Andrea Palladio Comes to America Essay Example

Andrea Palladio Comes to America Paper Andrea Palladio was an influential architect during the Late Renaissance and the Baroque period. He was a dominant figure in this field, not only of his lifetime, not just in the lifetime of those who knew him, but now – 400 years later (Source 2). Palladio’s architecture was based on symmetry, perspective, and proportions. His architectural style became known as Palladianism. Palladian Architecture is seen through out America today. Thomas Jefferson appreciated the architectural concepts of Palladio, and his designs for The Rotunda at the University of Virginia, Monticello Estate, the James Barbour Barboursville estate, and the University of Virginia, were based on drawings from Palladio’s book. Other modern-day American architecture influenced by Andrea Palladio are the Hammond-Harwood House and Drayton Hall. Palladianism can be described as Palladio’s interpretation of classical architecture. It began in the 17th century and developed until the end of the 18th century. Palladianism was popular in Britain for a short period and when it began to fall out of favor in Europe it became popular in North America, prominently in buildings designed by Thomas Jefferson. The style continued to be popular through the 19th and early 20th centuries in Europe, where it frequently employed in the design of public and municipal buildings. From the latter half of the 19th century it was rivaled by the Gothic Revival, whose champions, such as Augustus Pugin, remembering the ancient temple roots of the style, deemed it too pagan for Protestant and Anglo-Catholic worship. We will write a custom essay sample on Andrea Palladio Comes to America specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Andrea Palladio Comes to America specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Andrea Palladio Comes to America specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer However, as an architectural style it has continued to be, not only popular, but too evolve its pediments, symmetry and proportions clearly evident in the design of many modern buildings today (Source 3). In Palladios architectural treatises he followed the principles defined by the Roman architect Vitruvius and his 15th-century disciple Leon Battista Alberti, who adhered to principles of classical Roman architecture based on mathematical proportions rather than the rich ornamental style also characteristic of the Renaissance (Source 3). Palladio also took into account where his villa would be located. If it was on a hill he designed facades to be of equal value so fine views could be seen in all directions. Most of his villa’s were located in the countryside so he designed them with porticos on all sides so that the countryside could be appreciated by the occupants while being protected from the harsh elements such as the sun. Portico’s are known as porches in modern day America. Palladio would often model his villa elevations on Roman temple facades. The temple influence, often in a cruciform design, later became a trademark of his work (Source 3). Palladian villas are usually built with three floors: a basement or ground floor, containing the service and minor rooms. Above this, the piano nobile accessed through a portico reached by a flight of external steps, containing the principal reception and bedrooms, and above it is a low mezzanine floor with secondary bedrooms and accommodation (Source 3). The proportions of each room within the villa were calculated on simple mathematical ratios like 3:4 and 4:5, and the different rooms within the house were interrelated by these ratios. Earlier architects had used these formulas for balancing a single symmetrical facade; however, Palladios designs related to the whole, usually square, villa (Source 3). Another trademark of Palladio’s was the Palladian Window. It consists of a central light with semicircular arch over, carried on an impost consisting of a small entablature, under which, and enclosing two other lights, one on each side, are pilasters (Source 3). Palladios influence in North America is evident almost from the beginning of architect designed building there. The amateur architect Thomas Jefferson once referred to Palladios I Quattro Libri dellArchitettura as his bible. Jefferson acquired an intense appreciation of Palladios architectural concepts, and his designs for the Jefferson Monticello estate, the James Barbour Barboursville estate, and the University of Virginia were based on drawings from Palladios book (Source 3). Realizing the powerful political significance pertaining to ancient Roman buildings, Jefferson designed many of his civic buildings in the Palladian style. Monticello is clearly based on Palladios Villa Capra, however, with modifications, in a style which is described in America today as Colonial Georgian. Jeffersons Pantheon, or Rotunda, at the University of Virginia is undeniably Palladian in concept and style (Source 3). The Harmmond-Harwood House built by William Buckland in 1773 is just one of the homes in America influenced by Palladian architecture. It is the only existing work of colonial academic architecture that was principally designed from a plate in Andrea Palladio’s, The Four Books of Architecture (Source 4). The house was designed for a wealthy farmer Matthias Hammond in Annapolis, Maryland (Source 4). It was modeled after the Villa Pisani in Montagnana, Italy. The house ranks architecturally with many of the great mansions built in the late Colonial period. It is one of the most exquisite homes remaining from the Colonial period in America (Source 4). He worked around Palladio’s designs to satisfy the tastes of colonial Annapolis. Buckland re-designed the plan to accommodate for asymmetrical regional preferences and modified the hyphens from Palladio’s arched entries to more practical single story connecting links (Source 4). He also incorporated a fashionable urban design by sinking the windows in which provided better protection against fire and gave the overall design a greater degree of visual solidity and three-dimensionality (Source 4). Hammond-Harwood House (Md. Ave. Facade), 9/18/2007, Wilkipedia The Villa Pisani at Montagnana from The Four Books of Architecture by Andrea Palladio, Giacomo Leoni, 1742 Drayton Hall is perhaps one of the most handsome example of Palladian architecture in North America. It is located in the â€Å"Low Country† near Charleston, South Carolina. The architect of the house is unknown, but the house was built for John Drayton. The construction began in 1738 and was completed in 1742, using free and slave labor. The seven-bay double pile plantation house stands in a 630-acre site that is part of the plantation based on indigo and rice. The house has a deep recessed double portico on the west â€Å"front†, shading the home from afternoon sun and offering open-air summer living space. The floor plan is Palladian, with a central entrance stair hall, containing a symmetrical divided staircase, backed by a large saloon, flanked by square and rectangular chambers (Source 5). Pedimented chimneypieces in the house are in the tectonic manner popularized by William Kent. There is fine plasterwork in several of the rooms of the main floor, which is raised above a half-basement, which is also true to Palladian architecture. Materials used on the outside of the house are brick, limestone and sandstone. The brick is used for the main structure of the home, the limestone was used on stairs and the sandstone formed pavers on the portico. Another feature of Palladian architecture is the use of flanker buildings. Many Palladian villas incorporated flankers and colonnades to form courtyards. A difference in Drayton Hall and Palladian Villas is the difference in ceiling height with each succeeding floor level. Palladio recommended the ceiling height recede as the building grew taller. The ceiling heights get progressively taller from the basement to the first floor and on up. Palladio might have been more concerned with structural strength, whereas John Drayton may have been more concerned with comfort in a hot, humid climate and with the theatricality of a grand hall of the upper floor (Source 6). Drayton Hall might be one of the earliest Palladian buildings in America. It is considered a Georgian Palladian home, but only because it was a Palladian building built in the Georgian Era. Drayton Hall (Front), Kellie Thorne, Natl Scenic Byways Online, Wilkipedia Drayton Hall (Floor Plan), www. draytonhall. org Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello is also a representation of Palladianism architecture in America. Work on the Monticello began in 1768. Jefferson based the design on the classical style of Palladian architecture. Jefferson left Monticello for an extended stay in Europe. When Jefferson returned he expanded his vision for Monticello based on the Palladian buildings and ruins he admired overseas (Source 8). The building materials were made at Monticello, as were the nails for the remodeled house. Most of the structural timber came from Jefferson’s own land, while most of the window sashes were made of imported mahogany (Source 9). The window glass came from Europe. Stone for the cellars and the East Front columns, and limestone for making mortar, were quarried on Jefferson’s land. The stone and brick work were done by local white masons, Local carpenters assisted by Monticello slaves provided the rough structural woodwork. Jefferson, influenced by new architecture in France, added a dome in 1800 (Source 9). The floor plan of Monticello is still symmetrical with perfect proportions used for each room. An external staircase leading to the main entrance is an original Palladian design or a feature of neoclassical style that followed Palladianism (Source 3). Monticello, Christopher Hollis, Wilkipedia Monticello (Floor Plan), www. Monticello. org Andrea Palladio is one of the most known and influential architects during his time and there after. His ideas are still carried on in architecture today. His palladian window is perhaps the most known and most used form of palladian architecture in America. There are only two true Palladian architecture is based on symmetry, perspective and perfect proportions. It has been used in America since the 18th century. While it is not the prominent source of architecture in modern-day America it still stands its own ground. Palladian windows are probably the most used today when it comes to American architecture. The external staircase often seen on the outside of homes is also true to Palladianism. There are only two houses in the United States that can be definitively attributed to designs from the Four Books of Architecture. These are the Hammond-Harwood House, by William Buckland and the first Monticello by Thomas Jefferson.

