Complex Causality: Climate Change Essay -- multidisciplinary perspecti

Complex events are incidents that challenge pre-existing ideas through not meeting standard expectations or solutions. Equally, due to their ‘complex’ nature they should be able to be analysed from a multidisciplinary perspective. A multidisciplinary perspective is the drawing together of methodologies from different social science disciplines (such as economics, international relations, history and political science) to analyse an event and consequently reach a single conclusion. Overall, the use of a multidisciplinary perspective (in comparison to a singular disciplinary perspective) will provide the fullest and most accurate analysis of complex events, however this can create a trade off with the complexity and time taken to reach a conclusion. Firstly, this advantage will be argued through implying complex events have complex causality that can only truly be seen through a multidisciplinary perspective. Secondly, it can be seen that all social sciences lie on a spec trum with lots of overlap and interdependence between disciplines, and therefore it is an intrinsic feature of the social sciences to view complex events through a multidisciplinary perspective. Finally, it can also be seen that each discipline has respective areas of strength as well as areas of weakness and consequently a multidisciplinary approach allows for the most accurate and broadest analysis of a respective event. This can be shown through examples of complex events such as the current problem posed by Climate Change and the unforeseen end to the Cold War in 1991. However, it is important to keep in mind that while there may be many advantages of using a multidisciplinary perspective to analysis, the ultimate purpose of this analysis is to lead to a fina... ...AEBB275/1989%20for%20posting.pdf] Gaskel, G. (2014) Thinking like a social scientist: Why methodology matters LSE100 Lecture Capture retrieved 26th March 2014 [http://moodle.lse.ac.uk] Harrison, M. (1993) â€Å"Soviet Economic Growth Since 1928: The Alternative Statistics of G. T. Khanin† from Europe-Asia Studies Retrieved 26th March 2014 [http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/economics/staff/academic/Harrison/public/eas93.pdf] Hoffman, M. (2013) â€Å"Global Climate Change† in The Handbook of Global Climate and Environmental Policy Memorandum of the Soviet Ministry of Foreign Affairs (1989) Excerpt from ‘The Political Processes in the European Socialist Countries and the Proposals for Our Practical Steps Considering the Situation Which Has Arisin in Them’. (Cold War International Project) Sandler, T. (2004) Global Collective Action. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press

