The Market for Online Education

Introduction Traditional education is designed around face-to-face communication in a physical classroom. Educational institutions are required to pay for costly inputs, the costs of which are spread out over a limited number of students. It is no surprise then that this education delivery model has produced a 550% increase in the cost of tuition at U.S. universities since 1985 (Vella, 2012). In addition to this, most universities are run by non-profit trusts or governments, where there is little pressure to innovate and fully utilize the physical and intellectual resources of the institution. With this backdrop, online courses are offering low-cost learning alternatives, which are customized for needs of customers, and are available without regard to space and time for different groups of customers worldwide. Over time, attitudes of students and employers towards online education are also improving. Finally, new private companies are coming up to offer customized solutions often backed by cloud computing platforms, though they still lack the brand recognition of traditional universities. This paper will examine the limitations of traditional educational methods and explore sources of demand and supply of online education with a view towards how innovative business models such as crowdsourcing and technology infrastructures such as cloud computing are creating change in online education (Weld et al., 2012). Evolution of Online Education Traditional education delivery in thousands of universities globally is designed around transfer of knowledge from teachers to students via face-to-face, lecture based interaction in physical classrooms. At the outset, this imposes the limit of physical capacity of the classroom on the number of individuals who can enrol in the class. In comparison, recent advances in information and communication technologies have enabled alternative online education delivery mechanisms, which can optimize educational delivery in a cost-efficient manner for a large number of users. Online education can be defined as a new social process which utilizes digital technology to partially or fully substitute traditional classroom learning methods, optimized for learners without the barriers of a traditional educational setup (Hiltz & Turoff, 2006). Allen and Seaman (2013) define online education to include courses where at least 80% of the course content is delivered online. These courses are delivered ov er the Internet and include significant use of digital media, data storage and communication technologies such as computer-assisted instruction, group communications, use of immersive simulations, gaming and asynchronous learning networks, collaborative knowledge systems and use of wireless and handheld devices. Online education offers different sets of opportunities to different organisations and individuals. For existing educational institutions, it offers a way to increase enrolment or reach a different type of audience such as corporate training. For start-ups looking to shake up the education ‘industry’, it offers the opportunity to compete with traditional universities on different bases of competition, such as price, program duration or class timing. For others, it offers the opportunity for lifelong learning or the opportunity to learn from professors of top universities. Surveys show that the number of students taking online learning courses is on the rise. Allen and Seaman (2013) report that the total number of students in the U.S. taking at least 1 online course during 2012 has increased to 6.7 million, representing 32% of the total student population of 21 million students. In an endorsement of the online learning platform, 77% of academic leaders believe that online learning leads to better learning outcomes than face-to-face instruction. On the major obstacles that are holding back the growth of online education, the authors believe that most faculty members still do not have a positive view about online learning. 40% believe employers have reservations about online degrees. Product Offerings Online education is influencing different tiers of the market in different ways. Firstly, in traditional universities, more and more fully online classes are being developed, and technology is finding its way into more traditional classes as well. Many universities now offer online only classes for their students. In addition, universities such as Georgia Tech are creating tailor made degrees for corporations such as AT&T. This setup benefits the university which gets an extra revenue stream and also AT&T which gets high-end skills training for its employees on the job (Kitroeff, 2014). In addition, some new, non-traditional universities have also been set up. These online universities, such as the University of Phoenix, replicate the existing university model but without a physical campus, utilizing online content delivery. A different model has also been developed by some traditional universities such as MIT and Stanford. In partnership with private start-up companies such as Coursera and EdX, these institutions are putting together free classes open to global masses known as massive open online courses (MOOC). These courses are available to all the students in the world who have Internet access and some of these classes boast registrations in hundreds of thousands. Currently, nearly 3% of institutions of higher education in the US are offering MOOCs while another 10% are in the planning process of offering MOOCs (Allen & Seaman, 2013). Coursera is also expanding into China with its more than 1 million online learners (Larson, 2014). However, it is not clear how MOOC offerings will be financed (Anderson, 2012). The author points out that giving away content for free usually never turns out to be good business model. Suggestions for revenue generation include subscription and charging employers who want to hire successful students. Another issue is how to ascertain the identity and actual completion of work by a given individual. Udacity, another start-up has devised a solution by offering physical testing facilities in different countries where students can take certification exams in a supervised environment. While they are becoming increasingly popular, MOOCs offer limited customization. In comparison, some start-up education companies are exploring the idea of customized learning enabled by ‘crowdsourcing’. Crowdsourcing is a term which defines the development of an online community whose physically dispersed members may be called upon to provide results online to a given problem. One limitation of MOOCs is that grading assignments of hundreds of thousands of students requires using automated software, which can only grade multiple choice problems. This solution does not work very well in the humanities and social sciences. A crowdsourcing-based solution is to use peer evaluation for this purpose. These learning environments also deploy other technology enabled learning techniques such as using software to analyse common mistakes made by large groups with the highest frequency. Significant insights can be gained into human learning from observing such errors and analyzing their causes. Other automated software agents can crawl the web for useful resources pertaining to the course and collect it on a new website. Additional functionalities that can be offered by machine learning systems include services that link students with particular needs with tutors with skills suitable for teaching those subjects. Role of technology in the online education ecosystem Central to this paradigm shift in education is the Internet and technology revolution. A key enabling innovation in this regard is the development of a low-cost services model known as cloud computing. Cloud computing is an umbrella terms which describes how computers, servers, and applications and processes on those servers can be networked together in a distributed computing platform to create scalable infrastructure which enables users to connect from anywhere and using any device. Cloud computing may be considered an extension of Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), which is a software design which makes it easy for computers on a network to cooperate. An institution or group of institutions that gets together to develop a cloud computing based platform needs to develop content and services that can reside inside the cloud since not all applications are cloud enabled (Mircea & Andreescu, 2011). Cloud computing is a way of designing a network in blocks, not all of which need to be owned or operated by one university. Instead some components of infrastructure, or the platform or the software or even the computing power itself may be owned and managed by service providers who allow the university to pay for them on an ongoing, pay-per-use basis (Matthew, 2012). Cloud enabled service delivery enables access to educational content by anyone, anywhere on a pay-per-use basis, thus enabling deployment of scalable educational services. If a substantial number of users exist, the cost per user and thus the fee charged to the user can be lowered substantially compared to traditional educational institutions (Moore, 2011). This can have several other advantages for institutions as well. For example, institutions can combine resources with others to share a cloud, and then focus on content creation to focus on their strength and outsourcing the IT services to a large degree. The new business models will begin with market need identification, and then deploying a solution to meet that need, offering a high return on investment (ROI). A major university offering a global MOOC would need a very different platform than a commercial service offering English as Second Language in China and cloud computing would allow each to have the right cost and infrastructure for the size of the opportunity. A lot of effort is going into the development of each of the elements of online education. These include digital books, grading software, intelligent software agents, cloud computing infrastructure and tablets. Amazon is also selling more digital books than paper books and it is now even possible for students taking online classes to rent their textbooks for limited time (Schuetze, 2011). Through its success, online education seems to be substituting traditional education (Mehaffy, 2012). This phenomenon has been labelled by Christensen & Eyring (2011) as the process of ‘disruption’. ‘Disruptive technologies’ are championed by new companies which do not compete with the incumbents along the existing bases of competition, but offer new and often low-cost product to a previously underserved group of consumers. Once successful in their niches, they increase volume, improve product quality and unseat incumbents in the high end of the market. Alternatively, disruption forces incumbents to change their business models. One of the reasons the education market seems ripe for disruption is the high cost of university education which makes the high-end of the market out of reach for many students. Some of the new business models in online education offer lower cost alternatives for those average students. In response, several mainstream universities are already considering lowering the residency requirement of their degrees to lower the total cost of earning them, while considering how to improve their online courses. While it may be too early to predict how successful they will be, for now the online education market seems set to grow globally. Conclusion In conclusion, it can be said that online education is a powerful business model because it can service large underserved segments of the education market at low average cost (Gaytan, 2007). It is a solution for those who could previously not afford the high cost of education or may only need to develop certain job related skills or they may be lifelong learners. Deployment of digital content and software over a cloud enabled distributed computing network is the first step towards infrastructure development required for online learning platforms. More high-quality content is required together with ingenious business models to take online education to the next level of success. Recommendations While they do not face any immediate threats, existing educational institutions will need to adapt their business models in order to not become obsolete. At a minimum, they should consider ways of reducing their cost without diluting the experience. Traditional universities have a strong competitive advantage – they offer a period of residence in an academic community. This is difficult to replicate for online institutions. Online universities should consider partnerships for revenue and content sharing with traditional institutions in order to build their brands quicker. Without brand acceptance, they will never be able to compete with traditional universities. Start-ups should focus on helping develop those innovations that increase the return on investment in new business models for educational service providers to encourage innovation and investment in technology supporting online education. Bibliography Allen, I. E., & Seaman, J. 2013. Changing Course: Ten Years of Tracking Online Education in the United States. Sloan Consortium. PO Box 1238, Newburyport, MA 01950. Anderson, N. 2012. Elite education for the masses. The Washington Post, 4. Christensen, C. M., & Eyring, H. J. 2011. The innovative university: Changing the DNA of higher education from the inside out. John Wiley & Sons. Conn, S. S., & Reichgelt, H. 2012. Cloud Computing in Support of Applied Learning: A Baseline Study of Infrastructure Design at Southern Polytechnic State University. In Proceedings of the Information Systems Educators Conference ISSN (Vol. 2167, p. 1435). Gaytan, J. 2007. Visions shaping the future of online education: Understanding its historical evolution, implications, and assumptions. Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration, 10(2). Hiltz, S. R., & Turoff, M. 2005. Education goes digital: The evolution of online learning and the revolution in higher education. Communications of the ACM,48(10), 59-64. Larson, C. 2014. Coursera’s plan for online education: Expansion in China. Bloomberg Businessweek. Retrieved on 28 October, 2014 from http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-10-27/coursera-ceo-richard-levin-plans-to-expand-the-company-in-china. Kitroeff, N. 2014. Why AT&T is investing in virtual school. Bloomberg Businessweek. Retrieved on 28 October, 2014 from http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-10-24/at-and-t-and-former-google-vp-back-georgia-tech-online-degree-program. Mathew, S. 2012. Implementation of Cloud Computing in Education – A Revolution. International Journal of Computer Theory and Engineering, 4(3), 473 – 475. Mehaffy, G. L. 2012. Challenge and change. Educause Review, 47(5), 25-42. Mircea, M., & Andreescu, A. I. 2011. Using cloud computing in higher education: A strategy to improve agility in the current financial crisis. Communications of the IBIMA, 2011, 1-15. Moore, J. C. 2012. A Synthesis of Sloan-C Effective Practices, December 2011. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, 16(1), 91-115. Schuetze, C. F. 2011. Textbooks finally take a big leap to digital. The New York Times. Vella, M. (2012). Is higher education doomedFortune. Retrieved on October 28, 2014 from http://fortune.com/2012/07/18/is-higher-education-doomed/. Yuan, L., Powell, S., & CETIS, J. 2013. MOOCs and open education: Implications for higher education. Cetis White Paper. Weld, D. S., Adar, E., Chilton, L., Hoffmann, R., Horvitz, E., Koch, M., & Mausam, M. 2012. Personalized online education—a crowdsourcing challenge. In Workshops at the Twenty-Sixth AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence.