Discuss similarities and differences between the gestural behaviours of humans and non-human primates. The WritePass Journal

Discuss similarities and differences between the gestural behaviours of humans and non-human primates. Introduction Discuss similarities and differences between the gestural behaviours of humans and non-human primates. IntroductionReferencesRelated Introduction Gestural behaviour can be defined as spontaneous movements of the hands and arms which convey a meaning that is semantically and temporally in close synchrony with the flow of speech (McNeil, 1992).   Humans and non-human primates such as bonobos and chimpanzees (hereafter referred to as primates) share approximately 95% of the same DNA as humans (Pika, 2008).   Thus, investigating the gestures of humans and primates may provide insight into the evolution of human communication.   This paper provides an overview of the similarities and differences between the gestural behaviour of humans and primates, focusing on the brain regions employed; the pointing gesture and the degree to which gestures can be learned from conspecifics. Gestures activate the mirror neuron system (MNS) in the brain (Corballis, 2009).  Ã‚   That is, the same network of neurons is activated when performing a particular action or observing the same action being performed by another.   For instance in primates, the MNS is activated when either a monkey is cracking nuts open or observing another monkey cracking nuts (Kohler et al., 2002).   In humans, the mirror system is activated with actions and speech (Corballis, 2009). Willems, Ãâ€"zyà ¼rek Hagoort (2007) recruited humans in a functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging study to identify the neural networks involved in gesturing behaviour.   Participants underwent a series of matched and mismatched trials where semantic information was conveyed through speech and iconic gestures.   A matched trial is when gestures exhibit images expressed concurrently in speech and a mismatched trial is when gestures are incongruent with speech.   Results revealed that Broca’s area had significantly greater activation in the matched than in the mismatched trials.   Ã‚  Thus, Broca’s area increases in activation when information is simultaneously presented from the speech and action domains, compared to the speech domain alone. Furthermore, Taglialatela, Russell, Schaeffer and Hopkins (2008) recruited primates in a Positron Emission Tomography study to identify neural networks in gesturing behaviour. Primates took part in two tasks; one which induced vocal behaviour in the primates and another which induced vocal and gestural behaviour.   Results revealed more activation in the left inferior frontal gyrus and the prefrontal cortex during the vocal and gestural behaviour task than the vocal behaviour task.   This area is homologous to Broca’s area in humans (Corballis, 2009).   Taken together, these studies suggest similarities between humans and primates in terms of the shared neural region, Broca’s area; however, there are some differences with innate gestural acquisition. Pointing is a deictic gesture that is typically used as a communicative body movement which projects a vector from a body part to draw another person’s attention to an object or entity (Kita, 2003).   Ã‚  Canonical pointing at nearby targets begins in humans at approximately 11 months and at more distant targets at around 12 months (Morissette, Ricard, Gouin-Decarie, 1995).   Additionally, by 12 months, infants will typically check to establish whether they have the awareness of another person to share the focus of attention with prior to pointing (Cochet Vauclair, 2010).   Thus, pointing has been observed during early development with joint attention between the infant and the recipient, highlighting the deictic quality of the gesture. In wild primates, pointing has been rarely observed between conspecifics (Vea Sabater-Pi, 1998).   Instead, to share attention, wild primates typically orientate their whole body towards the desired object or entity (Menzel, 1974).   Nevertheless, successful pointing behaviour has been found in captive primates.   This was found serendipitously in a primate named Clint during testing, when on one occasion he was observed repetitively pointing with his index finger through the cage at a food reward, while alternating his gaze between the experimenter and the food (Leavens, Hopkins Bard, 1996).   This observation led to further experimental testing and vast reports of pointing in primates for food or objects (Meguerditchian Vauclair, 2009; Zimmermann, Zemke, Call Gomez, 2009). Liszkowski, Schafer, Carpenter and Tomasello (2009) compared 12 month old infants and primates, in pointing to a desired absent object.   The experimenter placed a highly desirable reward (e.g. a toy or food) in the target location and an undesirable reward (e.g. paper towels or bedding) in the alternative location for the participants to associate the target location with obtaining the highly desirable reward.   In the test condition, the experimenter waited for the participant to make a request.   If there were no request, the experimenter looked expectantly at the participant and touched both locations simultaneously.   The results revealed that 12 month old infants pointed to the absent target object location repeatedly and often before the trial started, but primates failed to point at all. Bullinger, Zimmermann, Kaminski Tomasello, (2011) compared the intention of the pointing gesture between primates and 25 month old children.   Participants undertook two tasks in which they could see the reward but the experimenter could not.   In one task, pointing would directly benefit the participant (e.g. to gain food or a toy reward) and in the other task, pointing would benefit the experimenter.   Ã‚  Results revealed that while children would point to benefit themselves and another person (i.e. experimenter), primates only pointed when it would benefit them.   This suggests that unlike 25 month old children, primates do not have cooperative motivation.   Taken together, this evidence suggests that while primates are able to point, this behaviour is significantly different from pointing behaviour in infants and young children, who are able to point at a present object, in addtion to an absent object or to help another person retrieve a reward. Another difference between humans and primates lies with the acquisition of gestures through social learning.   Social learning theory postulates that an individual learns by observing and imitating the actions of others (Franzoi, 2000).   Developmental research has shown that the mechanism for social imitation of manual gestures, such as tongue protrusions and sequential finger movement begins in infants between 12 to 21 days of age (Meltzoff Moore, 1977).   Meltzoff and Moore (1997) propose that imitation in infants is accomplished without any cognitive understanding using a mechanism which directly maps between perceptual input and motor output. Carpenter, Nagell and Tomasello, (1998) investigated infants aged between 9 and 15 months to find out when they understand the intention of their action.   Before being requested to turn a light on, infants received demonstrations of how to perform the task by depressing a switch with either their hands or head.   Results revealed that while all the infants copied the action, only those from 13 months checked to ensure the light came on and were producing the same goal as the adults.   This suggests that social learning in older infants is guided by goal directed behaviour. There is less evidence for the social learning of gestures within primates, with individual differences in the execution of gestures being found in primate communities (Pika, Liebal, Call Tomasello, 2005).   For instance, the ‘grooming handclasp’, which is where two primates hold hands overhead during mutual grooming has been found to vary between two different communities within the same subspecies of wild primates.   That is, intergroup differences have been observed in different communities with palm to palm touching and non-palm to palm touching, which indicates social learning amongst conspecifics within each community (McGrew, Marchant, Scott Tutin, 2001).   Nevertheless, in both communities, some primates failed to use the gesture at all. Laidre (2011) investigated the same subspecies of captive primates in 19 various communities worldwide.   Findings revealed that only primates in Colchester, England had a unique ‘eye covering’ gesture, where they would cover their eyes for extended periods of time, conveying a ‘do not disturb sign’ to the other primates.   This gesture was observed for over a decade despite births, deaths and removals.   Nevertheless, there was some individual variation in the performance of the gesture, with 32% of the primates raising their elbow in addition to covering their eyes.   Taken together, this evidence suggests that infants have an innate ability to learn gestures by means of a social learning mechanism, yet in primates, this is not the major learning process of gestures. In conclusion, humans and primates share the same neural region for processing gestural behaviour (i.e. Broca’s area).   However, there are some differences between the two species. Infant’s deictically point towards a present or absent desired object or entity, whereas primates rarely point unless they have acquired the behaviour from humans in order to achieve a variety of ends.   Additionally, primates, unlike children, only point when they benefit from a reward and fail to point to inform others.   This suggests that pointing is a unique, innate, human attribute which primates acquire whilst interacting with humans. Furthermore, infants from approximately 16 days old have shown social imitation gestures and from the age of 13 months, can use these gestures to guide specific behaviour towards a goal.   In primates however, there is less evidence to support the acquisition of gestures by means of social learning, with large variability of individual gestures existing in the same community.   Future research could investigate whether inter-zoo transfers translocate the unique eye covering gesture to a new community. References Bullinger, A., Zimmermann, F.,   Kaminski, J. Tomasello, M.   (2011).   Different social motives in the gestural communication of chimpanzees and human children.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Developmental Science, 14, 58-68. Carpenter, M., Nagell, K. Tomasello, M.   (1998).   Social cognition, joint attention, and communicative competence from 9 to 15 months of age.   Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 63, 1–143. Cochet, H. Vauclair, J.   (2010).   Pointing gesture in young children: Hand preference and language development.   Gesture, 10, 129-149. Corballis, M.   (2009).   Language as gesture.   Human Movement Science, 28, 556-565. Franzoi, S.   (2000).   Social Psychology (2nd ed). New York: McGraw-Hill. Kita, S. (Ed.).   (2003).   Pointing: Where language, culture and cognition meet. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Kohler, E., Keysers, C., Umilt, M., A., Fogassi, L., Gallese, V. Rizzolatti, G.   (2002). Hearing sounds, understanding actions: action representation in mirror neurons. Science, 297, 846–848. Laidre, M.   (2011).   Meaningful gesture in monkeys? Investigating whether Mandrills create social culture.   Plus One, 6, 1-9. Leavens, A., Hopkins, D. Bard, A.   (1996).   Indexical and referential pointing in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes).   Journal of Comparative Psychology, 110, 346 –353. Liszkowski, U., Schfer, M., Carpenter, M. Tomasello, M.   (2009).   Prelinguistic infants, but not chimpanzees, communicate about absent entities.   Psychological Science, 20, 654-66. McGrew, W., Marchant, L., Scott, S. Tutin, C.   (2001).   Intergroup diï ¬â‚¬erences in a social custom of wild chimpanzees: the grooming hand-clasp of the Mahale mountains. Current Anthropology, 42, 148–153. McNeil, D.   (1995).   Hand and Mind.   Chicago, CSU: The University of Chicago Press. Meguerditchian, A. Vauclair, J.   (2009).   Contrast of hand preferences between communicative gestures and non-communicative actions in baboons: Implications for the origins of hemispheric specialization for language. Brain and Language, 108, 167- 174. Meltzoff, A. Moore, M.   (1977).   Imitation of facial and manual gestures by human neonates.   Science, 198, 75-78. Meltzoff, A. Moore, M.   (1997).   Explaining facial imitation: A theoretical model. Early Development and Parenting, 6, 179–192. Menzel, E.   (1974).   A group of young chimpanzees in a one-acre ï ¬ eld: Leadership and communication.   In A. M. Schrier F. Stollnitze (Eds.), Behavior of Nonhuman Primates (pp. 83–153).   New York: Academic Press. Morissette, P., Ricard, M. Gouin-Decarie, T.   (1995).   Joint visual attention   and pointing in infancy: A longitudinal   study of comprehension.   British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 13,   163-177. Pika, S., Liebal, T., Call, J. Tomasello, M.   (2005).   The gestural communication of apes. Gesture, 5, 41-56. Pika, S.   (2008).   Gestures of apes and pre-linguistic human children: Similar or different? First Language, 28, 116-140. Taglialatela, P., Russell, L., Schaeffer, A. Hopkins, D.   (2008).   Communicative signalling activates ‘Broca’s’ Homolog in chimpanzees.   Current Biology, 18, 343-348. Vea`, J. Sabater-Pi, J.   (1998).   Spontaneous pointing behaviour in the wild pygmy chimpanzee (Pan paniscus).   Folia Primatologica, 69, 289-290. Willems, R., Ãâ€"zyà ¼rek, A. Hagoort, P.   (2007).   When language meets action:   The neural integration of gesture and speech.   Cerebral Cortex, 17, 2322-2333. Zimmermann, F., Zemke, F., Call, J. Gà ³mez, J.C.   (2009).   Orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus) and bonobos (Pan paniscus) point to inform a human about the location of a tool. Animal Cognition, 12, 347–358.

