Essay quiz Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Quiz - Essay Example What is it looking like? A metaphysician generally tries to clarify the notion of the general people’s view towards the understanding about the world. For example, possibilities, cause and effect, time and space, object and their properties and also existence. Ontology is the central branch of metaphysics that investigates the basic categories of being and their relations. Cosmetology is the other central branch of metaphysics that studies the origin, nature, dynamics and fundamental structure of the universe. Sometimes epistemology is also considered as a central branch of metaphysics. However, it is not confirmed. As far as the â€Å"Sceptical Doubts† is concerned there are two most basic types of knowledge, as said by Hume. Those are matters of fact and the relations of ideas. P1: Human knowledge is either necessary or contingent. P2: It is an ultimate truth that there should be relations between the ideas. P3: Matters of fact are considered as contingent truth. Hence it can be concluded that human knowledge is comprised of either matters of fact or relations of ideas. Matters of fact definition†¦ Most of our beliefs are regarded as matters of fact irrespective of their validity or truth – for example natural science. The inherent logical contingency does not allow inductive predictions and statements of matters of fact to the amount of knowledge. However, Hume feels that the sun will surely rise tomorrow like it does every day throughout his life and it would be absurd to think that sun does not rise tomorrow. With this alternative conception metaphysics can serve as a foundation for the nature of reality but not as such for the reality directly. Metaphysics offers most basic accounts that is related to the nature of things like what they are and not of things like how they are. As a step to answer the first question – we need to first differentiate between the two ways in which a statement might be said in

A View from the Bridge by Cherokee McDonald & Two Ways of Seeing a Essay

A View from the Bridge by Cherokee McDonald & Two Ways of Seeing a River by Mark Twain - Essay Example 2. Comparative Analysis Although the two essays deal with two different subject matters and themes yet there are some similarities in the thematic concerns and symbolism incorporated by the two authors. However the technique or the style of narration utilized and the depiction of the theme and symbols highlight their individualistic writing styles. 2.1. Narration Technique Mark Twain in his treatise uses the technique of third person narration which provides the readers with a chance to draw their personal conclusions as he acts as a mediator between the reader and the text. On the other hand McDonald employs the first person narration technique. Although generally it is assumed that first person narration limits a text’s interpretations for the readers since it is a first hand account of a writer’s explication of a situation. Yet the incorporation of the dialogues can be inferred as a technique employed in order to establish a close connection between the action of tak ing place in the essay and the readers. The use of dialogues also camouflages the presence of the writer or the narrator in the text. However a major similarity that is observed in the depiction of writing style is that both authors illustrate detailed descriptions. As observed that McDonald says, â€Å"He was a lumpy little guy with baggy shorts, and a faded T-shirt and heavy sweat socks falling down over old sneakers† (). Similarly Twain states, â€Å"A broad expanse of the river was turned to blood; in the middle distance the red hue brightened into gold†¦ in another the surface was broken by boiling, tumbling rings, that were as many-tinted as an opal; where the ruddy flush was faintest, was a smooth spot that was covered with graceful circles...high above the forest wall a clean-stemmed dead tree waved a single leafy bough that glowed like a flame in the unobstructed splendor that was flowing from the sun† (). Hence both the writers pay special attention to t he minute details. 2.2. Thematic Concern A major common theme that both the authors deal with in their respective pieces of work is the theme of innocence although the manner in which they project it is different. It is stated in Two Ways of Seeing a River that, â€Å"Now when I had mastered the language of this water and had come to know every trifling feature that bordered the great river as familiarly as I knew the letters of the alphabet, I had made a valuable acquisition†¦ All the grace, the beauty, the poetry had gone out of the majestic river† (). This line can be interpretted as, that the writer believes it is better to retain an aura of mystery or innocence and all the secrets should not be revealed so that it can stimulate human curiosity and interest. Since when all the mysteries are unveiled as is the case with the river than it becomes monotonous and even stifling because the newness fades away. Moreover in terms of human beings and their behavior it can be perceived that Overanalyzing of people or even ones self can result in the loss of beauty (however bittersweet) of humanity. A similar theme is used by McDonald in his essay. He emphasizes the importance of innocence through the actions of the blind child i.e. since his lack of sight hinders his quest for knowledge the

