Research Proposal Middle East Conflicts

Painting Description essays

Painting Description essays This painting was done by Edward Hopper, painted at The Art Institute of Chicago in 1942. The size of the painting is 30 x 60 inches, done on canvas with oil paints. The mood this painting sends to the audience is the feel of loneliness, and late night emptiness Some of the things being presented here, that Ive observed; there are two men and a lady sitting around a large rounded counter with coffee mugs in front of them. I would assume its a coffee shop that they are in, but could possibly be a bar as well. The coffee shop has a large glass window wrapping around the whole shop, and onto the corner. There is a sign above the place, that says Phillies, probably the name of the shop, or maybe they sell cigars as well. It looks like part of the sign is cut off so we cannot see if this sign has more written on it. Noticing the sidewalk next to the coffee shop, it seems unusually pretty. Also, across the street from the shop, is a large building that appears to be closed, there are no lights on, and no people inside. Back to the coffee shop, there is a person inside behind the counter who looks to be filling a cup to serve a drink. He looks like he might be conversing with the man and the woman sitting together at the end of the counter. The man sitting by himself, looks like he might be sad or lonely, maybe deep in thought. He appears to be looking down, which gives him a sad appearance. Our perspective is standing on the street or sidewalk, looking in at the people, possibly wondering what the shop worker, lady, and the man are discussing, while the man who is alone makes us wonder how he might be thinking, or what feelings he is having. The painting looks like it was painted with oil paints because of the smooth appearing texture, and the deepness and solidness of the colors. ...

Critical commentary about Ludwig Wittgenstein's view of 'hinge Essay

Critical commentary about Ludwig Wittgenstein's view of 'hinge propositions - Essay Example When what is considered known turns out to be false, it is a shattering experience that can change the perception of life and the worldview of those who are then enlightened by new truths. The idea of what is known is absolute is an important premise upon which entire belief systems are built. Wittgenstein, when he wrote about the theory of hinge propositions that ended up on a consolidated volume called On Certainty, he was searching for a way to eliminate scepticism from the general belief systems that exist within philosophy. Although the theory of hinge propositions appears to have a solution for the subject of scepticism, the idea that there can be ‘knowns’ has been historically refuted, changing the world view and the position of human beings through profound changes which prove that absolutes are not always absolutely true and are dependent upon cultural belief systems. There are many problems with the exploration that Wittgenstein has made on the concept of hinge propositions. In his search for an answer for scepticism, he made copious notes on the topic which is what have been put together in order to create the volume of work that is known as On Certainty. Moyal-Sharrock criticizes it as not being a work because it was never composed into a true book or volume, but rather it is a group of notes that are not well organized and they were never polished. Still, they have a thematic continuity that allows for an overall impression of the thoughts that Wittgenstein was having about certainty without the benefit of cohesion created by placing them together to form theoretical foundations.1 Prichard goes on to discuss how Wittgenstein is not trying to highlight something that is not accessible but is trying to shed light on what is familiar, creating a discourse on the nature of language and the way it is not only an activity, but a form of life. Language only has value as it is in use.2 How humans express their lives and what they know is centr al to creating socialization and culture, giving meaning and frameworks within which a certainty of knowing develops and creates a foundation for other theories and belief systems. Theory of Hinge Propositions The last year and a half of Ludwig Wittgenstein’s life produced a series of writing on philosophy that proposed great number ideas about the concept of what is known. As an example, Wittgenstein established that he knows that he has one hand and that he also has another. He established that â€Å"the earth existed a long time before my birth† as an assertion that this was another concept that was known (OC Preface). His purpose in bringing forward the ideas that seem so simple as truths was to create an awareness that there are always ideas that are a given and are the basis upon which theory is built. He states â€Å"That is to say, it belongs to the logic of our scientific investigations that certain things are in deed not in doubt† (OC  §342). He uses the idea of the hinge as a way to define what he means. He states â€Å"If I want the door to turn, the hinges must stay put† (OC  §343). In order to create inquiry, there are stabilities in belief that are maintained to make those theories work. There are absolutes that create a sense of stability upon which the world operates, those beliefs creating a solid platform from which to situate all other belief systems, some of which must then take leaps based

