never even hints at having the desire to make the good ole’ U.S.A. his place of residence. Nonetheless, he certainly has a great knowledge of North America and its history of warfare. Fields of Battle: The Wars for North America is sort of a semi-autobiography of John Keegan’s life. At the beginning, end, and countless parts throughout the book, Keegan makes references to trips to America, his childhood conceptions of America, places he has lectured, famous people he met (Bill Clinton included), and old battlefields he has visited. The rest of the book contains very detailed accounts of the major battles fought on North American soil. This begins with the settling of North America by the British and French and their battle for dominance. Next, Keegan covers The Revolutionary War (or The War of Independence, as it is called in England). Then we are informed about the Civil War, wars against the native Indians, and finally about the invention of the airplane and its importance and effect on warfare in more recent years.

Jungian Archetypes in Rosemary Sutcliff’s Trilogy Essay

This paper will analyze Rosemary Sutcliff’s trilogy – The Sword and the Circle, The Light Beyond the Forest and The Road to Camlann – in light of the Jungian archetypes embedded in the text: the mother, the old wise man, the shadow, and the mandala archetypes. In her trilogy, Sutcliff employed the Jungian archetypes in order to provide a new configuration of the legend of King Arthur, interweaving myth and fantasy with psychological traits. From this perspective, the Arthurian legend appears in a new light, in which the story and the secondary narratives come to represent a particular mise-en-scene of figures of the subconscious. In Sutcliff’s trilogy, King Arthur and many characters achieve a symbolic significance. The author’s main interest is in King Arthur, around whom she constructs a whole series of archetypal motifs, which account for many of the peculiar and otherwise hard to explain characteristics of the story. Traditionally, all the fantastic motifs have been interpreted as subordinated to the fairy-tale logic and such motifs as witchcraft or transgression of taboos have been attributed to the pre-Christian Celtic subtext. However, this paper will argue that the overwhelming presence of archetypal images in Sutcliff’s texts brings a symbolic context to our interpretation of the legend. The Great Mother Archetype In Jung’s definitions, the mother archetype is ambivalent, in that it can both evoke a benign and benevolent figure, but also an evil, witch-like attribute: The qualities associated with it are maternal solicitude and sympathy; the magic authority of the female; the wisdom and spiritual transformation that transcend reason; any helpful instinct or impulse; all that is benign, all that cherishes and sustains, that fosters growth and fertility. The place of magic transformation and rebirth, together with the underworld and its inhabitants, are presided over by the mother. On the negative side the mother archetype may connote anything secret, hidden, dark; the abyss, the world of the dead, anything that devours, seduces, and poisons, that is terrifying and inescapable like fate. The mother archetype can take the shape of a plethora of symbols and can become actualized either as an image of plenitude and abundance, or as a token of dark forces in man. Both meanings appear in Sutcliff’s trilogy. Significantly, Arthur is deprived of a real mother figure from the beginning. His father’s vow to Merlin, which had granted that the latter would be entrusted the child the night he would be born, set Arthur away of his real mother. Moreover, in his foster family, Sutcliff makes little to no reference to a mother figure, focusing on the male side, who was there to rear the future great king of Britain. In this context, the mother figures that appear in Arthur’s life also have the significance of a repressed longing for a mother but, most significantly, serve to inscribe the character in a supernatural lineage. The solar and benevolent mother figure appears in the guise of Nimue, Lady of the Ladies of the Lake, who marks crucial moments in Arthur’s life, endowing him with the symbol of his manhood an kingship – Excalibur – and also receiving him back in her â€Å"womb† ( the lake) upon his death. The circumstances of Arthur’s first encounter with Nimue hint to the protective aspect of the Lady of the Lake and also to her crucial influence on setting Arthur on the righteous path: And looking where he pointed, Arthur saw an arm rise from the midst of the lake, clad in a sleeve of white samite and holding in its hand a mighty sword. And even as he looked, he saw a maiden whose dark gown and hair seemed about her like the mists come walking towards him across the water, her feet leaving no ripple-track upon its brightness. â€Å"Who is that? † whispered Arthur. â€Å"This is the Lady among all the Ladies of the Lake. Speak to her courteously and she will give you the sword. † [†¦] â€Å"It is a sword that I have guarded for a long time. Do you wish to take it? † â€Å"Indeed I do,† looking out across the lake with longing eyes. â€Å"For I have no sword of my own. † â€Å"Then promise me never to foul the blade with an unjust cause, but keep it always as befits the Sword of Logres, and it is yours. † From this passage, we can notice that Lady Nimue acts as a true maternal initiator into Arthur’s symbolic coming into manhood. She has a positive influence on Arthur’s life and gives the ultimate recognition of Arthur as the true great king of Britain. Her mother figure attributes become apparent especially through the symbolism of the lake. According to Jung, the mother archetype can be translated through various motifs, which allude to the mother’s child-bearing and receiving features: â€Å"The archetype is often associated