The Greeks and Achilles

The opening of Virgil’s epic [â€Å"I sing of warfare and a man of war† or â€Å" I sing of arms and of the man†] is a skillful allusion to Homer’s Iliad [â€Å"Rage—Goddess, sing the rage of Peleus’ son Achilles†]. Both rely on nouns. Discuss how the two interact in both works. Just as Homer used the first lines of the Iliad and Odyssey to announce the main themes of those poems, Virgil presents the two main themes of the Aeneid in the first line.What are these two central themes? In The Aeneid, Virgil's first two lines â€Å"I sing of warfare and a man at war. / He came to Italy by destiny. † Like with Homer's The Iliad and The Odyssey, Virgil's central theme for The Aeneid is war, though in a vastly different light than that of Homer's two epics. With Aeneid, the central character Aeneas fleas Troy during a darkened time for his native city, when it is being ravaged in a war between the Greeks and Achilles.The line He came to Italy by destiny tells me that The Aeneid's focus is central to fate and destiny and how so many people during this time put a lot of their energy believing in, and raging wars in the name of both. What universal force is responsible for Aeneas's sufferings as an exile (see line 3)? In accordance with this universal force, what is the purpose of his sufferings? Land and sea are what are responsibile for Aeneas sufferings as an exile while he made the journey from Troy to Italy.Aeneas' suffering was at the hands of Juno, who was angry that with Aeneas' arrival into Carthage meant that the fate of her most favorite city would soon be teasted when the war made it's way from his beloved Troy, where he was fleeing from, to Carthage. Explain the reasons for Juno's hatred of the Trojans. Juno's hatred towards the other Trojan's was because the arrival of another Trojan, Paris, voted in a beauty contest against Juno, a contest that she ended up losing.Compare and contrast Homer’s de scription of the shield of Achilles in the Iliad (XVIII. 572ff. ) with Virgil’s description of the shield of Aeneas in the Aeneid (VIII. 24ff. ). Both Aeneas and Achilles are given shields that help to defend against their enemies. With Aeneas, he is given a shield to help protect Rome from an invasion, whereas Achilles is given a shield to face off and carry out his revenge against Hector. Both similar in their uses are vastly different in design. For Achilles, his holds engravings of common life during his time.

Strategies for Promoting Ethical Decision Making in Health Care Essay

Strategies for Promoting Ethical Decision Making in Health Care Organizations - Essay Example Moral sensitivity and ethical awareness raises sensitivity to the details of the situation, case, or scenario, and promotes the professional to raise questions in order to justify the right and good, just and fair, respect for individual human dignity, benefits, and burdens. It signifies that ethical decision making a complex process with multiple angles with mainly social implications that tends to analyze factors such as ethical principles, social and interactional aspects, and situational and contextual factors. It is important to remain aware that all these factors need to be considered while making a decision in clinical practice. Taking the example of the issue of autonomic "right to die", this is common issue in clinical practice, especially in the critical care nursing practice. However, practically the issues surrounding death and dying is no longer simple for its legal implications and technological advances that can sustain life for unimaginable duration of time. In these situations, the nurses face dilemma for allocating resources to these patients, and this often enters into the decision making process. The patient's wishes and concerns of the family also impact decisions. For nurses, these ethical situations become more crucial due to invariable conflicts between professional duties and obligations and ethical responsibilities. This means the nurses are faced with the conflicts between the duty to meet the needs of the patients and the obligations to follow hospital policy in that particular issue, implying they are obligated to comply with doctor's orders and legal implications of various interventions and patient-related actions even though the ethical principles do not permit them. In the current scenario, the critical ethical principles will be examined in a critical manner based on this preamble and evidence for current policies would be sought as it is relevant to practice and clinical decision making (Vanlaere, L. and Gastmans, C., 2007). Case: This is the story of a 67-year-old man, who lost control of his vehicle and had struck a guardrail in a single-vehicle collision. He was not wearing a seatbelt and was ejected through the windshield and sustained severely traumatic closed head and chest injuries. He was brought to the trauma center via helicopter and was admitted to the neurological intensive care unit. The staff provided support to the patient as per medical advice, and he was receiving mechanical ventilation and was unresponsive. Obviously he was surrounded by multiple invasive catheters and equipment. The trauma team briefly met the patient's daughter who was the only family present, soon after the admission, and they explained the grave prognosis of her father to her. This patient's care was complex, and the nurse preceptor along with a junior postgraduate nurse was administering the care. The investigations revealed that the patient had severe internal hemorrhage in the brain and in the chest, and some tra uma to the heart could not be ruled out. The patient was on mechanical ventilation through intubation, was in deep coma, was nil orally until the consciousness was restored. The other parameters that were being monitored did not show any sign of improvement, and the patient could not be stabilized to the required degree so as to be able to perform

Rape in the Military Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Rape in the Military - Essay Example 340). Women are not immune to rape even within their rank and file of the U.S. military which state of affairs will be the subject of discussion in the rest of this paper. Recent CBS news of dt January 27, 2013 reports the rampant rape incidents in the U.S. military where 15 percent of personnel are women. A newly recruited 24 year old in the Air Force has been raped in her unconscious state by her recruiting officer in party she had been called in to meet her fellow soldiers. As she had to drive her car, she did not take alcohol. But her officer had put some intoxicating substance in her soft drinks. She has not made a complaint for fear of losing her job. Her new superior officer has been making sexual advances towards her which she hesitates to report to her commander who happens to be the friend of her superior. The woman cannot easily quit the military without the help of her commanders. There is no severe deterrent punishment for rape and other sex crimes within the military un like in the civilian world. The U.S. Air Force’s own data shows that there were 790 incidents of sexual assaults and harassment by the members of the Air Force in the last year as against 614 in the previous year. In the Army, there were 1,695 cases and in Navy and Marines 883 cases in 2011 involving male members attacking women members. Only 25 percent of the sexual attack incidents in the military are reported and according to the official estimates, there are 19,000 such incidents occurring every year. Forty percent of victims hold men in higher ranks responsible and they come from their chain of command. General Mark Welsh, the Chief of Air Force has vowed to bring down the number to zero rather than lowering the number. 6- Air Force Attorneys have been designated to deal with the complaints. Although the Pentagon set up in 2004 Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office (SAPRO) to contain sexual assault in the military, the crime incidents have not come down but only have been increasing. There are proposals to make legislation to have the investigations taken out of the purview of the military chain of command (Herbert, 2012). Military personnel continue indulging in rape both within and outside as well as in wartimes and peacetimes. A report says that two US naval sailors have been convicted for raping a Japanese woman in October, 2012 while she was walking alongside a street in Okinawa US military base in Japan Both in their early twenties have been sentenced with 10 year and nine year imprisonment respectively. This is a case of US forces committing the crime in Japan (Anonymous, 2013). This is a repeat of a 1995 incident involving a 12 year old Japanese girl who was raped by the US military personnel in Okinawa (Smith, 2004). The fact is that military personnel involved in rape of women within the military are unlikely to be punished and there are 86.5 % chance of the crime being swept under the carpet and 92 % chance of court-martial being avoided. Victims often do not make complaints due to the prevailing culture of acceptance in the US military, fewer prosecutions and the chain of command they have to report through. Women in the military who succeed in obtaining punishment to the military rapists are forced to leave the military service because of harassment in investigation and prosecution(Speier, 2012). No military woman who has been raped can approach a medical facility for treatment as well as for evidence