Corporal Punishment in School Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Corporal Punishment in School - Essay Example Though not taking proper actions to restrict offensive behavior of certain students could lead to serious consequences in a classroom yet inflicting serious injuries on the students by using aggressive techniques like caning could also lead to much more devastating consequences. Facts and discussion presented in this essay are basically meant to illuminate the reality of the claim that â€Å"corporal punishment could be seriously bad for the mental and moral wellbeing of the students which is why it should not be allowed to be introduced in the schools as a way of coping mechanism.† It is a fact that presently there are many national and international campaigns in action against corporal punishment and this is because the disadvantages offered by this form of punishment outweigh the few rewards guaranteed by it. There are many valid reasons for outlawing corporal punishment in the schools. Though people favoring corporal punishment suggest that not using such a practical form of punishment reinforces bad behavior, others opinion that by hitting the students in any way and inflicting bodily harm, no good can come out in context of behavioral, emotional, and moral development. There exists no sound connection between student achievement and corporal punishment which is why it should not be allowed to be used in any school. There exist many other ways save this form of punishment to correct any bad action displayed by any student which include good therapy session conducted by the teachers themselves or polishing the communication policy. When the teachers take care to talk sense into their students out of the teaching hours, the students realize that they are valued by their teachers and feel more secure to confide in them. Instead of communicating, such inexperienced teachers rely on corporal punishment to restrict bad behavior which in turn hardens the students most of the times and they develop immunity to any form of corrective strategy used by the tea chers. The chance for them of developing low self-esteems also heightens which could lead them to depression and anxiety problems, hence exacerbating the already bad situation. Also in response to corporal punishment, the students might begin to think that every situation could be resolved with physical violence (Lyon). There exists huge amount of scientific evidence suggesting that when a student is reprimanded seriously in front of the entire class by either caning or slapping, serious mental remodeling takes place in that student which is most often for the worse. It is claimed by Dr. Newell that â€Å"all people have the right to protection of their physical integrity, and children are people too† (cited in Schamotta). This suggests that children have a right to their physical integrity and this right can be seriously violated by corporal punishment. Critics, parents, and educationists who favor corporal punishment suggest that this method is capable of effectively restra ining bad behavior before it envelops the entire classroom. It also stimulates the students to grow up into responsible and fearful citizens in addition to decreasing the level of crime in the schools. However, attention should be paid to the fact that corporal punishment has been banned in so many parts of the world and most of the states in America due to a valid reason. If it really were capable of offering so many benefits,

Why Separating the Church from the State is the Best Policy Essay Example for Free

Why Separating the Church from the State is the Best Policy Essay Those sympathetic toward the British dissenters and critical of the aristocratic foundations of eighteenth-century British life have found it easy enough to dismiss Burkes arguments as a simple defense of Whig oligarchy. [1] But Burkes belief that religion and society, church and state, stood or fell together was only the latest and perhaps most eloquent expression of a very old tradition in all of Christendom. For men of Burkes temperament, the lesson was finally driven home by the general weakening of religious establishments in America after the Revolutionparticularly the formal disestablishment of the Anglican Church in Virginiaand the assault on religion by the French Revolution. [2] It is probably more difficult for Americans, whose government and society rest precisely on the very political philosophy and religious nonconformity which Burke opposed, than for citizens of more historically grounded nations, to view his defense of established religion and the confessional state with great sympathy. But in this authors view, it is well worth the attempt. Jacques Maritain observed some forty years ago that while the confessional state may have only constituted the legal rather than the living, vital form of medieval sacral civilization, nevertheless medieval man and woman entered civil society and citizenship only through membership in the Church. Modern man and woman are citizens regardless of religious affiliation. Maritain cited the view of the distinguished Catholic theologian, Charles Journet, who distinguished between the Christian state which was at the service of right and truth, and the modern state which justifies itself in the service of freedom and the realization of human dignity. According to Journet: It would be incorrect to describe medieval times as those of a confusion between the spiritual and the temporal . . . Their interrelations were characterized in medieval society by the fact that the spiritual order did not confine itself to acting on the temporal as a regulator of political, social and cultural values. It tended . . . to become . . . a component element in the structure of society . . . Those who did not visibly belong to the Church were from the first dismissed society: the heathen over the frontiers, the Jews into ghettos. Those who, having first been Christians, afterwards broke with the Church, as heretics or schismatics, constituted a much greater dangerthey shook the very bases of the new society and appeared as enemies of the public safety. [3] All justification of views supporting the need for the true faith to force compliance comes in the last analysis from St. Augustine. Peter Brown has called him the first theorist of the Inquisition and explains that his pessimism and belief in predestination allowed him to disbelieve in the wisdom of permitting error to do battle freely with truth in a competition of ideas, the preferred choice of a John Milton, perhaps of a John Locke, and of all liberals. Augustine was convinced that sinful man required firm handling, in his term discipline. This was how God had ruled Israel, and Christian society could do no less. [4] Burke himself, during the intense excitement of the French Revolution, did not shrink from praising even the Spanish Inquisition, along with Joseph de Maistre, finding that as to the clergy, they are the only thing in Spain that looks like an independent order, and they are kept in some respect by the Inquisition, the sole but unhappy resource of pub-lick tranquility and order now remaining in Spain. As in Venice, it is become mostly an engine of State, which, indeed, to a degree, it has always been in Spain. It wars no longer with Jews and Hereticks: It has no such war to carry on. Its great object is to keep atheistic and republican doctrines from making their way in that kingdom. [5] In view of the fact that for St. Thomas Aquinas nothing less than the Eucharist created the civic community, and because the conservative model of the good society was always medieval Europe, can one doubt that religion must lie at the foundation of the conservative understanding of citizenship? [6] Perhaps no one has understood the religious foundations of citizenship as well as J. G. A. Pocock. His analysis deserves our full attention: To those for whom all intolerance is ridiculous and unnecessary, it is hard to imagine a world in which differences in religious belief had serious political consequences; but if Jesus Christ were less than an equal person of the holy and undivided Trinity, still more if he were a divinely appointed human being and not himself divine, there could be no thought that the Churchany Churchwas part of his continuing divine presence on earth, or in any corporate sense part of the presence of God among men. Religion could only be a community of belief or opinion among those who voluntarily held beliefs or opinions in common; it could not be the institutional form of a communion between God and men . . . . Richard Price desired more than toleration for Protestant Dissenters; he desired a full equality of civil rights, irrespective of denominational membership or doctrinal subscription.