with things and places standing for fertility and fruitfulness: the cornucopia, a ploughed field, a garden. It can be attached to a rock, a cave, a tree, a spring, a deep well, or to various vessels such as the baptismal font, or to various vessel-shaped flowers like the rose and the lotus. † As the Lady among the Ladies of the Lake, Nimue enacts the essential characteristic of the mother archetype as child-bearer and vessel for the child. The lake is a symbol of the womb. Through this lineage, Arthur is belated with an ancestral and supernatural origin. This idea has usually been interpreted as the inclusion in the story of pre-Christian lore of Celtic fairy-tales. However, the uncertain origin of Nimue, as well as her unquestionable attributes of a mother archetype could suggest that the predominant ancient subtext of the story could stand for archetypes of the collective unconscious. Just before arriving to the lake, Arthur and Merlin have to cross the forest, â€Å"following ways that no man might know but only the light-foot deer;† . The forest, as we have seen in the passage from Jung quoted above, can also be associated with the mother archetype. The final, symbolic welcoming of Arthur in Nimue’s womb at the moment of his death, is also very evocative of the mother figure that Nimue incarnates: â€Å"And the barge drifted on, into the white mist between the water and the moon. And the mist received it, and it was gone. Only for a little, Sir Bedivere, straining after it, seemed to catch a low desolate wailing as of women keening for their dead. † Finally Nimue represents the mother archetype par excellence as she weds and represses Arthur’s father-figure: Merlin. There are many other symbols in the text of the mother archetype. As Jung points out: Other symbols of the mother in the figurative sense appear in things representing the goal of our longing for redemption, such as Paradise, the Kingdom of God, the heavenly Jerusalem. Many things arousing devotion or feelings of awe, as for instance the Church, the university, city or country, heaven or earth, the woods, the sea or any still waters, matter even, the underworld and the moon can be mother symbols. In this light, the quest for the Holy Grail could be interpreted as a mother archetype symbol. The double function of the Holy Grail – as vessel and as token of redemption – enacts in the story Arthur’s quest for a maternal figure. As was stated in the beginning of the analysis, the mother archetype is ambivalent in that it also displays a dark, hidden facet which finds its best expression in the witch figure. In Sutcliff’s trilogy, this aspect of the mother archetype is embodied by Queen Margawse . She is Arthur’s sister and they both originate from the â€Å"Little Dark People†, old lords of the land bearing many affinities with Celtic druidism, magic and witchcraft. This heritage is realized in Morgan in its dark, malefic aspect and she becomes an adversary for Arthur, bewitching him one night into bearing her a child. It is interesting that Morgan’s wicked actions are not motivated in the story, they are simply attributed to her witchcraft and to the fact that she abides by the â€Å"old rules†: Why she did it, there can never be any knowing; for she knew, though he did not, what kin they were to each other (but for her, she had never cared for any law, save the law of her own will). Maybe she thought to have a son to one day claim the High Kingship of Britain. Maybe it was just revenge; the revenge of the Dark People, the Old Ones, whose blood ran strong in her, upon the Lords of Bronze and Iron, and the people of Rome, who had dispossessed them. This could imply the fact that Morgan also has a symbolic function in the text, playing alternatively the role of the threatening mother figure and that of Arthur’s anima. The fact that Arthur and Morgan have the same mother is not coincidental: in a way, Morgan is a metonymic symbolization of the darker aspects of the mother archetype. The Old, Wise Man Archetype According to Jung, the old wise man figure. Can appear so plastically, not only in dreams, but also in visionary meditation (or what we call â€Å"active imagination†), that is, as is sometimes apparent in India, it takes over the role of a guru. The wise old man appears in dreams in the guise of a magician, doctor, priest, teacher, professor, grandfather, or any other person possessing authority. The archetype of spirit in the shape of a man, hobgoblin or animal appears in a situation where insight, understanding, good advice, determination, planning, etc. , are needed but cannot be mustered on one’s own resources. In Sutcliff’s trilogy, the wise old man archetype is embodied by Merlin, who acts as a spiritual counsellor and guide both for Arthur’s father and for Arthur himself. From the outset, Merlin is presented as a spiritual force: besides his belatedness with the Old People, from his mother’s side, and his having been raised by a druid, his father is purported to be an (ambivalent) angelic figure. In Arthur’s life, Merlin represents the wisdom and vision which will help Arthur to accomplish his destiny. Once Arthur becomes a true King, Merlin will fade, as his guidance is no longer necessary. In many respects, Merlin can be equated with the most adequate father figure in the text. Like Morgan and Nimue, Merlin is the embodiment of the â€Å"old ways† and laws, which heed no obedience to the Christian values and norms; he seems to embody the agency of fate (by definition, a pre-Christian theme) and represents, even more than a father figure, â€Å"the uncertainty of all moral valuation, the bewildering interplay of good and evil, and the remorseless concatenation of guilt, suffering and redemption. † According to Jung, this is actually the only path to redemption even if it is hard to recognize it. In his