Free Essays on My Lai

were, or the astonishing story behind them. I initially caught wind of the slaughter at My Lai in my humanism class toward the start of this semester. As she was disclosing to us this story, I could feel these feelings start to ascend in me. Sentiments of sympathy, outrage, misery, and disarray were all present simultaneously. I did everything I could to keep down the tears. Tragically, regardless of whether it is because of my impassive ways or my past instructive encounters, I need to concede that I don't know particularly about Vietnam. Be that as it may, in the wake of hearing the story, I felt more than roused to learn as much as Possible about Vietnam, and particularly about the town of My Lai. William Calley was a multi year old unit pioneer for the Charlie Company, which was directed by multi year old Ernest Medina. Calley was not actually thought to be official material. He had an absence of regard for the indigenous populace and purposely permitted unfortunate behavior among his troopers. On March 14, 1968 a famous sergeant was slaughtered by a booby trap, and a few different troopers were injured. After the memorial service, the Charlie Company had retribution on their psyches. Skipper Medina educated his troopers that the Viet Cong’s 48th Battalion was dwelling in a little town called My Lai. He disclosed to them that their main goal was to take part fighting with the 48th legion and to pulverize the town of My Lai. The little town of My Lai possessed around 700 occupants. Their homes comprised of red block homes or cover secured cottages. In the town, there was an open square region utilized for holding gatherings. It comprised of ladies, men, youngsters, and old the normal for any network. On March sixteenth, at 7:22 a.m. nine helicopters lifted off towards My Lai. By 8:00 a.m., Calley’s ... Free Essays on My Lai Free Essays on My Lai The Massacre at My Lai Two months prior, on the off chance that somebody had said the words My Lai to me, I presumably would have taken a gander at them slowly and pondered it. At that point, I didn’t comprehend what those words were, or the stunning story behind them. I initially caught wind of the slaughter at My Lai in my human science class toward the start of this semester. As she was revealing to us this story, I could feel these feelings start to ascend in me. Sentiments of empathy, outrage, trouble, and disarray were all present simultaneously. I did everything I could to keep down the tears. Tragically, regardless of whether it is because of my indifferent ways or my past instructive encounters, I need to concede that I don't know particularly about Vietnam. Be that as it may, in the wake of hearing the story, I felt more than roused to learn as much as Possible about Vietnam, and particularly about the town of My Lai. William Calley was a multi year old detachment pioneer for the Charlie Company, which was directed by multi year old Ernest Medina. Calley was not actually thought to be official material. He had an absence of regard for the indigenous populace and purposely permitted wrongdoing among his troopers. On March 14, 1968 a well known sergeant was slaughtered by a booby trap, and a few different troopers were injured. After the burial service, the Charlie Company had retribution on their brains. Chief Medina educated his officers that the Viet Cong’s 48th Battalion was dwelling in a little town called My Lai. He revealed to them that their central goal was to participate fighting with the 48th brigade and to obliterate the town of My Lai. The little town of My Lai possessed around 700 occupants. Their homes comprised of red block homes or cover secured cottages. In the town, there was an open court region utilized for holding gatherings. It comprised of ladies, men, kids, and old the normal for any network. On March sixteenth, at 7:22 a.m. nine helicopters lifted off towards My Lai. By 8:00 a.m., Calley’s ...

Irish Literature And Rebellion Essay Example For Students

Irish Literature And Rebellion Essay Irish Literature and RebellionIn the core of each Irishman shrouds a writer, getting overwhelmed with emotion for his darling Emerald Isle. It is this equivalent enthusiasm, which for a considerable length of time, Great Britain has endeavored to snuff out of the Catholics of Ireland with domineering approaches and the authority of the Protestant religion. Catholics were dealt with like peons in their local home. Hundreds of years of mistreatment beat in the hearts of the Irish and reached boiling point in the works and writing of the children and little girls of Ireland. The Literary Renaissance of Ireland delivered probably the best essayists the world has seen. John OLeary said all that needed to be said, writing must be national and patriotism must be abstract (Harmon, 65). In spite of the fact that there is a perpetual stream of significant artists and dramatists; John Synge, Lady Gregory, Oscar Wilde, and so forth., this papers essential spotlight is on William Butler Yeats and James Joyce, and their commitments during the Irish Literary Renaissance and their points of view on the Irish Question. They saved the names of the legends of the past and commended the Irish soul through their compositions with the goal that the penance of many would not be futile. William Butler Yeats was conceived in the Dublin suburb of Sandymont on June 13, 1865. Strangely enough, his family was of the Protestant confidence. He wasnt a lot of a dissident from the start and didnt truly care such much for tutoring either, in light of the fact that I thought that it was hard to take care of anything less intriguing than my musings, I was hard to educate (DLB 19, 403). Be that as it may, in 1886 he met John OLeary, an old Fenian pioneer. OLeary had been a Young Irelander and battled in the uprising of 1849. He encouraged Yeats and acquainted him with the universe of fenians and fenianism. His effect on Yeats composing is obvious. Yeats started to write in the method of Sir Samuel Ferguson and James Clarence Mangan and develop his patriotism and hostile to English assessment (OConnor, 165). Yeats, as Ferguson, saw writing in Irish was a basic piece of the instruction of any Irishman and attempted to make it so (OConnor, 150). He visited Ireland and built up the National Literary Society. His most prominent desire was to join Catholic Ireland and Protestant Ireland through national writing. He cherished Ireland and the Irish and needed them to be one. Yeats never surrendered his conviction of joining Ireland through language or on Ireland. In any case, he was disturbed at the idea that his pen could be the reason for war. In spite of the fact that he was politically dynamic, his attention was more on the social and abstract domains than on a brutal rebellionAt a mind-blowing finish he was all the while thinking about whether his initial composing had assisted with seeding the ascending, to convey/Certain men the English shot (The Man and the Echo, lines 11-12) (DLB 19, 420). I couldn't discover a duplicate of The Man and the Echo in print so I downloaded and from the web and have joined it. He goes on further to address how on account of his sonnets, he has caused the pulverization of homes and families, Could my expressed words have checke d/There whereby a house lay destroyed? (The Man and the Echo, line 15-16). Yeats views himself as answerable for the passing of his companions and others family. He is disillusioned that his ink could be the explanation behind carnage. The rising that Yeats is discussing is the Easter Rising of 1916. On April 24, 1916, a gathering of Irishmen that considered themselves the Irish Republican Brotherhood drove by Padraic Pearse and James Connollys Ctizen Army, posted the Declaration of the Republic on the entryway of the General Post Office in Dublin and announced Ireland a free nation. I have likewise connected a duplicate of the Declaration of the Republic for reference. Sadly, albeit foreseen by the patriots initiative, the British Troops immediately stifled the insubordination and the signatories were quickly executed for instance to the Irish. At long last, the dissidents battled with common Irish bravery, assaulted by troopers utilizing big guns and dwarfing them twenty to one. Cut off from all conceivable help from the nation, or from fortification of

The Beginners Guide to Product Photography [Tutorial + Examples]

