Leadership Within the 12 Angry Men Essay

Throughout the film, there is seemingly more than one â€Å"leader† throughout the jury as according to Nick’s definition of a leader being that there were multiple influences and instances that persuaded the decisions of others. Initially the situation is composed of a biased and opinionated jury that is almost unanimously convinced the defendant is guilty. Throughout the scene, there is a slow but sure change of mind throughout the jury as the protagonist, Juror #8, successfully persuades the other jurors who initially voted the boy guilty of murder to further investigate and examine the fact which eventually leads to the confirmation and agreement of reasonable doubt among the jury. Juror 8’s effective followership was best represented by his consistent approach and solution to the conflict that initially had nobody even listening. Juror 8 knew what he was standing up for, proper justice, even in the face of adversity as he was challenged by everyone in the room and his willingness and courage to assume the responsibility and challenge the assumed (198). He is also seen as a leader of the group through the honesty and integrity he displayed by â€Å"acting in accordance with solid moral principles† (41) as well as a drive to reach an honest verdict by convincing the group to look at all the possibilities despite the obvious and assumed. Juror 3 would best be classified as an alienated follower as his prejudice against the defendant clouds his judgment, placing a bias on why he thinks the boy is guilty. As it turns out, his own son that he hasn’t seen for 2 years had grown up challenging his authority and rejecting his morals providing the basis for the anger that is displayed so stubbornly until the very bitter end. As alienated followers â€Å"are capable, they focus exclusively on the shortcomings and have experienced setbacks and obstacles† (195) as did Juror 3 when initially, he had convincingly and mindlessly persuaded the others of the defendant’s guiltiness as a result of the anger he felt from the bitter relationship he had with his son. Juror 10 could most definitely be classified as conformist follower as his stubborn belief in the defendant’s guiltiness was supported by a mindless and intolerant argument supported by his racist, bigoted comments. Initially Juror 10 willingly participated in the heated yet convinced discussion as there was little doubt about the defendant’s guilt and conflict was at a minimum. As the tables turned and tension rose, Juror 10 found himself â€Å"concerned with avoiding conflict† (195) and became less of a contributor to the conversation. As with Juror 8, in any situation in which there is an uncertainty or doubt present, especially regarding a decision with such major implications such as the one presented to the â€Å"Twelve Angry Men†, I find it highly necessary to further investigate and take all things into consideration before coming to a decision. The suspicion of shady, questionable behavior of the CEO is to be examined and reviewed in the same manner that Juror 8 went about questioning the assumed â€Å"facts† and looked at all the possibilities.

High Attrition Rate at Call Center Industry: an Hr Manager’s View

UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS COLLEGE OF COMMERCE AND BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION This Research Proposal is being presented to the Faculty of the Department of Human Resource Development & Management Entitled: High Turnover Rate and Employee Benefits in Call Center Industries: The HR Manager’s View By: Buotan, Aldrin M. Dimaculangan, Rey Karl A. Flores, John Andrew S. Malabanan, John Peter M. Marquez, Gerard Ephraim L. Tagunicar, Cedie N. September 1, 2012 Espana, Manila IntroductionToday’s best companies understand the real key to maintaining a world-class workforce is not just to hire the best employees, but to keep them once they are hired. Retaining progressive workforce has not been an easy task to every employer or organization and thus becomes a real challenge to cope up with the fast pace business world currently we are on and if this fails, surely high turnover rates will occur and will be prominent in an organization. An employee turnover rate refers to the movement o f employees out of an organization.It is often cited as one of the factors behind the failure of an employee productivity rate and is also one of the chief determinants of labour supply (Snell & Bohlander, 2010, Principles of Human Resource Management, 15th edition, United States, p,415). Competing organizations are constantly looking to steal top performers, and â€Å"poaching talent is becoming an increasingly common way for organizations to build themselves them up as a larger company to be able to expand and earn more profits, while at the same time tearing their competitors down (Noe et. l. 2010, Human Resource management: Gaining a Competitive Advantage, 7th edition, New York, p461). Turnover comes in good times and in bad, to good companies and to those that are struggling of every size. Losing a good and talented employee is never easy, and sometimes is predictable, but sometimes, it can be prevented, â€Å"you can’t run a service business when you are at war with y our employees† (Greg Davdidowitch, Noe et. al, 2010, Human Resource Management: Gaining Competitive Advantage, 7th edition, New York).Knowing the rate of turnover at a certain organization is the first step to understanding whether employees’ departs within the range of normal for a type of business and industry. Turnover is a key benchmark in assessing the health and stability of organizations. A high turnover rate suggests there may be something wrong with the basic structure of a company, its salary levels or even its benefits. Too high turnover rate can also mean that an organization is losing productivity and knowledge, including an understanding of products and processes. The consequences of the loss are both financial and in the morale of those who remain.Leading reasons that employees give for their departure: a better opportunity or increased responsibilities, higher pay or more benefits, or they are moving to a different location. Benefits may one of the best reasons to reduce turnover rate and increase the retention in an industry. Employee benefits that is part of the total compensation package, other than pay for a worker, provided employees in whole or in part by employer payments, example of which are life insurance, pension, workers compensation and vacation (Milkovich, G & Newman, J1984, Compensation, New York, p. ). Employee benefits are compensations given to employees in addition to regular salaries or wages. Some benefits are legally required, e. g. , social security benefits, Medicare, retirement benefits, maternity benefits, service incentive leave, etc. Other benefits are offered by the employer as an incentive to attract and retain employees as well as increase employee morale and improve job performance (Labor and Employment Blawg†¦ A work in progress, June 1, 2010, Philippine Labor Laws, < http://www. laborlaw. usc-law. rg>, viewed: August 22, 2012). Aside from giving benefits mandate by law, there are other benefit s that an industry can offer to reduce their turnover rate. Our study will focus on how an industry uses its turnover rate in making decisions to improve their benefits program. The researchers have chosen the call center industries in the Philippines to best suit their subject matter about employee turnover rate and benefits. There are certain reports and data that shows the high turnover rate over call center industries locally.Turnover rate in the country’s call center has gotten so worse that it has hit 60 to 80 percent, according to the Call Center Association of the Philippines (CCAP) (AURELIO A. PENA, Davao Today March 20, 2008, http://www. gmanetwork. com/news/story/85640/news/specialreports/rp-call-centers-reel-from-world-s-highest-turnover, viewed: 8/20/2012). Globally, it is an accepted norm in the industry to have a 30 to 40 per cent turnover. Both Australia and India call centers have turnover rates of only six to 10 percent.Top government officials are alarmed t hat an emerging industry that has generated around 2 billion US dollars in annual revenues is reeling from a worsening turnover crisis. Labor accounts for between 65% and 75% of the ongoing costs of running a contact center. But employee turnover is so high in the call center industry that much of that money is spent on repeated efforts to hire and train people who aren’t right in the first place, and/or are managed ineffectively, resulting in high turnover.Call center organizations have come to accept that a recurring percentage of their workforce will have to be replaced every year. Those replacements will have to be found, assessed and trained. And then the cycle will repeat again, as a percentage of those new hires will in turn leave. The average turnover is about 35% in the call center industry, which means – in three years, an entire contact center agent pool will have been turned over (Inova Solutions, July 5, 2011, â€Å"Reducing Agent Turnover in Contact Cent ers† viewed 8/20/2012, http://blog. novasolutions. com/2011/). This studies shows that there are certainly high turnover rates on call center industries in the Philippines. A study conducted by Datacraft Asia in 2009 suggested that Asian call center agents are aware of the large demand for their service, so they are confident that they can easily land a new job after they resign. Better salary offer from other call center outsourcing firms, tight and shifting schedules, stress from dealing with difficult customers and lack of holiday breaks are also causing many agents to leave their job.Also, allegations of labor code violations in small call centers are on the rise. Some agents who did not receive incentives or bonuses as promised during recruitment are likely to terminate their contract (Eli, May 24 2011, Philippine call center outsourcing industry fights attrition rate, http://outsourceyourcallcenter. com, viewed: 8/20/2012). Due to this high turnover rates that are curren tly in call center industries, there are certain solutions pertaining to benefits and motivation that could help to lower down the high turnover on call center industries.Government mandated benefits such as: Social Security System (SSS) contributions, Philippine Health Insurance (Phil Health) contributions, Home Development Mutual Fund (Pag-ibig Fund) contributions, 13th month pay, service incentive leave, meal and rest periods, overtime pay, special holiday/rest day rates, and night shift differentials and company benefits such as: holiday bonus, mid-year bonus, and paid holiday and vacation leaves (Honey Amabelle D. Young, March 8, 2012, â€Å"Employee Benefits in the Philippines†, weblog, viewed: August 22, 2012, < asyoutsource. om/blog/>). With these benefits, call center industries will surely lower down their turnover rate and could save more money on costly training and development programs. Other companies give a little more than the minimum benefits required by law in order to be competitive or at least be at par with community or industry practices. There are also employers who give more benefits than required out of compassion for employees who are loyal to the company. Managers of call center face many challenges.They are responsible for operations that are capital intensive, with a high demand for continual investment to keep up with rapid developments in technology. They are also responsible, in many cases, for large numbers of staff often working with different shifts. Human resources manager in call center industries plays a vital role in valuing employees to reduce high turnover rate and improve their company retention capability. HR managers have the â€Å"bird’s eye† view on what is happening on personnel related issued on an industry.Their views on issues such as turnover rates and giving benefits to their employees are important points to consider because they are the one who would create certain solutions to such pro blems for the more efficient and smoother run of a call center industry. As HR students and future HR managers, the researchers would like to understand and to get the views and insights of HR managers on this phenomenon and find out if there are improvements to employee benefits to lower this turnover rates.As HR students, the researchers would like to spearhead this study in order to analyze and make realistic solutions that could help the call center industries on this growing phenomenon. The researchers will conduct a semi-structured interview to the HR Manager of call center industries here in the Philippines. The following central questions will guide the interviewers: 1. ) How do Human Resources Managers view on the high turnover rate on call center industries? 2. ) What new benefits are implemented to reduce turnover rate and what changes in employee benefits were introduced to improve employee retention?Our study will focus on how a call center industry uses its turnover ra te in making decisions to improve their benefits program rates in call center industries. Methodology Research Design The research design that the researchers adapted in this study is phenomenological research design, particularly the transcendental or psychological phenomenology. This design aims to get the meaning of as this is a qualitative analysis of narrative data, methods to analyze its data must be quite different from more traditional or quantitative methods of research (Janet Waters, â€Å"Psychology; Capillano University, viewed: August, 25, 2012, http://www2. apilanou. ca). This type of research design is the most effective in terms of expressing the essence of how high turn-over rate shapes the organizations’ benefit system. Data Gathering Procedure The researchers has gathered — Human Resource Managers from different Call Centers Companies, both Local(PacificHub) and International(HSBC and PhilAm Life) Companies, who have an adequate years of experience in dealing with the prevalent High Turn-Over rate in their previous and present employers.The subjects’ group age ranges from late 20s to the late 40s with the average years of experience of 3 to 10 years from the same employers. The researcher adopts a person-centered and holistic perspective. It helps to generate an in-depth account that will help the researcher a picture of reality regarding their lived experience to answer the researcher inquiry about the subject. The researchers will conduct their interview by setting a date time for each manager during the collection of data or their answers regarding the interview.The Researchers will proceed to the process of meeting the manager and Data Collection. Each session may last up to 2 hours, depending on the interviewee’s length of views and insights on their experiences also known as Extended Interview. Story telling will be conducted also to ask the emotions of the HR Manager and his/her intellectual memory and con sciousness about the turnover rate in call center industries. The Researcher has chosen Call Canter Companies that has attrition rate of 30 to 40 % to be able to qualify as a reliable source of information about the topic. Data ExploitationDuring the interview, the main concern of the researchers was to get the view of HR manager in the high turnover rate and the benefits given? The questionnaire for HR mangers shall include their robotfoto (Kelchtermans & Ballet 2002), basis on the rate of employee turnover in the last 3 years, number of employees employed and the employee benefits or other discretionary benefits given. The researchers will be using an interview to gather the participants' descriptions of their experience, or the participants' written or oral self-report, or even their aesthetic expressions (e. . art, narratives, or poetry, essays). The phenomenon of high turnover rate is the main subject of this research and how the HR managers have experienced it in call center i ndustries. This research is going to be conducted by taking interview; Interview is the appropriate method for collecting of data and giving a questionnaire to the Human Resource managers with full knowledge in the call center industry chosen by the researchers, to find out their view on the high turnover rate and benefits given to their employees.The HR Managers are chosen by their number of years in service in the industry. After the researchers gather the essential data for their research, they will, and then follow the Collaizi’s Procedure, reading and re-reading of the interview and analyzing or extraction of the information to significant statements or quotes and coming up with the categories (Cool Analysis) and combines the statements into themes (Warm Analysis).The researchers will develop phenomenal referents of the person’s interviewed. After this procedure, the researchers can gather the data by the use of data analytic tools in data reduction such as Repert ory or Kelly Grid in order to categorized and give themes to the insights/referents of the manager. Study site Data Gathering Procedure

