Basic empirical beliefs and its importances

Basic empirical beliefs and its importances A basic belief for most people is the idea that we believe in something which has not been corrupted by other beliefs to change the core belief we initially have about certain things. They are not inferred from other beliefs and is known better as Foundationalism. From this is the idea of a basic empirical belief, a belief that is learned by observing it using our empirical knowledge; sight, hearing, touch etc. To try and understand beliefs more clearly and to grasp what knowledge is without empirical beliefs, if it can happen, I will look at Foundationalism its counter argument Coherentism and the basic idea of empirical/sensory belief. Foundationalism considers that we need a core set of beliefs, beliefs that our other beliefs we have are built upon in order to make the original belief become more real. Most of us have a foundationalist belief structure and our basic beliefs can be justified by beliefs that link to it in order to make it more factual and the basic belief makes the beliefs which tie in with it justified. However, this doesnt mean that they themselves are justified, just that the basic belief, if true, makes the beliefs that stem from it justified. Following from having a basic belief, The Regress argument/Trilemma puts across that a belief is justified by another belief which is justified by another, then another and so on. So a) It goes on forever, b) Ends with some of the beliefs justify themselves, c) Ends with some of the beliefs having no justification. Therefore, if it went on forever it would be a vicious circle and end up having no end or beginning. It is a vicious regress, which Lewis discusses further, if you believe in the chance of something occurring or being true is small, then you dont really believe it because to have belief in something you need to b e able to justify it, if nothing can be certain then how do we know anything? But the idea of regress can be reversed if something is certain and we believe in it, so some beliefs must be certain. In Agrippas Trilemma, the 2nd option relates to Coherentism, which is an alternative argument to Foundationalism. Coherentism considers that if there could be now way to justify our empirical sense beliefs, and if the idea that beliefs can be justified by one another forever is ruled out then the beliefs can only be justified by their unique properties in relation to other beliefs and how well they fit together in order to produce a organised system of beliefs. Consistency is a requirement of coherence, but a set of beliefs do not need to have flaws to have no coherence, beliefs, which are perfectly consistent, may also have no coherence. As said in Agrippas Trilemma, beliefs justify themselves instead of going on forever, this is shown by the idea that if a belief was to be justified by another belief and so on, then empirical justification moves in a circular motion. But, Coherentism moves away from this idea and towards the idea of a linear motion and that the belief is in a line, with the order of epistemic priority at the beginning and epistemic justification at the other end of the line. The belief justifies itself then, as it does not need to have another belief to rely on it to make it justified. Moving on from this, having empirical beliefs means to have knowledge of our beliefs by gaining it through our senses. Foundationalism believed that basic beliefs were infallible, but by looking at Infallible sensory beliefs, what we believe to be seeing might not be infallible after all and most of our beliefs make us sure of our sensory beliefs. So it seems that we cannot have beliefs without our senses. For example, the belief in a religion, a God, that England are the best at Rugby, all these beliefs cannot be justified unless we have our sense to prove so. Furthermore, we cant have these beliefs to begin with unless we use our empirical knowledge to understand what we believe. If we had no sight then we could not read Holy Scriptures, which reveal religions, if we had no hearing then we could not hear classical music which you may believe to be the best music made by man and so forth. Our empirical knowledge is intertwined closely with our beliefs, and if we were unfortunate to not be able to use all our empirical senses and to have 1 of them taken away, this still hinders our chances of having a true belief in something and being able to justify it. However, a belief can make us more certain of our sensory beliefs e.g. I think I felt a spider run across my back. Later we discover it was a feather duster. Why cant other beliefs lower how sure we are of our sensory beliefs? If we are to accept the foundation of sensory beliefs, how does this relate to the belief structure? Following on from empirical beliefs is a priori knowledge. It is common to most that all the knowledge we hold comes from experience, experience we gain through using our senses. Our experience is not doubted and is gathered by using raw material of our sensible impressions, our empirical knowledge is formed by our interpretations of our own knowledge. A priori knowledge is very different from this, it does not come from experience, and