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Big Data - Assignment Example es, coupled with consumer loyalty data, gave the retailers unique overviews on product sales, customer buying patterns and overall market trends previously were available to any player in the consumer package goods to retail value chain. According to Liebowitz (2013), all these would have been fine except that in the late 1990s, the development of WWW, on top of the internet was making huge amounts of information readily available and these data sources literally changes the business models of many companies. Today, we are yet in another revolutionized experience of data driven businesses as new sources of data from avenues such as social media, mobile, sensor or machine generated data hold the potential to rewire an organization’s value creation process. Social media data provide insights into customer interests, passions, affiliations and associations and as well is being used for the advertising purposes due to the large audience it attracts. Such data can be used to optimize the customer engagement processes such as customer acquisition, activation, maturation, up-sell/cross-sell, retention through advocacy and development; other data sources provide real time data feeds at the most granular level of detail that enable predictive maintenance, product performance recommendations, and network optimization. Mobile devices on the other hand enable reallocation-based insights and drive real time consumer engagement that allow brick-and-mortar retailers to compete directly with onli ne retailers in providing an improved ,more engaging customer shopping experience, (Simon, & John Wiley & Sons, 2013). The massive volumes that amount up to terabytes and petabytes of data that include diversity and complexity of the data are straining the capabilities of existing technology stacks can be attributed to the less evolution of information technology adoption in businesses. Traditional data warehouse and business intelligence architectures were not designed to handle

Project Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 13

Project Management - Essay Example Preciseness and accuracy as well as meeting the project’s objectives are very vital but cannot be achieved without proper planning (Butler & Richardson, 2011). It is indeed true that people variable is very significant in determining the input and the general planning of a project. Challenging free-wheeler based on the list of project variables may harvest very good returns for a particular project because every issue shall have been incorporated in the project (Butler & Richardson, 2011). Thorough discussions regarding the challenges and difficulties that may face the project may help in exposing future obstacles that may interfere with the smooth running of the project. Project planning is indeed an investment since it leads to success of the project and therefore should not be left to chance. There should be no excuse for such a thing that is aimed at saving both time and money. There may be dangerous costs that may be associated with failure to plan for a project (Rosenwinkel, 1995). According to Thilmany (2011), project planning is very crucial in controlling and evaluating a project right from its start to the end. Accountability and commitment in a project not only requires that all the information is tracked but that the resources are efficiently utilized and any form of wastage is reduced. Project variables should be highly taken into consideration while dealing with a project plan to maximize efficiency and effectiveness of a project. I was engaged in a project where the organization wanted an investigation of the installation of a new information system that would help in eliminating several bureaucracy involved in management including supervisory services. The project was supposed to take 100 hours and it involved exploration of new ways of doing business. We were in a team of five people performing the task for the project and three of us were management information system experts while two were individuals from human resource and a senior

HIS 342 question set 3 Research Proposal Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

HIS 342 question set 3 - Research Proposal Example Left with this dilemma, the masses opted for an authoritarian stagnation that seems so tenacious and powerful because of the domination of the terrorist elements over the scope for any revolution or an alternative arrangement. The 1956 Suez Crisis was an important event in the Cold War era that revealed the chinks in the allied solidarity. The genesis of this crisis lied in the French and the British dominion over one of the world's most important and lucrative sea route that is the Suez Canal that happened to pass through the Egyptian territory (Trueman, 2008). The nationalization of this canal by Nasser in 1956 immensely innervated the British and the French. The US disapproval of the British and the French invasion of Egypt greatly benefitted the USSR, who got access to the much coveted alternative sea route besides the Bosporus that was closely monitored by the allies' intelligence. The other major gainer in this crisis was Israel who crossed over the Gaza Strip and Sinai Desert and gained access to the Straits of Tiran. After the withdrawal of the Super Power sponsors owing to the end of the Cold War and the dilution of the Arab-Israel conflict, it became imperative for the military regimes in the Middle East to chalk out policies that bolstered the cohesion amongst the various constituent elements of the state. The main crux of such policies lied in securing an alliance between the political and economic centres of power (Glenn, 1998). This included an outright domination over the political power through multiple security apparatuses and over the economic power through securing alliances with the local, elitist vested interests. This gave an opportunity to the other totalitarian regimes in the region like Iran and Saudi Arabia to tighten their grip over power by professing themselves to be the custodians of Islamic values in the region. Effect of Oil The discovery of oil in the Middle East changed many countries from being pauper states relying on the international aid for sustenance to being oil rich regimes (Britannica). This assured the countries lying in this region, an uninterrupted access to immense wealth on a continuous basis. The new found oil wealth unleashed an unprecedented and enormous expansion of health facilities, employment opportunities and government services. The quality of life of the people certainly improved with a better access to housing owing to a boom in the construction projects. At a political level, this enhanced the status and clout of these regimes in the international arena. However, this improvement in the economic standards and quality of life failed to accomplish a commensurate revolution in the social and cultural parameters like the women rights and democratic values. Besides, the oil wealth left the totalitarian and military regimes in the region with more then ample resources to tighten th eir

Analyze the implications of the 1st and 2nd Amendments to the U.S Essay

Analyze the implications of the 1st and 2nd Amendments to the U.S. Constitution - Essay Example The Bill of Rights is arguably the most crucial portion of the Constitution because it ensures that our system of majority rule will not degenerate into a system of mob rule. It is designed to protect the rights of the minority from an unfettered majority that might otherwise trample those rights. The protection of minority rights that is enshrined within the Bill of Rights facilitates an open political system in which dissent is tolerated under the law and informs the political process. In essence, protection of minority rights such as freedom to criticize the government and freedom of the press to openly report on government activities is the reason why the United States is able to have a legitimate political system marked by free and fair elections. If minority rights were squashed, it would lead to a governmental system more akin to communism, in which the majority party becomes the only legal party because they essentially outlaw the opposition. The First and Second Amendments t o the Constitution are critically important components of the scheme to protect minority rights in America. The First Amendment to the ... It is no accident that these three basic freedoms are outlined within the first of ten Amendments. It is likely that the Framers of the Constitution considered these to be the most important of all the rights that need to be protected from the will of the majority, in order to establish a truly open and free democratic republic. Among the many current issues that have arisen out of the First Amendment is the question of the extent to which the press has the right to protect its sources. The jailing us New York Times reporter Judith Miller for failing to reveal her source in the matter of the leak of the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame raises the specter of the government's ability to chill press freedom to investigate and report on sensitive government matters. Ultimately, it was found that the interest of the state in prosecuting criminals and providing for national security trumps the right of reporters to refuse to disclose their sources. The implications of this finding are grave; and it remains to be seen whether investigative reporting in America will be severely weakened in the future as potential sources of information refuse to come forward for fear that the government might force disclosure of their identities. That result could end up depriving the public of important information they need to develop informed opinions about public matters. Another First Amendment issue that continues to be relevant is the doctrine of Separation of Church and State. The First Amendment guarantees that "Congress shall make no law respecting the Establishment of a religion," nor shall the government be allowed to prohibit free exercise of religion. In essence, the First Amendment guarantees that the government, in all its

The Implementation of International Treaties (with Specific Reference Essay

The Implementation of International Treaties (with Specific Reference to the United Nations Convention for Biological Diversity - Essay Example ‘Implementation’ in legal terms refer to the different regulations, laws, policies, and various other initiatives and measures adopted for fulfilling the obligations as made mandatory under an environmental agreement (Donald, 2002). Implementation of environmental policies, at a global level, is liable to face more issues than implementing at a national level. This is owing to the fact that global implementation depends on mutual collaboration between different countries that have their own set of political, socio-economic and environmental issues, and are under voluntary obligations to follow the treaties; hence it is difficult to hold them responsible for failure in adhering to and implementing the convention guidelines. States with emerging economies may find that implementation of global environmental policies lacks feasibility. Such countries would prefer to allocate public funds for promoting socio-economic growth, instead spending money on safeguarding and regulat ing environmental resources. In developing nations (often, also observed in developed countries) increasing populations and demands for bettering the quality of life, a pressure develops on state governments to relax environmental protection norms. Keeping the challenges and the need for environmental protection in mind, the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) was created in 1992 for promoting worldwide sustainable environmental development. CBD is an international body that evolved from the Earth Summit (June 1992), also known as the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), in Rio de Janeiro. The chief aims this Convention are: â€Å"conservation of biological diversity, the sustainable use of its components and the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of the utilization of genetic resources, including by appropriate access to genetic resources and by appropriate transfer of relevant technologies, taking into account all rights over those resources and to technologies, and by appropriate funding† (Convention On Biological Diversity, 1992, p. 3). The Convention takes into account many issues that range from safeguarding natural resources, to making â€Å"use of traditional knowledge, innovations and practices relevant to the conservation of biological diversity and the sustainable use of its components†(ibid, p. 2), arranging for incentives in cases where there have been sustainable use of environmental resources, and transfer of science and modern technology. In this context, this research paper will study and analyse the 1992 Convention for Biological Diversity (CBD) in order to review the issues faced while implementing global environmental policies. In recent years, countries have become dependent on different international bodies to promote cooperation between States at a global level on various aspects (Lane, 2006). International treaties have turned into foundation stones for various multilat eral regulatory efforts along with being an institutionalised kind of global collaboration, a process based on notions of shared sovereignties (Sharma, Chettri, Gurung and Shakya, 2007). Increased institutionalised collaboration in the recent years has created a complex mosaic of agreements at the global, regional and bilateral levels (Kim, 2003). Even after 2 decades since its inception, CBD continues to be one of the most important global

The Roman Catholic beliefs and teachings about the sacrament of marriage Essay Example for Free