Application for Gaining Admission to a Course in Optometry in the SCCO

It is my heartfelt objective to study in the graduate school of the Southern California College of Optometry or the SCCO, in order to be awarded the degree of Doctor of Optometry. Some of my reasons for choosing the SCCO are that it has a highly erudite and accessible faculty, who are always willing to bestow their personal attention to the genuine needs of their students.Further, I came to know about the high academic standards that are always maintained at the SCCO from a student who is in her final year of graduation at the SCCO. Moreover, the SCCO has had a formidable reputation for excellence in education for several years; therefore, I am totally convinced that I will acquire an excellent clinical and didactic education at this school.Another reason for my choice is that I am endowed with an open and inquisitive mind, which would be of immense benefit in this school, because it imparts to students the latest technological changes in their field of study.Since, I am committed to devoting a lot of effort and time to acquiring knowledge in this field of study; I will be benefitted to a very great extent, as this school makes the maximum effort possible to help students to succeed in their chosen field of study.Furthermore, I am highly desirous of studying this course at this school for the reasons appended in the sequel. The avowed goal of the Doctor of Optometry, a four year course, is designed to groom primary health care professionals who are well versed with the latest technological developments in their field of study.Every student of this course is given thorough training in anatomy, biochemistry, physiology, pharmacology, clinical patient care and practice administration and management. In addition, there are several clinical programs on offer, which ensure that students become proficient in a number of health care delivery systems and in succoring patients hailing from a variety of social, economic, racial, ethnic and educational milieu (Why attend S CCO?).In addition, the SCCO offers clinical programs that contain patient encounters, which are unique and progressive. Such programs are the best on offer in Optometry education. Moreover, the faculty of the SCCO comprises of erudite scholars in the basic sciences and clinical medicine.These faculty members are not only highly qualified but also highly experienced in their field of specialization. This unique combination of knowledge and experience proves to be extremely beneficial to the students of optometry in the SCCO (Why attend SCCO?).The extent to which the faculty members involve themselves with their students can be evaluated from the fact that these faculty members work very hard to make the students acquire a mastery over optometry and to this end they encourage personal interaction, exchange of ideas and discussions on the outlook of the students towards their chosen profession.  In all these endeavors, an undercurrent of total professionalism is always evident (Why a ttend SCCO?).Moreover, students at SCCO constitute a highly privileged class. These students come from a vast array of cultural, educational and geographical backgrounds and therefore, they are provided with an excellent opportunity to acquire a large amount of social knowledge.Further, students learn in an atmosphere of health and keen competition, due to the proliferation of class notes, study groups and review sessions. It goes without saying that this competition enables the students to perform at their optimum academic level (Why attend SCCO?).In addition, there are a number of activities, in which students are persuaded to engage in. Some of these are intercollegiate contests and competitions, activities that relate to the community, service activities, lectures, social functions and fraternal activities. These activities help the students to become highly proficient in interacting with society and each other (Why attend SCCO?).The above features, which are made readily availa ble to every student at SCCO, make it extremely beneficial and attractive to study at the SCCO. It is an indisputable fact that The SCCO has rendered and continues to render yeoman service in the field of optometry education. Therefore, it is my earnest desire to participate and contribute my mite to this endeavor.ReferencesWhy attend SCCO? (n.d.). Retrieved September 1, 2007, from Southern California College of

Computer Will the cost and power of personal computers continue on the Essay

Computer Will the cost and power of personal computers continue on the current trend - Essay Example Some experts predict that there will be neural – computers in the future. This interface will transmit information between humans and computers directly. As such, humans will be able to interact with computers and communicate with them (Akass, 2008). The cost of personal computer is much less than what it was in the year 1977. Advancement in computer technology has brought about a corresponding reduction in the cost of computers. Moreover, computer hardware developers are attempting to produce a laptop that would be sold for a mere $100 in the near future. Students at the MIT are developing a basic computer that is to be sold for $12. These students are using the technology that was employed in the manufacture of Apple II (The History of the Computer: First PCs and the Future Computer Timeline, 2008). This simple computer is equipped with video – game controls for performing basic functions. The claim of these students is that they are building the computer with a view to making technology available to everyone. All this transpires, because the technology becomes less costly and consequently affordable. This enables manufacturers to produce computers at much lower prices (The History of the Computer: First PCs and the Future Computer Timeline, 2008). A personal computer runs on electrical power. It requires a stable supply of electrical power without any voltage fluctuations to maintain reliability. As such, power supply to personal computers is an important issue, which should not be overlooked. The stability of the PC is dependent on supply of uninterrupted power at the correct voltage. The power converting units in the PC convert AC power input to DC power output and supply it to the various components of the PC (Laing, 2008). The physicist Richard Feynman had proposed the concept of quantum computing twenty – six years ago. This proved to be a

Rotanas expansion Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Rotanas expansion - Case Study Example Rotana through the management expects to raise the standards of the hotel industry, which is only majorly realizable with clear goals. Performance in terms of the achievement of measured growth and expansion realization through the Middle East is also likely to improve due to well-set goals. Goals also support the controlling function in planning, as progress can be assessed and corrective action taken. When a company is able to meet its goals, motivation levels go up an as a result increased output is realizable (Forsyth 123). From the case study, Rotana’s stated goals are simple, clear, flexible and achievable given the growth realization so far both in the ME and North Africa. In addition, they are measurable, well written, in terms of outcomes and they are communicated to all the necessary members of the organization (http://www.rotana.com). â€Å"This is Rotana† in Rotana Hotels website, tell us much about the Vision, Values, and expansion plan. According to the Vi sion which is, â€Å"To be the Leading Hospitality Management Company recognized for its unique blend of world-class standards with genuine hospitality and for its truly treasured experiences provided for guests, colleagues and owners.† It is Culminated with a Brand promise revolving around their treasure for time, adaptability to treasured time and how such a time recognizes the past while reflecting on the presents into a promising future. Based on this it is prudent to say that Rotana adheres to its values and based on its Vision it has the potential of achieving its expansion plan to 100 hotels in the next three years (http://www.rotana.com). The case study reiterates the fact that planning is a procedure where an organization sets goals like the ones set by Rotana Hotels. After this, they then formulate a strategy on how such goals and targets are to be met. Ultimately developing an inclusive plan to integrate and coordinate work activities. According to the case study, I am able to learn that planning provides direction while reducing the level of uncertainty in organizational goals achievement. According to the case study, we are able to see that Rotana Hotels are able to grow by 70 branches and across regions that is in North Africa and ME (http://www.rotana.com). In attaining these, the Hotel was able to minimize wastage with well-set standards for control (Forsyth 207). Case study 2 Air Arabia seems to exploiting the Low cost strategy aimed at quality service provision to its clients while maximizing the profitability from its operations. The company claims to be the one that offers comfort, reliability, and value for customer’s money. In its low cost strategy, it has placed measures to reduce training, maintenance, and multi-cabins cost. Coupled with this is the high turn around costs to save on airport expenses. Airport, expenses are also reduced by flying to secondary less congested airports. Apart from the optional paid for in fligh t food and beverage the airline exploits for cheaper advertising through the internet hence saving on costs. The main advantage of this airline is the location, which allows it to access several locations worldwide hence wide client base (http://www.airarabia.com). SWOT analysis is quite useful for Air Arabia given its focus on its growth plans. This is because the SWOT would enable the stakeholders to quickly understand the company while recognizing its potential partnerships and suppliers. This is because SWOT analysis is a crucial resource for industry executives and anyone with an interest in gaining a better understanding of a company’s business (http://www.airarabia.com). Furthermore, the company will be bale to gain insight into the market place and better

