Kantianism

Kantianism: Nagel, Moral Luck Moral luck is a term used by Nagel to describe the external factors beyond our control, which act upon moral decisions we make. Nagels opinion is that people make moral decisions that may have good or bad intentions, but because of moral luck the outcome may be contrary to what he/she intended. Moral luck can be constitutive, the kind of person that someone is. Some people are born with certain characteristics, which enable them to be more virtuous then others. Others are born with a nasty streak of envy or jealousy, which makes it that much harder for them to make moral decisions. Another type of moral luck is ones circumstances. People are faced with different types of situations and problems, and certain situations make is easier to make the right moral decision. Nagel also describes two types of consequential lucks. One type is antecedent, in which certain consequences took place before the moral act and influence the moral decision to be made. The other type o! f consequential luck is the way actions and decisions turn out. Basically, moral luck is all the outside factors, which are beyond human control. These factors will determine whether a moral act turns out to be found moral by others or by oneself. A student may decide that he will not study for a specific exam because he intends to cheat off his neighbors paper. However, upon arriving to class he finds that all the seats but one in the front of the classroom are taken. The student, who had every intention to cheat no finds himself unable to look at anyones paper and must take the test on his own. This is an example of moral luck. According to Kant the student should be judged as having committed a moral wrong because Kant believes that moral acts must be judged on good or bad will. The student definitely had bad will in this case, however any Consequentalist would say the conseque...

Composer Artist Paper Essays - Adoration Of The Magi In Art

Composer Artist Paper Essays - Adoration Of The Magi In Art Composer Artist Paper The baroque period was characterized by a heroic, dramatic and emotional theme. With well know names like Rembrant, Bach, Pennini, Caravaggio, Bernini, Tintoretto, Velasques, Poussin, Handel, and Rubens, the period produced many popular pieces of music and art. The art of the period was filled with movement, light versus shadow, and the use of the whole surface. The composers incorporated new ideas into their music such as different major and minor scales, the use of the violin, a regular rhythm, a melody that was hard to sing to, terrace dynamics, the basso continuo, and instrumental music was now considered as good as vocal music. The baroque period was an important piece of history in the shaping of the music and art world. George Frideric Handel was a composer of amazing talents and abilities. Although in todays society he is not as well known as Bach, his work was kept in high regards by the people of the time. Both Handel and Bach were born in 1685 about a month apart, and together the world was stunned by the masterpieces created by these great minds. Handel, being born on February 23, in Halle, Germany, was not from a musical family. As a child he was introduced to the harpsichord by his aunt, and soon after he began to practice the art that he loved. His father showed no interest in Handels music and disowned him saying, Then let him be a clown, a tightrope walker, a minstrel or a bear trainer! On a business trip, Handel accompanied his father to the city of Weissenfels, where he happened to slip away into the town church, and began to play an improvised rendition of the postlude to the service. After seeing the remarkable talent of the young boy, the duke of the church persuaded Handels father th at to ignore this talent would be a sin against God.2 Handel began his lesson with Duke Zackow soon after, being instructed in the playing of the organ, the harpsichord, and the violin. At the age of 17, Handel experienced the loss of his father. He would quickly move on and enroll as a law student t Halle University. Shortly after beginning school, he became the organist at the protestant cathedral. After a year of school, Handel moved on into the world of the theatre. Handel was inspired to attempt his hand in composing an opera. Almira was Handels first attempt at an opera, and was warmly welcomed by the audience. Almira was characterized by a nondescript libretto, German recitatives, and a small amount of Italian arias.2 This work was recognized by even the greatest of composers, notably Bach who admired the opera and borrowed part to put in his own works. The popularity of his first opera convinced Handel to write a second. Handel immediately followed up his first work by writing his second opera, Nero. unlike the first opera, this one was a complete failure, only being preformed three times. Although Nero was a failure, Handel pursued his career as an opera writer with such works as Agrippina, Joshua, and Israel in Egypt. Handle would move on to new and different types of music including many oratorios such as Handels famous Messiah written in 1741. The Messiah is a piece lasting two and one half hours long and amazingly composed in only 24 days. Messiah was first preformed in Dublin, Ireland in 1742. The piece was very popular after its premier, convincing Handel to take it to bigger and better places. He moved on, taking the Messiah into London, England. The first performance of the Messiah in London was poorly received by the audience due mostly because of religious opposition to the use of a Christian text in the theatre. Finally, after ten years of unpopularity, it began to become desirable in London. The Messiah consists of three parts. The first part begins with angels announcement of the Messiahs coming arrival and the birth of Christ. The second part has been described as the accomplishment of redemption by the sacrifice of Jesus, mankinds rejection of Gods offer and mankinds utter defeat whe n trying to oppose the power of the Almighty. The third part shows the