The Roman Catholic beliefs and teachings about the sacrament of marriage Essay The bible teaches that marriage is scared and that God intended men and women to become one through marriage. Genesis 2:21-24 In the eyes of Catholics, marriage is a sacrament. A sacrament is an outward sign of an inward and spiritual grace. When Catholics marry they believe that God ratifies their union. Jesus constantly reminded us that it is through loving that we live life to the full. The more we love, the more we live and accept Gods gift of life. In the love they share in marriage, a man and woman are called to help each other to live and love. They see it as something in which God is deeply involved in and which also involves the whole community. That is why a wedding takes place in a church. Roman Catholics believe that marriage is a covenant. The words contract and covenant are very different. In a contract a person gives in order to receive, a sort of 50 50 deal. To think about marriage as a contract is not good, because if one partner does not give the 50% for one reason or another, the relationship rests on a weak basis and more likely to fail. Marriage is a partnership between two people based on mutual Trust. A covenant is a much richer way to describe marriage, it asks for 100% effort by both partners. The word covenant goes back to the Old Testament times, when God made his promises to various people, e.g. Abraham and Moses. I will be your God and you will be my people. God was faithful to his promise of love even though the Jews often turned away from him. In the New Testament Jesus blood shed for us on the cross is described as the blood of the New Covenant. Marriage as a covenant is creative and is to be open to the procreation of Children. A Christian marriage reflects God who is love. A Christian marriage helps Christians realise that the bond of love between a married couple has not only brought them closer to each other but also brought them closer to Christ. The love of God is shown in the life of Jesus who gave his life to Gods people. Roman Catholics believe that through marriage Gods love is reflected in the love that the husband and wife have for each other. Couples share in an exclusive love like that which God showed to us in the life of his son. St. Paul made the comparison of how a married couple should love each other like Christ loves his followers. Husbands love your wives, just as much as Christ loves the church and gave his life for it.(Ephesians) St. Paul also tells us what this love is like in a letter to the Corinthians Love is always kind, patient, never jealous, it is never rude. The sacrament of marriage gives us an active insight into Gods love for us and how deeply it really is. St. Johns letter shows us a further insight into this love. God is love, and anyone who lives in love lives in God, and God lives in him Roman Catholics believe marriage is a sacrament, a sign for all to see. In celebrating the sacrament of marriage the couple invite Jesus to be with them in their love and in their married life. The marriage is a sign of Gods love for his people. In the married couple we can see a reflection of Gods unconditional love, therefore marriage is a public sign of love the couple have for each other. My children, our love is not meant to be just words or mere talk, but something real and active. Love is something that is to be lived out though each other and through the eyes of god. In the service and at the time of the sacrament the couple profess their love for each other in-front of God. We promise to love each other truly, for better, for worse, for richer In the Book of Genesis we learn more about the sacrament of marriage, It is not good for the man to be alone, I will give him a help mate. That is why a man leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife, and the two of them become one body. Marriage is only made holy in the sacrament and it is a celebration shared with a community. Roman Catholics believe marriage is exclusive. To live out the sacrament of marriage to the full the couple must be prepared to love each other exclusively and their commitment of unconditional love and fidelity for the rest of their lives. Thou shall not commit adultery is the sixth commandment and adultery is a betrayal of the permanent commitment of love that a person has made. That commitment is will you love and honour each other for life. In taking this commitment it should not be broken, trust can be lost and a parent who commits adultery betrays the children of the marriage by putting at risk the stability and secure love a family should provide. Every man should have his own wife, and every woman should have her own husband. A man should fulfil the duty as a husband and a woman should fulfil her duty as a wife. (Corinthians 7:10-11) Marriage in the Christian tradition is a lifelong commitment of one partner to the other, and is based on the teaching of Jesus on the permance of marriage. Roman Catholics believe that marriage is life giving and should be open to the transmission of new life. Marriage is life giving and it involves responsible parenthood. The love exchanged in sex creative and should always be open. Every marriage should remain open to the transmission of life. Humanae Vitae. Families develop from the loving relationship of a married couple. Will you accept children lovingly from God. The love, which is shared, is not for the couple alone instead love is always creative. In Gods plan for the world the union of man and wife was designed not only for mutual happiness but so that through their love, God could continue his creative work. Christians understand that marriage is usually an invitation from God to co-operate with him in bringing new life into the world. Roman Catholics believe that marriage is permanent. Marriage in the Christian tradition is a life long commitment. In the beginning, at the time of creation God made male and female for this reason, a man will leave his mother and father and the two will become one. Jesus underlines in these words the permanence of marriage. Catholics believe a marriage between Christians can never be dissolved so although for legal reasons a catholic may get a civil divorce the church still considers them to be married and they can not remarry in the church all the days of our lives until death do us part This shows the couples commitment to each other is for life and is emphasised in their vows. Marriage is an exclusive relationship in that married people remain faithful to each other Will you love and honour each other for life In the Catholic church only annulment or death of one partner frees a person to remarry in the church. In the Church of England they teach that marriage is for life but accepts there may be circumstances where the vows cant be kept. The church prays for forgiveness and acknowledges for some divorce and remarriage. The Orthodox Church teaches wedding vows are taken with every intention of being kept but there are times this doesnt happen thus the couple should be realised from their vows. Some free churches say it is not the death of one of the spouses that end a marriage but the death of the love between the couple, so it is better to divorce than to live a lie. All denominations teach that marriage is for life; it is when things go wrong they take a different attitude. When things go wrong separation is not the only option, there is help groups such as RELATE and ACCORD who offer guidance for the couples who are finding married life difficult, these groups try to keep the marriage permanent by solving the problems that are causing the marriage to be difficult instead of avoiding the problem which can end in divorce.