Coney Island Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Coney Island - Essay Example At the turning of the twentieth century, this culture was still in the first stage of formation and not fully incorporated within the society’s life (Kasson, 1978). Its fullest expression at this time lay in the main realm of commercial based amusements, which created essential symbols of the new cultural based order and helped to knit a complex cohesive audience. At the turn of the century, Coney Island was leading in establishment of symbols and their relationship to the new audiences. Some of the changes witnessed were governing of the Nineteenth-century America with some striking set of values and cultural aspects such as Victorian" compared to England Queen Victoria reigned. Interestingly, the urban-industrial society was facilitated with the genteel reformers who were eager to make a step in cultural leadership by disciplining, refining, and instructing the turbulent urban-industrial democracy within the people. The American apostles of culture put a lot of effort to ensure that they inculcate Victorian virtues of "character" such as self-control, moral integrity, industriousness, earnestness and soberness among the citizens. The American apostles believed that changing the culture of the urban-industrial society would help the men in passion to grow economically use leisure and work time efficiently. This was what the urban-based society required in order to grow economically, socially and culturally. Moreover, genteel culture occupying a position given that genteel reformers founded libraries, symphonies museums and other great institutions that help to set a cultural change that dominated public based discussion (Kasson, 1978). Of the critical importance to their success as cultural based arbiters was the ability to create a support of influential shapers of the great mass culture, who echoed their development tone and carried the message to audience. As a result, a series of technological based innovations were disseminated which

Business functions and processes Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Business functions and processes - Essay Example For instance, installing a technology in a firm whose overall internal structures and infrastructure are not compatible with application of the same is wastage of time, money and human resource. Equally important is that fact that technology can be sometimes the only measure, providing means to meet customer needs in the present competitive environment (Shaughnessy, 2013). Operations are strategized in a manner whereby organisation can compete in a competitive marketplace. For instance, these strategies can be in terms of quality, low cost, customisation and delivery. Traditional challenges in operations management such as, choice of only one strategy, are no longer tolerated as performance standard has been raised though technology and its applications. Nevertheless, for proper integration and implementation of technology in any organisation, it is essential to understand relevance of technology (Heizer and Render, 2011). The business environment is filled with examples of failed attempts while installing technology such as, ERP systems. For instance, Hershey Foods faced numerous problems in its product distribution system after implementation of R/3 system of SAP. This resulted in a huge demand-supply gap and Hershey was not able to supply candies during peak seasons of Christmas and Halloween. Similarly, Whirlpool faced shipping delays due to failed implementation of its ERP system. An interesting point to be noted here is that many of the challenges faced in context of ERP in present business scenario are similar to those faced by managers during implementation of MRP 20 years ago (Shaughnessy, 2013; Brown, et al., 2005). Hence, it can be said that challenges faced during technology implementation is more related to intangible forces such as, lack of leadership, commitment, training and understanding compared to tangible forces such as, technological defects in the systems. Few of the major challe nges

Arthus Evans' contribution Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Arthus Evans' contribution - Essay Example This Minoan civilization became his contribution to stratigraphy-driven archaeology. The Crete excavations that had resulted in the discovery of the Minoan civilization had another essential contribution in store. Based on the Minoan civilization, Arthur Evans developed a relative dating scheme which he named Minoan chronology (MacGillivray 163). Arthur Evans had predominantly managed excavations at Knossos. For this reason, the Minoan chronology is purely attributed to him. This dating scheme would later be applied in Greek and the Cyclades Islands, thereby becoming a plan for dating prehistoric and early historic Aegean events (MacGillivray 174). Arthur Evans was the world-renowned British archaeologist who excavated the palace of Knossos on the Greek island of Crete and developed the theory of Minoan civilization (Roberts 156). He was born on July 8, 1851 and passed away on July 11, 1941. Throughout his academic career, Evans contributed a great number of precious works which include Cretan Pictographs and Pre-Phoenician Script (1895), The Mycenaean Tree and Pillar Cult (1901), and The Palace of Minos (1921-1936) (Karetsou 364). These works have produced significant influence on the development of archaeology particularly in the field of European and Mediterranean Sea area history (Karetsou 381). Panagiotaki (257) contends that Evans also contributed largely to the study of ancient language by defining Cretan scripts Linear A and Linear B. The findings of Evans laid a solid groundwork for later research and provided guidance for the further work on these areas. Evans was drawn to the field of ancient history due to both individual and social reasons. Evans was born in a highly educated and intellectual family. His grandfather was the Headmaster of Market Bosworth Grammar School and received a Master Degree in history. Arthur Evans’ father, John Evans, was capable of reading Latin which led him to large amounts of authoritative academic works