Internet crimes Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Internet crimes - Research Paper Example It is becoming common to see it on the news or listening to people complaining that they found some purchases on their credit card bills that they know nothing about and never bought them. The past week CNN showed a report about Sara who was send to life in prison; because she was a leader of global organization, committing crimes through the Internet by stealing credit cards ,stealing government secret information, selling weapons to terrorist groups and selling drugs around the world. Slowly the members of the organization started to fall one by one, it took a long time because they were not only from different countries but also different continents and here is the difficulty. This was the first difficulties and not least, this case was pending in the court for years , it was not like other cases; there are no concrete nor concrete evidence in addition to all this there were no witnesses saw the moment of criminals commit crimes and this was the real challenge for the prosecution. Tools execution of the crime was unusual, as the items used did not iclude a knife, pistol nor usual weapon. In some situations, they were creating fake pages to sell things. Most of the victims were not familiar with the internet on the other hand some were specialists and even professionals. II. Governments C. Cyber Crime Targeting Governments Governments in different countries are focused on issues regarding national security that are associated with internet crimes. For instance, the military has been applying e-mails as a preferred way of communicating. Furthermore, increased development of World Wide Web has led to significant induction in the public domain (Middleton, 2013). Therefore, World Wide Web became a point to be utilized as a virtual medium by criminals. In fact, due increased growth of terrorism, these criminals have commenced to adopt technology as one of their tools to execute their attacks against governments. In this case, terrorists are increasingly applying i nternet as a way of disseminating their ideology and facilitating their ability to undertake their activities against a large society and governments. Terrorist organizations focus on using internet to make attempts of disrupting communication hubs, which affects various governments. Therefore, through internet crimes these terrorist are able to undertake substantial activities that has a great effects that cause loss to the governments (Middleton, 2013). Military application of information has a significant role in the context of national security and this can affect decision-making processes. Other attackers are focused on hampering activities undertaken by intelligence and counter-intelligence in virtual medium such as military activities and management of information among advanced nations (Agustina, 2012). Furthermore, attackers are able to disrupt information’s network of advanced nations via virtual medium. Therefore, due to cost effectiveness of virtual medium, develo ping countries have applied their techniques in order to attain military supremacy through the internet, but this has led to increased vulnerability and compromised national security (Middleton, 2013). B. Internet Crime Reports There are cyber crimes units made by governments and law enforcement agencies deals with internet crimes through teams that are focused on tracking down cyber criminal. For instance, in America, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has a unit

Entrepreneurship Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words - 2

Entrepreneurship - Essay Example The main motive of an entrepreneur is to earn profit through production or distribution of product and/or services. On the other hand, entrepreneurship has been explained as a process of performing a work in a new and better way. As per the views of Peter F. Drucker, an entrepreneur is one who always searches for change, responds to it and exploits it as an opportunity (Drucker, 2007). In a broader way, it can be said that entrepreneur shifts economic sources out of lower into higher productivity and greater yield. Every management theorist has represented entrepreneurship in its own way. The entire management study has been based on entrepreneurship. Like any other management studies, entrepreneurship has diverse characteristics, themes and types (Magretta, 2014). With this concern, the essay intends to conduct a debate between characteristics and themes of entrepreneurship. Moreover, the entire essay provides a brief view about entrepreneurship types, characteristics and themes. Every profession has different characteristics or traits, which make that occupation more diverse and exclusive from others. Likewise, an entrepreneur has many unique traits, which make this occupation different from other (Magretta, 2014). An entrepreneur has various characteristics that are described hereunder. To make a mark in any field, every individual is needed to be confident. In an entrepreneur, confidence is recognized as a hallmark characteristic. It has been seen that individuals are able to be success in their profession by developing the level of confidence. In this regard, an entrepreneur is required to possess confidence, so that he or she is creative as well as risk taking in approach for better business performance (Otote, 2009). To be a successful entrepreneur, every individual should have strong leadership qualities for

The legal system and its structure Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

The legal system and its structure - Essay Example The market for legal and judicial services revolves around the function of these courts. Legal and judicial assistance is required by individuals as well as businesses to resolve issues in their daily lives. The legal services industry in the UK includes solicitor firms’, barrister chambers, representative groups, regulators as well as businesses outside of the legal profession that provide consultancy services to individual and corporate clients. The legal service market in the UK generated revenues over  £14.3 billion in 2005 and continues to show potential for growth (Business and Consumer Services). But growth does not necessarily mean in terms of revenues for the industry to grow, it must improve upon its existing infrastructure and provide people with better opportunities and results. These markets are inefficient because of numerous reasons, the most important one’s are as follows.Reasons for inefficient marketsThe most important reason for inefficiency of the market is the high levels of profitability by mid-tier firms. Since firm’s charge a lot more than they should and without proper competition from other law firms the market suffers from imperfect competition. Another factor that accounts for inefficiency is the lack of review of business models for individual law firms, law firms that were established a long time ago still rely on the same business models as they did half a century ago. Another reason that contributes to inefficiency is the traditional approach of large law firms.

Bussniess Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Bussniess - Assignment Example Mainly, these encompass clientele service, production planning, buying, storing of the finished merchandise and ferrying. These are evident in the firm in which goods have to pass through prior the corporation finds adequate dispatching means and contribute to the core tasks of the main supply. Besides, the diverse entities that normally form supply chain; primarily their connection entails both physical and informational flows. Physical flow is the movement of the merchandise from its source to the intended destination. An informational flow is the sharing of ideas or essential long-term plans concerning movement of goods in the supply chain amid the key partners. Consequently, this ensures the accessibility of the necessary merchandise to the client besides enabling participating firms maintain their competitive edge. The firm’s operations entail prior planning, which is approximately two years due to the expensive nature of abrupt changes that may even interfere with firm’s strategies. Its internal logistics comprise of 65%-automated operations, thus shunning much human physical involvement (Deshpande 4). This supply design, has enabled the firm attain greater aggressive advantage in the market besides having big clientele for its goods. Additionally, it entails prior material planning and sourcing where its suppliers cannot exceed the stated financial plan of Rs 2.9 Billion. The table below exemplifies design target in which the Pepsi’s operates. Pepsi normally operates within the set above stated constraints (in Table 1), which encompass both local and export forecasts especially Afghanistan’s demand (Janvier-James 200). This enables the firm to maintain its grip of the clientele equally at home and internationally, which is possible via ensuring its supply chain/design planning is flexible. Pepsi usually

Physician-assited suicide Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Physician-assited suicide - Essay Example As a treatment of last resort, physician-assisted death becomes a legitimate option only after standard measures for comfort care have been found unsatisfactory by competent patients in the context of their own situation and values (Quill, 1993). In the cases of Vacco v Quill and Washington v Glucksberg, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that there is no constitutionally protected right to physician-assisted suicide, its decision clearly endorsed the use of intensive palliative care and seemed to give a green light to experimentation at the state level so that this "earnest and profound debate" can continue (Burt, 1997). The injury suffered by actor Christopher Reeve (Reeve, 1998) and his response to his condition has been the subject of numerous news stories. The public sees a man who previously enjoyed a physically active lifestyle, but who now relies on a respirator to breathe, and on other people to provide for his every physical need. Rick Hansen (Hansen,1987) and Teny Fox (Scrivener, 1981) are examples of people who have not only contributed to the society in significant ways, but who have also captured the imagination of the public in their courageous journeys to help others suffering from spinal cord injuries and cancer respectively. The actions of Dr. Jack Kevorkian (Pfeifer, Brigham & Robinson, 1996), a doctor committed to aiding the terminally ill in their quest for death, continually places this issue about the value of life before the public and the courts in the United States. Flach (1988) defines mental health in terms of resilience. He proposes that when we experience disruption in our lives, it is through resilience that we are able to move through our experiences in good mental health. He argues that it is how well we are able to integrate each new experience and circumstance into our lives that leads to successful adaptation throughout our lives. In her book,

