Hobbes View of Human Nature and his Vision of Government :: Philosophy essays

Hobbes' View of Human Nature and his Vision of Government    In The Leviathan, Thomas Hobbes talks about his views of human nature and describes his vision of the ideal government which is best suited to his views.      Hobbes believed that human beings naturally desire the power to live well and that they will never be satisfied with the power they have without acquiring more power.   After this, he believes, there usually succeeds a new desire such as fame and glory, ease and sensual pleasure or admiration from others.   He also believed that all people are created equally.   That everyone is equally capable of killing each other because although one man may be stronger than another, the weaker may be compensated for by his intellect or some other individual aspect. Hobbes believed that the nature of humanity leads people to seek power.   He said that when two or more people want the same thing, they become enemies and attempt to destroy each other.   He called this time when men oppose each other war.   He said that there were three basic causes for war, competition, distrust and glory.   In each of these cases, men use violence to invade their enemies territory either for their per sonal gain, their safety or for glory.   He said that without a common power to unite the people, they would be in a war of every man against every man as long as the will to fight is known.   He believed that this state of war was the natural state of human beings and that harmony among human beings is artificial because it is based on an agreement.   If a group of people had something in common such as a common interest or a common goal, they would not be at war and united they would be more powerful against those who would seek to destroy them.   One thing he noted that was consistent in all men was their interest in self-preservation.    Hobbes view of human nature lead him to develop his vision of an ideal government.   He believed that a common power was required to keep men united.   This power would work to maintain the artificial harmony among the people as well as protect them from foreign enemies.

The Hound of the Baskervilles Essay -- English Literature

The Hound of the Baskervilles At the start of the story the setting is described through the legend of Sir Hugo Baskerville. Sir Hugo is described in the legend as a â€Å"wild, profane and godless man† This suggests that his inhumanity and â€Å"evil† make him a potentially viable enemy who will stop at nothing. It is Sir Hugo that sets the tone for the setting. Sir Hugo uses his power and Baskerville Hall as a prison for the young girl. She manages to escape by â€Å"the aid of the growth of ivy which covered the south wall.† The ivy indicated the age and wildness of the hall and its setting. The â€Å"moon† is â€Å"shining bright† and the act â€Å"which was liked to be done† on the moor adds to the sense of danger and isolation that we, as readers, encounter at the start of this tale. As grown men leave the impression of â€Å"screaming† and fear being associated with the moor, we are going to be given one final warning, â€Å"caution you to forbear from crossing the moor in those dark hours when the powers of evil are exalted† which tells us that this setting is both dangerous and a potential trap for those who dare to live there. We also learn about the death of Sir Charles. â€Å"The day had been wet† and the wild, untamed environment sets the tone perfectly for a mysterious death such as this. We are told that â€Å"there is a gate which leads out onto the moor.† This gate is like a barrier between the moor and Baskerville Hall that separates good from evil, and if anyone were to cross this barrier then anything could happen to them â€Å"Sir Charles lay on his face, his arms out, his fingers dug into the ground, and his features convulsed.† This creates a sense of isolation as it seems as if the only safe place on the entire moor is Baskerville H... ... find out who the man on the tor was. Watson says that â€Å"there was this feeling of an unseen force† out upon the moor, and because he is supposed to be acting as Sherlock’s eyes and ears, he is compelled to find out who or what this â€Å"unseen force† is. Watson goes up onto the tor which he describes as a â€Å"barren scene† and there he feels a â€Å"sense of loneliness and mystery and urgency.† Watson feels as if â€Å"the unknown might be lurking there,† and when Sherlock is discovered he reveals that the â€Å"figure of a man upon the tor† that Watson had seen upon the night of the convict hunt had indeed been Sherlock, when he admits â€Å"I was so imprudent as to allow the moon to rise behind me.† Because the unknown figure turns out to be Sherlock the mystery of the Barrymore at the window remains unsolved and the moor is still a place full of secrets and unanswered questions.