it comes from innate knowledge we are born with. In example, a man who undermined the foundations of his house, that he might have known a priori that it would fall, that is, that he need not have waited for the experience of its actual falling. A priori knowledge is totally separate from experience, its opposite being posteriori, knowledge through experience. With beliefs, we adapt what we know from posteriori and a priori knowledge to justify and understand what we know about our beliefs. Before we are born are we are believed to have this previous knowledge, which Piaget talks of in relation to conscience and children. A child develops internal representations or mental and physical actions, some Schemata that are already present in a newborn, such as sucking, gripping and crying. Others develop as the child grows. The Schemata are built through 2 processes: 1. Assimilation- fitting newly acquired knowledge into what the child already knows. 2. Accommodation-as new experiences occur which do not fit into existing schemata, the child adapts them t fit, or creates new ones. This is similar to beliefs and knowledge, we can have a priori knowledge of a religion, like a blueprint in our mind of a God and we can build on our belief of this by using empirical knowledge to know more about it and by adapting what we already know and interpreting it with our senses. Overall, arguments show that mainly, if we cannot have empirical beliefs then we would find it hard to now anything. Our senses play a huge part in creating thoughts of belief, and without them it is hard to understand what beliefs can be justified if we were to for example have no sight or hearing. We would not be able to believe in a religion, except for the idea that we have a priori knowledge of a God. However, the basic belief of this is not enough to justify it and requires other beliefs to justify it, so this makes it hard for us to know anything. Or for that matter, anything true. I believe that we cannot know anything other than what we are innately born with, but this knowledge alone is not enough to create beliefs or pure knowledge, which solidifies these beliefs. Our empirical senses are key to establishing what we believe and whether we can justify them further therefore without empirical beliefs we can know nothing sufficient. Bibliography The Structure of Empirical Knowledge- Lawrence Bonjour 1986. London, Harvard University Press, ch.5 Critique of Pure Reason, trans. Immanuel Kant 1929. Norman Keep Smith, New York, St. Martins Press, 41-55 Piaget and the Foundations of Knowledge- Lynn S. Liben 1983. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Hillsdale, New Jersey, ch.6

Why Marc Antony is a Round Character :: essays research papers

William Shakespeare wonderfully develops the character Marc Antony in his play Julius Caesar to be a round character. Round characters meaning a character that has many traits and isn’t predictable. Antony, who seems to not have many different traits at the beginning of Julius Caesar, really starts showing his real self after Caesar’s death. That also shows that he is unpredictable.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Antony’s monologues and soliloquies really help to show readers Antony as a round character. A few traits these soliloquies and monologues show are that he is manipulative and smart, yet also caring and loving. Other traits Antony shows include agreeable, but capable of being in charge; athletic; popular; and able to give recognition where it is deserved. Like most people, Antony has both bad and good traits, and his speeches reflect that.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The manipulative nature of Antony proves true two times. The first time is when Antony is speaking at Caesar’s funeral. Antony is manipulating the crowd by using pauses and by talking Brutus up. This is what Antony says in that instance, â€Å"Yet Brutus says he was ambitious; and Brutus is an honorable man.† (Act III, scene ii, lines 94-95) Antony is saying maybe Brutus is right because he says Caesar was ambitious, and Brutus is, in fact, a very honorable man. In another instance he says, â€Å"Have patience, gentle friends, I must not read it,† speaking of Caesar’s will. (Act III, scene ii, line 141) Antony is trying to get the people excited about the will, so they will tell him to read it by acting like he shouldn’t read it. The second time Antony shows that he is manipulative when he wants to change Caesar’s will. At that time Antony proves himself by saying, â€Å"But, Lepidus, go you to Caesar’s house; Fetc h the will hither, and we shall determine how to cut off some charge in legacies.† (Act IV, scene I, lines 7-9) Antony is telling Lepidus to go get the will so they can change it. Antony’s ability to be manipulative is well proven in these instances.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The loving side of Antony that allows him to give recognition where it is deserved is shown a few times. One time comes close after Caesar’s death. Antony says, â€Å"Thou art the ruins of the noblest man that ever lived in the tide of the times,† and it shows his love for Caesar by saying that the noblest man he ever knew was now dead.