The 4 Fundamental Forces of Physics

The 4 Fundamental Forces of Physics The fundamental forces (or fundamental interactions) of physics are the ways that individual particles interact with each other. It turns out that every single interaction observed taking place in the universe can be broken down and described by only four (well, generally four- more on that later) types of interactions: GravityElectromagnetismWeak Interaction (or Weak Nuclear Force)Strong Interaction (or Strong Nuclear Force) Gravity Of the fundamental forces, gravity has the farthest reach, but its the weakest in actual magnitude. It is a purely attractive force which reaches through even the empty void of space to draw two masses toward each other. It keeps the planets in orbit around the sun and the moon in orbit around the Earth. Gravitation is described under the theory of general relativity, which defines it as the curvature of spacetime around an object of mass. This curvature, in turn, creates a situation where the path of least energy is toward the other object of mass. Electromagnetism Electromagnetism is the interaction of particles with an electrical charge. Charged particles at rest interact through electrostatic forces, while in motion they interact through both electrical and magnetic forces. For a long time, the electric and magnetic forces were considered to be different forces, but they were finally unified by James Clerk Maxwell in 1864, under Maxwells equations. In the 1940s, quantum electrodynamics consolidated electromagnetism with quantum physics. Electromagnetism is perhaps the most prevalent force in our world, as it can affect things at a reasonable distance and with a fair amount of force. Weak Interaction The weak interaction is a very powerful force that acts on the scale of the atomic nucleus. It causes phenomena such as beta decay. It has been consolidated with electromagnetism as a single interaction called the electroweak interaction. The weak interaction is mediated by the W boson (there are two types, the W and W- bosons) and also the Z boson. Strong Interaction The strongest of the forces is the aptly-named strong interaction, which is the force that, among other things, keeps nucleons (protons and neutrons) bound together. In the helium atom, for example, it is strong enough to bind two protons together even though their positive electrical charges cause them to repulse each other. In essence, the strong interaction allows particles called gluons to bind together quarks to create the nucleons in the first place. Gluons can also interact with other gluons, which gives the strong interaction a theoretically infinite distance, although its major manifestations are all at the subatomic level. Unifying the Fundamental Forces Many physicists believe that all four of the fundamental forces are, in fact, the manifestations of a single underlying (or unified) force which has yet to be discovered. Just as electricity, magnetism, and the weak force were unified into the electroweak interaction, they work to unify all of the fundamental forces. The current quantum mechanical interpretation of these forces is that the particles do not interact directly, but rather manifest virtual particles that mediate the actual interactions. All of the forces except for gravity have been consolidated into this Standard Model of interaction. The effort to unify gravity with the other three fundamental forces is called quantum gravity. It postulates the existence of a virtual particle called the graviton, which would be the mediating element in gravity interactions. To date, gravitons have not been detected, and no theories of quantum gravity have been successful or universally adopted.