William Shakespares Poem My Mistress Eyes Are Nothing Like The Sun Ess

William Shakespare's Poem "My Mistress Eyes Are Nothing Like The Sun" 'My Mistress' Eyes Are Nothing Like the Sun' is a poem written by William Shakespeare about the love towards an imperfect woman. He explains that although his mistress is imperfect, he finds his love special and 'rare.' If the modern day reader is not careful, he/she might be quick to assume the role of the woman that Shakespeare writes about. Although the word mistress now refers to a sweetheart or a woman who lives with a man without being married to him, in Shakespeare's time, it meant a woman who rules others or has control. With that understood, the reader can focus on some important conventions of this poem- theme, tone, and form- to better understand and appreciate the piece. The theme of this poem is to ...

Banking Concept of Education: Paulo Freire Dislikes Essay

Paulo Freire severely scrutinizes the banking concept of education. He dislikes everything about the traditional teaching method, where the teachers just fill the students with information and hope the students retain it long enough to spit it back out to them on tests. He argues that students are led to â€Å"memorize mechanically† the information lectured by a teacher. He would strongly oppose the use of grades in the schooling system. Truly, students are getting graded on how well they can memorize random facts as the tests that encourage memorization of material make up a very large portion of the grading system. In his strong argument against the banking concept of education, Freire gives in a little to the opposition, as he admits, â€Å"they [students] do, it is true, have the opportunity to become collectors or cataloguers of the things they store.† I feel that this is the key to individuality in school. Freire is correct in the way that he portrays the schoolin g system. Students mostly just receive and memorize information from their teachers; thus, they never really critically think about the material. Nevertheless, the techniques that each individual student learns and masters to accomplish these demands shape his/her success later in life. I agree with Freire that, with respect to truly learning the material and retaining the knowledge for a long period of time, simple memorization is very poor. Last year, I took an AP United States History course. The material covered in the course was the same as the material I â€Å"learned† in my eighth and ninth grade United States history classes. The only difference was that this time around, we were going to study the content further in-depth, which Freire might find pleasing. Once the course got underway, I soon realized that I had to completely relearn the material, as I had completely forgotten everything I learned in the eighth and ninth grade classes. It was not because I did poorly back then, but because after the ninth grade class was over, I had no need to retain that information. I was no longer being graded on United States history, and thus, I flushed that information out of my brain to make room for new material to memorize. Once my senior year AP course began, all of the similar material seemed new to me. In Doing School, Denise Clark Pope explains a very similar phenomenon that Eve Lin experienced. â€Å"Once she took an exam, she said most of the facts she had memorize ‘emptied out of her brain.’ She was required to move on to the next assignment to keep up with the pace of the class. Taking time to reflect or to engage with the material would only slow her down and adversely affect her grades.† (Pope 155-56). Freire would oppose this. He would want students to slow down and really analyze the information thoroughly. On the other hand, I feel that in today’s fast-paced society, being able to sh ift gears so quickly is a necessary trait. I attended a medium-sized school, Saucon Valley School District, all the way up from kindergarten. With about two hundred students graduating each year, we all knew each other fairly well. However, since sixth grade, I embarked on a journey with about twenty other students. We chose to follow the path of an â€Å"honors student† taking more rigorous classes than others. We attended almost all of the same courses every day of the year and got to know each other and hang out with each other outside of school a lot more than with others in the grade. By high school, we were so closely knit that someone came up with the name, the â€Å"honors family,† and it just stuck with us ever since. The label was true though. It was like a family, as study sessions were conducted before big tests and all-nighters were pulled for group projects. We pushed each other to do better and worried when others were falling behind. Yet, just like most of the students in Doing School, we were very competitive about our grades as we strove to get the highest marks on a test or paper. I do not believe any of us went as far as Eve Lin did though, in relation to keeping her summer college class a secret just so that she had an edge on everyone else (Pope). Although it was not as extreme as in Faircrest High School, competition in the â€Å"honors family† at Saucon Valley was definitely present. Competition, motivation to succeed, and enthusiasm was amongst the â€Å"honors family.