Homosexuality Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Homosexuality - Research Paper Example Homosexuals emphasize that their sexual inclination towards the same gender is a result of their nature. They say that they did not choose to be gay, they were born gays! In fact, this is only a fake argument. There is no truth in it. Homosexuality is just as much a matter of choice as is the matter of choice of clothes, school or friends. There is no doubt in the fact that human nature is attracted towards evil things. Porn attracts even the most pious of humans because it is human nature, though not everybody watches it. It is our own decisions that depict what we our irrespective of our sexual inclination. Many straight people may feel attracted towards people from the same gender sexually at some points in their life. Likewise, many homosexuals feel sexually attracted towards people from opposite gender at some points in their life. It so happens with everybody and is quite normal to happen, but this does not depict if an individual is a gay or not, unless the individual chooses to resolve that he/she is a gay. The validity of this argument can be estimated from the fact that homosexuality is strictly forbidden in nearly all the religions. If one was destined to be a gay, one would not be punished for indulging in homosexual practices. But that is not the case. The Holy Books clearly mention the punishment for homosexuals as will be discussed shortly. Homosexuality may, in part, be an outcome of the nurture. Adopted children growing up in gay families in gay marriages may not consider homosexuality wrong, since they have been seeing their so-called parents cohabit since the very early years of life. Their cognitive development approves of the relationship of their so-called parents, and they develop the tendency to be homosexual as well, but again, it is a matter of choice! The religious perspective: Homosexuality is considered a sin in many religions including Islam, Christianity, and Jewism, though it has always been there. In Quran, that is the Holy Book of Islam, there is the discussion of the people of Lut, who was the messenger of God. A vast majority of the people of Lut were gays. The men did sex with men. Women were not taken interest in. God sent Lut to those people so as to advise them to leave homosexuality and obey God. But the people refused to follow the word of God. Owing to their disobedience, they were punished by God. The people of Lut rejected (his) warning. We sent against them a violent Tornado with showers of stones, (which destroyed them), except Lut's household: them We delivered by early Dawn,-   As a Grace from Us: thus do We reward those who give th anks. And (Lut) did warn them of Our Punishment, but they disputed about the Warning.  (Surat al-Qamar:, 33-36 cited in Anon, n.d.). Homosexuality is a heinous crime in many religions like Islam, and the religions dictate severe punishments for those who indulge in homosexuality both in this world and in the world hereafter. God made man and woman two separate genders purposefully. Their bodies have been designed in a way that the two can produce children. Two people belonging to the same gender can not produce children. This essentially tells that homosexuality is against the law of nature. Homosexuality: A social taboo: Despite the advancement and modernity of societies in the present age, homosexuality is still considered as a social taboo even in countries where gay rights have

Heterosexual Marriage Essay Example for Free

Heterosexual Marriage Essay In our time we can see different sex marriages: homosexual and heterosexual, but which one is better for us. None of us would be in the world if we didn’t have a mother and father. God created a man and a woman as the top of his creativity. As they say a woman completes a man and a man completes a woman. This is openness to a new life, which implies a necessity of heterosexual union. In my opinion, the word marriage should only apply to a union between a man and a woman because this marriage is legal everywhere, they have the human procreation, and better raise them children. First of all, I think that union between man and woman is legal everywhere because it is not just in the government law and in religion too. In the world this marriage is legal in all countries, and acceptable in all religious movements. The state recognizes this relationship as a public institution in its laws because the relationship makes a unique and essential contribution to the common good. In some countries they do not recognize gay-marriage, just the union between female and male. For example, in Bible God said:† It is not good for man to be alone†, a man leaving his parents and being jointed to his wife. The Bible clearly identifies marriage as being between a man and a woman. The second thought is heterosexual marriage having the human procreation. The purpose of marriage is to procreation children, so same sex marriage comes down to the biology of the sex organs. For example, a man and woman can have a child, but a woman and a woman, or a man and a man cannot. Therefore, same-sex couples cannot procreate a new life; they cannot realize this basic function of marriage. The heterosexual have every opportunity to continue to race, and also a healthy way that is not bad for the child. The last important thought, that a union between a man and a woman can better raise a child. The marital union also, provides the best conditions for raising children: namely, the stable, loving relationship of a mother and a father present only in marriage. They will not confuse the child who he or she is. For example, father is always your child’s teacher; a mother also, gives more affection and love. If we combine these two thoughts together, the children will growth completely. So, I think that the kids need both parents: a father and a mother to grow in good family. I can say that the word marriage should only apply to a union between a man and a woman because this marriage is legal everywhere, they have the human procreation, and better raise them children. This marriage is the lifetime union of a man and a woman, primarily for the purpose of build a family and provide a stable environment for that family. This is assurances of the descendant’s family, duration of their family, and savings family’s tradition. This type of marriage suitable to the human more than any others, this gives more conditions continuation of human race, and can stay legal everywhere.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Positivism