Employee Turnover In Pharmaceutical Companies In Kenya Management Essay

Employee Turnover In Pharmaceutical Companies In Kenya Management Essay The objective of the study was to investigate employee turnover problem in Pharmaceutical industries in Kenya with a case study of Ranbaxy Laboratories limited. The study specifically investigated on staff retention measures utilized by the management, whether exit interviews are conducted, and the competitiveness of reward program and whether the conduciveness of the work place environment as factors that may contribute to workforce turnover in this sector. The study adopted a descriptive research design to identify the employee turnover factors and a sample size of 50 employees were selected using a simple random sampling since the population for the purpose of this study was regarded as homogeneous. The study collected both primary and secondary data using semi-structured questionnaire and review of empirical and theoretical literatures respectively. The instruments were pilot tested for reliability checks. Statistical software SPSS was used for data analysis and generation of charts and graphs. Analysis took both descriptive and inferential dimensions where some elements of measure of central tendency and regression analysis were employed respectively. The study revealed that organization lacked effective staff retention strategies, where exit interviews were not regularly and effectively conducted, the employed reward program was not competitive and existence of unfriendly work place environment influenced most employees to leave the organization. Thus it was concluded that lack of effective strategies to manage these factors influenced most pharmaceutical companies to continue experiencing high staff turnover rates that lower the total organization productivity and increase running costs by recurrent recruitment costs, production disrupting and broken clients relationships. The study recommended that these factors should be part of the organization business strategy rather than being left to managers to act. Key Words: Employee turnover, Retention strategies, Exit interviews, Work environment and, Compensation. Introduction Turnover is the rate at which workers are replaced with new staff members in an organization. Turnover rate is calculated by dividing the number of resignations by number of staff in a given period of time usually a calendar year. Gberevbie, (2008) refers to frequent labor turnover as a state of affairs in an organization whereby employees for reasons best known to them based on their perception of personnel policies and practice of an organization resign or leave their job. Employees switch organizations for several reasons. These reasons could be either organization related or job related. Managers would readily agree that retaining the top performers results in higher customer satisfaction, quality improvement, effective succession planning and a considerable increase in organization knowledge and learning. Smith (2001) discusses companies with work environments that attract and retain people and where people are willing to give their best. These environments arent expensive. In f act, they save money.   In most cases, they improve retention and productivity without lavish salaries or bonuses. And they certainly lower the expense of continually hiring and training new people. Estimates suggest that separation, replacement and training costs are 1.5 to 2.5 times annual salary for each person who quits, which means that the departure of a middle manager usually costs an organization around $75,000 (Dalton et al., 1993). Employees who perceive relationships with customers provide better service. Customers who receive better service express fewer complaints and thereby create fewer problems for employees. Employees in turn react more favorably to encounters with customers. These reactions result in better service which again leads to higher customer satisfaction. Providing adequate health care to the populations remains a major challenge for governments in Africa .Access of drugs is dependent on both affordability and quality. The pharmaceutical sector is Kenya is dominated by multinational companies and generic companies who either import ready products or locally manufactured products. The domestic pharmaceutical industry shows considerable strength and has significant opportunities for growth. Imported generics make 28% of the market share (UNIDO survey, 2009). The reports goes on to say exports to Tanzania and Uganda are growing and still more potential for Kenya to establish its self as a major source in Southern Sudan. For purpose of this study, the researcher focused on Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited, an integrated, research based, international pharmaceutical company producing a wide range of quality, affordable generic medicines, trusted by healthcare professionals and patients across geographies, the company has a unique model of applauding and recognizing individual and team effort through (APPRECIATE) program designed to motivate performance (www.ranbaxy.com). The Companys business philosophy is based on delivering value to its stakeholders by constantly inspiring its people to innovate, achieve excellence and set new global benchmarks. Statement of the Problem The private health sector in Kenya contributes around 13% to the GDP and has largely remained unchanged since 1995(KPPB, 2007). Out of this, Pharmaceutical industries account for a whopping 10.3% in its contribution to the GDP. Although on average this is seen as stagnation, it is considered as one of the largest in East and Central Africa. Nevertheless, due to increased development of conventional medicines and awareness about preventive culture in the urban population, the industry has registered a high level of growth and innovation that has turned the sector into a vibrant business domain. This has seemingly attracted the attention of many entrepreneurs resulting to massive investment both at large and retail scale levels. Empirical studies (Wilson and Peel, 1990) on pharmaceutical industries have indicated that the industry is characterized by a stiff competition. In Kenya, the proliferations of the biotechnology marketplace have greatly revolutionized the industry operations. Organizations are increasingly at risk of losing key sales personnel to competitors and new market entrants. In a recent benchmarking study, Best Practices found that the 2006 aggregate annual turnover of employees for the pharmaceutical and biotech industries in Kenya is 14.2%. According to (Paul and Anantharaman, 2003) ,increasing turnover of sales people is particularly problematic for the larger pharmaceutical companies as smaller market entrants, particularly biotechnology firm keep on attracting their employees.. This resulted into massive exodus of employees from the pharmaceutical subsector into these upcoming biotechnology firms since the skills required is the same in both sub sector. This has evidently affected the Pharmaceutical industries since they responded to these pressures by focusing on its innovative segment and increasing its RD expenditures by means of in-house innovation, technological and therapeutic market specialization, and mergers and acquisitions of companies within and outside the pharmaceutical industry resulting to declining profits and stagnation (Kundu Malhan, 2007). Most studies (Delaney and Huselid,1996) done of the employee turnover sought to establish preliminary indices for employee turnover situations in different subsector hence making many statistics that describes the turnover of employees as abundant. In spite of having many studies undertaken on staff turnover in pharmaceutical companies, none of t he studies have managed to come up with an effective solution on how pharmaceutical companies should employ effective staff retention measures, conduct exit interviews, employ effective rewards programs and provide better working envi ronment. This has therefore created a wide knowledge gap on staff turnover management and hence created a need to conduct a study on factors contributing to the employee turnover in pharmaceutical companies in Kenya. Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited, which is one of the largest and leading chains in the pharmaceutical laboratories with highest turnover according to the preliminary indices, (Delaney and Huselid, 1996) its recent employee satisfaction survey of 2009 indicated that 50% of the employees felt they would not be in the company for the next two years and 69% felt their intention to quit is influenced by management not peers. Considering Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited as a case, this study therefore sought to investigate the factors that contribute to employee turnover in pharmaceutical industries in Kenya. Overall Objective of the Study The general objective of the study is to investigate factors contributing to the employee turnover in pharmaceutical companies in Kenya, a case study of Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited. Specific Objectives The study aimed to:- To investigate employee retention actions as a factor contributing to employee turnover in Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited. To find out whether exit interviews affect employee turnover in Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited. To find out the competiveness of reward program as a factor contributing to employee turnover in Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited.. To establish whether the work place environment affect employee turnover in Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited. Research Question The study sought answers for the following questions: Does employee retention actions as a factor contributing to employee turnover in Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited. Do exit interviews affect employee turnover in Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited. Does competiveness of reward program as a factor contributing to employee turnover in Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited. Do the work place environment affect employee turnover in Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited. Scope of the Study In the literature, the variables that influence the turnover of the employees in an organization is vast. Since human resource management is also a socially complex process which is intertwined with array of organizational factors, it further diversifies the reasons as to why employees leave their organizations. Thus, this study focused only on retention action employed by the organization, exit interviews, competitiveness of reward program and status of workplace environment as factors influencing the employee turnover investigated. The study will limit itself to the case of Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited only. Literature Review Both the theoretical and empirical reviews on employee turnover and its variables were conducted. This resulted into array of constructs (retention strategy, exit interviews, reward strategy, workplace environment and employee turnover) and their relationships which was conceptualized in the following schematic diagram below. This was used as the Conceptual framework which guided the study. Retention Strategy Exit Interviews Employee Turnover Reward Strategy Work place Environment Independent Variables Dependant Variable Research Methodology This chapter focused on research design, sampling, instrumentation, data collection, data analysis and interpretation. Research Design The research adopted descriptive approach. This is because, the study aim to describe employee turnover phenomena using different set of independent variable cluster. Descriptive research is used to obtain information concerning the current status of the phenomena to describe what exists, with respect to variables or conditions in a situation (Mugenda and Mugenda, 1999). Population and Sampling The study focused on pharmaceutical industry in Kenya which is the target population regarded as the larger population on which the findings were generalized to. The study population was mployees of Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited. A target population is the total collection of elements about which one wishes to make some inferences (Mugenda and Mugenda, 1999). Stratified random sampling was used to select a sample size of 50 employees out of the total 75 employee of the study population. Since most variables under investigations are related to motivation, stratification is necessary to consider the different cadres of employees which pose motivation implications. This is equivalent to 66.67% sample size. According to Dempsey, (2003) a sample size of 50% is appropriate for generalization of the gathered findings in descriptive research. This therefore surpasses the threshold suggested by Dempsey, (2003) for generalization purposes and thus, regarded as adequate. The list sourced from th e Human Resource department of Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited was used as a sampling frame. Data Collection and Instrumentation Primary data collection was through the questionnaire using a semi structured questionnaire that was interviewer-administered. Secondary data was through review of the theoretical and empirical literatures sourced from books and scholarly journals, Internet and conference papers among others. Pilot Test A pilot study was conducted to test reliability of the instrument (questionnaire). This involved selecting 2 respondents from each strata and issuing them with the questionnaires. Data was obtained using the questionnaires and after evaluating and identifying the response, reliability analysis using Kunder-Richardson 20 formulae was conducted. The results were applied to modify or drop the items whose thresholds were low. Data reliability also plays an important role towards generalization of the gathered data to reflect the research objective. Data Analysis and Presentation Descriptive statistics data analysis method was applied to analyze quantitative data where data was scored by calculating the percentages and means. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) computer software was used specifically for the purpose of analyzing the quantitative data and presenting it inform of table, figures and graphs. Linear Regression analysis was also used to show the relationship between research variables. Qualitative data analysis method was employed to analyze qualitative data gathered using open end questions. Summary of the Major Findings Response Rate The response rate was 80%. This is regarded adequate in line with the literature by Mugenda and Mugenda, (2003) which recommends 70% as a good response rate in descriptive studies. Respondents Demographic Profile Majority of the respondents (50%) were within the age bracket 31-40 years, 24% within the age bracket of 18-30, and 13% within the age bracket of 41-50 years and 51 years and above. On the education level, majority of the respondents (62%) had attained university education level and 25% had attained college education level. Regarding working experience most of the respondents (35%) had a working experience of 3-5 years, 25% 6-7 years, 18% 3-5 years, 20% had a working experience of less than 2years and 20% had a working experience of 8 years and above. This indicated that most of the study respondents were experienced and educated and hence expected to give relevant information for this study. Employee Retention Strategies Majority (58%) of the respondents indicated the organization lacked effective employee retention strategies while 42% felt otherwise. The 58% felt management lacked understanding on retention strategies. This concurs with Ruth (2004) that managers who have greater understanding on causes of employee turnover are likely to employ effective employee retention strategies in order to retain competent and most skilled employee. Further 80% of the respondents felt that the strategies employed do not minimize employee turnover. Using Likert scale method rating 4 very effective,3-effective,2-Moderate and 1 not effective 5-very effective, (50%) rated the effectiveness of the employed employee retention strategies as being moderate, 18% effective, 20% not effective and 12% very effective. From this we can infer majority of the employee rated average. This concurs with findings by Baker (2004) that organization that lacks very effectives employee retention strategies faces cases of high employ ee turnover rates that contributes to loss of the most skilled and competent employee. The low standard deviation indicates that there was negligible error during the analysis and the variance results demonstrates that respondents gave similar answers as the answers variation was close to each other and hence giving a clear indication that the answers given were reliable From the findings, it can be concluded that lack of effective employee retention strategies contributed to high employee turnover rates in the organization. Exit Interviews Majority of the respondents (68%) were of the opinion that employees leaving the organization were not subjected to exit interviews. However, 32% of the respondents expressed that the employees were subjected to exit interviews. This agreed with suggestion by Armstrong (2006) that presence of exit interviews in organization assists human resource management to establish the core causes of high employee turnover. Concerning whether exit interviews help the organization to find out the reasons for employee turnover (83%) answered no indicating that exit interviews did not help to establish reasons why employees left the organization and (37%) felt otherwise. The majority who answered no explained that the organization lacked effective exit interview program that helped in capturing the organization problems influencing high employee turnover. Regarding the frequency of conducting exit interviews respondents (47.5%) stated that exit interviews were rarely conducted, 40% stated sometimes , 7.5% never and only 5% who stated exit interviews were always conducted. Exit interviews were rarely conducted since the management was not conscious on the reasons contributing to high employee turnover rates and this agreed with Nelly (2002) that human resource managers who are not mindful about employees turnover do not carry out exit interviews and instead concentrates on employing new employees. The study hence concluded that conducting exit interviews could help human resource management in pharmaceutical to effectively manage high employee turnover rates. The table shows that a low standard deviation was obtained in all questions, indicating that the answers given were accurate. A low variance in all the questions shows that the respondents answered the questions in a similar way and hence the responses given were reliable. Reward Program The study sought to find out competitiveness of the reward program.73% of the respondents felt the reward program was not competitive and it was one of the reasons that influenced employees to leave. This agrees with Nzuve (2007) that absence of competitive rewards in the organization lead to low level of employee motivation that influences most employee to leave the organization hence increasing the rate of employee turnover.85% of the respondents indicated absence of competitive reward programs in the organization contributed to high employee turnover while 15% felt otherwise. As can be observed from the table a mean of 1.27 and 1.85 was obtained in the two questions indicating that organization lacked competitive reward programs and absence of competitive reward programs contributed high employee turnover rates. Work place Environment An overwhelming (80%) of the respondents felt their work environment was not conducive while 20% felt it was conducive. The majority 80% felt that the work environment contributed to employee turnover. Using Likert Scale where 5 -very large externt4-large extent, 3-moderate extent, 2-small extent and 1- not at all, majority of the respondents (60%) stated that work place environment contributed to employee turnover to a very large extent, 20% large extent, 10% moderate extent and 5% small extent and not at all respectively. A mean of 1.20 indicates that organization work place environment was not conducive, a mean of 1.80 shows that work place environment contributed to high employee turnover rate and a mean of 4.25 indicated that work place environment contributed to employee turnover to a large extent. A low variance and a low standard deviation demonstrate that the answers given by the respondents were accurate. Regression Analysis A regression equation to show the relationship between the independent variables and dependant variable was derived Y = a + bX1 + bX2 + bX3 + bX4 + e=r2 The values for b0, b1, b2, b3 and b4 are  .569, .330, .095, .160 and .132 therefore the equation Y = .569+.330+.095+ .160 +.132 This indicates that there is a strong relationship between, employee retention, exit interviews, reward program, work place environment and employee turnover. A coefficient of .330 indicates that application of effective employee retention strategies reduces employee turnover by 0.330,a coefficient of .095 indicates application of exit interviews reduces employee turnover by 0.095. A coefficient of.160 presents that application of effective reward programs reduces employee turnover by 0.16. A coefficient of .132 indicates that conducive workplace environment helps to reduce employee turnover by 0.132. Conclusion Based on the findings of the study, it can be concluded that employee retention strategy was a major factor that greatly contributed to high employee turnover rates in the organization. The study also found out that one of the critical parameter of collecting data form the exiting employees, exit interviews were not regularly conducted whenever employees left the organization. And this hampered the organization human resource management to identify the core reasons that influenced employees to leave the organization. Lack of competitive reward program greatly contributed to high employee turnover rates in the organization since the organizations reward package was not competitive and also lacks the elements of totality in its reward system. Finally it can be concluded that the organization working environment was not conducive to most of the employees and this contributed to high employee turnover. This is expected since; laboratories like workshops are characteristically identified with the workplace environments which they offer. Recommendations Employee turnover should not be left to be handled by the human resource department alone rather it should be looked at as part of the overall business strategy since human capital is one of the major factors of production. This way , factors that are causing employee turnover will be handled and top management level and action will be taken to minimize employee turnover. Thus the study suggests the need to investigate on the role played by the top management in the alleviating employee turnover investigation as necessary. The study also recommends the need for the managements to be vigilant with their exit interviews so as to get insights of why the employees are leaving while redoubling their efforts in streamlining the motivation package.