The Beginners Guide to Product Photography [Tutorial + Examples] Online customers seek to satisfy their purchasing urges with the one element that grabs their attention the quickest; images.Images are what transmit the kind of products you sell and how you present them to your target audience. They also create two very important things for your e-commerce store:TransparencyTrustConsumers are in search of quality and value whenever they visit a product page. Images are what help shape a customer’s first impression, which is what best prompts them to either continue purchasing or complete a purchase.If you play your cards right, you can have images thatEngageConvertBoost your consumer’s lifetime valueWe’re going to show you how to do all of that in this article as well as tell you how to optimize the photo creation process in order to save time and money.And the best part about this guide is that you don’t need to have a large budget at your disposal to create professional high-quality product photos. So let’s get cracking.WHAT IS PRODUCT PHOTOGRAPHY?Product photography is a type of photography where you use a variety of methods to showcase products in an attractive manner. It is so that you garner the attention of potential buyers and get them to purchase from your online store.As a matter of fact, product photography is a crucial element for both online and offline advertising for successful brochures, catalogs, online ads, magazine ads, billboards and company websites, especially when selling products to people who are interested in buying such items.Let’s take a closer look as to why photography is very important.PHOTOGRAPHY INCREASES CONVERSIONS90% of the information that we retain in our brain is visual.Customers are easily receptive to visual content than written content. That’s what makes images an important aspect of the consumer decision-making process, and is also essential for determining conversion and retention rates.An image’s quality reflects your brand image, which is vital for nailing that des ired first impression.That’s why in order to make it work, you have to have professional images of the sharpest quality for maximum user engagement.1.  Professional Images Enhance Each Buyer TouchpointAccording to Justuno, 93% of customers consider pictures to be a crucial deciding factor in purchases.Images reflect the value and quality of a product to consumers and the sharper they are in quality, the more it will compel visitors to take action in purchasing it later.2.  Images are a Key Factor of BrandingBranding must be at the focal point of every decision your company, such as:Website updatesSocial media postsAll of your marketing effortsImages are at the forefront of your brand since they’re the first thing to grab the attention of your visitors, instill trust and invite them to get a closer look at your products.Everything about your product image including color scheme, quality, subject matter, and saturation, have to be in perfect harmony to appease your target audience .FUNDAMENTAL PHOTOGRAPHY EQUIPMENT AND PROCESSIf you’re fairly new to the product shooting game, it may be a bit overwhelming for you at first.But after you get your hand used to it, your photographic skills will sharpen to the point where you won’t even have to think about it.The ideal thing to do is to determine a process that is in line with your needs, work your way around it and then establish a list of guidelines to ensure your images are always consistent.Here are some of the finest product photography tips that will serve you well in the long-run:1.  Get the Right Background and ProductHaving the right background is imperative because it makes the editing process simpler for you.It’s essential to use a light or white background because it’s easier to remove when retouching your images.There are plenty of ways for you to improvise a background on a budget, and here are two ways you can do that in just $20:A Shooting Table: You can make this using a simple chair you ha ve in your house or office.A Light TentShooting TableThe first order of business is a chair mounted sweep and for that, you’ll need a roll of craft paper.You can get this done by pushing a chair against a wall, as well as taping craft paper to the wall so that it naturally falls to the ground, which creates a flawless transition between the vertical to the horizontal plane.If not that, you can clip the paper to the top of the chair so that you can improvise a stand for your sweep as indicated by the image above.Light Tent  The next budgeted approach is to make your own lightbox, otherwise known as a light tent.To be specific, a light tent is a device shaped like a box with translucent walls that distributes evenly around the object to be photographed.This is how you set it up:Get a plastic storage container that you can put on its side with the lid off.Next, tape white paper to the bottom. You can even tape some white paper or cloth on the sides to act as diffusers, which helps di stribute light even better and lessens unnecessary shadows.If your budget allows it, you can even use artificial lighting and then place them on either side of the container. But if you’re on a tight budget, your best bet is to use natural lighting by placing your lightbox next to a large window.2. Setting Your Product UpMake sure to set your product up in front of your background on a flat and stable surface.When you’re lighting is all set up, you’re just about ready to shoot.If, for instance, you’re shooting jewelry, then it’s always important to use a bust. And those who are being frugal can improvise one from a piece of cardboard as shown in the image below:You can even use a fishing line if you want to suspend earrings and other small items, which can be removed with ease in the editing process.For harder-to-photograph items, here’s a couple of ideas you can use:Use tape and glue dots to fix small items in place.Mannequins are best for clothing and can be easily rem oved.Try experimenting with a hanger or creative flat lay.If you want lifestyle shots, try asking a friend or team member to put your clothes on for bonus shots.If it’s large objects like furniture you’re planning to shoot, then you’ll have to dig deeper into your wallets to get a stand mounted sweep.However, you can save up on the green by getting a few rolls of craft paper, have them taped to the wall and let gravity do all of the work.This technique uses the same approach as the table mounted sweep, except it’s bigger.3.  Use The Right LightingLight is perhaps the most important element that defines the quality of your images.It can be quite the chore to set up, but once it’s done, not only does it bring out beautiful results, but it also simplifies your post-processing.Your two options include:Natural Light: Works best if you’ve made a chair-mounted sweepStudio Light: Only if you have the budget for it, or you could go for a lightbox.Natural Light  If your budget’s tight, natural light is your go-to option for lighting. It is relatively easier to manipulate, and for small in-house product shoots, it saves you plenty of time and hassle.Place your product right next to a window, typically one that lets plenty of light through.If the light is too intense, you can reduce it by placing a white paper or a cloth over the window as shown in the image above.But if the shadows are too harsh, then you can reflect and soften some of the light by placing white plasterboard or cardboard on either side of the object. Still, it’s better to shoot when the day is at its brightest, allowing you to play with the light some more.It’s better to have too much sunlight that you can manipulate, instead of not having enough of it.It’s pretty hard to create great lighting in the midst of the editing process.Though you should never shoot under direct sunlight because it can create harsh shadows like that of a strong backlight.Studio LightsTo make use of artificial lighting, you will need at least two softbox light setups in order to get the shadows right.You can buy two clip-on light clamps with strong bulbs in just under $30. However, if you have a slightly higher budget, you’ll be able to get two softbox setups for $50.One of the lights can serve as your key light and the other your fill light or backlight, depending on the results you want.The key light must always be placed to the front slightly on the side of the product, whereas the fill or backlight should be placed on the opposite side, back or above.You can manipulate the lights further, if you want, to get soft, evenly distributed shadows.White plasterboard or chalkboard is also preferable for diffusing some of the light and further softening those shadows.In short, lightboxes serve as a diffuser of sorts, evenly distributing light around the product.Studio lights are able to give you more control over the entire process, particularly if you’re shooting a number of products o ver several hours.As soon as you have the right setup, you can get professional, consistent results and manipulate them for all your shoots.4.  Use A TripodTripods provide our shoots with stability, consistency, and focus.If we can’t get our cameras to focus properly, we can easily end up with blurry images, even when doing your best to hold the camera still with your hand.If your budget doesn’t allow it, you can use a stool or a pile of books to keep your camera steady.Though if you have a slightly higher budget, a good tripod can come under $30, which can serve you well for plenty of years.When using a camera, set your aperture setting on low (or a high f/stop) and slow shutter speed. This will give you a wide depth of field that will keep your entire product in focus and make it appear crisp in quality.It’s important to keep your camera stable especially when you’re shooting with a wide depth of field just to avoid blurry images.5.  Select the Right CameraHaving the right camera is extremely important for any product photography. Fortunately, the prices for DSLR and point and shoot cameras have dropped over the past couple of years.Recommended DSLR Settings  Never use a wide angle lens as it will distort your product image.Use the appropriate aperture for the right shot. Using a wide aperture of f2.8 or f4.5 will reduce your depth of field, leaving parts of your product out of focus. A small aperture like f8 or f11, on the other hand, provides a wider depth of field, keeping your product entirely in focus and looking crisp.When shooting, you should use the right white balance, preferably setting it to the same Kelvin temperature as your lights.However, if you’re getting started, you don’t need to invest in a camera as your smartphone can be a suitable alternative.Smartphone cameras have improved over the years in which sometimes, you can get even better quality images on your phone than on a camera.iPhone or Samsung phone cameras are ideal for p roduct photography, as long as you use the appropriate lighting and background for the shoot.You should invest in a good smartphone stabilizer or tripod, like Joby, which helps speed up post-processing and reduce blur.6.  Post-ProcessingIt’s is vital to retouch your images after shooting to give it a more polished look.Even if you shot your product using a smartphone, editing can make a world of difference between mediocre and professional results.For rookies, obtaining the proper lighting and background will come after plenty of practice. But they can also use photo editing software, which can magically get rid of most of the problems.Retouching can help with lots of things like color correction, background removal, mannequin removal and shadow addition to giving your product a more natural look.Photo-editing can be long and strenuous, especially when you’re just starting out.Thankfully though, there is a good chunk of image editing tools that are there just for you.Free image editing tools include:Canva: this is a free user-friendly editor that is ideal for marketing materials.Pixlr: it is free and has lots of Photoshop features.Snapseed: is a free, powerful and fully-featured mobile app.Fotor: A smartphone app that’s easy to use and free.GUIDELINES FOR PROPER PRODUCT PHOTOGRAPHYWhen you have the process down, be sure to create guidelines for clear shooting, brand, and editing in order to maintain consistency as your business grows.This step might not cost you anything from your wallet, but it will take some time in writing it down.Ensure that you write down all of the minor things, like the distance between the camera and product, angling and lighting setup.Remember, your product photos are generally your brand ambassadors, so maintaining image consistency is pivotal.You should create a technical guide and a template in your photo editing software to ensure you maintain consistent size and scale.In fact, you can go a step further and make a guide for your in-context snaps as well.Be sure to include:SaturationColor paletteShadowsFocal lengthLocation and contextCompositionConsistencyEnsure that you also share your guide with the ones involved in your product shots, as well as post a copy in your in-house studio for quick reference.Maintaining an image guide will not only save you money in the long-run but also time as you never have to repeat the processes all over again and use the time you saved up to grow your business.OPTIMIZE YOUR IMAGESOptimizing your images is important as it gives your images the best quality possible and prevents your web page from loading too slow.Many marketplaces and platforms have their own set of photo editing requirements, so be sure to go with the ones that suit you best.Every second of your product page counts, especially when it comes to delays that could potentially hurt your conversion rate.That’s where you need to take advantage of free minifying tools to optimize your images to shave off th at extra bit of weight that could place a great toll on your website’s loading speed.Also be sure to name your images appropriately as well as include as much relevant metadata and keywords as possible. It will help search engines understand what is in that image and improve your search engine or SEO rankings, giving it a more organic boost.

The Tragedy Of Medea And Nora - 2328 Words

Aristotle’s definition of tragedy found in his Poetics, translated by S.H Butcher, is that the genre is â€Å"an imitation of an action that is serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude† (23). The different â€Å"magnitude[s]† of tragedy are explored in both Henrik Ibsen’s and in Euripides’ plays; arguably both are influenced by contrasting circumstances at the time of writing. Often the male is seen as the hero in tragedies, with strength being seen as a masculine trait and weakness as a feminine trait. However, Helene P. Foley argues that â€Å"although many female characters in tragedy do not violate popular norms for female behaviour, those who take action, and especially those who speak and act publicly and in their own interest, represent the†¦show more content†¦The suggestion that he is ‘looking out’ for Medea is ironic as it was his own actions that lead to her feeling deceived by someone that she had done all sh e could to help. There is also a sense that he believes himself to be untouchable, despite what he has done, emphasising that it is Medea that is the one who has done something wrong by expressing her emotions. His seeming arrogance is what, arguably, pushes Medea to the infanticide that she commits at the end of the play because he does not own up to what he has done she feels it only right to punish him in the best way that she seems as fitting, killing his children. Nonetheless, Gamel also argues that â€Å"many tragedies feature strong, transgressive female characters and raise questions about the nature and role of women† (486), in the case of Euripides’ play this â€Å"strong, transgressive female† is Medea. He paints her as an extremely bold and stubborn character that is consumed by powerful grief, and it is this grief that fuels her own actions making her a strong female character. Medea is therefore seen as the tragic heroine of the play; however this idea is a complicated one as she does not fit the standards of a hero being morally good, rather it is argued that she is more of a barbarian. Euripides foreshadows Medea’s barbaric actions when she tells her sons that she wishes they were ‘done for, along with [their] father’ (78), her response to the injustice she feels. This sense of

The Water Exercise Buoyancy Waist Band - 928 Words

This AquaJogger is the 1st water exercise buoyancy waist band. It s also the most well AquaJogger Classicknown, widespread item out of all the aquajogger products available. The belt keeps your body afloat in deep water and shallow water, allowing you to get a total body workout with no swimming experience necessary. Please keep in mind, this isn t a life jacket, and ought to never be utilized as a life jacket. ENTIRE BODY WORKOUT Conditioning your entire body is the AquaJogger Classic s whole purpose. The Flotation Belt uses delicate, adaptable and tough EVA foam to keep your body suspended upright in both shallow and deep water, allowing you the autonomy to move all of your appendages any way you want. The foam puts your body in a distinctive forward position, causing you to use your abs and torso to stay upright. Yet, the main key to the Classic is applying resistance to your exercises that the water provides- you can expand the performance of related exercises done on land to get rid of fat and tone muscle quicker. Movements with the AquaJogger Classic are performed statically (in one spot). Consequently, this water exercise belt is anything but difficult to use with no swimming experience needed in the slightest. Since water is the single resistance working against you, the AquaJogger Classic Flotation Belt offers an awesome opportunity to exercise without causing any wear and tear on the joints for elderly swimmers or anyone suffering from chronic pain for any