Fitzhugh And His Defence In Cannibals All Philosophy Essay

Fitzhugh And His Defence In Cannibals All Philosophy Essay George Fitzhugh, in his defense of slavery in Cannibals All! represents a truly conservative ideology. Fitzhugh articulates the necessity of slavery as an absolute good, not merely a political reality. In doing so, Fitzhugh decries the supposed better lives of ?free labors? by attacking the notions of natural right and liberty and the belief in consent of the governed. Fitzhugh reverts to an Aristotelian view of natural inequalities ? some men are meant to be slaves and others to be masters ? and praises slavery and feudalism as a benefit for both the aristocracy and the masses. Fitzhugh represents an attack on the basic principles of modern liberalism, as well as a rejection of the new ?isms? of his day (notably socialism and abolitionism), which would lead to the abandonment of all social institutions (marriage, government, etc). Fitzhugh embraces Aristotle?s concept of the origins of government, and rejects the Lockean social contract (6-13). Fitzhugh further rejects the institutions of the North and praises the institution of slavery throughout the south. Aristotelian Fitzhugh prefers Aristotelian, classical political theory to modern, liberal political thought. Fitzhugh asserts that inequality and slavery is natural ? i.e. that aristocracy is a natural instititution. Some men are better than others; equality is a fraudulent concept. Fitzhugh rejects any notion of natural liberty, as there was no state of nature outside civil society. Hobbes, Locke and the liberal tradition are wrong ? there is no state of nature, men do not exist individually, but only in society. Government are always instituted by force, not by consent; there is no social contract. Men are by nature social, as Aristotle states, thus there is no such thing as a state of nature absent society. Thus, there is no natural right, men only exist under the rule of government and society. Government are not made by consent, as Locke claims, but by ?birth and nature?. Restrictions on liberty exist to ?preserve the human hive.? Liberty does not exist in the civil society either; men are ruled by government for ?security.? Liberty is neither attainable nor desirable (71-78). Liberty leads men to harm others just to ?be just to himself? ? but men are not selfish, but social, longing for social institutions (228). Fitzhugh affirms that man is by nature social and loves first his family, then his slaves, then his countrymen (36). Fitzhugh denies the principle of the Declaration that government ?derive their just powers from the consent of the governed.? Only the elites were consulted in forming the government ? all governments are instituted by force and continued by force. Good republics are governed by a small group of elites ? much as the southern states are governed. Only a limited few in North are truly granted consent ? consent government is the equal of anarchy (243-246). Slavery Good Following Aristotelian and classical premises, certain men are by nature superior ? they are meant to rule and be masters. The mass of men are meant to be slaves. Any notion of equality is false, men are not by nature equal, some men have genius while most men mediocre. This is certainly true when comparing whites to Negroes, or when comparing laborers to capitalists. The purpose of society is to provide not liberty, which ensures the destruction of men in a Hobbesian state of war, but to provide security to men, which demands a state of slaver. Only a handful of men are meant to rule; the notion of self-government has been tossed out the window ? the masses are not fit to rule, or even to be consulted as to rule. Men of genius are fit to command, the masses are meant for imitation and slavery; mediocrity must be ?chained down?. ?Liberty for the few, slavery for the masses? (63). Elites should rule, and impose strict restrictions on liberty for the protection of society. Elites certainly possess liberty ? the liberty to govern men to provide for their best interests. The ruling class takes upon themselves the making of all decisions as to the best interest of the people. Men have a natural right to be ?taken care of and protected? ? i.e. to be slaves. Only one man in twenty is fit ?for liberty and command? (67-69) It is the duty of society to protect the weak; thus it is the duty of society to enslave the weak. Blacks are weak because they lack the means to support themselves in infirmity, and that they lack the wits and abilities to survive in free competition (187). Liberty is a terrible thing for blacks; they must be protected by the institution of slavery. The competitive, individualistic state of nature a state of war and the masses are not fit for competition. Inferior men must be protected by elites, this can only be done when they submit all their ?liberty? to masters ? that is, submit to slavery. Scripture supports slavery, recognizing that slavery is ?promotive of men?s happiness and well-being?, and instills morality (30). Slavery is a police institution, protecting slaves from the tyranny of husbands and parents. The Bible defends the institution of white slavery, thus it must be either untrue, or else slavery is an absolute good and not a violation of natural liberty (if such a th ing even exists). Fitzhugh supports the notion that slavery is an absolute good. Slavery serves to make men moral and intelligent, and is preserved by a love of the slave for his master and the master for his slave. Slavery promotes the good of the slaves, because masters love their slaves as they love their families; whereas there is no such attachment among laborers and capitalists (200-206). A society based upon slavery is necessary to protect men from a Hobbesian ?war of all against all?; liberty is undesirable as it will bring harm to the weak (218-19). Slavery serves the best interest of the slaves ? a society based on liberty and competition would overwhelm them, much worse than a kind, loving master would. Elite masters will protect, teach, and ensure the morals of the masses. Poor better off in Aristocracy/Feudalism than Liberalism Fitzhugh teaches that the feudal state was superior to the modern state in protecting the interests of the masses ? i.e. the poor. He believes Southern society is akin to the feudal society, and thus superior to the Northern way of doing things. The Reformation, in trying to grant liberty to the mass, in reality harmed the poor. The institutions of aristocracy, feudalism, and church power over land protected the poor and provided them ?true liberty.? By attacking these institutions, the reformers ?impaired the moral, spiritual, and physical well-being? of the masses (107). ?There was no pauperism in Europe until feudal slavery was abolished? (210). Feudal lords protected their serfs and provided for their needs. In the modern state, competition leads to nothing but the oppression of the weak by the strong. The rise of modern science teaches that men have a right to private judgment; this leads to the concept of human individuality and to the notion of a social contract. Doctrines of Laissez-Faire, free speech and press, human equality, and liberty of action descend from this notion. This philosophy results in ?the supreme sovereignty of the individual, and the abnegation of government? (53). All power is deferred from govern ment to individual men; given Fitzhugh?s view of natural elites, it is his contention that the few will dominated, and destroy, the many. Fitzhugh decries the abolitionist movement as in favor of abolishing all institutions, not just slavery, in favor of individual rule. Abolitionism mean the abolition of government, of marriage, of family, of church, and of property (85). It is this characterization of abolitionism that demonstrates ?the failure of free society?, thus free institutions, liberty under law, does nothing to promote the public good (99-100). The right of private judgment leads to the institution of ?no government (132). ?All modern philosophy converges to a single point ? the overthrow of all government? (190). Liberty demands the end of private property; the socialists recognize that this is the logical end to modern liberalism ? they are either right, and all must be abolished, or liberalism is wrong and liberty is undesirable (222). Fitzhugh, as stated previously, believes the latter; liberty is destructive of security for the masses. Only elites should be granted liberty ? the liberty to rule over and enslave the masses in order to protect them. Comparison of North and South Having demonstrated that modern liberalism is based on flawed logic, and that slavery is an absolute good, Fitzhugh seeks to demonstrate that Southern institutions are superior to Northern capitalism. In the South, slaves are well provided for by kindly, loving masters, while in the North, wage labor is treated appallingly by wealthy elites. That is, he has first attacked the ideology behind Northern thought, and is now attacking the institutions of the North, in defense of Southern slavery. Southern slavery is superior to Northern capitalism. Slaves ?keep more of the products of their labor? than wage laborers; and slave masters care for the needs of slaves far beyond what capitalist ever would do. White ?slave-holding? is characterized by making others work for you, and paying as little as possible; while Southern slave masters work ?as hard as their slaves.? Negro slaves are happier and freer than wage-laborers; northern whites are slaves to money, their liberty limited by their need for wages. The northern capitalist views ill treatment of labor as a ?moral good? and thus cannibalism is the name of the game. Slave masters do not enjoy the luxury of northern capitalists; they must labor with their slaves to preserve their estates. Slave masters protect and improve the conditions of the slaves, by ?enforcing morality? and educating them by merely being around them (15-30). Men are happier in slave states than in the North; they are well cared for and not starving (234) . Fitzhugh?s contention is that Southern slave masters must work to maintain their estates; as slaves are part of their household, their interests lie in the protection and well being of slaves. The natural relationship of master and slave is similar to that of the family, masters are loving toward their slaves ? which is evident in the kindness of Southern slave masters. Northern capitalists desire nothing but to profit by the exploitation of laborers. Southern slave masters exhibit kindness for the slaves, educate them and teach them morals, and protect them as any natural aristocrat would. Fitzhugh?s analysis of the Southern slave holder, or of Northern capitalism, may not be an accurate portrayal of 19th century life, but it is based more on political theory than on current events. Fitzhugh maintains than natural aristocrats, elites blessed with superior wisdom and abilities, must govern the mass of men for their own protection. Self-government and liberty harm the masses and undermine security; liberty is reserved for the elites, aristocratic institutions are superior to democratic. Slavery is justified, not as a necessary evil, but an absolute good, as slavery allows masters to protect and provide for the well-being of slaves. Northern capitalism, based on liberal traditions, exploits the masses, and has failed. The only progress for liberalism is, as socialists and abolitionists advocate, the destruction of government, property, family, and all institutions ? which will only lead to greater oppression. The only solution is slavery ? allowing elites to rule over sla ves. This serves in sharp contrast to Lincoln, who holds the Declaration and the principles of Locke and the founding fathers as absolutely good. Slavery is evil in that it denies equality and liberty to all men. Slavery has been tolerated only as a necessary evil. Freedom is always preferable to freedom, regardless of intellectual ability. Lincoln Abraham Lincoln?s speeches and public documents can best be characterized by two key tendencies. First, Lincoln, in the wake of radicals (such as Fitzhugh) in the South and in the North in abolitionists, takes a position that is both moderate, and based on pragmatic concerns. Second, and building upon his pragmatism, Lincoln points to the principles of the founding fathers, i.e. the spirit of the Declaration of Independence, and the supremacy of the Constitution in justifying his positions. Lincoln?s proposed limits on the expansion of slavery into territories is a moderate position; based on his resistance to abolition ? both for practical reasons and because of the views of the founders, and his view that slavery is a wrong ? based on the principle of equality and natural right espoused in the Declaration. Lincoln?s approach to the slavery issue, and the preservation of the Union, demonstrate his belief in moderate, gradual, and legal approaches to the problems, as well as his utmost commitment to the ideals of the framers of the Constitution. Spirit of Founders ? Liberty and Equality Lincoln believes that the US is a truly great experiment that will demonstrate that a people can govern themselves. To demonstrate the success of such principles, the Union must be preserved. (Address to Young Men?s Lyceum, 1838). Slavery undermines the example of the notion of self-government, denying the republicanism of US institutions to a substantial proportion of the population. Both enemies of free institutions and true advocates of freedom will point to the US example as hypocritical (Speech on Kansas-Nebraska Act, 1854). No founding father denied that the Negro was to be included in the Declaration of Independence. ?Inferior races? are equal in regard to natural rights (Fifth Lincoln Douglas Debate, 1858). Lincoln believes strongly that the privileges of government, and the notion of self-government should be extended to all who pay taxes or serve ? i.e. all white men and women (Letter to the Sangamo Journal, 1836). Lincoln mocks the view of Stephen Douglas and other Democrats on their notion of self-government. Lincoln claims self-government is the right of