† I wish the same could be said about the rest of the grade. During my senior year, I decided to take Calculus I and II at Lehigh University, and thus, had scheduling conflicts at high school. The Honors Government and Economics class overlapped with my Calculus courses, so I needed to simply take the regular class of Government and Economics. Here, I got a glimpse of how other classmates performed in class. I interacted with many of these students in extracurricular activities and even in Physical Education, but very rarely in a core class. The desire to learn was very low in my Government and Economics class. It was not that these students were not intelligent. They just merely did not care about their grades, GPA, or class rank. Many of these students were perfectly fine with getting a C in the class. After all, a C was a passing grade. Passing was all that mattered to them. Many were fine with doing the minimum to get by just so that they could graduate high school and adventure out into the work force. The teacher seemed to realize the situation as well; she gave very little work to the class throughout the semester and based the tests off of the already-filled-in note packets she handed out regularly. Very little material was covered, even though the class lasted over ninety days. Overall, this class seemed like a complete waste of time for me. I was not coping with stress, competition, or a rigorous curriculum like I had for the rest of my classes. There was very little motivation for me to truly gain knowledge from the class as well, since I was already getting an A in the class and did not need to take time away from my other classes to study for tests. After taking the class and looking back upon it now, I realized that I can take literally nothing productive from it. It was a waste of time that did not provide me with any skills necessary or helpful for my life after schooling. Unlike the average students’ classes, the â€Å"honors family† classes gave me the necessary practice for the real world. I received so much more knowledge than others on how to succeed even with obstacles in my way. These traits and techniques on how to succeed are very similar to those Denise Clark Pope outlined in the conclusion of Doing School. Throughout high school, I gained and perfected an absolutely necessary trait of success: time management. The five students at Faircrest High School were always making the best of their time. They worked on homework during class periods and took free periods and weekends as a time to catch up with their work (Pope). Similarly, I needed to do the same if I wanted to keep up with the â€Å"honors family† work. I participated on the school soccer team in the fall, basketball team in the winter, and baseball team in the spring. The time after these extracurricular activities was insufficient to complete my work. I needed to use as much free time throughout my day as possible to complete assignments. As one might imagine, one evil coming from such a workload and extracurricular activities is stress. The students Pope researched at Faircrest all underwent stress. I, as well, was under an enormous amount of stress. Big projects seemed to always be due at the same time, and final exams were always clumped together in a two-day span. Many members of the â€Å"honors family† sacrificed their well-being through a reduced social life and poor sleeping habits in order to complete the workload. In return, we mastered the skills of coping with stress and managing out time. These skills will benefit us in the long run as we enter adulthood and the work force. Often times I did not understand why I was pushing myself to such a limit. I thought to myself that most of the students not motivated to achieve success had such an easier life. They went through school carefree and had loads of free time after school and on the weekends to hang out with friends. Nevertheless, I knew why I chose to push myself to the limits. I knew that my time to shine would come later in life and all my efforts would be worth a life full of success; the characteristics for success were instilled in me through the competit ion of grades and the workload I endured in school.