Twilight 20. IMPATIENCE Free Essays

20. IMPATIENCE When I woke up I was confused. My thoughts were hazy, still twisted up in dreams and nightmares; it took me longer than it should have to realize where I was. We will write a custom essay sample on Twilight 20. IMPATIENCE or any similar topic only for you Order Now This room was too bland to belong anywhere but in a hotel. The bedside lamps, bolted to the tables, were a dead giveaway, as were the long drapes made from the same fabric as the bedspread, and the generic watercolor prints on the walls. I tried to remember how I got here, but nothing came at first. I did remember the sleek black car, the glass in the windows darker than that on a limousine. The engine was almost silent, though we’d raced across the black freeways at more than twice the legal speed. And I remembered Alice sitting with me on the dark leather backseat. Somehow, during the long night, my head had ended up against her granite neck. My closeness didn’t seem to bother her at all, and her cool, hard skin was oddly comforting to me. The front of her thin cotton shirt was cold, damp with the tears that streamed from my eyes until, red and sore, they ran dry. Sleep had evaded me; my aching eyes strained open even though the night finally ended and dawn broke over a low peak somewhere in California. The gray light, streaking across the cloudless sky, stung my eyes. But I couldn’t close them; when I did, the images that flashed all too vividly, like still slides behind my lids, were unbearable. Charlie’s broken expression – Edward’s brutal snarl, teeth bared – Rosalie’s resentful glare – the keen-eyed scrutiny of the tracker – the dead look in Edward’s eyes after he kissed me the last time†¦ I couldn’t stand to see them. So I fought against my weariness and the sun rose higher. I was still awake when we came through a shallow mountain pass and the sun, behind us now, reflected off the tiled rooftops of the Valley of the Sun. I didn’t have enough emotion left to be surprised that we’d made a three-day journey in one. I stared blankly at the wide, flat expanse laid out in front of me. Phoenix – the palm trees, the scrubby creosote, the haphazard lines of the intersecting freeways, the green swaths of golf courses and turquoise splotches of swimming pools, all submerged in a thin smog and embraced by the short, rocky ridges that weren’t really big enough to be called mountains. The shadows of the palm trees slanted across the freeway – defined, sharper than I remembered, paler than they should be. Nothing could hide in these shadows. The bright, open freeway seemed benign enough. But I felt no relief, no sense of homecoming. â€Å"Which way to the airport, Bella?† Jasper had asked, and I flinched, though his voice was quite soft and un-alarming. It was the first sound, besides the purr of the car, to break the long night’s silence. â€Å"Stay on the I-ten,† I’d answered automatically. â€Å"We’ll pass right by it.† My brain had worked slowly through the fog of sleep deprivation. â€Å"Are we flying somewhere?† I’d asked Alice. â€Å"No, but it’s better to be close, just in case.† I remembered beginning the loop around Sky Harbor International†¦ but not ending it. I suppose that must have been when I’d fallen asleep. Though, now that I’d chased the memories down, I did have a vague impression of leaving the car – the sun was just falling behind the horizon – my arm draped over Alice’s shoulder and her arm firm around my waist, dragging me along as I stumbled through the warm, dry shadows. I had no memory of this room. I looked at the digital clock on the nightstand. The red numbers claimed it was three o’clock, but they gave no indication if it was night or day. No edge of light escaped the thick curtains, but the room was bright with the light from the lamps. I rose stiffly and staggered to the window, pulling back the drapes. It was dark outside. Three in the morning, then. My room looked out on a deserted section of the freeway and the new long-term parking garage for the airport. It was slightly comforting to be able to pinpoint time and place. I looked down at myself. I was still wearing Esme’s clothes, and they didn’t fit very well at all. I looked around the room, glad when I discovered my duffel bag on top of the low dresser. I was on my way to find new clothes when a light tap on the door made me jump. â€Å"Can I come in?† Alice asked. I took a deep breath. â€Å"Sure.† She walked in, and looked me over cautiously. â€Å"You look like you could sleep longer,† she said. I just shook my head. She drifted silently to the curtains and closed them securely before turning back to me. â€Å"We’ll need to stay inside,† she told me. â€Å"Okay.† My voice was hoarse; it cracked. â€Å"Thirsty?† she asked. I shrugged. â€Å"I’m okay. How about you?† â€Å"Nothing unmanageable.† She smiled. â€Å"I ordered some food for you, it’s in the front room. Edward reminded me that you have to eat a lot more frequently than we do.† I was instantly more alert. â€Å"He called?† â€Å"No,† she said, and watched as my face fell. â€Å"It was before we left.† She took my hand carefully and led me through the door into the living room of the hotel suite. I could hear a low buzz of voices coming from the TV. Jasper sat motionlessly at the desk in the corner, his eyes watching the news with no glimmer of interest. I sat on the floor next to the coffee table, where a tray of food waited, and began picking at it without noticing what I was eating. Alice perched on the arm of the sofa and stared blankly at the TV like Jasper. I ate slowly, watching her, turning now and then to glance quickly at Jasper. It began to dawn on me that they were too still. They never looked away from the screen, though commercials were playing now. I pushed the tray away, my stomach abruptly uneasy. Alice looked down at me. â€Å"What’s wrong, Alice?† I asked. â€Å"Nothing’s wrong.† Her eyes were wide, honest†¦ and I didn’t trust them. â€Å"What do we do now?† â€Å"We wait for Carlisle to call.† â€Å"And should he have called by now?† I could see that I was near the mark. Alice’s eyes flitted from mine to the phone on top of her leather bag and back. â€Å"What does that mean?† My voice quavered, and I fought to control it. â€Å"That he hasn’t called yet?† â€Å"It just means that they don’t have anything to tell us.† But her voice was too even, and the air was harder to breathe. Jasper was suddenly beside Alice, closer to me than usual. â€Å"Bella,† he said in a suspiciously soothing voice. â€Å"You have nothing to worry about. You are completely safe here.† â€Å"I know that.† â€Å"Then why are you frightened?† he asked, confused. He might feel the tenor of my emotions, but he couldn’t read the reasons behind them. â€Å"You heard what Laurent said.† My voice was just a whisper, but I was sure they could hear me. â€Å"He said James was lethal. What if something goes wrong, and they get separated? If something happens to any of them, Carlisle, Emmett†¦ Edward†¦Ã¢â‚¬  I gulped. â€Å"If that wild female hurts Esme†¦Ã¢â‚¬  My voice had grown higher, a note of hysteria beginning to rise in it. â€Å"How could I live with myself when it’s my fault? None of you should be risking yourselves for me -â€Å" â€Å"Bella, Bella, stop,† he interrupted me, his words pouring out so quickly they were hard to understand. â€Å"You’re worrying about all the wrong things, Bella. Trust me on this – none of us are in jeopardy. You are under too much strain as it is; don’t add to it with wholly unnecessary worries. Listen to me!† he ordered, for I had looked away. â€Å"Our family is strong. Our only fear is losing you.† â€Å"But why should you -â€Å" Alice interrupted this time, touching my cheek with her cold fingers. â€Å"It’s been almost a century that Edward’s been alone. Now he’s found you. You can’t see the changes that we see, we who have been with him for so long. Do you think any of us want to look into his eyes for the next hundred years if he loses you?† My guilt slowly subsided as I looked into her dark eyes. But, even as the calm spread over me, I knew I couldn’t trust my feelings with Jasper there. It was a very long day. We stayed in the room. Alice called down to the front desk and asked them to ignore our maid service for now. The windows stayed shut, the TV on, though no one watched it. At regular intervals, food was delivered for me. The silver phone resting on Alice’s bag seemed to grow bigger as the hours passed. My babysitters handled the suspense better than I did. As I fidgeted and paced, they simply grew more still, two statues whose eyes followed me imperceptibly as I moved. I occupied myself with memorizing the room; the striped pattern of the couches, tan, peach, cream, dull gold, and tan again. Sometimes I stared at the abstract prints, randomly finding pictures in the shapes, like I’d found pictures in the clouds as a child. I traced a blue hand, a woman combing her hair, a cat stretching. But when the pale red circle became a staring eye, I looked away. As the afternoon wore on, I went back to bed, simply for something to do. I hoped that by myself in the dark, I could give in to the terrible fears that hovered on the edge of my consciousness, unable to break through under Jasper’s careful supervision. But Alice followed me casually, as if by some coincidence she had grown tired of the front room at the same time. I was beginning to wonder exactly what sort of instructions Edward had given her. I lay across the bed, and she sat, legs folded, next to me. I ignored her at first, suddenly tired enough to sleep. But after a few minutes, the panic that had held off in Jasper’s presence began to make itself known. I gave up on the idea of sleep quickly then, curling up into a small ball, wrapping my arms around my legs. â€Å"Alice?† I asked. â€Å"Yes?† I kept my voice very calm. â€Å"What do you think they’re doing?† â€Å"Carlisle wanted to lead the tracker as far north as possible, wait for him to get close, and then turn and ambush him. Esme and Rosalie were supposed to head west as long as they could keep the female behind them. If she turned around, they were to head back to Forks and keep an eye on your dad. So I imagine things are going well if they can’t call. It means the tracker is close enough that they don’t want him to overhear.† â€Å"And Esme?† â€Å"I think she must be back in Forks. She won’t call if there’s any chance the female will overhear. I expect they’re all just being very careful.† â€Å"Do you think they’re safe, really?† â€Å"Bella, how many times do we have to tell you that there’s no danger to us?† â€Å"Would you tell me the truth, though?† â€Å"Yes. I will always tell you the truth.† Her voice was earnest. I deliberated for a moment, and decided she meant it. â€Å"Tell me then†¦ how do you become a vampire?† My question caught her off guard. She was quiet. I rolled over to look at her, and her expression seemed ambivalent. â€Å"Edward doesn’t want me to tell you that,† she said firmly, but I sensed she didn’t agree. â€Å"That’s not fair. I think I have a right to know.† â€Å"I know.† I looked at her, waiting. She sighed. â€Å"He’ll be extremely angry.† â€Å"It’s none of his business. This is between you and me. Alice, as a friend, I’m begging you.† And we were friends now, somehow – as she must have known we would be all along. She looked at me with her splendid, wise eyes†¦ choosing. â€Å"I’ll tell you the mechanics of it,† she said finally, â€Å"but I don’t remember it myself, and I’ve never done it or seen it done, so keep in mind that I can only tell you the theory.† I waited. â€Å"As predators, we have a glut of weapons in our physical arsenal – much, much more than really necessary. The strength, the speed, the acute senses, not to mention those of us like Edward, Jasper, and I, who have extra senses as well. And then, like a carnivorous flower, we are physically attractive to our prey.