The Anatomy of Abuse Essay -- essays research papers

The Anatomy of Abuse While this paper cannot be a definitive guide to the nature of the abuser, the victims relationship with the abuser and societies part in encouraging gender bias, I hope it will add to the pool of knowledge. It is my hope that, at least in a small way, this paper will be an aid towards helping us all understand the nature of domestic abuse and those who perpetrate or encourage it. George Rolph. London 2004. The abusers -- Actors in disguise. First and foremost abusers are actors. It makes no difference what gender the abusive personality is, their primary skill is to emulate normal behaviour in order to disguise their own condition. I have spoken to many victims of abuse who say that the person they met and fell in love with â€Å"gradually changed† into a monster. This is often one of the most confusing and distressing aspects of abuse from the victims point of view. It is also a situation that the abuser will exploit with varying degrees of vicious skill. While it is impossible to be specific on these subjects in every case, careful observation and research have uncovered certain general consistencies I want to discuss here. The question is; what is going on in the abusers mind that causes them to suddenly, or gradually, become abusive to their new partner? It appears that the abusive personality has learned, by observation and by mimicry of those around them, how to give every appearance of normality and stability for often quite extended periods of time. This means that they are able to convince new partners that they are really charming, wonderful people who should be trusted and are worthy of love and care. This act is easy to maintain in certain social situations and where the abuser has minimal contact with others in an average day. For example, in a work situation where he/she will be in contact with others for a maximum of eight hours per day. Another social situation may be one of casual friendships made in pubs and clubs. Under these conditions the actor (abuser) need only be convincing as a normal person for a minimum amount of time. This is why many friends of the abuser find it hard to believe that the person they think they know could be capable of such barbarity within a long term relationship. In the case of female abuse rs, this difficulty is compounded by social and political myths that see females only as victi... ... Men and boys are subjected to massive amounts of prejudice in everything from education provision; medical cancer research (breast versus testicular for example); housing provision; Divorce; the right to bring up their children alone; hugely insulting articles; newspaper stories and books; job security issues as a result of so-called â€Å"positive† discrimination; discriminatory advertising on the television; hate speech; political discrimination; legal rights and censorship of the male point of view in the media. If men complain about this they are ridiculed and called whiners sometimes by other so-called men in the media but, most often, by radical feminist media spokesmen. This prejudice has led to an explosion of single mothers and the most confused and damaged generation of children our country has ever known. Will someone please tell me the benefits of this utopian radical feminist, left wing view of modern society? * For a great cautionary tale of statistics and their manipulation go to this page on the Web: http://www.ifeminists.net/introduction/editorials/2004/0324.html Copyright  © George Rolph. April 2004 Founder of No More Silence. Contact: grolph(@)no-more-silence.org

Compare How Atonement and Spies Explore the Journey from Innocence to Experience Essay

Compare how Atonement and Spies explore the journey from innocence to experience. Both Atonement and Spies are bildungsroman where the protagonists are reminiscing about events in their childhoods which impose on them in their adult lives. In Atonement, Briony is narrating throughout the text; however the reader only finds this out at the end and in Spies Stephen is narrating with his older and younger self through duel narration with slippage between the two. Both text were published within a year of each other, Atonement in 2001 and Spies in 2002; however they both focus on the same time in history, during (and after) the Second World War. Spies focuses on one point in time around 1940; whereas Atonement ranges before, throughout and after the war with the view points from different characters throughout unlike Spies where the reader sees only from young or old Stephen. Both protagonists are naive and easily influenced in the beginning of the novels and their misinterpretations draw the narrative to a conclusive disaster. In Spies, Stephen misinterprets the Mrs Hayward’s diary’s x’s and exclamation marks for some form of German â€Å"code† and believes that she is a spy- â€Å"she actually is a German spy†- Similarly in Atonement, where Briony misinterprets what she witnessed in the library which leads her to the conclusion that Robbie raped Lola, which she sticks to with conviction â€Å"it was Robbie†. The misinterpretations made by the protagonists reflect the lack of knowledge about the adult world and emphasise their innocence in the beginning of the novels. In Atonement the peak of Briony’s innocence is at the beginning with the â€Å"Trials of Arabella† and sulking when she gives up the main part of â€Å"Arabella† by killing nettles which foreshadows the impending doom of her actions. I believe at this point Briony triggers a transition to adult knowledge with the letter and therefor conclusively decides the narrative with her intrusion of Robbie and Cecilia’s privacy; however in the film adaptation others have interpreted this differently. Peter Bradshaw believes that it is the â€Å"mysterious scene by the fountain that is to trigger Briony’s terrible misguided sense that she has a personal insight and a grievance; it