the people to govern themselves while characterizing Douglas? view of self-government as the right of a man to enslave another without interference. Thus, popular sovereignty becomes ?the right of people to govern niggers? (?House Divided? Speech, 1857; Speech at Edwardsville, IL, 1858). Liberty refers to the right of each man to do with his body and the products of his labor what he will (Lockean and Jeffersonian principles), not the right ?for some men to do as they please with other men, and the product of other men?s labor? (Address at Sanitary Fair, 1864). Lincoln reaffirms the notion of the natural rights over life, liberty, and property, and attacks the premise that men should naturally rule over other men ? equating this feudal, classical notion with Douglas and the Democrats. Slavery, for Lincoln, is an absolute wrong, not such more in the moral terms of abolitionists, but in the principles of the founders. Slavery violates the principle of civil liberty of the Declaration. Lincoln maintains that there is no moral right for one man to enslave another (Speech on Kansas-Nebraska Act, 1854). The founders, and the spirit of the Declaration, abhorred slavery as an institution, but accepted in as a necessity. Lincoln attacks the view that slavery is right in principle. He contrasts, in opposition to Fitzhugh, northern laborers and slaves: northern laborers may work for wage one year, may work for themselves another, and may hire others to work for him in another. Northern laborers are free to choose their occupation, to acquire wealth, and to improve their condition. Slaves are denied this liberty. (Speech at Kalamazoo Michigan, 1856). While Lincoln denied that Negroes were equal in intellect and moral attributes to whites, he rigorously defends their equality of rights. Lincoln defends the natural right of blacks, and specifically, their right to ?life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness? as written in the Declaration (Speech on the Dred Scott Decision, 1857). ?There is no reason in the world why the Negro is not entitled to all the natural rights enumerated in the Declaration of Independence, the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness (First Lincoln Douglas Debate, 1858). Lincoln holds that slavery is not ?better than freedom? and that government was created to secure the blessing of freedom ? for all men (Speech at Edwardsville, IL, 1858). The Declaration and Constitution, while securing property rights, suppose ?superior devotion to personal rights.? Individual liberty trumps property rights ? the right of a man to be free is greater than the right of a man to hold another man as property (Letter to Henry Pierce and Others, 1859). For Lincoln, the founders held the principles of liberty and equality dear, and applied them to all men. Slavery undermines these principles, and was only tolerated for the necessity of the institution in Southern states; the founders intended for the containment, and eventual, gradual extermination of slavery. These principles of the American founding provide the ultimate example for the world of a nation built on liberty and self-government. Should the American experiment fail, the cause of freedom would suffer a great setback. Thus, from his exemplifying the ideal of the founders, Lincoln derives his approach to the slavery issue and the view of the importance of the preservation of the Union. Moderation of approach Lincoln?s approach to issues, while building on the ideological background of the founders, is strictly pragmatic. Lincoln still maintains that slavery is a necessary evil, and believes that only moderate approaches, not radical change will be effective. Slavery can only be abolished gradually, and can only be limited from expansion at present. Moderation is necessary to preserve the Union. Lincoln responds to radicals from both the South, but particularly the North (see for instance Thoreau and Emerson), that government serves the purpose both of redressing wrongs, and providing public goods. That is government serves needs that individual persons cannot provide for themselves, but not more than that; ?that if all men were just, there would still be some, though not so much, need of government? (Fragment on Government, 1854?). The rule of law is a consistent theme in Lincoln?s writings. When the law is ignored, and people lose attachment to government, civil society breaks down. Lincoln denounces mob rule and articulates the view that the ?sober judgment of courts? should govern. Bad laws do exist, and should be repealed, but until they are, they must be respected. Rule of mobs is detrimental to society and will tear apart any government (Address to Young Men?s Lyceum, 1838). His approach to slavery is constrained by law ? using ?every constitutional method? to prevent the spread of slavery. (Speech at Edwardsville, IL, 1858). Lincoln?s view on the Dred Scott decision demonstrates this view ? he claims not to resist the decision, but that the decision has not become ?settled? as precedent yet (Speech on the Dred Scott Decision, 1857). Lincoln does not hold the Dred Scott decision to be binding, or ?the word of the Lord?, but that it may yet be reversed.? His approach to the Dred Scott case is to acknowledg e it as law, but to attempt through legal means, to reverse it and reduce its applicability to other cases (First Lincoln Douglas Debate, 1858). Approach to Slavery Lincoln?s positions on the current laws and the Dred Scott ruling demonstrate his commitment to the spirit of the Founding and his moderate, pragmatic approach. Lincoln advocates neither the immediate abolition of slavery (prior to the war), nor resistance to the interpretation of the court ? but only to attempt to change the law through political solutions. Lincoln?s approach to slavery concurs with the abolitionists on some points, but with the Southern interests on others. Lincoln supports the Fugitive Slave Law and opposed abolition of slavery in Southern states (prior to the Civil War), but opposes the extension of slavery in US territories. In this approach, he acknowledges the necessity of preserving slavery: slavery has been introduced in the South, and the Southern states are dependent upon it, slavery is a necessary evil. Likewise, Lincoln points to the founders in his position: the founders acknowledged the necessity of slavery, but wished for its gradual extinction. The founders, like Lincoln, could not immediately eliminate the practice of slavery where it existed (the South) but attempted to limit it to where it currently was, banning the African Slave trade and opposing the extension to new territories. Thus, slavery was tolerated, but only in that it was necessary, and ultimately, wrong (Speech on Kansas-Nebraska Act, 185 4). Slavery is viewed by Southerners in terms of dollars and cents, the institution is justified only as what it means for their economy (Speech at Kalamazoo Michigan, 1856). Lincoln believes he cannot, under the constitution, nor should not for pragmatic reasons, interfere with slavery in Southern states (First Lincoln Douglas Debate, 1858). Lincoln?s singular tool for opposition of the extension of slavery is for Congress to prohibit slavery in all the US Territories . Thus, the territories, when applying for statehood, may choose whether to permit slavery, without being corrupted and dependent upon slavery. Likewise, in the District of Columbia, slavery should only be abolished gradually, with the majority of the residents consenting, and with compensation for owners (Second Lincoln Douglas Debate, 1858). Though the federal government has the prerogative to prevent the extension of slavery into federal territories, the institution of slavery within the states of the south remains a state issue (Address at Cooper Institute, 1860). Similarly, Lincoln does not support Negro citizenship ? i.e. allowing blacks to vote, serve on juries, etc, but merely the n atural rights (as opposed to civil rights) that the Declaration declares for all men (Fourth Lincoln Douglas Debate, 1858). Lincoln believes that abolition of slavery will occur slowly, and only at the prerogative of states. During the Civil War, Lincoln advocates for the plans to abolition slavery in the border states, but only gradually, with compensation for slave holders, and at the direction of the states (Message to Congress, 1862; Appeal for Compensated Emancipation, 1862; Annual Message to Congress, 1862). Lincoln believes the founders view has been abandoned; the founders held a principle of ?the equality of all men?, and began ?practical progress toward the equality of all men.? The view of all men as equal had been replace by the view that ?all states are equal?. (Speech at a Republican Banquet in Chicago, 1856). The alteration of laws since the founding, and particularly the Dred Scott decision, have continued to restrict the rights of blacks. Freed slaves have lost the right to vote they once had in several states, and constraints on emancipation of slave owners have made continual bondage almost unalterable. ?Our Declaration of Independence ? is assailed, and sneered at, and construed, and hawked at, and torn, till, if its framers could rise from their graves, they could not recognize it at all? (Speech on the Dred Scott Decision, 1857). Lincoln?s fear is that a ?second Dred Scott decision? will declare that slavery cannot be banned by any state. This fear is based on the nature of the Dred Scott ruling: that the right of property in a slave is affirmed in the Constitution, and that no laws may destroy the right of property in a slave. If these two premises are true, then states cannot ban slavery within their limits without violating the Constitution. However, Lincoln holds that these premises are false: that the Constitution does not affirm the right of property in a slave; as demonstrated above, Lincoln holds that the framers permitted slavery only as a necessity where it was already long-established. Lincoln?s approach to this disagreement with the court was political ? the ?second Dred Scott? decision will never occur if the Republican Party is elected, but will certainly occur if the Democrats retain power. Thus via election, the Republicans can affect the makeup of the court and maintain the vision of the foun ders (Fifth Lincoln Douglas Debate, 1858). Thus, in his approach to the Slavery issue, Lincoln reaffirms his commitment to the intent of the founders, as well as the moderation of his approach, consistent within legal bounds and pragmatic concerns. Preservation of the Union While Lincoln maintains that he has no desire to interfere with slavery in Southern states, he does mandate the use of force to preserve the Union. The Union of the United States is ?perpetual?. No government ever has in its law a means for its extermination. The Constitution serves to make a ?more perfect union?; secession of states is inconsistent with the Constitution. The minority has no right to secede from the government, or else the government serves no real purpose, and can never be maintained ? it devolves to anarchy. Lincoln maintains that the laws of the Union must be executed throughout the States, thus justifying the use of force to execute the laws (First Inaugural Address, 1861). States have status only ?in the Union?, not as separate institutions. There exists no principal by which the states may secede from the Union. States remain part of the United States, and thus it the duty of the federal government to uphold the law and ?republican form of government? within the states? (Special Message to Congress, 1861). Lincoln articulates the need for war based upon these principles of preserving the union. The importance of a perpetual, democratic nation is the crux of his justification of military action. The Civil War is to ensure ?that government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish from the earth? (Gettysburg Address, 1863). ?The nation is worth fighting for, to preserve such an inestimable jewel? (Speech to 166th Ohio Regiment, 1864). Thus Lincoln reverts to the importance of the principles of liberty, equality, and self-government of the founding, and the importance of the continuation of the democratic experiment. Lincoln?s wartime approach to slavery continues his tendency toward the founding principles and toward moderation. He proposes first that slavery, as a necessary evil, be abolished only gradually (at one point stating over 37 years), with compensation, and at the direction of states (Message to Congress, 1862; Appeal for Compensated Emancipation, 1862; Annual Message to Congress, 1862). His Emancipation Proclamation abolishes slavery only in areas that are in rebellion against the Union ? thus serving military goals of winning the war more than a goal of immediate abolition. Lincoln later support a Constitutional Amendment prohibiting slavery as, in his view, the only way to ensure the continual preservation of the United States is to eliminate the cause for civil war. Thus, sudden elimination of slavery serves the pragmatic concern of preservation of the Union (Reply to Committee of National Union Convention, 1864; Proclamation Concerning Reconstruction; 1864). Like he pre-presidency stance on slavery, Lincoln?s desire to preserve the Union and his actions during the Civil War demonstrate his commitment to the founders? principles of liberty, equality, and republican government as well as his pragmatism. The Union is worth fighting for, as the principles of the founders must endure in a ?perfect.? Lincoln?s actions toward slavery reflect his belief in the validity of the Constitution and his pragmatism. Initially indicating the desire for gradual abolition of slavery in border states, and at state prerogative demonstrate his belief in the limits of the Constitution and the consistency of moderation in his proposal; mirroring the pragmatic approach of the Emancipation Proclamation. His eventual belief that slavery must be exterminated nationally only evolves from his commitment to the preservation of the union, and the pragmatic belief that the Union can only ensure its perpetuality if slavery, and the conflict surrounding it, is ended for a ll time.