† I was very still, remembering how pointedly Edward had demonstrated the same concept for me in the meadow. She smiled a wide, ominous smile. â€Å"We have another fairly superfluous weapon. We’re also venomous,† she said, her teeth glistening. â€Å"The venom doesn’t kill – it’s merely incapacitating. It works slowly, spreading through the bloodstream, so that, once bitten, our prey is in too much physical pain to escape us. Mostly superfluous, as I said. If we’re that close, the prey doesn’t escape. Of course, there are always exceptions. Carlisle, for example.† â€Å"So†¦ if the venom is left to spread†¦Ã¢â‚¬  I murmured. â€Å"It takes a few days for the transformation to be complete, depending on how much venom is in the bloodstream, how close the venom enters to the heart. As long as the heart keeps beating, the poison spreads, healing, changing the body as it moves through it. Eventually the heart stops, and the conversion is finished. But all that time, every minute of it, a victim would be wishing for death.† I shivered. â€Å"It’s not pleasant, you see.† â€Å"Edward said that it was very hard to do†¦ I don’t quite understand,† I said. â€Å"We’re also like sharks in a way. Once we taste the blood, or even smell it for that matter, it becomes very hard to keep from feeding. Sometimes impossible. So you see, to actually bite someone, to taste the blood, it would begin the frenzy. It’s difficult on both sides – the blood-lust on the one hand, the awful pain on the other.† â€Å"Why do you think you don’t remember?† â€Å"I don’t know. For everyone else, the pain of transformation is the sharpest memory they have of their human life. I remember nothing of being human.† Her voice was wistful. We lay silently, wrapped in our individual meditations. The seconds ticked by, and I had almost forgotten her presence, I was so enveloped in my thoughts. Then, without any warning, Alice leaped from the bed, landing lightly on her feet. My head jerked up as I stared at her, startled. â€Å"Something’s changed.† Her voice was urgent, and she wasn’t talking to me anymore. She reached the door at the same time Jasper did. He had obviously heard our conversation and her sudden exclamation. He put his hands on her shoulders and guided her back to the bed, sitting her on the edge. â€Å"What do you see?† he asked intently, staring into her eyes. Her eyes were focused on something very far away. I sat close to her, leaning in to catch her low, quick voice. â€Å"I see a room. It’s long, and there are mirrors everywhere. The floor is wooden. He’s in the room, and he’s waiting. There’s gold†¦ a gold stripe across the mirrors.† â€Å"Where is the room?† â€Å"I don’t know. Something is missing – another decision hasn’t been made yet.† â€Å"How much time?† â€Å"It’s soon. He’ll be in the mirror room today, or maybe tomorrow. It all depends. He’s waiting for something. And he’s in the dark now.† Jasper’s voice was calm, methodical, as he questioned her in a practiced way. â€Å"What is he doing?† â€Å"He’s watching TV†¦ no, he’s running a VCR, in the dark, in another place.† â€Å"Can you see where he is?† â€Å"No, it’s too dark.† â€Å"And the mirror room, what else is there?† â€Å"Just the mirrors, and the gold. It’s a band, around the room. And there’s a black table with a big stereo, and a TV. He’s touching the VCR there, but he doesn’t watch the way he does in the dark room. This is the room where he waits.† Her eyes drifted, then focused on Jasper’s face. â€Å"There’s nothing else?† She shook her head. They looked at each other, motionless. â€Å"What does it mean?† I asked. Neither of them answered for a moment, then Jasper looked at me. â€Å"It means the tracker’s plans have changed. He’s made a decision that will lead him to the mirror room, and the dark room.† â€Å"But we don’t know where those rooms are?† â€Å"No.† â€Å"But we do know that he won’t be in the mountains north of Washington, being hunted. He’ll elude them.† Alice’s voice was bleak. â€Å"Should we call?† I asked. They traded a serious look, undecided. And the phone rang. Alice was across the room before I could lift my head to look at it. She pushed a button and held the phone to her ear, but she didn’t speak first. â€Å"Carlisle,† she breathed. She didn’t seem surprised or relieved, the way I felt. â€Å"Yes,† she said, glancing at me. She listened for a long moment. â€Å"I just saw him.† She described again the vision she’d seen. â€Å"Whatever made him get on that plane†¦ it was leading him to those rooms.† She paused. â€Å"Yes,† Alice said into the phone, and then she spoke to me. â€Å"Bella?† She held the phone out toward me. I ran to it. â€Å"Hello?† I breathed. â€Å"Bella,† Edward said. â€Å"Oh, Edward! I was so worried.† â€Å"Bella,† he sighed in frustration, â€Å"I told you not to worry about anything but yourself.† It was so unbelievably good to hear his voice. I felt the hovering cloud of despair lighten and drift back as he spoke. â€Å"Where are you?† â€Å"We’re outside of Vancouver. Bella, I’m sorry – we lost him. He seems suspicious of us – he’s careful to stay just far enough away that I can’t hear what he’s thinking. But he’s gone now – it looks like he got on a plane. We think he’s heading back to Forks to start over.† I could hear Alice filling in Jasper behind me, her quick words blurring together into a humming noise. â€Å"I know. Alice saw that he got away.† â€Å"You don’t have to worry, though. He won’t find anything to lead him to you. You just have to stay there and wait till we find him again.† â€Å"I’ll be fine. Is Esme with Charlie?† â€Å"Yes – the female has been in town. She went to the house, but while Charlie was at work. She hasn’t gone near him, so don’t be afraid. He’s safe with Esme and Rosalie watching.† â€Å"What is she doing?† â€Å"Probably trying to pick up the trail. She’s been all through the town during the night. Rosalie traced her through the airport, all the roads around town, the school†¦ she’s digging, Bella, but there’s nothing to find.† â€Å"And you’re sure Charlie’s safe?† â€Å"Yes, Esme won’t let him out of her sight. And we’ll be there soon. If the tracker gets anywhere near Forks, we’ll have him.† â€Å"I miss you,† I whispered. â€Å"I know, Bella. Believe me, I know. It’s like you’ve taken half my self away with you.† â€Å"Come and get it, then,† I challenged. â€Å"Soon, as soon as I possibly can. I will make you safe first.† His voice was hard. â€Å"I love you,† I reminded him. â€Å"Could you believe that, despite everything I’ve put you through, I love you, too?† â€Å"Yes, I can, actually.† â€Å"I’ll come for you soon.† â€Å"I’ll be waiting.† As soon as the phone went dead, the cloud of depression began to creep over me again. I turned to give the phone back to Alice and found her and Jasper bent over the table, where Alice was sketching on a piece of hotel stationery. I leaned on the back of the couch, looking over her shoulder. She drew a room: long, rectangular, with a thinner, square section at the back. The wooden planks that made up the floor stretched lengthwise across the room. Down the walls were lines denoting the breaks in the mirrors. And then, wrapping around the walls, waist high, a long band. The band Alice said was gold. â€Å"It’s a ballet studio,† I said, suddenly recognizing the familiar shapes. They looked at me, surprised. â€Å"Do you know this room?† Jasper’s voice sounded calm, but there was an undercurrent of something I couldn’t identify. Alice bent her head to her work, her hand flying across the page now, the shape of an emergency exit taking shape against the back wall, the stereo and TV on a low table by the front right corner. â€Å"It looks like a place I used to go for dance lessons – when I was eight or nine. It was shaped just the same.† I touched the page where the square section jutted out, narrowing the back part of the room. â€Å"That’s where the bathrooms were – the doors were through the other dance floor. But the stereo was here† – I pointed to the left corner – â€Å"it was older, and there wasn’t a TV. There was a window in the waiting room – you would see the room from this perspective if you looked through it.† Alice and Jasper were staring at me. â€Å"Are you sure it’s the same room?† Jasper asked, still calm. â€Å"No, not at all – I suppose most dance studios would look the same – the mirrors, the bar.† I traced my finger along the ballet bar set against the mirrors. â€Å"It’s just the shape that looked familiar.† I touched the door, set in exactly the same place as the one I remembered. â€Å"Would you have any reason to go there now?† Alice asked, breaking my reverie. â€Å"No, I haven’t been there in almost ten years. I was a terrible dancer – they always put me in the back for recitals,† I admitted. â€Å"So there’s no way it could be connected with you?† Alice asked intently. â€Å"No, I don’t even think the same person owns it. I’m sure it’s just another dance studio, somewhere.† â€Å"Where was the studio you went to?† Jasper asked in a casual voice. â€Å"It was just around the corner from my mom’s house. I used to walk there after school†¦Ã¢â‚¬  I said, my voice trailing off. I didn’t miss the look they exchanged. â€Å"Here in Phoenix, then?† His voice was still casual. â€Å"Yes,† I whispered. â€Å"Fifty-eighth Street and Cactus.† We all sat in silence, staring at the drawing. â€Å"Alice, is that phone safe?† â€Å"Yes,† she reassured me. â€Å"The number would just trace back to Washington.† â€Å"Then I can use it to call my mom.† â€Å"I thought she was in Florida.† â€Å"She is – but she’s coming home soon, and she can’t come back to that house while†¦Ã¢â‚¬  My voice trembled. I was thinking about something Edward had said, about the red-haired female at Charlie’s house, at the school, where my records would be. â€Å"How will you reach her?† â€Å"They don’t have a permanent number except at the house – she’s supposed to check her messages regularly.† â€Å"Jasper?† Alice asked. He thought about it. â€Å"I don’t think there’s any way it could hurt – be sure you don’t say where you are, of course.† I reached eagerly for the phone and dialed the familiar number. It rang four times, and then I heard my mom’s breezy voice telling me to leave a message. â€Å"Mom,† I said after the beep, â€Å"it’s me. Listen, I need you to do something. It’s important. As soon as you get this message, call me at this number.† Alice was already at my side, writing the number for me on the bottom of her picture. I read it carefully, twice. â€Å"Please don’t go anywhere until you talk to me. Don’t worry, I’m okay, but I have to talk to you right away, no matter how late you get this call, all right? I love you, Mom. Bye.† I closed my eyes and prayed with all my might that no unforeseen change of plans would bring her home before she got my message. I settled into the sofa, nibbling on a plate of leftover fruit, anticipating a long evening. I thought about calling Charlie, but I wasn’t sure if I should be home by now or not. I concentrated on the news, watching out for stories about Florida, or about spring training – strikes or hurricanes or terrorist attacks – anything that might send them home early. Immortality must grant endless patience. Neither Jasper nor Alice seemed to feel the need to do anything at all. For a while, Alice sketched the vague outline of the dark room from her vision, as much as she could see in the light from the TV. But when she was done, she simply sat, looking at the blank walls with her timeless eyes. Jasper, too, seemed to have no urge to pace, or peek through the curtains, or run screaming out the door, the way I did. I must have fallen asleep on the couch, waiting for the phone to ring again. The touch of Alice’s cold hands woke me briefly as she carried me to the bed, but I was unconscious again before my head hit the pillow. How to cite Twilight 20. IMPATIENCE, Essay examples