Hobbes vs Rousseau Essay

In the 17th and 18th centuries, the Age of Enlightenment was an important cultural movement of intellectuals in Europe. Philosophers of the time interpreted many theories and concepts about man and inequality in civilization and also ideas about government and the ways in which society could be controlled. Many believed that humans were naturally good, while others believed that humans were inherently bad. The argument of nature has lasted throughout time without a definitive answer, but with centuries of philosophical arguments to aid in the understanding of our own human nature. Two important philosophers of this time period were Thomas Hobbes and Jean Jacques Rousseau. Both philosophers wrote about their ideas of human nature and the state of nature, also addressing equality within the state and the role government and civilization plays in man’s actions. While Hobbes had a very cynical view of man, believing man to be brutal and violent working only towards self-interest, Rousseau had a more positive view; depicting man as essentially good and compassionate, believing that only through society and civilization does man become corrupt. Although both philosophers’ arguments are well developed and supported, Rousseau’s understanding of the natural man and the state of nature is stronger than Hobbes’ opposing views. Rousseau’s positive view of human nature illustrates man as living in harmony with nature while Hobbes’ pessimistic view portrays man acting only for self-interest. Rousseau views the mankind as inherently good, capable of feeling compassion and pity for others around him as well as self-love. The condition of this natural man is a man without any forms of civilization, including clothes and language. Man is able to live individually, peacefully and in harmony when he is in this state of inh erent goodness. However, through civilization man becomes â€Å"wicked.† Oppression and dominance develop through the evolution of civilization, also creating inequality among men, destroying the harmony in which they lived. When man is able to satisfy his own needs, he is able to live peacefully (Rousseau 161). Through evolution of society, man is weakened and begins to depend on others to sustain his life, creating oppression and causing man to lose his natural goodness. Hobbes disagrees with Rousseau’s positive view of the nature of man, believing that men are instinctively violent and evil, acting only out of self-interest or for self-gain. He believes men are constantly in competition to become superior in worth or honor, creating continual jealousy and violence among each other. Hobbes believes that men are so brutal and wicked they are unable to survive as individuals but need a strong, central authority to force peace and cooperation among men. Hobbes states, â€Å"Without the terror of some power to cause them to be observed, are contrary to our natural passions, that carry us to partiality, pride, revenge and the like,† (Hobbes 106). Hobbes believes that in order to control man’s instinctive evil, they need to fear the law. Hobbes admits that inequality is a product of creating this commonwealth, but, unlike Rousseau’s idea of inequality in society, Hobbes says men are ignorant to the inequality, believing that the covenants create equal terms of law among men. This false sense of equality is able to control the violence and competition among men, allowing them to coexist more peacefully. So while Rousseau credits civilization to the destruction of peace and goodness, Hobbes does not believe man has any inherent goodness and thinks civilization is the only way to avoid war. Although Hobbes and Rousseau agree that in a state of nature men are equal, they have opposing views of what man is like in this state. A state of nature is a term used to describe a state lacking a form of government or laws. Rousseau believes in the state of nature, man lives individually in harmony with nature. Rousseau addresses this natural man as a â€Å"savage man,† stating that their actions are determined by their needs and these needs are met without the help of others. In this nature, men are peaceful and good. Men also have a natural sense of pity and compassion in this state (Rousseau 163). Because man lives solitarily, there is no one to dominate or control and thus no competition for power. Rousseau believes that this peace is sustained by the ability of the savage man to feel compassion, which allows them to govern the peace of their nature. However, this peace is diminished as inequality becomes prevalent through the progression of society. As property and family units evolved, man began to change his lifestyle and skills and talents developed (Rousseau 164). Families weakened man and woman in mind and body, causing them to rely on others to successfully fulfill their needs. This was the crucial part in development of oppression and domination, because inequality occurs when man becomes dependent on others to survive. Rousseau states, â€Å"But the moment one man needed the help of another; as soon as it was found to be useful for one to have provisions for two, equality disappeared, property appeared,† (Rousseau 167). The relationship between slave-master or worker-owner develop when men requires the help of another. Inequality creates oppression and domination, which, according to Rousseau, destroy man’s inherent goodness. Hobbes’ view of human nature contrasts Rousseau’s dramatically, seeing as Hobbes believed man to be naturally wicked and only through government systems are men able to live peacefully. Hobbes compares man to a machine, constantly in motion and always seeking something (3). He believes human nature is to act for their own self-interest, which causes men to be in constant competition for honor or worth, creating a state of war. Because Hobbes believes that men are constantly in a state of war, he believes that men are always trying to increase their power to be superior to others. He believes that in the state of nature where man is not governed by central authority, men are constantly in competition. Jealousy and competition among men make it impossible for men to live peacefully in a state of nature, creating the need for a strong, central authority to govern over the peace of man. Contrary to Rousseau, Hobbes believes that government is a way for people to â€Å"get themselves out of that miserable condition of war,† by governing peace that men are incapable of alone (Hobbes 106). Hobbes believes that through strong government, men are forced to coexist peacefully, because covenant creates a false sense of equality among men. Hobbes believes that men are incapable of surviving individually, unlike Rousseau who believes that men are better made to live individually. Their differing views of inherent behavior create contrasting conceptions of the state of nature. Based on their arguments of the nature of mankind, Rousseau’s explanation of man is more complete and logical than Hobbes’. In Rousseau’s view of nature, man is essentially good, able to survive on his own and able to peacefully coexist. This view of man could be considered naà ¯ve by some, but it must be considered that this man is also the â€Å"savage man,† a man before any form of civilization. Rousseau explains that a man is inherently good in a state of nature because he has no desire for power, but does feel pity. Rousseau goes into an in depth description of the development of inequality among men, describing oppression and domination developing and the ways in which these factors destroyed man’s intrinsic goodness. Man was unable to live individually in the new state of society, which destroyed their natural goodness. Being unable to live individually, they were forced to rely on others, which created domination and inequality, which leads to competition for power and corruption. The inequality also led to the diminishment of pity and compassion, which was crucial to man’s ability to peacefully coexist. Rousseau’s thorough time-line of man’s condition created a stronger and more agreeable argument than Hobbes’ pessimistic view of man.