Representationalism and Antirepresentationalism - Kant, Davidson and Rorty :: Philosophy Philosophical Papers

Representationalism and Antirepresentationalism - Kant, Davidson and Rorty (1) ABSTRACT: The notions of representationalism and antirepresentationalism are introduced and used in contemporary philosophical discussions by Richard Rorty to describe his and the neopragmatists' attitude toward traditional problems of epistemology. Rorty means that the history of philosophy shows that there are no final answers to the traditional questions about knowledge, truth, and representation; consequently, they should be rejected. Rorty thinks such questions should be eliminated from philosophy since there is no possibility to get outside of our mind and language. We cannot say anything about a mind-transcendent or language-transcendent, nonlocal or eternal reality. Hilary Putnam agrees with Rorty on this, but not with the conclusion that we should reject traditional philosophical questions. For Putnam, the epistemological questions are worthwhile asking and, although we cannot find the final correct answers, we should continue our investigations as if there were final answer s. Our struggles with those problems can lead to refinements of the formulations and to cognitive developments. Putnam proposes a quasi-realism which is often called "internal realism." Rorty rejects every refinement of realism as still realism and believes that the questions of knowledge, truth, and representation lead to regresses ad infinitum or to circular reasoning. Probably few philosophers influenced so decisively the development of epistemology as Kant. Without him it is not possible to describe the last two hundred years of the history of philosophy as well as contemporary philosophy in general. On the other "end of the line" one of the most influential contemporary American philosophers Richard Rorty proposes that we should abandon epistemology and Kantian picture of representation. In this paper I pose the question, whether Rorty is thorougly succesful in his abandomnent. I try to investigate the differences and similarities of Kantian and Rortyan thinking with the help of the epistemological notion of representationalism and of the antiepistemological notion of antirepresentationalism. If it is possible to find crucial overlapping areas of both thinking, then there arises a dilemma: either Kant himself is a "Rortyan", postepistemological thinker, and this would be a surprizing new idea about Kantian philosophy or Rorty succeeds not comple tely to overcome the structures of Kantian-epistemological thinking. The notions representationalism and antirepresentationalism are introduced and used in contemporary philosophical discussions by Richard Rorty, to describe his and the neopragmatists attitude towards traditional problems of epistemology and "to make safe the world" for a "postepistemological" thinking. Rorty means, the history of philosophy showed, that there are no final answers to the traditional questions about "knowledge," "truth" and "representation"; (2) consequently they should be rejected.

J.B. and Job :: essays papers

J.B. and Job There are many similarities but also many differences between the story of Job in The Bible and Archibald MacLeish’s J.B. These similarities and differences falls along the categories of style, story line, and characterization. First, the style of both pieces of literature. J.B. is a play by Archibald MacLeish whereas the story of Job is a drama. In both of these pieces a prologue is present. However, the prologue differs greatly. In Job, the prologue merely states a vague background of the life of Job and his family. On the other hand, the prologue of J.B. gives detailed descriptions of J.B. and each and every one of his family members. In both cases, an antagonist is present. The antagonist is not necessarily evil or bad, but simply just one who disagrees. Second, the story line. Although Archibald MacLeish wrote the play based on the story of Job in The Bible, there are many differences in the story line. In The Bible, Job’s misfortune was spawned by Satan trying to show God that Job was not as holy as God had thought. God gave Satan the power to destroy everything Job had, including his health. Job’s children all died together when the roof of the house collapsed on them while they were all dining at the house of the oldest brother. His wife died also, and all of his possessions was taken from him. Furthermore, he contracted painful sores all over his body. As for J.B., his children died separately, one after the other. The oldest had died in the army. Two were involved in a car accident. One daughter was killed by an explosion that also took out J.B.’s millions. And the youngest was raped. However, J.B.’s wife, Sarah, was not killed, but instead she left him. In The Bible, Job is confronted by his thr ee friends. His friends encourages him to turn against God and to curse him, but he refused to do so. On the other hand, J.B. was confronted with four friends, the first three encouraging him to turn against God but the fourth telling him to pray to God and to praise Him. In the end, God gives back Job his original wife Sarah and his ten kids. He is rid of the painful sores and his possessions were doubled.

The Yanoman :: essays research papers

The Yanoman This ethnography is about the Yanomam. Most people will think of these people as 'primitive'. But we do not consider the fact that these people look at us and call us 'primitive' and 'subhuman'. This is why it is important to judge these people with an unbiased mind. The Yanomam are Indians that live widely scattered in southern Venezuela and northern Brazil. They usually live in villages of 75 to 80 people. But there are villages in which there are as little as 40 people or as many as 250 people in a single village. The Yanomam live by a combination of horticulture and foraging. Each household in the village clears their own land and cultivates it themselves. Chiefs, who have to produce more food to meet their obligation to provide hospitality, commonly receives help from others. A village can produce all of its needs from only three hours worth of work per person. One characteristic of the Yanomam is that they are accustomed to violence. Violence is a part of their lives because of their values and culture. Because of this, the Yanomam live in a constant state of warfare. Warfare appears as a main interest supported by a set of beliefs urging strong villages to take advantage of the weaker ones. A regular series of degrees of violence has been institutionalized. It ranges from chest pounding to side slapping. Both are likely to cause injury or death. The Yanomam do not utilize much technology except in their weapons. The main weapon produced by the Yanomam are arrows. They make arrows that are six feet long. These arrows are very accurate. Arrows not only serve as weapons but as valuable possessions that are commonly exchanged as gifts among the Yanomam.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Villages that are nearby may sometimes ally. One reason in which the ally is so that they can team up against another larger village. In order to demonstrate their friendship towards each other, the two villages trade and feast.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The men drug themselves on a daily basis with a substance called 'ebene'. It causes for the eyes to become watery. Another effect of this drug is and excessive production of mucous. The recipient allows for the mucous to drip freely from each nostril. It is believed among these people that the usage of this drug will have an effect in which bad spirits are relieved of.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The dead are highly respected in this culture. Once a person dies, it is forbidden to mention the name of the person ever again. It is considered an offense to mention the name of a family member that has passed away.

International Law and Individual Rights Essay

The international law has been undergoing some evolutions since early and mid 19th century. The original international law laid a lot of emphasis on just the state as the custodian of individual rights of its citizens. (L. Oppenheim, 1912. )However, the law deemed inadequate to address individual rights, thus, following some developments, the law has undergone some transformations, which are aimed at promoting individual rights, regardless of their country, state, race, gender or religion. The main developments which have triggered these evolutions of the international law include the Holocaust, the Second World War and the establishment of international criminal courts mainly to try the perpetrators of recent genocides like the former Yugoslavia, and Rwanda The Holocaust was a form of genocide, in which Germany, lead by Adolf Hitler, undertook the extermination of stateless Jews in Germany in which 6 million Jews were killed. Nazi Germany planned and implemented the Holocaust because of the domestic jurisdiction principle of the then international law, which prevented any other state from interfering when Hitler undertook the persecution of the Jews. This made the Geneva Convention which came into being between 1864 and 1949 as a result of efforts by Henry Dunant, realize that the law needed radical changes to enable the international community to intervene in domestic matters of a nation especially those linked to individual rights (Buergenthal, T. 978 and 1997) The need for further changes to the status of individuals under international law went a notch higher after the Second World War, in which many people lost their lives due to the state of anarchy which prevailed then. In 1941, President Franklin Roosevelt in his freedom speech called for a world order in which the world could be founded upon four freedoms namely freedom of speech and expression, International Law and Individual Rights 4 reedom of worship in any way, freedom from want and freedom from fear. This was followed by the formation of the United Nations in 1949, whose main concern, among others was to address the International law, so as to empower the international community to address large scale violations of individual rights. The international law was further to evolve with the establishment of international criminal courts mainly to try the perpetrators of recent genocides like the former Yugoslavia, and Rwanda which took place in mid 1990s. A treaty to create the new international criminal court was formed in 2002, while the international criminal court was formally constituted in 2003, about six decades after the Nuremberg trials (R. K. Woetzel 1962) and the Holocaust. The main objective of this court is to ensure that nations revise their human rights aspects in their constitutions and more importantly, prosecute the leaders who oversee the violation of human rights. It can be seen that international law has undergone all these evolutions, which are all inclined towards protecting the rights of the individual, not just the nation.

Martha J. Coston Essay

Martha Coston was born in Baltimore in the year of 1826. She was left with four children to take care of after the death of her husband. This happened when she was only 21. Even though her husband was now gone she was determined to make money so she could raise her precious children. She then came up with the idea to signal flare on her dead husband notebook. Although the plans didn’t work she was still determined to find a successful way to make signal flare work. After some attempts she finally discovered that she could use phyrotechnice to make it. The green, red, and white flares worked so well that the navy bought them from her for $20,000 they even awarded Martha the contract to make them with. After the run in with the money she had just received her flares served as the bass of a system of communication that helped save lives and win battles during the civil war. So even after the war, Martha continued to improve her invention that has helped continuesly through out wars and such. The flares she had created became so popular that they sold in very many places. Such as France, Italy, Denmark, the Netherlands and Haiti. The system of bright, long-lasting signal flares revolutionized naval communication and continues to be in use. Coston’s invention saved many lives. The effectiveness of Pyrotechnic Night Signals attracted the U.S. Navy and till now these devices are still used. Later on her son Benjamin got a bad fever and died at age 26. Martha’s life was then full of tragedies, her infant son had died and her mother also died. Even after all these tragic moments, she got money for her flares and saved the lives of millions people.