World War I Essay Example Essay Example

World War I Essay Example Paper World War I Essay Introduction Class tension did not primarily manifest itself in an increase in spontaneous outbreaks of unrest, of collective protests or of violence. Instead it showed itself in union-organized strike movements and in the increasing confrontation, at the level of political decision making process, between emancipatory forces and those defending the status quo.When collective action intensifies, the practicality of things matter more than some rhetorical political and ideological questions of class struggle. The conditions of the German working class can be summed up by two words; ‘deprivation’ and ‘exploitation’. Issues of immediate concern addressed and fought for by the German unions were about ‘bread and butter’ such as wages, hours, working conditions and not that of dissemination of socialist ideas.15 Strikes became synonymous to industrial action, an outlet for the workers to improve and defend their living standards especially concerning wages. The a bove was the scenario with the working class in Germany and how they were mobilized into collective action. With the Great War approaching, mass mobilization took a different turn. As an extension of the mobilization of the German workers was the politicization of the mass at political level. To reiterate, it is argued that in Germany mass mobilization in form of politicization towards the Great War was the result of her domestic and social tension.16 The industrialized and urbanized Germany had led to the establishment of popular elected parliament whereby the monarchy, the army, and the Prussian nobility were wielded political power. Resented by this concentration of power, German working class established socialist movement and held powerful wave of strikes in 1914. World War I Essay Body Paragraphs Germany inherited a great legacy from their political realist leader Otto Von Bismarck who led Germany successfully in his foreign affairs thus silencing the political unrest incited by the liberals at home and this strategy was adopted by the German ruling class. It is further argued, fearing the opposition from the socialist movement to intensify and at the same time wanting to maintain their status quo, ‘German ruling class was willing to gamble on diplomatic victory and even war as the means to rallying the masses to its side and preserving its privileged position’.17 This they hope can silence the working class. It is argued that the seeds of tension between the working class (the radicalized German right-wing that included the petty bourgeois group) and the industrial workers represented by the Social Democratic Party on the Left were already sown in the 1890s.18 This division and disunity within Germany have to be overcome and imperial expansion deemed to be a leg itimate way to unite the nation. Another aspect of politicization of the masses by the Right was in what a modern but strong phrase would describe, â€Å"wag the dog† i.e diverting the Germans’ attention from domestic crisis, with the exception that the war was not fake and the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand was a good excuse to wage a war and thus precipitated it. Politicization of the mass for total war was also helped by popular press as a brainwashing agent fueling nationalism among European nations that ‘were grouped into alliances that faced each other with ever mounting hostility’.19 At political level among the ruling class, the plan was; A campaign to commit the Government to a so-called Siegfriden in which Germany would use her expected victory to demand a large-scale territorial annexations in both East and West and in the form of overseas colonies. This was regarded as vital not simply in order to reestablish Germany as a world power , but also as a means of diverting pressure for democratic reform at home.The liberals would argue war is justified and as â€Å"the art to conquering at home†.21 This maneuvering of mobilization by the mean of politicization by the German ruling class was successful and marked the triumph of nationalism before and during the interwar period which is a pre-condition for a war to break out. While bureaucratization and technology have vastly extended the state’s capacity for surveillance and repression, mass involvement in the political process has made legitimacy, the consent of the ruled, an increasingly vital condition of the state’s effective operation. Political mobilization as a process has acted to legitimize (or contest) the authority of regimes as well as to articulate interests within them.Fritz Fischer however is of the opinion that Social Darwinism and militarist doctrines had affected Germany to become the leading economic and political power in Europ e and to play a greater role in world politics; to achieve this goal she was willing to go to war.24 Fischer’s critics however argue that Social Darwinism and militarism was not uniquely a German phenomenon, but plague other European nations as well.25 This is agreeable as military race among European powers such France, Britain, Italy and Russia was already at its rapid pace waiting to explode. Perhaps the synthesis of the two arguments; nationalism and Social Darwinism can be used to explain what generated the mass to mobilize in Germany that led to the Great War to break out.Believing that Germany must either grow or die, nationalists pressed the government to build a powerful navy, acquire colonies, gain a much greater share of the world’s markets and expand German interests and influence in Europe. Sometimes these goals were expressed in the language of Social Darwinism: nations are engaged in an eternal struggle for survival and domination.26 Furthermore the mili tant nationalists preached,the special destiny of the German race and advocated German expansion in Europe and overseas. Decisive victories against Austria (1866) and France (1871), the formation of the German Reich, rapid industrialization, and the impressive achievements of German science and scholarship had molded a powerful and dynamic nation. Imbued with great expectations for the future, Germans became increasingly impatient to see the fatherland gain its â€Å"rightful† place in world affairs – an attitude that alarmed non-Germans.27 War had mobilized European working class and turned their allegiance to their fatherland respectively. ‘Even the socialists, who had pledge their loyalty to an international worker’s movement, devoted themselves to their respective nations’.28 Perhaps it can be argued that at this point the celebration or welcoming of war by the German working class they naively saw as an opportunity for a change for they are tir ed of the striking gap between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie. On the eve of the War, ‘the workers formed a quite clearly identifiable, excluded and underprivileged group’.29 War was even celebrated, ‘war and its violence seemed to offer an escape from the dull routine of classroom, job and home and from the emptiness, drabness, mediocrity, and pettiness of bourgeois society’. Patriotic and nationalistic sentiments swept across Europe and cemented people into a collectivity ready to commit to the nation. The youth had been indoctrinated with strong nationalist sentiment, beliefs and myths that were designed in state-directed education curriculum to create social cohesion.Amidst the World War I, propaganda machines garnered complete mobilization of the mass and at this time, not only the general German nation is united but also other European nations outside Germany as part of her Central Power allies vis-à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½-vis the Entente Powers are plunged into a psychological warfare.32 Germany and her allies, as the undisputed aggressor was effectively depicted as the bad guy on war posters. In psychological warfare, ‘truth’, ‘ethics’, ‘authority, ‘morality’ have no place in the dictionary of mass propaganda.33 Another mechanism for mass mobilization was the indiscriminate and impersonal general mass conscription that consequently made the line between combatant and civilian blurred, hence the very large scale of casualties in the Great War.34 H.G Wells once argues, mass mobilization legitimizes civilians as targets. Wartime mobilization and Revolution in GermanyIn Germany in 1916, in the midst of the Great War, German males between seventeen and sixty were required to work only for war effort.35 Labor was ranked among soldiers and sailors in their importance as vital resource in World War I and was fully exploited by the state and factory employers in the relentless effort to keep the ar my in the field supplied with bullets, shells, and uniforms. This massive exploitation of workers had plunged Germany and other European countries into another series of workers’ strikes. The scenarios especially were rampant in German industrial cities. Like the situation before the war, issues of great concern were about â€Å"bread and butter† and added by other critical problems between the military and industry (workers) as question such as ‘why they should make sacrifices to save a state which was in no way representative of their interests on account of its undemocratic structure’. In this sense, workers were also concerned about political reforms that could affect them. War was fought and ended with bitter result, German economy was drained, grudges were still held among the general German working class and to a large extent the middle class sectors who were directly or indirectly affected by the war economically. The most significant repercussion of the war had on the workers was the radicalization of certain sections of European labor movements and created factions between labor movements and class tensions.37 This radicalization ultimately changes the course of German mass mobilization. Problems such as, food shortage, inflation, longer working hours, increased governmental regulation of mobility and overtaxing were all factors that served to fuel working class ranging from those in industries, farmers, miners and to bitterly resent the state. Workers demanded that the State intervened more, unable to address to all their demands, German state faced massive unrest and complete anarchy when laws were not obeyed hence the fast disappearing of confidence in the government and in September 1918, a workers assembly at Stuttgart concluded the helplessness of the government.39 With the participations of Proletarian councilmen, returning veterans, fiery socialist orators, collective action was carried out in November 1918 marking a German revolution and the decline of Weimar Republic’s power for a formation of a more egalitarian â€Å"people’s state† or Volkstaat.40 From 1918 until 1920 marked the period of people’s pressure when the Wilhelmine government had to surrender to the populist demand for more effective representation and more say in the government policy and decision making.41 We will write a custom essay sample on World War I Essay Example specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on World War I Essay Example specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on World War I Essay Example specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer

How to Convert Celsius and Fahrenheit

How to Convert Celsius and Fahrenheit Most countries around the world measure their weather and temperatures using the relatively simple Celsius scale. But the United States is one of the five remaining countries that use the Fahrenheit scale, so its important for Americans to know how to convert one to the other, especially when traveling or doing scientific research.   Celsius Fahrenheit Conversion Formulas To convert a temperature from Celsius to Fahrenheit, you will take the temperature in Celsius and multiply it by 1.8, then add 32 degrees. So if your Celsius temperature is 50 degrees, the corresponding Fahrenheit temperature is 122 degrees: (50 degrees Celsius x 1.8) 32 122 degrees Fahrenheit If you need to convert a temperature in Fahrenheit, simply reverse the process: subtract 32, then divide by 1.8. So 122 degrees Fahrenheit is still 50 degrees Celsius: (122 degrees Fahrenheit - 32)  Ãƒ · 1.8 50 degrees Celsius Its Not Just About Conversions While its useful to know how to convert Celsius to Fahrenheit and vice versa, its also important to understand the differences between the two scales. First, its important to clarify the difference between Celsius and centigrade, since theyre not quite the same thing.   A third international unit of temperature measurement, Kelvin, is widely used in scientific applications. But for everyday and household temperatures (and your local meteorologists weather report), youre most likely to use Fahrenheit in the U.S. and Celsius most other places around the world.   Difference Between Celsius and Centigrade Some people use the terms Celsius and centigrade interchangeably, but its not completely accurate to do so.  The Celsius scale is a type of centigrade scale, meaning its endpoints are separated by 100 degrees. The word is derived from the Latin words centum, which means hundred, and gradus, which means scales or steps. Put simply, Celsius is the proper name of a centigrade scale of temperature. As devised by Swedish astronomy professor Anders Celsius, this particular  centigrade scale had  100  degrees occurring at the freezing point of water and 0 degrees as waters boiling point. This was reversed after his death by fellow Swede and botanist Carlous Linneaus to be more easily understood. The centigrade scale Celsius created was renamed for him after it was redefined to be more precise  by the General Conference of Weights and Measures in the 1950s.   There is one point on both scales where Fahrenheit and Celsius temperatures match, which is minus 40 degrees Celsius and minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit.   Invention of the Fahrenheit Temperature Scale The first mercury thermometer was invented by German scientist Daniel Fahrenheit in 1714. His scale divides the freezing and boiling points of water into 180 degrees, with 32 degrees as waters freezing point, and 212 as its boiling point. On Fahrenheits scale, 0 degrees was determined as the temperature of a brine solution. He based the scale on the average temperature of the human body, which he originally calculated at 100 degrees (its since been adjusted to 98.6 degrees). Fahrenheit was the standard unit of measure in most countries until the 1960s and 1970s when it was replaced with the Celsius scale in a widespread conversion to the more useful metric system. But in addition to the U.S. and its territories,  Fahrenheit is still used in  the Bahamas, Belize, and the Cayman Islands for most temperature measurements.