Observation of Equity

One of the many roles of a teacher is to demonstrate sensitivity and equitable treatment towards the diversity in their classroom. In my field experience classroom, I had the opportunity to observe different strategies and techniques used to meet the diverse needs of an ESE (Exceptional Student Education) classroom at Howard A. Doolin Middle School. Mrs. Alcala and her 6th grade EBD (Emotionally Behaviorally Disabled) Math class consist of 7 students, whom are currently learning about Fractions, Decimals, and Percents. Mrs. Alcala implemented a lesson plan that would help her students understand and strengthen their ability to use equivalent forms of Fractions, Decimals, and Percents to solve problems. The lesson began with a warm-up on basic mathematical operations. She gave the students five minutes to try and complete the warm-up, and then asked students to come up to the smart board to solve the problems. After the warm-up, as a class, they went over the vocabulary words for the lesson such as fractions, decimals, and percents. Mrs. Alcala then began teaching the lesson and doing examples projecting them on the smart board. Throughout the lesson the students took turns going up to the smart board to practice examples. Some students were able to solve the problems on their own and some required prompting from the teacher. After the examples, Mrs. Alcala played a ten minute video on the smart board showing the students step by step on how to solve problems involving fractions, decimals, and perce nts. Next, the students were split into two groups of two and one group of three. She passed out manipulatives for the students to do practice problems, and were given fifteen minutes to work as a group. Lastly, Mrs. Alcala took the last five minutes of class to go over examples of each of the concepts she had presented. As the observer I feel that the teacher was extremely sensitive to the diverse needs of the students in her classroom. She was very aware of all the students in the classroom and targeted their specific needs. For example, the teacher used various tools such as the smart board, video, and manipulatives to address not only the different learning styles but the levels as well. During the group work the higher level students were grouped with the lower level students to give them more assistance. Additionally, the classroom was structured in a way that was conducive to learning but motivating in the same way with the use of manipulatives, video, and technology. The students responded well to the video and manipulatives, and enjoyed being able to use the smart board to solve problems. The teacher used cueing before transitioning from activity to activity. This allowed students to know ahead of time what they were doing next. While students were working individually as well as in groups, the teacher walked around the classroom asking the students if they needed any assistance. If she noticed the students were having difficulty she made sure to work one on one with the student. Overall, I felt that the teacher was very respectful towards her students. Occasionally, one specific student would blurt out an inappropriate comment and the teacher would address the misbehavior. From my observation, I can gather that addressing diversity in the classroom takes lots of work, planning, and continuous learning in the profession. Highly effective teachers have high academic expectations for all students. The classroom use of modeling, scaffolding, providing guided practice, frequent monitoring and adjustment of instruction all work together to proactively prevent discipline problems that might occur due to lack of understanding and disengagement. Creating a classroom management system that is sensitive to diversity is a mind set that continually takes into consideration the backgrounds, culture, needs, and strengths that all children bring to the table of learning.