Abortion vs Adoption Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Abortion vs Adoption - Essay Example Though there are many debates on making abortion safe for mothers, the fact is that no abortion may be considered safe. Considering the varying degrees of effects that affect the mother after this exercise, there should be no debate on the safety of an abortion. These complications may be physical, emotional, spiritual or psychological and do usually affect a mother for the rest of their lives. For instance, statistics today show that about 10% of all mothers in induced abortions have immediate serious complications, with 2% of these complications being life threatening. In addition, there are many mothers who suffer from many minor complications that may involve infections, damage to the uterus, too much bleeding, hemorrhages, and serious injuries in their cervix among others. Some of the major complications that are known today include premature births. This is because in induced abortions, the cervix is opened before its time is due, which damages the cervical muscles. Consequentl y, depending on the degree of the damage, as the woman bear another pregnancy, the baby increases pressure at the cervix where the weakened muscles open prematurely. Moreover, the mother may suffer from sterility on the long term with 3-5% of all aborting women becoming sterile after abortions mainly due to the morbidity of the process. This is more serious when a woman may have venereal disease at the time of an abortion. The major psychological effects related to abortion are mental problems. In a study of aborting mothers in their eight week after abortion, 44% of mothers complained of having nervous disorders, 36% complained of having some serious sleep disturbances, 31% bitterly regretted of having aborted their babies and 11% were placed under psychotropic drugs by a doctor (Ashton 1117). In fact, the research noted that women who had procured an abortion had much higher chances of admission in psychiatric facilities than those who did not. Moreover, these effects are compounded by increasing guilt, and increases in the level of anxiety in the mother, though there is a short period marked by post abortion numbness of what may be termed as emotional paralysis. Teenagers are particularly affected by these post abortion complications. These effects are mostly related to the internal conflict between one’s moral standards, ethics and the decision to abort, which explains the temporary period in which the mother feels relieved. Therefore, with these abortion danger s and side effects, there is need to consider a better and healthier approach for the mother and the baby in cases where the mother may not be interested in the; consequently, pro-adoption becomes the best alternative. In the last three decades, adoption practices have considerably changed in the US; today, there are many couples across the US willing to adopt a child than bearing their own child (Berry 125). This is because today there are more career based families where both partners are in highly involving careers and lack time to undergo the normal child bearing process, mainly driven by changes in the role of women in the labor force. Moreover, there are increasing cases of infertility among many couples, which increases the number of people seeking to adopt children (Berry 125). However, there is a trend where abortion practices, birth controls and a changed impression of families towards single motherhood has drastically reduced the number of available children for adoption (Berry 125). Considering these factors, there are no reasons for women to procure an abortion when there is an increasing demand of healthy children to adopt across the US. One of the adoption practices that has gained much success today is open adoption.

Adapting Curriculum for Multicultural Classrooms Coursework - 1

Adapting Curriculum for Multicultural Classrooms - Coursework Example As the report declares it is very difficult for some to adapt to the American mainstream curriculum due to their diversity. Consequently, the current curriculum has very little aspects of diversity. It mostly suits the dominant group that is mainly the students of American origin, especially those who grew in uptown cities. Therefore, it is very difficult for the other students to identify with the American culture and thus learning is hindered. For example, students from Vietnam have very different passive learning patterns in relation to their American counterparts. Subsequently, teachers and other students don’t understand this and therefore view the Vietnamese as dump and stupid. The traditional curriculum also views Israeli students to be rude and obnoxious because they have a culture of openly criticizing a teacher when they feel like he is saying something wrong. These cultural aspects are affecting learning of the students. The teachers too have a hard way since they u se the same teaching approach to such a different and diversified group. As such, it is necessary to address cultural diversity so as to create a balance and address the learning needs of all the students. This discussion emphases that the plan to adapt the curriculum to include all students and families was developed to counter the problem of diversity. The traditional curriculum will be altered to even include subject content to include a multi-culture content.