Synonymy Definition and Examples

Synonymy Definition and Examples Pronunciation: si-NON-eh-mi Definition: The semantic qualities or sense relations that exist between words (lexemes) with closely related meanings (i.e., synonyms). Plural: synonymies. Contrast with antonymy. Synonymy may also refer to the study of synonyms or to a list of synonyms. In the words of Dagmar Divjak, near-synonymy (the relationship between different lexemes that express similar meanings) is a fundamental phenomenon that influences the structure of our lexical knowledge (Structuring the Lexicon, 2010). Examples and Observations The phenomenon of synonymy is a central interest for both the semanticist and the language learner. For the former, synonymy is an important member of the theoretical set of logical relations existing in language. For the latter, there is a good deal of evidence to suggest that vocabulary is often best acquired by analogy, in other words, remembered as being similar in meaning to previously acquired forms... In addition, what we might term definition through synonym is a central feature of most dictionary organisation (Ilson 1991: 294-6). For motives of stylistic variation, non-native learners and translators have a pressing need to find lexical alternatives to express a particular concept, especially in writing. Harvey Yuill (1994) found that searches for synonyms accounted for over 10 percent of dictionary consultations when learners were engaged in a writing task. However, given the rarity of absolute synonymy, learners also need to know which of the particular synonyms given by dictionaries and thesauruses is the most suitable for any given context.(Alan Partington, Patterns and Meanings: Using Corpora for English Language Research and Teaching. John Benjamins, 1998)​ The Productivity of Synonymy - The productivity of synonymy is clearly observable. If we invent a new word that represents (to some extent) the same thing that an existing word in the language represents, then the new word is automatically a synonym of the older word. For example, every time a new slang term meaning automobile is invented, a synonym relation is predicted for the new slang term (say, ride) and the standard and slang terms that already exist (car, auto, wheels, etc.). Ride does not need to be inducted as a member of the synonym set- no one has to say ride means the same thing as car in order for the synonym relation to be understood. All that must happen is that ride must be used and understood to mean the same thing as car- as in My new ride is a Honda.(M. Lynne Murphy, Semantic Relations and the Lexicon. Cambridge University Press, 2003)Synonymy, Near-Synonymy, and Degrees of Formality - It should be noted that the idea of sameness of meaning used in discussing synon ymy is not necessarily total sameness. There are many occasions when one word is appropriate in a sentence, but its synonym would be odd. For example, whereas the word answer fits in this sentence: Cathy had only one answer correct on the test, its near-synonym, reply, would sound odd. Synonymous forms may also differ in terms of formality. The sentence My father purchased a large automobile seems much more serious than the following casual version, with four synonymous replacements: My dad bought a big car.(George Yule, The Study of Language, 2nd ed. Cambridge University Press, 1996) Synonymy and Polysemy - What defines synonymy is precisely the possibility of substituting words in given contexts without altering the objective and affective meaning. Inversely, the irreducible character of the phenomenon of synonymy is confirmed by the possibility of providing synonyms for the various acceptations of a single word (this is the commutative test of polysemy itself): the word review is the synonym sometimes of parade, sometimes of magazine. In every case a community of meaning is at the bottom of synonymy. Because it is an irreducible phenomenon, synonymy can play two roles at once: offering a stylistic resource for fine distinctions (peak instead of summit, minuscule for minute, etc.), and indeed for emphasis, for reinforcement, for piling-on, as in the mannerist style of [French poet Charles] Pà ©guy; and providing a test of commutativity for polysemy. Identity and difference can be accentuated in turn in the notion of partial semantic identity.So polysemy is defi ned initially as the inverse of synonymy, as [French philologist Michel] Brà ©al was the first to observe: now not several names for one sense (synonymy), but several senses for one name (polysemy).(Paul Ricoeur, The Rule of Metaphor: Multi-Disciplinary Studies in the Creation of Meaning in Language, 1975; translated by Robert Czerny. University of Toronto Press, 1977)

Effective Cross-Cultural Management in the UK Company Essay - 2

Effective Cross-Cultural Management in the UK Company - Essay Example According to Hennart and Zeng (2002), amalgamation of organizational structure, team dynamics and business infrastructure has gone through a regime shift, which has been witnessed over last 20 years primarily because of a globalized world. Due to a strongly interconnected world, frequency as well as amount of knowledge and information transmission across borders has increased to a great extent (Hofstede and McCrae, 2004). Considering the current intensity of competition and business environment, it is noticed that companies headquartered in a particular country are seeking entry into international field by means of business expansion on a global magnitude. Johnson, Lenartowicz and Apud (2006) suggested that the underlying motive behind implementation of such a strategy is to gain an advantageous position. In effect, companies gain access to a larger base of customer and are able to amplify growth rate (Minbaeva and Michailova, 2004). Empirical research scholars such as, Moran, Harris and Moran (2007) and Morley and Robins (2001), provide a different view point. According to the authors, companies implement global expansion strategies in order to spread risk evenly. Such strategies offer companies with the opportunity to diversify their business portfolio, thereby setting up compound earning sources and learning foreign cultures. The fundamental motive behind undergoing such a learning process is to support innovation.

It is up to you Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 3

It is up to you - Coursework Example The best experience is that everybody could give there points and express themselves without any fear as we were all equal. As much as many people consider these tutorials as a waste of money and time, I am not of the same idea because we gained a lot and we made sure we attended lecturers without the fear of the different styles used for teaching or even getting confused in the process. I have to agree though that we had difficulty in understanding some content and I ended up failing in some exams. The phrase, ‘Recognizing and editing sentence fragments’ gave me a lot of hard times in the tutorial as no one could clearly explain it to me. Eventually my grades started improving and I got to understand the things that we were discussing. The time that I had impressive grades in all the courses marked my success point in the tutorials. What I like most is that is that I encounter these things in my life and I don’t have hard time tackling

Ethics and Morality of the Death Penalty | Personal View

Ethics and Morality of the Death Penalty | Personal View The death penalty is an immoral and ineffective policy. In this paper I will show that the death penalty is ineffective and immoral. I will prove that it is ineffective by showing that it has been imposed on innocent people, targets racial minorities, and does not deter crime. In addition, I will prove that it is an immoral practice. The death penalty has been imposed on innocent people in the past. Researchers James Liebman and Jeffry Fagan examined death penalty cases in a time period of twenty-two years and found that most of the cases were not conducted correctly, and that many of the defendants were innocent. Of the eighty-two percent of defendants with death sentences that were overturned by state appellate courts7% were found to be innocent of the capital crime charged (Schmalleger). The innocence of some of the defendants convicted of a capital crime proves the fallibility of the juries which convicted them. Juries impose their racial prejudices when finding a defendant guilty or innocent. This is evident in the ratio of African Americans and Caucasian Americans in the population, compared to the ration of them convicted with the death penalty. African Americans compose of twelve percent of the population of the United States, and they compose of forty-two percent of the number of current people on death row. Moreover, in almost every death penalty [of a black person], the race of the victim is white, whereas [since 1972] only one [death penalty] has involved a white defendant for the murder of a black person (Schmalleger). These statistics clearly indicate that juries impose their racial prejudices on defendants. Crime rates do not deter in states with the death penalty. Many death penalty apologists claim that the imposition of the death penalty deters people from committing violent crimes. However, studies have shown that homicides in some states with the death penalty are, shockingly, higher than those without it. Moreover, it is also a financial burden to impose the death penalty on people. It costs more to impose the death penalty on someone than it does to confine them to prison for life. The concept of the death penalty is immoral in itself, for it returns a wrong for a wrong. The wrongness or evil of an action is not affected when imposed on someone who committed a wrong in the past. This is because the wrongness of an action exists within the action itself, and not the circumstances in which the action is committed. The reason that the state gets involved when someone does some sort of wrong is because that wrong has somehow disturbed the order of society. And people are jailed or imprisoned to prevent them from further disturbing the order of society. But returning the wrong (e.g. the death penalty) does not repair the order that existed prior to the first wrong, but only disturbs it more. This is because retribution (e.g. imposing the death penalty on someone who murdered someone) is not a good and if it were the case that it is a good then someone should be able to enact revenge on someone who wronged them in the past. For example, if it were the case that retri bution is good then a man should be able to steal from a thief who stole from him in the first place. Another example is someone raping an individual who raped them prior to the first incident. These two examples clearly show that it is evidently untrue that retribution is good. Thus, the death penalty is not beneficial to society, and it is also immoral. In this paper I have showed that the death penalty is both ineffective and immoral. It is ineffective in that it does not deter crime, it is imposed on innocent people, and targets racial minorities. It is immoral because it returns a wrong for a wrong, and a wrong is never right, evidently. Therefore, the death penalty is an immoral and ineffective practice. Reference:Â  Schmalleger, Frank. Criminology. 2nd. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education, 2011.