appears to give her an access point into shocking adult phenomena†. However key the scene is in the narrative as a whole, I do not believe it to be a pivotal role in Briony’s contribution to the downfall that is witnessed later in the novel due to the confusion she feels when confronted with the situation. In Spies Stephen and Keith play childish games such as â€Å"monkey hunting†; however this is contradicted increasingly throughout the novel with the seriousness of their accusations made in regards to Keith’s mother. John Mullan believes that the â€Å"The boys show ominous signs of adulthood behaviour when supposedly children: the boys never seem to call each other by their first names except when taking some horrendous sounding oaths†. The protagonists both believe a fictitious story conjured from their own imaginations and thus relieves them of their innocence leaving them open to the repercussions of their actions. Briony convinces herself that she saw Robbie and swears that she did whilst we find out later in the novel that she was unsure. In the first interview with the police she states â€Å"I know it was him†, not clarifying that she â€Å"saw†, him leading the reader to believe that she does so because of her misunderstandings over the fountain and letter earlier in the novel. In spies Stephen and Keith are certain that Mrs Hayward is a spy after they witness her first â€Å"disappearance† which they both rationalise after they have seen it. This act of misunderstanding is less harmful than that of Briony’s action however; they are invading the privacy of someone else which does add to the compromising of their innocence. Both stories conjured by the protagonists are not clarified throughout the narrative; the author leaves hints for the reader about the events themselves, and this lack of knowledge is a hallmark of postmodernism and the unreliable narrator present within each text. The inevitability of the protagonist’s actions is that both are shown to be guilty in their adulthood. The reader learns that Briony becomes a nurse and gives up a chance to go to Oxford and the class privileges that result from it. The reader learns that â€Å"the purpose of becoming a nurse was to work for her independence† as well as learning what Robbie is going through in the army. We later learn that the narrative has been written by Briony and some parts have been fictionalised such as the meeting with Robbie and Cecilia so she can try and put right what she could not do in life. Like Atonement Stephen in Spies feel guilty about the death of Uncle Peter and revisits The Close in which he grew up to atone. This is where the narrative takes place, â€Å"you can’t go back everyone knows that† implying that â€Å"everyone† knows that it was his fault. This is an interesting comment made by Stephen because surely Stephen and the reader know that it is Keith’s father who is to blame ultimately for the discovery and death of Uncle Peter after Stephen and his confrontation over the picnic basket. Both protagonists, we learn have been putting the idea of properly confronting and trying to amend (as best they can) their actions off until the latest time possible. The reader learns that Briony falsities the ending and meeting of Cecilia and Robbie in the final chapters where she is close to forgetting all of her memories through dementia. Like Briony Stephen has waited till very late on in his life to re-visit the close. We learn that he has lived a full but somehow sorrowful life until he returns and faces the actions that he made when he was a child â€Å"I can sort out whether I belong here or there† Both novels explore the motif of love and sexuality in spies the reader is given details about one of two sexually attracted women in his life: Barbara Berrill, and his future wife. The reader only learns that his wife is German and no more information throughout the novel other than the fact that Stephen had a family with her and that she died. The reader is witness to the presumably only sexual act between Barbara Berrill and Stephen where they exchange two kisses â€Å"she leans closer still, and rests her lips against mine† it is presumed that this is Stephens first kiss with a girl due to his initial reactions â€Å"Nice?†¦ I was too busy thinking about the germs† a typical young boy’s reaction to the opposite sex. This scene can be said to be one of the most normal childlike behaviour in the entire text, through the experimental aspect that has been associated with growing up. The motif of sexuality and relationships is greatly explored in atonement compared with that of Spies. Early on in the narrative Robbie and Cecilia â€Å"make love† this act creates and spurs on a relationship throughout the rest of the narrative with longing for a similar experience; however like spies this act never occurs again whereas unlike spies neither Cecilia or Robbie indulge in any sexual contact after their initial â€Å"library scene† because of both their untimely deaths emphasising the importance of that moment in the readers eyes. This singular act of â€Å"love† somewhat adds to the innocence and sympathy felt towards both characters. Unlike the other two protagonists in Spies and Atonement (Stephen and Robbie) McEwan never mentions Briony to have any sexual contact throughout the novel unlike Robbie’s And Cecilia’s characters the absence of Briony’s sexuality evokes no sympathy. I believe that McEwan includes this as part of her atonement, because of the deprivation of sexuality that Briony causes. Both novels show clear points in the narrative where the protagonist’s develop their experiences in the world of adult life through their actions; however it can be said that the protagonists have never been allowed to fully pass into the full realms of adult knowledge because throughout their lives they cling to an event that happened in their child hood without being able to come to terms with it until the end of their lives.