interventions, Merlin is never evil, but we cannot say that he is a wholly moral figure either: he is the one who helps Utha deceive Igraine. This is why Merlin is an ambiguous figure too. Merlin’s life is profoundly interwoven with that of Arthur’s: he appears in the story before Arthur’s birth in order to ensure that the child would be safe from internal feuds after his father’s early death, he guides Arthur in all the crucial moments in his life, withdraws when he realizes that Arthur has become a king in his own right, and will allegedly become resurrected the day Arthur and he will be called to save Britain. From this perspective, Arthur and Merlin reiterate the rebirth archetype: And the King opened his eyes and looked at him for the last time. â€Å"Comfort yourself, and do the best that you may, for I must be gone into the Vale of Avalon, for the healing of my grievous wound. One day I will return, in time of Britain’s sorest need, but not even I know when that day may be, save that it is afar off†¦But if you hear no more of me in the world of men, pray for my soul. † We can notice from this paragraph the similarities between Arthur’s vow to return and the Christian story. The Shadow/Anima Archetype. In Jung’s vision, the anima is â€Å"the great illusionist, the seductress, who draws him into life with her Maya – and not only into life’s reasonable and useful aspects, but also into its frightful paradoxes and ambivalences where good and evil, success and ruin, hope and despair, counterbalance one another. Because she is his greatest danger, she demands from a man his greatest, and if he has it in him, she will receive it. † This archetype is symbolized in the story by the figure of Morgan La Fay, Arthur’s fiercest enemy, who demands of him to give the full measure of his authority and courage. Not coincidentally, she is a witch, she appears as the â€Å"veiled lady†, a true seductress. But for the end of the story, we would be inclined to interpret Morgan in a literal sense – simply as Arthur’s wicked enemy. However, the ending complicates this interpretation because Morgan is one of the three women receiving Arthur upon his death: And there, where before had seemed to be only lapping water and the reeds whispering in the moonlight, a narrow barge draped all in black lay as though it waited for them within the shadows of the alder trees. And in it were three ladies, black-robed, and their hair veiled in black beneath the queenly crown they wore. And their faces alone, and their outstretched hands, showed white as they sat looking up at the two on the bank and weeping. And one of them was the Queen of Northgalis, and one was Nimue, the Lady of all the Ladies of the Lake; and the third was Queen Morgan La Fay, freed at last from her own evil now that the dark fate-pattern was woven to it end. Clearly, Morgan La Fay is just as ambiguous as the other archetypes in the story. Her final communion with Arthur suggests the idea that she does indeed stand for his anima and that Arthur has succeeded in completing the challenge that she had set for him. In a way, Morgan is the receptacle of Arthur’s darker side which he had also inherited from the â€Å"dark people†. However, guided by Merlin’s mercurial light, Arthur succeeds in repressing these malign tendencies which surface with a vengeance in the character of Morgan. Mordred, the incarnation of Arthur’s mortal sin, and of his submission to the anima has be to vanquished in order for Arthur to find redemption. The final metamorphosis of Morgan and her reconciliation with Arthur suggest that redemption has been accomplished. The Mandala Archetype In his analysis of the mandala archetype, Jung stated that: [mandalas] †¦ are all based on the squaring of a circle. Their basic motif is the premonition of a centre of personality, a kind of central point within the psyche, to which everything isolated, by which everything is arranged, and which is itself a source of energy. [†¦] This centre is not felt or thought of as the ego but, if one may so express it, as the self. Although the centre is represented by an innermost point, it is surrounded by a periphery containing everything that belongs to the self — the paired opposites that make up the total personality. This totality comprises consciousness first of all, then the personal unconscious, and finally an indefinitely large segment of the collective unconscious whose archetypes are common to all mankind. In Sutcliff’s trilogy, the most obvious symbol of the mandala is the Round Table. It signifies Arthur’s destiny and enacts the circle of life that he has to complete. Quite significantly, the mandala, also associated with the feminine archetypes, is brought to Camelot as Guenever’s dowry and Merlin is the one who appears to have originated it. The Round Table is the archetype that reunites all the other archetypes, ii is the beginning and the end of Arthur’s quest. The â€Å"archetype of wholeness†, the mandala, or the Round Table reunites the supernatural aspects of Arthur’s life with his terrestrial existence. The overwhelming presence of such archetypes and the great mother, the wise old man, the anima, rebirth and mandala in Sutcliff’s trilogy gives a symbolical turn to the Arthurian legend. In this light we realize the importance of this legend not only for the enrichment of story-telling but also as a universal a expression of the collective unconscious. Works Cited: Jung, C. G. 1973. Mandala Symbolism. Transl. by C. F. Hull, Princeton University Press, NJ. — The Essential Jung, Princeton University Press, 1983. — Four Archetypes, Routledge, 2003. Sutcliff, Rosemary. 1981. The Sword and the Circle: King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, The Bodley Head Ltd. — The Light Beyond the Forest, The Bodley Head Ltd, 1981. — The Road to Camlann, The Bodley Head Ltd, 1981.