Psychology of Human behavior Essay

Psychology is an aspect of science which basically study behavior and the human mind. The definition is a triad of component in that it contains a scientific scope or aspect, the human behavior and the human mind. The scientific study approach each aspect of it study in a systematic approach and in an objective manner of observing the changes and the experiment as a whole. Behavior see the changes in what human do such as measuring or observing things like blinking of an eye or tachycardia which simply means increase in heart rate. The mind is the unconscious and conscious mental aspect of humans. There has been a lot of psychological influence both in the past and present on the perception of human behavior, all of which can be attributed to the great research and experiment conducted by different psychologist and scientist to understand human nature. In the aspect of learning, there are different experiments conducted to understand what learning entails. Some of the works range from the experiments of the Edwards Lee Thorndike in the year 1898. He was one the people that lay the foundation of the new behaviorism. He conducted an experiment on the animal learning modalities where he used cats. The cats were placed in a cage and food was then placed outside the cage. He timed the duration the cats took to learn the method of opening the cage to get to the food. He then repeated the experiments and later found that the cats would repeat such behavior that already worked for the cats so it can escape to get the food. With the result of the experiment he then proposed the â€Å"the law of effect†. Among the great works on the behaviorism is the work of the Russian Ivan Pavlov. He is a physiologist and he had won a Nobel Prize before the experiment on the behaviorism. He conducted this experiment in 1906. The experiment which was later termed or called the pavlovian or classical condition has since remained one of the most important principle of the learning and human behavior. He found out that a dog that has food repeatedly placed in it’s mouth will tend to salivate even if the food is placed in the dogs mouth. He then conditioned the placement of food in the dog’s mouth with the ringing of the bell. He later discovers that if the bell is rang alone even without placing the food in the dog’s mouth, the dog will eventually salivate. In this experiment, Pavlov proved that there is a type of learning where organisms tend to associate one stimulus with another. He called this the classical conditioning. Later researches had already confirmed that this learning modalities to be common in most people (Microsoft Encarta, 2008). Thorndike and Pavlov works serves as template for other developers of the theory of behaviorism. In the year 1913, a renowned psychologist at the Johns Hopkins University known as John Watson publish his research work on the animal behavior. This set a clear vision for the psychology of behavior. Publication entitled â€Å"Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It. † With his goals to completely redefine the concept of behaviorist psychology wrote a purely objective experimental branch of natural science (Microsoft Encarta, 2008). He encourages his other contemporaries to abandon all the speculative theories about unconsciousness. He emphasized on the importance of observing and the need also to quantify behavior. The works of John Watson encourage more American psychologists to adopt the concept of behaviorism and the use of animals for such experiments. Later there were different setting up of laboratories that with the sole purpose of studying, predicting and controlling human behavior. what the behaviorist focused on is to vary a stimulus in a specified period in time and then observe the animals’ response to such varied response. The psychologist of that time sees no reason why speculation should be made in regards to the site of the mental abilities. One of the Watson point of view is of belief that recording of certain musculature in the oropharynx should be the order of the day and not just talking to oneself silently. In the late 1930s behaviorism was taking to another pedestal with the works of the B. F Skinner. He was regarded as the most forceful leader of behaviorism and he coined the word reinforcement, he made an apparatus named the Skinner box and this he used to test the animals. He conducted the animal experiment on rats and pigeon and then identified some specific response and mode of learning. He argued that there is always a place of reinforcement in human learning process. The reinforcement can be from within the person’s vicinity. He called this process of learning the operant conditioning. B. F. Skinner experiments and point of view made him one of the most famous behaviorists of the 20th century. Operant conditioning explains the way a mouse can learn to maneuver via a maze. What Skinner did was to reward the mouse with a food when the mouse gets to the side of the first turn of the maze. So once this first part of learning is ingrained, the reward giving to the mouse is then stopped until the mouse is able to make the second turn and after several times of moving through the maze the mouse will get to the end of it and gets its rewards. The works of Skinner was later applied in behavior modification in places like the classrooms and hospitals. â€Å"With his knowledge in human behavior and learning, he later invented the first teaching machine† (Microsoft Encarta, 2008).