Advantages and Disadvantages of Positivism Q. Discuss the advantages, strengths, disadvantages and weaknesses of a  positivist approach to the social sciences. The profusion of use and multifariousness of meaning of the word positivism results in a need for any essay on the subject to first give its own precise definition for its use of the term, distinguishing its particular context from its use in other contexts. The term positivism, first coined by the philosopher Auguste Comte in the nineteenth-century, was first originally confined to the boundaries of philosophy and natural science; by the present, the term has spread its meaning to cover fields as diverse as law, political theory, the social sciences, philosophy and even literature. In all of these fields the dictionary definition of positivism as ‘. . . a system recognizing only that which can be scientifically verified or logically proved, and therefore rejecting metaphysics and theism’ (Oxford, 1989: pp. 385-386) remains broadly true of most of its uses, though it does little to reveal the subtle distinctions of use of the word positivism in each of these disciplines. For instance, legal positivism is ‘. . . a view which, in contrast to the natural law view, claims that a legal system can be defined independently of evaluative terms or propositions is the view that in law’ (Hugh-Jones, S. Laidlaw, J, 2000: p88); in literature positivism refers to a specific period of Polish literature where writers were inspired by the nascent achievements of science and technology; and in philosophy the term logical positivism meant the scientific investigation of the philosophy of language — as in writers such as Wittgenstein. All in all then, the term positivism has an umbrella use designated by the dictionary definition, but then has several further and more individualistic uses depending upon the context in which it appears. ‘Positivism is the view that serious scientific inquiry should not search for ultimate causes deriving from some outside source but must confine itself to the study of relations existing between facts which are directly accessible to observation’ (Hugh-Jones, S. Laidlaw, J: 2000: p.3) The definition of positivism chosen for use in this essay, its particular domain being the social sciences, is that stated above by Hugh-Jones and Laidlaw. According to this version of positivism, data gathered from sense perceptions is the only possible data that may be used as a foundation for knowledge and thought. Hence, all data and phenomena taken from beyond sense perceptions or the properties of observable things is banished — thuds a priori metaphysics and theology dismissed in toto. Science alone sets the perimeters for human knowledge, and, accordingly, positivism maintains the expectation that science will ultimately attain to solve all human problems. As such, a social scientific definition of positivism regards the research of social scientists as identical in importance to that of natural scientists; that is, social scientists, like natural scientists, employ theories and explanations for phenomena, inferred from sense data for the purpose of social benefit. Wit h respect to political science as a social science Popper thus says ‘We get the particular definition of one of the social sciences — political science — which tries to separate the subject from the values we apply to it, and argues that it is possible to develop value-free knowledge’ (Popper, 1983: p. 75). This quotation shows the extent to which one particular social science’s use of the term positivism has mutated from its general umbrella use. For the purposes of this essay, positivism will be regarded as having four essential characteristics (King, 1994: p. 204). (1) It is concrned with the search for the unification of scientific method, that is, with the notion that logic and inquiry are universal principles extending across all scientific domains. (2) That the ultimate end of scientific inquiry is to gives explanations of social phenomenon and to make predictions about their behaviour as according to discernable laws of society. Thus positivism in the social sciences seeks also to develop a ‘general law of social understanding’, by discovering necessary and sufficient conditions for any phenomenon. (3) Positivism maintains that social scientific knowledge must always be subject to proof through empirical experimentation. All subjects of reaseach and investigation in the social sciences should be based upon observations derived from sense-perceptions. (4) Social sciences must seek to free themselves of valu e-judgements as far as possible, and of moral, political, and religion ideas that might contaminate their research. Thus, in short: social sciences must seek to dicover universal conditions behind social phenomena;all social scientific empirical statements must be asolute truthes which are true at all times and true in all places; finally, research can proved only by empirical experimentation. In There Is More Than One Way To Do Political Science Marsh Smith (2001), while debating whether the social sciences might legitimately have both a positivist and realist approach to science, argue that one of the principal strengths of positivism is that it is ‘foundationalist’: that is ‘. . . in ontological terms it argues that there is a ‘‘real world’’ out there, that it is independent of an agent’s knowledge of it’ and that ‘. . . it is possible, using the proper ‘‘research methods’’ for an observer to discover these real relationships between social phenomenon’ (Marsh Smith, 2001: p. 529). Thus the great strength and advantage of a positivist approach to the social sciences is that it grounds anthropology, sociology, political science and so on upon a hard and definite ‘foundation’ of empirically testable data, and makes theories out of this data from which absolute laws of social behaviour may be attained. A second distinct advantage then of positivism is that it permits an analysis of the causal relationships between phenomena. Positivism thus allows the social sciences to make certain predictions about the phenomenal world. Thus Dowding states ‘. . . all good political scientists produce models with definite predictions . . . which they can then test one way or another against data gathered from the actual world’ (Dowding, 2001: p. 92). A chief strength then of a positivistic approach, is that it brings to the social sciences the desire to emulate the excellence of the natural sciences in respect of their rigorous experimentation, precisely stated hypotheses, definite laws, and thus prediction of behaviour. By approaching its investigations thus, social scientists attain a high level of accuracy in their results and in their predictions, and thus come closer to a total description of the behaviour of social phenomenon. By approa ching the social sciences from a positivist position, social scientists are able to cut away from existing ‘knowledge’ many prejudices, suppositions, superstitions and other non-scientific opinions that have gathered about these social phenomena (Marsh Smith, 2001). In other words, positivism, by declaring valid only those things which conform to its vigorous standards of investigation, strips social phenomenon of their perceived nature and reveals them as they really are. A second key advantage of taking a positivist approach to the social sciences is that such a move solidly roots the social sciences in the accomplishments of the natural sciences over the past four hundred years. Early positivists like Comte, Spencer and Saint-Simon understood their theory and work as something growing directly out of the experimental and theoretical achievements of the great natural scientists like Newton, Spinoza, Darwin and others. Comte knew that the natural sciences and natural scientists, were essentially positivist: that is, they appealed to the perception and measurement of objective sense-data from which to make experiments, analyze results and make theory, predictions and laws. Comte and the other early positivists thus understood their work as an act of ‘making explicit’ the theory which natural scientists had adhered to for centuries. When, in the twentieth-century, social positivists like Ernst Laas, Friedrich Jodl and Eugen Duhring began to establish the theoretical and experimental parameters of the social sciences, they also understood their work as a branch of the natural sciences and as a continuation of its discoveries. Anthropologists, sociologists, social scientists of the early twentieth-century faced a choice: they could orientate their subjects within the sphere of natural science and its immense harvest of the past two decades, or they could orientate it in the sphere of theology and the liberal arts which had dominated all human history before the advent of natural science. Laas, Jodl, Duhring and later Marsh, Smith and others have all agreed that the social sciences must be built upon the platform established by the natural sciences. These sciences have been the predominant intellectual authority for Western Europe for nearly four hundred years, and social scientists think that the positivist approach to the natural sciences offers greater objectivity, certainty of prediction, and deeper insight into thei r subjects than could achieved by any other method of inquiry. Further, the allegiance of the social sciences to the natural sciences, through a shared conviction in the positivist philosophy, means that the social sciences can constantly draw upon the fund of new empirical material daily unearthed by these natural sciences. In other words: if the social sciences have an exchange of knowledge between themselves and the natural sciences, then every refinement of experimental method, theory, or analysis achieved by the natural sciences may be immediately seized upon and utilized by the social sciences also. And, vice-versa, this interchange allows the social sciences to more freely disseminate their discoveries within the world of the natural sciences. Moreover, by sharing a positivist philosophy with the natural sciences, the social sciences may draw from its authority in the presentation of their results to the wider scientific and academic community. That is, the employment of positivism by the social sciences, dispels and neutralizes the accus ations from some quarters of the scientific and outside world, for instance those of Karl Popper, that such sciences are ‘pseudo-sciences’. This claim can hold no weight if it is seen that the natural and social sciences share alike the same methodology and principles of operation. Nonetheless, it should be made clear that whilst the social sciences derive authority and knowledge from the natural sciences, that they do not depend upon it exclusively for authority. Indeed, the social sciences have made their own refinements to positivism, and thus their methods of experimentation and analysis, quite independently of those achieved in the natural sciences. The social sciences have adapted the positivism they received from the social sciences to conform to their own empirical material and the idiosyncratic and diverse domains encountered in societies and the human world. In short, the social sciences have moulded positivism to the world of empirical human affairs, thus ent ering a territory that the natural sciences had previously not trodden. Historically, perhaps the greatest weakness and hence disadvantage of positivism generally, and with respect to the social sciences in particular, has been its insistence upon methodological absoluteness. Since the time of positivism’s foundation in the philosophy of Auguste Comte, positivists have persistently sought to use its scientific methods to explain every conceivable aspect of social phenomenon; that is, they have wanted to observe an object in its totality, tracing its entire phenomenological casuistry, its material composition, and thus produce a absolute theory of knowledge about that phenomenon. According to this scientific philosophy positivism must produce absolute laws to describe the behaviour and nature of phenomenal objects. The naivety of this search for the perfection of methodology and absoluteness of social scientific laws was exposed in the second half of the twentieth century, firstly by the advent of post-modernism (Popper, 1989: p.109-128), which sho wed the epistemological difficulties — impossibilities? — of extending science to such extreme levels; secondly, positivism’s applicability in all instances was increasingly undermined by the new theories of social scientists themselves. The various discoveries of anthropology, sociology, political science and other social sciences led researchers to an ever clearer conclusion: the phenomena of social science are far too sophisticated and involve the intimate interaction of too many separate objects, people and processes to be scientifically observed in their totality. Sociologists for instance, in their investigations into the mechanisms of the smallest of social units, the family, soon realized that no absolute and all-encompassing laws could be applied to the behaviour of these units (Gerrad, 1969: pp. 201-212); the great complexity coming from the need for the axioms and paradigms which are true of one family unit must, according to pure positivism, be shown to be true of all family units in all places and at all times. Pure positivism states that the laws of social science are of the same type and significance as the laws of physics, biology and chemistry; but for these laws to attain this equality, the laws of social science must be easily expressible and as rigorously testable as those of the natural sciences. The difficulty of attaining such equality is easily demonstrated by Gerrard’s (Gerrard, 1969) experiments, where he discusses the complexity of social issues involved in a four member family unit in America, and then postulates the near impossibility of scientifically demonstrating that family units in Northern France, in Thailand, in Hawaii and in all other places can be shown to obey the same exact rules as those affecting the family in America. Thus social scientists from the 1950’s onwards, confronted with the sheer vastness of ethnic, racial and community diversity, began to question the possibility of producing social laws that would be universally and ubiquitously binding. And in 2006 when even natural scientists have no certainties even about the exact behaviour and nature of a single atom; how can social scientists hope to prove laws for something as complex as a city? Another weakness of extreme positivism has been its inability to accurately prove its hypotheses through empirical experiments (Popper, 1983: p. 12 also: Dowding, 1995: p. 138). Whereas experimentation in the natural sciences usually involves the investigation of inanimate or relatively simple objects such as metals, stars, chemicals and so, these having the same properties constantly, in contrast, social phenomenon — people, communities, organizations etc., — are animate and are compositions of vast complexly intertwining feelings, emotions, thoughts, volitions, passions, motives, associations and so on. Thus, to undertake a social experiment, a social scientist has to be sure that he can separate the single mental or behavioural element, say ‘a criminal tendency’ that he wants to investigate, and then to exclude or control the influence of the other mental and social factors that will otherwise affect the accuracy of the experiment. In many instances suc h exclusion is nearly impossible to the degree of purity demanded by extreme positivists; a human being cannot be put in a test-tube or a vacuum and so shielded from external influences in the way that magnesium or atoms can. Thus social scientists have become ever more conscious that a major limitation of the positivist approach in respect to their discipline is its insistence upon perfect conditions for experimentation and for the accuracy of hypotheses and predictions (Dowding, 1995). Further, other discoveries in the social sciences have begun to place an ever greater emphasis upon the life of the individual and upon subjective experiences as vital factors in the constituency of societies (Marsh Furlong, 2002). The hermeneutic or ‘interpretive’ approach has come to assume ever greater importance within the social sciences, setting up for itself an area of investigation of phenomenon quite different from positivism, and therefore undermining the legitimacy of positivism’s claims to describe the totality of social phenomenon. Positivism is, according to this view, the outcome of a particular culture and particular history (Western European); what legitimacy then does it have to proclaim its results as of universal validity, as it must, to meet its own standards of scientific investigation? Moreover, social scientists themselves bring to their experiments their own subjective experiences, their own thoughts, volitions, prejudices etc., and these all affect experimentation and thus the security of results — just as surely do these things in the subjects of analysis. Thus David Marsh and Martin Smith have stated, in their powerful metaphor derived from Marsh’s earlier article, that ‘In the social sciences . . . subjective ontological and epistemological positions should not be treated like a pullover that can be ‘‘put on’’ when we are addressing such philosophical issues and ‘‘taken off’’ when we are doing research’ (Marsh Smith, 2005: p.531). That is, they should not be treated as a ‘pullover’, as temporary measure, as they have been by positivists to date. In the final analysis, it seems clear that neither the extreme positivism once advocated in the wake of Auguste Comte’s first philosophical writings, nor extreme anti-positivism nor anti-foundationalist positions as have recently been taken by some hermeneutists and realists, can lead to significant future progress in the social sciences. The chief strength and advantage of a positivist approach is the vigorous process of setting hypotheses, of empirical experimentation to test these hypotheses, of deep analysis to measure the results, and then the ability to codify the results in a set of laws and predictions. Claiming for themselves, in this sense, a parallel certainty of laws and predictions as and laws demanded by the natural sciences, positivism reveals to the social sciences phenomenal objects as they really are — as they are when stripped of superstitions, fallacious theories, prejudice and so on. Positivism demands a definite residue of facts and ‘truthsâ €™ that are universally applicable to social groups and communities irregardless of time, place or environment. In striving so vigorously for such ideals, positivism gives the social sciences a high degree of authority and respectability within the wider scientific and academic community as a whole. Further, a positivist approach in the social sciences affords a ready means of comparison and exchange of knowledge between other disciplines such law, philosophy, literature and so that employ positivism also. Indeed, in seminal respects, such is the importance of positivism for the social sciences that it is difficult to see how they could justify being ‘sciences’ without it. The two principal disadvantages of a positivist application to the social sciences are these: firstly, that its search for ideal and perfect standards of scientific methodology and analysis are too unrealistic when set beside the extreme complexity of social phenomenon; the second weakness, is positivism’s lack of empathy and consideration of the subjective, individual and hermeneutic aspects of social phenomenon. Dealing with the first objection, critics of positivism argue that it cannot — working as it does in the outside world, in cities and in companies, in villages and mass organizations — attain the same standards of empirical excellence, either in experimentation or in verification of results, as can natural scientists working in the controlled conditions of a laboratory and deriving principles mostly from inanimate matter of slighter sophistication than human beings. Moreover, social scientists have a nearly insuperable difficulty in codifying laws of so cial phenomena with the precision that physics or chemistry allow for material phenomena. Thus positivism in the social sciences attains a lower level of prediction and accuracy with respect to the phenomenon it observes, than do the natural sciences. The second major weakness of a positivist application is its failure to take sufficient account of the subjectivity of individual life and to interpret the meaning of that phenomenon for the subject and the community of the subject. On these matters positivism has nearly nothing to say, and thus it is barred from a whole hemisphere of human social experience. As the first sentence of this conclusion suggested: neither an extreme positivist not an extreme subjective or hermeneutic attitude can dominate the future of the social sciences. Rather, social scientists must learn to join positivism with subjectivism, thus fusing the two halves of social phenomenal experience. If positivism can be brought into union with the subjective in the social sciences, and if positivists can learn to tolerate something less than perfection in their methodological approach, then positivism must still be said to have a large contribution to make to the future of social science. In might be said then, in our final words, that positivism is simultaneously an advantage and disadvantage for the social sciences; whether one or other of these qualities is dominant remains to be seen. BIBLIOGRAPHY — Dowding, K. (2001). ‘There Must Be An End To Confusion: Policy Networks, Intellectual Fatigue, and the Need for Political Science Methods Courses in British Universities, in Political Studies, Vol 1., pp. 89-105. — Dowding, K. (1995). Model or Metaphor? A Critical Review of the Policy of Network Approach. Political Studies, Vol. 45, Issue. 1, pp. 136-158. — Green, D. P. Shapiro, I. (1994). Pathologies of Rational Choice Theory : A Critique of Applications in Political Science, pp. 89-95. New Haven, London. — Gerrard, James. (1969). The Sociology of the Family, pp. 303-316. Ford Press, Pittsburgh. — King, G. (et al.). (1994). Designing Social Enquiry: Scientific Inference in Qualitative Research, pp 201-208. Princeton University Press, Princeton.  ­Ã¢â‚¬â€ Hugh-Jones, Steven Laidlaw, James. (2000). The Essential Edmund Leach, p163. New Haven, London. — Marsh, David Smith, Martin. (2001). ‘There Is More Than One Way To Do Social Science: On Different Ways To Study Political Networks’ in Volume 49, Number 3, pp. 528-541. — Marsh, David Furlong, Paul. (2002). ‘A Skin Not a Sweater: Ontology and Epistemology in Political Science’ in Marsh, David and Stoker, Jerry (Eds.). Epistemology in Political Science, pp. 17-41. Palgrave, Basingstoke. — Popper, Karl R. (1983). Realism and the Aim of Science, pp 1-13. Routledge, London. — Popper, Karl R. (1989). Conjectures and Refutations: the Growth of Scientific Knowledge, 69-76. Routledge, London. — Quirk, Randolph (et al.) (Eds.). (1989). The Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Witchcraft in the Elizabethan Era