Human resources and strategic planning Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Human resources and strategic planning - Essay Example Human resource management constitutes an area of management that has embraced strategy management as dynamics continue to characterize business function and people in the organization. Today, convectional human resource practices can no longer be the basis to respond to the needs of market demands in the modern world and this has forced many organizations to remain adept in identifying the best management practices. As organizations look for the best practices of management, it is always advisable that, organizations should identify and adopt human resources practices that fit with the organization’s competitive business strategies (Savage 2010). This will ensure the practices are not outside the goals of the business in the market hence greater success is likely to be achieved. Many organizations adopt two basic human resource strategies. They include universalistic approach and contingency approach (Savage, 2010). Universalistic approach is concerned in identifying the best practices that can be used by diverse organizations (Savage, 2010). On the other hand, contingency approach is concerned with identifying practices that match and align human resource practices with competitive business strategies (Savage, 2010). Adopting any of these two strategies depend on varied factors that each unique organization has, therefore, it is always important for an organization to carry out thorough business and environmental scanning to know the position of the business before deciding to adopt any of the strategies. Human Resource Practices Human resource has been identified to play key role to an organization especially where an organization is attempting to asserts in the market and achieve competitive edge. Strategic human resource management has emerged as an area of human resource management that looks at Functionability of business from an innovative perspective. According to this new field, organizations are not insulated from looking for the best and appro priate strategies that can help them achieve established goals and objectives in the business environment. At the same time, strategic decisions are seen to give an organization an upper hand in determining the level of participation in the dynamic business environment (Allani, Arcand, and Bayad, 2003). Therefore, by innovating best practices to apply in the business or organization, the management may just be motivated by desire to have the best policies and practices in place that accelerate and enhance the performance of the organization as compared to its competitors. Two empirical approaches have emerged to explain the strategic decision-making in an organization as far as human resource management is concerned. The approaches consent that an organization cannot be effective and properly functional if it does not identify the best practices of managing people (Allani, Arcand, and Bayad, 2003). In addition, for human resource management to be effective, they should be seen to in crease performance for the organization. Universalistic approach is the first approach perfect human resource management practices can be identified. This approach postulates that, there are human resource practices that are better than others are, and all organizations have the responsibility of adopting the identified best practices. Accordingly, the approach establishes that there is a universal relationship between an individual identified practice and the performance of the organization that adopt the practice (Armstrong, 2012). Contingency approach, which is another approach widely used, hold slight contradiction position when compared with universalistic approach. The contingency approach posits that organization cannot divorce from the particulate aspects in the organization if it has to achieve the best strategy of management (Armstrong, 2012).

The final project should be an integration of your scholarly study Essay

The final project should be an integration of your scholarly study during the semester and a personal reflection on your service experience - Essay Example The enduring purpose of the institution is to develop a love and fondness for God, service to others, self-knowledge and respect for all creation and these missions were overly significant in my development and also the connection I built with the students. I started on 2nd June, 2014, and my main work was to ensure that the children received their snacks and that they were doing what they were supposed to. I was also charged with taking them out to the playing ground during their play time and setting their beds up for a nap. At first, I used to feel nervous. However, Dr. Zukowski words always inspired me because I always recalled him telling me to try and get out of the box. At once, I noticed a group of children staring at me and one ran up to me and hugged me. I froze for a second then I said hi to all children. Even though, I still remained nervous the entire day, I hoped that it would change in the future. On 9th June, 2014, I learnt that children have a very good memory. When I walked into the class, all the children recalled my name and I had just told them once. It was a shock to me. From them onwards, I decided to try and know all the names of the students because this could also make them feel important. 9th June was also the graduation day for some of the students. Just seeing them getting ready to leave felt kind of sad even though I had not known them for long. I think it was more about me thinking that I am also graduating this year and it made me realize that going to miss the professors and friends I made at Felician College. But, on the other hand, I feel so proud of myself just as I felt proud of the children today. All the goals and mission stated at the beginning of this paper overly helped me in my service to the children, and I understood myself more after the work. We also had two birthday parties on that same day and we sang happy birthday songs as I helped pass out ice cream to all the