Lab: the Bacteria Around You

Lab: The Bacteria Around You James Brunet Ms Owen October 14th, 2012 Part 1 Purpose To culture and observe the various types of bacteria found around Canterbury High School. Materials and Methods Refer to pages 422-425 of Biology 11 McGraw-Hill Ryerson and the handout â€Å"Gram Staining Procedure†. Observations Table 1: Locations of Bacteria Samples Quadrant| Location of Sample Obtained| 1| Floor| 2| Water fountain head| 3| Auditorium Chair| 4| Inside of Boys’ Bathroom Door Handle|Table 2: Growth of Bacteria from Various Locations Around CHS after 48h in Incubator Quadrant| Total Number of Colonies| Description of Colonies| Number of Colonies| 1| 1| Irregular, flat, and lobate. Occupies entire quadrant. | 1 | 2| About 8| Milky-white coloured, punctiform, and entire. | 6| | | Milky-white coloured, punctiform, and curled. | 2| 3| 10| Milky, punctiform, and entire. | 8| | | Yellow, punctiform, and entire. | 2| 4| 8| Milky, irregular, lobate, and raised. | 1| | | Milky, pu nctiform, and entire. | 4| | Milky, punctiform, and curled. | 2| | | Clear, flat, circular, and undulate. | 1| Discussion What areas around the school appeared to have the most bacteria? The least? Suggest reasons for these findings. The area around the school that appeared to have the most bacteria was the inside of the boy’s bathroom door handle. Not only did it have the most diverse range of bacteria (four different types), it also had the 2nd highest number of colonies! The area around the school with the least bacteria was, in my opinion, the floor.Although the single colony there grew very large, this was probably due to lack of competition, as there were no other colonies present. This seems to indicate that there is actually less diversity of bacteria on the floor than on a door handle. I think that the door handle appears to have more bacteria for two main reasons. Firstly, the door handle is gripped by students exiting the bathroom. Some of these students may not ha ve washed their hands, leading to bacteria being transferred from person to handle constantly. Secondly, these handles are rarely, if ever cleaned, while the floors are cleaned on a daily basis.Describe the conditions necessary for bacterial growth. Bacteria need food, moisture, warmth, and time to grow. The agar plate provides the food and some moisture, the incubator provides growth, and if it is an expensive unit, moisture as well, and you as the student provides the time. Describe two factors that may limit bacterial growth. A lack of moisture may limit bacterial growth. Instead of multiplying, the bacteria may die. As well, a less than optimal temperature may limit, and perhaps completely stop, bacterial growth.Temperatures outside of the range of 4 °C-60 °C (The bacterial â€Å"danger zone†) will stop most bacterial reproduction and kill many species of bacteria. However, some bacteria can survive with very little moisture for extended periods of time and thrive out side these temperature ranges. Did this experiment have a control? If not, suggest what control you could set up and why? This experiment did not have a control. If I was to set up a control for this experiment, I would leave one of the quadrants clear of any specimen, and use it as a control quadrant.If I did that, I could tell if bacteria was already present in the agar if the control quadrant grew colonies. Discuss some aspect relating to your samples or the procedure. I would like to retest the floor sample, because the single colony left me thinking that the data was incomplete. I just don’t think there is only one type of bacteria living on the floor. I think I would like to change the procedure, as a control quadrant is vital to the integrity of the experiment! As well, I am definitely not going to open the boy’s bathroom door and then proceed to touch my eyes immediately after. ConclusionIn conclusion, the bacteria from the floor, water fountain, chair, and doo r handle flourished because of the warmth of the incubator, the food/moisture present in the agar, and the time we gave it. We identified multiple colonies of bacteria by their colours, sizes, shapes, and thicknesses, and also by staining them with Crystal Violet and Safranin. All of these things combined gave our group insight into the conditions necessary for bacterial growth, how to identify colonies, and where bacteria grow most. Part 2 Purpose To test the effectiveness of various disinfectants and antibiotics on limiting bacterial growth.Materials and Methods Refer to pages 428-429 of Biology 11 McGraw-Hill Ryerson. Observations Quadrant| Type of antibiotic/disinfectant| Size of zone of inhibition| 1| Soap| Huge zone-extends into quadrant 3. | 2| Organic disinfectant| Midsize zone| 3| Bleach+Comet| None| 4| Hand sanitizer| None| Discussion How was the effectiveness of each antibiotic/disinfectant measured? The effectiveness of each antibiotic/disinfectant was measured by lookin g at the zone of inhibition, the size of the area immediately surrounding the antibiotic that is colony-free.Which inhibitor was the most effective? Explain. The soap was by far the most effective inhibitor. Its zone of inhibition extended so far that it even reached into a neighbouring quadrant! This means that the soap was extremely effective at stopping bacterial growth. Rank the inhibitors you used by their effectiveness. Explain your reasoning. I found soap to be the most effective inhibitor, and the organic disinfectant to be the second most effective inhibitor, with respect to their zones of inhibition.I ranked hand sanitizer and bleach+comet as a tie for last place, because they did literally nothing to stop the growth of bacteria. I ranked these inhibitors in this order because I believe that effectiveness can easily be measured by the size of the zone of inhibition. Why is it important for a physician to know the exact identity of the bacteria involved in an infection? It is important for a physician to know the exact identity of the bacteria involved in an infection because different inhibitors work for different bacteria.If the physician incorrectly identified the bacteria, his prescribed antibiotics may do nothing against the bacterial infection, and the patient’s sickness would actually worsen. This is easily shown by our zone of inhibition experiment, where of the four chosen antibiotics, two of them did absolutely nothing against the bacteria. Conclusion In conclusion, it is important to know how to both identify bacteria using morphological clues as well as it is important to know how to treat said bacteria. Not all bacteria are the same, and not all antibiotics are on the same footing either.