Witchcraft in the Elizabethan Era Elizabeth Carlos The Elizabethan Era lasted from 1558 to 1603, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. This period was a time of growth and expansion in the areas of poetry, music, and theatre. Because of this, and the peace throughout England at the time, the Elizabethan Era was often referred to as the Golden Age of history (Elizabethan England Era Life). Even though there was a small expansion of knowledge during the period, there was still the belief in supernatural beings, such as witches at the time. The Majority of witches accused were women, and often poor, old, sick, or widowed. There was not much knowledge of medicine during the era, so women were expected to create cures as part of their job of taking care of the household. Those who used herbs for ointments were known as wise women. However, the Catholic Church as the timed defined witchcraft as any knowledge of herbs, which was associated as the work of the devil (Elizabethan Witchcraft and Witches). People of the Elizabethan Era seemed to take interest in knowledge and learning such as sciences and inventions, but the belief in superstitions were still there. Most superstitions developed from old traditions or beliefs. The reason for the arise of superstitions was because of ignorance. Many also feared what they did not know. Some common superstitions that came to be in the Elizabethan Era included leaving the door open behind you, spilling salt, and a lunar eclipse. These were all associated with bad luck. The most common superstition, and the most feared by the Elizabethans, was the existence of witches (Superstitions of the Elizabethan Era). Witchcraft originated from peoples misconceptions of the causes of everyday troubles. Witches were thought to be those who prayed to spirits and performed rituals to resolve problems. These rituals were referred to as magic. Witches were a way to make sense of the unexplained for the people all of Europe during this time. This is also why many blamed seemingly unexplainable events such as fires, floods, droughts, bad harvests, and epidemics, on witches. One of these epidemics, the Bubonic Plague, or the Black Plague, was blamed on witches because of the lack of knowledge of medicine. Men during this period had greater importance than women of the Elizabethan Era. Because of the male dominated society, more women were accused of witchcraft than men. Out of 270 tried, 247 were women and only 23 were men. The women who were accused were usually and most often poor, elderly, sick, or widowed. Besides the fact that men were held higher in society, those who had power or wealth were exempt from most accusations (Witchcraft in the Elizabethan Age). Wise women at the time were often helpful members of Elizabethan society, even though they were considered witches by the Catholic Church. Black witches were much different from white witches. Black magic was practiced to inflict harm onto others. White witches were also known as cunning folk or healers. White magic was just the use of herbs and potions that were thought to have healing powers. However, during the Renaissance this distinction between the two was lost through the witch hunts. Queen Elizabeth I passed a new law in 1562. This Law did not define sorcery as harecy. In France and Spain the punishment inflicted upon the convicted witches was burning at the stake, which is an agonizing way to be put to death. The new law established in 1562 only called for the witches who were convicted of murder by witchcraft were to be hanged. The less severe crimes committed by witchcraft meant they were to be pilloried or to be attacked, ridiculed , and publicly humiliated. Queen Elizabeth I was considered to be more lenient towards witches. Some assume the reason for this is because Elizabeths mother, Anne Boleyn, had been accused of witchcraft and was later put to death. Elizabeth was also highly intelligent for a woman of the time. She had John Dee, an English mathematician and astronomer, as an advisor. Elizabeth herself took an interest in astrology, which some think explained her leniency towards witchcraft (Elizabethan Witchcraft and Witches). Before the Elizabethan Era, in 1486, the Malleus Maleficarum was written by Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger. The Malleus Maleficarum, which means The Hammer of Witches in Latin, was one of the most well known medieval treaties on witchcraft. The treaty was written to help interregate and convict witches as well as to argue against the beliefs that witchcraft did not exist (The Malleus Maleficarum). In 1566 a woman, Agen Waterhouse, was put on trial in Chelmsford, Essex. She was accused of causing William Fynne to become ill. Fynne later died from his illness. She was also accused of using black magic to kill livestock. She was then blamed for the death of her husband. Agnes was found guilty, and she was hanged. She became the first woman to be executed for witchcraft in England. Elizabeth Francis had been accused of witchcraft at the same time as Agnes but she was not found guilty until 1579 when she and several other women were put on trial and found guilty. In 1882, fourteen women were convicted after being put on trial for witchcraft in St. Osyth, Essex, which seemed to be a common place for accounts of witchcraft at the time. In 1884, a man named Reginald Scot published a book called, The Discoverie of Witchcraft. In this, he stated his beliefs about those who were accused of witchcraft. Scot felt that the punishments were un-christian and he blamed the Roman Church. In 1589, three women were convicted of the practice of witchcraft, Joan Cony, Joan Upney, and Joan Prentice. Cony was a worshiper of satan and was convicted of the murder of Elizabeth Finch. Upney was convicted of murdering Alice Foster and Joan Harwood. Prentice was accused of speaking with satan and murdering a little girl by the name of Sara Glascock. An old woman Alice Samuel was accused of being the reason for the Throckmortan children throwing fits. Then in 1590, when Lady Cramwell, an extremely wealthy woman came to visit Warboys, she claimed that she was being tormented by Alice Samuel in her dreams. In 1593, George Gifford published a book called A Dialogue Concerning Witches and Witchcraft. In this he wrote about the ministerial challenges. He brought attention to the challenges brought by witch beliefs (The Beliefs in the Devil During the Elizabethan Times). Witchcraft is something that has been practiced since the beginning of time. It has been a way for humans, in their own mind, to make sense of what they do not understand, or the unknown. Before society knew anything about medicine, or science, they would make up their own reasoning and share their ideas. Sadly, because of our fear of the unknown, many innocent people may have died in the witch trials and witch hunts. Though now we do not have witch hunts and witch trials, some of the superstitions still stick with us. We also have many more religions and much more diversity in religions. Now we know that the reason for the Black Plague and so many illnesses were related to the lack of cleanliness and knowledge of common medicine of the time, and not because of supernatural beings or witches. The existence of witchcraft in todays day and age depends on how you define it. In the Elizabethan Era it was considered witchcraft just to have knowledge of herbs, which we still use today for many different things including using herbs to make natural healing remedies (Elizabethan Era England Life). There are some people in parts of the world who still identify as witches as part of their religion. However, this is much different than the way witches were perceived in  medieval times and in the Elizabethan Era. Those who identify themselves as witches (Pagan or Wiccan) do not, in any way, worship the devil. In the early 20th century a new religious movement developed known as Pagan Witchcraft. Pagan witchcraft is also known as Wicca. Wicca was introduced by a man named Gerald Gardner. There have been books about the core meanings and rules of this religion but Wicca has changed over time. There are many versions of how Wicca is structured. Because of this, Wicca is divided into sects know as traditions. Normally those who follow the Wiccan religion worship a God and Goddess. However, there are others that have very different beliefs. Some believe in duotheism, monotheism, monism, polytheism, or pantheism. Wicca is a form of modern Paganism. Wiccans perform ceremonies and rituals that they refer to as magic. They also believe the work of magic is through nature and senses and that it is misunderstood by science. Even though in most of todays societies witchcraft is not part of daily life, the witch trials and witch hunts were still a big part of history (Witchcraft in the Elizabethan Age). There were many deaths caused by the Bubonic Plague at the time and because of that more deaths were caused from witch executions. The Bubonic Plague became such an epidemic was because the plague was spread by rats that were infested with fleas that carried the disease. However, during the time of the witch hunts, people thought that cats were associated with witches and their black magic, because of this they also began killing the cats as well as the witches. The problem that came from the decrease in the cat population was an increase in the rat population. This is why some people think that the reason that the  plague became a huge epidemic was because people blamed the witches for the plague and killed many witches as well as cats. The witch hunts eventually ended but the effects of witchcraft made an impact on history, in different ways. Many still take an interest in witchcraft. Some even still believe in magic. Superstitions however, are still alive as ever. They have changed throughout time by being passed down through generations (Superstitions of the Elizabethan Era). Works Cited Elizabethan Era England Life. Elizabethan England Life. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Mar. 2017.  . Elizabethan Witchcraft and Witches. Elizabethan Witchcraft and Witches. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Mar. 2017.  . Superstitions of the Elizabethan Era. Graziatripodi. N.p., 22 Jan. 2012. Web. 07 Mar. 2017.  . Witchcraft In Elizabethan England. Witchcraft In Elizabethan England. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Mar. 2017.  . Witchcraft in the Elizabethan Age . Witchcraft in the Elizabethan Age . N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Mar. 2017.  . The Beliefs in the Devil During the Elizabethan Times. Synonym. Synonym, 25 Aug. 2013. Web. 07 Mar. 2017.  .