Knowledge managementl Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Knowledge managementl - Essay Example Construction Industry has begun to realize that it makes sense to find sub-contractors for parts of their work and leverage on their work to roll out a finally bundled up product. Outsourcing of manufacturing can help companies concentrate of areas of competence whilst a the same time ensuring that the other related tasks are being attended to with necessary know how and skills. A lot of innovative skills are required in order to achieve successful networks of competence that deliver a high cost and long duration construction project. The innovation is almost needed at each point a problem is encountered in a complex construction project. Knowledge and its appropriate management contributes to the cause of innovation on the simple logic that a better knowledge brings forth better solutions. This paper examines these both aspects in UK construction industry milieu at some length. ... In order to serve as an illustration a large sized state construction effort in US can be cited as below: "In most cases, the Department of Finance and Administration's Bureau of Building serves as the construction program manager for state construction projects in Mississippi. The Bureau of Building represents the interests of the entity and exercises independent oversight of the professional contractor and constructor team (i.e., general contractor and sub-contractors). The Bureau of Building, professional team, constructor team, and a building commissioning agent, when applicable, enter a contractual relationship for a project. The Bureau of Building exercises direct oversight of architects, engineers, building commissioning agents and other contract professionals, while it performs indirect supervision of the construction contractors through the primary professional contractor and the building commissioning agent. Because the bureau does not have the in-house capability to perform some of the design and construction tasks that some private construction program managers can provide, it may employ engineers, contract analysts, architects, or construction project administrators to manage and monitor projects. The bureau has authority to compel adherence to contract specifications and schedules, applying sanctions to firms or individuals within the constructor team that do not fulfill their responsibilities"(Joint,2005). The above is a typical example of a construction management situation in rather sedate and structured governmental situation whereas the US construction industry's private sector was far more dynamic and innovative. Construction management had a real early start in the US. In the system of procurement under

34 of 34 Discuss interdiction, prevention, and treatment programs as Essay

34 of 34 Discuss interdiction, prevention, and treatment programs as components of the national drug strategy. Include a discussion of the effectiveness of each strategy - Essay Example Increase in drug prices reduces their consumption. The prevention action plan which is part of the national drug strategy aims at avoiding drug use among the youths. This is one through providing information about prevention to affected stakeholders such as parents, law enforcement authorities, educators, young people and the community. It also aims to achieve this through national campaigns against drugs and funding community projects for the same purpose (Gaines & Kappeler, 2008). This has been seen to be successful in reducing car accidents resulting from drug abuse as it is seen to reduce consumption of illicit drugs to considerable levels. Although it is not easy to get the exact number of how this has been successful, since the implementation of the prevention there has been a notable degree in use of drugs among the youths. Treatment as a strategy involves taking the people who are already addicted to drugs to drug rehabilitation center where they are helped in recovering through therapy and counseling. The national drug strategy supports the treatment plan and encourages the use of new collaborative an innovative strategies that will yield better results. This has been through funding territories and provinces to reinforce drug abuse treatment systems thereby increasing the access to drug treatment services to meet the high need. Treatment has been successful in turning around the lives of drug addicts who have collaborated and who are now able to live without dependency on the drugs. United States. (2005). Drug prevention programs and the fiscal year 2006 drug control budget: Is the federal government neglecting illegal drug use prevention? : hearing before the Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy, and Human Resources of the Committee on Government Reform, House of Representatives, One Hundred Ninth Congress, first session, April 26, 2005. Washington: U.S.

The Application of Operant Conditioning Techniques in a Secondary Classroom Essay Example for Free