International Trade and Finance Speech Essay

The purpose of this paper is to organize a speech that will be provided to a number of reporters that are not knowledgeable with economics. In this paper I will put importance on international trade and foreign exchange rates and how those affect the GDP, domestic markets, and students. I will also outline some of the benefits on goods and services that are imported from other countries and how those contribute to our economy in the United States. What happens when there is a surplus of imports brought into the US? When there is a surplus of a product imported into the US, it drives the prices of that particular product down. The reason it drives the prices down is because the owner of the product gets to a point where they need to clear out inventory so they sell it at a price lower than originally expected. These companies will go as far as taking a loss on the product just to clear the inventory. This surplus is a plus for the consumer. (Armadeo, 2013) Car dealerships are a prime example of companies that clean out old inventory at a reduced price. They run end of year specials that are hard to beat. One dealership had a Chevrolet Malibu for $22,110. The end of year pricing deal they offered was $3000 cash back or 0% interest on a 60 month loan. When deciding which offer is the best, a person must first look at what the percentage of interest is that they would be paying on top of the loan amount. (Mello, 2012) What are the effects of international trade to GDP, domestic markets and university students? The international trade effect on the GDP depends on if it is a surplus or deficit. If the imports are lower than exports this will have a positive effect on the GDP, domestic markets, and university students. A positive effect in the GDP increases the job market. This in turn increases money into the economy and increases sales in the local markets. This also helps the university student find a job to help finance their education. This also allows them to buy supplies for school cheaper, for example, the price of computers become lower when there is a positive effect on all these things. International trade increases options for the consumer to choose from, therefore the price on these items are more competitive. Negative effects will do the complete opposite. (McTeer, 2008) How do government choices in regards to tariffs and quotas affect international relations and trade? Simply put, tariffs are taxes the government imposes on imports. Quotas are numerical limits set by the same government imposed on the same imports. If the country imposing the tariffs and quotas set the tariff too high then this could cause future issues between the two countries. If a country wants to have a good relationship with a country they will impose lower tariffs. (â€Å"The Basics of Tariffs and Trade Barriers†, 2011) What are foreign exchange rates? How are they determined? A foreign exchange rate is the cost of converting different currencies. For example, if the foreign exchange rate for the euro is 100=$1 then 100 euros equals $1. If it costs 125 euros to exchange for $1, then the euro is not as profitable as the dollar. Exchange rates are generated by the volume of currencies acquired and sold. â€Å"Though they are affected in both the short term and long term by innumerable factors, currency supply and demand will always, ultimately, determine currency prices in the foreign exchange markets† (Sisson, 2012). Why doesn’t the U.S. simply restrict all goods coming in from China? Why can’t the U.S. just minimize the amount of imports coming in from all other countries? If the United States were to restrict all goods coming in from China it would negatively affect our relationship with them. The United States is majorly in debt to China. Upsetting them could cause them to call in all our loans. It will also affect the profitability of China’s investments and their supply in which American companies are operating. The United States cannot decrease the amount of goods coming in from other countries because it would have a huge impact on employment and the cost of items in this country. A variety of items cause them to have more competitive pricing. When you do not have people working, there is less money to be spent back into the economy. All of these reasons greatly impact the United States economy. The United States needs to trade with countries with more promising tariffs and quotas, and try to keep things fair between imports and exports to help promote a better GDP. References Mello, T. B. (2012). Sweet year-end deals available on some popular cars. Retrieved from http://www.nbcnews.com/business/sweet-year-end-deals-available-some-popular-cars-1C6750390 Armadeo, K. (2013). The US Trade Deficit. Retrieved from http://useconomy.about.com/od/tradepolicy/p/Trade_Deficit.htm McTeer, B. (2008). The Impact of Foreign Trade on the Economy. Retrieved from http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/12/10/the-impact-of-foreign-trade-on-the-economy/ The Basics of Tariffs and Trade Barriers. (2011). Retrieved from http://www.investopedia.com/articles/economics/08/tariff-trade-barrier-basics.asp#axzz2KI2v2hAC Sisson, N. (2012). ehowmoney. Retrieved from http://www.ehow.com/about_6593199_exchange-determined-markets-foreign-exchange_.html Colander, D. C. (2010). Macroeconomics. : McGraw-Hill.