Christmas History :: essays research papers

Christmas History The word Christmas comes from the old English "Cristes maesse" meaning Christ's Mass. The Holiday celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ. The actual birthday of Jesus is not known; therefore, the early Church Fathers in the 4th century fixed the day around the old Roman Saturnalia festival (17 - 21 December), a traditional pagan festivity. The first mention of the birthday of Jesus is from the year 354 AD. Gradually all Christian churches, except Armenians who celebrate Christmas on January 6 (the date of the baptism of Jesus as well as the day of the three Magi), accepted the date of December 25th. In American/English tradition, Christmas Day itself is the day for opening gifts brought by jolly old St. Nick. Many of our current American ideals about the way Christmas ought to be, derive from the English Victorian Christmas, such as that described in Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol." The caroling, the gifts, the feast, and the wishing of good cheer to all - these ingredients came together to create that special Christmas atmosphere. The custom of gift-giving on Christmas goes back to Roman festivals of Saturnalia and Kalends. The very first gifts were simple items such as twigs from a sacred grove as good luck emblems. Soon that escalated to food, small items of jewelry, candles, and statues of gods. To the early Church, gift- giving at this time was a pagan holdover and therefore severely frowned upon. However, people would not part with it, and some justification was found in the original gift giving of the Magi, and from figures such as St. Nicholas. By the middle ages gift giving was accepted. Before then it was more common to exchange gifts on New Year's Day or Twelfth Night. Santa Claus is known by British children as Father Christmas. Father Christmas, these days, is quite similar to the American Santa, but his direct ancestor is a certain pagan spirit who regularly appeared in medieval mummer's plays. The old-fashioned Father Christmas was depicted wearing long robes with sprigs of holly in his long white hair. Children write letters to Father Christmas detailing their requests, but instead of dropping them in the mailbox, the letters are tossed into the fireplace. The draft carries the letters up the chimney, and theoretically, Father Christmas reads the smoke. Gifts are opened Christmas afternoon. From the English we get a story to explain the custom of hanging stockings from the mantelpiece. Father Christmas once dropped some gold coins while coming down the chimney. The coins would have fallen through the ash grate and been