Bach1 essays

Bach1 essays Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach was born in 1714 in Weimar. He was a German composer, one of the most influential and celebrated composers of his era. He was the third son of Johann Sebastian Bach and he trained under his father. He studied philosophy and law at the universities in Leipzig and Frankfurt. He then decided that he would rather pursue a musical career instead of a career in philosophy or law. From 1740 to 1768 he was harpsichordist for Frederick II, King of Prussia, after which he became music director of the five principal churches in Hamburg. Bach was one of the chief representatives of the empfindsamer Stil (German, "expressive style"), which emphasized frequent contrasts in emotion and contributed many technical features to the classical style. His Essay on the True Art of Playing Keyboard Instruments, which there were two volumes, one in 1753, and one in 1762, of is important for describing how music was performed during his lifetime (the printed notes themselves do no t always indicate what composers intended). Bach wrote a large number of works, including 210 harpsichord pieces, 52 concertos, oratorios, passions, and church cantatas. Bach was sometimes known as the "Hamburg Bach" or "Berlin Bach"). Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach achieved renown as a leading composer and keyboard player of the mid-18th century. His many compositions bridge the transition from the baroque to the later rococo style. Carl Philipp Emanuel led the new movement but never forgot his father's instruction. "For composition and keyboard playing, I have never had any teacher other than my father," he once wrote. Carl Philipp Emanuel moved to Hamburg in 1768 to serve as director of music for the city. His book 'Versuch uber die wahre Art das Clavier zu spielen' (Essay on the True Art of Piano Playing), published in 1753, became an important influence on later generations. He died in Hamburg on Dec. 14, 1788. ...

Wallstreet essays

Wallstreet essays "Greed is good. Greed is right. Greed works." If any three simple sentences could sum up the 80s, those are probably the ones. The 1980s were an age of illusions, one that was hedonistic in nature and self-loathing in practice. As Haynes Johnson recalls, it was "a society favored with material riches beyond measure and a political system whose freedoms made it the envy of every nation on earth." Released in 1987, Oliver Stone's Wall Street was made in the height of 80s greed and materialism. The film revolves around the actions of two main characters, Bud Fox and Gordon Gekko. Bud is a young stockbroker who comes from a working-class family and Gekko is a millionaire whom Bud admires and longs to be associated with. The film is successful at pointing out how tragic it is to trade in morality for money. The character of Gordon Gekko personifies this message, and yet receives a standing ovation at a stockholders meeting after delivering a "greed is good" speech. The underlying t heme of the movie, however, is that greed is bad. Economist George Gilder would say that individuals like Gekko who pursue only their self-interests are led, "as by an invisible hand," toward a greater welfare state. He says that people pursuing self-interest demand comfort and security and that they don't take the risks that result in growth and achievement. At the start of Wall Street, Bud Fox is young and very naive about the business world. He is a typical broker seeking new clients and offering second-hand advice regarding the buying and selling of stock. "Just once I'd like to be on that side," he says, dreaming of the day when he will be a corporate big shot controlling the flow of millions of dollars, like his hero, Gordon Gekko. In pursuit of his dream, Bud makes a visit to Gekko's office with a box of Havana cigars on his birthday in hopes of winning him over as a client. He wants to sell him stocks, and hopefully one day be like he is. B...