Hard times by Charles Dickens Essay

The book Hard times, relates to the hard times that people were going through at the time of the industrial revolution, during the 1840’s. the book was published in 1850, so that when Charles wrote the book, he was looking back on the events that occurred 10 years earlier. In his book ‘Hard Times’ Dickens focuses on education and how children used to be taught. Dickens does not agree with the type of teaching that was going on in those times, and by making the characters of the story his object of hate, it makes them prime targets of ridiculing, and does so throughout the book. He describes how the educators insist on teaching fact, and fact alone, nothing but fact. This way he can put forward his views and feelings of this form of teaching, by ridiculing the characters and continually ripping them apart with criticism. The educators insist on teaching fact and pluck all the opinion from the tiny fragile minds that can be so easily moulded into fact filled objects. They scoop out every little fragment of imagination, not leaving the smallest detail to spare and replace it with fact, fact, fact, until they are over spilling with them. As if when filling an empty money box with pennies until it is full to the brim and over flowing, and when you take off the lid they all pour out, one after the other, penny after penny, fact after fact. Facts were ridged and solid, there was no room for interpretation, or another view on the matter, a fact could not be disproved, or argued against, a fact was a fact, and that was what the educators were trying to pour into the innocent little minds, once filled with imagination and opinion. Dickens chooses the names of characters very well. Such as Grad grind, this gives an impression of a strict, hard faced man stuck in his ways. Dickens is very descriptive which gives the reader an image of the characters, and yet at the same time he leaves other aspects to the imagination. The educators were filtering out the opinion and imagination, leaving room for only the facts to get through. This is what Dickens disliked about this form of education, he thought that each child should be independent, and have their own opinion of things and have a free imagination. Dickens himself was a very bright child, yet was denied the right to education, due to the conditions of the time, and the fact that his family were so poor. He left school at the age of 14 and went to work. This is the main reason why Dickens feels so strongly about education and he feels that people should do what they want to do not what they ‘have’ to do, as he had to leave school in order to get a bit more money for his family. In chapter 2 we learn that the teacher Gradgrind has little, if any respect for the children as he refers to them by numbers, also he criticises on of the girls names. He forms the impression of a very narrow minded man with little consideration or respect for children. He is full of fact and stuck in his ways, he believes that because he has been taught facts that every one should be taught pure fact. Dickens doesn’t like this way of learning, and continually ridicules it and the people teaching it. Dickens gets his points across through satire and comic exaggeration, he uses this to achieve humour and also as an extreme way of getting feelings across. During the Victorian times people had a very dim view of education, they did not think it was that essential for children to learn, however in the Victorian times it all came down to your social class. If you were upper class you would have had an education, however if you were lower class you would be considered very lucky if you went to school and even then you would have hat to have left school early to work to get that extra bit of money for the family. I thin these views existed because people had no idea of the importance and it all came down to your social class, also children were ill treated and expected to be seen and not heard. These views of education are very wrong as it is now important especially as we have more rights, and people are respected more.

Audis pricing strategies in UK Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Audis pricing strategies in UK - Essay Example In order to understanding of how strategies have been applied by Audi, the section below provides a discussion of each of them. Audi has applied the price discount strategy by offering their vehicles at prices lower than the list prices (Nieuwenhuis, 2003, p. 189). The company also offers quantity discounts for suppliers purchasing vehicles in large quantities. For instance, S6 model may be retailing at a price of  £53,995 but customers buying in large quantities are offered a lower price of around  £53,000. This strategies aims at encouraging customers to buy in large volumes because there is the benefit of getting reduced prices for each unit. Sometimes a customer may make a credit purchase which takes some time to settle. Audi offers discounts for customers paying within a specified time period so as to encourage them to pay without much delay. Audi offers a variety of models that have unique features. Therefore, the company charges different prices for each of the models in order to reflect the benefits that customers can derive from each of them (Nieuwenhuis, 2003, p. 178). For instance, the S6 model will be offered at a price of  £53,995 while Q5 is offered at a lower price of  £31,880. This means that at a higher price of  £53,995, a customer will enjoy the use of a V8 engine that has deactivation technology. Going rate pricing strategy is applied when a company introduces prices similar to its direct competitors. Examples of Audi direct competitors include BMW, Aston Martin, and Chevrolet. The company has priced some of its model within the same range of what the direct competitors are offering. For instance, the Audi R8 is going for  £91,975 while the Aston Martin retails at  £90,995. Audi has a significant competitive advantage in the UK market in form of highly technology. The company is planning on introducing new S models that will have a unique feature of a V8 that