Political Philosophy and Human Beings Essay

Freedom is generally term we use to talk about politics in our society nowadays. Eudaimonia is not a freedom but it betrays a more general difference in the way Aristotle approaches different societies. Eduaimonia is a biological concept with â€Å"your life going well† With your naturally attributes being fully developed. It is not a matter of your mood. If you ask if someone is flourishing it is more than if they are happy it is are they becoming everything they can be. Are they exercising all of their abilities? Freedom doesn’t have anyting to do with success. Freedoms for Aristotle is part of eudaimonia. Eudaimonia is a collection of goods. You need material things and good luck and freedom and food and water. Pg. 258 Aristotle says eudaimonia is a STATE OF ACTIVITY. VERY IMPORTANT. It is not just well being but also well doing. You’re a Eudaimonistic person only if you enact the activities of a eudaimonistic person. You cant be a good citizen or a happy citizen if you just have rights. You have to exercise these rights. Some kind of activity. Different activities in different cities because different cities have different rules and constitutions. Citizenship is a kind of doing. Citizens have function. The activity of citizens is that which supports the constitution of the city or state or polis which they are apart. The point of the polis is not just living but to have a good life. A good life that combines the success of the individual with the success of a whole. It is always in motion and an activity. Book 3 chapter 9 a polis is not the same thing as an alliance. You cant take any political agreement between 2 or 3 cities and make them one city. Only human beings because they have language Aristotle says can make moral judgments. Not like animals judge where the food is but more complex judgments. Page 10 and 11. Our language is capable of making distinctions that aren’t only physical. Aristotle claims animals don’t make moral judgments. Language and justice are immediately linked to the function of the polis. Our capacity to speak to one another is what makes us political. It is one function of the polis to define good and evil. To come to collective understanding of what is good and what is bad. Human beings have the capacity to debate and judge differently which also means judge badly and judge well. This judging is a kind of activity. It is the business of cities. Even households do in their choosing how to live together. Aristotles discussion of households and cities. Human beings in two principle ways. The member of a lesser whole the household and the member of a larger whole which is the polis Both having ruling parts and ruled parts. Polis Definition of a citizen :one who shares in the administration of justice in the holding of office. He doesn’t say what the office is to incorporate all the states in the Greek world. Some monarchies where people who don’t hold office who are still considered citizens. NOW-A citizen is someone who is a legal candidate for office even if they don’t hold an office at that specific time. Aristotle says if you have that one person who is qualified to be king either you have to make him king or get rid of him. When Aristotle gives the best govt he says different kinds of government are beter for some circumstances. If city is under attack it may be smarter to give control to one person to make all the decisions so there is no confusion. The circumstance of the not so rich not so poor with some allies and some opponents. BEST THING in this situation is to have a middle class that can alternate from ruling and being ruled. He means people who aren’t to rich and aren’t to poor. The poor are to desperate and greedy so they don’t want to consider what is good for everyone. The rich just want to boss everyone around and want charge. The polis is the one compound that can be self-concious about its situation and a ruled and a ruling element. If were ruling we might enjoy it to much so this could be a problem. If we are part of the ruled we might resent being ordered around. Human organization is like animal organization but it also has a special problem and a special solution. The best thing is someone who can understand both ruling and being ruled. That is why the middle class would be best for the position. They understand both sides. Aristotle thinks even in a family they are not totally conscious of their situation. A bee hive has a quen bee but the bee doesn’t know she is in charge and the other bees don’t mind not being in charge it just is what it is. Polity like the Athenian system is best because everyone takes a share in ruling and being ruled. They drew names out of a hat for rule and you were part of ruling if you were pulled in the hat. The city was small enough so over the course of your lifetime almost everyone could be assured to be the ruler of the city. Most of your life you were in the other position of being ruled. This is the best in most condition or the average condition. If one person comes along and seem the best to rule and will give eudaimonia for everyone then they should rule but it happens very rarely. HOUSEHOLD AND SLAVERY The household for Aristotle is another form of social compound like the polis but on a smaller scale. Will have a ruling and a ruled element. Aristotle knows in advance because there is always a ruling and a ruled element he knows what to look for so it is not surprising when he looks in a household he finds these two things. Aristotle’s perspective the adult male in a household rules and everyone else is subordinate to that position. All of the households Aristotle could see were dominated by men and for the most part were slave holding. Some period when individuals are not best in charge of their own lives. (children) Discussion 2/7/14 Aristotle is more concerned with the practical sort of things plato was thinking about how it should be. Aristotle sees the ruler and ruled everywhere. Phone- Sound and voice or pleasure and pain which pertains to animals like a cat screeching or a wolf howling. Logos- is speech and reason and judgment and language. Language and judgment go hand in hand. This is A PART OF BEING HUMAN. 4/10/14 Lecture Notes Hobbes considered by many to be first modern political theorist. Hobbes in politics in conservative for his time and place but his methods are very very radical. HOBBES AND ARISTOTLE Hobbes is opposite of Aristotle. Aristotle learned about politics through observation. He observed nature and looked at how it was replicated towards ourselves. Aristotle thinks all natural beings have a telos which is a natural end. A TELOS is something you are destined for not just death. Hobbes participated in scientific debate when he moved to paris. Attempt like aristotles to approach politics through nature. HOBBES IDEA of what nature is and how you study are so different from aristotles. The state is an artificial animal says hobbes. What you learn about the natural world will not tell you everything and not the most important things about politics and state. The art of man is like the art of god. Look on the political world as a creation but as a human creation making an artificial animal. Study human beings alongside other animals. To Hobbes the state is something radically different from animal congregations and it DOESN’T HAVE TO BE MADE unlike animals. If it is unmade it is chaos and war. Like the England he had to run away from because of civil war. States are not a part of nature. Aristotle says the state is a natural formation and is suppose to be there. For Hobbes this is not true. WHEN HUMAN BEINGS ENTER INTO A STATE NATURE IS WHAT WE LEAVE BEHIND. Human beings were in an unpolitical state before the state which to Hobbes is the state of nature. We were in a previous condition before the state which is nature to hobbes. To Aristotle everything is nature and human beings are always part of the natural world. Aristotles method is human beings are natural and politics and states were natural so he was going around to all different ones to figure out what they had in common. This makes no sense to Hobbes. No state of any kind is natural to Hobbes. Human beings Hobbes says clearly are made by nature and have natural characteristics that human beings have. To Hobbes the people inside the artificial state still have those natural characteristics. You cant leave your body behind to make the state. If states are artificial we can make them how we want. Not aristotles naturally idea of 3-6 types. Hobbes’s theory is sort of liberating but also terrifying. No guarantee we are safe. We are not born into a natural order. If there isn’t an order that we make we wont make it very long. Hobbes’s modern science including distrust of the senses. Hobbes is skeptical of our sensory perception and the ability of our senses to tell us the truth. Sensations clearly come from the natural world but we don’t know exactly where it is coming from. If we know our senses deceive us in some cases we cant be sure they don’t always deceive us. PLATO ALSO DISTRUSTED THE SENSES AND ALSO LIKED GEOMETRY LIKE HOBBES AND EUCLIDIAN GEOMETRY. Plato thinks we can reach some sort of reason and perceive it correctly. Hobbes is not interested in this. Pg. 4(chapter 1) Deviathlon Information we get through introspection can be trusted. Whoever looks into himself and considers what he does when he thinks of reasons hopes and fear. The only way to know humans and to have secure knowledge is to look into yourself. What you find when you look into yourself is good information to everybody else. When I understanding what im doing when I hope then I understand what youre doing when you hope even if they are different hopes. Same thing with fear. THAT FOR HOBBES IS SECURE STARTING POINT FOR SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE TO START POLITICS. Chapter 11-No Telos meaning no teleology don’t study human beings or any part of nature by postulating there is some final ending for them and thinking we can find a way to get them there. Hobbes sees once you get something you want you find something else you want and so on and so on. Like calicles. (from another reading calicles is) Hobbes found this through his own introspection. Hobbes knows his desires are different others but he knows their desire for those things are the same. And he knows that he isn’t satisfied when he gets what he wants so he knows others are the same way. Hobbes doesn’t mean human beings all seek political power but like calicles the power to get what you want. Being able to arrange the world the way you like it. This for hobbes is what is natural. Not a natural ending but a natural beginning. Putting things into motion. Sees it as a physicist. Putting the world into motion. Hobbes says individuals have desires those desires set them in motion and once they are set in motion they don’t tend to stop. Humans are particles seeking what they want with other particles (people) in the way not always getting what we want. Its not just politics to Hobbes that are artificial. Many other things are artificial that aristotles thought was natural. MOST IMPORTANTLY IS SPEECH. (ARISTOTLE SAID SPEECH WAS THE DEFINING NATURAL CHARECTERISITC OF HUMAN BEINGS. HUMANS ARE THE ANIMALS WITH THE NATURAL QUALITY OF SPEAKING AND REASON FOR ARISTOTLE. ) Just about everything except our desires are artificial to Hobbes. Speech is an invention. Hobbes says almost every moral conclusion you want to make you will make it through speech which human beings made up so it doesn’t tell us anything. Chapter 4. All moral truths from Hobbes sense are well constructed senses. We have arranged the terms to lineup. The definition the words line up and make sense so it is true and we can define it. CHAPTER 6- GOOD AND EVIL People disagree not because they make mistakes about reasoning which plato would say they disagree because they have different preferences. They see good and evil through their own preferences. You nor I will worship to persuade each other to what we see fit. What does this mean for politics? Calicles who also thought good and evil were words that people made up. Calicles also thought people were better than others. He thought letting nature work itself out was letting the powerful people dominate the weak. HOBBES THINKS PEOPLE ARE NATURALLY EQUALLY. That doesn’t mean they are equally smart or large or strong or weak. We don’t have equal desires wehave different desires. All Hobbes means by natural equality is that everyone of us is vulnerable to being killed by others. No human being is strong enough by themselves to secure themselves physically to secure themselves from others. WE ARE PHYSICALLY VULNERABLE MOST ESPECIALLY TO ONE ANOTHER. Human beings are born with physical desires and need power and security to help you get your desires. We live in a world with no system we are destined to be apart of like Aristotle thought. We don’t settle our differences by appealing to a natural order or moral principles through reason that plato thought we could all agree on. Moral conceptual political conflicts make the world a dangerous place because if you want catholocism you want it for others not just like chocolate which is for you. Fundamentally human beings are bodies in motion. We will not stop unless we come up against counterveiling force. The state of nature is the war of everyman against everyman. Chaos terror and war. We cannot look to nature to solve our problems because nature is the problem. We are each born with set of desires which are not in agreement with others. THIS IS POLITICAL PROBLEM WHAT IS THE SOLUTION. Reason and justice are just words we need a counter force. Something to bring order to a naturally chaotic system. We need something to make all the particles move in the same direction. The sword signifies the power of the state for