The Application of Operant Conditioning Techniques in a Secondary Classroom Essay The Application Of Operant Conditioning Techniques In A Secondary Classroom Background A plethora of Studies have reported the effectiveness of operant conditioning techniques in altering the behavior of children in a number of different situations. There has been many studies in which teacher-supplied consequences have had effects on preschool and elementary school children in a regular classroom, but almost none in the secondary schooling classrooms. The results of these studies were that in smaller classrooms, students’ behavior improved with consequences given by the teacher. McAllister, Stachowiak, Baer, and Conderman now take a look at the effects of these consequences on a larger scale. This study sought to take an entire class of secondary school students and apply teacher-supplied consequences for misbehavior to discover if the behavior of the students improved. Methods The subjects consisted of 51 students ranging in age from 16-19 years, who all had similar I. Q. s and economic backgrounds. The experimental group consisted of 25 students (12 boys and 13 girls), Where as the control group consisted of 26 students (13 boys and 13 girls). Also, The experimental class was 70 minutes long and the control class was 60 minutes long. The teacher was a 23-year-old female who held a bachelors degree in education. She had one year’s experience in teaching secondary level English. The basic design of the experiment was a pretest-posttest control group design combined with the use of a multiple baseline technique in the experimental class. The behaviors chosen to be targeted were Inappropriate talking and turning around due to the fact that these behaviors had a high rate of occurrence. Inappropriate talking was classified as any vocal behavior portrayed by a student without the teacher’s permission. Also, any vocal behavior required that the student raise his or her hand before speaking, unless engaged in a group discussion. Inappropriate turning around was classified as any turning-around behavior in which the student turned more than 90 degrees away from the front of the room. An exception to this was when a student was required to turn around to distribute papers to their classmates as directed by the teacher. The observations were recorded for the experimental class using a sequentially numbered, 70-box table for each behavior. The observations of the control class were recorded using a similar, 60-box table. If either of the target behaviors occurred during any minute interval of time, it was recorded by placing a check mark in the corresponding box for that interval. Any further occurrences of the target behavior during the same time interval were not recorded. Thus, each time interval represented whether or not the behavior had occurred during the time interval opposed to the number of occurrences. A daily quantified measurement of each behavior was obtained by dividing the number of checked time intervals by the total number of intervals in that class period, which gave us a percentage of intervals in which the behavior occurred at least once. The baseline condition lasted for 28 days in which the teacher was asked to behave in her usual manner. The Average reliability for talking behavior was 90. 49% in the experimental class, and 89. 49% in the control class. Average reliability for turning behavior was 94. 27% in the experimental class and 90. 98 in the control class. Also, two aspects of the teacher’s behavior were recorded. The average reliability for teacher reprimand behavior was 92. 78% in the experimental class and 94. 84% in the control class. Average reliability for teacher praise behavior was 98. 85% in the experimental class and 97. 65% in the control class. The first experimental condition began in the experimental class on the 28th day. The teacher was to attempt to disapprove of all instances of inappropriate talking behavior whenever they occurred in a direct and verbal manner. The teacher was also asked not to threaten students with or apply other consequences such as keeping them after class or sending them to the office. In addition to these guidelines, the teacher was also asked to praise the entire class with remarks like â€Å"thank you for being so cooperative today†. The second experimental condition took place after the first one had been in effect in the experimental class for 26 days and had markedly reduced talking behavior. In this condition, the contingent social consequences for talking behavior were continued as well as implementing the same system of consequences for turning behavior. Results Inappropriate talking behavior during the baseline condition in the experimental class and the control class yielded similar results (25. 3% in the experimental class, and 23. 81% in the control class). On day 28 when the first experimental condition was implemented, inappropriate talking behavior immediately reduced. This decrease continued as time went on and finally stabilized at a level below 5%. At the same time, the control class continued to portray its previous level of inappropriate talking behavior. Inappropriate turning behavior during the baseline condition in the experimental class and control class was slowly increasing (15. 13% in the experimental class, and 14. 45% in the control class). On day 54 when the second experimental condition was implemented, the inappropriate turning behavior also began to decrease. This behavior continued to decrease during the remaining days of the study. The number of times the teacher reprimanded students for inappropriate behavior during the baseline period were 25. 76% in the experimental class and 22. 23% in the control class. During the first experimental condition, the teacher disapproved an average of 93. 33% of inappropriate talking behavior. During the second experimental condition, the teacher disapproved an average of 95. 0 % of inappropriate turning behavior. Conclusions The results clearly portray that by the teacher’s actions of praise and disapproval, she was able to reduce the amount of inappropriate talking behavior as well as the amount of inappropriate turning behavior. In reprimanding the students in a more direct manner, using names and calling the students out for misbehaving, the teacher was able to make a deeper impact on the student for his or her actions. Also, in taking away consequences such as staying after class, the teacher removed fear from the tudents and instead implemented proper behavior. The teacher also used praise to decrease the amount of inappropriate behavior of her students. She would say things like â€Å"what a great class today† or â€Å"you guys were on your best behavior today† to make the students feel good about being on their best behavior.