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee :: essays research papers

In the opening chapters of â€Å"To Kill A Mockingbird,† Harper Lee introduces several subtle instances of racism. However, when Jem and Scout are welcomed into Cal’s Church in chapter 12, the reader really gets to travel behind the false disguise of Maycomb County’s white society to see the harsh realities of the injustices suffered by the blacks. The black community is completely separate from the whites -- in fact, Cal lives in a totally different part of town! Another example of total racial segregation is the fact that Jem and Scout have never been to â€Å"that part of town,† so they are unfamiliar with the Church’s way of singing hymns (â€Å"lining†), and they don’t understand â€Å"nigger talk.† Even Lula, one of the black church members, says, â€Å"they got their church, we got our’n.† Poverty is another injustice suffered by the blacks. Their First Purchase Church is very old and worn out. The paint is cracked and peeling, it has no ceiling, there’s a rough oak pulpit, and cheap cardboard fans must be used to keep the congregation cool. There is no piano, organ or church program in sight, and the whole church has to share one hymnbook! The graveyard contains only a few expensive headstones, with most graves merely outlined by broken glass. A further degradation occurs during the rest of the week, when the church building is used by whites for gambling. A majority of the black community is illiterate because there are no schools for blacks in Maycomb County. Their only way of learning is from their parents or another elder. For example, Mrs. Buford taught Cal, and Cal taught her son, Zeebo. Consequently, only four blacks in the whole church can read. In Tom Robinson case, he has virtually no chance of winning strictly due to his race. During his trial, Bob Ewell accuses Tom of raping his girl. Even though the Ewells are considered to be the â€Å"white trash† of Maycomb County, nearly all of white community supports them because they are white and Tom is black. Despite all of these injustices, Chapter 12 also creates a feeling of support and sympathy for the black community. For example, even though they’re oppressed, the black community still has a sense of pride. Their church is called First Purchase because it was paid for with the first earnings of freed slaves. This shows the black’s great devotion to their religion.

1996: A Turbulent Year For Israel :: essays research papers

1996: A Turbulent Year for Israel 1996 has been a very turbulent year for Israel. This lies in the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin on November 4, 1995. Rabin's great work in the peace process with it's Arab neighbors has been nearly reversed by Israel's newly elected Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who actively opposed the peace process in the election. Netanyahu's term of service has not only affected Israel politically but also socially, intellectually, religiously, and economically. In dealing with Yasser Arafat and the Palestinians Netanyahu was originally quoted saying that he would only meet with Arafat under special circumstances and that, "the era of one-sided giving was over." Warren Christopher, Secretary of State for the U.S., was able to arrange a peace conference with Arafat on the Gaza border. One article called it a , "Psychological breakthrough" (Netanyahu meets with Clinton). The issues at hand were Israel fulfilling it's pledge to the Palestinians to redeploy it's troops stationed in the West Bank town of Hebron so that they will only guard the 440 Jews who live there, from the tens of thousands of Palestinians. Also at issue were the exit permits given to Palestinians allowing them to go from there jobs in Israel to there homes in Gaza and the and the West Bank. That leads to another issue over whether or not a rail link between Gaza and the West Bank should be formed. The major problem with that would be the cost. In the next round of Israeli-PLO peace talks, both sides could not reach a compromise and after four hours talks failed. To complicate matters further 3,000 houses were approved to be built in the West Bank by the Israeli government. "Peace Now spokesman", Alon Arnon, called the housing, "A final burial of the hope of peace." (West Bank Settlement Approved) Netanyahu also ended the month by opening a tunnel to Muslim and Jewish Holy sites that resulted in bloody riots that killed 76 people. The month of October cooled down a bit with an ice breaking summit in Washington. Netanyahu returned with a change in attitude calling Arafat a person whom he could resolve problems with. But aside from his change in demeanor no substantial agreements were made. In November Israel went on high alert in fear of an attack planned to disrupt the peace process, possibly on the one year anniversary of the Jihad's leader Fathi Shakaki. Again the peace effort was thrown back when the Israeli government announced plans to double the number of Jewish settlers in the West Bank. At one point Netanyahu asked the U. 1996: A Turbulent Year For Israel :: essays research papers 1996: A Turbulent Year for Israel 1996 has been a very turbulent year for Israel. This lies in the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin on November 4, 1995. Rabin's great work in the peace process with it's Arab neighbors has been nearly reversed by Israel's newly elected Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who actively opposed the peace process in the election. Netanyahu's term of service has not only affected Israel politically but also socially, intellectually, religiously, and economically. In dealing with Yasser Arafat and the Palestinians Netanyahu was originally quoted saying that he would only meet with Arafat under special circumstances and that, "the era of one-sided giving was over." Warren Christopher, Secretary of State for the U.S., was able to arrange a peace conference with Arafat on the Gaza border. One article called it a , "Psychological breakthrough" (Netanyahu meets with Clinton). The issues at hand were Israel fulfilling it's pledge to the Palestinians to redeploy it's troops stationed in the West Bank town of Hebron so that they will only guard the 440 Jews who live there, from the tens of thousands of Palestinians. Also at issue were the exit permits given to Palestinians allowing them to go from there jobs in Israel to there homes in Gaza and the and the West Bank. That leads to another issue over whether or not a rail link between Gaza and the West Bank should be formed. The major problem with that would be the cost. In the next round of Israeli-PLO peace talks, both sides could not reach a compromise and after four hours talks failed. To complicate matters further 3,000 houses were approved to be built in the West Bank by the Israeli government. "Peace Now spokesman", Alon Arnon, called the housing, "A final burial of the hope of peace." (West Bank Settlement Approved) Netanyahu also ended the month by opening a tunnel to Muslim and Jewish Holy sites that resulted in bloody riots that killed 76 people. The month of October cooled down a bit with an ice breaking summit in Washington. Netanyahu returned with a change in attitude calling Arafat a person whom he could resolve problems with. But aside from his change in demeanor no substantial agreements were made. In November Israel went on high alert in fear of an attack planned to disrupt the peace process, possibly on the one year anniversary of the Jihad's leader Fathi Shakaki. Again the peace effort was thrown back when the Israeli government announced plans to double the number of Jewish settlers in the West Bank. At one point Netanyahu asked the U.