Hobbes. There is a solution that has to be imposed just because we are so different. Hobbes understand just how different everyone is and that is a problem. How can you handle the individuality of everyone and make them stop killing eachother when they are left in their natural condition. MUST SET UP A RULE AND GET THEM TO OBEY. We need an incentive that is greater than our natural impulsion of our own desires. Everyone should have their greatest desire being staying alive. So we can enjoy the chocolate or vanilla. We will never enjoy anything in this world unless we are alive. LECTURE 2/12/14 Hobbes In nature there is a lack of agreement, trust and language. Life at the state of nature is solitary or nasty brutish and short to hobbes. The problem is fear and the solution is fear. We fear our own death that is good because then we all know we have that in common. It is rational to want to cooperate with other people but you can be tricked or betrayed. We also fear that other people wont perform their contracts. The solution will have to be some sort of unity. Pg. 132 chapter 17 You want to do whats right and you want to agree with other people but they may not cooperate. If you fear other people the leader will take that fear away and make you fear him. You will know everyone equally fears the sovereign and the consequences for non-agreement so they all have reason to agree. Now you fear death from the sovereign but maybe not as much from other people so now you can make agreements with one another. The sword hangs over all your covenants with one another. No conflilct for hobbes about being afraid and being free. You are in a position to be liberated from the fear of fellow human beings and the state of nature by entering the commonwealth or the artificial state. All you have to do is give up your will to one man or one group of men. Hobbes thinks its more efficient to have one man do it but it can be a group. Where there is disagreement there is distrust and when there is distrust there is violence and war. By all of us agreeing to let one person speak then when he speaks that’s it he has spoken for all of us. Even if we have disagreements it doesn’t matter politically he has spoken and that is it. The existence of the leviathan allows us to make deals and agreements with one another about property etc†¦ We need a form of agreement that ends the problem so we can live in a fundamentally functioning artificial state. We can create an object of mutual equal simultaneous fear. If you can create a state that equally and simultaneously threatens everyone with terrible penalties when they break the law you create the possibility of law which doesn’t exist in the state of nature. It is not a social covenant that protects your rights. It is about a govt protecting your body and your life. Not your rights. You fear govt because it has tremendous power but you are glad it does because it keeps everyone else in line and for yourself you know what to do. If you are a good person in the first place nothing is necessarily being taken away. Yes there is a sword over your head but it brings a situation you wanted anyway. Pg. 170 â€Å"liberty of the subject lies in the silence of the laws† In nature you had the right to anything as far as hobbes was concerned. By placing everybody’s rights in one central place you get back security. Law for hobbes is prohibition. Thou, shall, not kill steal etc†¦ Law and rights are opposite. The more rights you have the less law the more law the less rights. Punishments don’t need to be frequent and laws don’t need to be harsh. Whatever the leviathan does not prohibit you are as free as the state of nature to do what you want to do. The sovereign needs to equally enforce in fear the violation of the law across a wide range of territory. The sovereign does need to be absolute. Pg. 132 ch. 17 – If the sovereign is not absolute the problem is not solved. Without a unity of will the problem isn’t solved that’s why the sovereign needs to make all the laws. Also the sovereign needs to control all doctrines. Leviathan doesn’t care what you think or believe it only cares what you say because it gets them riled up and people think they know whats right which leads them to cause problems. Is it bad to have gov’t control whats printed and distributed? Hobbes thinks its better than civil war. Hobbes thought everyone who had experienced the terror of civil war and everyman against everyman would take the leviathan. The foundation of this is the fact that we all want to live. What threatens leviathan? Competition, diffidence and glory. Diffidence is hobbes word for distrust. Glory and what hobbes sometimes calls vain glory is different because it pertains to a different type of good. Some materially desires can be solved without much difficulty like air and water. If we all want land that is a bit of a problem. We can solve that problem with a law telling us what land we get. It is a clear solution it solves the problem if we have a sword that is good enough. Being famous, being important, being well known, being socially eminent and prominent. Those are things that cannot easily be settled by law. Although laws can help them. Land food water air can be distributed but winning cant be distributed. Only one person can win. Only one person can be prime minister etc†¦ Not everyone can be a movie star because if everyone was nobody would be. Most people are happy with air water and food and land but some people want to be special and these for hobbes are the most dangerous people because some want glory so bad they will risk their lives for it. Some people want what they want even to the point of death. Antigone is someone who cares about something to the point where she is willing to give up her life for it. The antigones to hobbes are the most dangerous people. They are dangerous and make all of us insecure because the point of his threat was not to induce the fear in the law abiding person but to get you to understand everyone else in the state will abide and will be trustworthy. If the threat is not going to deter all then the system is going to break down. That’s what Hobbes thought happened in the English civil war about religion. Leviathan is a plea for rationality. The rational caculation to value your own life above all other things. There is no natural cure for nature. Letting people do their own thing will not turn into some spontaneous social agreement mostly because they cannot trust each other even if it is in both of their interest to do so. A common fear is a sharing experience. You also experience ruling and being ruled at the same time. There is also a sense that the sovereign is all of us. (a bunch of little bodies that make up the leviathan) Hobbes is serious when he says it is a unity. Yes you give up in your rights to the sovereign but you also partake in the sovereign. The sovereign did not exist until you and I agree to give in and make it so. The body of the sovereign is our collective bodies. For hobbes our bodies are what we have in common. We are free to disagree about everything so long as we don’t have a single person to speak for us. The sword is a dictionary or a set of meanings that are legal and illegal not right and wrong. The sword hangs over our head but in our hand we get a dictionary which tells us whit is legal and illegal. Leviathan is also a solution to the moral and linguistic chaos in the state of nature where we don’t agree on anything We can also have freedom and liberty as hobbes understands these terms. Not rights. Rights are what you have to give up to have the practice and experience of liberty. Febraury 19th, 2014 ROUSSEAU – THE SOCIAL CONTRACT Often appointed to a reason for the French Revolution. Pg. 53 on slavery- We are not going to look anymore at gov’t nature but we are going to assume all people are equal in nature. Force can create something but it cant create anything right. If there is going to be something in charge it has to be a covenant. (similar to Hobbes) Gov’t remains with ROUSSEAU something artificial. Rosseau hates hobbes and Aristotle because they are theorists of slavery. Rosseau says there cannot be any such thing as legitimate slavery. If politics isn’t going to have a moral function for Rosseau than it isn’t worth talking or arguing about. Aristotle theorized a natural slavery but for rosseau hobbes theorized an artificial slavery. Slavery under the sovereign. Rosseau says human beings would never consent to slavery by contract. Government has to be by consent and government has to n some sense respect the equality of every person. How to we avoid Hobbes problem of individuals having problems with everyone? Rosseau is not interested in devising a science of politics. Rosseau resembles plato because he wants to work directly in the language of reason. The book is full of historical examples. Comparative lessons on political institutions that have worked in the past. Human beings have a special moral capacity which is another reason why slavery is intolerable to him. HOW IS ROSSEAU GOING TO CREATE A SOCIAL CONTRACT THAT IS MORAL AND IS BASED ON CONSENT? Pg. 60 – if each of us takes individual rights against the state then we will end up back in a state of nature. Rosseau says the only thing that can work is the total alienation of every individual. The alienation of ones rights to the whole community. Hobbes said one gave himself to one man or an assembly of men. A contract that is completely neutral. We are all equal before and after but the nature of our equality has changed. After we are equal beings in this community or new being and we all remain as equal as we are before. The difficulty with this is how does anyone decide what to do. We haven’t solved the problem of how we decide. Pg. 69- beginning of book 2 – If we are going to give everything up to the community rosseau thinks there must be a reason to do it. â€Å"common interest† or the general will. It is not just a series of desires that we happen to share. When there is no love there is no family. Love sustains a family. Even though ‘families’ go through the motions and confide with legal forms there is no love so there is a difference. The general will is to the state what love is to the family. The animating spirit that sustains it and creates and and without it there can be no such thing as a state. Being a member of a family doesn’t mean you don’t have your own opinions or interests that may conflict with other members of the family. But being members with a real loving family there is a time you set those interests and opinions to one side because you care about the fundamental well being of the others in your family so you set those things aside. The development of your reason and your realization of your common interest go together naturally as proto human animals what you lack is not a set of interest but a rational capacity to understand the overlap of your interest with everybody else’s. Our interest don’t change but we realize those interests can be realized beter collectively than they can be singly. The general will exists so long as we continue to believe and support and develop these common interests in the same way the family continues to exist as they believe and support and develop the common view of that family. When you think you are better off without another person it is over even if you go through the motions for a decade after this thought. (likewise for rosseau with a state if we are not committed to them it will not exist even if there is parliament it will be an empty form with no general will. ) Standing behind the social contract is an animated spirit that makes the contract possible but it is only possible for a human being. Animals cannot share in a general will because they don’t have language and cannot reason together. The general will is meant to be at one in the same time a product of reason and a product of some kind of spirit. You cant see it like love in a family you just kind of know that it is there. Rosseau tended to idealize smaller communities. This kind of political community he is proposing is not well suiting for larger states. Rosseau thinks this is what it takes to actually have a state in which people remain free. You do what you need to do because you are happy to be a member of that organization. No one is holding a gun to your head. Even if you are not thrilled to perform the task when you want to do it you understand the non-performance would be letting down your fellows in the community and you don’t want tthat to happen because you value the community and the members in that community. All of us have some communities in which we are willingly apart. The only way a community of equals can be governed is if it is governed by the general will. It will be governed by voting by a community that rosseau imagines. It is very different from majority rule. There is in rosseaus republic majority decision making but not majority rule. The point of the assembly is to discover what the general will is to rosseau. You agree to be bound by the majority because it is the only practical decision role. You go along with the decision of the majority because you think they share the same interest of the common good. When you lose that feeling that you are all there for the common purpose then the state is gone and then you don’t have a good reason to go along with the majority anymore. The shared purpose is gone and you are back to the state of nature where shared individuals have nothing in common. States can fall apart because people don’t have common interest they can also fall apart because there is not constant interaction. Liberty is what you get when you have the general will in place. The general will is not the same thing as love or patriotism but it is similar to it. The spirit that animates you as you act as a citizen as oppose to a private individual.