‘Lord of the Flies’ by William Golding and ‘The Withered’ Arm by Thomas Hardy Essay

Describe how evil is presented in ‘Lord of the Flies’ by William Golding and ‘The Withered’ Arm by Thomas Hardy. Lord of the flies is a story that begins in the after a plane crash in the Pacific Ocean during an unnamed war in which a group of English schoolboys are isolated on what they assume to be an island, under no adult supervision they are left to ‘defend for themselves’ create their own friendships and fight their own battles. As the story unfolds the boys develop a miniature society in which they try to include rules and order, but, each with their own ideas of right and wrong and sometimes totally different priorities, difficulties inevitably arise, their little community collapses and the boys are thrown into a world of hurt and fear. There were three main characters in this story, which affected the entire group and how they behaved. Jack began as the arrogant and self – righteous leader of the tribe. There was Piggy, who in no doubt an intelligent, practical and a sensible thinker. He is the mouthpiece of science and reason on the island, and is a good planner who can think logically and prioritise things which was carefully ordained by Ralph who was an organised person, sensible and had a quite a bit of knowledge on survival. In the story we see the true evil that outcome from these boys. In the following paragraphs I am going to describe the horror that was used by William Golding in his novel â€Å"Lord of the Flies†. The first signs of evil emerging from the boys appeared when Jack and his hunters killed a pig and re-enacted the killing. In the process people were injured and the chanting that became a ritual began at this time. Although Jack’s ambition to kill a pig had been fulfilled, he now had a taste of the glory and sense of power. This meant that he was by no means satisfied to have killed one pig, but would instead continue to do so. It is significant that Jack felt it was necessary to kill pigs, seeing that there was a large number of people on the island. It is important to note how much the boys manage to achieve before their inner evil destroy their senses of responsibility and reason, that is, before the boys finally come to savagery and violence. They discover fire, they build shelters, they explore the island, they go on hunting trips, and they delegate social responsibilities. Initially, one would be inclined to think that Jack’s leadership is a poor one as he relies on brute strength. However, Jack is clever enough to know that the boys’ survival is as important as rescue. Food has to be hunted for nutritional needs (which Ralph tries to deny). â€Å"Are there ghosts, Piggy, or beasts?† Ralph seems to depend on Piggy quite a lot like an adult to guide him the way, but the mistake that Ralph does not see is that Piggy is not an adult. This is a clever technique used by Golding as he is building up the tension and the readers will be urged to read on. Another significant event took place during the killing of the pig, the hunters let the fire out, and there was open violence from Jack, when Jack was confronted by Piggy, Jack swung at Piggy and broke one of his lens off his glasses which was an important piece of equipment, as the glasses, meant they could have a fire which enables them to be rescued. This illustrates how Jack was being overcome by his evil inside him. The Lord of the Flies is represented in the form of a pig’s head on a stick, which appeared to speak to Simon in the forest, while he was experiencing one of his epileptic fits. Golding uses this to show that the evil on this island has come from within the boys themselves. Simon then climbed the mountain and discovered that the swaying beast was in fact a dead pilot. This is gone far enough. My poor misguided child. Do you think you know better then I do?'† Simon thinks of the pigs head (The Lord Of The Flies) as the symbol of their descent from civilized behaviour to animalistic savagery. It is because of the pigs head that Simon realizes that nature can be brutal and horrifying, an idea that clashes with his previous love of nature and the spirituality inbuilt in it. Simon frames nature in terms of its how like Eden it is, but the Lord of the Flies is a challenge of that view. Most importantly of all, Golding reveals that there is indeed a better side to man’s nature through his character, Simon. Throughout the novel, Simon is portrayed as a Christ-like figure and a saint. Unfortunately, it was at this point where the evil came out among all of the boys, as Simon was mistaken for the beast and the boys were all overcome by the evil inside them and the ritual begun once again as it did with the pig and Simon was brutally killed in disguise of the beast. In this part of the novel we see that evil has overcome the boys and there is no longer any structure at all left within the boys. Following Simon’s death it becomes clear that none of the tribe would accept that they had become evil and had just sabotaged a human being, but Ralph on the other hand could see what they had become and confronted Piggy saying â€Å"that was murder†, Piggy knew what had happened but tried to hide it by coming up with lame excuses like â€Å"it was dark†. Ralph had learned from this and controlled the evil inside him. When Piggy got his glasses stole by the other tribe Ralph and Piggy knew that they had lost all their power. So the only way to regain that power would be to get Piggy’s glasses back. Unfortunately this lead to more hatred when the two tribes started to argue and it was obvious that Jacks