Demographic Data Interpretation Essay

Using the results from A1, we can see that there is the Black American Female Population has a lower CDR and a higher ISDR than the White American Female Population. As we know CDR does not refer to sub-groups that might better represent the population likely to experience the death, which indicates that it takes no account of the age structure of the population. In fact, the age structure of populations can have substantial effects on crude rates. (CDR= ÃŽ £Pop in age sex group/ Total Population* ASDR) It is obvious that there is a significantly larger proportion of the White American female population in the elder age groups (due to high life expectancy and low exposure to mortality). However, the White American Female Population has a higher CDR at 9.162 than the CDR of the Black American Female at 6.735, therefore, the CDRs we calculated do not accurately account for the age structure of the population. When we have a look at the data for ASDRs, it is obviously that ASDRS of aged 55-85+ of the Black are much higher than the White, however, the respectively number of females population of the White is significantly larger than the Black, around ten times averagely. Therefore, even if the CDR is higher, it does not adequately indicate a higher mortality rate instead of consideration of ASDRs, which is difference in age structures. On the other hand, ISDRsï ¼Ë†the Indirect Standardized Death Rateï ¼â€°of the two populations was 11.479 per 1000 population for the Black American Female Population, compared to the ISDR of the White American Female Population at 9.162 deaths per 1000 population.) Since ISDR is the data results from population standardization, which is a procedure of adjustment of crude rates to eliminate the effects age structure from the crude rates, it is more appropriate for evaluating different mortalities. The method we use here is the indirect standardization which are standardises on Age Specific Death Rates. This measure is calculated by using a SMR, which is the mortality ratio between the actual observed number of deaths in the population of interest divided by the expected number of deaths were that population to experience the ASDRs of the base population, which in this case is the White American Female Population. Since the ADSRs of the base population are lower for every point in comparison to the Black American Female Population, the SMR indicates that the population of interest experienced a much higher actual exposure to mortality in comparison to its standard population, which is the White population. Unlike the CDR, the ISDR measures standardize the mortality exposure of the population of interest by for differences in age structure. It is a more accurate measure to correctly adjust for differences in age structure between different populations and allows us to more accurately compare the overall mortality exposure of the two populations. B.2.Using the results from A.2, describe the changes in Total Fertility Rate (TFR) and Age Specific Fertility Rates (ASFR) over time among the Black and White American female population. Suggest possible causes or determinants of the changes. How do the values of Net Reproduction Rates (NRR) for the Black and White American female population in 2011 compare to the replacement level? Refer to Appendix A &B As shown by the table, from 2006 to 2011, ASFRs of age groups 15-29 of the Black female population have declined, while they increased between age 30 to 49 of the Black during this period. In contrast, during this period, the ASFRs of the White female American population have declined for all age groups between 15 to 49, except for an increase of 0.1 in age group 40-44. By comparing the two population in different year, we can see that, in 2006 and 2011, ISDRs of age 15-24 of the Black is significantly higher than the White of same age groups, while In 2006, ISDRs of age 25-49 of the Black is continuously lower than the White of same age groups. However, in 2011, only two ASDRs of age groups 25-29 and 35-39 of the White were higher than that of the Black. On the other hand, the general trends of TFR of both populations were declining from 2006 to 2011, while the TFR of the Black was continuously higher than the White during this period. Possible determinants of these common changes between the different ethnicities could include a primary trend among young adults of both black and white to postpone having children. According to data of 2006, among 18-to-24-year-olds, more women than men are enrolled in college in every racial and ethnic group. Increasing college attendance, especially among women, leads to better education, which affects the timing of marriages and first births of women, typically delaying both. Therefore, the U.S. fertility rate may drop further if the share of women attending and completing college continues to increase. (WSJ 2013) On the other hand, as the flow of immigrants is essential to the maintenance and growth of fertility, a slowdown in immigration into the US has also caused significant drops in the US fertility rate. Moreover, relatively high unemployment rates among African Americans may have played a role in the fertility decline—especially among those with less education and lower incomes. The fertility rate began to depend on women’s employment and earnings relative to men. (Overberg, P 2013) Women outnumber men in college and make up a growing share of the labor force. This gave rise to the recession which hit male-dominated jobs. As more women become primary breadwinners, fertility decisions are more likely to hinge on women’s earnings than they did in previous decades. A growing reliance on women’s employment and earnings had a greater influence on both the black and white fertility rate in America. As to data of NRR, the values for both populations in 2011 are 0.924 for NRR of the black and 0.855 of the white, we can see that the Black American female population had a higher NRR than the White population. This may due to national traditions and cultural norms as well as other important determinants such as socioeconomic status, impact on income, education, trend in marriage and access to contraception. (Population Reference Bureau ) Comparing the NRRs for both populations to the replacement level at 1.0, indicates that if ASFRs and ASDRs (and sex ratio at birth) remain constant over time, and there is no migration, these populations eventually will decline in size. B.3. Using the results from A.3, write paragraphs describing and accounting for the changes in the female population of USA between 2006 and 2011 shown by your projection for USA (e.g. how is the total number of population projected to change, which age groups are projected to increase and which to decrease, what are the components of the projected growth, how can relative cohort sizes account for the changes by age). According to the graphics of Appendix C, which shows the comparison of American female population of different ages from 0-85+ during year 2006 to 2011, we can see that the 2011 projection has a significantly larger proportion of the population in the 45 and over age group. More significantly, there is a projected increase in the number of elderly dependents especially above age group 50-54 in 2011 compared to year 2006. On the other hand, when having a look at the population of working age referring to the graph, there is a projected reduction from age 35-50 in 2011 compared to year 2006. Therefore, more elderly dependents with less population at work gave rise to larger elder dependency ratio of American females. The total number of the female US population in 2006 was approximately 154,120,000. While the projected figure has been estimated at 146,092,459, which is approximately an 8 million decline in population as a result of lower fertility, net migration and a constant sex ratio. The expected number of births has been projected to decrease at around the same ratio with the US decreasing fertility rates. The Census Bureau projects that the U.S. population will continue to grow, to almost 440 million persons by year 2050, albeit at a slower pace than the growth recorded over the past half-century. However, the population projections are rely upon assumptions about the future courses of mortality, fertility, and immigration. Immigration has been another important component of population growth in the United States. The net immigration rate, which is an essential factor to the age-sex structure of US population, has been projected to be positive nearly among all age groups from 0 to 84, except for the eldest age group 85+ (-49). Average growth rates for each 5-year projection period were positive, but have generally been declining over time. Expressed as a percentage of the population at the beginning of the period, the average population growth rate in the 2006, for example, was 1.7% per annum while it was only 0.9% per year during the 2011. The Census Bureau assumes that the growth rate will remain positive through year 2050, but will fluctuate over the time period. The current level of 0.8% per annum will increase through 2030 to closer to 0.9% per annum. After 2030 the growth rate is expected to return to 0.8% per annum.( Census Bureau 2013) Trends in the size and growth of the U.S. population reflect the importance of the role of human reproduction and the fertility factors, as well as the net effect of population migrants of the United States. Reference According to data of 2006, among 18-to-24-year-olds, more women than men are enrolled in college in every racial and ethnic group. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/02/12/us-births-decline/1880231/. Fact Sheet: The Decline in U.S. Fertility – Population Reference Bureau http://www.prb.org/Publications/Datasheets/2012/world-population-data-sheet/fact-sheet-us-population.aspx. Welcome to Human Life Alliance. 2013. Welcome to Human Life Alliance. http://www.humanlife.org/didyouknow_alarming.php. the U.S. fertility rate may drop further if the share of women attending and completing college continues to increase. http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/24/2/325.full?sid=bd3dc4c6-be39-441c-b9a8-b9e711ee655f The Census Bureau assumes that the growth rate will remain positive through year 2050, but will fluctuate over the time period. The current level of 0.8% per annum will increase through 2030 to closer to 0.9% per annum. After 2030 the growth rate is expected to return to 0.8% per annum. https://mail-attachment.googleusercontent.com/attachment/u/0/?ui=2&ik=01f85fe64f&view=att&th=13ec4dc1b157e429&attid=0.0&disp=inline&safe=1&zw&saduie=AG9B_P9thup8H_Ebi0Peyp5cqgdD&sadet=1369102489566&sads=eGFMn9_Rn4kq-DrLuiCtBKINAzw

“Dune” by Frank Herbert and “Huckleberry Finn” by Mark Twain Essay

Oliver Wendell Holmes once said, â€Å"we do not read literature for improvement or instruction.† However, there are many reasons to disagree with Holmes’ conjecture; there is a great deal of literature that provides philosophical insight along with entertainment. The wisdom and education provided by books such as Mark Twain’s â€Å"Huckleberry Finn† and Frank Herbert’s â€Å"Dune† strongly contradicts Holmes’ view. â€Å"Huckleberry Finn† was a novel written two decades after slavery was abolished in the United States, yet it was set back in the time when slavery was abundant in the South. It has many instances of what could be perceived as racism, but the book is mostly against racism, mostly in its portrayal of Jim. â€Å"Huckleberry Finn† shows how Huck and Jim become friends throughout the course of the novel, showing that their friendship can transcend race, an idea revolutionary for its time. At a time when racial tensions were running high in the South, Twain’s book showed how a friendship between a white teenager and a black adult could be pure and authentic. While most adults in the book had many flaws, Jim is mostly compassionate, loyal and benevolent character. In fact, Jim is seen as more of a father figure to Huck than his own father was. When they undergo their adventure on the raft, Huck and Jim make a connection that was unheard of in those days between black and white men. This connection is shown by the line â€Å"I hadn’t had a bite to eat since yesterday, so Jim he got out some corn-dodgers and buttermilk, and pork and cabbage and greens-there ain’t nothing in the world so good, when it’s cooked right- and whilst I eat my supper we talked and had a good time†, which shows how much of a strong connection Huck and Jim really made. When Jim asks why a Frenchman can’t speak English, he simply mirrors the question of why a black man and a white man couldn’t be treated the same: â€Å"Is a Frenchman a man?† Huck’s change in attitude toward slavery over the course of the novel shows Twain’s true attitude toward slavery. At the beginning of the novel, Huck contemplates and even resolves to turn Jim into slavers, thinking that taking someone’s property is immoral. However, Huck’s attitude progressively changes throughout the novel; in Chapter 31 Huck says he would rather â€Å"go to hell† than turn Jim in. Jim’s longing for his family and the story about his dead daughter shows his humane side and shows that black men are no different from white men, thus they should not be treated differently. The novel â€Å"Dune† by Frank Herbert centers on a man named Paul Atreides and his struggle to gain back a planet that was given to him and brutally taken away by his longtime rivals. While the novel is one of science fiction’s best because of its plotline, the philosophical points made in the novel make it truly great. The novel uses religion as a driving force in politics at a time when religion was believed to be dying down. Another important revolutionary idea was the human control over ecology. The planet Dune was a desert wasteland, valuable only for its single resource: melange. Melange, a clear comparison to petroleum, was a resource harvestable only on Dune and was used in everything from prolonging life to powering spaceships for faster-than-light travel. People inevitably try to sculpt the planet to harvest this resource more efficiently, but run the risk of killing the sandworms, the producers of melange, and destroying the economy completely. However, the most important idea in the book is the concept of precognition, the ability to see into the future. The book shows it not as a positive quality, but as something that could ruin your life forever and make it a dull eternity; it poses the question â€Å"what is the point of living if you already know everything that will occur in your life?† Oliver Wendell Holmes said that we don’t read novels for instruction or improvement. However, I think that these two novels significantly oppose Holmes’ idea; they are not only for enjoyment, but they also contain a plethora of ideas that were revolutionary for their time. These works, among others, have provided inspiration and wisdom to countless readers. This is why most works are not simply for enjoyment, but also provide mental stimulation for those that seek it.