What is the cultural function of slasher films Essay

What is the cultural function of slasher films - Essay Example The societal issues tackled in slasher films can be quite varied indeed and the issues will project, criticize and open up for debate whatever it is that concerns society at the moment. Along this line, slasher films do serve a cultural purpose by expressing peoples fears and anxieties. Slasher films serve their cultural function of portraying the worst fears of the people such as those dealing with serial killers, sadistic murderers and incorrigible criminals. People go to theaters to see these films and expect some sort of poetic justice meted out to criminals that somehow vindicate the existence of slasher films. The graphic portrayal of the slaying, usually accomplished with a torture tool like a knife, chainsaw, hammer or whatever that will prolong death and impose the most agony and pain to the victims are intended to satiate the audience cravings for the macabre, the violent, the suspense and to show the mentality of the psychopathic killer and the mindsets of the victims as shown on these films. Slasher films in a way allow people to question social norms and their own personal values as they see it. The previous paragraphs introduced the rationale of why slasher films serve an aim in todays culture. A lot of people question why such â€Å"shallow† films are patronized by these moviegoers when there is already a hackneyed plot or storyline in these films, predictable to a degree but still people go and see them when they almost instinctively knew already what will happen in the film. The answer is that these â€Å"mad slasher† films are in the category of the so-called exploitation films which are considered money-makers despite having a poor storyline. People want to be entertained and movie producers latched unto these genre of films because they are proven to make them money at the box office as these are low-budget films. It it not a surprising development

Memo format Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Memo format - Essay Example The author and purpose of the video The author of this video is one Dr. Clarke John from New York. In 2009, this video won in the video PSA contest, defeating over 200 other videos. Video PSA contest was mainly concerned with the prevention of flu, and strategies that can be employed to prevent spread of flu. The purpose of this video is therefore, to enlighten people about the H1N1 virus, how it spreads, and the preventive measures that one can take to avoid infection. The audience This video does not target a specific audience, instead; it is intended for the whole public. Since the H1N1 virus affected the whole of USA, the public must be enlightened on the preventive strategies they can adopt to avoid future occurrence of the condition in the USA. Therefore, all Americans, children and adults, men and women, professionals, among others are therefore, audience of this video, since all are capable of catching H1N1 virus. What the author values, and what he appears to assume about th e audience’s values The author of this video chose to spread the word about H1N1 virus through lyrics. Specifically, he uses the music genre of rap to deliver his message. As his primary choice of message delivery, this means that the author values music, specifically rap music. The author intended this message for an audience. This therefore, shows that the author assumes that the audience too value rap music. Since this is the best way he thought his message could reach the audience, it seems he assumes that Americans love rap music, therefore, will easily receive the message. How the author establishes credibility and character The author establishes credibility and character in his video mainly through the manner he presents himself, and the ideas in his message. For instance, he dresses decently in his white lab coat. Dressing this way is decent, and brings him out as a professional in the medical field. Therefore, the audience will value the message he delivers, as they will view it as credible. Although it is a rap video, this contrasts with the mainstream rap videos in the popular culture, as in this video, the author upholds professionalism, as seen in his decent attire. Professionalism is also evident in his presentation of facts, which enhances credibility and character. He uses formal and decent language while rapping. Most rap videos use informal and sometimes indecent language. Therefore, this makes the video and message therein credible, and brings out the character of the author in a positive manner. Additionally, the end of the video was shot in the author’s office. This is a different setting, as the rest of the video part was shot at a strategic point in the streets of New York. An office environment increases the seriousness of the message and incorporates an element of professionalism in the rap clip. Credibility of the message in the video is also increased when the author lets the audience know the main source of his messag e in the video. It turns out that he got his message from a trusted government website on flu. It is more likely that the audience will trust the message and do as it says, since the information is credible, and from an individual with a credible character. How the author appeals to the audience In order to appeal to the audience, the author uses an element