Main Themes in The Glass Menagerie Essays

Main Themes in The Glass Menagerie Essays Main Themes in The Glass Menagerie Paper Main Themes in The Glass Menagerie Paper choosing instead to believe that when te gentleman caller will fall for Laura when he sees how lovely and sweet and pretty she is. Meanwhile, Laura retreats to her glass menagerie, her beautiful yet fragile world of little glass animals. In this world, the special glass unicorn gets along nicely with the other normal horses, in contrast to Lauras social isolation due to her weirdness. Tom escapes to his world of movies and the bars to escape from his daily life of a nagging mother and a boring job at a shoe factory, and Jim, the supposed emissary from a world of reality, is too, trapped in the memories of his high school glory and the hopes for the American Dream of future opportunities, confidently declaring Knowledge Zzzzzp! Money Zzzzzzp! Power! Thats the cycle democracy is built on! Finally, the world outside the Wingfield apartment is no different. To get away from the hardships of the Great Depression and world conflict, the Americans indulge in hot swing music and liquor, dance halls, bars, and movies, and sex that hung in the gloom like a chandelier and flooded the world with brief, deceptive rainbows. Thus, in their exploitation of illusions to cope with reality, the Wingfields become a kind of microcosm for the entire country. The Glass Menagerie identifies the conquest of reality by illusion as a huge and growing aspect of the human condition in its time. The loneliness of human beings is a recurring theme in Williams works and is also clearly portrayed through the characters of The Glass Menagerie. Since being abandoned by her husband, all Amanda has left is her family. Despite having each other as family, each of them is alone in a sense. Amanda clearly loves her children, but she lacks understanding and is unable to communicate her feelings and thoughts to them, stating to Tom, theres so many things in my heart that I cant describe to you. As a result the family ties become strained and gradually the family falls apart, leaving her to be more alone than ever. Vice versa, Tom is also lonely because he is unable to make Amanda understand him, claiming to Amandas comment Thats true of me too. . Being a poet, he is trapped in his own world and is unable to communicate with even his family, let alone establish any worthwhile relationships with his co-workers. His loneliness increases when he discovers the world outside is no more understanding towards him than the world within his family. As for Laura, she has never been able to successfully communicate with anyone due to her introverted nature and inferiority complex, admitting I never had much luck at making friends; hence loneliness is more natural to her. Her thwarted chance at happiness with Jim as well as Toms abandonment gives her only deeper loneliness. In a way, Williams is trying to convey that humans are all essentially alone. Hence, the themes of individuals trapped under circumstances, the use of illusions to combat reality, as well as the inevitable loneliness of humans, are clearly presented in Tenesse Williams The Glass Menagerie. These themes are prevalent in the plight of the characters, palpable in their tragedies, individual worlds of illusions, and their loneliness due to inability to communicate with each other. Hence the combination of these results in a delicate and meaningful play, an expert yet sympathetic observation of human nature.

How to Write a STELLAR Executive Resume is now in print!

How to Write a STELLAR Executive Resume is now in print! As you may have read in my blog last week, my book How to Write a STELLAR Executive Resume has now been published by Skyhorse Publishing – in first-time print and newly designed e-book formats! Even with the support of the editors at Skyhorse, revising the book was a huge project, and I’m excited to see its fruition. Here’s some of what you’ll learn in How to Write a STELLAR Executive Resume: 1. How to create a compelling format Format your resume professionally and cleanly to speak to an executive audience. If you’re planning to write your resume yourself, you’ll need some Word skills that you might not have picked up in your travels. The book will teach you some important basics. Use a format appropriate to your profession. For example, if you’re a marketing or sales executive, you can be more daring with your graphic design than if you are an insurance or finance executive. Create something that â€Å"pops† without going overboard. Include plenty of white space. Too much text will turn your readers off. You might insert a bit of smart art or a chart or graph into your executive resume. An easy way to insert graphics is to create a chart in Excel and paste that into the document. Most important, print out your executive resume before sending to make sure everything looks okay, and run it by some colleagues in your industry for their opinion. If anyone is squinting to read your tiny print, increase your font size. A two to three-page resume is okay for executive resumes! 2. How to make powerful word choices Smart word choices, dynamic and varied verbs, and good sentence structure are essential to a successful executive resume. Check your spelling and grammar, and have three other people check your spelling and grammar. Many hiring managers will immediately reject an executive resume based on a single spelling or grammatical error. Remember that the past tense of â€Å"lead† is â€Å"led† – and don’t bore them by starting every bullet with the verb â€Å"Led†! Mix your language up as much as possible without sounding flowery. 3. How to deliver â€Å"power and punch† Pack your executive resume with measurable achievements – metrics and concrete/tangible outcomes. These quantitative results are what keep your reader engaged and demonstrate your value to the organization. You need to show them that you will deliver 5x the amount they are paying you in revenue generations and/or savings. Put your achievements in context. A $5M increase in revenue is more notable on top of $10M than it is on top of $1B. Achievements are also more impressive in the face of challenge. So share your CAR (Challenge/Action/Result), PAR (Problem/Action/Result) or STAR (Situation/Task/Action/Result) stories to demonstrate how you have tackled challenges and what results you have generated. These accomplishments will demonstrate what you’re capable of creating for your next company. Be careful! While you want to provide a sense of the challenge you faced, you want to do that without making your company look bad. This balance requires some finesse. 4.  How to convey your unique selling proposition (USP) You absolutely must make yourself stand out amongst all the other people applying for the position. Learn how to do this in the first few lines of your resume, with the â€Å"New York, New York† principle! 5. Why it’s important to put yourself in the employee’s shoes Imagine yourself reading your resume as your future employer. What would you be looking for? Would you hire you? As someone reading a resume, you would of course want to see some of the keywords that are essential to the position. That’s just the basics. Once that threshold is passed, is the content of this resume enjoyable to read? Is it pleasant visually? Or are you bored? Do you really get who this person is and the difference they could make for your company? Be rigorous in asking – and answering –   these questions. 6. What homework you should be doing You’re a rare person if you can just sit down without preparation and write your resume. This is a big project and it takes doing your homework! Take some time to think through your accomplishments. My resume questionnaire is a great tool for doing that. And choose a format you like, appropriate to your profession. How to Write a STELLAR Executive Resume is a great place to start as you’re getting serious about writing your resume yourself. Overall, your resume or executive resume requires high-level storytelling that knocks the reader’s socks off with both an appealing format and impressive language. If you follow the advice in How to Write a STELLAR Executive Resume, you might get feedback like some others who have followed its principles: â€Å"This is the best resume I’ve ever seen.† Then all you have to do is back up the resume with your interview skills. This winning combo is what will get you your dream job. Want a copy for yourself? Find How to Write a STELLAR Executive Resume at Amazon Google Barnes Noble Kobo

Testing Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Testing - Coursework Example White-box test design allows one to peek inside the "box", and it focuses specifically on using internal knowledge of the software to guide the selection of test data. There are distinct advantages to white-box testing like: 1. Thoroughness: As such, white-box testing is much more thorough in terms of what percentage of the application we can test. This helped us in finding out that it will overwrite the point character if you first enter it and then enter a number. 2. Stability: Delivers greater stability and reusability of test cases if the objects that comprise an application never change like the calculator whose multiplication is constant but whose exception was not correct. But there’s the flip side of the coin as well and each of these come with a few disadvantages as well. The Black-Box Testing Techniques lack accuracy and despite the ease of use lack thoroughness and it doesn’t look very stable to me. Other disadvantages include the fragility of scripts and lac k of introspection that comes with no knowledge of the internal structure. ... GUI testing JUnit testing Success of any GUI application depends on how it interacts through its user interface with different users. An application with invalid behavior or incorrect user interaction can lead to large problems. GUI testing is a process to test the application's user interface and to detect if the application is working fine functionally. GUI Testing includes how the application deals with keyboard and mouse events, how different GUI components like menu-bars, tool-bars, dialog-boxes, buttons, entry fields, list navigations, images etc. respond to user input and to ensure that the tasks are performed as desired. The GUI testing can be implemented either manually or through automated methods. Manual testing is often error prone as well as far from exhaustive thus automated approach is preferred. Automated GUI Testing is use of a software program to check if the application is working fine functionally. This includes automating manual testing tasks which are mostly tim e consuming and error prone. To test a GUI, we needed a good method of finding the components of value, selecting cells in a table, dragging things about, clicking buttons, etc. The events we test are similar to assembly language only these are applicable for GUI testing. What the ideal approach is in describing the expected behavior is that we clarify the developer's goals before penning the code can; this avoids overbuilding useless feature and the correlated feature sets. Below is the required refactoring of the Java calculator program using Test-Driven Development (TDD). There is no possibility of exception in multiplication function so exception part of code can be considered as a dead code and can be removed. Public DivideByZeroExeption(String s), this function can

Cultures in Conflict, Christians, Muslims, Jews in the Discovery Assignment

Cultures in Conflict, Christians, Muslims, Jews in the Discovery - Assignment Example This essay analyzes that many women have dropped the tradition voluminous dress codes and adopted more cosmopolitan and elegant fashions in the country (ProQuest, 82). Foreign fashions have been integrated into the dressing for women within the country and this has been one of the major elements in which change has been clear between the tradition and the modern era.Cultural and social permissiveness within the highly Islamic country of Bahrain was displayed when a 10-year-old girl participated in the world swimming competition in Russia, earlier in the month of August 2015. This prompted a lot of eyebrows to be raised regarding the participation, but since there was no age restriction for participants, the young girl could not be barred from participation (Byrnes, para 2). In the ultimate analysis, the ruling in a case regarding the jailing of the opposition leader within the country has presented a popular debate in a country with the marking of 200 days since his incarceration on August 20th (Rahdi, para1). International media has focused immensely on the political situation in the country and questioned the aspects of democracy with the society. The lack of political tolerance has been cited as the sole reason for the incarceration of Sheikh Ali who has been advocating for nonviolent ways of settling political differences (Naar, para 3). There has been international pressure calling on the government to establish an independent inquiry into the case of the opposition leader.