Alternative Medicine Essay

Alternative medicine describes practices used in place of conventional medical treatments. People increasingly prefer alternative to conventional medicine. The reasons for this are pretty simple – it is safe and it works! And USA is not an exception. It is estimated, by none other than the Harvard Medical School, that one out of every two persons in the United States between the ages of 35 and 49 years used at least one alternative therapy in 1997. Alternative medicine actually encompasses a very large array of different systems and therapies ranging from ayurvedic medicine to vitamin therapy. Ayurvedic medicine is a very comprehensive system that places equal emphasis on body, mind, and spirit and uses a highly personalized approach to return an individual to a state where he or she is again in harmony with their environment. Ayurvedic medicine uses diet, exercise, yoga, meditation, massage, herbs, and medication and, despite its long lineage, is as applicable today as it was 5000 years ago. Traditional Chinese medicine combines the use of medicinal herbs, acupuncture, and the use of therapeutic exercises such as Qi Gong. It has proven to be effective in the treatment of many chronic diseases including cancer, allergies, heart disease and AIDS. Homeopathy is a low-cost, non-toxic health care system now used by hundreds of millions of people around the world. Chiropracty primarily involves the adjustment of spine and joints to alleviate pain and improve general health.   Naturopathic medicine also strongly believes in the body’s inherent ability to heal itself. Vitamin therapy or orthomolecular medicine uses vitamins, minerals, and amino acids to return a diseased body to wellness. Biofeedback, body work, massage therapy, reflexology, hydrotherapy, aromatherapy, and various other forms of energy medicine round out the vast spectrum of alternative medicine modalities. More then 50 % of Americans use some kind of alternative medicine. Actually, it may happen so, that in future alternative medicine will totally displace allopathic medical remedies. But nowadays almost 40% of people still visit their doctors. References Benedetti, F., Maggi, G., ; Lopiano, L. (2003). Open Versus Hidden Medical Treatments: The Patient’s Knowledge About a Therapy Affects the Therapy Outcome. Prevention ; Treatment, 6, 1, 23-27.

Marketing plan for a Sick Day Care called WE LUV UR KIDS Article

Marketing plan for a Sick Day Care called WE LUV UR KIDS - Article Example WE LOVE UR KIDS is committed to providing quality care for your sick child. We give priority to your child and provide the same attention that they would receive at home by employing staff nurses to monitor the children and administer necessary medications. WE LOVE UR KIDS would not only provide shelter to their clients, but also give the children an environment that resembles a home, where they could be most comfortable while seeking relief for their ailments. The Day Care for Sick Children (DCSC) will be unique as it will be the first Day Care Center offering services for sick children in the South East area of Albuquerque. There are currently no other facilities of this type. Working parents who do not have nannies to stay at home with their sick children may avail of DCSC’s services and be assured that their children would be taken cared of the way they are cared for at home or in hospitals. DCSC will provide services for children with fevers and/ or minor illnesses that will not allow them to attend school or regular Day Care Centers. This Day Care Center will provide on staff nurses to monitor the children and administer necessary medications. DCSC will be similar to a hospital environment, with semi-private rooms including televisions and video games. There will also be a playroom for those children who feel well enough to use it. DCSC will be open Monday-Friday, from 6:00 AM to 7:00 PM to accommodate working parents with regular working hours. DCSC shall accept children with ages ranging from 2 to 10 years. Admitting staff would require a briefing from the child’s parent/ guardian to be able to understand and administer the needed health care for the patient. 2. The services would not be competitive compared to a hospital. The services shall be limited only to patients who have minor illnesses such as mild fever, colds and cough, and other similar

Trends in Giving Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Trends in Giving - Research Paper Example A second trend seen over the past decade is the increasing levels of contributions gathered by NGO’s (Non-Governmental Organizations). Funds have been pouring into these organizations because they have been billed as being able to address global issues such as famine or AIDS better than individual governments. A trend within this segment of giving is the increase of funds flowing from mega private funds such as the Soros Fund, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Ted Turner. Greater transparency in NGO’s have attracted these mega private donors because they can be more assured that their funds are going to the delineated cause. The problem of needing to steer the NGO towards the agenda of the mega private donor is a real risk, but one many NGO’s must take due to declining volunteerism and donations from other private sources (Greensmith, 2001) Another interesting gauge of trends in giving that is extremely current is the development of the PGI (Philanthropic Giving Index) at the University of Indiana. The PGI works on a similar concept as the Consumer Confidence Index. It attempts to measure the likelihood that potential donors will give to charity in the coming year. It gauges the public’s reaction to various fundraising techniques currently employed and surveys them as to how likely they would be to give if approached using these techniques. Currently, the PGI is at an all time low of 64.8. This is down 27% from the PGI that was recorded in December of 2007 (Raiton,