Independent Study on Culture's Influence on luxury consumption in Term Paper

Independent Study on Culture's Influence on luxury consumption in China and USA - Term Paper Example In order to accomplish that endeavor, the paper will examine the consumer’s characteristics in these two markets and make marketing recommendations. The paper will also give an example of some corporations and brands that have capitalized on these unique characteristics through their marketing strategies to capture the luxury market. The recent researches conducted on consumer behavior have shown a direct correlation between the people’s culture and consumer behavioral patterns (Henry 122). Each culture has its own values that it upholds. These values are the ones that affect the consumer’s attitudes towards certain products, which ultimately affect the consuming patterns and behaviors. The cultural identity affects the choice of products by affecting the perceptions and judgments of the consumer. Once these perceptions and judgments have been made consistent such that they are predictable, the consumer can said to have formed a consuming behavior. Multinational companies use these customers’ behaviors and preferences to design their marketing strategies so that they can optimize their sales and maximize their profitability (Hostede 32). As Russell and Valenzuela (87) aptly captures it, â€Å"Cross cultural value systems will influence consumer tipping behavior, product evaluations, value-a ttitude relations, persuasion effects, consumer innovativeness and behavioral intention models†. Figure 1 shows how culture influence consumer behaviors. However, culture has also been found to affect only the consumption of certain goods. There are, thus, some exempted cases whereby the culture of a certain place barely has a bearing on the consumer behaviors of a certain product. A good example is a global product, which blurs any existing cultural differences. A consumer of such a product is known as a global consumer who is not dependent on a culture to make consumption decisions in

Risk management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Risk management - Essay Example This can be done by quick and speedy detection of the errors so as to alleviate adverse effects that may result from the menace. The quantity of errors reported from the healthcare setting has resulted to high numerical counts of deaths. In this situation, Joint Commission Resources (2001) shows that the matter of medical safety must not be approached carelessly, but a group effort of all the involved stakeholders in tackling the issues. This can be achieved by the administration of the affected healthcare institution by establishing a plan whereby the health practitioners can find means of reporting any form of errors that take place in the health institution. In this case, the institution will be better positioned in terms of risk management that may arise due to medical errors, an added benefit to the patients. Risk management, according to Cohen (2007), requires collective effort, the health providers have to feel comfortable and always report errors that emanate from dispensing duties. This will create a situation whereby the health practitioners will accept their mistakes and actually learn a great deal from them. This fear-free culture will indeed allow the health practitioners to be comfortable with their bosses. Risk management of medical errors, in one way or another allows the health practitioners to devise measures of dealing with factors that may lead to packing the wrong medicine to the patients, labeling or even give the wrong information regarding consumption of the medicine. No matter how experienced medical practitioners may be, chances are that they may get involved in medical errors. Strategic Objectives At Risk (SOAR) process and risk management This leads to the development of the risk management methodology that endeavors to identify the types of risks in the healthcare setting, and devising the best means of dealing with the risk. Monahan (2008) indicates that for risk management to be effective, the Strategic Objectives at Risk (SOAR) p rocess has to be applied. This, according to Monahan’s research refers to the process in which the risk managers can have a better understanding of the risks involved; thus, devise the best methodologies that can influence positive outcomes to deal with the risks. In the course of applying the Strategic Objectives At Risk (SOAR) methodology, the health practitioners will have a better opportunity to gain an understanding of the factors underlying the actions that are applied in the case of dealing with medical errors. Therefore, the managers are well guided on what policies to apply if they have to manage risks objectively. Through systematically laying out of the factors that deal with medical errors- the SOAR methodology-risks can be well assessed and managed (Monahan, 2008). Risk identification and analysis Medical errors can be categorized in a number of groups. One of the errors that may take place while dispensing medical care includes the prescribing error. This error involves giving the patients the wrong medicine either by mistaking the types of products present in the store or by not being certain the implications of a particular drug on the patients. As a result, Cohen (2007) indicates that there is a great likelihood that the patients