Political Philosophy and Plato Essay

Credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy, he is an enigmatic figure known chiefly through the accounts of later classical writers, especially the writings of his students Plato and Xenophon, and the plays of his contemporary Aristophanes. Many would claim that Plato’s dialogues are the most comprehensive accounts of Socrates to survive from antiquity. Through his portrayal in Plato’s dialogues, Socrates has become renowned for his contribution to the field of ethics, and it is this Platonic Socrates who also lends his name to the concepts of Socratic irony and the Socratic method, or elenchus. The latter remains a commonly used tool in a wide range of discussions, and is a type of pedagogy in which a series of questions are asked not only to draw individual answers, but also to encourage fundamental insight into the issue at hand. It is Plato’s Socrates that also made important and lasting contributions to the fields of epistemology and logic, and the influence of his ideas and approach remains strong in providing a foundation for much western philosophy that followed. As one recent commentator has put it, Plato, the idealist, offers â€Å"an idol, a master figure, for philosophy. A Saint, a prophet of the ‘Sun-God’, a teacher condemned for his teachings as a heretic. † Yet, the ‘real’ Socrates, like many of the other ancient philosophers, remains, at best, enigmatic and, at worst, unknown. Perhaps his most important contribution to Western thought is his dialectic method of inquiry, known as the Socratic method or method of â€Å"elenchus†, which he largely applied to the examination of key moral concepts such as the Good and Justice. It was first described by Plato in the Socratic Dialogues. To solve a problem, it would be broken down into a series of questions, the answers to which gradually distill the answer a person would seek. The influence of this approach is most strongly felt today in the use of the scientific method, in which hypothesis is the first stage. The development and practice of this method is one of Socrates’ most enduring contributions, and is a key factor in earning his mantle as the father of political philosophy, ethics or moral philosophy, and as a figurehead of all the central themes in Western philosophy. To illustrate the use of the Socratic method; a series of questions are posed to help a person or group to determine their underlying beliefs and the extent of their knowledge. The Socratic method is a negative method of hypothesis elimination, in that better hypotheses are found by steadily identifying and eliminating those that lead to contradictions. It was designed to force one to examine one’s own beliefs and the validity of such beliefs. In fact, Socrates once said, â€Å"I know you won’t believe me, but the highest form of Human Excellence is to question oneself and others. † Philosophical beliefs The beliefs of Socrates, as distinct from those of Plato, are difficult to discern. Little in the way of concrete evidence exists to demarcate the two. The lengthy theories given in most of the dialogues are those of Plato, and some scholars think Plato so adapted the Socratic style as to make the literary character and the philosopher himself impossible to distinguish. Others argue that he did have his own theories and beliefs, but there is much controversy over what these might have been, owing to the difficulty of separating Socrates from Plato and the difficulty of interpreting even the dramatic writings concerning Socrates. Consequently, distinguishing the philosophical beliefs of Socrates from those of Plato and Xenophon is not easy and it must be remembered that what is attributed to Socrates might more closely reflect the specific concerns of these thinkers. The matter is complicated because the historical Socrates seems to have been notorious for asking questions but not answering, claiming to lack wisdom concerning the subjects about which he questioned others. Socratic Paradoxes Many of the beliefs traditionally attributed to the historical Socrates have been characterized as â€Å"paradoxal† because they seem to conflict with common sense. The following are among the so-called Socratic Paradoxes. †¢No one desires evil. †¢No one errs or does wrong willingly or knowingly. †¢Virtue—all virtue—is knowledge. †¢Virtue is sufficient for happiness. The phrase Socratic paradox can also refer to a self-referential paradox, originating in Socrates’ phrase, â€Å"I know that I know nothing noble and good†. Knowledge One of the best known sayings of Socrates is â€Å"I only know that I know nothing†. The conventional interpretation of this remark is that Socrates’ wisdom was limited to an awareness of his own ignorance. Socrates believed wrongdoing was a consequence of ignorance and those who did wrong knew no better. The one thing Socrates consistently claimed to have knowledge of was â€Å"the art of love†, which he connected with the concept of â€Å"the love of wisdom†, i. e. , philosophy. He never actually claimed to be wise, only to understand the path a lover of wisdom must take in pursuing it. It is debatable whether Socrates believed humans (as opposed to gods like Apollo) could actually become wise. On the one hand, he drew a clear line between human ignorance and ideal knowledge; on the other, Plato’s Symposium (Diotima’s Speech) and Republic (Allegory of the Cave) describe a method for ascending to wisdom. In Plato’s Theaetetus (150a), Socrates compares himself to a true matchmaker (promnestikos), as distinguished from a panderer ( proagogos). This distinction is echoed in Xenophon’s Symposium (3. 20), when Socrates jokes about his certainty of being able to make a fortune, if he chose to practice the art of pandering. For his part as a philosophical interlocutor, he leads his respondent to a clearer conception of wisdom, although he claims he is not himself a teacher (Apology). His role, he claims, is more properly to be understood as analogous to a midwife ( ? ? maia). Socrates explains that he is himself barren of theories, but knows how to bring the theories of others to birth and determine whether they are worthy or mere â€Å"wind eggs† ( ? ? anemiaion). Perhaps significantly, he points out that midwives are barren due to age, and women who have never given birth are unable to become midwives; they would have no experience or knowledge of birth and would be unable to separate the worthy infants from those that should be left on the hillside to be exposed. To judge this, the midwife must have experience and knowledge of what she is judging. Virtue Bust of Socrates in the Palermo Archaeological Museum. Socrates believed the best way for people to live was to focus on self-development rather than the pursuit of material wealth. He always invited others to try to concentrate more on friendships and a sense of true community, for Socrates felt this was the best way for people to grow together as a populace. His actions lived up to this: in the end, Socrates accepted his death sentence when most thought he would simply leave Athens, as he felt he could not run away from or go against the will of his community; as mentioned above, his reputation for valor on the battlefield was without reproach. The idea that humans possessed certain virtues formed a common thread in Socrates’ teachings. These virtues represented the most important qualities for a person to have, foremost of which were the philosophical or intellectual virtues. Socrates stressed that â€Å"virtue was the most valuable of all possessions; the ideal life was spent in search of the Good. Truth lies beneath the shadows of existence, and it is the job of the philosopher to show the rest how little they really know. Politics It is often argued that Socrates believed â€Å"ideals belong in a world only the wise man can understand†, making the philosopher the only type of person suitable to govern others. In Plato’s dialogue the Republic, Socrates was in no way subtle about his particular beliefs on government. He openly objected to the democracy that ran Athens during his adult life. It was not only Athenian democracy: Socrates objected to any form of government that did not conform to his ideal of a perfect republic led by philosophers, and Athenian government was far from that. It is, however, possible that the Socrates of Plato’s Republic is colored by Plato’s own views. During the last years of Socrates’ life, Athens was in continual flux due to political upheaval. Democracy was at last overthrown by a junta known as the Thirty Tyrants, led by Plato’s relative, Critias, who had been a student of Socrates. The Tyrants ruled for about a year before the Athenian democracy was reinstated, at which point it declared an amnesty for all recent events. Socrates’ opposition to democracy is often denied, and the question is one of the biggest philosophical debates when trying to determine exactly what Socrates believed. The strongest argument of those who claim Socrates did not actually believe in the idea of philosopher kings is that the view is expressed no earlier than Plato’s Republic, which is widely considered one of Plato’s â€Å"Middle† dialogues and not representative of the historical Socrates’ views. Furthermore, according to Plato’s Apology of Socrates, an â€Å"early† dialogue, Socrates refused to pursue conventional politics; he often stated he could not look into other’s matters or tell people how to live their lives when he did not yet understand how to live his own. He believed he was a philosopher engaged in the pursuit of Truth, and did not claim to know it fully. Socrates’ acceptance of his death sentence, after his conviction by the Boule (Senate), can also be seen to support this view. It is often claimed much of the anti-democratic leanings are from Plato, who was never able to overcome his disgust at what was done to his teacher. In any case, it is clear Socrates thought the rule of the Thirty Tyrants was at least as objectionable as Democracy; when called before them to assist in the arrest of a fellow Athenian, Socrates refused and narrowly escaped death before the Tyrants were overthrown. He did however fulfill his duty to serve as Prytanis when a trial of a group of Generals who presided over a disastrous naval campaign were judged; even then he maintained an uncompromising attitude, being one of those who refused to proceed in a manner not supported by the laws, despite intense pressure. Judging by his actions, he considered the rule of the Thirty Tyrants less legitimate than the Democratic Senate that sentenced him to death. Contributions of Socrates One: Awakened thinkers to the need to examine and reexamine their political, moral, and philosophical views in order to discover and root out errors and misconceptions that impede progress. Socrates accomplished this task by demonstrating, through cross-examination of people he encountered, that many accepted precepts, conventions, and beliefs were based on faulty logic or outright errors. A quotation attributed to him states: â€Å"The unexamined life is not worth living. † In other words, a human being must not be complacent and self-satisfied; instead, he must be ever probing, exploring, and reconnoitering his soul in order to discover ways to improve. Two: Effectively rebutted a central tenet of the Sophists, traveling teachers who charged fees for educating young men. This tenet maintained that the guiding principles of a society, such as justice and truth, were relative concepts–that is, they changed according to the needs of men in a particular time and place. What was considered right and just in Athens was not necessarily right and just in another society, the Sophists maintained. One man’s virtue could be another man’s vice. Three: Pioneered the use of inductive reasoning to draw logical conclusions. According to Aristotle, Socrates founded the â€Å"scientific method. † Four: Demonstrated that wrongdoing results from ignorance. If a man lies, Socrates might have said, he does so because he does not understand the benefits of telling the truth. Five: Inspired philosophers in his own time and in later times to pursue the truth through rigorous analysis of available, facts, opinions, and so on. Two of the most important philosophers in the history of the world, Plato and Aristotle, both esteemed Socrates as a supreme thinker and infused their philosophical systems with Socratic thought. Plato was a pupil of Socrates, and Aristotle was a pupil of Plato. Six: Showed the world the meaning of integrity and moral commitment by accepting a death sentence rather than recanting his principles. Seven: Made clear that a human being is more than his appearance. Socrates was ugly, wore old clothes, and walked barefooted through the streets of Athens. But his mind and the words he spoke were beautiful. The trial of Socrates The Trial of Socrates refers to the trial and the subsequent execution of the classical Athenian philosopher Socrates in 399 BC. Socrates was tried on the basis of two notoriously ambiguous charges: corrupting the youth and impiety. More specifically, Socrates’ accusers cited two â€Å"impious† acts: â€Å"failing to acknowledge the gods that the city acknowledges† and â€Å"introducing new deities. † A majority of the 501 dikasts (Athenian citizens chosen by lot to serve as jurors) voted to convict him. Consistent with common practice, the dikasts determined Socrates’ punishment with another vote. Socrates was ultimately sentenced to death by drinking a hemlock-based liquid. The accuser Meletus swore before the Archon, a state office-holder with primarily religious duties. Having decided that there was a case to answer, the Archon summoned Socrates to appear before a jury of Athenian citizens, to answer charges of corrupting the youth of Athens and impiety. Athenian juries were drawn by lottery from a group of male citizen volunteers. Unlike trials in many modern societies, majority verdicts were the rule rather than the exception. Neither Plato nor Xenophon mentions the number of Socrates’ judges, though Plato’s Apology 35a-b does suggest some definite boundaries: that if just thirty of the votes had been otherwise then he would have been acquitted, and that (perhaps) less than three fifths voted against him After the vote on Socrates’ guilt, Socrates and his prosecutor suggested alternative sentences. Socrates, after expressing his surprise of the little amount he needed to be have been found innocent, jokingly suggested free meals at the Prytaneum, a particular honor held for city benefactors and winners at the Olympic Games, then offered to pay a fine of 100 drachmae, which was a fifth of his property and a testament to Socrates’ poverty. Finally he settled on the sum of 3000 drachmae, put forward by Plato, Crito, Critobulus, and Apollodorus, who guaranteed the payment. His prosecutor proposed the death penalty. The jury voted for death as the penalty – the larger majority showing (Diogenes Laertius 2. 