Low Cost Airlines Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Low Cost Airlines - Case Study Example based on variance of services, has been the entry in the industry of Low Cost Airlines. The Southwest airline initially started its operation with short-haul destinations i.e. less than 1,500 km, and at present the company has increased its activities beyond the initial values. It has introduced new airplanes into operations, but initially it was particular number of airplanes which were on continuous run. The performance of the Southwest airline has been encouraging due to adoption of effective techniques, the company recorded net profit of USD 413 million in 2001, which is lower than in 2000, but the company was the only profitable airline in United States in 2001. Southwest has planned to create more than 4,000 jobs in 2002. The company at retained low unit costs (costs per ASM): 7.66 cents in 2001, against the cost of 7.73 cents in 2000. The Southwest Company has kept safety as important criteria for the evaluation of its operations, and this is an important aspect of management with reference to Health and Safety, the practice is not widely popular among other low cost airlines, and therefore the Southwest has successful to retain maximum market shares. According to Carlton, the company has complied by the International and National standards of safety and operations, and has invested sufficient amount in this regard. The company's most important management has been its adherence to quality service, and this is termed as an important strategic element for the company. The company purchased Boeing 737 to capsulate required stand-by crews, lower training and maintenance cost. The company has involved its aircraft into continuous operations i.e. higher aircraft utilization. As a result, South West's utilization rate is 7.1 hours. (Carlton, 2000) Southwest has adopted different and effective mode of service, which is of great relevance, the airline has introduced an innovation distribution system through Internet, and telephone and travel agency i.e. traditional modes. The airline has further adopted strategies based on horizontal product differentiation that has proved to be important competitive element for the Southwest. The horizontally differentiated products have no classification of the particular product and brand in terms of qualities. The success of the Southwest Airline has been the function of its ability to introduce and maintain minimum operating cost, and implementation of pricing strategies which have attracted different segments of consumers and have increased the load factors of carriers, which has further contributed towards sustenance of minimum cost. According to Clemons, the airline has preferred its operations in the regional airports, and which is based on strategic considerations, and subsequently the price factor. (Clemons, 2001) Southwest is considered to be the leader among the Low Cost Airlines, and the airline has professional edge over its competitors. The airline has adopted following measures to ensure that the traveling cost can be reduced significantly, for the convenience of the traveler and company's expenses. IN Varian has appreciated the plan, according to which, the Airline offers no meals, drinks, and snacks for free, and narrow seating arrangement has been adopted, the company offers no services for the

Marginal Analysis and how it is used in the world of economics Essay

Marginal Analysis and how it is used in the world of economics - Essay Example Perhaps, it is the most important concept in the analysis of economic activities. The marginal analysis theory states that individual should make a decision based on the incremental gains and losses that emerge from that decision. In a simplistic term, the marginal analysis balances the additional costs and benefits, derived out from taking a decision. Be it a student deciding whether to revise the chapters once more, or a producer whether to expand or stop production, optimal choice requires that costs and rewards should be equilibrated on the margin. Till the time additional benefit exceeds additional cost, the individual or the firm has to continue taking action so as to ensure that all excess benefits are accrued and vice versa. (Washington State University, N.D.). Marginal analysis is the study of the costs and benefits of the next unit of a good or a factor of production. The aim of the individual or a firm is to maximize net benefits (NB), which is equal to total benefits (TB) less total costs (TC). (i.e., NB=TB-TC). In order to obtain the marginal change, we can change the control variable, say, quantity of goods purchased, amount of goods actually produced, quantity of an input used, etc. Marginal analysis focuses upon whether the control variable should be increased/decreased by one more units or not. The two concepts through which the marginal analysis is done are marginal costs and marginal benefits. Marginal costs are the addition to total costs if one additional unit of the control variable is added. On the other hand, marginal benefits are the addition to the total benefits if the control variable increases by one additional unit. When the marginal benefit rise above marginal costs, the net benefits rise with every unit increase in the control variable. Therefore, more marginal units of the control variable should be added till the marginal costs and marginal benefits are equalized. On the other hand,