Plato the Republic Essay

Art has always been controversial in a society because of the many different ways the artist tends to express themselves. Plato, who helped lay the foundation for western culture, saw the problems in art over 2,000 years ago. Plato’s The Republic is a series of books that discusses the republic that Plato is trying to create. In each book Plato touches on different topics dealing with the art, that he feels effect society then. Today, some of the points that Plato argue can still be argued. Plato looks only at the negative effects that art can have, rather than the positive effects. In Book II, Plato focuses on fictitious stories told to children while their growing up. Plato’s first plan is to â€Å"create a censorship of the writers of fiction† (Plato 13). The job of these people will be to pick which stories are â€Å"good â€Å"and which stories are â€Å"bad†. For some people, books like Harry Potter are good and for others it is bad. The point is that one person’s definition of one thing might be the antithesis of another person’s definition. The censorship of writers can be both useful and not useful. The censorship of writers can be useful, because it might keep certain arts out of the child’s hand. It could be not useful because, the parent will make the ultimate decision if the child will hear or read the story. The next point is what makes the people chosen qualified to select what the children should hear, or not. Once again, it brings up the point of people having their own definition of good and bad. In society today, there are ratings to television shows and movies. Some are not rated for children but in the end the parent makes the decision on what the child is allowed to watch. So instead of having a censorship committee, he should educate the parents more. Plato then goes to talk about the effects of letting children hear tales by saying â€Å"and shall we just carelessly allow children to hear any causal tales which may be devised by causal persons, and to receive into their minds ideas for the most part the very opposite of those which we should wish them to have when they grow up† (Plato 13). This shows how Plato only looks the negative effects of art. The positive about having villains in art is they give the children an example of what not to be. Also having villains in art it allows the children to be able to recognize what is bad, and who are bad people. For example, in Little Red Riding Hood, it teaches a child lessons such as do not talk to strangers, and listen to the parents. It also shows children the consequences for not listening to their parents. In Book III, Plato focuses on imitation. Plato goes on to talk about how after imitating for so long it becomes natural for the person â€Å" did you ever observe how imitations, beginning in early youth and continued far into life, at the length grow in habits and become a second nature affecting the body, voice, and mind† (Plato 15). It can be argued that just because you imitate something does not mean that is who the person is. For example, there are plenty of actors who have been acting their whole life, who do not take the roles portrayed the home. Meaning that the roles that the person play in films is not the role they play in their everyday life. Plato then goes to talk about the roles that a person should imitate â€Å"when he comes to a character which is unworthy of him,[then] he will not make a study of that† (Plato 16). Plato feels that a good person should imitate roles that are only good in nature. Once again Plato fails to realize how a person imitating something bad could have a positive effect on the people. Imitating can have positive effects on society by allowing them to see what is not good for a society. In some cases, the only way to show what something is to imitate it, because it is no longer around. For example, slavery is no longer around, so you most likely cannot find a slave, so you have to imitate it. The topic Plato touches on is having a person do only one job when he says, â€Å"we shall find a shoemaker to be a shoe maker and no a pilot also† (Plato 17). Plato fails to realize that the person may not be imitating but may in fact be able to do more than one things well. This goes back to â€Å"one man can only do on thing well and not many† (Plato 14). Throughout this book, Plato only looks at person doing more than one thing as imitating, and not as being who they really are. In Book IV, Plato focuses on how new music affects the state. Plato wants music to stay the way it has always has been, because Plato fears that when new music comes about the laws of the state changes with it â€Å"when the modes of music changes, the fundamental laws of the state always change with them† (Plato 8). What Plato means is that when new things come about people began to rebel against society, and do what they want. Society does change, but it does not become corrupt. Society changes because new things become accepted such as new styles, slang, and etcetera. According to Merriam-Webster dictionary, corrupt means to change from good to bad in morals, manners, or actions. Society was never good in the beginning for it to become corrupt because of music. Not everyone in society started off having good morals, manners, or action. No one is perfect all the time, and neither is a society. In a society there will always be people who break the laws. Just because music changes does not mean society completely changes with it. In today’s society with the hip hop era there is a lot of things that are done now that would not have been done twenty years ago. For example rappers today call females derogatory names, and now a lot of females are excepting to be called those names. While some females are proud to be called those names, other not so much, and they stand up for what they believe in. Plato then goes to say that it is the guardian’s responsibility to pick what is right for the child to hear â€Å"our guardians must lay the foundations of their fortress in music† (Plato 18). This goes back to book II, were the parent will pick what they feel is right for the child to hear. The parents should be educated on the effects that the music can have on the child. Even though music can have no direct effect on one child’s life, it could have an indirect effect. It could have an indirect effect, because of the people who have the direct effect pass it on. While the music can have no direct effect on a child, Plato feels that the child should still be taught on what can be sung at home, and what can be sung at church. For example it is reasonable to sing a gospel song in church, but not a song by Lady Gaga, because it is not appropriate for church. Plato focuses on how new music changes society in negative way, but never says how new music can help society. New music can help society by bringing about new ideas, bringing people together, and it gives the people a sense of expression. According to emedexpert. om, music can help with blood pressure, the heart, and memory. So music is not just something for the soul, but it also helps heal the body. In Book X, Plato focuses on poets and poetry. Plato feels that poetry is an imitation of the soul; he feels that it portrays a bad part of the soul. Plato argues that the soul is quiet and stable. By quiet and stable Plato means that the souls have no emotion, and should not act angry, or any other way that can be seen as bad by sayingâ€Å" and he is also like him in being concerned with an inferior part of the soul† (Plato 29). For some people poetry is an outlet for people to express themselves, and get their angry and frustrations out. Plato also feels that it poet write about things that they have no knowledge of â€Å"the poet is like a painter who, as we have already observed, will make likeness of a cobbler though he understands nothing of cobbling; and his pictures is good enough for those who know no more than he does, and judge only by colors and figures† (Plato 24). No one can judge whether a person’s poetry is true or not, most likely no one knows the person personally to make that judgment. It might be things that the poet writes about that happened years ago. He feels that Poets cannot be factual educators because they do not know what is good. Poetry is an art that is supposed to felt, and it supposed to bring out the bad part of the soul, because it is the part that needs to be expressed. So Plato’s argument about the soul being stable and quiet is false, because nobody is happy all the time. Plato believes that once one gets in touch with their angry side, one will start to become an angry person, and that poetry will not be entertainment, but the way some people handle situations in life. Plato is so convinced that poetry is so bad for the soul, he never talks about how it could heal the soul. Poetry can help heal the soul by letting out built up emotions. Plato banishes poetry for the republic because they are unwholesome and dangerous. In the end, Plato has set rules and banned the people and arts that he does not want for his republic. Plato’s republic will be very simple, and will not allow hardly any new art. No new music will be allowed for the fear that it will corrupt the state. No poetry will be allowed for the fear of letting people getting in touch will their emotional side. Overall, Plato fails to do what he planned on doing, and that is improving society. Throughout The Republic, Plato keeps the same narrow mind set by not seeing the good in art. He failed on improving society by failing to see how the arts can help him change society, rather than corrupt society.

Purpose of Life, Modern Changes, and Human Isolation Essay

An especially confusing irony arising from Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot is that one of history’s more well-received and lauded plays is at the same time accorded so many diverse interpretations that understanding frequently seems elusive. The academic and critical literature clearly illustrates how the play has been debated. Exact thematic elements and even the playwright’s precise motivations have proven difficult to derive from the narrative’s textual structure. These interpretive nuances and proffered variations have been rendered even more suspect because Samuel Beckett offered evasive replies whenever he was queried about the intended function of certain characters or his personal intentions regarding any particular passage. These realities are not offered to argue that particular thematic features are incapable of determination, as familiar types of themes and thematic elements can be fairly well-established to a certain extant, but simply to point out and to acknowledge as a theoretical point of departure that Waiting for Godot is a broadly conceived type of narrative that touches upon many themes rather than being narrowly constrained to a particular theme. An examination of certain secondary scholarly analyses unequivocally illustrates the breadth of academic interpretations arguing that Beckett’s play addresses themes such as the meaning of God, the quest for individual salvation, the resistance of the French people against Germany’s occupation during World War Two, how human beings ought to live their lives in changing times, the fleeting nature of time, and the new circumstances that human beings had to adapt to in a post-World War Two era emerging from the Industrial Revolution. To be sure, with so many different interpretations supported by references to certain passages of the play’s text and relevant historical factors, it might seem highly unlikely to persuasively support a dominant or fundamental theme. A critical and comprehensive review of the textual evidence, on the other hand, does eventually suggest that there does exist a primary theme. This dominant theme in Waiting for Godot is that human beings can never truly understand the world in which they exist or how individuals are to be best integrated into a world with contradictory messages and imperfect information. Such a thesis can function to harmonize the different interpretations offered by secondary sources by showing how the main characters’ dialogue in different circumstances consistently illustrates and reinforces the human search for a definite purpose and a rational meaning in an external environment that persistently appears hopelessly incomprehensible. A Unifying Theme: Transcending Particular Interpretations To begin, addressing secondary theories before turning to the play’s actual text, it is necessary to demonstrate how academic and critical commentary has created more confusion than understanding by concentrating too narrowly from a thematic point of view. This type of analytical framework is necessary because virtually all of these at times conflicting and contradictory interpretations are capable of harmonization to a large extant if the play’s primary theme is posited as the individual human being’s desire to better understand and comprehend the function of the human animal in an incomprehensible external environment. It is superficially agreed, for example, that Beckett frequently utilizes universal themes in the narrative; in this respect, one secondary source argues that, â€Å"Waiting for Godot, in many ways, simply extends those uncertainties: Why are we here? Are we alone in an uncaring universe, or not? What are we to do while we are here? How can we know? And, ultimately, what does it matter? †(Hutchings x). This focus on universal concerns in the key to understanding the play and identifying the fundamental theme; indeed, these universal types of characterizations function in the larger picture to transcend more limited and narrow types of interpretations.