42). Perhaps Socrates had lost support by his slighting and unapologetic tone. Socrates’s followers encouraged him to flee, and citizens expected him to do so and were probably not averse to it; but he refused on principle. Apparently in accordance with his philosophy of obedience to law, he carried out his own execution, by drinking the hemlock provided to him. Socrates died at the age of 70. Most scholars see the conviction and execution of Socrates as a deliberate choice made by the famous philosopher himself. If the accounts of Plato and Xenophon are reasonably accurate, Socrates sought not to persuade jurors, but rather to lecture and provoke them. The trial and execution of Socrates produced the first martyr for free speech. PLATO Plato 428/427 BC – 348/347 BC), was a Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, student of Socrates, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. Along with his mentor, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, Plato helped to lay the foundations of Western philosophy and science. In the famous words of A. N. Whitehead: The safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato. I do not mean the systematic scheme of thought which scholars have doubtfully extracted from his writings. I allude to the wealth of general ideas scattered through them. Plato’s sophistication as a writer is evident in his Socratic dialogues; thirty-six dialogues and thirteen letters have been ascribed to him. Plato’s writings have been published in several fashions; this has led to several conventions regarding the naming and referencing of Plato’s texts. Plato’s dialogues have been used to teach a range of subjects, including philosophy, logic, ethics, rhetoric, and mathematics Plato’s philosophical views had many societal implications, especially on the idea of an ideal state or government. There is some discrepancy between his early and later views. Some of the most famous doctrines are contained in the Republic during his middle period, as well as in the Laws and the Statesman. However, because Plato wrote dialogues, it is assumed that Socrates is often speaking for Plato. This assumption may not be true in all cases. Plato, through the words of Socrates, asserts that societies have a tripartite class structure corresponding to the appetite/spirit/reason structure of the individual soul. The appetite/spirit/reason stand for different parts of the body. The body parts symbolize the castes of society †¢Productive, which represents the abdomen. (Workers) — the labourers, carpenters, plumbers, masons, merchants, farmers, ranchers, etc. These correspond to the â€Å"appetite† part of the soul. †¢Protective, which represents the chest. (Warriors or Guardians) — those who are adventurous, strong and brave; in the armed forces. These correspond to the â€Å"spirit† part of the soul. †¢ †¢ †¢Governing, which represents the head. (Rulers or Philosopher Kings) — those who are intelligent, rational, self-controlled, in love with wisdom, well suited to make decisions for the community. These correspond to the â€Å"reason† part of the soul and are very few. According to this model, the principles of Athenian democracy (as it existed in his day) are rejected as only a few are fit to rule. Instead of rhetoric and persuasion, Plato says reason and wisdom should govern. As Plato puts it: â€Å"Until philosophers rule as kings or those who are now called kings and leading men genuinely and adequately philosophise, that is, until political power and philosophy entirely coincide, while the many natures who at present pursue either one exclusively are forcibly prevented from doing so, cities will have no rest from evils,†¦ nor, I think, will the human race. † (Republic 473c-d) Plato describes these â€Å"philosopher kings† as â€Å"those who love the sight of truth† (Republic 475c) and supports the idea with the analogy of a captain and his ship or a doctor and his medicine. According to him, sailing and health are not things that everyone is qualified to practice by nature. A large part of the Republic then addresses how the educational system should be set up to produce these philosopher kings. However, it must be taken into account that the ideal city outlined in the Republic is qualified by Socrates as the ideal luxurious city, examined to determine how it is that injustice and justice grow in a city (Republic 372e). According to Socrates, the â€Å"true† and â€Å"healthy† city is instead the one first outlined in book II of the Republic, 369c–372d, containing farmers, craftsmen, merchants, and wage-earners, but lacking the guardian class of philosopher-kings as well as delicacies such as â€Å"perfumed oils, incense, prostitutes, and pastries†, in addition to paintings, gold, ivory, couches, a multitude of occupations such as poets and hunters, and war. In addition, the ideal city is used as an image to illuminate the state of one’s soul, or the will, reason, and desires combined in the human body. Socrates is attempting to make an image of a rightly ordered human, and then later goes on to describe the different kinds of humans that can be observed, from tyrants to lovers of money in various kinds of cities. The ideal city is not promoted, but only used to magnify the different kinds of individual humans and the state of their soul. However, the philosopher king image was used by many after Plato to justify their personal political beliefs. The philosophic soul according to Socrates has reason, will, and desires united in virtuous harmony. A philosopher has the moderate love for wisdom and the courage to act according to wisdom. Wisdom is knowledge about the Good or the right relations between all that exists. Wherein it concerns states and rulers, Plato has made interesting arguments. For instance he asks which is better—a bad democracy or a country reigned by a tyrant. He argues that it is better to be ruled by a bad tyrant, than be a bad democracy (since here all the people are now responsible for such actions, rather than one individual committing many bad deeds. ) This is emphasised within the Republic as Plato describes the event of mutiny onboard a ship. Plato suggests the ships crew to be in line with the democratic rule of many and the captain, although inhibited through ailments, the tyrant. Plato’s description of this event is parallel to that of democracy within the state and the inherent problems that arise. According to Plato, a state made up of different kinds of souls will, overall, decline from an aristocracy (rule by the best) to a timocracy (rule by the honorable), then to an oligarchy (rule by the few), then to a democracy (rule by the people), and finally to tyranny (rule by one person, rule by a tyrant). Plato went on to study with Socrates. He learned to reason and debate through Socrates. Plato was very close to him, and when he watched Socrates’ trial and murder in 399 BC, it disillusioned him greatly. He no longer trusted the government of Greece; so he decided to open a school in Athens instead of going into politics like everyone in his family had. Plato’s school for philosophers was started so that he could train those who would some day be his leaders of cities. His most famous student was Aristotle who later tutored Alexander the Great. Plato promoted ideas that would eventually effect even Thomas Aquinas who changed Catholic Doctrine to make it conform to the works of Aristotle. Plato’s ideas have greatly influenced the thinking of modern governments such as in the founding of the American system. For example, Plato stated, â€Å"Unless philosophers bear kingly rule in cities or those who are now called kings and princes become genuine and adequate philosophers, and political power and philosophy are brought together . . . there will be no respite from evil for cities. † – Plato and â€Å"The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men. † From these first democratic societies of the Greeks, Plato’s teaching has not neccesarily been proven over time. The political philosopher, Hilter, for example, was democratically elected by an intelligent populace who were very concerned with public affairs. Plato’s thoughts about perceptions of reality are still of interest today. One allegory went something like this: Suppose a few men were captured when they were born, and made to live in a cave. They are chained by their neck and feet so that they cannot move at all. The men are facing a wall of stone. Behind them burns a fire. In front of that is a wall along which their captors walk with puppets in their hands. The only truth they know is that of what shadows look like and muffled sound echoing throughout the hall. They know not what a true boat looks like, just the shadow of a boat. They make words for the objects they see. One day one of the men breaks free and gets out of the cave into the world. He sees the fire and the puppets and knows that all he has known all his life was just a piece of all he knew. He got to the outdoors and was blinded by the sun. He had to re-learn what the world really was like. He learned what true boats looked like and found that they were not at all like their shadows. He decided that his friends in the cave should also know that what they saw was not real, but was just an image cast from a wavering fire. When he went down and told them, they laughed at him and told him he was wrong. They said ‘Look! Can you not see the wall? That on the wall is a boat. ’ He persisted in his story of the light, and they eventually killed him. This great analogy can apply to what we know about heavens. As it is written in 1 Corinthians 13:12, â€Å"For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. † Plato sensed that there was a reality apart from his perception as many had sensed before him. The wisest man that ever lived, Solomon, acknowledged in Ecclesiastes 1 that â€Å"there is nothing new under the sun†. Indeed, centuries before Plato, it was recorded in Job 12:22, â€Å"He [God] reveals mysteries from the darkness and brings the deep darkness into light. â€Å" The mysterious shadows of life can only be brought to the light of understanding by God as explained by the Apostle in John 1:5 â€Å"And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. † And they killed what they didn’t understand as they were afraid of the reality of their sins and crucified the Light. Plato knew of this human fear factor, â€Å"We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark. The real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light. † –Plato Although Plato died in 347 BC, but his teaching continues to influence governments systems and even doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church. Most philosophers from antiquity up to today have stood on Plato’s broad shoulders attempting to use what he offered and see beyond the cave’s shadows. ARISTOTLE Aristotle (b. 384 – d. 322 BCE), was a Greek philosopher, logician, and scientist. Along with his teacher Plato, Aristotle is generally regarded as one of the most influential ancient thinkers in a number of philosophical fields, including political theory. Aristotle was born in Stagira in northern Greece, and his father was a court physician to the king of Macedon. As a young man he studied in Plato’s Academy in Athens. After Plato’s death he left Athens to conduct philosophical and biological research in Asia Minor and Lesbos, and he was then invited by King Philip II of Macedon to tutor his young son, Alexander the Great. Soon after Alexander succeeded his father, consolidated the conquest of the Greek city-states, and launched the invasion of the Persian Empire. Aristotle returned as a resident alien to Athens, and was a close friend of Antipater, the Macedonian viceroy. At this time (335–323 BCE) he wrote, or at least worked on, some of his major treatises, including the Politics. When Alexander died suddenly, Aristotle had to flee from Athens because of his Macedonian connections, and he died soon after. Aristotle’s life seems to have influenced his political thought in various ways: his interest in biology seems to be expressed in the naturalism of his politics; his interest in comparative politics and his sympathies for democracy as well as monarchy may have been encouraged by his travels and experience of diverse political systems; he criticizes harshly, while borrowing extensively, from Plato’s Republic, Statesman, and Laws; and his own Politics is intended to guide rulers and statesmen, reflecting the high political circles in which he moved. Political Science in General The modern word ‘political’ derives from the Greek politikos, ‘of, or pertaining to, the polis’. (The Greek term polis will be translated here as ‘city-state’. It is also translated as ‘city’ or ‘polis’, or simply anglicized as ‘polis’. City-states like Athens and Sparta were relatively small and cohesive units, in which political, religious, and cultural concerns were intertwined. The extent of their similarity to modern nation-states is controversial. ) Aristotle’s word for ‘politics’ is politike, which is short for politike episteme or ‘political science’. It belongs to one of the three main branches of science, which Aristotle distinguishes by their ends or objects. Contemplative science (including physics and metaphysics) is concerned with truth or knowledge for its own sake; practical science with good action; and productive science with making useful or beautiful. Politics is a practical science, since it is concerned with the noble action or happiness of the citizens (although it resembles a productive science in that it seeks to create, preserve, and reform political systems). Aristotle thus understands politics as a normative or prescriptive discipline rather than as a purely empirical or descriptive inquiry. In the Nicomachean Ethics Aristotle describes his subject matter as political science, which he characterizes as the most authoritative science. It prescribes which sciences are to be studied in the city-state, and the others — such as military science, household management, and rhetoric — fall under its authority. Since it governs the other practical sciences, their ends serve as means to its end, which is nothing less than the human good. â€Å"Even if the end is the same for an individual and for a city-state, that of the city-state seems at any rate greater and more complete to attain and preserve. For although it is worthy to attain it for only an individual, it is nobler and more divine to do so for a nation or city-state† (EN I. 2. 1094b7-10). Aristotle’s political science encompasses the two fields which modern philosophers distinguish as ethics and political philosophy. Political philosophy in the narrow sense is roughly speaking the subject of his treatise called the Politics. For a further discussion of this topic, see the following supplementary document: 2. Aristotle’s View of Politics Political science studies the tasks of the politician or statesman (politikos), in much the way that medical science concerns the work of the physician (see Politics IV. 1). It is, in fact, the body of knowledge that such practitioners, if truly expert, will also wield in pursuing their tasks. The most important task for the politician is, in the role of lawgiver, to frame the appropriate constitution for the city-state. This involves enduring laws, customs, and institutions (including a system of moral education) for the citizens. Once the constitution is in place, the politician needs to take the appropriate measures to maintain it, to introduce reforms when he finds them necessary, and to prevent developments which might subvert the political system. This is the province of legislative science, which Aristotle regards as more important than politics as exercised in everyday political activity such as the passing of decrees. Aristotle frequently compares the politician to a craftsman. The analogy is imprecise because politics, in the strict sense of legislative science, is a form of practical knowledge, while a craft like architecture or medicine is a form of productive knowledge. However, the comparison is valid to the extent that the politician produces, operates, maintains a legal system according to universal principles (EN VI. 8 and X. 9). In order to appreciate this analogy it is helpful to observe that Aristotle explains the production of an artifact in terms of four causes: the material, formal, efficient, and final causes (Phys. II. 3 and Met. A. 2). For example, clay (material cause) is molded into a vase shape (formal cause) by a potter (efficient or moving cause) so that it can contain liquid (final cause). One can also explain the existence of the city-state in terms of the four causes. It is a kind of community, that is, a collection of parts having some functions and interests in common. Hence, it is made up of parts, which Aristotle describes in various.