tribe had the most power and during this argument Roger decided to push a Rock onto Piggy leaving him dead, which shows that Jacks tribe was just pure evil and had no other thoughts than to kill. Towards the end of the novel Ralph was hunted down like a wild animal and the imagery Golding uses in this final chapter describes a world where insanity and evil rule. It is even possible that the boys now saw Ralph as the beast, which is why they hunted him down. Secondly, although all the boys were hunting Ralph to kill him, most of them probably did not realise what they were doing or why. This is because Jack had influenced their minds and half of them probably saw killing Ralph as a game. In view of the fact that Ralph was being hunted down by everyone on the island, we must accept that he would have been killed had it not been for the arrival of the Navy officer. It must be noted that Golding does not choose to allow Ralph to be killed. This could be because he does not wish to allow evil to win. The real message that Golding is trying to send out is if we have no rules or boundaries then we will behave like animals do so anything can be done, in this case killing has become a hobby. In â€Å"Lord of the Flies†, Golding suggests that once man is freed from social conditioning and obligation, the intrinsic sense of evil will be revealed in him. He destroys the optimistic view of human nature by showing how even the most innocent of all – children can deteriorate into primitive savages once freed from the trappings of society. The actual storyline was pretty lame because a bunch of children just happened to crash on an island stranded, they all have a big tribunal war, people die, then the Ralph is in trouble and some navy guy appears and saves Ralph. This story was a bit too predictable, but the descriptive text in this novel is fascinating and keeps you reading. The withered arm is a pre-20th Century, short story. It is full of supernatural elements and coincidences. The story involves the characters Rhoda, a jealous middle-aged woman who has a son by farmer Lodge. Farmer Lodge has just married a young, beautiful woman called Gertrude. Rhoda being a jealous woman unconsciously conjures up an evil incubus. This causes Gertrude’s arm to weather, she tries all the cures she knows off, but resorts to using the supernatural to heal it. This leads to a dramatic ending. Right at the beginning of the story we are in suspense because there is much speculation about the new bride. At the beginning of the story it is thought that Rhoda and Gertrude are rivals, as they have both had a relationship with farmer lodge. They occupy traditional roles in the story; Rhoda is the older neglected lover with her looks fading. Gertrude is the young, beautiful blooming new wife. Age, beauty, status and social class divide them. Rhoda is extremely jealous of Gertrude we know this because she sends her son to spy on the new wife: ‘see if she is dark’ Her jealousy is what leads to the first element of the supernatural, which is her nightmare. Stricken with jealousy, her subconscious thoughts surface in her sleep as she innocently dreams of grabbing Gertrude’s arm ‘in a last desperate effort, swung out her right hand, seized the confronting spectre by its obtrusive left arm.’ Rhoda’s first reaction to Gertrude is of horror and fear. In her dream, she sees Mrs. Lodge as a figure ‘with features shockingly distorted and wrinkled by old age.’ Hardy uses simple diction to convey the horror of the nightmare. He also uses emotive language like ‘maddened’ and ‘mockingly’. Rhoda’s nightmare can be explained as coincidence, as a physical manifestation of the girl’s unconscious awareness of the situation. Rhoda’s dream creates suspense and words such as phantom keep it going. The next morning we learn that the dream was real as her son asks: ‘what was that noise in your chimmer, mother last night. Did you fall out of bed around two o’clock?’ The developing relationship between the two women has elements of the macabre. Rhoda often asks to see the wound, and seems fascinated by the clear indication of the marks of four fingers. Gertrude relies on Rhoda for a sympathetic understanding of the growing estrangement between herself and her husband, who ‘knows the disfigurement is there’. The choice of the word ‘disfigurement’ reveals his attitude to appearances. As the arm is getting worst and she has visited a doctor who cannot help her, she becomes increasing desperate for a cure as her husband is starting to love her less. She turns to Rhoda to take her to see Trendle much to her dismay. Rhoda fears for the loss of a good friendship. Trendle is a witch doctor and has powers other people don’t, in the story many people believe in him, except Gertrude who says: ‘o, how could my people be so superstitious.’ She soon changes her mind and goes with Rhoda to visit him this is where it is revealed that Gertrude has an enemy: ‘medicine can’t cure it. Is the work of an enemy.’ Trendle then reveals the face of her ‘attacker’ to her. Gertrude reacts calmly when she finds out who it is as she says she does not ‘care to speak of it.’ When she is talking to Rhoda and does not tell her what she saw. After this Rhoda and her son disappeared quietly. Over the next six years, Gertrude’s arm continues to wither, and the fact that she had brought no children to her husband made her worry even more that Mr. Lodge would reject her. Mr. Lodge has superficial love for Gertrude which was based on her beauty: ‘the woman whom he had wooed for her beauty.’ But as her arm is getting worst we see that he starts to disregard her. She starts to age beyond her years: ‘she was now five-and-twenty; but she seemed older’. She becomes desperate for a cure and tries all sorts of remedies. This makes us feel sympathetic towards her. As a last resort she visits Tremble and tries to take advantage of his ‘white magic’, this leads to fatal results and her superstition, combined with desperation, must be held accountable for this. He tells her she must ‘touch with the limb the neck of a man who’s been hanged.’ As time passed she considers this and wished: ‘o lord, hang some guilty or innocent person soon!’ This shows how desperate she was becoming. Gertrude’s meeting with the hangman reveals her obsession: she has in fact prayed each evening for some ‘guilty or innocent’ person to be hanged Rhoda and the hangman having a discussion in which she says: ‘o- a reprieve- I hope not!’ Here she is saying even if the person is innocent she hopes he will not be let off. Through out the story it is full of irony- you have farmer Lodge marrying to have a son, even though he has one which he does not recognise. Hardy chose not to give the illegitimate son a name; this may be because Lodge failed to recognise him, even though he wishes for a son: ‘I once thought of adopting a boy!’ Gertrude befriends the boy but unknowingly wishes for his death, in which when she finds out the identity of the hanged man she dies from shock. The denouement of the finial gruesome meeting between the two women brings all interaction to an end. The scene is highly dramatic and needs few words. This is where we learn that it is Rhoda’s son that has been hanged and due to this Gertrude’s ‘blood had been turned indeed- too far’. In conclusion of both stories I think that Lord of the Flies represents horror in a more sophisticated way than The Withered Arm, saying that Lo-rd of the Flies was written when there was no TV this virtually inserts images into your thoughts, the only thing with Lord of the Flies was the actual storyline as it was too unreal because if there was a plane crashes, normally there is hardly any survivors but in this case, the whole troop survived!! In conclusion the withered arm is an effective story of the supernatural from the point of view from the reader. When it was written as people heavily believed in the supernatural and witchcraft, this is another reason the story is effective. It differs from today’s horror stories, as it is not full of blood and guts.

Planning Softwares in todays Project Management Research Proposal

Planning Softwares in todays Project Management - Research Proposal Example According to PMBOK, skills, knowledge and techniques applied to meet the scope, cost and time requirement of a project is called Project Management (PMI, 2004). The company has no formal project management processes set in place; however, they have heard about project management software tools that can help manage projects and reduce the failures. According to a survey by the Gartner Group, PM software tool vendors who also provide consulting services and support have annual revenue of $800-$900 million and this market is expected to grow by up to 20% each year (Liberatore et al, 2003). Another survey by Pollack-Johnson et al (1998) shows that almost all project management professionals use some kind of project management software to assist in their project management activities. Raymond et al (2007) and Brodar et al (2007) have conducted research indicating that there has been significant contribution of PMIS in successful completion of their projects. The rise of SaaS (software-as-a-service) project management tools such as aceproject.com also indicates the high demand for such tools in the market. However, desktop applications such as Microsoft Project and Primavera still dominate the project management market in particular industries (Liberatore et al, 2003). Although research su... The management agrees strongly with recommendation of Ahlemann et al (2006) - "the software for planning and controlling projects should be user-friendly and, by all means, should fit to an organization and its method of doing project management". Hence they are skeptical of investing money in expensive software unless they can find out that it can really help reduce project failure. On a broad level, this research study will be conducted to help the management make this decision. Aims The aim of the research project is to understand whether project management software tools can help implement project management in an organization while reducing project failures and automating manual activities and processes defined by project management standards. Objectives The objectives of the research are given below; To understand the need for project management and associated software tools in the case company To understand how project management software tools can be used to automate the existing or recommended project management processes for the company. To understand whether the case company is ready for the implementation of project management software tools To understand the issues that may come up during the implementation project and how to overcome them To understand the factors responsible for successful implementation of project management software tools Research Design (including method) or critical approach Project management is a broad topic and many standards and associations are available on the subject. To limit the research, therefore, the researcher will only study the de facto standard of project management, PMI PMBOK and PMBOK's related literature to understand the activities and processes defined under the nine